• 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.

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.

For now, here’s a list of what you’ll find in episode 72: Oshcast #3 (Hugging your Roo):

• Steve chats with Amy Laboda from Women in Aviation International
• Boyd Dellwo is an Australian listener who is now working with The Spaceship Company on White Knight 2 and Spaceship 2
• David talks to Steve Sorenson who flew a Rutan Defiant from the USA to Australia & back
• David also provides us with “A view from the tent” segment
• Bas Scheffers air tests the Remos Light Sport Aircraft
• Steve chats with Shelly Ventura of the Ninety Nines
• David talks with James Weeby about the Belite ultralight aircraft
• Steve chats with Butch Bajner about the Young Eagles Program
• Steve catches up with a South African tour group who are attending the show

After all this, we wrap up the show with a discussion between Steve, Grant, Bas, David & Mike, closing off our on-show coverage of Oshkosh 2011.

Today was the first full day we were all here and also the first official day of the show. We’ve started gathering content and have assembled some items together to create our first show episode:

• Steve reconnects with Kent Pietsch who we last spoke to back at Avalon earlier this year (in Episode 6 of our show daily coverage)
• David interviews Brandon with his Super Cub
• Bas records some chats with folks in the light-sport (Recreational) area:
  • Sportair USA
  • Snap Aero with their “Snap” aircraft
  • Mike Hanson from Hanson Air Group regarding the FK Lightplanes Fk12 biplane
• Steve talks with Pablo Alvarez about international pilot admissions at Embry Riddle University

We then wrap up the episode with a group discussion featuring Dave Allen, Bill Williams, Kent Shook, Pilot Damon, Stu Stevenson & David Vanderhoof.

Now that we’re back in Australia, we’re being kept pretty busy catching up with our families, getting back on top of everything at our “day jobs” and working through all the content we’ve gathered. It’s going to take a few months to get it all completed, but we’re working on it as best we can :)

You can find the daily reports in our PCDU Commentaries blog as we’ll be creating an Oshkosh 2011 Summary page as we did for Avalon 2011. For now, we have a few of the daily reports completed and loading episodes featuring the additional Oshkosh content we’ve not already released.

Daily Blog Reports:
Day 1 – Getting there isn’t always the best part!
Day 2 – Rockford Bonanza
Day 3 – Arrival en Mass

Audio Episodes:
Oshcast #1
Oshcast #2
Oshcast #3 (Hugging Your Roo)
Episode 73:Oshkosh:The Greatest Show on Earth

We would like to offer our audience the chance to give us some indications of what you’d like to see, hear and (virtually) experience about Oshkosh while we’re over there. By posting your own comments on our updates, you can give us some direction and we’ll try to come through for you if we can.

Joining us at Oshkosh will be Bas Scheffers and David Vanderhoof as well as Mike Wilson who is going to help us with transport, camera and other technical work. We’ve received some amazing sponsorship from Pracy Racing and Jetride Australia who have covered our airfares to Chicago and back (thanks guys!!!! :) while Aviation Advertiser is chipping in to help cover a lot of the accommodation and food costs while we’re there. This has helped immensely but we’re still going to be out of pocket a rather large amount and we’d like to chip in some $$$ to say THANKS to our friends who’ll be helping us while they’re there.

If you’d like to help ensure we can get the coverage you want to hear, feel free to chip in some $$$ via the DONATE button on our home page. We’ve already received a few “Go hard!” packages from friends and every little bit helps. The more we get the more chances we have of being able to run around & pump out the content you want to hear, read & see.

As always, we are not entirely comfortable asking our audience for donations, however, this is a huge undertaking which may exceed the generous funding levels of our wonderful sponsors. In this unique instance, we ask you to consider the substantial effort we put into this programme, entirely on our own time, and give away each month at no cost. We believe our product compares favourably to monthly print publications, yet for less than the cost of a magazine you can help us achieve our goals on your behalf. Your financial assistance for this series of shows would be greatly and humbly appreciated.

We’re really looking forward to this and no matter what, we’re going to bring you along for the ride :)

Meanwhile, here’s the latest animated video from our friends at Thromby Airlines about their foray into online media and podcasters. We hope you enjoy it and recommend you visit their site for more great Thromby Air fun.

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.

• A follow up to the ADSB discussion we had with Bill Hamilton back in episode 48
• A discussion of the iPhone/iPad application Bas & a partner have been developing called OzRunways covering what it does & how it came to be
• The revelation that Grant actually doesn’t like the TV show “Ice Pilots” (oh, the shame! :)
• Parafield airshow is changing dates to March 25th, 2012 due to weather concerns and to help ensure more Australian Defence Force assets will be available
• Avalon is coming up soon
• Bas is going to Oshkosh and as we may not be able to make it, he may have to be the PCDU correspondent for us (not sure how we’ll get him a more Australian accent though!)
• Hassling Bas to provide a bio for the PCDU “About Us” page

We also have another great chat with our man “Across the Ditch,” Dan Morris from New Zealand, including:

• A review of the amazing Walsh Memorial Scout Flying School, an event that should definitely be set up here in Australia if it’s not already being done
• Some information about Palmerston North where Dan’s based (check it out on the map)
• Mention is made of the Ministry of Transport & Technology museum in Auckland
• We talk briefly about Air New Zealand and Air Nelson as Air Nelson will be flying new services into Paraparaumu (also called Paraparam :) – check out the map

As if all this wasn’t enough, we also have a chat with James Williams from the Podcaster’s Emporium about his recent Business Class trip with Emirates across the ditch to New Zealand & back.

Finally, we wrap up the show with some Listener Mail & Shout Outs, including:

• Bill Morelli from the USA who flies a Zenith Zodiac (nice plane!)
• Paul Bridges who supplied the photo of the Qantas DC3 that graces this episode’s notes
• Colin Sweetman from the UK who has started getting back into his flying and wants to do aerobatics (YES!!!! says Grant :) and also offered to be our tour guide to a number of aviation museums if we can get there (we’ll hold you to that, Colin! :)
• And finally, a big shout out to the people who decided to take part in the “$50 for Episode 50″ concept – thanks folks!

We thought about doing the same but figured that most of you have probably already heard it from the other feeds. Rather than add yet another download of the same content to your already overloaded stash of podcasts, we’re going to follow the Airplane Geeks’ lead and point you at places to get it if you haven’t already heard it:

• The PilotCast (Podapalooza was started by the original hosts of The PilotCast)
• The Pilots Journey (this one has a great summary of who was on the show)
• The Mile High Flyers
• The New Pilot PodBlog
• The Student Pilot Cast

So go & check it out if you haven’t already heard it and by the way, be sure and listen to all those podcasts we’ve listed there if you’re not already (as well as all the others we list in our podcasts we like section :).

Fortunately for us, Stephen Force of the Airspeed podcast told us he was willing to smuggle in a short “Hey there” piece for us and get it played at the event. Well, not only was he able to smuggle it in, he even got it played on EAA radio. Wow! Thanks Steve – yet more beers we owe you when we meet!

For those of you who, like us, couldn’t be there and couldn’t listen to the live feed, here’s the little greeting we recorded for everyone at Podapalooza 2009.