When an airline collapses overnight, somebody has to move the airplanes.

This week on Cockpit Casual, we finally tell the full story behind the unprecedented 8-day operation that began the moment Spirit Airlines ceased operations. What followed was absolute chaos: 24 aircraft, 5 lessors, planes scattered across the country, time closing in, legal uncertainty, operational pressure, and a race against time to reposition a fleet of Airbus A320s and A321NEOs into long-term storage in the Mojave Desert.

For eight straight days, the team at Nomadic Aviation Group operated around the clock coordinating one of the largest and most complex airline repossession efforts in recent history. Ferry crews launched with almost no notice. Dispatchers and planners worked through constantly changing logistics. Airplanes were moved from active airline service directly into preservation storage as the industry watched in real time.

The story exploded into the national spotlight, with coverage from The Wall Street Journal, NPR, CBS News, CNBC, and countless aviation outlets — but this episode is the first time the entire operation has been told from the inside by the people actually running it.

From the midnight phone calls… to the FAA and regulatory confusion… to the scramble for crews… to the surreal sight of abandoned airliners arriving one after another in the California desert — this is the complete play-by-play of one of the wildest weeks in Nomadic history.

If you’ve ever wondered what really happens after an airline dies, this is the episode.

This week on Cockpit Casual: The Podcast, we take a different route.

After a quick discussion on current aviation happenings, the conversation shifts toward something that has quietly become one of the defining elements of Cockpit Casual itself: the music.

Joining us is Steve Giordano Sr. — lifelong Philadelphia jazz musician, composer, and the man behind much of the original score woven throughout the series. For the first time, we do a deep dive into the music that gives Cockpit Casual its emotional identity.

We explore the meaning of jazz, improvisation, and what it means to create music over the course of a 60-year professional career. From the origins of the legendary Philadelphia jazz fusion group Symbiosis to stories from decades in the music world, this episode becomes something far bigger than just aviation or music alone.

We also discuss the parallels between flying and jazz improvisation — decision making in real time, trusting instinct, discipline hidden beneath freedom, and the pursuit of mastery in endlessly variable environments.

If you’ve ever wondered why music plays such a central role in Cockpit Casual, this episode explains it better than any we’ve done before.

A conversation about art, flying, creativity, aging, passion, identity — and the soundtrack behind a life lived in motion.

Want to talk Jazz with Steve SR? Shoot him an email! Seriously! jzguru@gmail.com

Coming Soon: stevegiordanojazz.com

Terje's Channel which features Steve Giordano Sr's Music:

@nordichelicopteraviators - Head over and Subscribe on YouTube! Cool Stuff

Find us on the web: cockpitcasual.com

Episode 9 kicks off with a really in-depth conversation on Spirit Airlines—what’s actually going wrong financially, why the ULCC model is struggling in 2026, and why a $500M government bailout probably isn’t the solution.

Then—finally—we’ve got something people have been asking for forever: We bring on Nomadic’s flight planning and dispatch team (Wes Gardner, Mark Lawrence, and Chris Fochuk) to talk about what goes into planning long-haul ferry flights, how chaotic it can get behind the scenes, and how each of them ended up at Nomadic.

If you’ve ever wondered how these trips actually come together… this is the episode. Meet the gang!