The STOL Collective – Details, episodes & analysis

"And then came Anton... three days before his birth we flew to Locarno (Italy) to eat some pizza and ten days afterwards we went again!" - Ingo and Marie-Sophie Maier Marie-Sophie and Ingo are becoming, if not already, a legendary flying German couple. Both south-west Germany natives from the beautiful Black Forest region, Marie-Sophie first discovered aviation thanks to her father as they lived several years in Canada during her childhood. Back in Germany and now a 17 year old finishing highschool where she already met Ingo, Marie-Sophie got the unique opportunity to get her PPL and support her father in his position as CEO of Haas Schleifmaschinen GmbH in flying the companý´s Beechcraft Bonanza F33A.  This was the birth of a common burning passion for aviation followed by Ingo´s PPL, instrument ratings, Marie-Sophie´s CPL and not to mention successful university studies in mechanical engineering. For more than a decade, Marie-Sophie and Ingo are working for Adelbert Haas GmbH (formerly Haas Schleifmaschinen GmbH), a family owned business, leader in grinding technologies. In this episode, Marie-Sophie and Ingo share with us their personal family story which got them into aviation and transformed their life. From flying the company's Beechcraft Bonanza in all kinds of challenging VFR and IFR conditions to upgrading to the twin turboprop Beechcraft King Air and finally discovering backcountry and bush flying in Europe.  Marie-Sophie and Ingo finally achieved their dream of owning not only one taildragger Zlin Aviation Savage but two, since last year came a second one so that little Anton could travel with his parents in more comfort and fun of course. From very long cross-country navigations in the different company airplanes on business trips as well as delivering support in Ukraine (https://multigrind.com/en/blog/detail/support-for-the-ukraine-air-rescue-comes-from-trossingen) up to participating in STOL competitions in France, those two symbolize the essence of aviation at its best. If you are interested in engineering, don´t forget to visit the family´s company website https://multigrind.com/en/haas-schleifmaschinen to learn more about their leading grinding technology and much more. As usual, don´t hesitate to shoot me an email to let me know what your thoughts are about the show and if you have any questions. Music credits: "Slowly", Amon Tobin - Supermodified, 2000Cover Cover picture: Ingo Maier Cover design: Maxime Compagnon - The STOL Collective

''Just when I convinced myself that this was basically a Super Cub with an overhead engine, the out of sync harmonics of the props winding down begin to create that distinct: ... THAT SOUND!" - Zane Jacobson in "THE PROTOTYPE"

Zane Jacobson is the founder/editor of Backcountry Pilot and currently flies a tailwheel Piper PA-22 Pacer around his newly adopted home area of Eveleth, Minnesota - USA. An Oregon native and former avid dirt bike rider, he has been a pilot for the better part of 25 years. Father of two young girls, he enjoys writing and producing articles and short films about anything to do with backcountry and bush flying, and makes baby steps on the build of his 4-place Bearhawk when time allows.

In this episode, Zane Jacobson shares with us his family roots which got him into flying, how the idea came to launch https://backcountrypilot.org/⁠ in late 2004 as an alternative to the many type-specific forums that were already popular at the time, his wish even right after getting is PPL to transcend the type focus forums and unite pilots' common interest in backcountry and bush flying, how he found his passion for film making unlike vlogging by bringing a more cinematographic touch to backcountry aviation videos, his passion for music and building synthesisers and many stories from past expeditions.

If you want to discover more content about Zane, go checkout this episode's page on our website: www.thestolcollective.com

Obviously don’t forget to visit Zane’s https://backcountrypilot.org/ as well as watch his awesome videos on https://youtube.com/@BackcountryPilot

Music credits: “Slowly”, Amon Tobin – Supermodified, 2000

Cover picture: Zane Jacobson - Backcountry Pilot

This is the second part of our episode five of TSC together with René Petersen from Greenland. We further discuss about wild animals, René´s wish on rebuilding the only Super Cub in Greenland, safety chutes on bush planes, the use of slats both automatic (Super STOL) or pilot controlled (Zlin NORDEN), his plan on getting skis for his plane, finally the infamous bolter questionnaire. If you want to watch René flying his Super STOL in Greenland, checkout his Instagram account - https://www.instagram.com/rep.air/ Talking about the automatic slats on Just Aircraft´s Super STOL, you will find very interesting videos showing them in action on René´s Instagram. Zlin´s new NORDEN and especially it´s electrical slats can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGwBuaXinvg&t=145s If you want to checkout the engine I am talking about, you can find some information on this publication: https://www.flyer.co.uk/scalewings-reveals-secret-hybrid-with-multiple-redundancy/ ... unfortunately, no news has since been released on the development of this very interesting project. Music credits: "Slowly", Amon Tobin - Supermodified, 2000

René Petersen was born and raised in Greenland´s capital Nuuk. He has now been working for thirty years as a helicopter mechanic and logged almost three thousand hours on the left seat of different helicopters mostly in Greenland. He is also a private pilot for many years but most of all, he is the only owner of a bush plane (an experimental registered Just Aircraft Super STOL) in Greenland and one of the only two guys flying private GA in the entire country... which is the considered to be the biggest island in the world!

As you will discover, Greenland is really a true Last Frontier deeply connected to both European and North American continents.
René explains us how he came to aviation, what it means to fly his Super STOL in one of the most remote country on the planet (mostly alone) but  also simply living up north, dealing with the weather and the wild animals. 

If you want to watch René flying his Super STOL in Greenland, checkout his Instagram account - https://www.instagram.com/rep.air/

Music credits: "Slowly", Amon Tobin - Supermodified, 2000

In today´s episode, we welcome two friends from Scandinavia: Jan Hafsås from Norway and Lars Najbjerg from Denmark. Lars has flown so many airplanes underneath the sun and also in very nasty polar weather. He is a former Royal Danish Airforce fighter pilot having flown the mighty “taildragger” Saab F35 Draken and also the F16 Viper. He is a skydiver, a commercial pilot and he won the 2013 Nordic Aerobatic Championship on the experimental aerobatic plane he built himself. Lars discovered bush flying a few years ago and turned his interested towards the Zlin Savage Cub. Probably because you just put it on like the Viper! Jan grew up watching his father building and flying RC planes then later flying with him after he got an old Rans aircraft. Although having spent a lot of free time at the local airfield during his childhood, Jan finally started his pilot’s license 4 years ago and bought his Zlin Savage Classic during the middle of his training. Being an outdoor enthusiast, he very quickly discovered the amazing possibilities of the Norwegian backcountry and has been flying quite a lot since then both on bush wheels and skis. Together they explain us how they came to aviation, what it means to fly their backcountry UL/LSAs in Scandinavia and we even talk about Greenland as the last (European) Frontier for bush flying. If you want to learn more about Lars, checkout his "Bushflyers - Aviation School" page on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/bushflyers Music credits: "Slowly", Amon Tobin - Supermodified, 2000

Craig Lang, the owner of Flying Frontiers, has had a passion for flying for as long as he can remember, and has been involved in various forms of aviation for many years, holding both a Commercial Pilot's License and a Grade B Instructor’s rating. Based in the KwaZulu Natal Midlands, Flying Frontiers is a small company passionate about Bushflying and Classic aircraft. Craig has been one of the very first to import a Zlin Savage Bobber in South-Africa and is the first one who started to offer off-airport bush flying safaris in South-Africa up to Namibia. In this episode of TSC, we discover Craig´s aviation path, the particularities of real bush/off-airport flying in South-Africa and Namibia as well as what it takes for us, European UL/LSA pilots, to be able to fly PIC on Craig´s beautiful birds.  You can check-out Craig´s website here:  http://flyingfrontiers.com/ ... and watch the video I released about my (short) bush flying trip in South Africa in 2018: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fB9j7GeRGo  Music credits: "Slowly", Amon Tobin - Supermodified, 2000

Thomas Tom Huber grew up in the ideal postcard picture you could have of south Bavaria. He was exposed to aviation at a young age thanks to his grand-father who was a pilot during WWII. Finally getting his PPL license during the 90´s while working at a lodge in British Columbia - Canada, he fully discovered the possibilities of UL/LSA type aircrafts while supporting rally races in north Africa at the beginning of 2000. If you have already been around the AERO fair in Friedrichshafen, you definitively noticed the most creative booth of the show! Apart from being Zlin Aviation German dealer for the past 15 years, Tom is a legend in the German/Austrian UL/LSA STOL community. Very probably for being the one who started it! Sharing the same passion for the North and especially Alaska with his wife Hilde; who is also a very talented bush pilot by the way! Tom works and spends his time  with his family on their own private dreamland airfield in the south of Munich - Germany. Joining us for the second episode of The STOL Collective, live recorded on the airfield, Tom shares his journey through backcountry aviation in Europe and beyond. Strap in, take off from your gravel bar, don’t fly straight and level but always in safety! Music credits: "Slowly", Amon Tobin - Supermodified, 2000

Roland Primus is a legend in the European and international snowboard industry. But he is also a true aviation enthusiast since a very young age, having explored so many types of flying and airplanes. An award-winning aerobatic pilot, he discovered thanks to a very good friend the ease of use of Ultra Light / LSA bush planes and the awesome possibilities they offer to fly deep in the mountains and land and the most prestigious glacier of the European Alps. Joining us in The STOL Collective, he shares his journey through aviation and into the wonderful world of mountain flying with the professionalism of a multiple snowboard world champion trainer and founder of the oldest snowboard school in Europe. Music Credit: “Slowly” Amon Tobin - Supermodified 2000

Join me, Maxime Compagnon aka vieux_bandit, on a European STOL, backcountry and mountain flying adventure.

“First landing on an asphalt runway more than three years after getting my licence!” – Nico Engmann In this first episode of TSC season 2, we enjoy a “Big Tire Bro Chat” with Nico Engmann from Germany/Spain and Maxence Pons from France –looking back at when and where they started their backcountry and mountain flying adventures as well as about their respective planes. We looked back to 2021 when several friends of us including myself and Marius Jumolea from Romania flew to the French national STOL competition. We talked about STOL competitions expending in France and as well about flight helmets. Sorry about some screechy noises coming back and forth during the episode. I tried to remove as much of them as I could in post processing. Maxence owes me a cold one for being the culprit :D If you search for an awesome vacation place in the heart of the Spanish Pyrenees mountains and love riding enduro motorcycles, go checkout Nico’s wife and family camping/bungalow park “Isabena Bungalow Park”. https://www.isabena.eu/en/ If you happen to stay in the south-East of France and want to fly, go check out Maxence’s flight school “Aeroclub du Soleil” in Cuers. https://aeroclubdusoleil.fr Let me know what you like and don´t like about the show! contact@thestolcollective.com and/or go checkout this episode's page on our website if you want to discover more content: www.thestolcollective.com Music credits: “Slowly”, Amon Tobin – Supermodified, 2000 Cover: Maxime Compagnon