Engine-Out at Night

Lennon Carlson· Guest0:00

[instrumental music] It was just a couple of minutes after leveling off that the first indication that something was happening was a, a smell in the cockpit. It was that sweet, hot oil smell.

David O'Leary· Host0:12

Hello, and welcome to another edition of There I Was, a podcast where we put you in the cockpit with pilots in demanding situations, and we learn how they flew out of them. For AOPA and the Air Safety Institute, I'm David O'Leary. Today, we'll meet Lennon Carlson. Lennon is a full-time flight instructor based in Kansas City. He's been flying for 11 years. He's here to share the story of an engine out that occurred at night flying home after celebrating the Fourth of July weekend. Lennon, welcome to There I Was.

Lennon Carlson· Guest0:43

I appreciate it, sir. Thank you.

David O'Leary· Host0:45

I understand you've been at this for a little while. You took your first flight in high school. You got introduced to aviation at kind of a young age?

Lennon Carlson· Guest0:52

Absolutely. So I was about 10 years old, and my folks rounded up myself and the rest of my siblings, took us to an aviation museum here locally, and there it was. I just fell in love with it and decided to do that for really the rest of my life. Just fell head over heels for, for aviation.

David O'Leary· Host1:09

Tell us about the flight instruction that you do. Is that new students? Are you doing instrument check rides? Are you ... Kind of run the gamut. W- what's the airport like? What's the flight school like, and, and what's your sort of week like?

Lennon Carlson· Guest1:22

I do a lot of instruction. Like, I'm not tied to the flight school, thankfully, so I fly with a lot of owners. Uh, I'll do