<p>Like George Costanza pulling a golf ball from a whale&#39;s blowhole, Ben emerges from a harrowing 3.5-hour IMC flight through icing conditions with quite the tale to tell. Our intrepid Atlanta pilot finds himself wondering &quot;did I get away with one? This sparks a deep dive into normalization of deviance, expanding personal minimums, and whether Ben just wrote &quot;the first line of his NTSB report.&quot;</p><p>Brian continues his quest to become qualified to &quot;give bad information for small amounts of money&quot; as an instrument ground instructor, while Ted battles the &quot;Mississippi River pointed at the Northwest&quot; and installs stripped hex screws.</p><p>The crew tackles thoughtful listener feedback about pre-flight anxiety and the existential dread of pursuing aviation as what outsiders might call &quot;the Midlife Crisis Podcast.&quot; Plus, planning continues for &quot;The Thaden Invasion&quot; fly-in at KVBT - a very GA-friendly airport that&#39;s excited to host the podast and community... for now.</p><p>Mentioned on the show:</p><p>* Wikipedia - List of social generations: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation#List_of_social_generations</p><p>* Beresford Research - Generations defined by name, birth year, and ages in 2025: https://www.beresfordresearch.com/age-range-by-generation/#:~:text=Generations%20defined%20by%20name%2C%20birth%20year%2C%20and%20ages%20in%202025</p><p>* Side view of The Hollywodo Squares: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059995/mediaviewer/rm648494848/?ref_=tt_ov_i</p><p>* The Finer Points on the Oscar pattern for IFR flying: https://www.learnthefinerpoints.com/articles/the-oscar-pattern</p><p>* Checkmate Aviation IFR, Oscar pattern on back: https://www.checkmateaviation.com/products/checkmate-ifr</p><p>* Oscar pattern graphic: https://www.reddit.com/r/flying/comments/13hnvzo/oscar_pattern_graphic/</p><p>* Flight Insight, the VOR Flower: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mm7XxyzZFh0</p><p>* EP36 - CFI Jeff Ramsey, Frequency Change Aviation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgaNuf5gCCo</p><p>* Seinfeld, &quot;The Sea Was Angry That Day My Friends&quot;: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2a3TZC69tSg</p><p>* Psych Safety - The Challenger Disaster: Normalisation of Deviance: https://psychsafety.com/normalisation-of-deviance/</p><p>* Blancolirio on the N2345R Montana fatal icing encounter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkSM531bYzs</p><p>* Ben&#39;s video, &quot;Pushing the Envelope&quot; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9cvl1LJV1Y</p><p>* Big Bird was nearly on the Challenger: https://www.history.com/articles/big-bird-challenger-disaster-nasa-sesame-street</p><p>* Performance Pilot by Ross Bentley and Phil Wilkes : https://bookshop.org/p/books/performance-pilot-skills-techniques-and-strategies-to-maximize-your-flying-performance-phil-wilkes/1d2cd7f443b0d5ca</p><p>* The Calm Cockpit podcast: https://calmcockpit.com/</p><p>* Tammy Barlette&#39;s Crosscheck mental performance training course: https://www.crosscheckmentalperformance.com/</p><p>* Crosscheck training course and group: https://www.skool.com/crosscheck/about?ref=f15fa026369c49dfaf275891f87f1f26</p><p><br></p><p>Join us on Patreon, get event info, merch, and more:</p><p>www.midlifepilotpodcast.com</p>