Plane Crazy Down Under » Perth

PCDU Episode 76: Air Wilpena

Grant (Falcon124) — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 11:48:17 +0000

A few episodes ago we introduced Kathy Mexted as a new member our group of occasional PCDU contributors and this episode she’s back with some great content. She recently took a few friends in a Bonanza out to Wilpena Pound in South Australia, a trip that would usually take many days to achieve by road but, thanks to general aviation, only required two 90 minute flights to get there. Originally intended to be a trip to Ayers Rock, this adventure was trimmed down to something more manageable and a journey to just south of Lake Eyre was planned.

We spend a bit of time discussing the flight, the scenery, air sickness, some geology and what it was like loading four ladies into a high performance single then blasting off to out back of beyond. Kathy also discusses staying at Mungo Lodge, the Wilpena Pound Resort and Trevor Hancock, their tour guide while they were there.

While staying in outback South Australia, Kathy and her friends caught up with some of the pilots from Air Wilpena and recorded a discussion with them about their backgrounds, the flying they’re doing and what it’s like to be flying in outback Australia.

After this we play a few interviews from our recent visit to Coldstream Airport including:

A chat with Judy & Andrew Doak, the owners of Coldstream Airport (YCEM)
Dr Bruce Searle, CEO of ACMA
Andrew Temby, aerobatic display pilot flying his Yak-52TW

We then move into reading some listener emails and discussing some future events on the calendar, including:

Keane Bourke is 12 years old & wants to be an airline pilot
Ed Stubbs recently attended the SAAA fly-in at Langley Park in Perth
AusAirServices are having a Wings Night dinner on the 22nd October
Bas sent us information about the Port Augusta Open Day that’s coming up
Moorabbin Flight Services are having their Wings Night dinner on November 19th
ErrolWi in NZ points us to a list of Kiwi aviation events at the ProBoards Calendar
We then cut to a discussion about the upcoming Holbrook Ultra Light Club’s fly-in.

Our backing music for this episode comes from “The Groove Press” by Ron Soo.

PCDU Episode 75: Talking Aerobatics with Anthony Crichton-Browne

Grant (Falcon124) — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 10:43:57 +0000

Today we’re joined by Anthony Crichton-Browne, a commercial airline pilot who also likes to take his Pitts Special out for a spin (and a few other fun manoeuvres :) In addition to chatting with Anthony, we also run a chat with Grant Piper (President of the Australian Aerobatic Club) about Australia’s recent involvement in the World Aerobatic Championship, discuss aerobatics in general and also have a chat about the recent horrific tragedy at Reno Air Races where the highly modified P51 “Galloping Ghost” lost control and plowed into specators.

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

PCDU Episode 47: Bull Me!

Grant (Falcon124) — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 17:15:55 +0000

The 2010 RedBull AirRace season was exciting, eventful and disappointing all at once. From Adilson Kindleman’s crash in Perth to Hannes Arch’s pylon hit and Matt Hall’s “walk on water” incident, G-Stalls were everywhere. Then came the news that the last two races were cancelled and, finally, that the whole 2011 season was cancelled. As if the end of the season wasn’t bad enough, we were all stunned by the news that Alejandro Maclean had died in an aerobatic training accident.

We have already presented our “End of Season” chats with Hannes Arch and Matt Hall in previous episodes so in this one, we present our chats with Nigel Lamb and Pete McLeod.

We also officially announce the winners of our Flight City Simulator Centre B777 sim session prize (Graham Neal) and two runners up (Greg Spencer & David Mitchell), both of whom win PCDU T-Shirts.

We talk briefly about Qantas’ recent 90th Birthday event at Melbourne airport and play the quick chat we recorded with Juan Serrano, John Travolta’s chief pilot.

After another View from the Lounge segment, this time paying tribute to those serving in the military, we dive into our mailbag:

Steve Horton form Perth is worried that the RedBull AirRace will never return to Perth and lets us know about his great photo site
Peter Baxter wrote in asking about jet engine technology and again to share a great story about an Air New Zealand DC10 that helped a ferry flight in trouble over the Pacific
“brettkp” has some great feedback about episode 46 in our forums on Downwind

We give a shout-out to Pieter Johnson (@NascotHornet) in the UK who has just become a very proud father: welcome Beatrice :)

Flight City B777 Simulator Session – We Have a Winner

Grant (Falcon124) — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 12:11:15 +0000

Thanks to the folks at Flight City Simulation Centre in Perth, we have been able to give away a one hour flight session in their Boeing 777 simulator to give away, valued at $275. Of the many people who correctly recognised that the airline jingle belonged to “Australian Airlines,” Graham Neal was the lucky winner.

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 :)

Competition: 777 Flight Simulator Session

Grant (Falcon124) — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 04:31:43 +0000

Thanks to the folks at Flight City Simulation Centre in Perth, we have a one hour flight session in their Boeing 777 simulator to give away, valued at $275. All you have to do to win is listen to PCDU Episode 45 where we play a jingle that belonged to an Airline over here.

Have a listen to the jingle and then email us with your answer (even if it may be wrong :). We’ll draw the winner live on uStream and also announce them in a future episode.

PCDU Episode 45: Keeping it to Scale

Grant (Falcon124) — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 02:29:50 +0000

It’s been a while since our last episode but at last we’re able to present our latest update with some more great content. First up, Matt Hall joins us once again to look back on his 2010 RedBull AirRace season, discuss the lessons he’s learned and give us his thoughts about 2011 & beyond.

Next up we are proud to introduce our latest advertiser, Flight City Simulator Centre at Jandakot in Perth, with their Boeing 777 simulator. We chat with Richard Zandvliet, the CEO at Flight City, about their various simulators, the courses they can offer for the professional pilot and the packages they have for the general public. Richard also makes a generous offer of a one-hour flight package in the 777 simulator that we can give away on the show (see below).

While Grant’s been able to go flying in some full sized aircraft (check out the photos on our Facebook page), Steve’s been catching up with some slightly smaller aircraft. He’s been out to the Victorian Scale Aircraft Association’s state championships and interviewed John Lamont, Noel Whitehead & David Law from the Packenham & District Aircraft Radio Control Society.

Finally, we wind up the episode some mailbag & shout-outs:

Peter Baxter wrote in and suggested the brilliant idea of following up some engineers about jet engine issues
Alex James wrote in from China with some comments
Camper English from the Alcademics blog is producing a catalog of Aircraft Drinks Menus and, as mentioned in our PCDU Commentaries, we think you should give him a hand
David Vanderhoof has started his own podcast called the Hitchhiker’s Guide to Military Aviation – well worth checking out!

NOTE: We had some additional content from our Matt Hall interview that was no longer current so we’ve moved it from the episode to our Extras collection. You can find it at our “Extras” page.

Competition: Win a one hour flight package with Flight City Simulator Center’s Boeing 777 simulator

Just listen to this episode to hear a jingle from the past. If you know who owned that jingle, send us an email at planecrazydownunder@gmail.com telling us who you think it was. We’ll draw the winner live on uStream in the near future.

PCDU Episode 32: Switch to Plan Delta

Grant (Falcon124) — Thu, 13 May 2010 04:41:44 +0000

This episode features a discussion with Peter Gibson, the manager of corporate communications at CASA. He’s joined us to explain the airspace changes that will come into effect on June 3rd, changes which will impact Class D, see the transition of GAAP to Class D and introduce the mandatory carriage of radios at all certified, registered or military non-towered aerodromes (plus any others as designated in the ERSA).

We also talk to Owen Zupp just before he departed on his There and Back trip around Australia as well as Tim Pryse and Ken Evers a few days prior to the start of their Millions Against Malaria trip around the world. We feature another “View from the Lounge” and introduce ATC_Ben‘s new “Controllers Corner” segment.

As we wind up the show, we discuss the Australian Capital Territory funding yet another feasibility study for a much needed secondary airport near Canberra. You can read more about it in an news entry from Australian Aviation and also follow up progress through the Canberra Region Aviators Association web site.

If you want to see a 737-200 land at Jandakot (Perth’s secondary airport), check out the video of the landing that Ed Stubbs pointed us at. Not bad.

Just in time to make our cut off for this episode, we had a quick chat with Owen as he was half way around his trip. A great update on his progress and how things have been going.

PCDU Episode 31: Red Bull all The Way

Grant (Falcon124) — Fri, 07 May 2010 20:01:56 +0000

The Red Bull Air Race came back to Perth this year and Steve was there, flexing his newly minted press credentials and discovering the amazing world of the Red Bull media centre. Sadly, Grant was working in Indonesia and so couldn’t be there to help hang out, rub shoulders with the stars and quaff a few cans of Red Bull.

Fortunately Steve was well & truly up to the task and managed to capture a few interviews while he was there. First up in this episode we have Steve’s summary of the race, including his interview with Hannes Arch, the press conference at the end of the race and a collection of content from the Red Bull Media Pool.

After the break we get to hear a great chat with Nigel Lamb recorded while he was in Rio getting ready for the third race. We learn about how he flies the race and just what benefit he is getting from those amazing winglets. Grant drops a clanger during the interview but fortunately Steve cut that bit out, putting it at the very end of the episode in the bloopers ‘cos hey, no one ever listens to them, right? Right? (“Please don’t!” says Grant) :)

The final pair of interviews are with Lenny Raulson, Matt Hall’s mechanic at the time of the Perth race. He finished up with Matt’s team just after the race and they’ve now transitioned to an Australian mechanic, Jack Moshovis. After Steve’s chat with Lenny, we have a chat with David Lyall, Matt’s team coordinator. He tells us what it’s like to work with Matt, why they changed from Lenny to Jack and much more.

We hope you enjoy the episode. Feel free to leave us feedback via email, comments on the site or on our forum on Downwind.com.au.

PCDU Episode 25: Fan Boys

Grant (Falcon124) — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 10:14:09 +0000

Yes, Steve & Grant are Fan Boys (big Fan Boys, in fact :) and this episode we demonstrate it once again by interviewing Matt Hall and hanging out with some more fans at the Flight Experience Melbourne Facebook fan page open night in their 737 flight simulator. Seems we’re not the only ones who think a publically accessible 737 simulator is a great thing :)

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.

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 3: Flying Solo

Grant (Falcon124) — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 15:23:28 +0000

We were a little delayed because Grant was trying to do it all this week, but better late than never. With Steve in the USA, Grant was flying solo and discovering that he missed having someone to put the gear up on take off.

This week’s episode includes the following topics:

Air New Zealand joins Tiger to say that Delta teaming up with V Australia (Delta V) is bad, but QANTAS stays out of it
- Qantas aloof as Air NZ joins Delta V opponents (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
QANTAS 737 de-pressurises during flight
- Engineers probe Qantas midair mishap (ABC News)
Jetstar upsetting Kiwi pax with baggage charges
- Bags cost shocks traveller (Rebecca Lewis @ the New Zealand Herald)
It’s official, Regional Express (REX) is the world’s best regional carrier
- Rex ruled the world’s best regional carrier (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
Virgin Blue 737 loses a nose wheel
- Safety fears raised after plane wheel falls off (ABC News)
Brett Godfrey announces he’ll retire from Virgin Blue
- Brett Godfrey to retire from Virgin Blue (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
Virgin Blue to raise capital
- Godfrey to quit as Virgin raises capital (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
John Holland Group wins Virgin Blue’s Embraer maintenance work
- John Holland in 10-year deal to maintain Virgin Blue’s Embraer jets (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
Macquarie Airports to separate from the Macquarie Group
PelAir chosen for Ambulance Victoria contract
- Pel-Air Chosen As Preferred Contractor By Ambulance Victoria (Aero-News)
Steve Visscher presents an update from the USA, including flight comparisons and the TSA

PCDU Episode 2: Aero Neuro What???

Grant (Falcon124) — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 13:12:42 +0000

Surprisingly less than one week after our first episode was released, we’re releasing our second episode. During this one, we discuss the following items:

Singapore Airlines to fly A380 to Melbourne
- Superjumbo threat to Qantas stepped up (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
British Airways cutting flights to Australia
- British Airways to cut flights to Australia (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
Garuda ends their only flight to Darwin
- Plea for Garuda to retain Darwin flights (Daniel Bourchier @ the Northern Territory News)
Tiger Airlines protests V Australia’s agreement with Delta
- Tiger Airlines out to disrupt Delta Airways deal (Geoff Easdown @ the Courier Mail)
- Virgin’s joint venture deal with Delta has upset Tiger (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
Steve says Tiger Airways’ reality show is terrible but he’s going to keep watching it (Airways)
Virgin Blue halts shares and appears to be seeking more money
- Virgin defers on call for funds (Matt O’Sullivan @ WA Today)
- Virgin goes to Gulf for cash (Adele Ferguson @ The Australian)
Push for second Sydney area airport to be at the Richmond RAAF base
- Airlines push for second airport at RAAF base (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
- Wikipedia information on RAAF Richmond airbase
RAAF Sabre jet flies again
- Temora Aviation Museum
- Australian RAAF Sabre Flies Again (AVweb)
We comment on Robyn Riley of the Sunday Herald Sun panning Air New Zealand’s Nothing To Hide campaign
QANTAS ground staff in Perth are upset with management leaving them to deal with angry passengers
- Perth ground staff lash Qantas inaction (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
Jockeys smuggle beer onto REX flight and drink them while returning from a responsible drinking course
- Drunken flight lands jockeys in hot water (ABC News)