AirVenture Oshkosh 2011 was an incredible experience for the team from PCDU, one that we’re all still getting over. There was so much to do & see and so many wonderful people to meet, naturally we weren’t able to do all we would have liked to. One of the tasks we had that fell by the wayside in the rush was putting out daily updates. Maybe if Grant could have found some RedBull on site, they might have made it out each day :)
Now that we’re back in Australia, we’re being kept pretty busy catching up with our families, getting back on top of everything at our “day jobs” and working through all the content we’ve gathered. It’s going to take a few months to get it all completed, but we’re working on it as best we can :)
You can find the daily reports in our PCDU Commentaries blog as we’ll be creating an Oshkosh 2011 Summary page as we did for Avalon 2011. For now, we have a few of the daily reports completed and loading episodes featuring the additional Oshkosh content we’ve not already released.
It is our intention to cover Oshkosh from a “down under” perspective to the best of our ability. We’ll be looking for the Aussie/Kiwi angle from attendees to volunteers to businesses to government agencies. We plan to produce three episodes during the week of the show and provide constant coverage on our home page, at Aviation Advertiser and through various social media portals. This will include a mixture of audio, video and photographs, presented with the aim of giving you a genuine feel for the spectacle that is AirVenture 2011. As was the case with our Avalon 2011 coverage, we anticipate several follow up episodes featuring additional content after the event. Steve will also be travelling to Arkansas, the place where he completed the bulk of his flight training, to collect interviews with some of the people that influenced his passion for aviation.
We would like to offer our audience the chance to give us some indications of what you’d like to see, hear and (virtually) experience about Oshkosh while we’re over there. By posting your own comments on our updates, you can give us some direction and we’ll try to come through for you if we can.
Joining us at Oshkosh will be Bas Scheffers and David Vanderhoof as well as Mike Wilson who is going to help us with transport, camera and other technical work. We’ve received some amazing sponsorship from Pracy Racing and Jetride Australia who have covered our airfares to Chicago and back (thanks guys!!!! :) while Aviation Advertiser is chipping in to help cover a lot of the accommodation and food costs while we’re there. This has helped immensely but we’re still going to be out of pocket a rather large amount and we’d like to chip in some $$$ to say THANKS to our friends who’ll be helping us while they’re there.
If you’d like to help ensure we can get the coverage you want to hear, feel free to chip in some $$$ via the DONATE button on our home page. We’ve already received a few “Go hard!” packages from friends and every little bit helps. The more we get the more chances we have of being able to run around & pump out the content you want to hear, read & see.
As always, we are not entirely comfortable asking our audience for donations, however, this is a huge undertaking which may exceed the generous funding levels of our wonderful sponsors. In this unique instance, we ask you to consider the substantial effort we put into this programme, entirely on our own time, and give away each month at no cost. We believe our product compares favourably to monthly print publications, yet for less than the cost of a magazine you can help us achieve our goals on your behalf. Your financial assistance for this series of shows would be greatly and humbly appreciated.
We’re really looking forward to this and no matter what, we’re going to bring you along for the ride :)
Meanwhile, here’s the latest animated video from our friends at Thromby Airlines about their foray into online media and podcasters. We hope you enjoy it and recommend you visit their site for more great Thromby Air fun.
Thanks to a generous offer from Team Pracy (see JetRide Australia, Aircraft Imports and Pracy Racing), we’re going to be at Oshkosh 2011 for the whole week. We’re also picking up some additional sponsorship and assistance from other groups, including the fine folks at Aviation Advertiser, to help cover the costs of setting up camp on site (yes, we’ll be camping on the field in the midst of the action :)
In addition to Steve & Grant, Bas Scheffers will also be at Oshkosh 2011 as he’s had his tickets & plans locked in for a very long time. We’re also going to be joined by David Vanderhoof, our code-sharing historian who also appears on the Airplane Geeks podcast. In fact, for a while we thought Bas & David were going to be the sole PCDU representatives at the show.
Suffice to say we’re very excited to be going and so long as our heads don’t explode with the torrent of aviation joy surrounding us, you can expect to get heaps of Oshkosh content with a Down Under perspective as Plane Crazy Down Under embarks on the “Up & Over to Oshkosh” tour :)
Steve scored a ride in an L39 Albatros with Mark Pracy from Jetride Australia, flying from Tooradin airport (YTDN) in the south east of Melbourne. Mark ran them through a combination of horizontal & vertical manoeuvres during which Steve experienced a sustained peak of 5G's. Best of all, he didn't even hurl!
In flight video was captured along with the briefing and a few interviews. We'll be putting together a special video episode that combines Steve's jet ride and Grant's 8G RedBull aerobatics ride last year with Joel Haski from Red Baron. We'll also be putting together an audio episode on high-thrill adventure rides. Watch for these to come out in the PCDU feed in the near future.
Meanwhile, here's a quick video of Steve returning to the ramp in the L39:
On March 31st the RAAF Air Pilgrimage fleet arrived at the RAAF Museum at Point Cook after spending three days flying from Temora to Tocumwal to Ballarat and then to Pt Cook. Celebrating the 90th birthday of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), the flight consisted of warbirds, antiques and GA Aircraft.
We were onsite at Pt Cook for the arrival of the aircraft and recorded a number of discussions with people on the flight line. You can hear the full content in Episode 61: The Great Pilgrimage, see some of the photos we took on our RAAF Pilgrimage Flickr page and watch a summary video below:
Team PCDU are at the Avalon International Airshow (#Avalon11) and we’re putting out a daily Quick Cast episode with interviews & information gathered that day during the show.
With Avalon Airshow about to present us with a broad range of aviation this March, we thought it would be a great idea to give you a history of the show. Who better to provide this than the man who’s been with the show since before it even began?
Check out Episode 52: The Misty Dawn of Avalon for a great interview with Ian Honnery, CEO of Airshows Down Under on the history of the Avalon Airshow plus much more.
Our F111 Tribute Episode (Episode 51: Pig Out!) has been released and is getting great reviews. It’s packed with awesome content from our visit to RAAF Amberley and covers pilots, maintainers and simulator staff as well as a speach by the CO.
Thanks to the folks at Flight City Simulation Centre in Perth, we have been able to give away a one hour flight session in their Boeing 777 simulator to give away, valued at $275. Of the many people who correctly recognised that the airline jingle belonged to “Australian Airlines,” Graham Neal was the lucky winner.
Congratulations to Graham and also to David Mitchell & Greg Spencer who were our “runners up” winning a PCDU T-Shirt each.
Thanks to all of you who entered, even those of you who had incorrect answers. We’re working to bring in more prizes for future episodes so watch this space :)
Some of you may be aware that the Plane Crazy Down Under team can be found beyond the bounds of the PCDU podcast. In addition to venturing out of the studio to attend events and record interviews, we’re also occasionally appearing in print (yes, print!) and other forms of recorded history.
Most of you may know of the Australia Desk segment segment we produce for the Airplane Geeks podcast. In fact, that’s where our show started when we found that we had too much to talk about than would fit in the time allocated for the Australia Desk.
We’re also starting to appear in print media too, including an article by Kathy Mexted on the Centenary Airshow at Melton and a write-up about PCDU in the Australian Pilot magazine. You can find links to these two articles in our new PCDU in the News page under the “About Us” menu entry on our site. We’ll update that page as we appear in print, on radio shows or maybe even on TV.
Slowly but surely, we’re spreading the word about aviation down under to the rest of the world. Don’t forget that you can help to spread the word which will, in turn, help us to keep promoting the fun & benefits to be found in aviation.
We never made it to the Podapalooza event at Oshkosh 2010 although we did try and a recording of our attempt was played for everyone there. As many of you may know, a recording of the entire event was capture and has been circulated on a few of the podcasts that were there. In each case the podcast adding the podapalooza entry to their feed has made their own intro to it covering their own perspectives on the event.
We thought about doing the same but figured that most of you have probably already heard it from the other feeds. Rather than add yet another download of the same content to your already overloaded stash of podcasts, we’re going to follow the Airplane Geeks’ lead and point you at places to get it if you haven’t already heard it:
The PilotCast (Podapalooza was started by the original hosts of The PilotCast)
The Pilots Journey (this one has a great summary of who was on the show)
So go & check it out if you haven’t already heard it and by the way, be sure and listen to all those podcasts we’ve listed there if you’re not already (as well as all the others we list in our podcasts we like section :).
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.
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? :)
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.
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.