tiger – Plane Crazy Down Under

Test Flying the F-35 (S02E011)

Way back in June 2014 we released Series 1 Episode 119 about the RAAF bringing the F-35A into service, including the first two pilots selected to learn how to fly it, discussions with Lockheed Martin representatives (including test pilot Billie Flynn) and an hour long discussion with AVM Kym “Koz” Osley about the infrastructure work, […]

Gold Coast Dreaming (S02E010)

The team from the Pacific Airshow at Huntington Beach in California have come down under to stage the first Pacific Airshow Gold Coast event at Surfers Paradise in August, right around the corner as we release this episode. Steve and Grant will be attending the event to gather more content from the performers who will […]

Reaching Skyward (S02E009)

They say that if you can’t see it, you can’t be it and that certainly seems to be the case with getting more women into aviation. The recently released documentary Touch the Sky seeks to help encourage more women to consider flying for fun and/or employment, particularly looking at the “soft” (aka “human”) issues that […]

Traffic Sighted (S02E008)

There are plenty of beaches in Australia and many cities have an “Eye in the Sky” traffic reporter giving commuters updates on where the bottlenecks are, but what if you could provide traffic reports plus beach reports, all while logging hours? Our voice-over guy, Terry Daniel, steps out of the recording booth and into the […]

All Change for the Defence Strategic Review (S02E006)

It’s time to dig into the recently released Defence Strategic Review to assess its impacts on the Australian Defence Force from an aviation perspective. For this episode we’re joined by award winning defence and aerospace journalist Andrew McLaughlin, who helps assess the changes we can expect to see over the next few years.

A big change is the focus on long range strike and missiles for RAAF, Navy and Army to help keep potential adversaries at a distance. We also touch on the lack of news regarding additional F-35s or MQ-4C Tritons, the B-21 Raider being ruled out (for now) and Army’s transition from ARH Tiger and MRH-90 Taipan to AH-64 Apache and UH-60M Blackhawk.

We also ask where we’ll get enough people from to crew all the platforms, look at the types of drones we’re likely to have and the focus on hypersonics and other advanced technologies under AUKUS Pillar 2. There’s a lot to dig into so this episode is a double-length special, running for almost an hour, but that’s what the pause/resume button is for, right? :)

Cover image thanks to Seth Jaworski.

PCDU Episode 66: That Wasn’t in the Script!

It’s been a while since we got down & dirty with the Australian commercial airline scene so with that in mind, we called up Ben Sandlilands from the PlaneTalking blog on Crikey.com.au for a chat. There’s some amazing developments going on in the “big iron” side of people moving here in Australia and we went through the following subjects:

The joys of ash clouds (Thanks Chile!)
Virgin Australia taking on Qantas & Jetstar with their new pricing structures & business class, including just what kind of passenger they were targeting at the front of the cabin
Qantas & JetStar’s industrial issues with their unions
Tiger regrouping & focusing on routes where it can do the most damage to the others (watch out Melbourne <-> Sydney and maybe even the Golden Triangle of Melbourne, Sydney & Brisbane)
Strategic’s foray into the Pacific

In this episode we also include an interview with Kathy Mexted, a freelance writer who we met *way* back at the Centenary of Flight airshow in 2010. Flying is in Kathy’s blood by birth & by marriage and she’s been writing articles for a variety of aviation magazines as well as working on a book about being the spouse of an airline pilot. We’re very happy to announce that Kathy’s also going to be producing some content for us in the near future mostly covering Recreational & General Aviation areas.

Finally, we’re including some new music in our show as Steve’s found out about the royalty free production music by JewelBeat. Watch out for whole new background tracks & cross-over music in this & future episodes :)

PCDU Episode 42: Wings Down Under

This episode we’re joined by Will Horton from the Wings Down Under blog to chat about recent aviation news items. We also have Anthony Simmons returning for another View from the Lounge segment and a chat with Damien Rose about his flight training up in Toowoomba. The episode wraps up with some listener mail and a shout out so it’s a little long but that should make up for the three Election QuickCast episodes we released recently :)

The list of topics we discussed with Will Horton include:

A review of the recent Asia/Pacific Aviation Outlook Summit in Sydney
The Asia/Pacific outlook for airlines includes a prediction for strong growth
“Buy local” for Russia (Sukhoi) & China (Comac) plus India building up its local aeronautics capabilities along with Mahindra & Mahindra buying into Australian aviation companies such as Gippsland Aeronautics
Cathay Pacific’s Boeing 777-300 and Airbus A350-900 order
V Australia’s 777 useage in Fiji & Bali plus the use of wide bodies (eg: 767/A330) on domestic routes due to slot restrictions
Qantas wanting to fly 787s into China & on to Europe
Jetstar being boosted over Qantas (if it’s new it’s JQ) and using Singapore as a hub into Europe
Qantas’s new smart card system for check-in that relies on elite frequent flyers who are with Qantas, not Jetstar
AirAsia setting up a Frequent Flyer program
Crawford Rix @ Tiger Airways is against frequent flyer programs as they’re anticompetitive and is hinting that Tiger could go down the RyanAir path (standing seats, pay loos, etc) – at least for the publicity :)
Customers in Australia and Asia/Pacific wanting a higher level of standards
Tiger setting up a franchise in Thailand (51% Thai owned but still Tiger Thailand)
China more likely to have standing seats as the Chinese can lay down the law for their own operations – no need to align with FAA/EASA standards although they’re investing in highspeed trains)
AirAsia wants to enter the Australian domestic & trans-tasman market
The high quality of the AirAsia experience (a discount carrier that doesn’t nickle & dime their passengers) will hit Jetstar hard
Pacific Blue is pulling out of the New Zealand domestic market
Repurposing of V Australia’s 777s off the Fiji route
United is not worried about Delta-V
Qantas’ financial results

Steve & Grant also talk afterwards about Virgin Blue’s financial results which came out after we spoke with Will, along with their news about adding A330s, dropping the E170s (while keeping the E190s) and linking up with Etihad.

PCDU Episode 16: Rant on Steve, Rant on

We review the latest news items, Steve gets to vent on a few topics and Owen Zupp returns to help us select the winner of our first competition.