PODCAST

So There I Was

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

1:48:21

Slightly Disappointed They Didn't Shoot At Us Episode...

So There I Was ·

2026/02/19

This aviation podcast episode explores real pilot stories, flight safety lessons, and ATC coordination. We dive into the extreme demands of flying high-performance military aircraft like the SR-71 Blackbird. SR-71 pilot stories don’t get much better than this. On this episode of So There I Was, we sit down with BC Thomas. As the highest-time SR-71 Blackbird pilot in history, BC discusses Mach-3 flying and flight test insanity. He shares the kind of aviation decision-making that only happens at

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2:25:41

Never Relax When Things Are Going Well Episode 198

So There I Was ·

2026/02/12

Discover gripping F-106 pilot stories, test pilot emergencies, and aviation safety lessons from a career pushing airplanes—and luck—to the brink.Buckle up for Da Benj’s wild ride from F-106 ice-breaking sonic booms over frozen Lake Superior to praying “Please God, don’t let me F-up” in the cockpit of the Douglas Aircraft ‘Bird of Prey’—because who straps an Air Force test pilot into a company-funded tech demo that flies like a drunk penguin? This aviation legend spills absurd tales of

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19:52

John Steinbeck’s Ecstacy Leak Episode 197

So There I Was ·

2026/02/05

In 1967, legendary author John Steinbeck climbed into a Huey helicopter over Vietnam—and what he wrote afterward was so raw, so strange, and so brutally honest that it still messes with pilots and historians today. This episode dives into the Vietnam War helicopter experience through Steinbeck’s eyes: the sound, the fear, the weird calm, and the “ecstasy” of combat aviation that only those who’ve strapped into a military aircraft truly understand.We unpack what happens when a world-class writer

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The Beginning of My Crime Spree Episode 196

So There I Was ·

2026/01/29

The Beginning of My Crime Spree sounds like a joke—until Captain Mike “Masher” McGrath explains how survival inside the Hanoi Hilton sometimes meant quietly breaking the rules.In this episode of So There I Was, Masher, a retired US Navy A-4 Skyhawk and A-7 Corsair pilot, recounts flying 179 combat missions over Vietnam before being shot down in 1967 and spending nearly six years as a Prisoner of War in Hanoi. He shares firsthand stories of resistance, resilience, and the subtle “crimes” POWs

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1:44:50

Drop & Give Me 1 Episode 195

So There I Was ·

2026/01/22

So there I was… five miles from the runway at Stansted, flaps moving from 35 to 50 on an MD-11, when the airplane abruptly rolled to nearly 60 degrees of bank on short final. That’s not a metaphor. That actually happened.In this episode of So There I Was, Fig and RePete sit down with Chubbs, a Guard fighter pilot turned FedEx check airman, for a master-class in aviation storytelling, decision-making, and pure “how did we survive that?” moments. From a flap literally departing the aircraft and

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1:29:37

Pushing Tin Episode 194

So There I Was ·

2026/01/15

In this episode of So There I Was, Fig and RePete are joined by Kemo and they sit down with two air traffic controllers to talk about what pilots never see — and rarely understand — on the other side of the mic. From go-arounds that mean “you’re not trying hard enough,” to near-miss moments that make an entire tower pucker, this conversation pulls back the curtain on how airspace actually gets managed.Along the way, we dig into controller training timelines that rival military pipelines, staffing

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1:16:45

Ready, Sleep, Now Episode 193

So There I Was ·

2026/01/08

New Year’s Eve, no guest, and somehow the cockpit still turns into a full-blown sitcom. Fig & RePete kick off with a takeoff that goes sideways at V1 when “rotate” gets called… and apparently translated into “stare blankly into the void.” From there, it’s the perfect hangout episode: Top Gun continuity crimes (medals disappear, sunglasses teleport), a hard pivot into the Air India 787 post-rotation dual-engine power-loss mystery (and why one explanation feels disturbingly too plausible), and a

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That’s All She’s Got – Episode 192

So There I Was ·

2026/01/01

This week’s So There I Was episode is a Hangout — that happens when you put pilots, controllers, and a few proud troublemakers in the same virtual room and hit “record.” We swap the kind of stories that never fit in a checklist: a Harrier night recovery that ended six inches from a very bad day, a Learjet that missed an airliner by 100 feet in IMC, and a “UFO” sighting that turned out to be Starlink doing accidental aerobatics in the sun’s glare.Then Heater drops in and casually

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