Plane Crazy Down Under

Plane Crazy Down Under episodes:

• 03.28.2024

  Tyabb Airshow 2024

  The Peninsula Aero Club at Tyabb Airport near Melbourne puts on an epic air show every two years, although everyone's really been looking forward to this year's event as the last one was in 2020 thanks to COVID. The waiting...

  
• 03.04.2024

  Tibbsy the Aussie Airboss and a Day Trip to Tocumwal

  Setting up and running the air display component of an airshow takes a lot of effort, awareness of pilot and aircraft capabilities, an understanding of what makes a display interesting to the public, and the ability to deal with variables...

  
• 02.13.2024

  Exclusive: OzRunways Acquired by Boeing

  It's big news down under as Bas Scheffers, CEO of OzRunways, joins us to announce that Boeing have purchased the company. It's a massive validation of the efforts put in by the OzRunways team over the past 10+ years and...

  
• 01.22.2024

  Bush Flying 737s in Alaska, a long-haul Gipsy Moth, & more of the Steve Padgett Story

  Welcome to our first episode for 2024 with this episode featuring a great set of interviews to kick off the new year. From Grant recording chats with Jerry & Jan Chisum in their incredible hangar home over in New Zealand...

  
• 12.09.2023

  Flying with Angels & the Padgett Story Begins

  Steve's back in the studio after his heart attack and subsequent surgery. As you'd expect, it was a major experience for him and he's very appreciative of the support he's received from our audience. He's now a member of the...

  
• 10.13.2023

  Pacific Airshow Vibes

  It's been a while between episodes but Steve's been in hospital for a major operation plus Grant's been travelling for airshows and also getting current in hot air balloons once again (yup, there's a new danger area being declared for...

  
• 08.30.2023

  Test Flying the F-35

  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...

  
• 08.14.2023

  Gold Coast Dreaming

  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...

  
• 07.20.2023

  Reaching Skyward

  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...

  
• 06.25.2023

  Traffic Sighted

  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...

  
• 06.09.2023

  Leaning Into It

  We recorded so much content at Avalon 2023 that it's going to take a few more episodes to get it all released. This episode brings us the Scandanavian wing walker team, the return of Timbo's Tarmac and a chat with...

  
• 05.16.2023

  All Change for the Defence Strategic Review

  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...

  
• 05.09.2023

  Extended Ranges

  With the recent release of the Defence Strategic Review by the Australian Federal Government, a major focus has been put on long range missiles for use by Army, Navy and Air Force to deter a potential adversary from approaching our...

  
• 04.24.2023

  The Sound of Freedom

  Imagine a hoard of RV-6s & RV-7s flying in close formation and performing solo & pair aerobatics. Sounds intense? Well, wait for the Pacific Airshow at the Gold Coast to find out how it looks & sounds. Meanwhile, Mark Newton...

  
• 04.10.2023

  The Commentators

  The Australian International Airshow in 2023 (aka Avalon 2023) saw not only huge crowds and amazing displays in the air, but also the end of an era as Peter Meehan performed his last show as "The Voice of Avalon," handing...

  
• 03.27.2023

  Owen Zupp on Resilience

  We recently caught up with our friend Owen Zupp to talk with him about the many ups and downs he's experienced in his career and, most importantly, his current grounding for medical reasons (starts at 1:20 into the episode). We...

  
• 03.15.2023

  Pushback & Start

  The new series has officially launched with the release of this episode and, what better way to come back to the world than at the Australian International Airshow (aka Avalon 2023) where we caught up with plenty of old friends...

  
• 02.27.2023

  PCDU Episode 131: Reflections

  Rumours of our demise have, sadly, been accurate ... well, until now that is! We're back and looking to give PCDU another whirl with a new series coming out shortly, but we thought a good way to get back in...

  
• 04.14.2017

  PCDU Episode 130: Avalon 2017 – Alpha

  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...

  
• 02.27.2017

  PCDU Episode 129: Going Back to School

  Steve & Grant have both been back to school in the past week with Steve revisiting his old high school (Brentwood Secondary College and yes, it’s still standing) where they have a great aviation curriculum. Meanwhile, Grant’s been out to...

  
• 10.29.2016

  PCDU Episode 128: Unprecedented

  From Grant's collection of ballooning interviews to a chat with Owen Zupp about his latest book and our tribute to Hannes Arch, this episode is our biggest yet (yes, even bigger than Episode 51, our tribute to the RAAF's F-111s!)....

  
• 07.17.2016

  PCDU Episode 127: From the Vault

  We've gone back into our archives to pull out some great content that we never got around to releasing before. We have some more interviews from Avalon 2015 (yes, we recorded lots didn't we? :) ) and we also have...

  
• 03.10.2016

  PCDU Episode 126: Emirates Wants You!

  They say patience is a virtue and hopefully our audience has plenty of it because it's been a while since our last episode was released. Fortunately we've been able to make some time available to record content, edit it and...

  
• 08.01.2015

  PCDU Episode 125: Avalon Charlie (The Avalon Airshow Goodness Continues)

  Welcome back to our coverage of the 2015 Australian International Air Show (aka Avalon Airshow) with our third release of content recorded at show. It's been a while since the last episode and we're sorry for that but as with...

  
• 03.11.2015

  PCDU Episode 124: Avalon15 Bravo (Yet more Avalon Airshow Goodness)

  The Australian International Airshow (aka Avalon Airshow) may well be over for 2015 but our collection of content recorded at the show is still being worked on. Here's another hour of interviews & discussions and we suspect there may be...

  
• 02.27.2015

  PCDU Episode 123: Avalon15 Alpha (It’s Avalon Airshow Time :) )

  The Australian International Airshow (aka Avalon Airshow) is held every two years and runs for 6 days with the first 3 being trade-only. The 4th day of the show is always on a Friday and the public start coming in...

  
• 12.31.2014

  PCDU Episode 122: Farewell 2014

  As the final hours of 2014 draw to a close, we're getting our last episode for 2014 out the door. The boys have been kept pretty busy with their day jobs lately but, despite this, they've managed to do some...

  
• 10.01.2014

  PCDU Episode 121: Exercise Pitch Black 2014

  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. Australia's version of the Red Flag training exercises held in the USA and in...

  
• 07.31.2014

  PCDU Episode 120: History & Records

  Steve’s very happy to have finally started converting currency into currency as he’s logging hours in a Flysynthesis Texan and progressing towards getting his RA-Aus license. Grant’s been too busy with work to get many hours but did finally get...

  
• 06.03.2014

  PCDU Episode 119: F-35 Joint Strike Fighter: The RAAF Approach

  With Australia’s confirmed purchase of a total of 72 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, Steve & Grant are joined by Andrew McLaughlin from COMINT (Communications Intelligence) to discuss the F-35 and its operation within the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). We...

  
• 04.26.2014

  PCDU Episode 118: Can you fly to NatFly 2014?

  Just to be different, this episode Steve joins ATC Ben on a BenAir flight from Essendon (YMEN) to Temora (YTEM) to attend the NatFly 2014 event. With the Cirrus SR20’s autopilot keeping them on track, Captain Ben & FO Steve...

  
• 02.26.2014

  PCDU Episode 117: Holler for a Marshall, an AIR Marshal

  With the RAAF’s Centenary of Military Aviation air show only a couple of days away, we thought we’d mix up some content that promotes the event as well as some chats Grant recorded with a number of past & present...

  
• 02.15.2014

  PCDU Episode 116: High Performances

  After a break due to injuries, surgery & a wedding, we’re back on deck and our first episode for 2014 is packed with Down Under aviation goodness :) From Matt Hall and the long awaited return of the Red...

  
• 12.31.2013

  PCDU Episode 115: Farewell 2013

  It’s been an amazing year but as 2013 draws to a close, we’re squeezing one more episode out for you. We’ve combined some content not yet published from Avalon & AusFly with some great reports supplied by other members of...

  
• 12.09.2013

  PCDU Episode 114: AusFly 2013 – Back Together Under One Sky

  September 2013 rolled around and it was time for the second AusFly event at Narromine in New South Wales. Team PCDU squeezed into a bus that was loaded with Analog Al’s airshow PA system, our gear and a certain trade...

  
• 10.21.2013

  PCDU Episode 113: Fleeting Dreams

  The past month has included a number of events related to the Royal Australian Navy’s International Fleet Review 2013 as well as the arrival of Jetstar’s new 787-8. Grant’s been visiting a few ships & interviewing their aircrew while Kathy’s...

  
• 09.06.2013

  PCDU Episode 112: Federal Election 2013

  It’s time for Australians to vote for their favourite (or least disliked :) ) politicians and, once again, we’ve gone into bat for our audience to present information about the transportation policies of the main parties. Unfortunately, our cunning plan...

  
• 08.25.2013

  PCDU Episode 111: Radio Killed the Podcast Star (Almost :) )

  As the F111 was late & delayed by all sorts of issues, so too has our Episode 111 been late in arriving. Our big excuse has been discovering that the PCDU Radio Show has taken a LOT more effort than...

  
• 07.07.2013

  PCDU Episode 110: A Basket Full of Flight

  All good things take time & so do our episodes, with this one taking perhaps the longest to produce of any of them. It’s also packed full of great content covering magazine editors, wing walkers, AOPA, another give-away competition, antique...

  
• 07.05.2013

  TeenWorldFlight: Update #1 with Ryan Campbell

  Ryan Campbell is a 19 year old pilot from Australia who’s currently flying solo around the world to grab the record as the youngest pilot yet to make the epic journey. Steve caught up with Ryan just a couple of...

  
• 05.26.2013

  PCDU Episode 109: Dave’s Cambridge Airforce

  We’re joined by Dave Homewood from the Wings Over New Zealand forum & podcast to talk about his time with the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF), the warbird scene over there and the comprehensive forum he established. We also...

  
• 04.27.2013

  PCDU Episode 108: On a Wing & a Chair

  Flying solo around Australia is a challenging & amazing experience, even today (just ask Owen Zupp :) ). It's even more mind-blowing when you're a quadriplegic! This episode Steve & Grant talk to Dave Jacka who is setting out to...

  
• 03.30.2013

  PCDU Episode 107: Avalon 2013 – Globemaster Central

  We still have some Avalon 2013 coverage not yet released so we decided to produce a single episode dedicated to the C17 as there were multiple RAAF C17s and a USAF C17 present on the final day. In keeping with...

  
• 03.03.2013

  PCDU Episode 106: Avalon 2013 – Day Six

  We had contemplated a quiet final day at Avalon 2013 where the team could gather a few last interviews but it wasn’t to be. There were still so many people to see, content to capture and experiences to share with...

  
• 03.02.2013

  PCDU Episode 105: Avalon 2013 - Day Five

  Day Five of the Avalon Airshow 2013 is the first full public day and they turned out in force to enjoy great aviation action under clear blue skies. Despite the crowds we still managed to get around the airport to...

  
• 03.01.2013

  PCDU Episode 104: Avalon 2013 – Day Four

  The sun came out in force on Day 4 of Avalon 2013 and with mostly clear blue skies we finally felt like we’d arrived at a real airshow. With aircraft putting on some amazing performances, the F22 once again took...

  
• 02.28.2013

  PCDU Episode 103: Avalon 2013 – Day Three

  Day Three of Avalon 2013 brought us a busy schedule of interviews and aviation experiences. From a Gulfstream G650 to the RAAF’s C17 heavy transport, we’ve been running around shooting even more video and recording interviews, such as those that...

  
• 02.27.2013

  PCDU Episode 102: Avalon 2013 – Day Two

  Day Two of the Avalon 2013 Airshow has kept Team PCDU very busy shooting video & recording interviews. Here’s some of the content we recorded today:Captain Robin Pursey, Chief Pilot for Airbus Corporate Jets talks about flying the ACJ319David Velupillai,...

  
• 02.26.2013

  PCDU Episode 101: Avalon 2013 – Day One

  It’s been a good start to the Avalon 2013 Airshow with Team PCDU recording a few interviews and setting up their schedule for the rest of the week. For our first day’s coverage we present:Grant talks with John McCormick (Director...

  
• 02.21.2013

  PCDU Episode 100: The Ton

  When we began producing this show WAY back in July 2009, we had no idea that we’d make it to 100 episodes, have travelled to multiple events within Australia, been to Oshkosh and be just about to cover a second...