by Billie Flynn | Sep 8, 2026 | Aerospace, defense, General, military
I recently joined Cameron Sabet on his podcast, “Cutting to the Case” to talk about performing under pressure in high-risk environments: the preparation, mindset, and execution it takes to survive in the test pilot world — from my transition into the RCAF CF-18 through what it actually takes to test fly at the edge of an aircraft’s envelope. One theme was new territory for me — cognitive overload, and the discipline it takes to manage the extreme cognitive loads that make you both lethal and survivable in a 5th generation F-35. What surprised me is how directly that translates to modern medicine as well as the science of ‘Human Performance’.
by Billie Flynn | Sep 3, 2026 | Aerospace, defense, General, military
These days we’re seeing a troubling streak — willful violations, pilots straying from flight profiles, lapses in discipline and absolute void of leadership. Back in my early air show flying, we were victims of The Telephone Game, and very naive. Today we know better, and we’re making the same mistakes anyway.
by Billie Flynn | Sep 1, 2026 | Aerospace, defense, General, military
I remain dismayed by the steady drumbeat of bad news from the airshow world — close calls, near ground impacts, and, too often, fatalities. From the one-of-a-kind Turkish F-4 near miss, to incidents involving military jets in North America, to the fatal loss of a Polish F-16 demo pilot earlier this year, the pattern doesn’t break.
by Billie Flynn | Aug 30, 2026 | Aerospace, defense, General, military
Many of my tales about flying have some link to what went wrong — some misfortune, some lucky break. But every now and then, I did something right, and taking my brother flying in a CF-18 Hornet was one of those choice moments.
by Billie Flynn | Aug 26, 2026 | Aerospace, defense, General, military
What is flying in real combat like? What do fighter pilots face when they’re sent into harm’s way? What’s in the heads of the men and women our governments send into a real threat environment? Listen to the interviews conducted by John Waters on his podcast, The Afterburn Podcast, with F-16 pilots from Shaw AFB who flew during Operation Rough Rider over Yemen and then into Iran during Operation Midnight Hammer.
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