Juan Browne has flown everything from Air Force jets to vintage biplanes, but he’s best known for his accident analysis channel on YouTube, blancolirio. In this wide-ranging episode, he describes his unique approach to researching crashes and explains why he thinks all pilots can learn from others’ misfortunes. Juan also talks about his varied flying career, including fighting fires with the US Forest Service, flying C-141s all around the world, and life as an international airline pilot. In the Ready to Copy segment, Juan tells us what he’s changed his mind about since starting his channel, flying the open-cockpit Waco, and the best place to eat in Sydney, Australia.

Quotes:

How Juan decides what accidents to cover: “If there’s no data, there’s no story—so we gotta have good data. And then there’s gotta be a lesson learned.”

Why not wait for the final NTSB report? “We have the same data that the NTSB’s going to be looking at, and there is so much to learn right away looking at this data… we need to learn these lessons now.”

The importance of studying accidents: “This is the modern day version of hangar flying.”

The pace required to run a YouTube channel: “You need to keep this thing rolling 2-3 videos per week.”

What Juan has changed after reviewing so many accidents: “The stuff I don’t do anymore has increased a lot since I started doing the channel.”

Fighting forest fires from an airplane: “That was a lifetime worth of adventure packed into one year of anus-clenching flying. It was a real eye-opener.”

Flying the C-141 Starlifter: “In that job you learn to manage a big crew.”

The role of the C-141 vs. the C-130: “Strategic airlift you’re just hauling stuff or people from point A to point B. Tactical airlift you’re doing it all.”

Airline pilots flying GA airplanes: “If you take an airline pilot and move him into GA, their first 300 hours is every bit as hazardous as someone who’s starting from scratch.”

Advice for a new airline pilot: “As somebody who was hired 25 years ago, all I can say is, you have no idea what it’s been like the last couple of decades… I was on reserve as a first officer for over 17 years.”

Flying the Waco biplane: “It’s a bit of work to fly that thing. So the best thing for the Waco is to share the passion of aviation with other people.”

Links:

Blancolirio on YouTube:
   / @blancolirio  

Juan Browne on Patreon:
www.patreon.com/join/787639

Sporty’s Pilot Training+ membership:
sportys.com/pilottraining