Last week's emergency deserves a sequel about the thing you reach for in the later phases of one: the checklist. Enter returning special friend of the show Checkmate Barry, two years to the day (October 1st) from taking over CheckMate Aviation, the premier checklist company. His origin story is extremely midlife pilot: he redid his 182 panel, his trusty checklist no longer matched anything, so he designed his own, laminated it himself, watched it fall apart twice, and concluded "they make a better product than what I can do at home." He sent them the file. He now owns the company.

Around the group: the Beast will be unleashed Wednesday (two and a half weeks in the avionics shop, plus one buffer day, "that's what you do"), Ben is inbound to Phenom indoc where a single-engine approach go-around is allegedly the single hardest thing you can do in that jet, and hold entries are being practiced the honest way, drawn in a notebook, no navigator, no pause button. Tonight's wisdom, from the old-school book: the aircraft may fly poorly, but it will always crash well.

Mentioned on the show:
Tape machine, merch, and everything else: https://www.midlifepilotpodcast.com
Checkmate Barry's CheckMate Aviation: https://www.checkmateaviation.com/
QuarkXPress (Barry's design roots): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QuarkXPress

Ryan and Jackie flew the beautiful RV-10 down for the EP200 hangar show. On the way home, the airplane had other plans: autopilot master fault, attitude indicator misbehaving in IMC, showing level while the airplane turned left, a wall of clouds ahead, and one analog instrument left in the panel: the compass. Ryan keyed up center and, per his own post-landing text, "declared mercy." So tonight is the rarest kind of debrief, one with the pilot in the room: round-robin questions, every decision second-guessed with love, and the sobering inventory afterward: "all the backup to the backup, that would not have worked."

For the record, as established on air: Ted did not fly into a Bravo. Tonight's wisdom, pulled from the show's earliest days and never more fitting: remember, you fly an airplane with your head, not your hands and your feet.

Mentioned on the show:
Tape machine, merch, and everything else: https://www.midlifepilotpodcast.com
Anderson, Indiana (KAID), home of unleaded fuel: https://www.airnav.com/airport/KAID
Garmin Axis: https://www.garmin.com/en-US/aviation/axis/overview/
Picking up an IFR clearance on the ground: https://www.boldmethod.com/learn-to-fly/regulations/how-to-pick-up-an-ifr-clearance/
Rensselaer, Indiana (KRZL): https://www.airnav.com/airport/KRZL
Purdue University Airport, Lafayette (KLAF): https://www.airnav.com/airport/KLAF
Garmin GSU 25: https://www.garmin.com/en-US/p/532062/
East End Grill, Lafayette: https://www.eastendmain.com/

The Discord kept circling one subject, and it happens to be printed on our favorite t-shirt: I forget how to land (or have never learned in the first place). So this one's all landings: the plateau, the last five seconds, and the sight pictures we grade ourselves against "a little less forgiving than they need to be." Just don't ask the internet, where landing advice is "one of the most painful exposés in human behavior" and somebody always soloed in 0.6 hours and wants you to man up.

Field reports: seven hours in and "squirrely around the pattern" (that's the hardest part and the most fun part, hang in there), a Cherokee pilot whose new ride lands "like I'm flying straight into the ground," and Hammack600's accidental greaser followed by the cardinal error: one more touch and go. Plopped it right in. Put the greaser in the bank, people. Then leave us a tape machine message at midlifepilotpodcast.com: under two minutes, the moment landing finally clicked for you. Tonight's wisdom: checklists are what smart pilots use when memory starts feeling confident.

Mentioned on the show:
Leave us a tape machine message (and everything else): https://www.midlifepilotpodcast.com
The "I Forget How to Land" shirt and other merch: https://www.midlifepilotpodcast.com
Van's RV-12 (Ted's squirrely trainer): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van%27s_Aircraft_RV-12