RAAF

PCDU Episode 96: “Serge” – An Australian Top Gun

ep096 cover art — Serge’s “Fighter Pilot” book cover

It takes a special breed to push an F18 out to the edge of the envelope, fly missions ranging from surface attack to dog fights and then blow off steam with your squadron mates. It’s certainly not Top Gun but it does make amazing fodder for a book that highlights the good, the bad and the crazy.

Just such a book has been written by ‘Mac “Serge” Tucker‘ and it’s called “Fighter Pilot: mis-adventures beyond the sound barrier with an Australian Top Gun”

Steve & Grant chat to “Serge” about being a fighter pilot, flying & partying hard, blowing off steam and dealing with bureaucrats. We also cover:

The size of the fighter community in Australia and the camaraderie that has developed among them
The mentoring that occurs within the community covering both technical & behavioural aspects of being a fighter pilot
The interaction of fighter pilots with pilots from other parts of the RAAF
Serge’s career progressing from high school through basic training in the CT4, progression to the Aermacchi MB 326H (the Macchi) and on to the F18 via a stint on the Nomad.
Wing Commander Ross Fox’s influence as Serge’s mentor and the impact of his death in an F18 mid-air collision
Serge’s thoughts on the Australian Army & Royal Australian Navy
Working with the fighter pilots from the USA & comparing USA pilots with RAAF pilots
Old timer stories and their influence on current procedures
RAAF exchange pilots flying F15s & F22s with the USAF
The F35 JSF and its issues with kinematics
Drones and their use in the military environment
How the military have missed out on changing their operations & equipment to deal better with the Middle East environment & the modern political power dynamics
Serge’s love of hang gliding
Transitioning from being a fighter pilot to being an airline pilot
His final flight: a one-on-one dogfight with Matt Hall

PCDU Episode 93: Positive Moves

After three years of lamenting the hassles involved in getting to the West Coast of Australia to report on aviation happenings wwwaaayyy over there on the other side of the big empty, we’ve finally done something about it: we’ve set up a PCDU-WestCoast office and found someone just as aviation-crazy as we are to run it :)

In this episode we introduce Ben Jones who is based in West Australia and has a long and fascinating history of aviation. Clearly it’s in his blood as most of his family are into aviation while Ben himself is a pilot, home builder, member of the RAAF reserve and much much more. He’s even started a blog called WA Aviator to record his aviation activities ‘over there.’

There’s more to the episode than introducing Ben, however, and here’s what you’ll find in it:

0:02:29 – We bring Ben in & start chatting about his background in aviation, the aviation scene in West Australia and his current projects.
0:26:58 – We chat with Sussan Ley, Federal Member for Farrer, Commercial Pilot and one of the two people responsible for starting the “Friends of Aviation” group in Federal Parliament. With only a half hour window to chat with Sussan, we had to jump through a number of subjects in only a short time. Hopefully we can return to chat again with Sussan in the near future as it sounds like there are plenty of additional stories for us to listen to as well as updates on progress with Friends of Aviation group :)
0:53:02 – Mark Pracy from JetRide Australia and Pracy Racing joins us to talk about their preparation for the Reno Air Races this year. We discuss the Galloping Ghost crash, the changes made to address the issues it raised and Mark’s training & preparation techniques.
1:11:04 – David Brown from the Sport Aviation Association of Australia chats with Steve about the AusFly event being held at Narromine over September 14th to 16th.

We also have a very special announcement about AusFly: We’ve been invited to attend and provide commentary, narration and general radio services during the show. We’ll be there with a PA system, low powered FM transmitter and a live-stream to the Internet via LiveATC and our MyRadioStream link. Check it out at:

myradiostream.com/planecrazydownunder

Finally, at 1:24:13 we have a few shout outs to cover:

Richard Pollard (the voice of the JetRide ads) is heading back to New Zealand to start a new chapter in his life.
Andrea Crook (our awesome voice-over lady) is launching her own podcast network: the Waffle Network
Steve gives HUGE thanks to Gary Mac for helping him with some voice-over training during the past couple of months. Check out Steve’s even more dulcet tones, folks! :)
Well done to the Airplane Geeks for getting sponsorship from AOPA
If you’re in West Australia, check out the Sport Builders Club of WA who are holding their annual fly-in on September 30th at Serpentine Airfield, which also happens to be right about the same time as the WestFly event
Thanks to JetRide Australia and OzRunways for renewing their sponsorship of our show!

PCDU Episode 87: Wings Over Illawarra 2012

HARS Connie flying at Wings Over Illawarra 2012 The Great PCDU Road Trip of 2012 covered over 1,700km in the course of a single weekend. From late on Friday night to early on Monday morning, Steve, Grant & Allan drove from Melbourne up to Wollongong (just south of Sydney) to attend the Wings Over Illawarra 2012 air show. Firmly ensconced in the Southern Biplanes hangar with a great view of the show unfolding beyond “Lilly Warra” (their big red Boeing Stearman), the mobile studio was set up (thanks Allan! :) allowing Steve, Grant & Anthony Crichton-Browne to record lots of great content.

C130J
RAN SH60B Seahawk
Army Red Berets parachute demo team leader
NSW Air & Australian Aerial Patrol
and much much more

PCDU Episode 75: Talking Aerobatics with Anthony Crichton-Browne

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 65: Innovative Ideas

There’s no denying that aviation has been the home of many innovative ideas when it comes to aerodynamics, systems and so on. Sometimes we even get to hear about innovation in many of the business & training aspects of aviation and this episode is bringing us a few of them, from new ways to bring aviation education to kids through to recognising the need to store aircraft in the Asia/Pacific area. We also have a number of other content items including a few more of our Avalon interviews.

This episode contains:

Tom Vincent from Asia Pacific Aircraft Storage (APAS) talking about the new “boneyard” facility they are creating at Alice Springs in the middle of Australia
Angelina Morino from Aus Air Services joins us again to review their past year of operation and discuss their involvement with Brentwood College (Steve’s old high school) to provide aviation study to students. They’re also planning to extend this out to other high schools in the area. NOTE: As with Peter Dow at TVSA, it’s great to see local flying schools thinking outside the box to make it easier and/or cheaper to learn to fly)
Some more content from Avalon, including:
- The crew of a KC135 tanker
- Flying Officer Johnno Pearson on flying the F/A-18 Hornet
- Flight Lt Liam Webler, a techo who helps to keep the F/A-18 Hornet in the air
Steve & Lisa Ruffles talk about their Eagle School of Microlighting at Porepunkah

The view of the runway and "ramp" at Porepunkah

We wrap up with the following Listener Mail and Shout Outs:

Miles Rados wrote in about gliding at Tocumwal
Toby Robb wrote in about Steve’s recent microphone levels and had some comments on our recent chat with Dick Smith
The Airplane Geeks podcast reaches episode 150 – well done, guys!
Kudos to the RAAF social media team for helping to promote our work via the “I love jet noise” Facebook page
There’s a new aviation podcast – The Stuck Mic AvCast – from the folks at The Pilot Report. They’re two episodes in and have been producing great content so far
PCDU can now be found on Stitcher & SlapDash Radio
Thanks to all those who’ve left feedback at the iTunes store – much appreciated and keep it up!
Don’t forget to check out our website where we’ve made some recent layout changes plus we’ve also been loading more videos on our YouTube channel.

PCDU Episode 64: Dick Smith – Setting it Straight

We are fortunate to have Dick Smith return to PCDU, joining us to discuss his views on Australia’s aviation environment. We talk about his time as chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority and then his return as chairman of the Civil Aviation Safety Authority. He mentions some of the initiatives he started that worked as well as some that didn’t quite work as planned. Dick also gives us a rather candid look at his views on user fees, ministers and what’s going wrong with aviation today.

Once again this discussion with Dick is sure to generate divided commentary from those in aviation, both old & new. If you’ve not already listened to our previous chat with Dick about his early flying adventures, you really should check it out now.

Following our chat with Dick we have a dramatic change of scene as the Infrequent Flyer (aka Anthony Simmons) returns to give us his View From the Lounge angle on the Avalon Airshow. Then, to answer Anthony’s question of “How it all flows together” we have ATC_Ben return to present his latest Controller’s Corner where he explains just what went on at Mercat Manor.

Following that we have a few interviews recorded at Avalon:

FLT LT Pete Komar, an F-18F Super Hornet pilot with the RAAF
BAe Hawk Mk127 techo LAC Brian Dick
Pilot Officer Emmanuel “Muz” Murray talks about flying the BAe Hawk Mk127
SGT Kerry Dimar who works in logistics with the BAe Hawk Mk127

To keep with the Fast Jets angle, we’ve thrown in some cockpit audio from Steve’s flight with Mark Pracy in JetRide’s L39 Albatros.

For this episode, we’ve dived into the mailbag to bring out:

Calum Tsang from Toronto lists some of his favourite episodes
Carl Rossi says PCDU is going to cost him $13,000 … and he doesn’t mind!
Peter Haans tells us he appreciated our Avalon 2011 coverage
We remind you to check out our listener survey
Listener “Raptor” has created a thread about CASA’s “Flight Planning Kit” on our forum at DownWind.com.au

We also give a shout out to:

The Airplane Geeks podcast for their great episodes with Igor Sikorsky III and Mikey McBryan from Ice Pilots
The Flaps Podcast from the UK for being nominated for an award in New York and winning an award in the UK – awesome effort from a great podcast (if you’re not listening to these guys, you’re REALLY missing out on an amazing show!)
Tod McClamroch from My Flight Blog also had a ride in an L39 and scored some stick time (great, another person Grant is jealous of :)

PCDU Episode 63: RA-Aus NatFly 2011

Every year at Easter, Recreational Aviation Australia holds its National Fly In (NatFly). This is an event where RA-Aus members, vendors & interested folks come to meet, attend workshops, review vendor offerings, undertake test flights and show off their aircraft. Aircraft range from powered parachutes & ultralights through to home builds and the latest sport & recreational aircraft. Importers and manufacturers are present to showcase their equipment, the circuit is filled with aircraft undertaking demo flights and the local hotels & bars are filled at night with tall tales and recollections.

We were fortunate to be invited to attend along with the team from Aviation Advertiser, setting up our mobile recording studio in one of the Temora Aviation Museum’s hangars (along with their Mk VIII Spitfire and Cessna A37). We arrived on the Friday morning and departed on the Saturday evening, experiencing two very busy days packed with interviews, discussions, aircraft & equipment inspections and a couple of demo flights.

Suffice to say there was plenty of material captured and we’ve managed to squeeze the best of it into yet another very large episode. We considered splitting it over two but there’s more great content on the way on other topics so we felt it best to pack it all into one large package.

The content we present in this episode is:

An introduction with Steve, Grant, Ben & Bas
Brumby Aircraft with Paul Goward
Laurie Hines and his Revolution Mini-500 helicopter
John Garton from Leisure Sport Aircraft talks about the Paradise P1 aircraft from Brazil
Gyrocopter pilot Sam Polyak talks about the EVA Aviacion ELA 08
Gary Flood from Bert Flood Imports discusses the latest Rotax engines
Owen Zupp joins us to chat about how he undertakes an air test
Paul Chernikeef talks with us about Rotec Engineering’s latest radial engines
Nick Sharples talks about the AVOCET aircraft his father Mike has created from a Jabiru 230
Tony Blair talks to us about flying aerobatics and RAAF ab initio training
Jon Johansen from Flymore steps us through the TruTrak EFIS, EMS & autopilot systems on offer
John Lindner gives us a visitor’s view of the show
Bryce Hughes joins us from Cub Crafters
Matthew Maude from Performance Metals Australia gets detailed on metal
Some of the cockpit audio from Steve’s test flight of a Brumby R600
John Conte from Aerochute talks to us about their powered parachutes
Gary Sargeant discusses the amazing EQ1 Wireless Headset he’s invented

We then wrap up the episode with a review of the show between Steve, Grant, Ben & Bas along with a quick chat about the OzRunways application that Bas has been developing.

PCDU Episode 62: Advertising Advocacy

Aviation in Australia is experiencing a difficult time and General Aviation is especially being hit hard. User fees are continuing to increase, rules are being changed and airports are being shutdown or reduced in size due to encroachment by non-aviation construction. We’re joined in this episode by Ben Morgan from Aviation Advertiser to discuss these issues, highlight the need for people to take action and discuss what those actions might be. Ben’s certainly not holding back as the stakes are too high to be diplomatic.

We also have some other great chats in this show, including:

Steve Ahrens talking about the upcoming Barossa Airshow (May 1st, 2011)
A chat with the crew of an RAAF Wedgetail AEW&C aircraft that we recorded back at Avalon Airshow
A collection of quick chats with some RA-Aus pilots at Avalon, including:
- Peter Harlow from Foxbat Australia
- John Callahan with his Typhoon Glider
- Peter Kane with his Kitfox
Ben Morgan then rejoins us to discuss the state of the second hand aircraft market in Australia and a couple of the aircraft available for sale on Aviation Advertiser

RAAF Air Pilgrimage at Point Cook

On March 31st the RAAF Air Pilgrimage fleet arrived at the RAAF Museum at Point Cook after spending three days flying from Temora to Tocumwal to Ballarat and then to Pt Cook. Celebrating the 90th birthday of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), the flight consisted of warbirds, antiques and GA Aircraft.

We were onsite at Pt Cook for the arrival of the aircraft and recorded a number of discussions with people on the flight line. You can hear the full content in Episode 61: The Great Pilgrimage, see some of the photos we took on our RAAF Pilgrimage Flickr page and watch a summary video below:

www.flickr.com

Plane Crazy Down Under’s RAAF PILGRAMAGE 2011 photoset

PCDU Episode 58: Avalon Quick Cast #5

It’s day 5 of the Australian International Airshow and Aerospace & Defence Exposition (aka Avalon 2011) and it’s the first whole day open to the general public. The PCDU team have had one of the most amazing days of their lives with time in the venerable B52, getting up close & personal with the Wedgetail, checking out the GA8 Airvan and relaxing on the wing of the CA27 Sabre. The content we selected for this Quick Cast includes:

Our chat with Squadron Leader Matt Harper, an RAAF pilot on exchange with the USAF who’s flying the F22 Raptor
Steve’s in-cockpit discussion with David Wheatland, the chief pilot for the GippsAero GA-8 Airvan
Talking with Flight Lieutenant Skye Smith about RAAF Public Affairs, her career to date & where it may lead in the future
Today’s tarmac updates from Timbo with the warbirds & Taffy reluctantly agrees to cover for Papa Smurf at the Keyhole

These Avalon Quick Cast episodes are being sponsored by Aviation Advertiser and supported by Red Baron and Temby Automotive.

From Drone Racing to Military Operations (S02E25)

Australian Beechcraft Society’s Pilot Proficiency Program 2026 (S02E24)

Talking E2 with Embraer & Virgin Australia (S02E023)

Staying Cool at AusFly 2025 (S02E022)