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By Grant (Falcon124), on October 1st, 2014% Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:27:18 — 101.8MB) Subscribe: During August, Grant spent a week in Darwin covering Exercise Pitch Black 2014, a major multinational “war game” exercise hosted by the Royal Australian Air Force.  RSAF F15 at dusk in Darwin Held every two years, Pitch Black is Australia’s version of the Red Flag training exercises held in the USA and in 2014 the RAAF was joined by forces from the US, Singapore, Thailand, New Zealand, France and the United Arab Emirates.
Grant joined Andrew McLaughlin, Nigel Pittaway, Mike Yeo and Eng Tiong Ow to experience fantastic access to the local & visiting forces thanks to the efforts of FLTLT Eamon Hamilton. From meeting with representatives from each group attending Pitch Black to being beside the runways & taxiways at Darwin & Tindal, we were able to capture some fantastic photos, videos & interviews.
In addition to Grant’s collection of Pitch Black 2014 content, Steve & ATC Ben recorded a chat with Ryan Campbell about his new book and his ideas for future projects.
At the time we recorded the wrappers for this episode, Steve was about to head to the USA for a family holiday and to cover the Red Bull Air Race in Las Vegas while Grant was geting ready to go to Auckland for the Wings Over New Zealand forum gathering. Unfortunately there were delays in getting everything finished so the episode didn’t come out until after the boys had left on their flights. Go figure :)
The episode’s details are:
- 0:08:20 –
 GPCAPT “Micka” Gray – Officer Commanding Exercise Pitch Black 2014
- 0:09:22 – General media “door stop” interview with GPCAPT “Micka” Gray
- 0:17:05 – FLTLT Ben Daly talks about the roles of Air Combat Officer (ACO) and Fighter Combat Controller (FCC)
- 0:22:03 – FLGOFF Kathryn Koslowicz talks about the day to day tasks of an Air Combat Officer (ACO) and being deployed to the Middle East Area of Operations (MEAO)
- 0:26:31 – FLTLT Ben Daly takes us through No. 114 Mobile Control and Reporting Unit’s operations cabins and how they’re used to deploy & manage operations in remote locations
- 0:31:25 – SQNLDR Tim Main reviews the RAAF’s new E7A Wedgetail AEW&C aircraft
- 0:40:15 – Lt Col Scott Arbogast is the commander of the US ANG F16s & he tells us about their role in the exercise
- 0:46:02 – CMSgt Joseph Smiley discusses the logistics behind getting the US ANG F16s to Australia, keeping them running here and then getting them back home afterwards
- 0:52:34 –
 French Armed Forces in New Caledonia (FANC) CASA CN235 Transport
- 1:00:42 – SQNLDR Rob Crawford talks about the 37SQN C130J he brought up to Tindal
- 1:04:56 – WOFF Kyle Lovett is a refuelling operator (aka “boomer”) on 33SQN’s KC30A MRTTs and he walks us through a typical mission they’ve been flying
- 1:14:39 – FLTLT Adam Rouessart & FLGOFF Matthew Bleach were the crew for the F18F Super Hornet handling display during the week
- 1:18:52 – CASA CN235 crew from the French Armed Forces of New Caledonia
- 1:29:24 – RTAF WGCDR Titan
- 1:33:44 –
 RTAF SAAB Jas 39 Gripen departing Darwin
- 1:42:19 – Nobby has been part of the team restoring Graham Hosking’s F4U-5N Corsair & he lets us in on some of the effort required to bring it to flight status
- 1:48:05 – Steve & ATC Ben chat with Ryan Campbell about his new book “Born to Fly” and his ideas for the future
- 2:15:11 – Steve & Grant return to wrap up the episode with the following shout outs:
 RAAF F18 Hornets doing a paired take-off  Grant is very impressed with Graham Hosking’s F4U-5N Corsair  CHC’s Sikorsky S61 SAR Helicopter  Our small group of Aviation Media on the RSAF tarmac after our dusk-walk
(Eng Tiong Ow, Grant McHerron, Mike Yeo, 2 x RSAF, Andrew McLaughlin, Eamon Hamilton, Nigel Pittaway)
By Grant (Falcon124), on November 17th, 2012% Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:18:20 — 53.9MB) Subscribe:  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
By Grant (Falcon124), on July 31st, 2011% Podcast: Play in new window | Download (75.2MB) Subscribe: As all good things must come to an end, so too must our time at Oshkosh 2011. It’s been an incredible event for us and an eye-opener to just how large this Mecca of all things aviation truly is. With our final day at the show, we’ve produced a chunky episode packed full of *some* of the content we picked up here. There’s still more to come in subsequent episodes including a focus on the teams on site from New Zealand, the Bonanzas to Oshkosh group and GippsAero.
For now, here’s a list of what you’ll find in episode 72: Oshcast #3 (Hugging your Roo):
After all this, we wrap up the show with a discussion between Steve, Grant, Bas, David & Mike, closing off our on-show coverage of Oshkosh 2011.
By Grant (Falcon124), on February 20th, 2011% Podcast: Play in new window | Download (70.9MB) Subscribe:  Steve & Grant are joined once again by Bas Scheffers from Adelaide to discuss a few items, including:
- A follow up to the ADSB discussion we had with Bill Hamilton back in episode 48
- A discussion of the iPhone/iPad application Bas & a partner have been developing called OzRunways covering what it does & how it came to be
- The revelation that Grant actually doesn’t like the TV show “Ice Pilots” (oh, the shame! :)
- Parafield airshow is changing dates to March 25th, 2012 due to weather concerns and to help ensure more Australian Defence Force assets will be available
- Avalon is coming up soon
- Bas is going to Oshkosh and as we may not be able to make it, he may have to be the PCDU correspondent for us (not sure how we’ll get him a more Australian accent though!)
- Hassling Bas to provide a bio for the PCDU “About Us” page
We also have another great chat with our man “Across the Ditch,” Dan Morris from New Zealand, including:
As if all this wasn’t enough, we also have a chat with James Williams from the Podcaster’s Emporium about his recent Business Class trip with Emirates across the ditch to New Zealand & back.
Finally, we wrap up the show with some Listener Mail & Shout Outs, including:
- Bill Morelli from the USA who flies a Zenith Zodiac (nice plane!)
- Paul Bridges who supplied the photo of the Qantas DC3 that graces this episode’s notes
- Colin Sweetman from the UK who has started getting back into his flying and wants to do aerobatics (YES!!!! says Grant :) and also offered to be our tour guide to a number of aviation museums if we can get there (we’ll hold you to that, Colin! :)
- And finally, a big shout out to the people who decided to take part in the “$50 for Episode 50” concept – thanks folks!
By Grant (Falcon124), on August 9th, 2010% We’ve revamped the site layout yet again with the aim of making it easier to find information and important stuff. Mostly this is handled via the menu bar across the upper part of the page (About Us, You can Help Us, etc) but also by putting some more white space in the design to make it a bit easier on the eye.
Another key part of the redesign is the list of episodes are now highlighted down the left hand side of the page, rather than buried in the stream of messages like this. Hopefully that makes it easier for you to find them if you’re playing them from the site rather than getting them through the feed.
There’s also the large space at the top for big announcements and such, like the one there now telling you that yes, we’ve been picked up by another group of aviation podcasters. Milford & Charlie at the Flight Time Radio show in Florida have graciously offered us a space to run a “Flying Down Under” segment. The Flight Time Radio show is broadcast every Saturday on radio W-BOB in Jacksonville, Florida so we’re tailoring this segment to recreational flyers and the general public. Stay tuned for more about “Flying Down Under.”
Meanwhile, feel free to let us know what you think of the new layout, either by leaving comment here or using our forum.
By Grant (Falcon124), on July 31st, 2009% Podcast: Play in new window | Download (21.2MB) Subscribe: 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 737 de-pressurises during flight
- Jetstar upsetting Kiwi pax with baggage charges
- It’s official, Regional Express (REX) is the world’s best regional carrier
- Virgin Blue 737 loses a nose wheel
- Brett Godfrey announces he’ll retire from Virgin Blue
- Virgin Blue to raise capital
- John Holland Group wins Virgin Blue’s Embraer maintenance work
- Macquarie Airports to separate from the Macquarie Group
- PelAir chosen for Ambulance Victoria contract
- Steve Visscher presents an update from the USA, including flight comparisons and the TSA
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