Plane Crazy Down Under » 747

PCDU Episode 81: An Infrequent Flyer goes to Europe

Grant (Falcon124) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 09:18:52 +0000

There’s been a few delays in getting our first episode for 2012 out but what can you expect with the Summer heat to enjoy and games of Cricket to watch (or avoid :). It is with Cricket in mind that our very own Infrequent Flyer, Anthony Simmons, took some time out of his European adventures to visit the Imperial War Museum at Duxford (home of the Duxford Aviation Society) at the time of their last flying display for 2011, a day that saw some 16,000 people come to watch the show!

The focus of this flying display was the Korean War and Anthony was able to find out that the “Forgotten War” was about so much more than episodes of M*A*S*H:

Anthony chats with Lt Don Reed (ret), a 90 year old veteran of the conflict who flew with the Fleet Air Arm as an observer on Fireflies and as a Seafire pilot
He then meets Esther Blaine, the PR Manager, for a discussion on:
- The history of the Duxford site
- The educational programmes the IWM provides
- The new “Airspace” display
- The IWM’s plans for the future
Anthony is also able to further one-up Steve & Grant by noting that he’s been through a Vickers Viscount, DeHavilland Comet and Aerospatiale-BAC Concorde as well as getting up close with a Lancaster and Tigermoth. What, us, jealous??? :)
Anthony wraps it up by interviewing Mark Linney from the Golden Apple Trust about their flying F86A, the only one of its kind still flying. They chat about:
- The history of this particular aircraft
- Mark’s career as a pilot in the RAF flying the Tornado GR1, instructing on the Hawk and then winding up on the Harrier. After the RAF he’s now flying 747s, A340-600s and, of course, the F86
- They then chat about the F86′s development, handling and history

The episode wraps up with Steve & Anthony having a quick review of the content & Anthony’s experience at Duxford.

PCDU Episode 29: What’s in a Checklist?

Grant (Falcon124) — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 23:21:35 +0000

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
- 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 F18s :)
- 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 Jetstarisation of QANTAS is not over yet

Grant (Falcon124) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 06:00:49 +0000

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 :)

PCDU Episode 22: Farewell 2009

Grant (Falcon124) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 12:05:34 +0000

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
QANTAS 747-400 has an engine failure not long after take off at Changi (Singapore)
QANTAS pilots union upset over JetConnect pilots
Interview with Michael Gilmour from Downwind.com.au
We review our Listener Mail
It’s Christmas, so of course everyone’s going on strike
Here’s our end of year wrap
- Special thanks to the podcasts that inspired us to start PCDU
- 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 SoundSnap.com.

PCDU Episode 19: Interview with a Vampire … Pilot (& Other Stories)

Grant (Falcon124) — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 02:27:37 +0000

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 F35 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.

PCDU Episode 16: Rant on Steve, Rant on

Grant (Falcon124) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 23:08:59 +0000

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 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
It seems that it’s not just in the USA that airline pilots make silly mistakes
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
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).

PCDU Episode 15: And now for something completely different, here is the news

Grant (Falcon124) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 04:37:51 +0000

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
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).

PCDU Episode 13: The Only Way is Zupp

Grant (Falcon124) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:15:07 +0000

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.

There And Back, a charity flight for the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

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:

Champagne PC Services flight planning software

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.

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