Cockpit Casual: Must-Watch For AvGeeks

I just spent the better part of my weekend binge watching an aviation YouTube channel. While this represents hours of my life that I’ll never get back, it was time well spent, and I’m grateful for the content. I just can’t believe it took me this long to watch all of it.

The people with the coolest jobs in aviation

Above just about everything in life, I’m an aviation geek. Growing up, I wanted to be an airline pilot, but that ultimately didn’t work out for a variety of reasons. In many ways, I’m happy about that. While I think flying planes is pretty darn cool, I would’ve probably found it a little frustrating how the only real determination of your career progression is your seniority number.

That brings us to Steve Giordano, the guy behind the “Cockpit Casual” YouTube series. Steve is one of the partners at Nomadic Aviation Group, and I honestly think he and his colleagues might have the coolest gig in the (sort of) airline industry.

Steve started off as an airline pilot, and eventually partnered with Bob (also featured in the series) to run Nomadic Aviation Group, which is a worldwide ferry aircraft operator. They fly just about every aircraft imaginable, to every destination imaginable.

They generally ferry planes between “assignments.” Many planes are leased, and when an airline ends its contract on a jet, it often needs to be moved somewhere else via a third party, which is where these guys come into play.

They seem to have a huge operation, and they do everything from flying planes into or out of long term storage, to flying them to the scrapyard, to flying them for cargo jet conversions, to flying them to new operators.

If you’re an aviation geek, you’ll no doubt find their lives to be beyond fascinating. They take some absolutely wild trips. They often fly as passengers to position for their assignments, and then it’s not uncommon for them to fly incredibly long trips with a bunch of refueling stops, all without getting any proper rest in a hotel. Their trips remind me a bit of my review trips in terms of the pace at which they move, except they’re actually the ones flying the planes. 😉

What a ridiculously cool gig — not only are they running their own business, but they get to fly just about every type of aircraft, they fly to every corner of the globe, and no two days are even remotely alike. They also clearly have very high pressure jobs, because so much can go wrong with each assignment, from issues with getting permits, to maintenance problems, and more.

Below is a brief video about how Steve got started in all of this.

Some of my favorite Cockpit Casual videos

I’ve been following Steve on Twitter/X for a long time (he comes across as such a nice guy), and I had known about Nomadic Aviation Group. However, I’m not a huge YouTube person, so I think I maybe saw one video a year or two back, and that was it. Well, at least that was the case until this weekend, and now I can say that I’ve seen the entire series.

There’s so much to love about these videos. For one, the cinematography is phenomenal, especially when you consider that Steve is doing this on the side while he’s engaged in his “day job.” Beyond that, it’s incredible to see how many challenges arise on each of these journeys, I love their hotel and airline product insights, it’s cool to see the cabins of these empty jets, and Steve and Bob (and the rest of the team) just seem like all-around nice people who love what they do.

For example, I enjoyed their recent “Road Warriors” episode, where they piloted a Boeing 777-300ER from Phoenix to Abu Dhabi, then had to position to Tianjin, and then had to fly an Airbus A320 back to the United States, with several stops.

I also loved their “Art of the Long Haul” episode, where they had to position to Australia in coronavirus times. This included flying Emirates first class to Brisbane via Dubai, then chartering an aircraft to get to Alice Springs (to avoid quarantine restrictions for interstate travel), then picking up an Airbus A320 and flying to Toulouse, with several stops on the way.

Then there’s the episode about them picking up several Virgin Australia Boeing 737s at the start of the pandemic, in what was an unbelievably challenging coordinated effort.

Or there’s the “Nomadic One” episode, about how they decided to acquire a “vintage” private jet to get around to various jobs, and their training on it, plus the repositioning of a former Ultra Air Airbus A320 from Roswell to Montpellier.

Honestly, just watch all the videos, because they’re incredibly good. If you’re an aviation geek and you don’t enjoy them, I’ll refund you your yearly OMAAT membership fee, okay? 😉

Bottom line

I’m ashamed to admit that I hadn’t watched the full Cockpit Casual series until recently. Now I’m wondering what other things in life I’ve been missing out on. I hope Steve keeps up these videos — not only do they provide an unrivaled insight into how complex this business is, but they’re also just generally a pleasure to watch. If you haven’t yet seen it, do yourself a favor and watch…

Anyone else love this Cockpit Casual series?