Milestone night. Ted passed the instrument written with a 95 ("definitely my highest score of the four tests I've taken"), sneaking in days before the FAA changes the exam, and explained the back-to-back-tests energy in terms we all understand: "I was at a casino and I just was feeling lucky." Ben, for the record, still remembers his 88. Congratulations also to Lance D, who soloed tonight per the chat, and Adam V, who flew his whole family for the first time.

The tape machine brought Adam, a CFI whose new student read the Ultimate Guide and reported back with the most relatable status in aviation: "I can't even get this thing to the runway." Which, the panel agrees, is exactly the right place to be. Ask any pilot about their first solo "and you'll see this look come about them." Keep scaling it down; you're allowed to feel that way about taxiing. Elsewhere: Brian's new videos are filling Ben's YouTube feed, with filming on the way to Sevierville, and the hangar commute continues.

Tonight's wisdom: the windsock is a small piece of fabric with enormous authority.

Mentioned on the show:
Tape machine, merch, and everything else: https://www.midlifepilotpodcast.com
0A9, Elizabethton, Tennessee: https://www.elizabethtonairport.com/
SRB, Upper Cumberland Airport, Tennessee: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_Cumberland_Regional_Airport
GKT, Gatlinburg Pigeon Forge, Tennessee: https://www.gktairport.com/
SISKIND, If My Engine Quits Here, I Might Not Make the Runway: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bkL0Yh0zHk
SISKIND, What Happened to Nashville? A Local's View From 3,500 Feet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPR6MKvqsus
SISKIND, We Flew My 1967 Airplane Into the Mountains With No Plan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWp_5GmrDBQ
SISKIND, I Traced Every Owner of My 1967 Airplane: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDNToeCLDdk
FlightInsight, What Does "Cleared Visual Approach" Actually Let You Do?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVfZ_ePn3RI
Opposing Bases OB394, The Art of the Visual Approach: https://opposingbases.libsyn.com/ob394-the-art-of-the-visual-approach
Opposing Bases OB263, Visual Approach Cavalcade: https://opposingbases.libsyn.com/ob263-visual-approach-cavalcade

Mark is back ("Thanks, Mark. Glad to be back") with Sparker transition-training dispatches: two seats, retractable, bubble canopy, Rotax 916, "about 165 knots at 10,000 feet," pending "a whole bunch of marketing inflation that I think might be going on there." Meanwhile a Phenom on frequency earned the highest honor this show can bestow: "the green machine of airplanes." And if they made an adult size Green Machine? "I would buy it a thousand percent."

Ted is deep in the instrument written, armed with Sheppard Air and Erica's class ("You're doing all the right things") while the questions do their job, which is making you feel dumb. Brian's advice from the far side of the test: be a glutton for punishment and take the IGI a day or two later. "Send it. If I fail the IGI test, like, who cares." On the tape machine, Drew prescribes the Jacobson flare for landing consistency in anything from a Cub to a 747, and Sir Elliot gave the family a tour of a G650. Say "narrow runway" five times fast. "Well, I've started drinking, so I'm not going to do that."

Tonight's wisdom: "a go-around isn't an admission of defeat. It's a pilot refusing to let pride fly the airplane."

Mentioned on the show:
Tape machine, merch, and everything else: https://www.midlifepilotpodcast.com
The Green Machine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IB2T8dnbhhw
Opposing Bases: https://www.opposingbases.com/
Erica's Instrument Pilot course: https://www.gilbertaviation.com/ifr-course
Sheppard Air: https://www.sheppardair.com/instrument-rating.htm
Gulfstream G650: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulfstream_G650/G700/G800
The Jacobson Flare: https://www.jacobsonflare.com/
Mark's TL Sparker: https://tlsportaircraft.com/sparker/

Ted did the math: episodes 83, 108, 116, 119, 128, 155, 188, and 201 were all more or less about landings, and tonight makes it nine, because you filled the tape machine and we have no self-control. The eternal question of this show, asked out loud tonight: "Oh man, how does this even work? What is landings?" Ted's official position: "I don't want to be the landing podcast. I do want to be the emotional rollercoaster podcast." Exhibit A, Micael: two weeks ago, six attempts, five go-arounds, and "I walked away in tears." This morning, six for six. That's the ride, folks.

The panel's collected landing science: it takes "100 landings more or less" to figure it out, the whole business is the Magic Eye poster of aviation (everybody else could see it, and Brian couldn't), and the real breakthrough is to "just start loving how bad you're doing." Or, as a bar mitzvah kid with a cracking voice once told rabbi Ben Stiller: embrace the suck. Welcome to new Land-o-matic members Ben H. and Hector R., and a salute to Elliot's first instructor: "You have eight hours. I can't believe you're not perfect yet."

Tonight's wisdom: a flight review is where you discover which bad habits have become traditions.

Mentioned on the show:
Tape machine, merch, and everything else: https://www.midlifepilotpodcast.com
Houlme, Orcas Island, Washington: https://www.houlme.com/
EAT, Pangborn Memorial, Wenatchee, Washington: https://www.flywenatchee.com/fbo-services/
RMG, Rome, Georgia: https://www.airnav.com/airport/RMG
SISKIND, Learning to Land: The Magic Eye Poster for Student Pilots: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_UDm4n7zxs
"Embrace the suck" in Keeping the Faith (2000, Ed Norton/Ben Stiller): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keeping_the_Faith