Today we inerview Max Flight from the Airplane Geeks show.
Krzysztof Kuska: Hello Max, could you tell us what is the Airplane Geeks show?
Max Flight: Hello! Airplane Geeks is an audio podcast that covers almost every type of aviation: commercial, military, and general aviation. You can listen to our weekly episodes from our website, or you can subscribe to the show and listen on your mobile phone or tablet.
Our objective is to inform and entertain our audience. We believe that there are many interesting aspects to aviation, and we like to help expand our listener’s awareness of those interesting areas.
We have about 7,000 listeners with about 60% of them in the U.S., and 40% from other countries.
When did you start producing the show and how did it happen?
Before Airplane Geeks, I listened to as many aviation podcasts as I could find. There were only a few of them then, and I listened to each of them all. I didn’t have any idea to produce my own podcast.
Then one day in 2008, I received an email from someone I didn’t know named Courtney Miller. He had an idea for a podcast that would focus on commercial aviation, and he owned the domain name AirplaneGeeks.com. He asked if I would like to be the co-host. I told Courtney that I didn’t know anything about how to make a podcast, but he said that wasn’t a problem because he knew how to do it. All I had to do was get a USB headset/microphone and some free recording software and he would take care of everything. We’d get on Skype for a half hour or so each week and record the show.
I said “yes” and Episode 1 of the Airplane Geeks podcast was published in June 2008.
Unfortunately, after a year Courtney had to leave the show. He was starting a new job and had to move his family to a new country. He said we could end the show, or I could take over production and keep it going. I chose to keep it going so I had to learn audio production pretty fast.
Could you tell us a few words about the Airplane Geeks team?
“Team” is the right word because it really is a group of people who are passionate about aviation and work together to create the show. Over the years the group of co-hosts has changed, and we’ve added contributors who supply content.
My aviation background is in the jet engine business. I’ve been involved in jet engine manufacturing, maintenance, and support functions over a 35 year career.
Rob Mark is a journalist, commercial pilot, and flight instructor. He’s the Chief Executive Officer of CommAvia, an aviation marketing-communications group that works with airports and aviation businesses. He’s also the publisher of the Jetwhine Blog. Rob makes regular appearances in the broadcast media.
David Vanderhoof grew up around aircraft and his father was a Base Civil Engineer for the USAF. David has a degree in Military History and Diplomacy, focusing on the air wars of the Middle East. David was initially an Airplane Geeks listener who became a regular contributor of aviation history segments and eventually a co-host. He also writes the What Just Flew By! log.
Brian Coleman was an Airplane Geeks listener who asked if he could help us with the show. We said “yes!” and named him our “Associate Producer.” Brian finds our guests and preps them for the show. He snuck on the show so many times that he’s a regular co-host now.
Max Trescott is an occasional co-host, which can make it a little confusing when there are two people named Max. He started flying at age 15. He’s a flight instructor, author, publisher and he gives speeches and teaches seminars. He’s written two books, including Max Trescott’s G1000 Glass Cockpit Handbook, now in its fifth edition. He holds an ATP certificate for all four airplane categories and is an FAA Gold Seal CFI.
Benét J. Wilson is another occasional co-host. She blogs at AviationQueen.com and is a freelance aviation/travel journalist.
What are the main areas of your interest?
I like jet engine technology, but even more than that, I like to learn about aviation from experts who know about things I cannot imagine. Also, I’m very interested in unmanned aircraft and that led David Vanderhoof and I to create another podcast called The UAV Digest.
Do you have any repeatable segments in your show or every podcast is something new?
Every episode has current aviation news, almost all episodes have a guest segment, and our Australian team usually sends in a report. Normally we have a segment with aviation history but our historian David has been recovering from surgery. Also, our European contributor Pieter is taking a bit of a break. Co-host Rob sometimes provides his “Aviation Minute” commentary piece. We often get recordings from our listeners with their own aviation stories. We end our episodes with listener feedback. Our listeners always have good questions and interesting aviation topics.
How our readers can reach your show?
The website is http://www.AirplaneGeeks.com where you can find shownotes for the episodes with lots of links. We’re @AirplaneGeeks on Twitter, there is an Airplane Geeks Facebook page, and we have an Airplane Geeks Community on Google+. Our email address is thegeeks@airplanegeeks.com.
In addition, many of our co-hosts and contributors have blogs and podcasts. Those can be found at http://www.AirplaneGeeks.net.
Thank you very much for you time!
Thanks!