You Fly By Your Seat & Your Ears Episode 175

Booz, a freshly-minted CFI, New Hampshirite, and RePete’s daughter—whose glider-to-airline path includes a first solo at 15, a daddy-daughter cross-country in a Grumman Tiger, and a commercial check ride where a simulated engine roughness forced a wrong-side pattern call (good judgment > dogma). We talk density altitude (rude), VMC demos (also leg fatigue), and why hypoxia makes your alphabet wander off the page — thanks, hyperbaric chamber! An alternator gremlin in Texas led to a fateful diversion and meeting CFI legend Mary Latimer (GIFT) [Episode 162], proving aviation serendipity is real. Booz shares practical advice: take a discovery flight, consider scholarships and ANG paths, and remember progress isn’t linear—more like porpoising on a hot day. Come for the thunderstorm-dodging check ride, stay for the cactus awe, checklist Sharpie art, and donuts for the Feds. Listen, laugh, and maybe plot your own glider to CFI journey.