Mywife, Michelle, and I were having lunch at the CAV-OK Grill at Springbank a number of years ago, and having settled into our soup and sandwiches, we turned our attention to everybody’s favourite sport: that is, nosily listening in on the conversations at the adjacent tables which, we both agree, are almost always more interesting than ours. Our thirty-plus years together, and having not even attempted to kill each other so far, are testament to this pastime’s positive contribution to a happy marriage.

This one time, though, it wasn’t just the content, but the medium as well. In addition to phrases like the cameraman hanging out the cargo door and where best to position a P–51 to get the best angle on it drifting across the restaurant, there was something about one of their voices that was haunting me: I knew I had heard it somewhere before. Eventually, this fascinating conversation wound down and the table vacated, but I could still hear the voice as we finished our meal. Then, like a bolt out of the proverbial blue, it occurred to me:

That was Scratch Mitchell, I said to Michelle. She didn't bat an eye. Y’know that ‘Airshow’ show guy! Discovery Channel had recently completed running the aviation series2 on local television. We had watched it faithfully and some glimmer of recognition appeared on her face. Back then, I was producing The WorkNotWork Show, a podcast about people who worked jobs you might not know were jobs, given the passion they trigger in those called to them. He’d be perfect for the podcast, I continued, Michelle’s eyes rolling. Let’s see if we can chase him down … I distractedly trailed off, as I hastily made for the door leaving my lunch half-eaten. The eternally patient St. Michelle of the Perpetual Planespotter, suitably unimpressed and sighing, followed behind me.

Track him down we did, near one of Springbank’s communal dumpsters responsibly disposing of some post-shoot flotsam or jetsam. I introduced myself and St. Michelle, and I have to say he was absolutely charming with us, a skill undoubtedly honed while Team Lead of the RCAF Snowbirds jet demonstration team along with many other public-facing aviation roles he has had. Celebrity was still something he enjoyed, it seemed.

I did, in fact, end up producing an episode of The WorkNotWork Show with Scratch.3 Setting all modesty aside, it was one of my best. Moreover, the first two minutes of that episode are the single best audio I have ever produced, regardless of the show. I still can’t listen to these two minutes without tearing up a little.

So what does all of this have to do with this month’s cover photo? Well, Scratch continues to make himself a great living combining the roles of aviator, actor, producer, and director. His most recent endeavour, amongst many, is The Film Knight, which coincidentally just produced an excellent ‘behind the scenes’ video4 of the absolutely fascinating work they do. In that, I found one moment, in particular, that embodied both the technical and aesthetic aspects of The Film Knight’s work in a compelling way. This screen-captured moment is the cover for the July issue that will be with us all for all this month, and then forever, in the archive.

Scratch is truly one of aviation’s good guys. He is also still one of the best working in this rarified field and would highly recommend checking out his website. If you have an aviation-related film project in mind — I’m looking at you, Simon Brading5 — you’d do well to drop him a line using the contact page on his website. He just might be able to help your dreams come true, too.

Looking back on the experience, having a great excuse to call up my aviation heroes and invite them to be guests was likely one of the reasons I started The WorkNotWork Show in the first place. Unlike today, when anybody who can fog a mirror has a podcast, there was some novelty in what I was doing back then. In addition to Scratch, there were a few other notable aviation folks who I was able to hornswoggle out of an hour or two of their time and record an interview.

At the remote intersection of staggering accomplishment and local boy teamed with local plane made good, I had the pleasure of interviewing Sean Loutitt,6 the chief pilot on both the first and second life-saving rescue flights to the South Pole launched smack in the middle of the Antarctic winter. Both of these missions were conducted in the indefatigable De Havilland DHC–6 Twin Otter. Most surprising in the interview was how easy and routine Sean made it all sound. However, when it’s so cold that jet fuel can turn into a kind of slush, and when Sean tells the story of how the Twin Otter's skies froze to the Antarctic terrain, you know with absolutely certainty the flights were anything but ordinary. Literally, it couldn’t be anywhere further from that.

Then there was the episode featuring Wingwalker Carol Pilon,7 who was also featured on the same Airshow series. Of all the people I interviewed for The WorkNotWork Show and the wide variety of professions in which they worked, Carol struck me as the person who had sacrificed the most to do that which she loved the most. You really have to listen to her tell her story to know precisely what it is I mean by that. Suffice it to say I was, and will always be, in awe of her courage and tenacity. That's something intrinsic to her character, and goes well above and beyond the physical courage and tenacity it also takes to get up on top of the top wing of her Stearman.

Although we officially don’t do ‘space’ here at BluFly, there is also the interview with Dr. Robert Thirsk,8 the veteran of two epic spaceflights as well as a long list of other accomplishments both inside and outside of aviation. Amongst many things, what I learned from my interview with Bob is that becoming an astronaut is actually pretty easy: all you have to do is dream about becoming one when you’re, say, five years old and then focus every waking moment on virtually nothing else for the next thirty years. Presto, you’re an astronaut. All kidding aside, someday, when I grow up, I want to be just like Bob Thirsk.

In addition to these great ‘gets’, I also ended up bumping into all sorts of interesting people in all sorts of interesting jobs. I look back with both pride and fondness on the scant nineteen episodes of the The WorkNotWork Show. If the subject ever comes up, I always describe it as being in hiatus, as opposed to out of business entirely. There are still many great aviators out there, and I am thankful I still have the business cards for the show close at hand. I hope I still may be able to jump on these opportunities as they arise and record a new episode, now and again.

The lack of participation by nearly every well-known aviation enterprise is a chronic deficiency with Bluesky. Despite there being, as of this moment, 36.9 million registered users, Bluesky still has only a handful of easily recognisable aviation names counted amongst them. BluFly maintains the BluFly 🛩️ Verified Aviation Starter Pack9 as our way to keep track of these companies. Currently, there are only a meagre thirty-three in their number.

Regardless, if you believe getting the aviation industry writ large on board is critical to building a robust aviation community here on Bluesky — I absolutely do — this has to change, and soon.

So far as corporate aviation is concerned, the network effect is currently working actively against Bluesky. Until such time as there’s a critical mass of these companies on the platform, there’s little obvious incentive for any individual aviation company to join. Without these companies, there’s no way to build the necessary critical mass. It’s a negative feedback loop, and the only job of these is to keep things in the same state. It’s why getting new social networks off the ground is very hard to do.

Sadly, there’s no easy solution. However, an asset at our collective disposal is none other than the aforementioned 36.9 million registered users. Let’s assume only one percent of these are actually active. This leaves 369,000 users, of whom I’m willing to bet, at least one knows at least one person at every aviation, aviation-oriented, or aviation-adjacent company in existence and who may be in a position to call in some sort of favour from said person. The favour, of course, is to have the company for whom that person works sign up for Bluesky.

It’s noble work, off-limits for the faint of heart. There’s a lot of rejection involved and very little in it for any given individual, while also being all but thankless even when you do succeed. Furthermore, this approach will not result in a big bang, quick gratification response on any given day. It’s a classic example of it being better to enjoy the journey rather than the destination.

In fact, it will be almost the complete opposite: more like a game of inches in an ecosystem where miles are needed. But if we continue to aggregate these small, one-off gains over time, working together, we can begin to turn the network effect around so it finally starts to work in our favour.

If that doesn't scare you off, are you one of the 369,000 who knows somebody who knows somebody in the social media department of one of these target companies? If so, can we rely on you to call in any favours you may be owed to get them to sign up for Bluesky? In effect, knock on the door and be prepared to take no — or maybe even the occasional yes? — for an answer? If so, this grand undertaking may be for you.

Finally, if you’re successful and manage to get a new sign-up, can you tell the world you did? Also, by all means, let us know and BluFly will help tell the world you did, too. Each additional company brings us all a measurable step towards the positive feedback loop needed to make this whole, great Bluesky aviation community really take off.

Oh, yes, and one more thing: when these companies come online, don't forget to like, repost, and quote posts the heck out of them. If you have the social media chops, why not consider helping them create their first few Bluesky posts? Having succeeded in the monumental effort of getting them here, we all want them singing Blue Skies and not cryin’ them.

Have any thoughts on July you would like to share? I would love to hear those.10 In the interim, thank you so much for reading and also for engaging with BluFly’s posts on Bluesky and LinkedIn. 11 I always love hearing from each and every one of you.

Until next month … fair winds and blue skies.

Terence C. Gannon
Managing Editor

This is what we managed to put together for you for the month of June, with most recent at the top:

Note that the embedded posts above are from the Bluesky 🛩️ Custom Feed 12 which is the reference feed for BluFly.