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 to be stripped from Qantas 747s? (Australian Aviation)
• QANTAS 767 involved in a tail strike at Sydney
• Qantas 767 returns to Sydney after tailstrike (Australian Aviation)
• Qantas plane in tail strike drama (Kate Schneider @ Herald Sun)
• Air New Zealand has a couple of emergency situations
• Full-scale emergency response as Air NZ jet aborts take-off (Sydney Morning Herald)
• Air NZ 777 involved in emergency at Narita (Australian Aviation)
• Jetstar are rolling out self-service & SMS based check in
• Jetstar jettisons check-in desks for self-service kiosks (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
• Jetstar to roll out SMS boarding passes from February (Australian Aviation)
• Jetstar expect big results from their expansion into Asia
• Jetstar chooses Singapore for Asian hub (Australian Aviation)
• Jetstar expects payoff from expansion in Asia (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
• Garuda are preparing for an IPO
• PT Garuda, Indonesia’s state-owned carrier, planning a $340 million IPO (P R Venkat & Tom Wright @ The Wall St Journal / The Australian)
• Garuda to list this year, cancels 787s (Australian Aviation)
• We have another interview with Matt Hall
• Matt Hall announces his supporter’s tour for Perth
• AVTours set up Matt’s supporter’s tour
• We attended the Flight Experience Melbourne Facebook fan open night and recorded some interviews with the instructors & guests who were there at the 737 simulator.
• Shout outs
• Congratulations to Jack Seymour in Wangaratta for doing his trial introductory flight in a Eurofox. You can read about his adventures in flight at his blog: StudentFlight.
• Thanks to Brendan from Essendon (YMEN) for letting Grant tag along when he went flying out to Tooradin (YTDN). While he didn’t get at the controls, being in the backseat of a C172 is still flying :)
• We have a discussion on our forum about where to find the best coffee at airports.

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

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 2 hours, but not by much. Hopefully this will give you heaps of fun listening as you travel to & from work, mow the lawns or do your household chores :)

Here’s how the show came together this time:

• Robinson R44 crashes on a mountain beside a massive drop
• Men uninjured after chopper crash (Jeremy Sollars @ Lismore Northern Star via Warwick Daily News)
• Chopper incident ‘not so dramatic’ (Damian Bathersby @ Sunshine Coast Daily)
• Three men dodge death after their helicopter crash lands on the edge of a canyon ridge… two feet from a one mile drop
• Tiger’s IPO closes over subscribed – oh wow!
• Tiger Air offering overcomes doubts (Kevin Brown @ Financial Times)
• Blue skies for Tiger? (Stephen Bartholomeusz @ Business Spectator)
• Backing at home for Tiger Airways (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
• Tiger IPO closes fully subscribed (Australian Aviation)
• Australia’s “self-serve” passport gates not working well
• Self-serve passport gates ‘easy to cheat’ (Monique Ross @ ABCNews)
• SmartGate passport hits 1m milestone (Sydney Morning Herald)
• Lie down all the way to LA: Air NZ (Thanks to Mike for pointing out the article)
• RNZAF aerobatic team lose a pilot in a training crash
• DEATH OF AIRMAN – 3RD STATEMENT (Press Release from RNZAF)
• RNZAF loses pilot in Red Checkers crash (Australian Aviation)
• Pilot doused burning plane wreck (Michael Forbes @ The Dominion Post)
• Brother pays tribute to pilot (Manawatu Standard)
• Dead air force pilot was top trainer (TV NZ)
• Red Checkers Ground Aircraft (NZ Herald)
• Death with no regrets, says pilot’s family (Iain Hyndman @ Wanganui Chronicle)
• Scathing report released on the F35 JSF project
• JSF faces another scathing report (Australian Aviation)
• Some notes concerning Australia's exposure to the risk that the Joint Strike Fighter is a failed project (Ben Sandilands @ Plane Talking on Crikey)
• We review a recent “Traffic Report” from the Australian Aviation magazine (our favourite aviation magazine :)
• VH-EBK (A330) withdrawn from QF domestic and repainted in JetStar colours in Manilla
• VH-OGA (a 767-300ER) withdrawn from service
• JetConnect withdrew it’s last 300 series 737 (ZK-JNC) which has gone to storage in Tucson – entered service with Australian Airlines on Dec 31, 1988 as VH-TJB “Fortitude” – transferred to JetConnect on Jul 29th 2004
• Some new aircraft with funky names have arrived for Virgin Blue
• E-190 VH-ZPO = “Portia Macquarie”
• 737-800 VH-VUT = “Yabba Dabba Blue”
• 737-800 VH-VUR = “Star City”
• 737-800 VH-VUS = “Chitty Chitty Broome Broome”
• VB’s 737-800 VUA that was previously used for mile-high karaoke with the Black Eyed Peas as they toured Australia has been returned to normal configuration & colour scheme.
• We have a chat with Saj Ahmad about 737/A320 re-engining and lots more
• Instead of reading some listener mail, we review a recent discussion on our forum about Podcasting Beer between Turb, Grand Vizier, Scofreyjet and ourselves
• We have a stack of shout outs for this episode:
• Ms Dark Sarcasm (aka Jennifer Barry) had her first solo (YAY!). You can follow her flying adventures on her blog: A need for Airspeed
• David Optimal is now a Grade 3 instructor (YAY!). You can follow his news via his blog at DavidOptimal.com
• Robert Cigliano has started a new aviation podcast called The New Pilot Podlog
• Zyola from the Mile High Flyers podcast has been getting lots of her lady pilot friends in Hawaii’i to listen in to PCDU – go go Aussie accent power :)
• Also big thanks to our anonymous donor from Canberra

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

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 aircraft taken to Antarctica has been found again:
• Remains of Antarctica’s first plane found (ABC News)
• Future of Antarctic plane undecided (ABC News)
• David Vanderhoof gives us an Aviation History segment
• Guy Menzies with his crashed Avian (image)
• Image of an Avian in a pprune.org story
• QANTAS Super Constellation
• Air NZ’s new cabin crew outfits like ‘drag queens’ (Greer McDonald & Kiran Chug @ Sydney Morning Herald)
• Phrase “elephant in the room” is most popular cliche of 2009 (The Mirror) (AirNZ’s use of the phrase “disestablished”)
• Tiger Airways carries 3 millionth passenger (Travel Daily News)
• Tiger’s flight delayed 10-hours (The Morning Bulletin)
• Tiger Airways advances aircraft delivery (Yahoo! Singapore)
• Discussion about Tiger’s callsign on our forum @ Downwind
• Jetstar and AirAsia form a Joint Venture:
• http://au.biz.yahoo.com/100105/2/2am5y.html (Yahoo! FInance)
• Analyst tips fruitful Jetstar-AirAsia alliance (ABC News)
• Two-for-one budget airlines (Stephen Bartholomeusz @ Business Spectator)
• Jetstar maintenance stays onshore (Geoff Easdown @ HeraldSun)
• Australian executives at Jetstar Pacific not allowed to leave Vietnam:
• Jetstar Pacific executives questioned in Vietnam (ABC News)
• Jetstar Pacific probe set to last months (ABC News)
• QANTAS are impacted by another Amadeus crash:
• Flights delayed after Qantas glitches (ABC News)
• Another computer glitch for Qantas (Australian Aviation)
• Qantas may be just another eyes wide victim of IT "lies" (Ben Sandilands @ Plane Talking on Crikey)
• Passengers suffer as Qantas check-in fails (Lanai Vasek @ The Australian)
• We chat with Shashank Nigam from SimpliFlying
• We have a c’est la vie moment about the Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
• Technical glitch strands Qantas passengers (ABC News)
• Listener Mail:
• Jack Seymour’s got a blog up about his learning to fly (Student Flight)
• Mark mentions Coronal Mass Ejections and their potential impacts on GPS systems
• Shout Outs:
• The new Mile High Flyers podcast is well worth listening to (and they refer to our show in their second episode – w00t :)
• Will & Dave at The Pilot’s Flight Podlog podcast have provided us with a promo piece and are joining in the fun of cross-promoting other podcasts

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

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.

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 some time away from his family to record with us last Sunday (morning his time, evening our time), trying not to look out the window at the winter weather while we discussed the warmth Melbourne was experiencing. The discussion covers the Dubai Airshow, Middle East airlines and their flights to Australia, aircraft orders and the (then) pending first flight of the 787. It’s an enlightening chat and we’ll be sure to have Saj on again early in the new year.

In addition to our chat with Saj, we also recorded some news items to round out the episode. We actually recorded these on the same day the 787 flew and, thanks to the miracle of modern technology, have spliced it all together into a single show. Neat, hey! :)

Topics in this episode include:

• The 787 finally flew – you can check out Boeing’s ‘first flight’ site for all the videos
• Jet star’s check-in system goes down and then a few days later, so does Virgin Blue’s:
• Check-in system problem delays Jetstar flights (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
• Airport chaos as system goes down (ABC News)
• Stranded airline passengers booked into hotels (ABC News)
• Expect major delays, Virgin tells passengers (ABC News)
• Airline struggles to clear backlog of flights (ABC News)
• Former doctor Geoffrey Edelsten crashes his helicopter on his first solo
• Lucky escape as Edelsten’s chopper crashes (ABC News)
• Geoffrey Edelsten in helicopter crash landing at Moorabbin Airport (Wayne Flower @ The Herald Sun)
• Delta & V Australia tighten their alliance in steps towards the full Delta-V marriage
• Virgin’s V Australia agrees key deal with Delta Air Lines (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
• V Australia and Delta sign lounge and loyalty agreements (Australian Aviation)
• Discussion with Saj Ahmad
• Air New Zealand opens direct Sydney to Rotorua flights
• Rotorua: International Air Service Begins (Scoop NZ)
• Trouble on first Rotorua trans-Tasman flight (Stuff.co.nz)
• The Garuda pilot who was convicted for negligence in the cause of a fatal crash has his conviction quashed
• Garuda pilot’s conviction quashed (Sydney Morning Herald)
• Garuda crash pilot obsessed with flying again (ABC News)
• Garuda pilot wins appeal against jail sentence
• The Australian Federal Government releases their eagerly awaited aviation white paper
• A National Aviation Policy Statement – the Aviation White Paper (download it from the federal government)
• Albanese releases Aviation White Paper (Australian Aviation)
• Sydney Flight Training Centre collapses leaving many students with debts (Pilot pupils left grounded after flight school collapse (Andrew Carswell @ the Daily Telegraph))
• A DC-10 fire bomber arrives for the Victorian forest fire season
• DC-10 firebomber arrives at Avalon (Australian Aviation)
• Giant water bomber ready for fire season (ABC News)
• First use of a SkyCrane fire bomber this season (Air crane used on Blue Mountains blaze (ABC News))
• David Vanderhoof’s aviation history down under segment (at last – Grant forgot to include it in episode 19 – ooops)
• Listener mail, including George from New Zealand with his super sexy Falco aircraft
• There’s a chartered Air New Zealand 747 flying to Oshkosh 2010 (details with Avtours Australia) and we’re dreaming of being on it (it’s only AUS$4k each including accommodation – anyone want to help donate to get us there? :)

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

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 speeches from David Fertel at Castrol and Julian Frazier from QBE Insurance along with a keynote presentation from Matt Hall, Australia’s only Red Bull Air Race pilot.

There is a video clip of Pip Borman flying the Pitts Samson on YouTube that is well worth watching. The Samson is a radial powered aerobatic biplane (truely a “muscle plane”) and the video gives you an idea of what it is capable of. It was shot at Shepparton airport (YSHT) only a week before Pip crashed in it.

We were fortunate to be allowed to record the speaches and have been given permission to include them in the episode. It was a great night and we’re glad that we are able to bring you along for part of it.

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 again discussing a merger with QANTAS
• The US FAA wil be conducting an Air Safety examination of Australia’s air operations
• 30th Anniversary of Air New Zealand’s DC10 crashing on the side of Mt Erebus in Antarctica
• Virgin Blue likely to have a profit in FY09/10
• QANTAS to purchase additional aircraft and will be assigning more of their 787s to Jetstar
• QANTAS introduces the airport of the future concept
• Airport capacity in Sydney and the need for a second airport
• Australian Transport Safety Bureau provides interim reports on the QANTAS A330 ADIRU issues and QANTAS 747 oxygen bottle incidents
• RAAF to purchase 14 F-35 fighters even though Lockheed has admitted the project is running late
• The first two Wedgetail AEW aircraft have been delivered
• Last flight of the Caribou in Australia & it’s potential replacement

We hope you enjoy the show and we will return to our usual levels of interviews, discussions & opinionated news reviews in a week or so.

If 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 (RedBaronSydney on Twitter) with a number of aircraft, including Pitts Specials, Robins/Alphas, an Extra and a new Airvan. Some are painted in Red Baron colours while others fly under the Red Bull logos.

We were fortunate enough to get some of Joel’s time for a chat about his flying history, running the Red Baron operation, being involved with Red Bull and the recent New South Wales Aerobatic competition.

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 us as we chat with Ben Ippolito (the Ipanator) and Jeremy Peck, discussing being selected for ATC, the long hard slog of learning & practicing in the simulator and the terrors (ummm, joys) of taking their first few steps in the real world outside of the academy.

We also discuss GAAP changes, oceanic control, airspace classes, working with the RAAF and much more.

You can find out more about becoming an Air Traffic Controller on the Air Services ATC page. Recruitment for the 2010 class closes by January 3rd.

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 discover who were the close runners up and who was the winner :)

So, sit back, relax and enjoy episode 16, in which we discuss:

• Jetstar engine fire forces evacuation at Newcastle airport (ABC News)
• Victoria launches bid for Red Bull Air Race (Australian Aviation)
• We both express displeasure that the Red Bull Air Race was not available online via web-streaming for Australians despite Channel 10 not showing it live
• V Australia to get 777-200LRs?
• We discuss Air New Zealand replacing its 737-300’s with A320’s
• Air NZ opts for Airbus (Australian Aviation)
• Air New Zealand to replace Boeing fleet with Airbus A320 (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
• Airbus knocks 50 per cent off New Zealand deal (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
• Air New Zealand’s Chris Nassenstein Tapped For Qantas Post (Aero-News Net)
• We discuss the political turn-around associated Victoria trialling heavy jet fire bombers
• Victoria to trial fire-fighting jet (The Age)
• Victoria commissions fire fighting jet (SBS)
• Giant water bomber to soak Victorian bushfires (ABC news)
• Water bomber could have saved lives (ABC News)
• Victoria looks to bigger fire bombers (Australian Aviation)
• It seems that it’s not just in the USA that airline pilots make silly mistakes
• Qantas pilots forgot to lower landing gear (ABC News)
• Qantas pilots forgot to lower wheels (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
• Pilots stood down over landing gear incident (Australian Aviation)
• We chat with Owen Zupp about our recent competition, the runners up and the big winner
• David Vanderhoof provides a look at “this week in aviation”
• Qantas will not be ‘Jetstarised’: Joyce (The Age)
• We discuss the expansion of Tiger Airways as they open new routes
• Tiger spreads wings to five biggest cities (Steve Creedy @ The Australian)
• Tiger’s eyes on Avalon (Herald Sun)
• Tiger ups Melbourne & Sydney services, stalking Avalon? (Australian Aviation)
• Tiger to fly Melbourne-Brisbane (Australian Aviation)
• Tiger launches Adelaide-Brisbane (Australian Aviation)
• Steve has a major “What Cheese Me Off!” session about the advertising for Melbourne Airport (you can see the adverts as a banner on the Melbourne Airport website)
• We discuss JAL’s new premium economy class seating on the Sydney to Narita route (thanks to Dan Web for the lead)
• Final F-111 exits deep maintenance (Australia Aviation)
• Boeing completes Wedgetail counter-measures testing (Australian Aviation) (plus a ‘heads up’ by David Vanderhoof)
• We review some listener mail

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