Flaps Podcast - Winter 2012: Nigel Mansell, Wellesbourne...

[flaps.]

The Winter edition of Flaps Podcast is available now.

It's free and is at flapspodcast.com and is on iTunes too.

Our celebrity pilot in this edition is racing driver, golfer and famous moustache-wearer Nigel Mansell. The 1992 Formula 1 champion talks about his three decades as a pilot - it's a great interview.

It's always good to end a year with a bang - so that's how we're ending 2012. The bang in question is caused by a passenger jet crashing into the Mexican desert. Normally that wouldn't be much fun, but if you saw that terrific Channel 4 Show "The Plane Crash" a few weeks back, you'll know what we mean. Basically, they crashed a 727 under controlled conditions, in order to see what happens on impact. If you missed the show you can watch it online from Channel 4. We thoroughly recommend it.

We speak to Geoff Deehan, who devised and produced the show, and Leland "Chip" Shanle, who was flying the 727 by remote control from a chase plane 50m or so behind.

Pablo Mason talks about dealing with cockpit emergencies. If there's one person you'd want sat next to you when things get hairy, it'd be Captain Chesley Sullenberger. But if he's not available, Pablo will do!

And finally, we launch a new feature in this edition - the Flaps Fly-In. We visit an airfield and find out about the people behind it, some of the history, and of course, test the £100 burger. In this edition we start centrally (for England) at the very GA-friendly Wellesbourne Airfield in Warwickshire.

We've had another enjoyable year making Flaps Podcast - and we hope you've enjoyed listening. Thanks to everyone who's taken part. You help make Flaps what it is.

Finally, if you enjoy Flaps please rate us on iTunes and/or follow us on Twitter or Facebook. That's all we ask!

Happy New Year from Mark and Elliott.

[flaps.]

0.00 Introduction
1.35 Celebrity Pilot - Former F1 World Champion Nigel Mansell
12.30 Flaps Fly-in - Wellesbourne Airfield, Warwickshire
20.48 Mason's Minute - coping with cockpit emergencies
23.48 Geoff Deehan - Creator and producer of Channel 4 show "The Plane Crash"
32.32 Chip Shanle - who crashed the 727 by remote control
35.39 Wrap up

Duration: 36.34

[flaps.]

For every Flaps Podcast we release, we have plenty more material that’s left on the digital cutting room floor. But that doesn’t mean the bits we don’t use aren’t interesting.

There was plenty of great unused chat in Flaps 15: Geoff’s part goes up from 8 minutes up to nearly 17 and Chip’s from 3 minutes to nearly 13.

The whole piece now runs at over 31 minutes. That’s almost as long as the main edition of the podcast it comes from – so you can see why we cut it down a bit.

There's now a lot more detail about the planning and execution of the crash - and things that went wrong too.

You can listen to it or download it from here. It's also on iTunes so subscribers there will have it pushed their way soon.

(For Mansell fans, sorry I suggested there might be something extra. I checked the original recording and it's only a few seconds longer - there wasn't much apart from him saying a hello to my mum, who was at school with him - but as she was a couple of years above he didn't remember her anyway! So unless I get lots of requests, I don't think there's much need to put that up online.)

Mark