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
In this episode we join noted aviation journalist Ben Sandilands from Plane Talking to review the latest news & information. When we called Ben, he was experiencing a heat wave of 11 degrees Celsius at his home in the mountains near Canberra. Meanwhile, here in Melbourne we were thinking winter was upon us as the temperature dipped to 15 degrees Celsius. Four degrees of separation but a very different pair of perspectives on cold vs hot.
Fortunately, we were all spot on with our news analysis, including such topics as:
Use of composites in airliners and the indications that it won’t really be effective for another 10 to 20 years
QANTAS still claiming that they’re going to get their 787-9s on a date that would be before Air New Zealand (the launch customer) despite Boeing making a statement contradicting this
The changes that are afoot with the Virgin Blue group being under new leadership:
Brett Godfrey’s farewell bash
John Borghetti not getting the top job at QANTAS but, perhaps, getting something better with running Virgin Blue
Fleet choices and the possibility that they’ll get A330s or B767s, especially on high density routes like Sydney to Melbourne
The likelihood that they’ll rebrand the group (Virgin Blue, V Australia, Pacific Blue, Polynesian Blue) under a single name
Singapore Airlines having veto rights over the name Virgin for any new international airline
Tiger Airways recording a profit and becoming more of a stable, solid threat in the market
Australia’s transport minister Anthony Albanese wanting to restrict cockpit access to only the two pilots flying and any check pilots or safety reviewers
The F35 and how Australia seems to be one of the few countries NOT getting upset about all the delays and problems
After chatting with Ben, we have an interview with James Baldwin & Glen Somerville from EmptyJets, an organisation that gives you the chance to get rides in charter aircraft that would otherwise be flying empty on positioning flights. From helicopters to Gulfstream Vs, they’re all on the list and well worth checking out.
After that we dive into the mail bag where:
Matt McCabe compares the cost of learning to fly here in Australia against the USA
Errol Cavit enjoyed the Red Bull show and will be catching up with us when he comes over from New Zealand (for a Sci Fi convention, no less)
Vince Bezzina who volunteers at the RAAF Museum at Point Cook was checking if we knew about the DC6 coming to Australia from South Africa. Oh yes, do we ever!
We also have a couple of shout outs to:
Damien Rose who is now a private pilot and on his way to a commercial license (and speaking of the cost of learning – Damien sold his house to fund all this! He must have a VERY understanding wife, that’s for sure :)
Steve Cooke from the Flying Podcast in the UK has released his latest episode on a topic that’s very important for Grant: ballooning
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 :)
Despite the annoying habit of our “day jobs” and families encroaching into our PCDU time, we’ve finally managed to get some time to record an episode. Steve even managed a marathon effort of post production to edit a coherent episode from our opinionated news discussion and an interview with Saj Ahmad. Go Steve! :)
Despite my best efforts to drone on endlessly, Steve’s also managed to keep the episode under 2 hours, but not by much. Hopefully this will give you heaps of fun listening as you travel to & from work, mow the lawns or do your household chores :)
Here’s how the show came together this time:
Robinson R44 crashes on a mountain beside a massive drop
We review a recent “Traffic Report” from the Australian Aviation magazine (our favourite aviation magazine :)
VH-EBK (A330) withdrawn from QF domestic and repainted in JetStar colours in Manilla
VH-OGA (a 767-300ER) withdrawn from service
JetConnect withdrew it’s last 300 series 737 (ZK-JNC) which has gone to storage in Tucson – entered service with Australian Airlines on Dec 31, 1988 as VH-TJB “Fortitude” – transferred to JetConnect on Jul 29th 2004
Some new aircraft with funky names have arrived for Virgin Blue
E-190 VH-ZPO = “Portia Macquarie”
737-800 VH-VUT = “Yabba Dabba Blue”
737-800 VH-VUR = “Star City”
737-800 VH-VUS = “Chitty Chitty Broome Broome”
VB’s 737-800 VUA that was previously used for mile-high karaoke with the Black Eyed Peas as they toured Australia has been returned to normal configuration & colour scheme.
We have a chat with Saj Ahmad about 737/A320 re-engining and lots more
Zyola from the Mile High Flyers podcast has been getting lots of her lady pilot friends in Hawaii’i to listen in to PCDU – go go Aussie accent power :)
Also big thanks to our anonymous donor from Canberra
As usual, our theme music track is “YouNameIt5” by Brian Simpson (aka t3cat5) and our sound effects come from SoundSnap.com.
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.
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
Despite his better judgement, Bas Scheffers comes back to hang out with us once again as we discuss some of the news items from the past week or so. Topics of discussion in this episode include:
Jetstar flight attendant gets in trouble with Facebook:
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 thought we’d have this episode out within a few days of our previous one, but there was so many news items to review, so much to discuss and so many bits to splice together that it took a whole week to bring it to you. Weighing in at almost 2 hours, this episode has interviews, GA, follow ups and much much more.
