Working pilots retrace the road from discovery flight onward.
Hunter Bevis, a working pilot, interviews student pilots, flight instructors, airline captains and career changers about how each of them reached the cockpit. The conversations stay grounded in specifics: first solos, checkride orals, rating requirements, reserve schedules, furloughs and the moment the flying bug first took hold.
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Time in Flight rests on a simple idea. Ask pilots how they got there, and keep asking until the answer includes the weather delays, the furloughs and the checkride surprises. Hunter Bevis hosts, and he is not watching from a distance. He is a working pilot, and his own career keeps surfacing in episode intros, including a move from the 121 world into Part 135 and 91K flying and a type rating on a Citation Latitude. Each episode is framed as a flight. It opens with a takeoff clearance and closes with a reminder to keep your wings up. Because of who is asking, the interviews have the feel of shop talk. Audrey Menezes was a classmate of his in private-aviation training in Columbus, Ohio. The conversation with regional captain Mike Geyer ends with talk of the four legs the two of them have to fly the next day. The episode titles show the range of guests: regional captains, retired airline captains, aircraft mechanics, college students working toward ratings, pilots who came to aviation from radio or a sheriff's office, and a software engineer who instructs part-time. Inside the conversations, the detail is granular. Hunter Dunlap first appeared in a recording made at Oshkosh 2018 and came back after earning his commercial certificate. He explains that the certificate can now be earned in a technically advanced aircraft instead of a complex one. He also admits he flew his first right-pattern power-off 180 on the checkride itself. He is candid that spreading private, instrument and commercial training across about a decade meant rebuilding his foundations. Menezes recalls starting in a Cirrus instead of the usual Cessna 172. She also remembers a passenger from India who was thrilled to find a woman from India flying her airplane. Onieal remembers being sick before early lessons, and being pulled over by a police car, in an airplane, as a high school student pilot. Zaccagnino describes taking one Gulfstream to roughly 70 countries, and at first turning down a television pitch that struck him as ridiculous. The advice comes up naturally rather than as a lecture. Geyer suggests an intro flight for anyone curious and credits flight simulators with keeping his skills fresh. Onieal warns against ruling out any branch of flying. Zaccagnino's rule is to ask why whenever something bothers you. The pandemic is part of the record too. Bevis and Peter Teuten, his former flight instructor, appear in 'Episode 23: (Special Edition) Corona Virus [COVID-19] and Its Effects on Aviation' and in 'Episode 27: Covid-19 = A Year In Review 2020'. A listener working toward a commercial certificate could pair Dunlap's account with 'Episode 18: Chris Coward - The Final Hurdle of the Commercial Pilots License'. Anyone considering the regional route has several captains to choose from, including 'Episode 25: Tyler Dodson - Regional Airline Captain by Age 24'. What the show offers above all is perspective: many different roads into the same profession, each described by the person who took it.
Made for: Suits a listener who is considering flight training, is partway through a rating, or is weighing paths such as instructing, regional airlines and Part 135 flying, and who wants first-hand accounts from pilots at many stages rather than a technical course.
What sets it apart: The host is a working pilot who interviews classmates, crewmates and his former instructor, so the conversations sound like colleagues comparing notes. His own career updates sit alongside the guests' stories, and at least one guest comes back after reaching a new rating.
Time-in-Flight peels back the layer of mystery that can surround aviation flight training. By interviewing current flight instructors, students and professional pilots who have gone through the flight training experience, Time-in-Flight hopes to provide insight and excitement for those aspiring and currently undertraining the flight training adventure, as aviation students.
Hunter Bevis stops a commercial checkride story at the oral exam, right where you'd want details.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A four-time Reno Air Race champion connects international flying with the patient work of building aviation expertise.
Peter Zaccanino's aviation story works best through the practical grain of the work: becoming a Gulfstream captain in his 20s, taking one aircraft to around 70 countries, and making two around-the-world trips with that same plane.
A pilot's move from Republic to Wheels Up opens a grounded look at aviation careers beyond the airline track.
Audrey Menezes's move from Republic to Wheels Up gives the episode a clear center: a pilot stepping into another side of aviation while figuring out what a long-term flying career should feel like.
Mike Geyer's detours make a clear case that aviation careers are built through timing, persistence, and more than one route.
Mike Geyer's path toward the airlines does not unfold as a clean climb. It moves through C-5 Galaxy load-master training, a return to flight instruction, and a military aircraft change that shifted him into another training slot and pushed him past the pilot age range.
A grounded review of the commercial oral exam, where preparation, weather knowledge, and honest self-assessment carry the episode.
An aviation career can hinge on a conference-table conversation, and this episode follows a newly rated commercial pilot through the oral portion of his checkride.
A grounded pilot-career conversation that turns furlough and simulator prep into practical guidance.
Time in Flight follows Raven Careers owner James O'Neill through a pilot's route that moves from instructing to a summer furlough, then back into a Colgan interview and onward to training after a simulator evaluation. The episode works best when that story becomes practical.
Real flying stories, told pilot to pilot.
Aviation safety talk that plays like ground school.
Time in Flight with Hunter Bevis features Peter Zaccanino, who says a single Eclipse program took him to about 95 countries after earlier Gulfstream work around 70 countries.
Audrey Menezes says a discovery flight in a Cirrus 20 over Daytona Beach changed her aviation path, after a Cessna 172 ride in Florida had made her sick in the back seat.
["Mike Geyer says a Navy pilot father showing him a C-12 King Air in Japan and an 11th-birthday discovery flight set him on the aviation path.", "After two years of college ground school and a paused Louisiana program, he switched to ATP and finished a zero-to-hero sequence in about 10 months, with a private rating in about 1.5 to 2 months.", "He describes how the Colgan crash pushed hiring minimums from 250 hours to 500, 750, 1,000, and finally 1,500, while he built time in Jacksonville, Richmond, California, and with Marine Corps students.", "The conversation later moves through his Air National Guard detour, a missed military-pilot age window, a return to instruction in Northern Virginia, and an airline interview plus captain upgrade that followed an internal referral."]
Time in Flight follows a commercial-pilot push that started when Peter asked over beer in March 2020 what came next.
["Time in Flight episode 29 follows James O'Neill, owner of Raven's Career Development, from a junior-year choice between \"cop, firefighter, or nurse\" to airline and corporate flying.", "He describes vomiting before lessons in older 172s and Warriors, while his father drove him to Saturday training in Belmar, New Jersey, and turned the car ride into ground school.", "The sharpest stories come from a wrong solo logbook sign-off, a radio failure at Allentown, Pennsylvania, and a taxiway police response after he entered the pattern.", "O'Neill uses those moments to argue that pilots are trained through standard procedures, emergency habits, and the 3% of decisions no manual can cover."]
Host Hunter Bevis and former flight instructor Peter Tootin discuss how COVID-19 has affected the aviation industry and their personal flying experiences.
Host Hunter Bevis interviews Tom about growing up as the child of an aviator and his father's journey into aviation.
Host Hunter Bevis interviews fellow flight instructor Jay about his journey into flying, discussing movies and video games that sparked his interest.
Host Hunter Bevis interviews his first flight instructor about his aviation journey and flight training experiences.