Steve wasn’t kidding when he said that “Autumn means Airshows” down here in Australia. We’ve been kept pretty busy lately with:
The Tyabb Airshow: Our full coverage of the show is in Episode 85 along with ATC Ben’s answers to a few interesting ATC questions. We’ve also just released Steven Pam’s excellent work producing our video coverage of the Tyabb Airshow (see below for the video).
The Parafield Airshow: Thanks to sponsorship from OzRunways, Steve was able to go to Adelaide to attend the Parafield Airshow 2012. We’ve just released our coverage of that in Episode 86 that went live a few days ago plus the guys at Five DME Adelaide put out a video of Steve interviewing Chris Sperou (see below).
NatFly at Temora: Steve flew BenAir (aka ATC Ben in a Warrior :) to get to Temora for the RA-Aus NatFly event. He spent a few days catching up with various exhibitors, RA-Aus folks and attendees to record interviews & learn what’s new in the Recreational world. We should be releasing that content in a few episodes.
Of course, Autumn isn’t over yet and there’s a few more events coming up that we’re trying to get to. We’ll keep you posted as our travel plans are confirmed but for now, we’ve got a big backlog of content were working through to bring you more PCDU-goodness :)
Our full Tyabb Airshow 2012 video coverage:
FiveDME Adelaide’s video of Steve interviewing Chris Sperou:
The Easter long weekend will once again see members of the Recreational Aviation Association making their way to Temora, NSW for the NatFly 2012 event. Once again we’ll be in attendance recording interviews with exhibitors, attendees and organisers so we can produce another episode packed full of great RA-Aus content (like we did last year with Episode 63 :)
We’re planning to arrive on Friday & stay until later on Sunday so keep an eye out for the PCDU logo and if you see us, come on over & say HI.
Aviation has a rich & storied history with over 100 years separating our current complex, high speed & long range aircraft from those produced of wood, metal & fabric during our fledgling beginnings as we first pushed into the sphere of powered, heavier than air flight.
While grainy photos & stuttering films can try to convey a vista of the past, there is nothing like being able to walk around, touch & examine the aircraft as they were. You can truly appreciate how far we have come (and how brave our pioneers were) when you can see an aircraft from 100 years ago in the foreground while behind it sits a modern combat fighter.
Enter the replica builders. Dedicated men & women who have a dream of recreating the past so we can enjoy it today. Spending months & years researching a specific aircraft type (or even a single example), hunting through archives to find plans, drawings, specifications & photos. Sometimes going to great lengths to use materials, colours & techniques that were in use when the original was flying. Agonising over changes required to allow a replica to actually fly with some level of safety. Painstakingly creating components, building sections and assembling them into the completed aircraft.
Our latest episode (PCDU Episode 83: Replicate This!) contains interviews with a number of replica builders in Australia and the USA.
We’re keeping up with Owen Zupp and so too can you by listening to Episode 82. Featuring a great chat with Owen about some of his latest projects, we also have a couple of great interviews Steve recorded in Mildura, a new segment from Pieter Johnson and more.
We’ve had Owen Zupp on our show a number of times, including our next episode that’s due out in a week or so. Aside from flying airliners, Owen also flies light aircraft (including a Jabiru around Australia), writes books & articles and is a lot of fun to chat with.
If you’ve been following our Facebook page for a while, you’ll have seen a number of entries there referring to posts on Owen’s new blog site at OwenZupp.com.
So just in case you’re not following us on Facebook, we thought we’d better let you know about the site here on our home page. If you’re not already keeping up with Owen’s new site, you should be. It’s got fantastic content that’s frequently updated and you don’t have to be a pilot to enjoy it :)
Our first show for 2012 is hosted by Steve Visscher and Anthony Simmons. Anthony recently travelled to the United Kingdom where he attended the Imperial War Museum at Duxford on their final flying display for 2011. The theme centred around the Korean War, the aircraft that flew and the people that flew them. Anthony presents a series of interviews from the day in his first major production for PCDU.
Christmas and New years have come and gone and with the usual festivities over, the PCDU team are back on deck and preparing for an exciting year of podcasting.
Plans are being made for attending several local aviation events, including Natfly, Tyabb Air Show, and the Parafield Air Show. We have been already recorded a few interviews and the team is out & about making contact with a range of interesting people in the aviation scene in Australia & New Zealand. In addition, Pieter Johnson has already sent us another From Up here to Down There segment.
Episode 81 is in the final stages of production, and features some wonderful content from Anthony “The Infrequent Flyer” Simmons’ recent travels to the UK. Keep a look out for this show over the next few days!
We look forward to having you join us again this year, and we hope you’ll continue to contact us with story leads and topic suggestions. You can contact us any time at planecrazydownunder@gmail.com , or join the conversation on our Facebook Page or Downwind Forum. You can also find us on Twitter as @pcdu
As 2011 draws to a close, our final show for 2011 has gone live on the feed for you to enjoy. Farewell 2011 (Tom Cruise Wraps My Dolmades), is the 80th show in the series and our 30th show for the year.
Anthony “The Infrequent Flyer” Simmons joins us this time around as we cover a number of topics, including interviews from our recent end of year Fly-In at Aus Air Services in Tooradin, Victoria.
David Vanderhoof chats with Steve about military helicopters plus reviews the year that was. Visit David’s blog at www.whatjustflewby.com
Mo Ferrando from High Alpha Media explains the intricacies of their remote control Hexocopter & Octocopter, and how they use them for amazing aerial photography
Grant chats with David Pilkington about his career in aeronautical engineering and his enthusiasm for aerobatics. Check out David’s excellent website here
Click on the episode in the menu to the left for more detailed notes on episode 80.
As is tradition with our end of year shows, we take the opportunity to thank all those who have supported us throughout 2011. It’s been an amazing journey this year, starting off with Avalon, moving on to NatFly, Oshkosh, the Qantas grounding and much more. Our coverage of the Australia/New Zealand aviation scene in 2011 has seen a tremendous growth in our listener base, and we sincerely thank you for coming along for the ride. We trust you have found the programme both entertaining and informative.
If it’s aviation personalities, events, or industry & political figures, you’ve heard them all on PCDU this year. We look forward to continuing the fun in 2012.
Wishing you all a safe and happy festive season, and a wonderful 2012.
Come and join us on December 17th at Tooradin Airport (YTDN) as we dust off the mobile studio and have some fun with our friends at Aus Air Services
Grant, Steve and Anthony “The Infrequent Flyer” Simmons will be in attendance to record an episode of the show, assisted by Allan Van’t Padje who’ll be setting up an array of speaker towers and running the panel
In our latest episode (Tim Smith: Flying Saved My Life) we get to hang out with Melbourne comedian Tim Smith, recording an hilarious chat about his flying. A lot of fun and some great stories along with some serious & important points.
It’s also a relatively short episode, which after our previous one on the Qantas Grounding, is probably a good thing :)
The Boeing 787 “Dreamliner” is branching out further and further around the globe lately as the evaluation programme continues.
With the recent entry into service of the type with launch customer All Nippon Airways, interest has intensified in our region with Air New Zealand, QANTAS & Jetstar eagerly awaiting deliver of their airframes.
On Friday, November 11th, Dreamliner N787BA, completed a 13 hour 40 minute transit from Seattle, crossing the Pacific and arriving into Auckland with Air New Zealand Chief Pilot Captain David Morgan and 30 Boeing test & evaluation staff aboard . The aircraft made a low pass over the city before landing at AKL.
The aircraft will stay in New Zealand for a few days before heading across the Tasman to Sydney.
Listener Daniel Talbot was there for the big event and has kindly shared these pictures. You can find more of Daniels photography at www.danieltalbot.co.nz
In response to the momentous news that Alan Joyce (CEO) and the board of directors at Qantas had decided to ground the entire airline on Saturday afternoon, Steve & Grant launched into gear to assemble a broad collection of interviews & discussions about the event. The result is a hefty 2 hour, 15 minute episode that’s packed with interviews with politicians, union leaders, Dick Smith, analysts and us. You can read all about it and listen to it by visiting:
Not all PCDU material is recorded in the studio and over Skype. We also get out and about in the aviation community with our mobile studio. We can attend your aviation event to record interviews or entire shows, provide commentary, or entertain your guests with pre recorded content from previous PCDU shows.
We can also provide up to 12 high quality weather proofed speaker towers to cater for any occasion – enough to stretch along 300 metres of flight line!
Steve & Grant recording at NatFly 2011 in Temora
Recording content with guests and speakers at your aviation event allows your message to be spread more widely through inclusion in our podcast series.
If you’d like to have Grant, Steve and the PCDU team attend your next aviation event, email us at planecrazydownunder@gmail.com
Coverage of the Qantas Grounding, including an appearance on Al Jazeera
In response to the momentous news that Alan Joyce (CEO) and the board of directors at Qantas had decided to ground the entire airline on Saturday afternoon, Steve & Grant launched into gear to assemble a broad collection of interviews & discussions about the event. The result is a hefty 2 hour, 15 minute episode that’s packed with interviews with politicians, union leaders, Dick Smith, analysts and us. You can read all about it and listen to it by visiting:
PCDU Episode 77: Qantas Crisis: After the Grounding.
In addition to producing this episode, Grant was invited to appear on Al Jazeera’s English channel to briefly discuss the current Qantas grounding.
Here’s the video of the discussion recorded with Grant in the Southern Skies Online Media studio.
Our thanks go to Al Jazeera for providing us with this copy of the discussion and allowing us to display it.
There’s also a “behind the scenes” video that Steve took of Grant in the studio being interviewed: