For those who follow me on Twitter, you know that I just completed the drive from
Plymouth, MA to Mandeville, LA, right about 1,600 miles and two very full days of
travel. The first day got us just across the Virginia state line. The first leg was cut
short, mostly due to heavy congestion in New York City and the complexity of New Jersey.
Driving a 16 foot moving truck really required all of my attention going across the
George Washington Bridge, with stereotypical New Yorkers inviting themselves to and from
my lane as they please, and through the Jersey Turnpike as I tried to figure my toll
rate while trying to keep a weary eye for the same people from New York.
The second day was vastly different. We started from Winchester, VA and treked
through the foothills in Virginia and Tennessee and finished with a full tour of Alabama
and the always empty Mississippi( I kid Mississippi, I love you and your river). The
other difference was it was long stretches of Interstate. No more tolls or unnecessary
stops. As I grew tired of the same music stations, and my own jams, I realized I had a
half completed Airplane Geeks Podcast I could finish up. Now I know Podcasts have been
around for a while, but I never realized how much information could be relayed in a 1.5
hour radio show. I did my best to stream more podcasts from the iTunes store on my
iPhone throughout my journey (I was on the road for 18 hours Sunday). For most aviation
podcasts, the lastest episodes revolved around one thing: Oshkosh. It was awesome to
hear all of the different perspectives from so many walks of life and aviation.
Most podcasters have blogs that go along with their casts. While there are some
podcasts that use multiple people and various bloggers, such as the Airplane Geeks,
there are some that are the sole narrator, as in Airspeed Online Podcast. After coming
home I couldn’t help but read up on all the different blogs out there, and there are
plenty of them, far too many to name. So how do I not get lost out in the sea of voices?
How do I make myself heard?
I started Pilot Life because I knew I wanted something other than the logos of Piper
and Cessna across my chest to profess my love of aviation. I wanted something young and
comfortable to wear not only around the airport but everywhere else. The thing I was
most nervous about was “Am I going to be accepted?” It’s a childish thing to ask, but
while everyone may know my name in Baton Rouge, how many people know me in Chicago? Or,
for that matter, how about New Orleans, which is only an hour away?
It’s one thing to know everyone a certain radius from you, but it’s another to
connect to those beyond your sphere of ordinary networks. The more I though about it,
the more I realized this was something I could also use for my voice: To join my fellow
pilots outside my local airport. After all, isn’t that what’s so great about social
media, the internet, and this awesome change in the dynamics of everyday communication?
I’m in the process of setting up a podcast at www.groundpointniner.com, where I’ll
be broadcasting with Jason Schappert of mzeroa.com. We’re really excited about it, and
we hope you are too. Even if you don’t like my designs and product (although I really
hope you do, and if you really don’t, drop us a line and tell us what you would like,
and we’ll do our best to make it happen), I hope you’ll enjoy the voice and the
information that goes along with it.
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