Aviation Masters

For over a decade, general aviation has been chasing one elusive goal: a true 100-octane unleaded avgas that works across the entire piston fleet. 
Swift Fuels CEO Chris D'Acosta has been at the center of that effort since 2012, and in this episode, he lays out exactly where the industry stands, why the process has been so slow, and what's still ahead.
If you fly a piston aircraft, this conversation matters to you. 

D'Acosta breaks down:
✅ which portion of the fleet is already covered by Swift's STCs
✅ what's holding up the high-performance engines
✅ the real story behind the university valve-seat recession controversy
✅ whether the industry will hit the FAA's 2030 deadline for eliminating leaded avgas.

⏱️CHAPTERS
0:00 – Introduction: Chris D'Acosta's Journey from Oil & Gas to Swift Fuels CEO
8:00 – Why Major Oil Companies Walked Away from the Unleaded AvGas Race
12:44 – Swift's STC Numbers: 1,200 Engines, 1,600 Airframes, 55% of the Fleet Covered
15:28 – Inside the FAA's Seven Test Engines and Swift's High-Performance Fleet Partners
21:10 – STC vs. ASTM vs. PAFI: Untangling the Certification Alphabet Soup
30:50 – Why Swift Chose the STC Path Over PAFI (Liability & Control)
36:42 – Could the Transition Require 150,000 Individual Sign-Offs?
40:07 – Why the STC Covers Both Engine and Airframe
44:37 – Drop-In Fuel or Engine Modifications? The Historical Debate
53:38 – What Really Happened with the University's Valve Seat Recession Tests
59:44 – Retiring UL94: Why 100R's Additive Package Is Superior
1:01:18 – Eagle vs. PAFI: Who Oversees the Unleaded Transition
1:04:57 – One Winning Fuel or Multiple? Plus, Can Competing Fuels Be Mixed?
1:08:21 – Clearing Up the FAA's Comments on the 2030 Deadline
1:12:22 – Current STC Scope and Swift's New AI-Powered Aircraft Lookup Tool
1:17:41 – Where 100R Is Available Today and the Nationwide Rollout Timeline
1:20:53 – How to Get Your STC at SwiftFuelsAvGas.com
1:24:12 – Closing Thoughts

📚 Resources & Links
Swift Fuels AvGas - https://www.swiftfuelsavgas.com/
Savvy Aviation - https://www.savvyaviation.com/

📍 Subscribe to Aviation Masters for more long-form conversations with the people shaping the future of GA.

Barry Schiff has 28,000 hours, 363 aircraft types, five world speed records, and a 34-year TWA career that ran from the Lockheed Constellation to glass-cockpit 767s, and he's still not done asking why airplanes are built the way they are.
Along the way, Barry and Mike dig into the topics that matter most to working GA pilots and owners: why light-aircraft maintenance culture is stuck in the 1970s, the case for running engines well past TBO, the real danger window right after an annual inspection, the mechanic shortage threatening the future of personal aviation, and where autonomy and single-pilot cockpits are actually headed. 
If you fly, wrench, or write about airplanes, this one's for you.

⏱ Chapters
0:38 Welcome to Aviation Masters & introducing Barry Schiff
2:55 Learning to fly at 14 and racing through every rating
6:39 Flying the Constellation and the transition to jets at TWA
13:43 Life outside the cockpit: roots in Santa Monica, flying GA alongside the airline career
18:13 Teaching gliders in Hawaii
24:23 The bucket list: U-2, Space Shuttle sim, and a near-miss carrier landing
29:11 63 years writing for AOPA Pilot and predicting ADS-B decades early
33:35 Podcasting, and why light-aircraft maintenance culture needs to modernize
38:29 Engines, TBO, and why GA engines haven't caught up
43:53 Favorite airplanes, world speed records, and the Aerostar/Bushmaster stories
49:54 Safety: loss of control, dangerous Vx climbs, and an unreported unsafe checkride
56:21 Simulator training and recreating the Sioux City DC-10 accident
1:03:32 Operation Peace Flight: the historic Israel–Jordan crossing
1:11:00 Retirement flight, aging pilots, and insurance-driven age discrimination
1:19:20 The future of flight: autonomy, Skyryse, and single-pilot jets
1:24:59 The mechanic shortage as an existential threat to GA
1:33:41 Barry's books and getting the next generation into aircraft maintenance
1:43:09 Aviation trivia: hangar, cockpit, socked in, and hijack
1:47:14 The flight he'd redo, closing thoughts, and sign-off

📚 Resources & Links
Barry Schiff's official site & books - https://www.barryschiff.com/index.html
Savvy Aviation - https://www.savvyaviation.com/

📍 Subscribe to Aviation Masters for more long-form conversations with the people shaping the future of GA.

Physicist, chip designer, serial entrepreneur — and the man who spent 25 years making aviation cheaper. 

Host Mike Bush sits down with John Torode, founder of Dynon Avionics and Vashon Aircraft, for a wide-ranging conversation that runs from vacuum-tube computers and the birth of the PC to the $2,200 glass panel that upended general aviation. Along the way: GPS jamming, the brutal economics of FAA certification, what AI is really doing to software, the end of Moore's Law, and why getting an engine built may be harder than designing the avionics.

Two MIT/Dartmouth classmates of '66, both born in 1944, compare notes on careers that ran startlingly in parallel — and on the cost problem that could decide whether the next generation ever gets to fly.

⏱ Chapters
0:26 — Meet John Torode & two parallel lives
3:38 — MIT, physics & collecting five degrees
6:21 — Learning to fly on $300 a month
8:10 — Vacuum tubes, the IBM 650 & Minsky's AI prophecy
15:36 — Designing chips, networks & the Cypress years
22:20 — Founding Dynon: the quest for affordable avionics
24:19 — GPS is everywhere — and dangerously easy to jam
34:17 — The $2,200 glass panel that broke the mold
40:40 — Aviation's volume problem & dying semiconductors
42:11 — Going certified: the FAA, the STC & DO-178
48:22 — Will AI rewrite (and certify) the code?
1:04:46 — From Apollo's computer to the end of Moore's Law
1:20:07 — Buy today's avionics, not tomorrow's
1:23:04 — Telemetry, the cloud & "there is no privacy"
1:30:19 — Vision Aircraft: building a plane and an engine
1:40:13 — Closing: keeping aviation affordable for the next generation

📍 Subscribe to Aviation Masters for more long-form conversations with the people shaping the future of GA.

In this return appearance on Aviation Masters, Mike Busch sits down again with legendary aeronautical engineer Jimmy Tubbs for a deep, technically rich conversation about the regulatory machinery that shapes general aviation.

From the flawed criteria behind Airworthiness Directives to the erosion of Designated Engineering Representatives, and from PMA approval delays to the disappearance of the Small Airplane Directorate's collaborative processes, Jimmy pulls back the curtain on how the system is supposed to work, where it breaks down, and what it costs aircraft owners and the GA community.

This is a candid, experience-driven conversation with one of the most knowledgeable engineers in piston aviation — essential listening for anyone who owns, operates, or maintains a GA aircraft.

⏱ Chapters
00:00 – Introduction & Jimmy's Background
03:00 – What Is an Airworthiness Directive & How Are They Triggered?
07:00 – The Two-Variable Framework: Frequency vs. Severity of Failure
11:00 – Why AD Analysis in GA Lacks Formal Criteria
17:00 – FAA Reorganization: The Loss of Directorates & Senior Engineers
21:00 – The ECI Cylinder AD: Head-to-Barrel Separations & Overreach
28:00 – Corrective Actions That Ignore Supply Chain Reality
31:00 – Short-Wing Piper Rudder AD & the Vintage Aircraft Association Fight
36:00 – Cessna 402 vs. 414 Spar Strap AD: When Scope Goes Too Far
41:00 – What Is an AMOC & How Can It Help Aircraft Owners?
43:00 – The Global AMOC: Continental's V-Band Clamp Solution
47:00 – The Airworthiness Concern Sheet: A Better Way That's Now Gone
53:00 – Twin Cessna Exhaust AD: How Industry Input Saved the Fleet
57:00 – DERs, ODAs & the 2025 Policy Shift Affecting Designee
1:05:00 – The PMA Approval Process: Slower & More Cumbersome Than Ever 
1:10:00 – Why PMA Parts Are the Lifeline for Aging GA Aircraft 
1:19:00 – The NORSEE Process: A Rare Bright Spot in FAA Approvals 
1:22:00 – The Need for Young Engineers & the Future of the Aging Fleet 
1:27:00 – Final Thoughts: Lobbying for a Better AD Process

📍 Subscribe to Aviation Masters for more long-form conversations with the people shaping the future of GA.

In this episode of Aviation Masters, Mike Busch sits down with Bruce Landsberg—former NTSB Vice Chairman, longtime president of the AOPA Air Safety Institute, and author of the new book Learning from Icarus—for an extraordinary conversation spanning nearly 50 years of aviation safety experience.

From his early days as a Cessna demo pilot to pioneering simulator training at FlightSafety, leading accident investigations at the NTSB, and analyzing the future of automation in aviation, Bruce shares hard-won insights that every pilot, owner, and aviation professional needs to hear. 

This episode covers single-engine emergencies in twins, the value of realistic training, accident investigation philosophy, weather-related crashes, the promise and pitfalls of automation, and why learning from past mistakes is the key to staying alive in aviation.

⏱ Chapters
00:00 – Introduction: 40 Years of Friendship & Aviation Safety
03:00 – The Reality Check: Twin Engine Failures in the Simulator vs. Real Life
08:00 – Growing Up in Washington DC & Getting Into Aviation
12:00 – Vietnam, Air Force ROTC & Learning to Fly at College Park
18:00 – From Psychology Major to Professional Pilot
23:00 – Cessna Aircraft Company & Selling Fleets to Flight Schools
28:00 – The 310 Demo Flight That Changed Everything
35:00 – Moving to FlightSafety & The Revolution in Simulator Training
42:00 – Why Simulators Teach What Aircraft Can't
48:00 – Transitioning to AOPA & The Air Safety Foundation
55:00 – Building the ASI: Philosophy, Programs & Outreach
1:02:00 – JFK Jr.'s Fatal Crash: What Really Happened
1:09:00 – Spatial Disorientation, VFR Into IMC & The "What Was He Thinking?" Question
1:17:00 – Joining the NTSB: From Advocacy to Investigation
1:25:00 – Inside NTSB Accident Investigations: Process, Politics & Public Perception
1:33:00 – The Colgan 3407 Crash: Fatigue, Training & Industry Change
1:42:00 – Weather Accidents: Why Smart Pilots Still Fly Into Storms
1:49:00 – Icing, Convective Weather & The Role of Get-There-Itis
1:56:00 – Automation in Aviation: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly
2:03:00 – Tesla Autopilot, AI & What Aviation Can Learn from Automotive
2:09:00 – The Future: Flight Data Monitoring for GA Aircraft
2:15:00 – Learning from Icarus: Writing the Book & Key Takeaways
2:21:00 – Where to Get the Book & Final Thoughts

📍 Subscribe to Aviation Masters for more long-form conversations with the people shaping the future of GA.

🔗 Resources Mentioned in This Episode
Bruce Landsberg's Book: Learning from Icarus – https://learningfromicarus.com/
Email: learningfromicarus@gmail.com

Books by Mike Busch: https://www.savvyaviation.com/resources/#books