We start off by hanging out with Anthony and talking about his career in aviation and more, including:

• He has an older brother who’s also a pilot
• He’s from Western Australia, learning to fly at Jandakot in Perth
• He did the usual hour building & quickly found himself in a Cessna 310 then on to First Officer on a Brasillia before stepping up to Second Officer on 747-400, after which he proceeded to his current gig as First Officer on a 767
• Anthony started flying aerobatics with friends and also scored a flight with Matt Hall
• His aerobatic training really kicked in with a Pitts and he now has his own Pitts
• We talk about G-Tolerance, G-LOC and beating the effects of high-G manoeuvres
• We discuss the recent tragic accident at the Reno Air Races, including the NTSB’s preliminary report & talk further the effects of pulling-G’s
• A discussion about stalls that leads into how advanced training really helps dispel some of the many myths, how the stall stick position works and standard GFPT training vs advanced training by groups like Red Baron in Sydney (Hi Joel! :)

You can find Anthony on his Flying Ant Online website as well as following him on Twitter where he’s known as AntCB.

We then move into the interview that Steve & Anthony recorded with Grant Piper, the President of the Australian Aerobatics Club, featuring:

• An overview of aerobatic manoeuvre’s
• How aerobatic competitions are managed & scored
• Australia’s return to the World Aerobatic Championship
• How to improve the standard in Australia with coaching by current champs
• Grant’s career in aviation including his start in the RAAF
• The benefits of including aeros in primary training

We then return to a chat with Anthony about:

• The challenges of flying competition aerobatics
• Standard aerobatic figures (loop, cuban-8, etc)
• How scoring each manoeuvre starts at 10 points then deducts points for any errors
• How it all has to look right from the ground
• The issues in dealing with wind & power
• What is the aerobatic box
• Types of propeller blades and their benefits (blade numbers, sizes, etc)

Finally we start to wrap it up with some listener mail:

• Ian Allen from New Zealand sent us some great ideas for more Kiwi Content
• Errol Cavit points us at a possible Kiwi aviation podcast
• Don’t forget to check out our Facebook page and our forums on Downwind

We then wind up with some shout outs:

• Phil Unicomb from Action Aerobatics and Combat Dragon
• Steve Tupper at the Airspeed Podcast who has a great new episode out on air show safety
• The NSW Aerobatic Champs will be held at Temora on Friday 28th Oct to Monday 31st October with more information available at the Australian Aerobatic Club’s web page

The list of topics we discussed with Will Horton include:

• A review of the recent Asia/Pacific Aviation Outlook Summit in Sydney
• The Asia/Pacific outlook for airlines includes a prediction for strong growth
• “Buy local” for Russia (Sukhoi) & China (Comac) plus India building up its local aeronautics capabilities along with Mahindra & Mahindra buying into Australian aviation companies such as Gippsland Aeronautics
• Cathay Pacific’s Boeing 777-300 and Airbus A350-900 order
• V Australia’s 777 useage in Fiji & Bali plus the use of wide bodies (eg: 767/A330) on domestic routes due to slot restrictions
• Qantas wanting to fly 787s into China & on to Europe
• Jetstar being boosted over Qantas (if it’s new it’s JQ) and using Singapore as a hub into Europe
• Qantas’s new smart card system for check-in that relies on elite frequent flyers who are with Qantas, not Jetstar
• AirAsia setting up a Frequent Flyer program
• Crawford Rix @ Tiger Airways is against frequent flyer programs as they’re anticompetitive and is hinting that Tiger could go down the RyanAir path (standing seats, pay loos, etc) – at least for the publicity :)
• Customers in Australia and Asia/Pacific wanting a higher level of standards
• Tiger setting up a franchise in Thailand (51% Thai owned but still Tiger Thailand)
• China more likely to have standing seats as the Chinese can lay down the law for their own operations – no need to align with FAA/EASA standards although they’re investing in highspeed trains)
• AirAsia wants to enter the Australian domestic & trans-tasman market
• The high quality of the AirAsia experience (a discount carrier that doesn’t nickle & dime their passengers) will hit Jetstar hard
• Pacific Blue is pulling out of the New Zealand domestic market
• Repurposing of V Australia’s 777s off the Fiji route
• United is not worried about Delta-V
• Qantas’ financial results

Steve & Grant also talk afterwards about Virgin Blue’s financial results which came out after we spoke with Will, along with their news about adding A330s, dropping the E170s (while keeping the E190s) and linking up with Etihad.

Fortunately, we were all spot on with our news analysis, including such topics as:

• Use of composites in airliners and the indications that it won’t really be effective for another 10 to 20 years
• QANTAS still claiming that they’re going to get their 787-9s on a date that would be before Air New Zealand (the launch customer) despite Boeing making a statement contradicting this
• The changes that are afoot with the Virgin Blue group being under new leadership:
  • Brett Godfrey’s farewell bash
  • John Borghetti not getting the top job at QANTAS but, perhaps, getting something better with running Virgin Blue
  • Fleet choices and the possibility that they’ll get A330s or B767s, especially on high density routes like Sydney to Melbourne
  • The likelihood that they’ll rebrand the group (Virgin Blue, V Australia, Pacific Blue, Polynesian Blue) under a single name
• Singapore Airlines having veto rights over the name Virgin for any new international airline
• Tiger Airways recording a profit and becoming more of a stable, solid threat in the market
• Australia’s transport minister Anthony Albanese wanting to restrict cockpit access to only the two pilots flying and any check pilots or safety reviewers
• The F35 and how Australia seems to be one of the few countries NOT getting upset about all the delays and problems

After chatting with Ben, we have an interview with James Baldwin & Glen Somerville from EmptyJets, an organisation that gives you the chance to get rides in charter aircraft that would otherwise be flying empty on positioning flights. From helicopters to Gulfstream Vs, they’re all on the list and well worth checking out.

After that we dive into the mail bag where:

• Matt McCabe compares the cost of learning to fly here in Australia against the USA
• Errol Cavit enjoyed the Red Bull show and will be catching up with us when he comes over from New Zealand (for a Sci Fi convention, no less)
• Vince Bezzina who volunteers at the RAAF Museum at Point Cook was checking if we knew about the DC6 coming to Australia from South Africa. Oh yes, do we ever!

We also have a couple of shout outs to:

• Damien Rose who is now a private pilot and on his way to a commercial license (and speaking of the cost of learning – Damien sold his house to fund all this! He must have a VERY understanding wife, that’s for sure :)
• Steve Cooke from the Flying Podcast in the UK has released his latest episode on a topic that’s very important for Grant: ballooning

Here’s how this episode flows:

• First class to be stripped from Qantas 747s? (Australian Aviation)
• QANTAS 767 involved in a tail strike at Sydney
  • Qantas 767 returns to Sydney after tailstrike (Australian Aviation)
  • Qantas plane in tail strike drama (Kate Schneider @ Herald Sun)
• Air New Zealand has a couple of emergency situations
  • Full-scale emergency response as Air NZ jet aborts take-off (Sydney Morning Herald)
  • Air NZ 777 involved in emergency at Narita (Australian Aviation)
• Jetstar are rolling out self-service & SMS based check in
  • Jetstar jettisons check-in desks for self-service kiosks (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
  • Jetstar to roll out SMS boarding passes from February (Australian Aviation)
• Jetstar expect big results from their expansion into Asia
  • Jetstar chooses Singapore for Asian hub (Australian Aviation)
  • Jetstar expects payoff from expansion in Asia (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
• Garuda are preparing for an IPO
  • PT Garuda, Indonesia’s state-owned carrier, planning a $340 million IPO (P R Venkat & Tom Wright @ The Wall St Journal / The Australian)
  • Garuda to list this year, cancels 787s (Australian Aviation)
     
• We have another interview with Matt Hall
  • Matt Hall announces his supporter’s tour for Perth
  • AVTours set up Matt’s supporter’s tour
     
• We attended the Flight Experience Melbourne Facebook fan open night and recorded some interviews with the instructors & guests who were there at the 737 simulator.
   
• Shout outs
  • Congratulations to Jack Seymour in Wangaratta for doing his trial introductory flight in a Eurofox. You can read about his adventures in flight at his blog: StudentFlight.
  • Thanks to Brendan from Essendon (YMEN) for letting Grant tag along when he went flying out to Tooradin (YTDN). While he didn’t get atthe controls, being in the backseat of a C172 is still flying :)
  • We have a discussion on our forum about where to find the best coffee at airports.

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

Andrew Temby

While Max Flight from the Airplane Geeks couldn’t be with us, having the other guys from the show record with us was a hoot and certainly generated a LOT of content for a future “Bloopers Only” episode. We’re definitely looking forward to recording with them again once our sanity recovers.

Dr Bruce Searle

The topics discussed in this episode include:

• A general discussion of airline issues down under with the Airplane Geeks
  • Emirates and V Australia to codeshare on Tasman routes (Leithen Francis @ FlightGlobal)
  • V Australia to Codeshare with…Emirates? (Dan Webb @ Things in the Sky)
  • High fuel prices may clip recovery (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
  • Premium passengers slowly return to flights (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
  • Qantas CEO: See No Further Room For Capacity Cuts In This FY (Wall St Journal)
  • INTERVIEW: Qantas CEO: Passenger Demand Higher Than Expected (Wall St Journal)
  • Qantas jettisons JAL merger rumour (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
  • Virgin in talks to buy $4b planes (Matt O’Sullivan @ The Age)
  • Virgin Blue to buy 30 to 50 737s? (Australian Aviation magazine)
  • Virgin Blue’s plan to seat more passengers (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
  • Brett Godfrey true believer in 50pc Virgin share (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
• Talking about Air Traffic Control issues with Rob & David
  • Staff shortage sparks national flight delays (ABC News)
  • Flights delayed or cancelled as air controllers “unavailable” (Sydney Morning Herald)
  • Sydney’s flight schedule ‘to return to normal’ (ABC News)
  • Airservices, staff on collision course (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
  • Virgin Blue to pursue AirServices Australia for compensation for its air traffic failures (Ben Sandilands @ Crikey)
  • Military to lose airspace in $300m savings push (Cameron Stewart & Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
• David Vanderhoof presents “This week in Australian aviation history” covering the official approval for the establishment of the Central Flying School at Point Cook (now referred to as RAAF Williams)
• Grant went to the Mission Aviation Fellowship airshow at Coldstream Airport (YCEM) and recorded these interviews
  • Dr Bruce Searle, Dean of the Australian Centre for Mission Aviation
  • Andrew Temby, aerobatics pilot and owner of a Yak-52TW
• Matt Hall came 3rd at the Porto RedBull AirRace in Portugal – YAY!
• We discuss some military news
  • Questions over F-35′s stealth capability (ABC News)
  • Air Marshall Mark Binskin wants more fighters (Mark Dodd @ The Australian)
  • F-111 maintenance blamed for creek contamination (ABC News)
• We review some of the “Traffic” entries from the latest Australian Aviation magazine
  • OzJet 737-200s
  • V Australia’s latest 777
  • RAAF KC30 MRTT
  • Air New Zealand’s 767 with blended winglets

Please note that our theme music track is “YouNameIt5″ by Brian Simpson (aka t3cat5) and our sound effects come from SoundSnap.com.