The Reider Report
The Reider Report brings you real stories told by real pilots. Join host Rob Reider and guests every two weeks as they explore hard-won cockpit experiences and the vital lessons we learn when things don't go as planned. Authentic, collaborative, and educational—this is aviation storytelling for all pilots.
Episodes
Incorrect Instrument Indications
A pilot took off in his Columbia 400 and noticed that the airspeed and altitude numbers looked a little off. He managed to handle the discrepancy during the cruise portion of his flight but when he began his descent, the airspeed indicator said he was in excess of Vne. Things felt right but reconciling the differences were causing some problems. What did he miss?Sponsored by Avemco
Fifteen Thousand Hours and Still Learning
It doesn’t matter how many hours you’ve logged — there’s still more aviation you haven’t seen or experienced. Join host Rob Reider and his guest, Mark Blois-Brooke, as Mark tells about a downwind landing attempt, a serious maintenance faux-pas in a Beech Baron, a student who messed up an engine failure test on takeoff nearly killing both aboard, and almost snap-rolling a Lear 45. Still le
Dead Stick and Almost Dead
CFI Dan Bass is today's guest as he relates how he almost lost his life because carbon monoxide poisoning rendered him unconscious as he was returning home from a day-long business trip. He also recounts an engine failure at 14,500 feet, and what he did right—and wrong—in handling this emergency. Both incidents resulted in good outcomes and provide valuable lessons to learn.Sponsored by A
An Arrow and a Stone Wall
A pleasure flight with co-owners of a Piper Arrow nearly turned deadly when the pilot realized he was too low to make a safe landing on an old grass field. But when he initiated the go-around, he heard a loud thump. He looked out at the left wing and the left flap was up! Asymmetrical flaps and a mangled left main gear made the plane nearly impossible to control. Guests Andrew Levison and
Confidence or Complacency?
Twenty-one year-old Mason Rowe is the guest on this episode. He’s a flight instructor, has about 300 hours in Cessna Citations, and will soon join a major cargo airline to be type-rated in the Boeing 737. He recounts 2 stories of engine issues in a small plane that has caused him to reconsider how much to “trust” any airplane. The lessons learned include a warning about complacency when f
Why Do Those Houses Look So Big?
The crew of an Air National Guard C-130 Hercules was on a nighttime precision cargo drop practice mission. En route, they found themselves significantly lower in altitude than they should have been, putting their lives in jeopardy. What happened caused some changes in procedures and how missions were flown to that drop zone. Brigadier General Marcus Jannitto, the navigator on that flight,
The Killing Zone
Analytics - it’s an important word in almost every business. The same is true in aviation. On today’s episode, Rob Reider talks with Dr. Paul Craig, PhD, who shares some of the not-so-flattering statistics for pilots who have between 50 and 350 hours of flight time. He’s compiled thousands of accident reports and published his findings in a book called, “The Killing Zone.” He’ll also disc
ATC—Sequencing is the Scenario
Air Traffic Control in the USA is an extremely challenging job for the men and women who help manage nearly 50,000 flights daily in the U.S. alone. In the busiest airports, coordinating departures begins before any airliner pushes back from the gate. Joining host Rob Reider is retired JFK controller Dave Schoen, and he gives us a glimpse into the workings of ATC and how we as pilots can d
Attitude Check with Julie Boatman
If you own an airplane, you’ve doubtless become very comfortable with the panel, whether it be steam gauges or glass. But if you fly an airplane with which you are less familiar, you’ve got a bit of catch-up to do to feel proficient in your scan. In today’s episode, Rob interviews a pilot who had some challenges in a Chinese airplane with a strange attitude indicator.Sponsored by Avemco
The Case of the Confounding Crosswind Component
How many times have we jumped in an airplane for a short flight without doing complete flight planning? Most of the time there are no consequences. But what would you do if you thought you’d done due diligence in your planning and something changed en route? Divert? Go back to where you started? Or was there another option? Host Rob Reider discusses this cautionary tale with pilot Randy B
To Sump or Not to Sump With Randy Groom
Today’s episode contains two stories, one with a Cessna 150 that involved a problem that led to an off-airport landing and another in a Beech Bonanza that had a sudden loss of oil pressure and an engine that blew apart. Join host Rob Reider as he interviews the pilot who experienced both of these incidents.Sponsored by Avemco Insurance.
Expectation Bias—A Lesson from an Air Force Fighter Pilot
Knowing the maintenance history of an aircraft plays a significant role in this episode. Host Rob Reider speaks with former Air Force pilot Alan Gurevich who shares what happened when the F-4 he was piloting landed and he encountered what he thought was a brake failure. He’ll also share how an emergency procedure helped him in a situation in his motor glider.Sponsored by Avemco
Getting “Behind the Airplane” With Tim Delaney
Getting “behind the airplane” is something no one wants to do. But when flight conditions change unexpectedly a pilot’s workload increases, sometimes to the point of being in danger. Today’s guest got into a such a situation when, in IMC, he was given vectors for an approach he didn’t have time to prepare for. FAA Master Pilot Award recipient Tim Delaney describes how he got behind the ai
Coordinated Flight Leads to Trouble With Nate Van Coops
Learning aerobatics imposes forces on the human body that are not familiar. And it requires some changes in how the airplane is handled. For instance, unless we’re intentionally slipping the airplane, we’re taught to “stay coordinated” and “keep the ball centered.” For one pilot, his method of keeping the ball centered during an aerobatic maneuver left him in a very unusual attitude — in
Flight Into Unknown Ice With Gene Benson
Today we learn some important lessons that affect every pilot on every mission flown, no matter how experienced that pilot is. Do we “push the envelope” on a flight because of familiarity, because we got through marginal weather before, or do we assess each flight thoroughly? A relatively short flight became dangerous because the pilot had “been there, done that.” But it got him in an icy
