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PODCAST

So There I Was

Chuck Newton and Pete Harmon

So There I Was” is a weekly aviation podcast and YouTube show featuring true pilot stories from fighter pilots, airline captains, helicopter pilots, and other military and civilian aviators. “So – There I was.” It’s how ALL great aviation tales begin! Join hosts Fig and Repete as they bring in some great aviation raconteurs to relate the glamorous, hilarious, poignant, tragic, and incredible tales of aviation. Fig and Repete met more than 30 years ago as Marine Attack pilots in Marine Attack

leisure aviation

All Episodes

1:52:53

If You're Gonna Blow Up Episode 232

So There I Was ·

2026/10/01

F-100 pilot Ike flew 195 combat missions with an iron sight and nerves of steel. He takes us from night close air support to a 50-pound-fuel landing to the 1986 Libya raid.

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1:22:32

Guns Are Where It's At Episode 231

So There I Was ·

2026/09/24

Retired Marine Lt. Col. Tim "Monk" Miller nearly punched out mid-nap over Ramadi, then built the Strike Fighter League, where guns are where it's at.

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1:28:24

Rope Trick Episode 230

So There I Was ·

2026/09/17

Vietnam-era Huey pilot RoadRunner joins RePete and Kemo for combat missions, near-disasters, and the Rope Trick — a Thailand R&R story he never fully explains.

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A Thousandth of an Inch of Trouble Episode 229

So There I Was ·

2026/09/10

A Thousandth of an Inch of Trouble is all that stood between one airline crew and an on-time departure. Actually, it was a worn brake wear pin, measured down to the thousandth, that a mechanic waved off as “technically good to go.”This week’s episode is a lighter one. It’s just Fig and RePete, no guest, trading stories while juggling schedules and a certain eye surgery on the calendar. Before the flying talk starts, Fig recaps a fundraiser for YL-37, the effort to keep a

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1:09:36

Semper Gumby: Remembering Sticks Episode 228

So There I Was ·

2026/09/03

This week's episode honors Coast Guard rescue pilot John "Sticks" Hall with his brother-in-law's eulogy and son Tyler's letter, plus a night-divert tale from Stretch off the USS Midway.

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1:37:08

I Never Exceeded 5' Episode 227

So There I Was ·

2026/08/27

5 Feet — that’s the altitude Roadrunner held on a self-appointed decoy mission in Vietnam, and it’s the heart of Episode 227. It’s also the reason he walked away with a Bronze Star.This week, RePete and Fig welcome Chuck Howard, callsign Roadrunner. He flew with the 175th Assault Helicopter Company, earning two Bronze Stars and 25 Air Medals for valor. Roadrunner’s path started on a Jersey City hammock, watching jets land at Newark. Actually, he almost became a commercial

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13:11

Semper Paratus, Farewell Sticks Episode 226

So There I Was ·

2026/08/21

Farewell Sticks is the hardest episode we’ve ever had to record. On August 20th, we lost our friend, producer, and co-host John “Sticks” Hall in a small plane crash near Bristol, Maine. His son Tyler was flying with him and survived with minor injuries.We’re not speculating on cause. Actually, we’re not speculating on anything about that day. What we can tell you: it was a Diamond DA20, Sticks bought it last spring, and that’s where the facts stop for

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1:35:50

Flight Path: He Who Dies with the Most Laugh Wrinkles...

So There I Was ·

2026/08/20

Retired C-141 pilot and author Chill-Rob McD joins Fig and RePete for a night of Starlifter chaos: a Dutch roll at 35,000 feet, a mid-air fight with a runaway yaw damper, and a landing that ends in blown tires and a fifty-foot wall of flame. Add a gunpoint landing fee off the coast of Africa, a loadmaster who nearly ate an elevator cable, and the story behind his book Flight Path: An Irreverent Aviation Tale — this one earns the title He Who Dies with the Most Laugh Wrinkles Wins.

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1:33:20

Race to the Shear Switch Episode 224

So There I Was ·

2026/08/13

Race to the Shear Switch is exactly what it sounds like. You either cut the cable, or the cable decides your night for you. On Episode 224, retired Coast Guard helicopter pilot Larry Hall makes that call for real.Actually, this episode opens rough. Co-host Fig joins fresh off a highway wreck, rear-ended by a Peterbilt into another rig. However, he’s already cracking jokes about mistaking himself for Captain Kirk on the anesthesia. Furthermore, guest Larry Hall isn’t new to chaos. The

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1:25:59

Coasties in Space Episode 223

So There I Was ·

2026/08/06

This week’s Coast Guard aviation stories come courtesy of a special guest co-host: Deuce, a newly retired Coast Guard aviator (and, briefly, the service’s senior space attorney). Sticks and Bago hold down the fort while Deuce walks through the Coast Guard’s oddball, everything-service mission set — including how commercial space launches are about to become a Coast Guard headache.From there it’s classic So There I Was territory: sleeping inside a helicopter to escape a

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1:26:26

Seeing it Through Episode 222

So There I Was ·

2026/07/30

An update on Fig's serious crash and injuries and an AMAZING story of heroism under fire in Vietnam!

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38:36

Lt. Jones Needs a Ride Episode 221

So There I Was ·

2026/07/23

RePete opens the show and a call with Sticks about buying an airplane. Apparently, Sticks needed an airplane-shaped hole in his finances! Before that, two quick health check-ins: Fig is nursing an eye injury (prescription: beach time, not flight time). Meanwhile, Bago is recovering from a pathologic knee fracture, mistaken for arthritis for weeks. Good news — the lesion’s benign, and he’ll be back producing the show soon.Then things get properly ridiculous. Naval aviator

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7:51

Fig's Health Update

So There I Was ·

2026/07/18

Fig was involved in a serious crash on Thursday - 16 July. A Short update on his condition.

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32:05

Putty, Lawman, Gallo and Candyman Episode 220

So There I Was ·

2026/07/16

Putty talks Camp Bastion Attack in Sept of 2012, Lawman describes the most legitimate ejection ever made and Candyman talks traffic tickets in a war zone!

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1:39:49

Put a Booger on the Winshield Episode 219

So There I Was ·

2026/07/09

Marine Corps aviator Maui (call sign Cobra-31) joins RePete and Fig for stories spanning three decades of naval aviation: serving under Colonel Don Conroy — the real-life inspiration for The Great Santini — flying Huey gunships out of Marble Mountain, a hair-raising New Year's Eve medevac, training Iranian pilots before the Tehran evacuation, and flying CH-46s in Desert Storm.

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35:51

Harrier Sundown: Monster and Rizzo’s Stories Episode 218

So There I Was ·

2026/07/02

In Episode 218 of So There I Was, Fig & RePete bring listeners two stories recorded live at the Harrier Sundown gathering in North Carolina. First up is “Monster,” one of the earliest Marine aviators selected for the AV-8B Harrier program back in 1984. He recounts the chaos of being handed the first-ever heavyweight VSTOL launch off an LPH — no computers, no test pilot, just a junior lieutenant, a hazy horizon, and a velocity vector that refused to move. Monster also shares the

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1:24:24

We Declined to Apologize for Returning Fire Episode 217

So There I Was ·

2026/06/25

Marine Cobra pilot X-Man flew combat in both Grenada and Beirut — in the same month. He walks RePete and Fig through his path from a test pilot neighbor in Northern Virginia to the cockpit of an AH-1, the Grand Anse campus rescue operation, and a Beirut rules-of-engagement situation where the pilot in command was asked to apologize for returning fire. He declined. At 69, X-Man is still logging AH-1 time with the Army Aviation Heritage Foundation. This one's got range.

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20:12

Crossing the Pond: No, Really! Episode 216

So There I Was ·

2026/06/18

This week’s episode was recorded live at King Mackerel’s Beach Tavern Bar & Grill in Moorehead City, NC, right after the historic Harrier Sundown Ceremony at Cherry Point. In Segment 1, call sign Ag—a Texas Aggie and former Harrier XO—takes you on an unforgettable journey crossing the Atlantic to Desert Storm. From a midnight “Casablanca” goodbye at Cherry Point to dangerous night tanking with KC‑10s, metal-to-metal probe contact, a thunderstorm with St. Elmo’s fire, and a tense close ID with an

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59:14

Scrape a Hole and Hang On: Buggsy's on Welded Wing...

So There I Was ·

2026/06/11

Buggsy joins us to talk Flight school, Joining the Navy, Flying Harriers, Sundown Ceremony and more!

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32:32

Trainwreck Episode 214

So There I Was ·

2026/06/05

A near mid-ground collision by Strecken and

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236 results

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