We’ve launched our first episode of Avalon 2017 coverage and it contains the following items: Kimberley Turner from Aerosafe Patrick Coleman from Garmin Associate Professor Andrew Kornberg and the Fly for the Kids charity Matt Hall on the F-35A and also on his new aircraft for the Red Bull Air Race Kurt Lyall from RocketRoute […]
The team at the Cast Away Podcast Awards have recognised that there’s a lot of great content being produced in Australia so they are holding the first ever Australian podcasting awards event. PCDU has been included in the Industry Focus section and we have a number of other great shows that we’re up against. We’re […]
Our friends at TVSA Pilot Training will be having an open day at the Bacchus Marsh airport near Melbourne on Saturday the 25th of February, starting at 10am and running until 3pm. They will have a Pilot Panel with commercial airline pilots talking about their careers, a BBQ sausage sizzle and Trial Introductory Flights in […]
Grant’s pulled out a big collection of ballooning interviews including discussions with military & commercial fixed wing pilots who enjoy the challenge of flying hot air balloons. We’ve also got a fun chat with Owen Zupp about his new book: Without Precedent, our tribute to Hannes Arch and the Infrequent Flyer finally gets to see […]
Steve & Grant have both been back to school in the past week with Steve revisiting his old high school (Brentwood Secondary College and yes, it’s still standing) where they have a great aviation curriculum. Meanwhile, Grant’s been out to Bacchus Marsh airport to the TVSA flying school’s open day. This one’s a short episode as we’re trying to get some topical information out before Avalon Air Show 2017 starts this week.
The episode starts with Steve & Grant catching up on their adventures and unfolds as:
0:00:35 – Steve’s moved into a new house and set up a dedicated studio in the process.
0:02:35 – Grant’s finally had an official RAAF media ride: he was invited to fly on the RAAF’s new C-27J Spartan. Yay!
0:10:42 – Steve & Grant review the information being presented in this episode.
0:24:33 – Steve interviews Chris Barry from the Brentwood Secondary College about their aviation sciences program, the simulators they have on site and the RAAF visiting with their F/A-18 simulator.
RAAF C-27J Spartan0:31:08 – Steve & Grant discuss the upcoming Avalon Air Show 2017 where Grant’s day job will have him attending meetings & seminars and also presenting a short summary of his recent Australian Defence Magazine article for a Plan Jericho workshop. Meanwhile, Steve will be doing video presentations with AOPA Australia at their tent in the GA area.
0:40:45 – Steve’s recently provided commentary at the Hunter Valley Air Show with Ando and Grant’s going to be providing commentary at the Barossa Air Show with Maikha.
0:45:14 – We’ve joined the trend and have a Patreon page. If you want to help give us incentive to produce more episodes, head on over to our Patreon page and start sponsoring us.
Steve’s very happy to have finally started converting currency into currency as he’s logging hours in a Flysynthesis Texan and progressing towards getting his RA-Aus license. Grant’s been too busy with work to get many hours but did finally get to log some “special shape” time in his balloon logbook. Naturally, both Steve & Grant are VERY happy to have finally released another episode.
Air Marshal Geoff Brown with Steve at Pt CookThis episode the boys are joined by Kathy Mexted and Maikha Ly so you know the blooper reel at the end will be “interesting” to say the least. Kathy & her hubby have been flying their Piper Cub while Maikha’s been flying for work but, thanks to Adelaide’s weather lately and a recent house purchase, he’s not been able to do any personal flying.
0:30:34 – Tony Maher demonstrates the electrically driven mid-upper turretGrant visited the B24 restoration project at Werribee for their Heritage Recognition award ceremony and recorded a few chats with the following people:
Doug Lindsay (President of the B24 Restoration project)
Before chatting with Tony Maher (volunteer), Grant also recorded the sound of Tony demonstrating the electrically driven mid-upper turret
0:50:41 – Kathy chats with Kinglsey Just about setting the Guinness World Record for the most continuous rolls performed in an aircraft (an amazing 987 in his Pitts Special!). They talk about the planning & preparation, the method, the reason and how it all worked out (complete with a dramatic ending). They also talk about his interest in aviation including his gliding & flying tow planes in Europe.
1:05:08 – Kevin Bailey and his wife with their Stinson ReliantMaikha was with us at the RAAF’s Pt Cook event and he spent most of his time with the antiques and warbirds where he recorded the following:
Chris Shine with his Beech Staggerwing
Kevin Bailey and his Stinson Reliant
Allan Harding and his MkIII Auster
Allan’s young assistant Lloyd Galloway talks about flying, the RA-Aus scholarship he was awarded and his involvement with the Auster
Steve Death talks about the Southern Knights formation team
Robert ‘Bob’ StJohn, a Vietnam veteran, volunteers with HARS to help keep the Caribou flying. He talks about what’s involved in keeping it going and his experiences in Vietnam with “Wallaby Airlines” (the RAAF’s Caribou operations)
Warren Gengos flies the HARS PBY Catalina
1:42:55 – John “Viper” Fisher from Top Gun Australia talks about Top Gun Australia’s operations, flying the L-39, being a WSO on the F-4 & flying the A-10 with the USAF plus his exchange rotation with the French
1:59:04 – We come back for some shout outs:
Thanks to Barry Moore for suggesting we chat with John Fisher
Shane Simpson has recently completed his first solo in a Cessna 152 at Moorabbin (YMMB). Onya mate!
Congratulations to Anthony Crichton-Browne and his wife Prudence for the recent arrival of their son Andrew
Our friend Owen Zupp who is making the transition from Boeing 737s to a command position with Jetstar A320s as well as releasing his new book “50 More Tales of Flight” and his new site “The Pilots Blog“
Grant’s ecstatic to hear that OzRunways are producing an Android version of their app (“Project Marvin” – awesome! :) ). With AvPlan also producing an Android version, Grant is very happy to not need to buy an iThing :)
Congratulations to Steven Pam who has done a marathon effort producing the Tyabb Airshow DVD and also to Karl von Moller from the Broken Wings project who’s been helping out as well
Music for this episode was “Short Change Hero” by “The Heavy” (2009 on Counter Records)
In November of 2012 the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) decommissioned their C-130H fleet, transitioning to the C-130J and reaching the end of an era for flight engineers & navigators in the Air Lift Group (ALG). We were fortunate enough to be invited to partake in some of the decommissioning events including a final media flight over Sydney Harbour, watching a formation flyby practice from RAAF Base Richmond’s control tower and the delivery of C-130H A97-011 to the RAAF Museum at Point Cook.
In the course of these events we obtained a number of great interviews with past & present air crew which are gathered here in our tribute episode to the C-130H in RAAF service.