We are fortunate to have Dick Smith return to PCDU, joining us to discuss his views on Australia’s aviation environment. We talk about his time as chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority and then his return as chairman of the Civil Aviation Safety Authority. He mentions some of the initiatives he started that worked as well as some that didn’t quite work as planned. Dick also gives us a rather candid look at his views on user fees, ministers and what’s going wrong with aviation today.

Once again this discussion with Dick is sure to generate divided commentary from those in aviation, both old & new. If you’ve not already listened to our previous chat with Dick about his early flying adventures, you really should check it out now.

Following our chat with Dick we have a dramatic change of scene as the Infrequent Flyer (aka Anthony Simmons) returns to give us his View From the Lounge angle on the Avalon Airshow. Then, to answer Anthony’s question of “How it all flows together” we have ATC_Ben return to present his latest Controller’s Corner where he explains just what went on at Mercat Manor.

Following that we have a few interviews recorded at Avalon:

• FLT LT Pete Komar, an F-18F Super Hornet pilot with the RAAF
• BAe Hawk Mk127 techo LAC Brian Dick
• Pilot Officer Emmanuel “Muz” Murray talks about flying the BAe Hawk Mk127
• SGT Kerry Dimar who works in logistics with the BAe Hawk Mk127

To keep with the Fast Jets angle, we’ve thrown in some cockpit audio from Steve’s flight with Mark Pracy in JetRide’s L39 Albatros.

For this episode, we’ve dived into the mailbag to bring out:

• Calum Tsang from Toronto lists some of his favourite episodes
• Carl Rossi says PCDU is going to cost him $13,000 … and he doesn’t mind!
• Peter Haans tells us he appreciated our Avalon 2011 coverage
• We remind you to check out our listener survey
• Listener “Raptor” has created a thread about CASA’s “Flight Planning Kit” on our forum at DownWind.com.au

We also give a shout out to:

• The Airplane Geeks podcast for their great episodes with Igor Sikorsky III and Mikey McBryan from Ice Pilots
• The Flaps Podcast from the UK for being nominated for an award in New York and winning an award in the UK – awesome effort from a great podcast (if you’re not listening to these guys, you’re REALLY missing out on an amazing show!)
• Tod McClamroch from My Flight Blog also had a ride in an L39 and scored some stick time (great, another person Grant is jealous of :) )