Max Trescott | Aviation News Talk Network
126 episodes listed below
Helicopter safety, one cockpit lesson at a time.
Rotary Wing Show treats helicopter flying as a craft where small decisions matter. Through simulator visits, training discussions, rescue accounts, and accident analysis, it turns technical rotorcraft scenarios into practical lessons for safer pilots and instructors.
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Rotary Wing Show is a helicopter operations podcast with a strong safety spine. It treats flying as a chain of decisions, not a collection of thrills. Recent episodes spend serious time on training environments, emergency procedures, accident patterns, and the human factors that shape cockpit behavior. The show is comfortable staying with a technical point until the consequence is clear. A visit to the Loft Dynamics H125 VR simulator becomes more than a technology preview; it becomes a discussion of transition training, recurrent training, procedure practice, and emergency rehearsal without real-world exposure. The simulator episodes are especially interested in what VR changes for low-level visual work, cockpit switch finding, body tracking, and realism close to the ground. That practical curiosity carries into the training-safety conversations with Jay Bunning. Pickups, set-downs, pedal errors, quick stops, hover autos, autorotations, simulated engine failures, off-airport landings, and vortex ring state are treated as places where instruction has to be precise. The tone is direct. It returns often to what instructors should brief, guard, demonstrate, and prevent before a student error grows into an accident. Accident analysis also has a clear role. The R66 discussion connects distraction, autopilot reliance, turbulence, low-G mast bumping, and fatal timing without making the crash feel like spectacle. The point is pattern recognition. Episodes ask what warning signs were available, what habits might interrupt the sequence, and what pilots can carry into the next flight. The show also makes room for operational storytelling. Jan Sears' account of wildfire rescue flying brings smoke, wind, turbulence, and mission pressure into the same safety frame. Richard Mornington Sanford's human-factors episode widens that frame again, looking at stress, startle effect, weather traps, auditory exclusion, and the surprising ways pilots can lose perception under overload. Rotary Wing Show is not polished banter. It is a guided hangar-floor briefing with enough structure to keep technical subjects usable. The best episodes feel like a careful post-flight conversation, where the story matters because it leaves behind a procedure, a warning, or a better question for the next cockpit.
Made for: Built for helicopter pilots, flight instructors, students, and aviation listeners who care about rotorcraft training and real operational judgment. It also suits pilots who want human-factors lessons from a helicopter cockpit.
What sets it apart: The show connects helicopter stories to specific cockpit consequences, moving from procedure to hazard to prevention. Its strength is the way technical training details and real incidents become plain, usable safety lessons.
Stay current on the world of helicopters with The Rotary Wing Show—your go-to podcast for helicopter news, pilot stories, and aircrew insights. Each episode brings you the latest helicopter industry news, real-world experiences from pilots and crew, and practical advice for those flying—or aspiring to fly—rotorcraft professionally or recreationally. From air medical and firefighting to military, utility, and offshore operations, we cover the full spectrum of helicopter missions and career paths. You'll hear firsthand accounts from experienced aviators around the globe, plus in-depth coverage of new technologies, safety issues, and aircraft developments. Whether you're in flight school, flyin…
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Max Trescott makes helicopter safety concrete by tracing how training, human factors, and simulation shape decisions at the controls.
Rotary Wing Show turns helicopter safety into cockpit-level conversation, with Max Trescott pressing guests for the exact moment a routine maneuver can go wrong.
A backwards pedal input becomes seven spins, and suddenly you are guarding the controls from your sofa.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A grounded look at helicopter VR training, with the simulator details carrying most of the weight.
Max Truscott's walk-through of Loft Dynamics' H125 VR simulator makes a solid case for VR as a serious training tool. The strongest part is the cockpit detail: maximum pilot view, mirrors, a radar altimeter for height AGL, and a setup that can remove passengers for weight and…
A clear look at how VR simulators can make helicopter training safer and more precise.
Helicopter VR training sits at the center of this conversation, with safety and realism treated as the main problem to solve: how pilots can rehearse risky maneuvers without paying for mistakes in the air.
A focused helicopter safety discussion built around common training mistakes and how to avoid them.
The discussion stays anchored in the helicopter safety basics that matter most, including quick stops, vortex ring state, and hover autos. Jay Bunning and Max Trescott keep attention on the training mistakes instructors and pilots need to watch for, especially where a hover or a…
A clear lesson in how small helicopter mistakes can become dangerous fast.
This episode treats helicopter training as a place where small control mistakes can turn serious fast, and it keeps its focus on practical instruction.
A calm safety talk about cockpit stress and human factors.
The piece treats Richard Mornington-Sanford as both a Robinson helicopter expert and an accident investigator, and it uses that background to frame cockpit stress as a human-factors issue as much as a flying one.
Anonymous aviation stories with hangar-floor judgment.
Optometry practice, talked through plainly.
Pilot-controller shop talk with operational teeth.
Airline news, measured by money.
Lithuanian banter with sharp, unruly edges.
Max Truscott visits the Loft Dynamics H125 VR simulator and takes a close look at how well it can mimic helicopter flight.
Max Trescot talks with Loft Dynamics CEO Fabi about helicopter VR training.
This episode features an interview with helicopter expert Jay Bunning discussing autorotations, simulated engine failures, and off-airport operations, along with helicopter industry news.
This episode features an interview with California Highway Patrol pilot Jan Sears about his harrowing helicopter rescue missions during the 2017 Northern California wildfires, flying through extreme conditions to save trapped people.
CFI Jay Bunning analyzes a deadly R-66 helicopter crash caused by low-G mast bumping due to complacency, distraction, and turbulence, offering insights on warning signs and prevention.
Max Trescott brings Jay Bunning back for the second installment of a helicopter training safety series.
Max Trescott opens a first of a two-part conversation with helicopter instructor Jay Bunning about how small mistakes can turn deadly fast.
Richard Mornington Sanford joins Max Trescott to discuss human factors in helicopter flying.
This episode features an interview with test pilot Tony 'Squid' Norton discussing test flying experiences, differences between helicopter and fast jet pilots, and connections to the HIA HeliExpo event.
This episode discusses the current U.S.
This episode features an interview with Natalee Johnston, a former Royal Australian Navy helicopter pilot and safety officer, discussing how organizational culture impacts safety and performance in aviation.
This episode discusses helicopter aircrew distractions and the development of an online training package for pilots' flight reviews in Australia.
This episode features an interview with Tarryn Ryan discussing the transition from military to civilian roles for helicopter pilots, sharing insights from his experiences in South African and Australian aviation.