Steve, Grant and Maikha were on-site at Avalon recording plenty of content and this episode is our first collection of audio content covering some of the companies, people and aircraft we encountered while there. Steve & Grant have already started editing the next batch of content for Episode 131 and Maikha’s starting to wade through . . . → Read More: PCDU Episode 130: Avalon 2017 – Alpha
Here is a full list of all PCDU Episodes since #1 back in 2009. Click on a title to visit the episode page & download or listen to the episode from there.
Some in-cockpit audio provided by a listener triggered a discussion on the differences in pre-landing checklists (GUMPS vs BUMFTH vs BUMFOH vs whatever). All of Grant’s aviation books & manuals are still in boxes after moving house so he had to rely on his memory with predictable results. Talk about incentive to go out and get current again…
Given we couldn’t do a whole episode around the concept of “gas” in different countries, we also discuss recent aviation news items (so many to chose from lately) and have a collection of interviews we recorded at the RAAF’s Air Pageant at Point Cook.
Here’s how the episode hangs together this time:
We have yet another opinionated discussion on recent news items:
QANTAS are very much in the news due to an engineering dispute and maintenance woes
CASA are converting our GAAP airports to Class D in June. Have you booked in to attend one of their workshop seminars on the transition? You’d better. Check out the CASA web page about the transition.
We shamelessly rip off UCAP’s “Off field landing of the week” segment
We recorded a few interviews with pilots at the RAAF’s Air Pageant at Point Cook airbase
Jim & Jenny Wickham (Yak9 & Robinson R22)
Jim Whalley (CA-13 Boomerang)
Murray Colquhoun (chief experimental test pilot with Pilatus & the PC21)
Anthony Simmons returns with his “View from the Lounge” segment
What’s in our mailbag for this episode?
Luke Harris raises the issue of laser pointers being used to tag aircraft
Bob Livingstone makes some comments about the B24
Damien Rose provides some in-cockpit audio (we play his intro but the cockpit audio is at the end of the episode)
We definitely have some shout outs this episode
Marty at Flight.org has been of great assistance to us, helping to promote the podcast & much more
Thanks to those folks mentioning @pcdu in their Follow Friday tweets
Check out errolwi on Twitter for his tweets while at the Warbirds over Wanaka air show in New Zealand (and yes, you’re welcome for the F18s :)
Good luck to Zyola from the Mile High Flyers podcast as she’s going through the “joys” of losing her job recently. We also want to know if our photos on our About us page scared off her friends who thought our accents were cool/hot/sexy :)
Thanks to an opportunity presented by Shashank Nigam, Grant’s just had an article about the ongoing Jetstarisation of QANTAS published on Shashank’s Simpliflying site.
It provides a background on the birth of Jetstar, its growth to date and how it is destined to consume more of QANTAS’ mainline routes & aircraft. Head on over to Simpliflying and check out the article.
Thanks to Shashank for giving us the opportunity to gain further exposure to the global aviation world, it’s very much appreciated :)
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 :)
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 :)
For the majority of our listeners it’s warm and getting warmer down here in the Southern Summer with Christmas just around the corner. Not so in London where it’s bleak and somewhat miserable (and that’s the economy, let alone the weather). Saj Ahmad from FleetBuzz Editorial is based in London and recently returned from the scorching skies of Dubai where he’d been attending the Dubai Airshow 2009. Saj generously took some time away from his family to record with us last Sunday (morning his time, evening our time), trying not to look out the window at the winter weather while we discussed the warmth Melbourne was experiencing. The discussion covers the Dubai Airshow, Middle East airlines and their flights to Australia, aircraft orders and the (then) pending first flight of the 787. It’s an enlightening chat and we’ll be sure to have Saj on again early in the new year.
In addition to our chat with Saj, we also recorded some news items to round out the episode. We actually recorded these on the same day the 787 flew and, thanks to the miracle of modern technology, have spliced it all together into a single show. Neat, hey! :)
David Vanderhoof’s aviation history down under segment (at last – Grant forgot to include it in episode 19 – ooops)
Listener mail, including George from New Zealand with his super sexy Falco aircraft
There’s a chartered Air New Zealand 747 flying to Oshkosh 2010 (details with Avtours Australia) and we’re dreaming of being on it (it’s only AUS$4k each including accommodation – anyone want to help donate to get us there? :)
As usual, our theme music track is “YouNameIt5” by Brian Simpson (aka t3cat5) and our sound effects come from SoundSnap.com.
Steve’s out sick (he must have eaten the fish :) so Grant’s flying solo on this one and cheating madly by assembling a few interviews and a slightly modified version of the Australia Desk segment we recorded for the Airplane Geeks’ Thanksgiving episode. The interviews include:
Matt Hall & Nigel Lamb
Carlo Santoro from Flight Experience Melbourne
Nick Brau on flying hot air balloons over Melbourne city
The news items we covered include:
British Airways again discussing a merger with QANTAS
The US FAA wil be conducting an Air Safety examination of Australia’s air operations
30th Anniversary of Air New Zealand’s DC10 crashing on the side of Mt Erebus in Antarctica
Virgin Blue likely to have a profit in FY09/10
QANTAS to purchase additional aircraft and will be assigning more of their 787s to Jetstar
QANTAS introduces the airport of the future concept
Airport capacity in Sydney and the need for a second airport
Australian Transport Safety Bureau provides interim reports on the QANTAS A330 ADIRU issues and QANTAS 747 oxygen bottle incidents
RAAF to purchase 14 F35 fighters even though Lockheed has admitted the project is running late
The first two Wedgetail AEW aircraft have been delivered
Last flight of the Caribou in Australia & it’s potential replacement
We hope you enjoy the show and we will return to our usual levels of interviews, discussions & opinionated news reviews in a week or so.
Steve & Grant discuss all the latest news items that were of interest over the past couple of weeks. Steve also gets to have a few “c’est la vent” moments on some topics that were annoying him.
As if all that wasn’t enough, we also have a chat with Owen Zupp and reveal the winner of our first ever give away competition. Sorry, you’ll have to listen to the episode to discover who were the close runners up and who was the winner :)
So, sit back, relax and enjoy episode 16, in which we discuss:
We both express displeasure that the Red Bull Air Race was not available online via web-streaming for Australians despite Channel 10 not showing it live
Steve has a major “What Cheese Me Off!” session about the advertising for Melbourne Airport (you can see the adverts as a banner on the Melbourne Airport website
We discuss JAL’s new premium economy class seating on the Sydney to Narita route (thanks to Dan Web for the lead)
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
This episode we’re joined by Bas Scheffers, a Recreational Aviation Australia pilot (our version of the US Sport Pilot rules) who flies out of Parafield airport (YPPF) in Adelaide, South Australia. We have a great chat about flying RA-Aus aircraft, GAAP issues, the benefits of learning to fly under RA-Aus instead of the usual GA, the information available from the recreational flying community and even discuss the new AAAF Forum (Forum for free speech on industry: AAAF – Steve Creedy @ The Australian).
After our great chat with Bas, we move on to our usual opinionated regional news review which includes the following items:
David Vanderhoof provides a “This week in Australian aviation history” segment for us
This episode we’re joined by Dan, David & Rob from the Airplane Geeks podcast to discuss airline news and have a great discussion about air traffic control issues here & in the USA. We also have interviews with Dr Bruce Searle, dean of the Australian Centre for Mission Aviation, and Andrew Temby, aerobatic pilot & owner of a YAK-52TW. Both were recorded at the Mission Aviation Fellowship airshow held at Coldstream Airport (YCEM) a few weeks back.
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
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 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