PCDU Episodes List

The new look site

We’ve revamped the site layout yet again with the aim of making it easier to find information and important stuff. Mostly this is handled via the menu bar across the upper part of the page (About Us, You can Help Us, etc) but also by putting some more white space in the design to make it a bit easier on the eye.

Another key part of the redesign is the list of episodes are now highlighted down the left hand side of the page, rather than buried in the stream of messages like this. Hopefully that makes it easier for you to find them if you’re playing them from the site rather than getting them through the feed.

There’s also the large space at the top for big announcements and such, like the one there now telling you that yes, we’ve been picked up by another group of aviation podcasters. Milford & Charlie at the Flight Time Radio show in Florida have graciously offered us a space to run a “Flying Down Under” segment. The Flight Time Radio show is broadcast every Saturday on radio W-BOB in Jacksonville, Florida so we’re tailoring this segment to recreational flyers and the general public. Stay tuned for more about “Flying Down Under.”

Meanwhile, feel free to let us know what you think of the new layout, either by leaving comment here or using our forum.

We tried to get to Oshkosh 2010

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? :)

 

Introducing PCDU Commentary

We’ve set up a blog where Steve & I can post our opinionated observations & commentary on the aviation scene down under. We still have our personal blogs (Grant’s is Fly Me Friendly and Steve’s is AusFlier) but they’re more for our own flying adventures.

So check out PCDU Commentary and add your thoughts & comments to ours.

1000 Downloads for Episode 1

Some time over the past few days, our fledgling episode number 1, “And so it begins” has crossed the 1000 downloads mark! This surely is cause for a small measure of celebration, considering that in it’s first week, we were pretty happy to see it hit 40 downloads. Over the following few weeks, it struggled up to around the 200 mark, and has trickled slowly upwards ever since.

Our first few shows, and episode 1 in particular, were basically just the uncut versions of the Airplane Geeks Australia News Desk that we have been producing since March 2009. Listening back to those earlier shows now, made as they were with cheap PC microphones, no mixer, and recorded directly off Skype, it’s almost a little cringe worthy compared to the standard we strive for now. However, if you’re new to our show, and are perhaps reading this page before heading off to iTunes to download our earlier efforts, please do so with the view to coming on a journey with us – not only in terms of content, but with a view to observing the learning curve we’ve been on that’s taken us to the magazine style, radio show format you hear today.

Our statistics show us that many first time listeners happen across episode one but don’t continue on with us. Given the lower production standards back then, we understand why this is the case, however we suggest sampling one of our shows from, say, episode 20 onwards. These shows were made using studio quality microphones, mixers and solid state recording devices. And frankly, we feel we’re delivering the shows far more professionally now. As time has gone on, we’ve been privileged to meet and interview a wide range of fascinating people and have introduced a number of segments designed to make the show just a little bit different with each release.

For those of you who continue to faithfully download Plane Crazy Down Under each week and participate in our community, we thank you sincerely for your support. We plan to continue delivering quality content to you each fortnight, and we encourage our new listeners to take the step and venture past our initial effort. Come on the journey with us and become another valued member of the PCDU community!