• Steve &  David Vanderhoof discuss the Royal Australian Navy  (RAN)  Sea King helicopters at the time of their decommissioning, developments with the C130 Hercules and a special Christmas greeting from David
• We chat with Mo Ferrando from High Alpha Media about the Hexacopter and Octocopter units he was displaying for us at Tooradin
• David Pilkington talks with us about his career in aeronautical engineering and aerobatics
• David &  Grant go up in David’s Decathlon to fly an aerobatic routine above Tooradin (YTDN) and broadcast the manoeuvres and sensations during the flight
• Adam Wooley from JoeyGlide chats with us about the National Junior Gliding Championships recently held in Queensland

As usual we have some great listener mail, including:

• Ryan Hothersall sent us a link to the 2011 STOL competitions – amazing stuff!
• Congrats to the AirStig who is celebrating the arrival of a new Stigette
• Thanks to Keane Bourke for his Merry Christmas wishes
• Thanks also to Garry Collins for his train jargon & congrats for Steve
• Big shout out to Owen Zupp for his Owen Zupp Author page on Facebook and his new OwenZupp.com.au blog

Given it’s our end of year episode, we have a list of people & groups to thank:

• Our sponsors over the course of the year:
  • Aviation Advertiser
  • GippsAero
  • Andrew Temby from Temby Automotive
  • Jetride Australia &  Pracy Racing
  • Joel Haski at Red Baron Adventures
  • Thromby Air &  Robert E Coli
• All the listeners who donated to help us cover the costs of being at Oshkosh &  producing the show all year
• The contributors who have helped us create content for the show:
  • Bas Scheffers
  • Anthony Crichton Browne
  • Kathy Mexted
  • ATC Ben (aka Ben Ippolito)
  • David Vanderhoof
  • Dan Morris
  • Pieter Johnson
  • Anthony Simmons, the Infrequent Flyer
  • Adam Visscher
  • Steven Pam
  • Allan Van’t Padje
  • Mike Wilson who helped us at Oshkosh

We’d also like to say thanks to:

• AusAir Services
• Ian Kershaw for his help with the survey
• James Williams &  Dave Gray from LPN
• Milford &  Charlie from Flight Time Radio
• Max Flight & Courtney Miller for making this happen
• Rob Mark for his hospitality at Camp Jetwhine
• Mike Miley &  Rod Rakic from MyTransponder for the help at Oshkosh
• Stu Stevenson for his hospitality post Oshkosh
• Special thanks to Kitt &  Cathey for their continuing status as podcast widows!

So thanks again to our growing audience who have been with us as we’ve expanded PCDU over the course of 2011. Happy holidays and here’s to a whole new year of bringing you the most amazing aviation experiences & information from Australia &  New Zealand that we can.

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

We start by talking with Mark Sr about his background in aviation including how he grew up in Scone seeing warbirds all the time, was taught aerobatics by Col Pay and then eventually became an aerobatics instructor. He’s also got a low-level aerobatics waiver and is an airshow pilot displaying a number of warbirds at events around the country.

Eventually progressing to jets, the Pracys purchased a Czechoslovakian Aero L-39 Albatros two seat aircraft. We discuss with them it’s handling, speeds and the typical manoeuvres they’ll perform when taking passengers up as part of their JetRide Australia flights. We also discuss some of the more interesting folks they’ve had on board before moving into their other main operation: Aircraft Imports.

Mark Jr is a certified LAME & pilot who runs the Aircraft Imports business, working with his father to scout aircraft, flight test & inspect them and arrange their purchase for clients. With the AUS$ being so high compared to the US$, they’re being kept very busy arranging purchases for Australians at the moment (although we’re not sure using a container to bring a Cirrus into Australia is the best way of doing it :). Mark Jr is able to run the entire operation from the inspections to dismantling & packing then on to reassembly, test flights & certification back here in Australia.

The work Team Pracy do in JetRide Australia and Aircraft Imports all helps support their latest endeavour which is racing their L39 at the Reno Air Races. They’ve recently completed their qualifications and are now certified to race this year in September. We talk to them about the qualification & selection process, dealing with emergencies and the mechanics of reducing weight to help compete. Fascinating stuff.

Team Pracy also note that they’re happy to take on sponsors of their L39 in Reno so if you or an organisation you represent are interested in getting space on a very sexy aircraft, contact Mark Sr via mark@jetride.com.au.

Finally, we have our big announcement for the show:

Thanks to the generous support of Team Pracy, we’re being sent to Oshkosh 2011. That’s right, after 2 years of having to miss Oshkosh because of insufficient funds and looking like we were going to miss this one as well, Mark Sr & Mark Jr have offered to get us over there (mostly, we think, so they can see our heads explode as we’re surrounded by aviation :)

We’d like to thank Team Pracy for their most wonderful offer as it’s thanks to them that we’re going to finally be able to meet up with our online friends and experience the wonder that is AirVenture Oshkosh. We’re also receiving additional sponsorship funding from other groups including the fine folks at Aviation Advertiser who are helping to chip in some additional funds to cover our camping gear while we’re on site.

Watch this space as we’ll have more news & updates about how our trip to Oshkosh is progressing over the next few weeks :)

As if all this wasn’t enough, we wrap up the episode with a quick chat with Bas about the latest news on the OzRunways application and he points us at a cool video of OzRunways being demonstrated.

Music supplied from the royalty free production music at JewelBeat.

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:

www.flickr.com Steve's L39 JetRide Adventure photoset

The Red Baron's Pitts Special

Roll forward to today and Red Baron scenic & aerobatic flights is now owned by Joel Haski (RedBaronSydney on Twitter) with a number of aircraft, including Pitts Specials, Robins/Alphas, an Extra and a new Airvan. Some are painted in Red Baron colours while others fly under the Red Bull logos.

We were fortunate enough to get some of Joel’s time for a chat about his flying history, running the Red Baron operation, being involved with Red Bull and the recent New South Wales Aerobatic competition.

Matt Hall

As with our previous interview session with Matt, time blurs and we have a great time chatting and listening to his fascinating comments. We’re looking forward to seeing how he goes in the final race at Barcelona and hopefully will get a chance to chat with him again afterwards.

You can find Matt on his home page, Wikipedia, FaceBook, Flickr and Twitter. Be sure to join up to follow his progress in the races and show your support.