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 an interview with Michael Gilmour from Downwind.com.au, our usual opinionated review of the news and listener mail. We also wrap up the year with a tip of the wing to the podcasts that inspire us and the guests who have helped give us some great content.

Here’s how the episode came together this time:

• Indian company buys Gippsland Aeronautics and Aerostaff (Australian Aviation)
• CASA ups GAAP circuit limit, to use FAA Class D (Australian Aviation)
• Satellite-based navigation system to allow air-traffic controllers to pinpoint aircraft (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
• Air N.Z. More Affected by 787 Delay Than Slump, Airlines Says (Tracy Withers @ Bloomberg.com) plus interview with Rob Fyfe on IATA.org
• Qantas to launch A380 Melbourne-London services (Australian Aviation) and Qantas to operate A380 on Melbourne-London route
• Defence Dept to fix Amberley base creek pollution
• Tiger Airways IPO reduced following luke-warm reactions and may be withdrawn
• Tiger confirms IPO (Australian Aviation)
• Tiger Air cuts IPO size (Kevin Lim @ AsiaOne)
• Investors Cool Toward Tiger Airways IPO (Shares Investment)
• Two major shareholders may jettison Tiger stake (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
• QANTAS 747-400 has an engine failure not long after take off at Changi (Singapore)
• Qantas flight turns back after ‘flames from engine’ (Thomas Hunter @ SMH.com.au)
• Qantas denies engine fire forced return (ABC News)
• Qantas engine failure terrifies passengers (ABC News)
• QANTAS pilots union upset over JetConnect pilots
• Pilots union to launch legal action to fight for Kiwi pay equality (Ewin Hannan @ The Australian)
• Qantas ‘underpaying NZ pilots’ (ABC News)
• Australian union seeks more for Qantas’ Kiwi pilots (Kathy Marks @ NZ Herald)
• NZ-based pilots paid ‘half of Aussie counterparts’ (Stuff.co.nz)
• APIA takes action on Jetconnect pilot pay (Australian Aviation)>
• Interview with Michael Gilmour from Downwind.com.au
• We review our Listener Mail
• It’s Christmas, so of course everyone’s going on strike
• Qantas faces more strike action (ABC News)
• Qantas engineers to begin 5-day strike from tomorrow (Cynthia Koons @ The Australian)
• Christmas strikes looming on two fronts for Qantas (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
• Qantas, Jetstar engineers ‘overworked’ (Nine News)
• Work bans threaten air travel (Ben Schneiders @ The Age)
• Qantas engineers set for more industrial action (Australian Aviation)
• Here’s our end of year wrap
• Special thanks to the podcasts that inspired us to start PCDU
• Uncontrolled Airspace
• Airspeed
• Pilot’s Flight Podlog
• Podcast Answerman
• Airplane Geeks
• Our great guests in 2009 were
• Matt Hall
• Nigel Lamb
• Owen Zupp
• Bas Scheffers
• Saj Ahmad
• Ben Ipolito & Jeremy Peck
• Michael Gilmour
• David Vanderhoof
• Lang Kidby
• Joel Haski
• Shashank Nigram
• Karla Courtney
• Carlo Santoro
• Nick Brau
• Special thanks also to
• Dane Golden & Leo Laporte
• Adam Visscher (about to be our photographer)

As from now, we have a forum. Yes, that’s right, a place where you can come and chat about our episodes and anything else related to PCDU. Thanks to Michael @ Downwind for making a space available to us.

As usual, our theme music track is “YouNameIt5” by Brian Simpson (aka t3cat5) and our sound effects come from SoundSnap.com.