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Ready For Takeoff - Turn Your Aviation Passion Into A Career

The Ready For Takeoff podcast will help you transform your aviation passion into an aviation career. Every week we bring you instruction and interviews with top aviators in their field who reveal their flight path to an exciting career in the skies.
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Ready For Takeoff - Turn Your Aviation Passion Into A Career
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Now displaying: April, 2020
Apr 30, 2020

The aviation environment is now flying in uncharted territory. Many airlines are flying empty airplanes and losing millions of dollars every day. Some will go out of business, and at others may enter bankruptcy. The airline landscape will surely look different this time next year.

 

During the past year, airline hiring was going gangbusters. Many of these same new-hires will find themselves receiving furlough notices. At the same time, pilots are retiring at record numbers. this will result in numerous upgrades at the airlines that survive.

 

General Aviation(GA) flight training has dried up as student pilots are either sheltering at home or social distancing, which precludes sitting shoulder-to-shoulder in a GA airplane. Flight Instructors are finding themselves without students, and without anyone to train they have no income.

 

These are tough times. And it's going to be stressful for a lot of us in the aviation community.

 

In 1967, Holmes and Rahe developed a Table of Life Stress Values. The table attempts to assign numerical values to potential life events, with higher numbers representing greater stress. For example "death of a spouse" is 100 points. If you look at the table in our Show Notes you will see numerous potential stressors for people in the Aviation industry.

 

If you get furloughed, you will get 47 stress points for losing your job (item 8). Additionally, you will probably be "changing to a different line of work" (item 18) for 36 points. There's a good chance you will have a "major change in living conditions" (item 28) for 25 points and "major changes in working hours or conditions (item 31) for 20 points. Look through the table and you may find other stressors.

Apr 28, 2020
In 1979, I left the Air Force and was teaching at a major U.S. airline when a student approached me to create a home video ground school. At that time, traditional ground schools cost an arm and a leg and took a month of your time. The release of 727 Systems Review spawned the beginning of the Aviation Video Industry. This current pandemic has forced us to re-evaluate the Aviation industry business model.
There will be layoffs. There will be cutbacks. Robust skillsets become valuable commodities for businesses that are forced to take on fewer employees.
I have decided to release the entire archive of Nolly Productions training videos at no cost during this crisis. These videos were created between 1979 and 1991.
Video technology has changed a lot in the last 40 years, but the fundamentals of Aviation are still the same. I will be releasing three series of courses in the coming weeks at Ready For Takeoff Podcast.
Today, I will be releasing our Career Path videos (originally $49.95 each), which will cover how to enter the Airline Industry and take your first career steps.
Next week, I will be releasing the FAA Collection (originally $39.95 each), which will cover General Aviation knowledge from how weather affects flying conditions, to how altitude affects response time.
And finally, starting in May, you can access our highly-acclaimed Systems Review Videos (originally $74.95 each), which offer much more comprehensive training for jumping into new equipment or preparing for your Proficiency Check.
These videos will be available to stream at your own pace for the duration of this crisis. In times like these, staying safe and investing in your education is the best way to prepare for the future.
Apr 27, 2020

Colonel Scott C. Campbell is the Assistant, Manpower and Operations, Headquarters, United States Air Force Academy where he assists in the oversight of aviation and summer programs, cadet assignments and course of instruction development.

 

Prior to assuming his current assignment, he served as Commander of the 355th Fighter Wing, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona. He was responsible for one of the largest installations and flying operations in the United States Air Force, with more than 7,500 Airmen, 3,000 civilians, and more than 100 aircraft. He was responsible for organizing, training, and equipping a wing comprised of 20 squadrons, two of which were fighter squadrons. The wing provided A-10C aircraft for close air support and forward air control, combat support, and medical forces for combatant commander requirements worldwide. The 355th Fighter Wing was also responsible for training A-10C pilots for the entire Total Force and was the Air Combat Command executive agent for Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces and Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty compliance. 

 

Colonel Campbell earned his commission in 1995 from the U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colorado.  He has commanded at the group and squadron level, and served as an Aide-de-Camp and weapons school instructor. Colonel Campbell served as the Afghanistan Country Director in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy.

 

Colonel Campbell is a command pilot with more than 3,400 hours in the T-34, T-38, A-10 and MQ-9. He has flown in support of Operations SOUTHERN WATCH, ENDURING FREEDOM and IRAQI FREEDOM.

Apr 23, 2020

If you plan on having a career in Aviation, it would be a wise move to have an alternate way of generating income, a Plan B. In this episode, General Borling shares an aviation story of his Plan B during a challenging overwater flight. One possible avenue of additional income is through the SOS America program of County Chairmen. General Borling explains how the program works and describes the potential for an additional source of income.

Apr 20, 2020

Linda Maloney is an award winning author, business owner, leadership development professional, speaker and former military aviator and officer. She spent 20 years in the Navy, first as an enlisted air traffic controller and then as a Naval Flight Officer, flying both the A-6 “Intruder” and EA-6B “Prowler.” She was one of the first women in U.S. history to join a combat military flying squadron and received numerous military awards, including the distinguished air medal for combat, awarded for flights flown over Southern Iraq in support of the no-fly zone during her deployment to the Arabian Gulf. She also was the first woman to eject from a Martin Baker ejection seat from her A-6 aircraft in 1991 over the Atlantic Ocean. Linda speaks throughout the country on topics such as Passing Down a Legacy, Leadership & Women, Women & Non-traditional Careers, Margin & Life Balance, Transitioning from Military Leadership to Business Leadership, and Aviation for K-12 Groups.

Linda established Women Veteran Speakers in December 2015, inviting exclusively women military veterans – speakers, coaches, trainers, and facilitators—from emerging up-and-comers to polished experts, covering a wide array of business, corporate, military and defense expertise.

Linda’s award winning book—Military Fly Moms ~ Sharing Memories, Building Legacies, Inspiring Hope [Tannenbaum Publishing], was published in 2012, and is a biographical collection of the inspiring true stories and photographs of seventy women who shared the same two dreams—becoming aviators in the military, and being moms.

Apr 16, 2020

SOS America (Service over Self) is a patriotic, membership organization that supports a military service program for our young adults. It will require broad public support (polling is very encouraging). Congressional legislation (previous draft legislation died in committee) and Executive Branch support are required. The plans for 2019 address all these matters.

Increasingly, the high costs of the All Volunteer Force (AVF) raise legitimate questions as to shortages in many career fields and the need to have such highly qualified people in the many support roles. SOS America contends that a specialized one-year enlistment program can be of great benefit to our young adults and the nation. Designed to augment the AVF, it would have these characteristics:

Its name is: The United States Military Service Corps (USMSC)

  • It will take advantage of small unit identity and loyalty.  Volunteer recruits will enlist, train and serve together in small units.
  • The Units (roughly 100 recruits) will be led by 6 active duty personnel–2 officers and 4 experienced sergeants.
  • Open to recruits ages 18-25–the units will mix geography, ages, economic and educational backgrounds.
  • Physical and Mental requirements are based on the ability to ‘take care of (look after) oneself’ vs current AVF requirements that eliminate an estimated 85% of our young adults.
  • Yearly recruit numbers will be based “on demand.” The Services, Guard and Reserve plus Federal and State Agencies will forecast their needs to allow for planning and accession.
  • Proposed legislation will identify the Department of Defense as the executive/responsible agency.
  • The selective service system will be used, in part, to help administer the program
  • The program is highly encouraged but voluntary for young men and women (18-25).
  • The costs of the program, part of the Defense budget, will return 3 to 4 times program cost investment in a given year.
  • Recruits will be subject to the Uniformed Code of Military Justice.
  • Recruit remuneration will be at a basic enlistment rate.
  • An educational (mustering out) stipend will be awarded upon honorable completion of the year of service.
  • The honorable year of service should also secure citizenship (if needed), expunge police records, ensure English language and GED or better achievement and like benefits.

These program characteristics are essential elements of the proposed program and legislation.

Apr 13, 2020

Neil Hansen began his aviation career as a pilot for Teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa. He spent more than a decade in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War era as a captain for Air America, the CIA's airline that operated there during the Vietnam era and the 'Secret War' in Laos. Neil reveled in the risky flying that fed his adrenaline addiction.  Upon returning to the States, ultimately unable to find work and unable to let go of the Air America exhilaration rush, he saw the profession he loved come to an end when his trajectory veered off course.

 

Neil Hansen's engrossing memoir FLIGHT avoids the standard pilot cliches -- there is nothing stereotypical about the exciting "war stories" deftly recounted in this book.  Hansen's riveting prose describes his adventures as an Air America civilian pilot for the CIA's clandestine Southeast Asia airline during the 1950--76 "secret air war" in Laos and Cambodia -- officially neutral countries, but the scene of countless U.S. covert operations. There is "an allure so mystical it borders on madness for those who play the game of war with abandon," he writes.  "Machismo propelled those whose existence was spurred by the bursts of excitement that pushed life to its apex." Hansen flew for Air America from 1964 to 1975, logging 29,000 hours (9,000 of those dodging anti-aircraft fire in the secret combat zone).  He was nicknamed "Weird" by fellow pilots for his bizarre behavior (although in the cockpit Hansen was "all business, all the time"), and his irreverent memoir certainly validates that sobriquet. Co-authored by veteran aviation writer Luann Grosscup, FLIGHT offers readers Weird's detailed page turning account of flying undercover "spook" missions with "a motley crew of aviators in Southeast Asia. "FLIGHT also recounts Hansen's "descent" as he struggled to return to "normalcy" in the States.  He couldn't cope with the sudden lack of his daily adrenaline fix.  "I didn't learn about the idea of adrenaline addiction until much later, when the damage had already been done." FLIGHT is a wonderful slice-of-life book, filled with dark humor that allows us to psychologically endure bad things that happen, mundane and boring bits we put up with, and the moments of stark terror that confront us.  Some 240 Air America pilots and crews died in the secret war in Indochina.  Hansen's memoir is a tribute to all those civilians who fought on the war's "spook side" in now-forgotten places our government prefers to ignore.

Apr 9, 2020

Major General John L. Borling is the chief of staff, Headquarters Allied Forces North Europe, Stavanger, Norway. As the principal architect for this new tri-service and integrated North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and Norwegian National Command, he is responsible for assets in excess of $500 million and 600 people. He also serves as the senior United States military officer in Scandinavia and NATO's Northwest Region.

Born in Chicago, General Borling studied at the University of Illinois and Augustana College prior to graduating from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1963. He received his pilot wings in August 1964, then completed F-4 fighter training. In 1966, after 97 combat missions in Southeast Asia, he was shot down by ground fire northeast of Hanoi, North Vietnam. Seriously injured, he was captured and spent 6 1/2 years as a prisoner of war. He returned to the United States and resumed his military career to include command of fighter, bomber, tanker, missile and support units at squadron, group and division level. He is a command pilot and has flown many different aircraft. High level staff experience includes the White House, the Pentagon, Strategic Air Command as director of operations for the conflicts in Panama and Iraq, and Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE).

Apr 6, 2020

John Borling was a fighter pilot during the Vietnam War, where he was shot down by ground fire. Seriously injured in his crash, Captain Borling still attempted to commandeer a Vietnamese supply truck for his escape. He was able to gain control of a supply truck, but the truck was carrying Vietnamese regulars.[3] Borling was soon overpowered by the soldiers and would spend the next 6½ years as a prisoner of war in Hanoi.[2] John Borling was released on February 12, 1973.

Subsequent to his return, Borling was an F-15 Eagle fighter pilot and commander of the "Hat in the Ring" squadron. He was an Air Division commander at Minot AFB, and Head of Operations for Strategic Air Command (SAC) in Omaha. In that position, he directed SAC's support of hostilities in the first Gulf War and Panama and was charged with execution responsibilities for the nation's nuclear war plan. At the Pentagon, he led CHECKMATE, a highly classified war fighting think tank and was Director of Air Force Operational Requirements helping initiate a new family of guided weapons. In Germany, he commanded the largest fighter and support base outside the United States and later served at NATO's Supreme Headquarters in Belgium working directly for the Supreme Commander and Chief of Staff. He was central to the creation of HQ North in Norway and served as Chief of Staff of that integrated NATO/National command.

Apr 2, 2020

Major General John Borling shares his thoughts about resilience and dealing with adversity, based on his experiences as a Prisoner of War (POW) in North Vietnam. His views help put our current situation in perspective.

As a POW, he composed (and memorized) poems, which have now been published in his book, Taps on the Walls.

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