-
Plane Crazy Down Under
An aviation based podcast with a focus on the Asia/Pacific area
-
The common theme in this episode is about going around the world, first by bringing Saj Ahmad (Fleetbuzz Editorial) in the UK and Ben Sandilands (Plane Talking) in Australia together to talk about financial reports from QANTAS, Virgin & Tiger plus general discussions about airlines in Australia, past, present & future. We then chat with Ken Evers & Tim Pryse, a couple of local lads who are going to fly a [...]
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 5:09 am -
You can always count on this podcast to have some interesting, opinionated and, occasionally, diverse points of view. This episode really brings them all and (bonus!) includes a whole new view as we introduce Anthony Simmons and the “View from the Lounge” segment for your listening pleasure. We’ve also got another great discussion with Owen Zupp as his trip around Australia draws closer, a quick chat we recorded with David [...]
Posted on 24 February 2010 | 1:24 pm -
Yes, Steve & Grant are Fan Boys (big Fan Boys, in fact :) and this episode we demonstrate it once again by interviewing Matt Hall and hanging out with some more fans at the Flight Experience Melbourne Facebook fan page open night in their 737 flight simulator. Seems we’re not the only ones who think a publically accessible 737 simulator is a great thing :) Here’s how this episode flows: First class [...]
Posted on 13 February 2010 | 2:14 am -
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 [...]
Posted on 3 February 2010 | 3:06 pm -
Even down here in Australia we’re being impacted by the out-of-control antics of the TSA, so what the heck, we’ll have a bit of a c’est la vent moment about it. We also have our usual opinionated discussion on some other news items and chat with Shashank Nigam from SimpliFlying. Here’s how the show proceeds: Prosecutors want Garuda pilot back in jail (ABC News) Farmer’s flight path message for charity (ABC News) The first [...]
Posted on 15 January 2010 | 3:53 am -
It’s the Christmas & New Year holiday period, plus down here it’s Summer so we’re totally into listening to long aviation podcasts when we’re not distracted by having fun. So, for all of our listeners who have long drives or lots of chores to do around home, we give you our longest episode yet. With a bit of Christmas cheer, we produce just over two hours of PCDU goodness including [...]
Posted on 31 December 2009 | 4:05 am -
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 [...]
Posted on 18 December 2009 | 7:04 am -
As part of the recent Show us ya Wheels event in Numurkah the PCDU team attended a memorial tribute dinner for Pip Borman, a famous Australian aerobatics pilot from Shepparton who died in a crash during a photo shoot flight. The presentations at the dinner included speaches from David Fertel at Castrol and Julian Frazier from QBE Insurance along with a keynote presentation from Matt Hall, Australia’s only Red [...]
Posted on 10 December 2009 | 1:58 pm -
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 [...]
Posted on 4 December 2009 | 6:27 pm -
f you’ve ever looked skyward in Sydney, there’s a high chance you’ve seen a bright red aircraft with old-style German crosses on the wings. Originally flying an old Tiger Moth, the Red Baron flew out of Bankstown and gave joy flights to members of the public, flying over Sydney’s beaches and occasionally doing aerobatics. Roll forward to today and Red Baron scenic & aerobatic flights is now owned by Joel Haski [...]
Posted on 26 November 2009 | 12:16 am -
How many of you folks have wanted to be Air Traffic Controllers? Do you dream of Pushing Tin around the skies? Think you can keep The Flick in your head? Want to tell pilots in aircraft of all sizes where to go? (ahem! :) Steve & Grant both applied for ATC and were both knocked back for a number of reasons. Fortunately, we know a couple of guys who weren’t. Join [...]
Posted on 19 November 2009 | 11:46 am -
Steve & Grant discuss all the latest news items that were of interest over the past couple of weeks. Steve also gets to have a few “c’est la vent” moments on some topics that were annoying him. As if all that wasn’t enough, we also have a chat with Owen Zupp and reveal the winner of our first ever give away competition. Sorry, you’ll have to listen to the episode to [...]
Posted on 14 November 2009 | 3:08 pm -
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 Shareholders blast Qantas over Dixon payout (ABC [...]
Posted on 31 October 2009 | 9:37 pm -
We were fortunate to attend a lecture recently presented by Lang Kidby at the Australian National Aviation Museum (Moorabbin Air Museum). Lang has flown a Vickers Vimy replica aircraft from England to Australia to re-enact the 1919 flight by Keith & Ross Macpherson Smith. He has also flown an Avro Avian from England to Australia to re-enact Bert Hinkler’s completion of the first solo flight from England to Australia in [...]
Posted on 29 October 2009 | 4:52 am -
Of all the times for the technical gremlins to strike, it had to be for our “Lucky” 13th episode. We recorded a great discussion with Owen Zupp and, despite a fault in the call recorder that made us repeat a part, we thought we had it in the bag. We even feature our first ever give away in this episode and it’s a beauty (see the notes below for details). However, [...]
Posted on 20 October 2009 | 4:15 am -
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: Jetstar attendant contacted 15yo passenger on Facebook (ABC News) Jetstar worker in strife over Facebook incident (ABC News) Mile-high matchmaking: social networking service (Steve Creedy @ The Australian) Jetstar eyes growth [...]
Posted on 12 October 2009 | 4:39 am -
This episode we’re joined by Bas Scheffers, a Recreational Aviation Australia pilot (our version of the US Sport Pilot rules) who flies out of Parafield airport (YPPF) in Adelaide, South Australia. We have a great chat about flying RA-Aus aircraft, GAAP issues, the benefits of learning to fly under RA-Aus instead of the usual GA, the information available from the recreational flying community and even discuss the new AAAF Forum [...]
Posted on 3 October 2009 | 6:15 am -
Once again we get to interview Matt Hall, Australia’s Top Gun RAAF pilot who’s making a big hit in the RedBull AirRace as the first rookie to ever score a podium. We talk with Matt about his performance at Porto, his preparations for Barcelona, how visualisation plays a major role in his flying and flying his P51 Mustang. As with our previous interview session with Matt, time blurs and we [...]
Posted on 26 September 2009 | 2:45 pm -
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 [...]
Posted on 21 September 2009 | 7:17 pm -
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. With some brilliant segways between topics (and a [...]
Posted on 11 September 2009 | 6:48 am -
This episode detours from our usual opinionated discussion of the news and instead features an interview we were fortunate enough to arrange with Matt Hall, an ex-RAAF F18 pilot who has flown the F15 on exchange with the USAF and is currently flying an MXS aerobatic aircraft in the RedBull AirRace. We were expecting to get a half hour or so to chat with Matt and were thrilled to discover [...]
Posted on 4 September 2009 | 8:37 am -
After almost two weeks we finally get another episode out, but this one should be worth the wait. We have our first guest discussion session (@MaxFlight from the Airplane Geeks Podcast) and we have our first interview (Carlo Santoro from the Flight Experience Melbourne 737 simulator). In addition to all this, we also discuss the following topics: Bodies of the passengers on the Airlines PNG Twin Otter crash at Kokoda are [...]
Posted on 29 August 2009 | 7:38 am -
Steve’s back from his trip to the USA and, despite some jet lag woes, he’s in the recording studio and the banter is flowing in our longest episode yet. Sadly, the first 15 minutes sound like Grant’s testing NASA’s new Interplanetary Internet and experiencing a really crappy connection. Not to worry, it soon clears up and the rest of the episode quite clearly reveals our usual commentary on this week’s [...]
Posted on 15 August 2009 | 3:41 pm -
This week’s episode comes out a little late as Steve’s still in the USA and Grant was up in Sydney for the PCDU / SimpliFlying TweetUp that happened along side the Asia / Pacific Aviation Outlook Summit 2009. A great time was had by all who attended the event but now it’s back to work as there’s news to read, interviews to arrange and a podcast to produce. This week’s episode [...]
Posted on 6 August 2009 | 1:47 pm -
A recent event at Oshkosh has been the Podapalooza “gathering of aviation podcasters” where attendees get to meet some of the voices in their heads. Much as we would have loved to go to Oshkosh this year and attend Podapalooza, it’s a long long way to swim from down here so all we could do was listen to the other podcasters talking about how they were going and gnash our [...]
Posted on 1 August 2009 | 12:58 am -
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 [...]
Posted on 30 July 2009 | 8:23 am -
Surprisingly less than one week after our first episode was released, we’re releasing our second episode. During this one, we discuss the following items: Singapore Airlines to fly A380 to Melbourne Superjumbo threat to Qantas stepped up (Steve Creedy @ The Australian) British Airways cutting flights to Australia British Airways to cut flights to Australia (Steve Creedy @ The Australian) Garuda ends their only flight to Darwin Plea for Garuda to retain Darwin flights (Daniel Bourchier [...]
Posted on 22 July 2009 | 6:12 am -
Weighing in at a whole 27 minutes and 18 seconds, here’s the first episode of the Plane Crazy Down Under podcast. During this episode, we discuss the following news items: Emirates EK407 tailstrike – the Captain tells his story and we comment on fatigue issues The RAAF’s first F/A-18F Super Hornet rolls off the production line plus comments on the pending F-111 & DH4C Caribou retirements Tiger Airways adds a 7th aircraft to [...]
Posted on 15 July 2009 | 12:54 pm
