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How cool would it be if the seat selection process at the check-in kiosk system allowed you to do this:  XKCD's "Seat Selection"cartoon If you like the cartoon,send an email to orders@xkcd.com and ask them to add #726 to the list of signed comic prints that are available to purchase. Heck,even if you don’t,please send the email anyway –some of us are hanging to buy a signed copy of this one:) Thanks to Stephen Force (aka Steve Tupper) of the Airspeed podcast,we were invited to appear on a special “Aviation Podcasters”event being held on Sun N Fun Radio at the Sun N Fun air show. We were on first and,given the joys of timezones,it meant an early morning start for us to be on the show. For Steve it was 8am in Melbourne but for Grant it was 5am in Indonesia where he’s working at the moment. So despite a bit of a lag and a very flakey connection in Indonesia,we managed to do our bit on the show. It was a lot of fun and we really enjoyed the opportunity to hang out and chat for a bit. If only we could have been there,rather than connecting via Skype. Oh well:) In June of this year,Australia’s General Aviation Aerodrome Procedures (GAAP) airports are going to convert a US FAA based Class D airspace. We’re trying to arrange an episode dedicated to this topic before June but meanwhile,the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) have arranged a number of workshops around the country for pilots to learn about the changes and how they will affect them. If you haven’t already,go to the CASA GAAP page and follow the links there to sign up. This is critical not only for any pilot who flies at these airports but even those who fly near them. You never know when you may have to divert to one. Besides,as Bas Scheffers points out in his CTAF(R) blog article on these workshops,it’ll be a great way to meet pilots in your area:) If any of you are going to the Red Bull Air Race in Perth,let us know so we can arrange a meet up (or tweet-up if you’re so inclined:) Steve’s got media accreditation and will be taking photos &recording interviews with the pilots,their teams and the race organisers. Sadly,Grant’s being sent to Indonesia with his work so he’ll be sitting in the middle of Java gnashing his teeth at the thought of what he’s missing. Hopefully the distractions of work,culture and learning a new language will keep him from getting too distraught:) So chime in if you’re going to be in Perth and we’ll arrange some sort of gathering. The Centenary Air Show is being held this Saturday (20th March) at Diggers Rest near Melbourne. The air show is being held to celebrate 100 years of controlled powered flight in Australia and will feature flying &static displays along with other entertainment and attractions. Naturally we will both be there which no doubt means Grant will be busy tweeting &texting madly yet again. We’re going to be interviewing pilots,crew &staff,meeting up with folks and hopefully lining up a few visits &reports for future episodes. If you’re going to be at the airshow (and let’s face it,you should be:) then post a message here or in the forums,email us,tweet us or SMS us on the day to arrange a meet up. The weather is looking pretty friendly with predictions of light winds,a few clouds and a top of 26 Celsius. NOTE:The start of the flying display will have Ken Evers &Tim Pryse flying off in their Gippsland Aeronautics GA-8 Airvan to start their Millions Against Malaria around the world journey. You may recall that we interviewed them in Episode 27:Trans World Adventures:) If you’re going to the RAAF Museum’s Point Cook Air Pageant this weekend (Feb 28th) then post a comment here or send a tweet to @PCDU,@Falcon124 or @SteveVisscher to let us know. We’ll try and organise a meet up somewhere before the show starts depending on who’s around and what interview slots we manage to get with pilots &staff:) Thanks to an opportunity presented by Shashank Nigam,Grant’s just had an article about the ongoing Jetstarisation of QANTAS published on Shashank’s Simpliflying site. It provides a background on the birth of Jetstar,its growth to date and how it is destined to consume more of QANTAS’mainline routes &aircraft. Head on over to Simpliflying and check out the article. Thanks to Shashank for giving us the opportunity to gain further exposure to the global aviation world,it’s very much appreciated:)  2 comments  General Information 747,787,A380,Alan Joyce,Australian Airlines,Ben Sandilands,Business Class,City Flyer,Economy,Emirates,first class,Impulse Airlines,Jetstar,Jetstarisation,LCC,Low Cost Carrier,Melbourne,Plane Talking,Premium Economy,QANTAS,Shashank Nigam,SimpliFlying,Singapore Airlines,Sydney,Tiger Airways,Virgin Blue Are you one of the many people who have been enjoying this podcast and want to help ensure it grows and continues into the future? Well,we certainly appreciate your intent and would like to work with you to make it happen (funny that:) Here are three great ways that you can help us to keep bringing in the fun &interesting content for you:
Feel free to contact us if you have some other suggestions for helping us to grow and keep the fun happening. We certainly don’t have all the answers but are enjoying finding a few new ones as we go along.  Download,print &distribute our flyer The crew at Flight Experience Melbourne are having an Open Night on the 27th January and we’re going along. They’re giving away 10 minute sessions in their 737 sim to the first 20 people in the door (need to register before hand). We’re going to be there to interview people for a future episode as well as have some fun (and enjoy the drinks &nibbles:) If you’re in Melbourne,Australia and can get to the QV Building in the city from 6pm on the 27th January,you really should get yourself there. More information about the event and the registration form is available on their blog. Hope to see you there:) Some of you may have experienced some problems downloading from our feed lately. This was all thanks to updating to the latest version of the PodPress plugin,unfortunately. It seems the latest version didn’t mix well with our site and started sending out broken URLs to each episode’s MP3 file in our RSS feed (we’re not the only ones to have experienced this). The problem was fixed by rolling back to the previous version of the plugin,but for about 4 to 6 hours around New Years’Day the feed was broken (episode description text was fine but the episodes wouldn’t download). If you’re still experiencing a problem downloading our episodes,make sure you’ve got the latest version of the feed in your system. In iTunes,this means right-clicking (or cmd-clicking:) on the Plane Crazy Down Under podcast entry and selecting “Update Podcast.”This will force iTunes to download the most recent copy of the RSS feed file. Once that’s done,retry the broken download and it should all work nicely. Meanwhile,I’m waiting for a fix from the PodPress developer and will,in future,try not to be amongst the first to try out a new version of a plugin:) In the relatively quiet time between Christmas &New Year,Erk from the Erk Pod podcast bravely travelled down from Sydney to Melbourne,seeking sites to enjoy,experiences to be had and southern podcasters to interview. Having found PCDU a few months earlier,Erk asked if we wanted to be interviewed about the podcast,how it came to be and what’s involved in keeping it running. Who were we to say no to some publicity?:) The results can be found at Erk Pod Episode 236 and it’s worth listening to for some insight into what goes into making PCDU is produced each week. This is a quick update for everyone who reads the blog &doesn’t just grab episodes via their podcatcher software (Hi gang! Great to have you here:) We’re working on a couple of episodes at the moment,one of which we’re recording later tonight and should have out in a few days depending on: You see,Steve works wonders in post production to tidy things up,blend them together and make it all sound coherent and cool (let’s face it,anyone who can make me sound good has to have talent:) As any podcast producer can tell you,the post-production work can easily take 2 to 3 times as long to complete as the episode took to plan &record. Well,it does if they’re trying to make it sound professional. We’ve also got a great discussion we recorded recently that’s almost ready to release and it will come out shortly after the next episode (yes,it’s the dreaded Episode 17!). To give you a hint,it talks about showers &learning. Can you guess it? Doing this podcast around the demands of our day jobs does slow us down and make it tricky to get time for planning,recording and producing. We’ve also had the recent distractions of flying around the place in a DC3 and my aerobatics session in a Yak-52. Don’t worry,we’ll be releasing the recorded sounds &discussions from these events shortly. Of course,that’s what I’ve been saying about my work on the Dawn Patrol recordings too –sorry,my bad:( The upshot of all this is that we’re working to get the next few episodes out and have plans for many more. We certainly they’ll be worth the wait:) Cheers, Grant As mentioned during our interview with Owen Zupp in episode 13,we’re doing our first ever give-away. 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. Looks like a few of the PCDU listeners are going to fly from Essendon Airport (YMEN) to Temora (YTEM) to catch the Temora Aviation Museum‘s next flying days on October 24th &25th. I had planned to go up there to catch the show and interview some of the staff,pilots and engineers,although I’d originally planned to drive up &back. I’d prefer to fly up there but it depends on weather and if those doing the flying are staying for both days. As if you didn’t need enough reasons to go and check out the flying at Temora,Matt Hall is going to be flying his Mustang there. It promises to be quite the experience! Given a bunch of us will be up there,we’re considering doing a combined PCDU/UCAP meet up. Depending on when people are going to be there,we’ll do it on one or both days of the show and/or arrange a dinner session on the Saturday night. If you’re interested in meeting up at Temora,please post here and let us know. Tell us whether you want to fly yourself there,drive or come along as a passenger in one of the planes if space permits. |
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