Summary: In this short episode, we talk with Jon Roberts, COO of the Caremark division of CVS Caremark. Jon tells us about his purchase of a brand new Piper Archer and how he is training for his private pilot’s certificate in his own airplane through Piper’s Ready, Set, Fly program. I’m David Allen, and I’m about to take you into the cockpit … of Other People’s Airplanes. This interview was filmed on the grounds at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2011. Damon Favor and I simply had more footage than we could post during the event, so I am now releasing the rest of the interviews as stand-alone episodes. As COO of CVS Caremark, Jon is a super-busy guy. In this interview, Jon shares how Piper’s Ready, Set, Fly program helps him work primary flight training into his tight schedule. Jon also discusses his future plans to upgrade, once he has acquired the appropriate training, to a Piper Malibu Matrix. Jon is really looking at the utility that general aviation is able to provide, and is already enjoying the benefits of private aviation even before he has completed his private pilot training. You can find more information about Piper’s Ready, Set, Fly program by clicking right here. Huge news! This Saturday, June 16th 2012, the Smithsonian National & Space Museum is holding their 8th annual “Become A Pilot Family Day and Aviation Display” at the Udvar-Hazy Center on-site at the Dulles International Airport near Washington, DC. During the annual event, Dulles International welcomes GA traffic into the airport to be part of the event and park their airplanes on the ramp outside the museum! Guests visiting the museum will be able to talk to pilots and learn what it takes to become a pilot from experienced aviators. Thanks to my friends over at Sennheiser, I will be attending that event! I will be talking to pilots about the benefits of having a license, and hopefully talking to some future aviators about their aviation dreams. I will also be participating a two-hour remote radio show with Milford and Charlie of FlightTime Radio! You can listen live to that by going to this link right here, and if you can’t listen live, the guys at FlightTime Radio will turn it into a podcast episode for you to download and listen to at your leisure. There is so much aviation at the Udvar-Hazy Center that I cannot possibly get it all, from the Enola Gay, to Bob Hoover’s Shrike Commander, the Boeing Dash-80, the SR-71 Blackbird, the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II, and one of the newest residents, the Space Shuttle Discovery. I obviously cannot possibly show you everything the museum has to offer, but I will certainly to my best to bring you a mega-serving of Aviation Deliciousness slathered with a whole bunch of awesome-sauce. I will also be talking about Sennheiser’s Live Your Dream program. Sennheiser is really excited about helping to grow the pilot community, and Live Your Dream is helping people reach their aviation goals. Stay tuned, because I will be talking a lot more about that in the future, including sharing how you can get involved. Now, if there is anything in particular that you want me to cover, please drop me a line on Twitter or the Facebook page, and I’ll do my best! And speaking of Twitter, the widely-accepted hash tag for the event is #PilotDay12, so if you can’t attend, at least take part in the online conversation. And if you can attend, I would like to meet you in person! If enough of you are planning to be there, maybe we can do an impromptu meet-up somewhere in the area. Finally, the Geeks over at Airplane Geeks are planning to attend as well, so be sure to check out all of their awesome coverage of Pilot Day 2012 on their website right here.
