We're on the Gold Coast and getting ready for the Pacific Airshow once again. This year's line-up is bigger and even more packed with amazing aircraft, including a T-33 Shooting Star which is the first of it's kind to ever fly in Australia. Its pilot is Greg "Wired" Colyer from Ace Maker Airshows and we caught up with him before he came out to Australia. This episode also includes the third & final part of the Steve Padgett interview we recorded back in 2019.

4:56 - We talk to Greg "Wired" Colyer about getting the T-33 out to Australia, originally for the 2022 show but, thanks to some government requirements, it didn't get shipped until after that show finished. Greg then steps us through the development of the T-33 from the P-80, its use in the Korean War and how it became the main jet trainer for the USA.

We then step through Greg's career, from learning to fly while in the US Army through to becoming an air traffic controller and getting into flying jets. Eventually, he was introduced to the T-33 and fell in love with the aircraft, buying one to fly then displaying it at airshows. The discussion also covers setting up his Ace Maker Airshows business, where his "Wired" callsign comes from, and what its like to fly the T-33 in displays. We even touch on his love of motorcycles before wrapping up by discussing the display he'll perform at the Gold Coast and his plans for visiting while he's down under.

34:31 - We run the final part of our Steve Padgett interview from 2019, which talks about buying Flight West with its two Fokker 100s when it went under following the Ansett collapse, renaming it to Alliance Airlines, and building it up from there. He tells us the amazing story of how he got his next seven Fokker 100s, his methods for establishing solid aviation businesses, and the special livery they painted on two of their aircraft to commemorate Sir Charles Kingsford Smith's flight to Australia and the Smith brothers who flew a Vickers Vimy from the UK to Australia in 1919.

We then move on to Steve's businesses conducting flight training for airlines, the Royal Flying Doctor Service, the RAAF, the Royal Malaysian Police, and many other operators of King Airs and Citation Mustangs. We then discuss his involvement with the Air Training Corps that became the Air Force Cadets, and the Australian Aviation Hall of Fame. We wrap up by mentioning his recent Order of Australia Medal, his continuing work and love of meeting people, plus how he still picks up a broom to help clean out the hangar, just like he used to when he first started.

1:04:46 - We wrap up the episode and remind everyone to get in touch if you'll be at the Pacific Airshow Gold Coast as it'd be great to catch up and say HI.

Links:

• Pacific Airshow Gold Coast: pacificairshowaus.com
• Greg "Wired" Colyer's Ace Maker Airshows: acemakeraviation.com
• Steve Padgett's Bio: flightoptionscharter.com.au/about/steve-padgett-oam-biography
• Alliance Airlines: www.allianceairlines.com.au
• Australian Aviation Hall of Fame: www.aahof.com.au

Credits:

• Episode artwork photo from Greg Colyer.
• Voiceovers by Terry Daniel from Your Voice Over: yourvoiceover.com.au

Contact us via contact@planecrazydownunder.com

With the Pacific Airshow returning to the Gold Coast in August, Steve and Grant caught up with Aarron Deliu, an Australian aerobatics pilot who is now based in Florida and performing at airshows and events in the USA, Europe and South Africa. Aarron put on a spectacular display at last year's show on the Gold Coast and will be performing again at this year's show.

• 03:45 - We start our chat with Aarron talking about performing at airshows in Europe before moving on to how he discovered the world of aviation and the efforts he went through learning to fly and getting his aerobatic rating. We then talk about progressing his aerobatic experience leading to his acceptance into the Red Bull Air Race just before it closed. DOH! We also discuss the likelihood of a replacement air race happening, and the events currently happening including Air Race X and Sky Grand Prix. The conversation then moves on to what Aarron is doing in the USA, why he moved over there, and what the airshow scene and aviation in general are like over there. We also talk about the aircraft he has in his hangar before talking about the aircraft he'll be flying at the Gold Coast this year and the routine he'll fly. We wrap up with a discussion about the Pacific Airshow events at Huntington Beach and the Gold Coast and why they're so unique compared to other events.
• 33:54 - Steve & Grant chat about the airshow scene, catching up at the Gold Coast, and their hopes for the air race scene.
• 36:25 - Mick, formerly of the Franga Line, emailed us about watching a wave of aircraft heading North on a radar app, after which the guys discuss using Flight Radar 24 and ADSB Exchange.
• 39:37 - The guys talk about the Australian Defence Magazine podcast that Grant hosts plus Steve's new radio show he's making called The Clear Signal which is appearing on radio stations around the country. It may, one day, appear as a podcast for those who can't tune into the radio stations it's appearing on.
• 43:10 - Grant was recently on the Stuck Mic AvCast show with Carl Valeri which you can listen to as a podcast OR watch on their YouTube channel.

Links:

• Aarron's website: aarron.aero
• Red Bull Air Race on Wikipedia
• Air Race X 2024 is underway
• Sky Grand Prix: skygrandprix.com
• Pacific Airshow Gold Coast: pacificairshowaus.com
• If you've not already, check out Flight Radar 24 and ADSB Exchange
• The Australian Defence Magazine podcast is well worth a listen (not that we're biased :) )
• Grant's episode with the Stuck Mic Avcast on their website
• Steve's new radio show: the Clear Signal

Credits:

• Episode artwork photos from Aarron Deliu
• Voiceovers by Terry Daniel from Your Voice Over: yourvoiceover.com.au

Contact us via contact@planecrazydownunder.com

They say that if you can't see it, you can't be it and that certainly seems to be the case with getting more women into aviation. The recently released documentary Touch the Sky seeks to help encourage more women to consider flying for fun and/or employment, particularly looking at the "soft" (aka "human") issues that are part of the answer to the question: "Why are there so few female pilots?".

We also take a look at drone racing which was featured at the recent Avalon Airshow back in March. The Australian Defence Force is running racing events to encourage more young people to consider doing STEM training and also the potential for a career in Defence.

This episode consists of:

• 1:22 Stephen Limkin is the director of Touch the Sky while Erin Douglas is one of the ladies appearing in the documentary. They talk to us about their experiences in aviation, the inspiration behind the film and what it was like making the film. Erin also talks about over coming her fears and self doubt to not only fly, but also become a flight instructor with RA-Aus.
• 27:50 WGCDR Keirin Joyce steps us through the benefits and opportunities that drone racing brings the Australian Defence Force.
• 36:49 PTE Hamish Glover steps us through the experience of drone racing and the equipment they're using.

Credits:

Image by: Light Studios

Voiceovers: Terry Daniel from Your Voice Over

Thanks to Australian Defence Magazine for allowing us to include the two drone racing interviews in this episode.

Every two years Avalon Airport is the home to one of the biggest airshows & aviation expositions in the Southern Hemisphere (the biggest, according to many). One of Australia’s premier aviation events, Avalon Airshow (also known as the Australian International Airshow) draws aircraft from around the world and attracts scores of people from the general public through to aviation enthusiasts & professionals, especially for the Friday night airshow.

From the early days of the airshows produced by the Schofields Flying Club through to today, a consistent presence throughout it all has been Ian Honnery. CEO of Airshows Downunder. We were fortunate to spend some time with Ian to discuss the history of the Avalon Airshow and it makes for fascinating listening.

Sadly, our sound gear wasn’t configured correctly for the space we were in and so the audio quality is not up to our show’s (and especially Steve’s :) ) usual standards. The content itself is incredible so after doing as much work as could be done to correct the sound issues, we’re finally able to release this interview. Our thanks go to Domenic at Audio Visual Media for his help in massaging the raw audio.

We’re looking forward to attending the airshow in March this year as it will be the 90th anniversary of the RAAF. Look out for more content about Avalon, how it’s managed and what to expect this year as we get closer to March 1st.

In November 2010 the PCDU team were invited to attend the Media Day at RAAF Amberley where members of 6 Squadron were gathered to give us one final look at the F-111 before it was retired from service. We have gathered the interviews we recorded during the Media Day and combined them with a couple of discussions to present our tribute to the F-111 and all those who helped to keep them in the air.

This is our longest episode to date so you may want to make use of the PAUSE button to get through it all. Like the PIG, it’s big, but we think the content is just too good to leave any of it out. The F-111 has been a major part of our lives over the last 30 years in Australia and New Zealand and anyone who has experienced the RAAF’s trademark “Dump & Burn” display will have some idea why we’re so sad to see them go.

From seeing an F-111 doing 4-point hesitation rolls, aileron rolls and a loop at Avalon to watching them racing past while sitting on the beach on a summer’s day, the F-111 became an icon of Australia’s military as they provided us with a long range projection of power. They leave a large gap in our force structure now that they have been retired and a hole in the hearts of many who kept them flying.

So long, pig and remember: That’ll do, Pig. That’ll do!

The contents of this episode include:

• The Media Day’s opening press conference (starts at 06:08)
• A discussion with David Vanderhoof about the history of the F-111 including its inception and service with the USAF & RAAF (starts at 32:06)
•  We talk to Wing Commander Terry Deeth about his time as a bombadier/navigator (or Weapons Systems Officer) with the F-111 while on rotation to the USAF (starts at 51:33)
• We visited the F111 simulator on the base and got to meet:
• Steve Clark, a former RAAF F-111 pilot who has more hours in an F-111 than almost anyone else in the world (starts at 1:05:40)
• Brett Denton, a computer technician who helps to keep the simulator operating (starts at 1:11:29)
• While everyone likes to focus on the guys in the cockpit, an F-111 needs a lot of maintenance between flights so we managed to catch up with a few of the techos:
• Flight Lieutenant Adam Firth & Sergeant Chris Walker (starts at 1:15:32)
• Corporal James Morton (starts at 1:30:19)
• Corporal David Bash, an American now living in Australia (starts at 1:35:50)
• We talk with Flight Lieutenant Vlad Bismark about flying the F-111 (starts at 1:47:25)
• We have a chat with Brendan Cowan from ADF Serials about the history of the RAAF’s F-111s and with Chris Daley from the Save the F-111 page on Facebook about how the page developed and where it’s going now (starts at 1:55:28)
• We interview Wing Commander Al Curr who ejected from an F111 on take off from RNZAF Ohakea in New Zealand (starts at 2:14:12)
• Our final chat is with Wing Commander Michael (Micka) Gray, officer commanding 6 Squadron and the world’s last F-111 unit commander (starts at 2:20:42)

We also have a couple of “Shout Outs” in this episode:

• Flight Lieutenant Skye Smith for her tireless efforts in making the Media Day run smoothly, not to mention herding us about the base and ensuring we didn’t wind up where we shouldn’t be (wonder if there’s a “Keeping media on track” medal in the ADF??? :)
• Listener Chris Whyte who we met at RAAF Amberley has produced an F-111 tribute video called “RAAF F-111 tribute feat. TV Rock – ‘In the Air'” – you can find it on YouTube and it’s well worth watching a few times

As the final hours of 2010 pass by and the year draws to a close, we release our 50th episode with a mix of annual review, Christmas greetings and a new experiment. In conjunction with a live video stream of the proceedings, we gathered Steve, Grant, Anthony and Ben in the recording studio to attempt the unthinkable: capturing a whole show in a single take.

We start with a look back at a few of the big stories from 2010 and an additional discussion on ADSB driven by Ben’s perspective from behind the controller’s console. Mixed in with the discussion are:

• A discussion we recorded with Matt Wardell from AirServices Australia about their Santa NOTAM, the Santa Tracker and various other efforts they make at Christmas
•  An interview with Michael & Roselyn from Downwind.com.au about the site and aviation in general
•  Various Christmas greetings from other aviation podcasters around the world

We then start to wrap it all up with some feedback from listeners:

• Ian Kershaw from Canada sent in recorded message
• Ahmet Hussein emailed us looking for information to help him track down episodes of the TV series “Big Sky” (which Ben recalled watching)
• Jay Swanepoel left us some positive feedback on our Facebook page

Finally we worked through some shout outs, including:

• The many guests we’ve had on PCDU during 2010
• Andrea Sammut from Scripts & Voicers for her great support this year
• Dane Golden for his support & promotion of our show on Hey.com
• James Williams & Dave Gray from the Podcasters Emporium on the Lifestyle Podnetwork for helping to promote our show (they’ve also been promoted recently on iTunes as a premium provider – awesome news!)
• To all the organisations that have advertised with us, providing both in-kind help and some actual funds
• Milford & Charlie from the FlightTime Radio Show for their faith in our product
• David Hook from PlaneHook Aviation Services for his sponsorship of our Flying Down Under segment
• Max, Dan, Rob & David at the Airplane Geeks Podcast for all the help & encouragement they’ve given us over the year

We’d also like to especially thank all of you, our audience who have given us your precious time to listen to our show. Your numbers are growing along with your feedback and it’s your support that helps us put in the effort to produce the show.

Rosemary Arnold learned to fly fixed wing in the early 60s then converted helicopters in the mid-60’s, becoming the first woman in Australia to receive a helicopter pilot’s license. From operating her own helicopter business in Australia to flying in locations around the world, Rosemary has had an extensive career in aviation. She has also written a number of books, lectures on aviation history and join the public speaking circuit. As a registered celebrant, she also runs “Chapel in the Sky” performing weddings in a helicopter above Sydney harbour. We chat with Rosemary about her career and her new book, First Females Above Australia, a presentation of the pioneering women involved in aviation in Australia.

We also chat with Dan Morris, a flight instructor in New Zealand who’s joined us previously in a few of our Australia Desk adventures. Dan joins us to discuss his aviation career to date and the flying scene in New Zealand. He also anticipates providing more New Zealand related content in the new year.

This episode is rounded out with another Controller’s Corner segment where ATC_Ben answers some of the many questions that have been raised in our forums and via email. We then move on to listener mail:

• Braham Sacks asks about careers in aviation
• Ian Kershaw from Canada has a blog & podcast page that’s worth checking out
• Luke Murphy writes in from China where he’s working as a pilot
• Ed Stubbs sent in a link to an interview with one of the pilots from QF32 (the Qantas A380 that had a massive uncontained engine failure)
• We mention that Anthony Simmons is looking for more feedback on his View from the Lounge segment

We also have some shout-outs:

• Damian Rose has completed his MECIR and is now working on his Caravan endorsement – congratulations (and yes we are jealous! :) You can follow his details on his blog.
• Robert E Coli from Thromby airlines has done another great cartoon showing Steve & Grant hard at work in the PCDU studio. You can see it in all it’s glory on our Facebook page.
• Thanks to Michael & Roselyn from Downwind and the team at Moorabbin Flying Services (MFS) for a great BBQ the other weekend and for making discount TIFs/Check flights available

While the technology behind ADS-B is nothing new, it is becoming the centerpiece of modern Air Traffic Management systems around the world. Unfortunately, CASA is once again taking a global concept and creating an entirely unique Australian implementation of it.

According to CASA’s Discussion Paper (DP) 1006AS Proposed Strategy and Regulatory Plan in support of the Australian Government’s Aviation White Paper, any aircraft added to the Australian register after 2013 must have an ADS-B out compliant Mode-S Transponder on board. This means large added costs for no real benefit beyond that already provided by Mode-C and Mode-S transponders.

This is creating no small level of concern in the aviation communities, including RA-Aus, ballooning and others, as can be seen from a recent discussion about DP 1006AS on the Recreational Flying site. Even the airlines who were pushing for ADS-B to improve safety at regional airports are now realising that the costs are huge (it’s not a simple upgrade of their avionics) and the benefits are minor.

With all this in mind, Bas & Grant chat with Bill Hamilton, past president & technical director of the Australian Aircraft Owners & Pilots Association (AOPA). While Bill can appreciate ADS-B’s history and benefits, he doesn’t hold back when it comes to CASA’s attempt at creating yet another uniquely Australian implementation. We discuss the differences between the US, European and Australian implementation plans, the costs associated with our version and the lack of real benefit CASA’s proposal will provide.

As the title of CASA’s Discussion Paper shows, the proposal is implementing an aspect of the Australian Government’s Aviation White Paper. If, like many, you are concerned about the costs being applied to the aviation industry for little real benefit, it is important to respond to the DP by November 30th. It is also vital that Australian aviators write to their elected representatives, members of the opposition and their aviation organisations (eg: AOPA, RA-Aus, ABF, etc) to ensure politicians are aware that the proposed solution will cause more harm than good.

You can easily find who is representing you at the Australian Government’s “Who’s Who” page. You can also find a great guide to writing effective letters to politicians over on the Crikey website.

Don’t assume others will sort this one out for you. Don’t take the classic Australian “She’ll be right” approach. Get out there and tell CASA, the politicians and your aviation group what you think, otherwise the safe skies will be achieved thanks to the removal of any non-airline aircraft.

The 2010 RedBull AirRace season was exciting, eventful and disappointing all at once. From Adilson Kindleman’s crash in Perth to Hannes Arch’s pylon hit and Matt Hall’s “walk on water” incident, G-Stalls were everywhere. Then came the news that the last two races were cancelled and, finally, that the whole 2011 season was cancelled. As if the end of the season wasn’t bad enough, we were all stunned by the news that Alejandro Maclean had died in an aerobatic training accident.

We have already presented our “End of Season” chats with Hannes Arch and Matt Hall in previous episodes so in this one, we present our chats with Nigel Lamb and Pete McLeod.

We also officially announce the winners of our Flight City Simulator Centre B777 sim session prize (Graham Neal) and two runners up (Greg Spencer & David Mitchell), both of whom win PCDU T-Shirts.

We talk briefly about Qantas’ recent 90th Birthday event at Melbourne airport and play the quick chat we recorded with Juan Serrano, John Travolta’s chief pilot.

After another View from the Lounge segment, this time paying tribute to those serving in the military, we dive into our mailbag:

• Steve Horton form Perth is worried that the RedBull AirRace will never return to Perth and lets us know about his great photo site
• Peter Baxter wrote in asking about jet engine technology and again to share a great story about an Air New Zealand DC10 that helped a ferry flight in trouble over the Pacific
• “brettkp” has some great feedback about episode 46 in our forums on Downwind

We give a shout-out to Pieter Johnson (@NascotHornet) in the UK who has just become a very proud father: welcome Beatrice :)

On November 4th, 2010 Qantas A380 VH-OQA (“Nancy Bird Walton”) was operating flight QF32 from Singapore to Sydney. During the climb out from Singapore, the number 2 Rolls Royce Trent 900 engine’s Intermediate Pressure Turbine appears to have failed and flown apart, sending bits through the aircraft’s wing in multiple locations and raining debris down on Batam island, Indonesia. After assessing the problem, determining their options and burning off fuel, the crew were able to return the aircraft to Singapore for a safe landing.

This incident, in conjunction with some other recent engine failures on Qantas 747s, has overshadowed Qantas’ 90th birthday celebrations. While the story is still unfolding and it will be some weeks before the ATSB’s preliminary investigations are completed, we have decided to quickly produce an episode dedicated to the incident.

To begin with, we talk to Captain Richard Woodward, Vice President of the Australian and International Pilots Association (AIPA). He discusses what the crew would have experienced on board as the incident unfolded, including the systems alerts & alarms, the processes to be followed and the roles over the various people on board. He also discusses the A380’s systems & redundancies and the options available to the crew when flying & landing a crippled aircraft.

We then chat with Steve Purvinas of the Australian Licenced Aircraft Engineers Association (ALAEA) about the changes that have occurred in Qantas as they have moved from an exclusively in-house engineering operation to one that relies more on outsourced maintenance performed overseas. We discuss the implications of the changes and other paths Qantas could have followed.

This episode was conceived, implemented and released within the week of the incident occurring as we felt it important to present our listeners with good background information about the aircraft, the crew’s likely experience and some of the changes at Qantas that have seen their engineering force reduced significantly compared to their heyday of the 70’s & 80’s.

It’s been a while since our last episode but at last we’re able to present our latest update with some more great content. First up, Matt Hall joins us once again to look back on his 2010 RedBull AirRace season, discuss the lessons he’s learned and give us his thoughts about 2011 & beyond.

Next up we are proud to introduce our latest advertiser, Flight City Simulator Centre at Jandakot in Perth, with their Boeing 777 simulator. We chat with Richard Zandvliet, the CEO at Flight City, about their various simulators, the courses they can offer for the professional pilot and the packages they have for the general public. Richard also makes a generous offer of a one-hour flight package in the 777 simulator that we can give away on the show (see below).

While Grant’s been able to go flying in some full sized aircraft (check out the photos on our Facebook page), Steve’s been catching up with some slightly smaller aircraft. He’s been out to the Victorian Scale Aircraft Association’s state championships and interviewed John Lamont, Noel Whitehead & David Law from the Packenham & District Aircraft Radio Control Society.

Finally, we wind up the episode some mailbag & shout-outs:

• Peter Baxter wrote in and suggested the brilliant idea of following up some engineers about jet engine issues
• Alex James wrote in from China with some comments
• Camper English from the Alcademics blog is producing a catalog of Aircraft Drinks Menus and, as mentioned in Grant’s Fly Me Friendly blog, we think you should give him a hand
• David Vanderhoof has started his own podcast called the Hitchhiker’s Guide to Military Aviation – well worth checking out!

NOTE: We had some additional content from our Matt Hall interview that was no longer current so we’ve moved it from the episode to our Extras collection. You can find it at our “Extras” page.

Competition: Win a one hour flight package with Flight City Simulator Center’s Boeing 777 simulator

Just listen to this episode to hear a jingle from the past. If you know who owned that jingle, send us an email at planecrazydownunder@gmail.com telling us who you think it was. We’ll draw the winner live on uStream in the near future.

In an effort to reassure you that we’re not trying to cut any corners as we build towards our 50th episode, this episode comes in at over 2 hours in length (our longest ever, in fact). It’s jam packed with great content, including:

• A chat with Bas Scheffers about:
• The impact of the Class D changes at Parafield
• The flying he’s been doing lately in his Evektor Sportstar
• The Parafield Airshow
• How the Aeroscene Flying Group is going
• A review of some of the latest RA-Aus developments (Recreational Aviation Australia)
• A chat with Hannes Arch (Red Bull Air Race pilot) where we discuss his 2010 season and his plans for 2011/2012
• An interview with an F-18F pilot that David Vanderhoof recorded at the Oceana Air Show
• A discussion between Steve & David about the history of the F-18, its current status with the Super Hornet (aka Rhino) and the implications of the F-35 JSF
• Controllers Corner #2
• The View from the Lounge: “Monkey in Business”
• We read some mail & forum items:
• Cameron Liberts enjoyed episode 42
• Turb Coriolis comments on episode 43 in our forum
• Anthony Crichton-Browne enjoys our content even if he does disagree with some of what we say :) – he also points us to video of the recently deceased Renaud Ecalle performing an aerobatics at the World Aerobatic Championships in 2009
• We give a set of Shout Outs to:
• The Flying Ant podcast by Anthony Crichton-Browne (a 767 pilot) who also has a blog
• The Flaps Podcast from the UK is an awesome new show – we highly recommend it
• Andrew Offen from Brisbane took Grant & Nykolai for a flight in his Cirrus SR22 with the new Avidyne Release 9 package – an amazing aircraft & systems and a lot of fun catching up with Andrew for a flight
• Brendan Viti is getting his IFR rating – wow!

Please note that our sound effects come from SoundSnap.com and our theme music track is "YouNameIt5" by Brian Simpson (aka t3cat5).

Back in March we attended the Centenary Air Show at Melton airport near Diggers Rest (a short drive from Melbourne). In addition to being a great air show that celebrated 100 years of powered flight in Australia, this was also the first event where we had media passes. We recorded lots of great interviews, caught up with Owen Zupp and bumped into a few old friends.

It’s now 6 months on and we’re finally getting an episode out with these interviews plus a wrap-up chat we had with Owen Zupp after he finished his “There and Back” fund raising flight around Australia. We’ve been meaning to get this content out for a while but have had so many other things to do, it just kept getting put on the back burner.

Finally we’re able to present these interviews along with a more recent chat we had with Glyn Butchard, the organiser of the Centenary Air Show. We caught up with him this month and discussed how everything went once the dust settled and the people went home.

Here’s a list of the interviews & chats we present in this episode:

• Chris Sperou and Warren Stewart are the “Skyblazers” formation team
• Bernie Ferrie flew in a Citabria and we chatted with him while sitting under its wing
• Clin Ashton-Martin flies a gorgeous Avro Cadet biplane
• Grant’s friend Andrew Temby flew an aerobatics routine with his Yak-52TW so we had a quick chat while sitting on its wing
• Phil, Mark & Shane who were providing unicom & air show coordination services
• Grant had a quick chat with Glyn Butchard at the end of the day as everyone was leaving
• Steve & Grant have a recent chat with Glyn Butchard and we look back at how it went in the months after the show
• We chat with Owen Zupp about how things are going after his “There and Back” fundraising flight around Australia
• We give a quick shout-out to Peter Johnson from the UK who is now producing the “Across the Pond” segment for the Airplane Geeks show

NOTE: Additional music in this show was from Glenne Petersen’s “Empty Cars”

There are plenty of beaches in Australia and many cities have an "Eye in the Sky" traffic reporter giving commuters updates on where the bottlenecks are, but what if you could provide traffic reports plus beach reports, all while logging hours? Our voice-over guy, Terry Daniel, steps out of the recording booth and into the studio to chat with Steve & Grant about doing just that in the skies over Coffs Harbour, a beautiful tourist city on the New South Wales North Coast.

Terry talks about his experiences flying twice a day, every day, in all types of weather to bring Radio2CS listeners the latest info on which beaches had the best breaks, which to avoid due to sharks or bluebottles, and how the roads were looking. He also tells about some of his more interesting experiences with passengers, folks on the beach, weather and a low flying RAAF F-111.

We wrap up the chat with a discussion about Terry's AIR News Media organisation that provides news headlines for radio stations around Australia. It's also where you can occasionally hear Steve's dulcet tones reading the news.

As if all that wasn't enough, we also have a mailbag item from Mark Newton and a shout-out to Redhome Aviation's Instagram page which features photography of military traffic around Tinker AFB in Oklahoma, USA.

Cover art images for this episode were supplied by Rob Cleary (Seen Australia - http://seenaustralia.com.au), Bruce Linwood and Terry Daniel.

This episode we’re joined by Will Horton from the Wings Down Under blog to chat about recent aviation news items. We also have Anthony Simmons returning for another View from the Lounge segment and a chat with Damien Rose about his flight training up in Toowoomba. The episode wraps up with some listener mail and a shout out so it’s a little long but that should make up for the three Election QuickCast episodes we released recently :)

The list of topics we discussed with Will Horton include:

• A review of the recent Asia/Pacific Aviation Outlook Summit in Sydney
• The Asia/Pacific outlook for airlines includes a prediction for strong growth
• “Buy local” for Russia (Sukhoi) & China (Comac) plus India building up its local aeronautics capabilities along with Mahindra & Mahindra buying into Australian aviation companies such as Gippsland Aeronautics
• Cathay Pacific’s Boeing 777-300 and Airbus A350-900 order
• V Australia’s 777 useage in Fiji & Bali plus the use of wide bodies (eg: 767/A330) on domestic routes due to slot restrictions
• Qantas wanting to fly 787s into China & on to Europe
• Jetstar being boosted over Qantas (if it’s new it’s JQ) and using Singapore as a hub into Europe
• Qantas’s new smart card system for check-in that relies on elite frequent flyers who are with Qantas, not Jetstar
• AirAsia setting up a Frequent Flyer program
• Crawford Rix @ Tiger Airways is against frequent flyer programs as they’re anticompetitive and is hinting that Tiger could go down the RyanAir path (standing seats, pay loos, etc) – at least for the publicity :)
• Customers in Australia and Asia/Pacific wanting a higher level of standards
• Tiger setting up a franchise in Thailand (51% Thai owned but still Tiger Thailand)
• China more likely to have standing seats as the Chinese can lay down the law for their own operations – no need to align with FAA/EASA standards although they’re investing in highspeed trains)
• AirAsia wants to enter the Australian domestic & trans-tasman market
• The high quality of the AirAsia experience (a discount carrier that doesn’t nickle & dime their passengers) will hit Jetstar hard
• Pacific Blue is pulling out of the New Zealand domestic market
• Repurposing of V Australia’s 777s off the Fiji route
• United is not worried about Delta-V
• Qantas’ financial results

Steve & Grant also talk afterwards about Virgin Blue’s financial results which came out after we spoke with Will, along with their news about adding A330s, dropping the E170s (while keeping the E190s) and linking up with Etihad.

In our third & final Election QuickCast, we take a look at the published transportation policies from the The Greens and the Labor Party’s “Aviation White Paper.” Sadly, Christine Milne from the Greens and Anthony Albanese from Labor were unable to accommodate us in their busy schedules. Both groups have indicated that they’ll be happy to talk to us once the dust has settled from the election so we look forward to bringing them on for future episodes.

Meanwhile, Steve & I didn’t have much time for a full analysis & discussion but we did record our thoughts on the information we could gather. As you’d expect, the Greens are very much into public transport and eco-friendly fuels while the Labor party are standing very firmly behind their Aviation White Paper.

As previously noted, we’re not trying to tell you how to vote, just doing our bit to raise awareness of the importance of aviation within the political community and hopefully give you some information that might help you make an informed decision.

Australians are about to go to the election booths on Saturday 21st August so we’re working to bring our listeners information about the aviation policies of the various political parties. We’re not trying to tell you how to vote, just doing our bit to raise awareness of the importance of aviation within the political community and hopefully give you some information that might help you make an informed decision.

In our second Election QuickCast, we’re taking to two representatives from one of Australia’s more “interesting” parties. This party approaches politics from the small business and civil liberties environment and has a rather distinctive, catchy and memorable name: The Australian Sex Party.

We were fortunate enough to speak with Ken Hill and Tim Sheen about their views on the current election, Australian politics and aviation. Ken is a private pilot in Melbourne who is working on the party’s aviation & transportation policies while Tim Sheen is a candidate for the Sex Party in Queensland and also a commercial pilot flying in the New Guinea area.

The discussion covers a lot of issues that are of importance to pilots within Australia and raises a number of the problems currently facing people who are trying to make a living in this industry.

Australians are about to go to the election booths on Saturday 21st August so we’re working to bring our listeners information about the aviation policies of the various political parties. We’re not trying to tell you how to vote, just doing our bit to raise awareness of the importance of aviation within the political community and hopefully give you some information that might help you make an informed decision.

In our first Election QuickCast, we’re interviewing Warren Truss, the leader of the National Party and shadow minister for trade, transport and local government. Warren was gracious enough to give us some time to talk about his interest in aviation as well as his party’s views on the importance of aviation to Australia, the cost of flying, airspace safety, airport encroachment and ways to get more people flying. We even touch on high speed rail and how it stands compared to airlines. We also discover that Warren’s a bit of an aircraft lover and has a good collection of models in his office.

We’re working with the other parties to see if we can get time with their representatives before the election. Everyone is, of course, extremely busy in the final days of meeting constituents, appearing at events and being in the media. Watch the space to see who else we can get for you :)

Dick Smith is an entrepreneur well known to most Australians, ranging from the country wide chain of Dick Smith Electronics stores he created to Dick Smith Foods and Australian Geographic.

Another very important aspect of Dick’s life has revolved around aviation. In addition to owning & flying his own aeroplanes & helicopters, he has also flown around the world multiple times, made the first helicopter landing at the North Pole, and flown balloons across Australia as well as from New Zealand back to Australia (against the prevailing winds). He was on the board of (and then director of) both the Civil Aviation Authority and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA). Dick is also a very vocal champion of air space reform in Australia and aviation safety in general.

We were very fortunate to have been given some of Dick’s valuable time to discuss his early days learning to fly, his adventuring around the world and his thoughts on a number of different aircraft he’s owned & flown. We also touch briefly on his time with the CAA/CASA and his thoughts on aviation safety & airspace reform, all of which will be covered in more detail in future interviews we hope to bring you as soon as Dick’s schedule permits.

Air Venture: Oshkosh is the place to be if you’re into aviation. There’s something for everyone from home builts to military to warbirds to commercial to seaplanes to antiques to balloons and everything else imaginable. If you love aviation, you have to get to Oshkosh.

For the past four years a group of aviation podcasters have been gathering to produce the “Podapalooza” session. Imagine a room full of people and a table at one end packed with many of the people behind the voices in your head. All hanging out, talking about flying, aviation topics and social media. Pure podcasting fun :)

Since we started Plane Crazy Down Under, we’ve tried twice but never been able to make it to Oshkosh. Back in 2009, Stephen Force of the Airspeed podcast took a quick “Hello Oshkosh” piece we produced and had it played at the Podapalooza and on the EAA radio show during the event.

This year we couldn’t make it again (DOH!) so we put another promo together. It’s longer but encapsulates what we’ve been up to for the past year. They played part of it at the Podapalooza so we’re adding the original piece to our feed so you can hear how we tried to get there but couldn’t quite make it.

Maybe 2011 will be “third time’s the charm” and we’ll get there at last? :)

It seems that Grant has always had troubles with the label “Flight Attendant” ever since his sister joined Australian Airlines and mistakenly told him she would be a “Trolley Dolly.” Ooops :)

In this episode we’re joined by Janene Murdoch, Tania Tracey and Amelia Kelly. Janene used to be a flight attendant with Ansett in the 70’s & 80’s, Tania was with Australian Airlines & Qantas in the 90’s and Amelia is currently working in the industry. We have a great chat with them comparing “then & now” in recruitment, work environments, passenger expectations and challenges.

It was a great chat and we hope to have the ladies back with us again in the future to continue exploring the “then & now” of being a flight attendant.

For those of you who want to keep up with Amelia’s latest news, you can follow her on Twitter (traytablestrvls) or through her blog (Tray Tables Travels).

Most of you will have already seen Matt Hall’s splash on the river at Windsor back in June. Then he was denied a go at racing in New York, to which he responded very diplomatically, which in turn taught some of us how to “take our lumps.”

This episode we have a good chat with Matt Hall about exactly what happened during his splash in Windsor (including what was going through his mind at the time), the physics of a G-Stall, where the Red Bull Air Race folks dredged up the “two prior incidents” they mentioned, how the other pilots reacted to the news and what Matt’s learned from all of this.

Great listening and very educational, especially on the subject of how even a top-notch pilot like Matt can help make the holes in the swiss cheese align.

These days it’s quite common to find ladies in command of commercial airliners, bizjets and combat aircraft. Thirty years ago, however, this was certainly not the case here in Australia and a female required a stubborn streak & thick skin to push through and gain acceptance in a very male dominated world.

While the situation for ladies in aviation is still not completely balanced it is significantly improved over the scene in the mid-70s. One reason for that improvement was thanks to the efforts of Deborah Lawrie (aka Deborah Wardley) who was the first female pilot with Ansett Airlines, one of Australia’s biggest airlines until it’s demise in 2001.

Deborah’s story is one of determination and a drive to achieve her goals, no matter what obstacles society and some organisations put in her path. We are fortunate enough in this episode to have had Deborah join us for a great chat about her interest in aviation, learning to fly, her early commercial days, getting into Ansett, the Australian Pilots’ Dispute of 1989 and her subsequent career working with KLM before returning to Australia where she is currently working with Jetstar as their manager of Safety Investigations (while still also flying their A320s).

It’s an incredible chat and we think that in addition to learning about Deborah’s life, you’ll also learn a lot about the Australian airline environment of the past & present.

This episode we feature an interview with Hannes Arch, the Austrian Red Bull champion in 2008 who came second in 2009 and is currently second on points for 2010. We have a great chat with Hannes (starting at 0:05:38) about his involvement in extreme sports, his love of flying and his approach to the Red Bull racing world.

We were also fortunate to get some time with Gary Clark (starting at 1:01:30), the creator of the Swamp cartoon strip. Gary’s experiences in learning to fly and his on going adventures in the air have provided a solid source of inspiration for many of the characters & moments depicted in the Swamp series. It is not uncommon to find his cartoons on the walls in flying clubs & schools, hangars and aviation organisations.

This episode also includes the following:

• A discussion with Angie Morino from Aus Air Services (starting at 0:33:14) about the changes they’ve made at the Tooradin Flying School (YTDN).
• Grant’s quick chat with Richard Turnbull (starting at 0:45:31), a hot air balloon pilot from the UK
• Anthony Simmons’ latest View from the Lounge segment (starting at 0:54:12)
• Our listener mail, including:
• Stephen Silk points us at Ask the Pilot
• Steven Pam provides still more checklist examples
• Trent Donnovan from WA shows that Jandakot (YPJT) is only just behind Bankstown (YSBK) for total movements in February
• We give a few shout outs:
• The Airplane Geeks podcast reaches 100 episodes – well done guys!
• We’ve launched our PCDU Commentaries blog (UPDATE 2017-02-4: After years of inactivity, the blog has been shut down & its posts moved to Grant’s Fly Me Friendly blog)
• Kathy Mexted mentioned us in her article about the Melton Centenary Air Show that appeared in AOPA’s Australian Pilot magazine
• Milford & Charlie from the Flight Time Radio Show over in Florida
• Don’t forget to give PCDU a good comment (or two :) ) over at the iTunes store

We recorded so much content at Avalon 2023 that it's going to take a few more episodes to get it all released. This episode brings us the Scandanavian wing walker team, the return of Timbo's Tarmac and a chat with UK aerobatic pilot Mark Jefferies and Dee Ebeling from Perth, so lets lean into the slipstream and have a listen.

This episode flies past with:

• 06:42 Scandanavian Airshows' Sky Cats wing walker team presented their Cat Walk show while at Avalon and Grant caught up with them to find out what's involved and how they got into this form of aviation.
• 18:33 Grant catches up with Timbo and the tarmac crew, hanging out in the Keyhole where the heavy metal gets parked (tankers, transports, etc) to get an update on how the show was from their perspective as they parked aircraft despite the crowds of visitors.
• 26:45 Mark Jefferies talks about getting to Australia, bringing an Extra NG aerobatic aircraft over from Perth and his day and night shows.
• 32:58 Dee Ebeling talks about the Extra NG and also gives us an update on Awesome Aviation's developments since we last had him on the show in 2013.
• 43:00 We have some listener mail from Andrew van der Saag.

As we wrap up this episode, we'd like to give a shout out to the Royal Flying Doctor Service and their need for donations to help cover their fuel bill, which is a major part of their costs, especially as fuel prices keep going up. If you have a few shekels and want to support a very worthy cause, please go to their site and help out.

In this episode we join noted aviation journalist Ben Sandilands from Plane Talking to review the latest news & information. When we called Ben, he was experiencing a heat wave of 11 degrees Celsius at his home in the mountains near Canberra. Meanwhile, here in Melbourne we were thinking winter was upon us as the temperature dipped to 15 degrees Celsius. Four degrees of separation but a very different pair of perspectives on cold vs hot.

Fortunately, we were all spot on with our news analysis, including such topics as:

• Use of composites in airliners and the indications that it won’t really be effective for another 10 to 20 years
• QANTAS still claiming that they’re going to get their 787-9s on a date that would be before Air New Zealand (the launch customer) despite Boeing making a statement contradicting this
• The changes that are afoot with the Virgin Blue group being under new leadership:
• Brett Godfrey’s farewell bash
• John Borghetti not getting the top job at QANTAS but, perhaps, getting something better with running Virgin Blue
• Fleet choices and the possibility that they’ll get A330s or B767s, especially on high density routes like Sydney to Melbourne
• The likelihood that they’ll rebrand the group (Virgin Blue, V Australia, Pacific Blue, Polynesian Blue) under a single name
• Singapore Airlines having veto rights over the name Virgin for any new international airline
• Tiger Airways recording a profit and becoming more of a stable, solid threat in the market
• Australia’s transport minister Anthony Albanese wanting to restrict cockpit access to only the two pilots flying and any check pilots or safety reviewers
• The F35 and how Australia seems to be one of the few countries NOT getting upset about all the delays and problems

After chatting with Ben, we have an interview with James Baldwin & Glen Somerville from EmptyJets, an organisation that gives you the chance to get rides in charter aircraft that would otherwise be flying empty on positioning flights. From helicopters to Gulfstream Vs, they’re all on the list and well worth checking out.

After that we dive into the mail bag where:

• Matt McCabe compares the cost of learning to fly here in Australia against the USA
• Errol Cavit enjoyed the Red Bull show and will be catching up with us when he comes over from New Zealand (for a Sci Fi convention, no less)
• Vince Bezzina who volunteers at the RAAF Museum at Point Cook was checking if we knew about the DC6 coming to Australia from South Africa. Oh yes, do we ever!

We also have a couple of shout outs to:

• Damien Rose who is now a private pilot and on his way to a commercial license (and speaking of the cost of learning – Damien sold his house to fund all this! He must have a VERY understanding wife, that’s for sure :)
• Steve Cooke from the Flying Podcast in the UK has released his latest episode on a topic that’s very important for Grant: ballooning

This episode features a discussion with Peter Gibson, the manager of corporate communications at CASA. He’s joined us to explain the airspace changes that will come into effect on June 3rd, changes which will impact Class D, see the transition of GAAP to Class D and introduce the mandatory carriage of radios at all certified, registered or military non-towered aerodromes (plus any others as designated in the ERSA).

We also talk to Owen Zupp just before he departed on his There and Back trip around Australia as well as Tim Pryse and Ken Evers a few days prior to the start of their Millions Against Malaria trip around the world. We feature another “View from the Lounge” and introduce ATC_Ben‘s new “Controllers Corner” segment.

As we wind up the show, we discuss the Australian Capital Territory funding yet another feasibility study for a much needed secondary airport near Canberra. You can read more about it in an news entry from Australian Aviation and also follow up progress through the Canberra Region Aviators Association web site.

If you want to see a 737-200 land at Jandakot (Perth’s secondary airport), check out the video of the landing that Ed Stubbs pointed us at. Not bad.

Just in time to make our cut off for this episode, we had a quick chat with Owen as he was half way around his trip. A great update on his progress and how things have been going.

The Red Bull Air Race came back to Perth this year and Steve was there, flexing his newly minted press credentials and discovering the amazing world of the Red Bull media centre. Sadly, Grant was working in Indonesia and so couldn’t be there to help hang out, rub shoulders with the stars and quaff a few cans of Red Bull.

Fortunately Steve was well & truly up to the task and managed to capture a few interviews while he was there. First up in this episode we have Steve’s summary of the race, including his interview with Hannes Arch, the press conference at the end of the race and a collection of content from the Red Bull Media Pool.

After the break we get to hear a great chat with Nigel Lamb recorded while he was in Rio getting ready for the third race. We learn about how he flies the race and just what benefit he is getting from those amazing winglets. Grant drops a clanger during the interview but fortunately Steve cut that bit out, putting it at the very end of the episode in the bloopers ‘cos hey, no one ever listens to them, right? Right? (“Please don’t!” says Grant) :)

The final pair of interviews are with Lenny Raulson, Matt Hall’s mechanic at the time of the Perth race. He finished up with Matt’s team just after the race and they’ve now transitioned to an Australian mechanic, Jack Moshovis. After Steve’s chat with Lenny, we have a chat with David Lyall, Matt’s team coordinator. He tells us what it’s like to work with Matt, why they changed from Lenny to Jack and much more.

We hope you enjoy the episode. Feel free to leave us feedback via email, comments on the site or on our forum on Downwind.com.au.

The first aircraft to be used in Antarctica was Henry Mawson’s Vickers REP monoplane. Sadly, it had been damaged in Australia before arriving in Antarctica and was used as an “air tractor” to pull sleds. Even that didn’t work out and it was dumped, eventually being found again only recently.

Given that inauspicious start, it’s hard to believe that there are multiple ice & snow runways in Antarctica receiving visits from C130s, C17s and now an Australian A319 carries scientists on regular flights to the ice. It is also possible to go on one of the QANTAS sight seeing flights that are proving to be very popular with their great views of the ice & mountains.

With all this in mind, we decided to put together a special episode focusing on the land that’s even more “down under” than we are. To kick things off we have an interview with Captain Dan Colborne of Skytraders. Dan flies the Airbus A319/ACJ from Australia to the Wilkins Blue Ice runway in Australian Antarctic territory. He also flies the CASA 212-400 aircraft that are based in Antarctica for the summer, including the long ferry flights at the start & end of the season.

We chat with David Vanderhoof about Air New Zealand Flight 901, the DC-10 that tragically crashed on Mount Erebus during a sight seeing tour over Antarctica in the 70’s. We also discuss some of the other runways on Antarctica and the aircraft that visit them.

The final section in this episode has a discussion with Phil Asker from The Captain’s Choice Tours and Croydon Travel who has been arranging Antarctic sight seeing flights for many years. Working with QANTAS, the flights are in Boeing 747 or Airbus A380 aircraft and are very much in demand, especially the New Years Eve flight.

We talk with Phil about what’s involved in preparing the flights and what passengers can expect to encounter. We also talk with David Halls about what it was like as a passenger on the New Years Eve flight on Dec 31st, 2009. Finally, we prove that nepotism is alive & well in podcasting by bringing Grant’s sister Tania on the show to talk about her time working as a Trolley Dolly (sorry, Flight Attendant) on an Antarctic flight. She also gives Steve LOTS of material to use against Grant, much of it unfit for public consumption (even in the outtakes).

So, put your survival suit on and prepare to meet some penguins as we talk about Antarctica.

Some in-cockpit audio provided by a listener triggered a discussion on the differences in pre-landing checklists (GUMPS vs BUMFTH vs BUMFOH vs whatever). All of Grant’s aviation books & manuals are still in boxes after moving house so he had to rely on his memory with predictable results. Talk about incentive to go out and get current again…

Given we couldn’t do a whole episode around the concept of “gas” in different countries, we also discuss recent aviation news items (so many to chose from lately) and have a collection of interviews we recorded at the RAAF’s Air Pageant at Point Cook.

Here’s how the episode hangs together this time:

• We have yet another opinionated discussion on recent news items:
• QANTAS are very much in the news due to an engineering dispute and maintenance woes
• Qantas jumbo with damaged engine lands safely at Sydney airport (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
• Tyres burst on Qantas A380 (Australian Aviation)
• Qantas denies industrial action could delay flights (ABC News)
• Engineer strike compounds Qantas woe (ABC News)
• Qantas engineers in overtime bans for Easter (Australian Aviation)
• Qantas bosses accused of breaches on safety (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
• Engineers demand watchdog investigate Qantas (ABC News)
• Virgin Blue has signed up with Boeing for new 737s
• Virgin Blue signs order for 50 new Boeing 737 jets (Bill Lindsay @ The Australian)
• The Blue's big Boeing buy (Australian Aviation)
• New boss to aim for bigger Tiger (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
• Tower, ILS upgrades for Melbourne (Australian Aviation)
• Sydney Airport flags huge rise for plane berths (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
• Last boarding calls for Sydney's tarmac tours (Ben Sandilands @ Crikey)
• Brindabella closes flying school (Australian Aviation)
• Rhinos arrive (Australian Aviation) (First 5 RAAF Super Hornets land in Australia)
• CASA are converting our GAAP airports to Class D in June. Have you booked in to attend one of their workshop seminars on the transition? You’d better. Check out the CASA web page about the transition.
• We shamelessly rip off UCAP’s “Off field landing of the week” segment
• Plane lands on Hobart highway (Yahoo! 7 News)
• Pilot praised over highway crash landing (ABC News)
• We recorded a few interviews with pilots at the RAAF’s Air Pageant at Point Cook airbase
• Jim & Jenny Wickham (Yak9 & Robinson R22)
• Jim Whalley (CA-13 Boomerang)
• Murray Colquhoun (chief experimental test pilot with Pilatus & the PC21)
• Anthony Simmons returns with his “View from the Lounge” segment
• What’s in our mailbag for this episode?
• Luke Harris raises the issue of laser pointers being used to tag aircraft
• Bob Livingstone makes some comments about the B24
• Damien Rose provides some in-cockpit audio (we play his intro but the cockpit audio is at the end of the episode)
• We definitely have some shout outs this episode
• Marty at Flight.org has been of great assistance to us, helping to promote the podcast & much more
• Thanks to those folks mentioning @pcdu in their Follow Friday tweets
• Check out errolwi on Twitter for his tweets while at the Warbirds over Wanaka air show in New Zealand (and yes, you’re welcome for the F-18s :)
• Good luck to Zyola from the Mile High Flyers podcast as she’s going through the “joys” of losing her job recently. We also want to know if our photos on our About us page scared off her friends who thought our accents were cool/hot/sexy :)
• Thanks to Stuart Stevenson of the Pilots Journey podcast for setting up the Aviation Podcasts Network aggregator site

As usual, our theme music track is “YouNameIt5” by Brian Simpson (aka t3cat5) and our sound effects come from SoundSnap.com.

The B24 Liberator was the most produced heavy bomber of World War 2 and saw service in all theaters of the war. The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) flew B24s along side those of the USAAF, based in northern Australia and Papua New Guinea. These aircraft flew long range missions of many hours duration, typically without fighter escort. Providing bombing, maritime patrol and transport services, the advanced & complicated B24 was, perhaps, the unsung hero of heavy bomber operations.

Very few of these aircraft still exist (see the list of remaining B24s) and in Australia, only a single example remains. It is currently being restored by a group of dedicated and passionate individuals, many of whom flew B24s during or immediately after the war.

Based in Werribee, just outside Melbourne, the Australian B24 Restoration project is definitely worth visiting and supporting. We were fortunate to visit the team, admire the aircraft and interview John Temby (President of the association) and Ed Crabtree (ex B24 pilot). Another trip down is currently being planned and we expect to have more great content from the restoration team in a later episode.

The common theme in this episode is about going around the world, first by bringing Saj Ahmad (Fleetbuzz Editorial) in the UK and Ben Sandilands (Plane Talking) in Australia together to talk about financial reports from QANTAS, Virgin & Tiger plus general discussions about airlines in Australia, past, present & future.

We then chat with Ken Evers & Tim Pryse, a couple of local lads who are going to fly a Gippsland Aeronautics GA-8 Airvan around the world to raise funds to help fight against malaria. You can read more about their epic journey at Millions Against Malaria.

We also give a few shout outs & read some mail:

• Tom for listening to all 25 episodes in less than a week – now *that’s* masochism :)
• Steve Cooke in the UK and his Flying Podcast that gives a great perspective on flying in the UK and Europe.
• Christie Walker who we’ll be chatting to soon and is interested in learning more about Australian airline cadet pilot programs
• Grant’s sorry for being behind on all the emails that have come in

As usual, our theme music track is “YouNameIt5” by Brian Simpson (aka t3cat5) and our sound effects come from SoundSnap.com.

You can always count on this podcast to have some interesting, opinionated and, occasionally, diverse points of view. This episode really brings them all and (bonus!) includes a whole new view as we introduce Anthony Simmons and the “View from the Lounge” segment for your listening pleasure.

We’ve also got another great discussion with Owen Zupp as his trip around Australia draws closer, a quick chat we recorded with David Optimal (one of our listeners) and Bas Scheffers returns (at last) with his friend John Squires to tell us about a fly-away trip they did not too long ago.

Here’s how this episode unfolds:

• Here’s a “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” for you: man attacks plane with machete to prevent his bride-to-be from leaving him.
• Fleeing bride’s plane attacked with machete
• Man hit plane with machete
• We have a discussion with Owen Zupp about
• His trip around Australia (There & Back)
• Flying the DA20 & DA40
• ADSB in Australia and flying RNP approaches
• What it was like to fly with Matt Hall
• We introduce Anthony Simmons and his amusing view on commercial flying in the new segment: “View from the Lounge”
• We recorded a quick chat with listener David Optimal in Steve’s PCDU-Mobile when he came down to visit us and the airports around Melbourne
• David Vanderhoof presents another great Aviation History segment
• Bas Scheffers returns with his friend John Squires to tell us about how the Aeroscene Flying Group arranged a fly-in at the Asses Ears Lodge at the Grampians Airfield in Victoria. They also chat briefly about the Parafield Airshow they’re organising for April 2010.

As usual, our theme music track is “YouNameIt5” by Brian Simpson (aka t3cat5) and our sound effects come from SoundSnap.com.

Yes, Steve & Grant are Fan Boys (big Fan Boys, in fact :) and this episode we demonstrate it once again by interviewing Matt Hall and hanging out with some more fans at the Flight Experience Melbourne Facebook fan page open night in their 737 flight simulator. Seems we’re not the only ones who think a publically accessible 737 simulator is a great thing :)

Here’s how this episode flows:

• First class to be stripped from Qantas 747s? (Australian Aviation)
• QANTAS 767 involved in a tail strike at Sydney
• Qantas 767 returns to Sydney after tailstrike (Australian Aviation)
• Qantas plane in tail strike drama (Kate Schneider @ Herald Sun)
• Air New Zealand has a couple of emergency situations
• Full-scale emergency response as Air NZ jet aborts take-off (Sydney Morning Herald)
• Air NZ 777 involved in emergency at Narita (Australian Aviation)
• Jetstar are rolling out self-service & SMS based check in
• Jetstar jettisons check-in desks for self-service kiosks (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
• Jetstar to roll out SMS boarding passes from February (Australian Aviation)
• Jetstar expect big results from their expansion into Asia
• Jetstar chooses Singapore for Asian hub (Australian Aviation)
• Jetstar expects payoff from expansion in Asia (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
• Garuda are preparing for an IPO
• PT Garuda, Indonesia’s state-owned carrier, planning a $340 million IPO (P R Venkat & Tom Wright @ The Wall St Journal / The Australian)
• Garuda to list this year, cancels 787s (Australian Aviation)
• We have another interview with Matt Hall
• Matt Hall announces his supporter’s tour for Perth
• AVTours set up Matt’s supporter’s tour
• We attended the Flight Experience Melbourne Facebook fan open night and recorded some interviews with the instructors & guests who were there at the 737 simulator.
• Shout outs
• Congratulations to Jack Seymour in Wangaratta for doing his trial introductory flight in a Eurofox. You can read about his adventures in flight at his blog: StudentFlight.
• Thanks to Brendan from Essendon (YMEN) for letting Grant tag along when he went flying out to Tooradin (YTDN). While he didn’t get at the controls, being in the backseat of a C172 is still flying :)
• We have a discussion on our forum about where to find the best coffee at airports.

As usual, our theme music track is “YouNameIt5” by Brian Simpson (aka t3cat5) and our sound effects come from SoundSnap.com.

Despite the annoying habit of our “day jobs” and families encroaching into our PCDU time, we’ve finally managed to get some time to record an episode. Steve even managed a marathon effort of post production to edit a coherent episode from our opinionated news discussion and an interview with Saj Ahmad. Go Steve! :)

Despite my best efforts to drone on endlessly, Steve’s also managed to keep the episode under 2 hours, but not by much. Hopefully this will give you heaps of fun listening as you travel to & from work, mow the lawns or do your household chores :)

Here’s how the show came together this time:

• Robinson R44 crashes on a mountain beside a massive drop
• Men uninjured after chopper crash (Jeremy Sollars @ Lismore Northern Star via Warwick Daily News)
• Chopper incident ‘not so dramatic’ (Damian Bathersby @ Sunshine Coast Daily)
• Three men dodge death after their helicopter crash lands on the edge of a canyon ridge… two feet from a one mile drop
• Tiger’s IPO closes over subscribed – oh wow!
• Tiger Air offering overcomes doubts (Kevin Brown @ Financial Times)
• Blue skies for Tiger? (Stephen Bartholomeusz @ Business Spectator)
• Backing at home for Tiger Airways (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
• Tiger IPO closes fully subscribed (Australian Aviation)
• Australia’s “self-serve” passport gates not working well
• Self-serve passport gates ‘easy to cheat’ (Monique Ross @ ABCNews)
• SmartGate passport hits 1m milestone (Sydney Morning Herald)
• Lie down all the way to LA: Air NZ (Thanks to Mike for pointing out the article)
• RNZAF aerobatic team lose a pilot in a training crash
• DEATH OF AIRMAN – 3RD STATEMENT (Press Release from RNZAF)
• RNZAF loses pilot in Red Checkers crash (Australian Aviation)
• Pilot doused burning plane wreck (Michael Forbes @ The Dominion Post)
• Brother pays tribute to pilot (Manawatu Standard)
• Dead air force pilot was top trainer (TV NZ)
• Red Checkers Ground Aircraft (NZ Herald)
• Death with no regrets, says pilot’s family (Iain Hyndman @ Wanganui Chronicle)
• Scathing report released on the F35 JSF project
• JSF faces another scathing report (Australian Aviation)
• Some notes concerning Australia's exposure to the risk that the Joint Strike Fighter is a failed project (Ben Sandilands @ Plane Talking on Crikey)
• We review a recent “Traffic Report” from the Australian Aviation magazine (our favourite aviation magazine :)
• VH-EBK (A330) withdrawn from QF domestic and repainted in JetStar colours in Manilla
• VH-OGA (a 767-300ER) withdrawn from service
• JetConnect withdrew it’s last 300 series 737 (ZK-JNC) which has gone to storage in Tucson – entered service with Australian Airlines on Dec 31, 1988 as VH-TJB “Fortitude” – transferred to JetConnect on Jul 29th 2004
• Some new aircraft with funky names have arrived for Virgin Blue
• E-190 VH-ZPO = “Portia Macquarie”
• 737-800 VH-VUT = “Yabba Dabba Blue”
• 737-800 VH-VUR = “Star City”
• 737-800 VH-VUS = “Chitty Chitty Broome Broome”
• VB’s 737-800 VUA that was previously used for mile-high karaoke with the Black Eyed Peas as they toured Australia has been returned to normal configuration & colour scheme.
• We have a chat with Saj Ahmad about 737/A320 re-engining and lots more
• Instead of reading some listener mail, we review a recent discussion on our forum about Podcasting Beer between Turb, Grand Vizier, Scofreyjet and ourselves
• We have a stack of shout outs for this episode:
• Ms Dark Sarcasm (aka Jennifer Barry) had her first solo (YAY!). You can follow her flying adventures on her blog: A need for Airspeed
• David Optimal is now a Grade 3 instructor (YAY!). You can follow his news via his blog at DavidOptimal.com
• Robert Cigliano has started a new aviation podcast called The New Pilot Podlog
• Zyola from the Mile High Flyers podcast has been getting lots of her lady pilot friends in Hawaii’i to listen in to PCDU – go go Aussie accent power :)
• Also big thanks to our anonymous donor from Canberra

As usual, our theme music track is “YouNameIt5” by Brian Simpson (aka t3cat5) and our sound effects come from SoundSnap.com.

It's time to dig into the recently released Defence Strategic Review to assess its impacts on the Australian Defence Force from an aviation perspective. For this episode we're joined by award winning defence and aerospace journalist Andrew McLaughlin, who helps assess the changes we can expect to see over the next few years.

A big change is the focus on long range strike and missiles for RAAF, Navy and Army to help keep potential adversaries at a distance. We also touch on the lack of news regarding additional F-35s or MQ-4C Tritons, the B-21 Raider being ruled out (for now) and Army's transition from ARH Tiger and MRH-90 Taipan to AH-64 Apache and UH-60M Blackhawk.

We also ask where we'll get enough people from to crew all the platforms, look at the types of drones we're likely to have and the focus on hypersonics and other advanced technologies under AUKUS Pillar 2. There's a lot to dig into so this episode is a double-length special, running for almost an hour, but that's what the pause/resume button is for, right? :)

Cover image thanks to Seth Jaworski.

Even down here in Australia we’re being impacted by the out-of-control antics of the TSA, so what the heck, we’ll have a bit of a c’est la vent moment about it. We also have our usual opinionated discussion on some other news items and chat with Shashank Nigam from SimpliFlying.

Here’s how the show proceeds:

• Prosecutors want Garuda pilot back in jail (ABC News)
• Farmer’s flight path message for charity (ABC News)
• The first aircraft taken to Antarctica has been found again:
• Remains of Antarctica’s first plane found (ABC News)
• Future of Antarctic plane undecided (ABC News)
• David Vanderhoof gives us an Aviation History segment
• Guy Menzies with his crashed Avian (image)
• Image of an Avian in a pprune.org story
• QANTAS Super Constellation
• Air NZ’s new cabin crew outfits like ‘drag queens’ (Greer McDonald & Kiran Chug @ Sydney Morning Herald)
• Phrase “elephant in the room” is most popular cliche of 2009 (The Mirror) (AirNZ’s use of the phrase “disestablished”)
• Tiger Airways carries 3 millionth passenger (Travel Daily News)
• Tiger’s flight delayed 10-hours (The Morning Bulletin)
• Tiger Airways advances aircraft delivery (Yahoo! Singapore)
• Discussion about Tiger’s callsign on our forum @ Downwind
• Jetstar and AirAsia form a Joint Venture:
• http://au.biz.yahoo.com/100105/2/2am5y.html (Yahoo! FInance)
• Analyst tips fruitful Jetstar-AirAsia alliance (ABC News)
• Two-for-one budget airlines (Stephen Bartholomeusz @ Business Spectator)
• Jetstar maintenance stays onshore (Geoff Easdown @ HeraldSun)
• Australian executives at Jetstar Pacific not allowed to leave Vietnam:
• Jetstar Pacific executives questioned in Vietnam (ABC News)
• Jetstar Pacific probe set to last months (ABC News)
• QANTAS are impacted by another Amadeus crash:
• Flights delayed after Qantas glitches (ABC News)
• Another computer glitch for Qantas (Australian Aviation)
• Qantas may be just another eyes wide victim of IT "lies" (Ben Sandilands @ Plane Talking on Crikey)
• Passengers suffer as Qantas check-in fails (Lanai Vasek @ The Australian)
• We chat with Shashank Nigam from SimpliFlying
• We have a c’est la vie moment about the Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
• Technical glitch strands Qantas passengers (ABC News)
• Listener Mail:
• Jack Seymour’s got a blog up about his learning to fly (Student Flight)
• Mark mentions Coronal Mass Ejections and their potential impacts on GPS systems
• Shout Outs:
• The new Mile High Flyers podcast is well worth listening to (and they refer to our show in their second episode – w00t :)
• Will & Dave at The Pilot’s Flight Podlog podcast have provided us with a promo piece and are joining in the fun of cross-promoting other podcasts

As usual, our theme music track is “YouNameIt5” by Brian Simpson (aka t3cat5) and our sound effects come from SoundSnap.com.

It’s the Christmas & New Year holiday period, plus down here it’s Summer so we’re totally into listening to long aviation podcasts when we’re not distracted by having fun. So, for all of our listeners who have long drives or lots of chores to do around home, we give you our longest episode yet. With a bit of Christmas cheer, we produce just over two hours of PCDU goodness including an interview with Michael Gilmour from Downwind.com.au, our usual opinionated review of the news and listener mail. We also wrap up the year with a tip of the wing to the podcasts that inspire us and the guests who have helped give us some great content.

Here’s how the episode came together this time:

• Indian company buys Gippsland Aeronautics and Aerostaff (Australian Aviation)
• CASA ups GAAP circuit limit, to use FAA Class D (Australian Aviation)
• Satellite-based navigation system to allow air-traffic controllers to pinpoint aircraft (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
• Air N.Z. More Affected by 787 Delay Than Slump, Airlines Says (Tracy Withers @ Bloomberg.com) plus interview with Rob Fyfe on IATA.org
• Qantas to launch A380 Melbourne-London services (Australian Aviation) and Qantas to operate A380 on Melbourne-London route
• Defence Dept to fix Amberley base creek pollution
• Tiger Airways IPO reduced following luke-warm reactions and may be withdrawn
• Tiger confirms IPO (Australian Aviation)
• Tiger Air cuts IPO size (Kevin Lim @ AsiaOne)
• Investors Cool Toward Tiger Airways IPO (Shares Investment)
• Two major shareholders may jettison Tiger stake (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
• QANTAS 747-400 has an engine failure not long after take off at Changi (Singapore)
• Qantas flight turns back after ‘flames from engine’ (Thomas Hunter @ SMH.com.au)
• Qantas denies engine fire forced return (ABC News)
• Qantas engine failure terrifies passengers (ABC News)
• QANTAS pilots union upset over JetConnect pilots
• Pilots union to launch legal action to fight for Kiwi pay equality (Ewin Hannan @ The Australian)
• Qantas ‘underpaying NZ pilots’ (ABC News)
• Australian union seeks more for Qantas’ Kiwi pilots (Kathy Marks @ NZ Herald)
• NZ-based pilots paid ‘half of Aussie counterparts’ (Stuff.co.nz)
• APIA takes action on Jetconnect pilot pay (Australian Aviation)>
• Interview with Michael Gilmour from Downwind.com.au
• We review our Listener Mail
• It’s Christmas, so of course everyone’s going on strike
• Qantas faces more strike action (ABC News)
• Qantas engineers to begin 5-day strike from tomorrow (Cynthia Koons @ The Australian)
• Christmas strikes looming on two fronts for Qantas (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
• Qantas, Jetstar engineers ‘overworked’ (Nine News)
• Work bans threaten air travel (Ben Schneiders @ The Age)
• Qantas engineers set for more industrial action (Australian Aviation)
• Here’s our end of year wrap
• Special thanks to the podcasts that inspired us to start PCDU
• Uncontrolled Airspace
• Airspeed
• Pilot’s Flight Podlog
• Podcast Answerman
• Airplane Geeks
• Our great guests in 2009 were
• Matt Hall
• Nigel Lamb
• Owen Zupp
• Bas Scheffers
• Saj Ahmad
• Ben Ipolito & Jeremy Peck
• Michael Gilmour
• David Vanderhoof
• Lang Kidby
• Joel Haski
• Shashank Nigram
• Karla Courtney
• Carlo Santoro
• Nick Brau
• Special thanks also to
• Dane Golden & Leo Laporte
• Adam Visscher (about to be our photographer)

As from now, we have a forum. Yes, that’s right, a place where you can come and chat about our episodes and anything else related to PCDU. Thanks to Michael @ Downwind for making a space available to us.

As usual, our theme music track is “YouNameIt5” by Brian Simpson (aka t3cat5) and our sound effects come from

For the majority of our listeners it’s warm and getting warmer down here in the Southern Summer with Christmas just around the corner. Not so in London where it’s bleak and somewhat miserable (and that’s the economy, let alone the weather). Saj Ahmad from FleetBuzz Editorial is based in London and recently returned from the scorching skies of Dubai where he’d been attending the Dubai Airshow 2009. Saj generously took some time away from his family to record with us last Sunday (morning his time, evening our time), trying not to look out the window at the winter weather while we discussed the warmth Melbourne was experiencing. The discussion covers the Dubai Airshow, Middle East airlines and their flights to Australia, aircraft orders and the (then) pending first flight of the 787. It’s an enlightening chat and we’ll be sure to have Saj on again early in the new year.

In addition to our chat with Saj, we also recorded some news items to round out the episode. We actually recorded these on the same day the 787 flew and, thanks to the miracle of modern technology, have spliced it all together into a single show. Neat, hey! :)

Topics in this episode include:

• The 787 finally flew – you can check out Boeing’s ‘first flight’ site for all the videos
• Jet star’s check-in system goes down and then a few days later, so does Virgin Blue’s:
• Check-in system problem delays Jetstar flights (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
• Airport chaos as system goes down (ABC News)
• Stranded airline passengers booked into hotels (ABC News)
• Expect major delays, Virgin tells passengers (ABC News)
• Airline struggles to clear backlog of flights (ABC News)
• Former doctor Geoffrey Edelsten crashes his helicopter on his first solo
• Lucky escape as Edelsten’s chopper crashes (ABC News)
• Geoffrey Edelsten in helicopter crash landing at Moorabbin Airport (Wayne Flower @ The Herald Sun)
• Delta & V Australia tighten their alliance in steps towards the full Delta-V marriage
• Virgin’s V Australia agrees key deal with Delta Air Lines (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
• V Australia and Delta sign lounge and loyalty agreements (Australian Aviation)
• Discussion with Saj Ahmad
• Air New Zealand opens direct Sydney to Rotorua flights
• Rotorua: International Air Service Begins (Scoop NZ)
• Trouble on first Rotorua trans-Tasman flight (Stuff.co.nz)
• The Garuda pilot who was convicted for negligence in the cause of a fatal crash has his conviction quashed
• Garuda pilot’s conviction quashed (Sydney Morning Herald)
• Garuda crash pilot obsessed with flying again (ABC News)
• Garuda pilot wins appeal against jail sentence
• The Australian Federal Government releases their eagerly awaited aviation white paper
• A National Aviation Policy Statement – the Aviation White Paper (download it from the federal government)
• Albanese releases Aviation White Paper (Australian Aviation)
• Sydney Flight Training Centre collapses leaving many students with debts (Pilot pupils left grounded after flight school collapse (Andrew Carswell @ the Daily Telegraph))
• A DC-10 fire bomber arrives for the Victorian forest fire season
• DC-10 firebomber arrives at Avalon (Australian Aviation)
• Giant water bomber ready for fire season (ABC News)
• First use of a SkyCrane fire bomber this season (Air crane used on Blue Mountains blaze (ABC News))
• David Vanderhoof’s aviation history down under segment (at last – Grant forgot to include it in episode 19 – ooops)
• Listener mail, including George from New Zealand with his super sexy Falco aircraft
• There’s a chartered Air New Zealand 747 flying to Oshkosh 2010 (details with Avtours Australia) and we’re dreaming of being on it (it’s only AUS$4k each including accommodation – anyone want to help donate to get us there? :)

As usual, our theme music track is “YouNameIt5” by Brian Simpson (aka t3cat5) and our sound effects come from SoundSnap.com.

As part of the recent Show us ya Wheels event in Numurkah the PCDU team attended a memorial tribute dinner for Pip Borman, a famous Australian aerobatics pilot from Shepparton who died in a crash during a photo shoot flight. The presentations at the dinner included speeches from David Fertel at Castrol and Julian Frazier from QBE Insurance along with a keynote presentation from Matt Hall, Australia’s only Red Bull Air Race pilot.

There is a video clip of Pip Borman flying the Pitts Samson on YouTube that is well worth watching. The Samson is a radial powered aerobatic biplane (truely a “muscle plane”) and the video gives you an idea of what it is capable of. It was shot at Shepparton airport (YSHT) only a week before Pip crashed in it.

We were fortunate to be allowed to record the speaches and have been given permission to include them in the episode. It was a great night and we’re glad that we are able to bring you along for part of it.

Steve’s out sick (he must have eaten the fish :) so Grant’s flying solo on this one and cheating madly by assembling a few interviews and a slightly modified version of the Australia Desk segment we recorded for the Airplane Geeks’ Thanksgiving episode. The interviews include:

• Matt Hall & Nigel Lamb
• Carlo Santoro from Flight Experience Melbourne
• Nick Brau on flying hot air balloons over Melbourne city

The news items we covered include:

• British Airways again discussing a merger with QANTAS
• The US FAA wil be conducting an Air Safety examination of Australia’s air operations
• 30th Anniversary of Air New Zealand’s DC10 crashing on the side of Mt Erebus in Antarctica
• Virgin Blue likely to have a profit in FY09/10
• QANTAS to purchase additional aircraft and will be assigning more of their 787s to Jetstar
• QANTAS introduces the airport of the future concept
• Airport capacity in Sydney and the need for a second airport
• Australian Transport Safety Bureau provides interim reports on the QANTAS A330 ADIRU issues and QANTAS 747 oxygen bottle incidents
• RAAF to purchase 14 F-35 fighters even though Lockheed has admitted the project is running late
• The first two Wedgetail AEW aircraft have been delivered
• Last flight of the Caribou in Australia & it’s potential replacement

We hope you enjoy the show and we will return to our usual levels of interviews, discussions & opinionated news reviews in a week or so.

If you’ve ever looked skyward in Sydney, there’s a high chance you’ve seen a bright red aircraft with old-style German crosses on the wings. Originally flying an old Tiger Moth, the Red Baron flew out of Bankstown and gave joy flights to members of the public, flying over Sydney’s beaches and occasionally doing aerobatics.

Roll forward to today and Red Baron scenic & aerobatic flights is now owned by Joel Haski (RedBaronSydney on Twitter) with a number of aircraft, including Pitts Specials, Robins/Alphas, an Extra and a new Airvan. Some are painted in Red Baron colours while others fly under the Red Bull logos.

We were fortunate enough to get some of Joel’s time for a chat about his flying history, running the Red Baron operation, being involved with Red Bull and the recent New South Wales Aerobatic competition.

How many of you folks have wanted to be Air Traffic Controllers? Do you dream of Pushing Tin around the skies? Think you can keep The Flick in your head? Want to tell pilots in aircraft of all sizes where to go? (ahem! :) Steve & Grant both applied for ATC and were both knocked back for a number of reasons. Fortunately, we know a couple of guys who weren’t.

Join us as we chat with Ben Ippolito (the Ipanator) and Jeremy Peck, discussing being selected for ATC, the long hard slog of learning & practicing in the simulator and the terrors (ummm, joys) of taking their first few steps in the real world outside of the academy.

We also discuss GAAP changes, oceanic control, airspace classes, working with the RAAF and much more.

You can find out more about becoming an Air Traffic Controller on the Air Services ATC page. Recruitment for the 2010 class closes by January 3rd.

Steve & Grant discuss all the latest news items that were of interest over the past couple of weeks. Steve also gets to have a few “c’est la vent” moments on some topics that were annoying him.

As if all that wasn’t enough, we also have a chat with Owen Zupp and reveal the winner of our first ever give away competition. Sorry, you’ll have to listen to the episode to discover who were the close runners up and who was the winner :)

So, sit back, relax and enjoy episode 16, in which we discuss:

• Jetstar engine fire forces evacuation at Newcastle airport (ABC News)
• Victoria launches bid for Red Bull Air Race (Australian Aviation)
• We both express displeasure that the Red Bull Air Race was not available online via web-streaming for Australians despite Channel 10 not showing it live
• V Australia to get 777-200LRs?
• We discuss Air New Zealand replacing its 737-300’s with A320’s
• Air NZ opts for Airbus (Australian Aviation)
• Air New Zealand to replace Boeing fleet with Airbus A320 (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
• Airbus knocks 50 per cent off New Zealand deal (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
• Air New Zealand’s Chris Nassenstein Tapped For Qantas Post (Aero-News Net)
• We discuss the political turn-around associated Victoria trialling heavy jet fire bombers
• Victoria to trial fire-fighting jet (The Age)
• Victoria commissions fire fighting jet (SBS)
• Giant water bomber to soak Victorian bushfires (ABC news)
• Water bomber could have saved lives (ABC News)
• Victoria looks to bigger fire bombers (Australian Aviation)
• It seems that it’s not just in the USA that airline pilots make silly mistakes
• Qantas pilots forgot to lower landing gear (ABC News)
• Qantas pilots forgot to lower wheels (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
• Pilots stood down over landing gear incident (Australian Aviation)
• We chat with Owen Zupp about our recent competition, the runners up and the big winner
• David Vanderhoof provides a look at “this week in aviation”
• Qantas will not be ‘Jetstarised’: Joyce (The Age)
• We discuss the expansion of Tiger Airways as they open new routes
• Tiger spreads wings to five biggest cities (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
• Tiger’s eyes on Avalon (Herald Sun)
• Tiger ups Melbourne & Sydney services, stalking Avalon? (Australian Aviation)
• Tiger to fly Melbourne-Brisbane (Australian Aviation)
• Tiger launches Adelaide-Brisbane (Australian Aviation)
• Steve has a major “What Cheese Me Off!” session about the advertising for Melbourne Airport (you can see the adverts as a banner on the Melbourne Airport website)
• We discuss JAL’s new premium economy class seating on the Sydney to Narita route (thanks to Dan Web for the lead)
• Final F-111 exits deep maintenance (Australia Aviation)
• Boeing completes Wedgetail counter-measures testing (Australian Aviation) (plus a ‘heads up’ by David Vanderhoof)
• We review some listener mail

As usual, our sound effects come from SoundSnap.com and our theme music track is "YouNameIt5" by Brian Simpson (aka t3cat5).

We’re back to being our opiniated selves with a backlog of news stories to work through and discuss. Once again Bas Scheffers joins us for some of the news and to discuss a number of RA-Aus items. From Beavers to Tigers and even Kiwi Skyhawks doing battle with bureaucracy, we cover a diverse range of topics including:

• QANTAS shareholders fail to block Dixon’s $3m payment
• Shareholders blast Qantas over Dixon payout (ABC News)
• Qantas shareholders slam Dixon payout (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
• Jetstar tight-lipped on Facebook ‘sacking’ (ABC News)
• RedBull AirRace returns to Perth in 2010 (see Tourism West Australia’s release)
• Rocket Lab Primed To Launch New Zealand’s First Rocket Into Space (Voxy.co.nz)
• Crash fears after 10 near misses a year in NSW (Sydney Morning Herald
• Qantas unveils Socceroos 747 (Australian Aviation)
• Jetstar plane evacuated after engine fire (ABC News)
• Virgin Blue 737’s nose wheel ‘disintegrates’ on landing
• Plane wheel ‘disintegrates’ on landing (ABC news)
• Virgin Blue hits back at ALAEA after wheel issue
• Virgin Blue denies plane wheel disintegrated
• Police guard staff after Tiger passengers left stranded (Mex Cooper @ Sydney Morning Herald)
• Qantas passengers stranded for 26 hours(Kate Schneider @ News.com.au)
• Next QANTAS A380s delayed due to technical issues
• Technical issues force delay to Qantas's next two A380s (Australian Aviation)
• Qantas talks straight on Airbus problem (ABC News)
• Qantas A380 project takes out award (Australian Aviation)
• Russian jets ‘refused’ on Black Saturday (Melissa Jenkins @ NineMSN)
• General Aviation & RA-Aus round-up
• Australia’s centenary of powered flight to be celebrated at Diggers Rest between March 18th & 21st, 2010 (see Victorian government’s release)
• RFDS enters jet age (Australian Aviation)
• The Last Super Beaver (Australian Aviation)
• Mayor calls for Jandakot curfew
• Bas reports on his experiences at the Jamestown airshow
• Discussion on changes coming up in RA-Aus (25nm over water, 600kg for non-ISA but no increase of weight to 760kg)
• Bas talks about the AeroScene flying group
• RNZAF A4 Skyhawks battle bureaucracy to get sold
• Update on RAAF Airbus KC-30 MRTT
• Third tanker enters conversion facility (Australian Aviation)
• Second RAAF tanker flies (Australian Aviation)
• $1bn industry package & early availability for a RAN Romeo buy

As usual, our sound effects come from SoundSnap.com and our theme music track is "YouNameIt5" by Brian Simpson (aka t3cat5).

We were fortunate to attend a lecture recently presented by Lang Kidby at the Australian National Aviation Museum (Moorabbin Air Museum). Lang has flown a Vickers Vimy replica aircraft from England to Australia to re-enact the 1919 flight by Keith & Ross Macpherson Smith. He has also flown an Avro Avian from England to Australia to re-enact Bert Hinkler’s completion of the first solo flight from England to Australia in 1928.

In this recording, Lang discusses his experiences from building the Vimy replica & transporting it to the UK through to the actual flight itself. This is an amazing presentation that we could have happily listened to for longer had time permitted.

We are most greatful to Lang for permitting us to publish his lecture and to Mark Pilkington at the Moorabbin Air Museum for allowing us to join in the fun.

With the recent release of the Defence Strategic Review by the Australian Federal Government, a major focus has been put on long range missiles for use by Army, Navy and Air Force to deter a potential adversary from approaching our island continent and/or blockading our ocean supply routes. With this in mind, we release an interview recorded at Avalon 2023 with John Fry, general manager of Kongsberg Defence Australia, covering their National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System, their Naval Strike Missile, its Coastal Defence System variant, and the Joint Strike Missile for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

Following Kongsberg, we present a discussion with Mark Robinson, head of Air Traffic Management at Frequentis Australasia. We cover their latest remote digital tower technology and its applications in civilian and military markets. It's certainly a technology that could be of great use to Airservices here in Australia as well as to the RAAF's 44WG who provide Air Traffic Control at military air fields and bases.

The two discussions can be found at the following points in the episode:

• 03:35 John Fry at Kongsberg
• 20:18 Mark Robinson at Frequentis Australasia

Cover image thanks to Stefan Kalm via AP

Of all the times for the technical gremlins to strike, it had to be for our “Lucky” 13th episode. We recorded a great discussion with Owen Zupp and, despite a fault in the call recorder that made us repeat a part, we thought we had it in the bag. We even feature our first ever give away in this episode and it’s a beauty (see the notes below for details).

However, it seems that it’s not just the Apollo missions that have problems at 13 as, sadly, the sound quality in this episode is not at all up to our usual levels of quality. Poor Steve has been tearing what’s left of his hair out but has managed to work his magic once again and produce an episode that preserves most important part of all, our guest’s great content.

We start off discussing Owen’s early work with the Ambulance Service of New South Wales and how that provided a foundation for dealing with flying’s more “interesting” moments. Moving into flying, Owen talks about learning to fly with his father, an ex-RAAF instructor, then moving on to instructing others with the Royal Aero Club of NSW (sadly no longer in existence) and eventually shifting to his times flying with Ansett Airlines.

During this discussion we review the pros & cons of the Multi-crew Pilot License (MPL) and various aircraft, including the Skycraft Scout. Owen also discusses Bert Hinkler, the town of Bundaberg, Hinkler House and the Hinkler Hall of Aviation.

With the collapse of Ansett, Owen moved into flight instruction and also started writing articles. A regular contributor to Australian Aviation (our favourite flying magazine, thank you :) and other publications, Owen has also written a book called “Down to Earth,” the story of Squadron Leader McGlashan, a pilot during WWII.

Next year (2010) will mark the 100th anniversary of powered flight in Australia so Owen is flying a light aircraft around Australia, visiting various historic landmarks and promoting aviation in Australia as well as raising funds for the RFDS. His sponsors include:

• Jabiru aircraft
• Spidertracks tracking & monitoring systems
• Champagne PC Services flight planning software
• Australian Aviation magazine
• Global Aviator magazine

Owen has graciously donated a signed copy of his book, Down to Earth, for one of our lucky listeners to win. All you have to do is go to the There and Back website and see where Owen’s journey is taking him (check out The Route for details). Then, suggest a location you think Owen should go to during his journey and say why he should go there.

Send your recommendation to us at PlaneCrazyDownUnder@gmail.com” and we’ll review them with Owen. He will then select a winner and we’ll contact them to send them the book.

Easy, isn’t it? So, what are you waiting for? It doesn’t matter where you live, come up with a suggestion and send it to us.

Please note that Owen’s decision is final and that all submissions become the property of Owen to use as he sees fit.

As usual, our sound effects come from SoundSnap.com and our theme music track is "YouNameIt" by Brian Simpson (aka t3cat5).

Despite his better judgement, Bas Scheffers comes back to hang out with us once again as we discuss some of the news items from the past week or so. Topics of discussion in this episode include:

• Jetstar flight attendant gets in trouble with Facebook:
• Jetstar attendant contacted 15yo passenger on Facebook (ABC News)
• Jetstar worker in strife over Facebook incident (ABC News)
• Mile-high matchmaking: social networking service (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
• Jetstar eyes growth in Asia, India (David McIntyre @ Brisbane Times)
• Mid-air dramas trigger action: Qantas (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
• Qantas criticised over foreign butter (ABC News)
• Air New Zealand says demand recovering, no capacity cuts (Reuters)
• Investigations into fatal plane crashes begin (ABC News)
• Regional Express (REX) flying into Northern Queensland again:
• New airline arrives in town (Bianca Clare @ the Daily Mercury)
• New routes launched during the last week (Saturday 26 September – Friday 2 October) (from Airline Network News & Analysis – scroll down to the end of the article)
• Landing scare at Wagga airport (ABC News)
• Smelly, fat, seat-kickers worst plane passengers (ABC News)
• Boeing Receives Australian Industry Award For F-111 Support (Aero-News.net)
• Defence told to clean up creek contamination (ABC News)
• New delay for RAAF KC-30s (Australian Aviation)
• More news of air traffic system improvements
• Qantas calls for air traffic overhaul (ABC News)
• Qantas has called for ‘smarter skies’ (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
• Airlines to save millions as defence flight paths open (Sydney Morning Herald)
• Virgin Blue and The Black Eyed Peas join music’s Mile High Club (Access All Areas)

Please note that our sound effects come from SoundSnap.com and our theme music track is “YouNameIt5” by Brian Simpson (aka t3cat5).

This episode we’re joined by Bas Scheffers, a Recreational Aviation Australia pilot (our version of the US Sport Pilot rules) who flies out of Parafield airport (YPPF) in Adelaide, South Australia. We have a great chat about flying RA-Aus aircraft, GAAP issues, the benefits of learning to fly under RA-Aus instead of the usual GA, the information available from the recreational flying community and even discuss the new AAAF Forum (Forum for free speech on industry: AAAF – Steve Creedy @ The Australian).

After our great chat with Bas, we move on to our usual opinionated regional news review which includes the following items:

• David Vanderhoof provides a “This week in Australian aviation history” segment for us
• In Dust we Trust
• Flight delays remain as dust settles in Sydney (ABC News)
• Sydney flights get back to normal after dust storm (ABC News)
• Flight chaos as dust storm hits Sydney, Brisbane (Kate Schneider @ news.com.au)
• Havoc for airlines, passengers (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
• Tiger Airlines strands people at Mackay:
• Cancelled flight strands hundreds (Fallon Hudson @ The Daily Mercury)
• Tiger Airways causes chaos at Mackay (e-Travel Blackboard)
• Geoff Dixon’s golden parachute from QANTAS
• Dixon’s $11m parachute from Qantas nosedive (Michael Janda @ ABC News)
• Former Qantas CEO Geoff Dixon paid $11m in last year (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
• Qantas high-flyers must come down to earth: payouts (Stuart Wilson @ The Australian)
• High-speed thrills as Thunderbirds roll in: USAF (Mike Glynn @ The Australian)
• Boeing To Test Military Airplane Over Hood Canal (Q13 Fox News)
• Final boarding call: empty bladders only (Mark Willacy @ ABC News)

Please note that our sound effects come from SoundSnap.com and our theme music track is “YouNameIt5” by Brian Simpson (aka t3cat5).