Our good friend Owen Zupp takes time out from his very busy schedule to hang out & chat with us:

• Owen’s got a new blog on www.owenzupp.com where he talks about aviation (mostly). Readership is ramping up quickly and we chat about some of his content and the questions readers are sending to him.
• Steve met up with Owen at the GippsAero factory recently when Owen was flight testing the GA8 Airvan for an article in Australian Aviation. We chat about GippsAero, the GA8 Airvan, the GA10’s pending launch and what Owen was looking for during the test flight.
• One of Owen’s recent articles was “The Fatal Stall” which was inspired by a recently released video on YouTube. We talk about stall/spin training, Owen’s approach to teaching stalls and factors that can lead to the stall.
• We even touch on cricket a couple of times. I mean, really, cricket? How did that get in an aviation podcast?? :)
• Finally we chat for a bit about Owen’s future projects

After chatting with Owen, we run a few World War 2 related segments that Steve recorded while on a road trip to Mildura, including:

• Ken Wright OAM at the RAAF 2OTU Museum at Mildura. You can find reference to them online at the Mildura RSL’s web page and Mildura Airport’s web page.
• Noel Breetag at the RAAF Catalina Museum at Lake Boga. Definitely worth dropping in to check it out.

Pieter Johnson has supplied us with another great From Up Here to Down There episode. This time he’s talking with Paul Fowler about the Enstone Flying Club’s “Spitfire Project” which aims to build a squadron of 12 of the Supermarine 90% scale Mk26B kits. Via their “Zero to Hero” classes, they will recruit pilots who will then fly the aircraft at airshows around Europe putting on public flying displays.

We then return to chatting with Owen and discuss:

• Finding small aviation museums & historic sites around Australia.
• How World War 1 aircraft are just as cool as World War 2 aircraft.
• The Seaplane Pilots’ Association of Australia are having their “Splash In” on the 21st & 22nd of April at Lake Boga
• The replica Spitfire & Mustang kits that are available to purchase.

We end up working through some Listener Mail & Shout Outs, including:

• Howard McClernon says Hi, discusses the Ansett collapse and also remote controlled aircraft
• Gary Clarkson asks about flying RA-Aus aircraft in Class C & D airspace
• Justin Sarda points us at some amazing graffiti painted aircraft
• Congratulations to Chris Barry for getting a $100k grant from the government to expand the aviation studies programme into more high schools
• Sympathies to Steven Frischlng on the passing of his Dad
• Congratulations to Ben Wickham on his recent engagement
• Congraultations to Rod & Lisa Rakic (from MyTransponder) on the news that they are expecting a new potential pilot

In other news, we’ve started a mailing list to keep you posted on new episodes & interesting developments. You can sign up to receive it on our Facebook page and on our web site.

Finally, don’t forget that the Tyabb Air Show is on March 4th and the RA-Aus NatFly event is at Temora on April 6th & 7th.