Celebrating 100 Podcast Episodes, with John Zimmerman

By John Zimmerman
Mar 25, 2025
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Pilot's Discretion Podcast, episode 100

In this special episode, we turn the tables on host John Zimmerman and put him in the guest chair to reflect on a Pilot’s Discretion milestone. Sporty’s Eric Radtke asks John about his favorite episodes, what he’s learned about the aviation community by talking to 99 pilots, and his predictions for the industry’s future. You’ll also learn about John’s background, including why he learned to fly in high school and why he thinks writing is so important. In the Ready to Copy segment, John talks about live music, baseball rule changes, and his favorite aviation book. Plus, we introduce our new show, Air Facts Podcast: The Story Behind the Story, where we talk to AirFactsJournal.com contributors to hear what inspired their articles and the lessons behind them.

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Quotes:

What John has learned from 100 episodes: “Sometimes there’s this perception that all the great aviators are gone… I just couldn’t disagree more. There are so many interesting people of all ages and all jobs in aviation right now, and that has been reinforced.”
Favorite episodes: “[Steve Green] talks about the job of a pilot is basically protecting margins, and that is—if you had to sum up my safety philosophy—I think that’s it.”
The pros and cons of social media: “We’ve had a lot of YouTubers on the show; some of them do very good work and I think are great ambassadors for GA. But I think there’s also some bad ones, and especially the last 3-4 months with some of the notable accidents.”
Artificial intelligence in aviation training: “I like to think I’m a radical moderate on AI.”
The value of type clubs: “I think they are somehow still wildly underrated… There is so much expertise there in those communities.
Pilots who are also musicians: “After about 10 episodes I realized this: almost everybody, there’s some musical connection.”
The value of writing: “Writing is thinking. Writing is great for the reader and a great way to learn, but for the writer, writing forces you to think clearly and organize your thoughts.”
The key debate in aviation today: “This tension between old school stick and rudder skills and modern avionics competency. My whole approach has been: you can do both; this is a false choice.”
Challenges in aviation: “Learning autorotations in a helicopter is hard. I often tell people, flying is not as hard as you think it is… doing autorotations—that’s hard. You’re trying to do about five things at once.”
John’s favorite sport: “Baseball is life, I always say, because it’s 162 games, not 12. You gotta show up every day. You have good days and bad days. You strike out more often than you hit a home run.”
Flying into EAA AirVenture: “If you’ve never camped under the wing at Oshkosh, you are absolutely missing one of the must-dos in aviation. It is great.”
John’s one wish for pilots: “Let’s have some good radio etiquette, and save the stand-up comedy for the comedy club.”