From here Bas & Grant got to join the Bonanzas to Oshkosh group and fly from Rockford up to Oshkosh on the Saturday, landing on RWY 36 where even two days before the official opening, the aircraft parking spaces were filling up and the airport was a hive of activity. On the Sunday Rob, David Vanderhoof, Dan Web, Steve and his friend Mike all arrived having driven up from Chicago. Joining our friends at Firebase MyTransponder / Camp Bacon we set up the tent and settled into life in Camp Scholler, which is definitely something to be experienced at least once (& perhaps only once :)

Until we left on the Sunday at the end of the show, we were flat out experiencing the amazing sights, sounds & people that make up Oshkosh. We discuss the highlights and talk about trying to take it all in before winding up by reviewing our departure, our returns to Australia (including Steve’s flight with Milford from the FlightTime Radio show) and then our post-Oshkosh thoughts.

Following this we have a recording Steve & Grant made with Rob Mark (also from CommAvia as well as JetWhine and the Airplane Geeks) before Steve presents an interview he recorded with Bill & Earlene Hankins about Bill’s time in Strategic Air Command. Towards the end of Bill’s time with SAC he was a commander of a Titan Missile complex. While some of the chat can be like watching the movies Strategic Air Command or Gathering of Eagles, his descriptions of the Titan’s launch environment are very much like those shown at the start of the movie WarGames.

It also turns out that Bill and Earlene hosted Steve when he was an exchange student and then again when he returned to the USA to complete his US pilot’s licenses and instrument ratings. The interview includes some discussion about N4223Q, a C172L Bill used to own and Steve got to fly a lot.

After all this we have a chat with Bas about the OzRunways app then mention Ryan Hothersall’s photos of the 787 and Rob Noonan’s heads up about the Australian aerobatic pilots who are getting ready for the World Aerobatic Championships in Italy later this year.

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 :)

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.

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.