Plane Crazy Down Under

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 Bull Air Race to our media flight in a pair of C130Js over Melbourne to promote the RAAF’s Centenary of Military Aviation air show, this episode really got us exited for the year ahead.Our first episode for 2014 unfolds as:

• Steve & Grant chat about surgery, a wedding and some recent media publicity after a couple of unusual hot air balloon landings in Melbourne
•  0:12:35 – We chat with Matt Hall about the long awaited return of the Red Bull Air Race and get lots of great info about the changes to the race itself, his new team, how they’ve been preparing and the telemetry system he’s using.
•  0:46:20 – Steven Pam & ATC Ben got to represent PCDU at a recent RAAF C130J media flight over Melbourne to promote the Centenary of Military Aviation air show at Pt Cook on March 1st & 2nd. In the process they recorded the following content:
• Air Commodore Phil Byrne (RAAF’s Head of Special Events) talking about the historical significance of Pt Cook and the RAAF’s preparations for their Centenary of Military Aviation air show
•  David Gardner (Director, RAAF Museum) talks about the Bristol Boxkite replica
•  Flight lieutenant Matt Fleet, an RAF C130J pilot on exchange with the RAAF
•  Sergeant Greg Milne, an RAAF C130J loadmaster
•  We have some announcements:
• PCDU will be at the Tyabb Airshow 2014 (A Salute to Veterans) on Sunday, March 9th and are looking forward to catching up with any of you who can be there
• We want your stories, especially “grass roots” content and, as Steve Riley wrote in about, more “stories about flying”
• We have some shout outs:
• Thanks to Steve’s surgical staff for doing his knee reconstruction, including Mr Eden Raleigh, Dr Peter Larkins & Dr Joshua Hoppe from the Epworth Hospital
• Thanks to Pieter Johnson & David Vanderhoof for the long-distance support from around the world to help Steve get through some difficult times
• Steve wants to thank Grant & the rest of the PCDU team for helping out with the Australia Desk episodes while he was recovering
• Thanks to the Hangar 49 & Aviation Xtended podcasts for being brave enough to let Grant join them when recording their latest episodes (Hangar 49’s “G’Day Mate” … Aviation Xtended’s “Plane Crazy”)
• Good luck to Dave Gray (formerly from the Lifestyle PodNetwork) who is currently battling melanoma
• Thanks to the RAAF for inviting us to attend the C130J media flight
• Twitter user 555UHZ is posting the movie Top Gun as a series of frames (with subtitles), one every half hour or so. Now that’s dedication! :)

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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 the PCDU team. We’ve also got a competition running to win one of five copies of Owen Zupp’s new book.In keeping with our trend for 2013, this is yet another 2+ hour episode packed with great avation content, including:

• 0:09:06 – Steve & AntCB chat with Chris Sperou at Avalon 2013
• 0:18:30 – Grant talks with Bevan Anderson from AvPlan
• 0:25:11 – Peter Edwards from Cirrus talks about their latest aircraft
• 0:31:53 – Sue Woods talks with Grant about the latest Jabiru news
• 0:37:09 – Maikha Ly reports on a recent Free Flight model aircraft competition
• 0:49:21 – Dave Homewood talks with Peter Daniell, the CEO of Air Wakatipu at Queenstown in New Zealand
• 1:19:27 – Damien Rose reports on Caribou Cargo
• 1:46:14 – Listener Mail:
• Ian Kershaw sent us an audio comment about Owen Zupp’s eBook “50 Tales” which leads into the news that Owen has released a new eBook called Solo Flight about his fund-raising flight around Australia in a Jabiru. We have a competition running where you can win one of five copies of the eBook but you’ll need to listen to the show to find out how to enter (it’s easy! :)
• Evan Schoo sent us an audio comment about his perspective on Grant’s balloon flight with Kathy Mexted
• Mick from Fankston (our good friend, source of many interesting emails & Shangri-La pal) has found that Virgin Australia’s 737-800’s don’t have a window at seat 9A … OUCH!
• Rashidi Merrifeld sent us a link to a video he’s created about wanting become an airline pilot when he’s older
• Paul O’Rourke told us about the Cobden Fly-in coming up on Feb 15th & 16th, 2014. You can arrive around 10 am and stay or pop in whenever and say hi. A BBQ lunch will be available. You can camp under your wing or check out accommodation on the Cobden Aeroclub Facebook page. Monitor their page for updates and "LIKE" it or call before departing for the fly-in. AVGAS will be available. Contact: Warren 0428-024-633 or Bill 0403-498-005 E: [email protected]
• Melanie Salisbury from Travel Managers in NZ wrote to us about their Bomber Country tour of the UK happening in July 2014. It’s a 19 day escorted tour covering Duxford's Flying Legends, Waddington & RIAT plus has options for Farnborough. If you can cover the price tag ($9,200 per person) then it looks like it’ll be a great tour
• Steve Tupper from Airspeed has released a trilogy of great episodes about his entry into being an airshow performer
• 2:09:30 – We talk about a few of our favourite moments from 2013 and the things we’re looking forward to in 2014
• 2:19:21 – We give some shoutouts to some of those who have helped us during 2013

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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 stand then drove over 800km in a day to get there. Whew!

Once there we cleared out the studio, set up the sound system & got ready to run AusFly Radio & do the air display commentary. We applied the lessons we learned from AusFly 2012 and, over the course of the event, wound up learning all new lessons so AusFly 2014 will be even better. We also recorded a stack of content and have packaged some of it up into this first AusFly 2013 episode. Even though it’s over 2 hours long, there’s still more yet to come but we’ll save that for later episodes.

For now, here’s the AusFly 2013 content we have for you in this episode:

• 0:02:13 – Ben Jones joins us for a recap of AusFly 2013 with David Brown from the SAAA.
• 0:09:32 – Rob Fisher from Superior Air Parts covers the aviation components & parts they’re able to supply
• 0:15:01 – Anton Meier from Aerosport Aviation in New Zealand talks about the Triton Sport, a derivation of the Sport Cruiser
• 0:21:27 – Russell Milton from Atlas Aviation Australia talks about their SkyLeader aircraft
• 0:26:22 – Stephen Gale talks us through learning to fly the SIA Marchetti S211 jet with input from Willie “Godfather” Chew (ex-RSAF instructor). We’re also joined by Jodie Davis from SkyThrills who went flying with Stephen in the jet.
• 0:34:13 – Allan Barton from Zenair Australia tells us about the Zenith aircraft they’re importing from the USA
• 0:37:11 – Dianne McNamara produces custom aircraft covers for Punkin Head Air Sports
• 0:43:08 – Michael Coates represents Pipistrel in Australia
• 0:51:36 – David Baddams runs Snow Goose International and ferries aircraft around the world. He also flew David Brown’s RV10 in an RV formation at AusFly
• 1:00:31 – Grant & Ben chat with Dick Smith and Ryan Campbell about flying solo around the world
• 1:09:50 – Amanda Pond from Puddle To Pond Financial talks about life insurance for pilots
• 1:13:45 – Steve & Ben talk to Paul Holler & Norm Edmunds from the SAAA about home building aircraft
• 1:38:17 – Bas Scheffers went up with Jeremy from SkyThrills to do some aerobatics in their Super Decathalon. He also tells us a bit about the latest OzRunways news
• 1:46:14 – Steve, Grant, Ben & David Brown wrap up their AusFly 2013 review

Don’t forget to go & support Steven Pam’s Airheads documentary, a movie that desperately needs to be made.

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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 had a flight on Australia’s brand new MRH-90 Taipan transport helicopters. Not long after that, Grant was in Sydney to watch the mass-flypast of aircraft as the fleet steamed into Sydney harbour then both Steve & Grant were on the tarmac in Melbourne for the new Jetstar 787 arrival celebrations.

Naturally this generated lots of great new content and we’ve packaged it all up as follows:

• 0:06:43 – LT Hamish Walker, Lynx Pilot on HMS Daring
• 0:13:37 – LT CDR Teilo Elliot-Smith, Air Warefare Officer on HMS Daring
• 0:27:15 – CDR Angus Essenhigh, Commanding Officer of HMS Daring
• 0:34:37 – LT David Roderick, Seasprite Pilot on HMNZS Te Mana
• 0:46:17 – LT Hamish Liddy, Seasprite Observer on HMNZS Te Mana
• 0:57:22 – Leading Hand Zach Taylor, Seasprite crew on HMNZS Te Mana
• 1:06:29 – David presents Grant with their 6 Squadron patch & explains its symbolism
• 1:07:43 – Grant chats with listener “Mick from the Frankston line”
• 1:14:45 – Kathy Mexted chats with Steve about flying in the MRH-90
• 1:17:45 – LT Jack Wadey, MRH-90 Taipan Pilot
• 1:31:40 – CPT Brett Chandler, Commanding Officer of HMAS Creswell
• 1:38:27 – Kathy chats about how she knew Brett Chandler from some time ago
• 1:43:20 – David Hall, CEO of Jetstar Australia & New Zealand
• 1:48:53 – Captain Jeremy Schmidt, lead pilot on Jetstar’s 787 programme
• 1:55:19 – Gordon Rich-Phillips, Victoria’s Minister for Aviation Industry
• 1:59:23 – We wrap it up and sign off

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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 to wait for the parties to have revealed their policies has not been as successful as we’d like as a) some parties are still holding their cards close to their chest and b) all the candidates are running around frantically to shore up support & win voters to their side.

Oh well, on with the show :)

At 0:03:40, we start with Anthony Albanese from the Australian Labor Party. Anthony is the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Infrastructure & Transport, Minister for Broadband, Communications & the Digital Economy and the Leader of the House. While unable to come on the show, Anthony was able to provide written answers to our questions (which we’ve listed below) so we provide some commentary on his answers:

1. How important do you consider aviation to be to Australia’s economic growth, especially with respect to foreign earnings through training and the production & export of aircraft & components? If so, how will your policies help aviation boost economic growth? (eg: Carbon Tax subsidies as per other forms of transport, easier access to VET FEE Help for pilot training, employment legislation changes, boosts for trainee/apprentice programs, reduced user fee costs, etc)

Last year was another record year for aviation in Australia with more than 86 million passengers flying domestically and internationally. This is a 4.5 per cent increase on 2011.

Passenger growth in Australia was more than three times the rate of the United States, which registered a 1.3 per cent increase in passenger numbers in 2012.

We're committed to working with the sector to build Australia's aviation industry. Over $120 million in assistance has been provided for students undertaking aviation-related studies. This assistance has provided more than 12,000 places for students to gain the qualifications necessary to build Australia's aviation industry.

Federal Labor has announced we're abolishing the carbon tax and moving to an Emissions Trading Scheme next year, which will reduce the cost for the sector further.

2. Do you consider aviation to be important to the development & prosperity of country Australia? If so, how will your policies help boost aviation for rural areas? (eg: route subsidies, rural airport development, etc)

Absolutely. That's why Federal Labor has injected more than $261 million of assistance into regional and remote aviation - more than five times that spent by the former Coalition Government in the preceding six years.

We are upgrading:

• 47 regional airports in every state
• 237 remote airstrips, making them safer and guaranteeing medical services

There is more money and support going into regional aviation than ever before. Growth in total passenger movements at regional airports continues to be higher than at airports in major cities, growing at 4.6 per cent versus 3.5 per cent respectively.

In addition, the number of regional airports receiving services increased by 31 airports to 171 last year - the highest in almost a decade.

3. Will Aviation have its own minister? Or even a dedicated full-time Transport minister? If aviation (& transport in general) are important factors in the economic growth of Australia, does it not make sense to have a dedicated portfolio managed by a single minister?

I'm not pre-empting future decisions about portfolios – my focus is on securing another term for the Rudd Labor Government.

4. Will the issues relating to CASA & the ATSB that were raised by the recent Senate inquiry into the PelAir accident be addressed? If the two months between the report being produced & parliament going into caretaker mode was insufficient for a response to be generated it would indicate significant issues have been raised & need to be addressed. What priority will this have after the election?

A re-elected Labor Government will provide a response to the Inquiry once the findings have been given full consideration. In the meantime, the ATSB has invited the Canadian Transportation Safety Bureau to undertake an independent review of the ATSB investigation methodologies and processes.

5. Will a decision on Sydney’s second airport be made in the first year of the new government or will still more studies & delays be incurred?

I have consistently said Sydney needs a second airport sooner rather than later.

6. What steps will be taken to reduce the impact of residential encroachment on airports, eg: Bankstown, Archerfield, Moorabbin, etc.

The Federal Labor Government has championed the National Airports Safeguarding Framework to guide land use planning reform around Australian airports. The Framework will help ensure that in the future both airports and residents of suburbs around airports are safeguarded from inappropriate off-airport development. Airports are important transport, economic and employment hubs, significantly contributing to our social connections and economic productivity.

The framework was adopted by the Standing Committee on Transport and Infrastructure (SCOTI) and each state and territory government will now apply the framework in a manner appropriate to their own planning rules.

The Government wants to see more sensible planning decisions are made around airports - that is why we established the Planning Coordination Forums (PCFs) at each federally leased airport. These forums enable the airport and the federal Government agencies to engage the state government and local councils in regard to planning decisions around the airport.

Then, at 0:23:40 we have a chat with Senator Lee Rhiannon, the Transport spokesperson for The Greens. We asked her the same set of questions as those above but (as you might expect), her answers were quite different to those from Anthony Albanese.

Finally, at 0:41:38 we review the Coalition’s aviation policy document. We had tried to arrange a chat with Warren Truss from the Liberal National Party as we did during the last Federal Election in 2010 but, unfortunately, at the times he was available to chat with us, we were stuck away from the studio :(

Warren is the Leader of the Nationals and the Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport and it was his department that released the Coalition’s aviation policy document. If you want to get all the details the Coalition have released about this policy, you should read their PDF format document.

Of interest, the Regional Aviation Association of Australia (RAAA) have issued a media release stating that the Coalition’s aviation policies are a “good start and show that the Coalition has at least been listening to industry concerns, concerns that have been shared with the Shadow Minister over a number of years.”

So there you go. While we didn’t get to chat with all the politicians we were chasing, we did at least get sufficient information from them to review and discuss for this episode. Perhaps next election we’ll be able to arrange our times more in advance to ensure we can bring you their commentary. Hopefully by then, we won’t also still be wondering if there’ll ever be a second airport in Sydney :)

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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 we expected. All this plus our day jobs, families AND our PCDU Commentary & Announcing gigs have, in turn, made it almost impossible to get an episode out. Suffice to say, we’re parking the radio show production for a while as we try to find a new way of working that lets us produce radio shows AND episodes. It’s very much a learning experience!

Meanwhile, we have managed to get this episode out and it’s packed with lots of great content, including:

• 0:01:55 – Grant recently took a holiday in Bali & flew with Virgin Australia. He provides a review of their short-haul international business class service & the GA scene on Bali.
• 0:12:50 – We chat with Mark Pracy from Pracy Racing about his preparations for Reno 2013 and the “feel” of the event now that it’s coming up on two years since the big crash back in 2011.
• 0:34:46 – We present a summary of the chats Steve recorded with Dave Jacka as he made his solo-flight around Australia to become the first quadriplegic person to do so as part of his On A Wing & A Chair charity. These chats were recorded during Dave’s journey and after his return to Tooradin airport (YTDN), giving a great overview of the many issues & experiences he encountered.
• 1:03:46 – During Exercise Talisman Saber, Damien Rose interviewed Jake Press, a pilot with the KC135. He then went on to enjoy a great ride in a USAF C17 doing a low-level airdrop. You can watch his summary video posted to the PCDU YouTube channel:
• 1:08:20 – Back in 2012, Grant had a great chat with David Cottee, the curator of the Qantas Heritage Collection
• 1:29:28 – Also back in 2012, Grant had a fantastic chat with Paul Gianniotis, an ex-Cathay Pacific Flight Engineer who learned to fly in a Piper at Kai Tak in Hong Kong (no, really :) ) and even started flying hot air balloons in Hong Kong. As you could imagine, he’s got some amazing stories to tell!
• 1:47:23 – We give some shoutouts:
• The Stuck Mic AvCast has not only passed their 50th episode, they’re about to release their 55th! Awesome!
• Dave Homewood is about to release his 50th Wings Over New Zealand podcast episode and it’s going to be a fantastic one!
• We’ve released our 200th Australia Desk segment for the Airplane Geeks podcast
• Bevan Anderson from AvSoft has seen his AvPlan application turn 2 years old
• Steve’s daughter Rachel turned 18 and his wife now has her Yellow Belt in Karate
• Australia’s Federal Election is coming up & once again we’re going to do some Election Quick Cast episodes to give you an insite to the aviation policies (if any) of the major parties

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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 aircraft, solo trips around the world & even hot air balloons. Make use of the pause button where you need to but be sure to listen right through to the very end of the episode for another set of classic “Kathy Mexted Bloopers” :)

This episode is indeed a basket full of flight & it unfolds as:

• 0:03:30 – We chat with Kathy Mexted about her father, Pat Whitty, who passed away recently. She mentions his influence on her flying and their flights in VH-MAU, a 1978 Piper Warrior
•  0:11:35 – Kathy joins with us to chat with Kreisha Ballantyne-Dickes, the Publications Editor at AOPA Australia and their Australian Pilot magazine. She also has her own blog (Girl with a Stick) and we chatted about a number of topics including:
• How Kreisha got into flying, especially her first solo
• Her love of Bonanzas
• Avalon 2013 & why people don’t fly
• Kreisha’s career in writing and becoming editor of the Australian Pilot magazine
• Wingwalking with the Breitling team on the top of their Stearman
• Working with AOPA, their efforts to get more people flying, the benefits of being a member, the “new approach” of AOPA and Andrew Andersen’s open letter to everyone involved in General Aviation
• Getting involved with CASA’s regulation changes
• 0:50:32 – Maikha Ly went to the Antique Aircraft Association of Australia’s annual fly-in at Echuca and recorded some great content for us. You can find the photos he took on his Echuca Flickr collection
• 1:34:48 – Steve chats with Ryan Campbell two days prior to starting his TeenWorldFlight adventure
• 1:45:52 – Grant recently took Kathy for a balloon flight over Bacchus Marsh while listener Evan Schoo tagged along with the ground crew & got some great photos of the flight. During the flight, Grant & Kathy recorded a quick in-flight chat that we listen to here, after which, Steve asks Kathy just how the flight really went!
• 2:14:30 – We announce the winners of our first 50 Tales of Flight eBook give-away competition:
• Gary Clarkson
• Will Coleman
• Darren Eastwood
• Brad Rule
• Mitchell Royal
• Graham Slingsby
• Trent Stewart
• Lahra Warry
• 2:15:34 – We have another give-away this episode with Owen Zupp‘s second (& trickier!) question about famous Australian aviators. The first five (5) people to email us the correct answer at [email protected] will win a copy of Owen’s “50 Tales of Flight” eBook.
• 2:17:47 – Listener Mail:
• SoapyHB noted that the Concorde prototype was in Melbourne in 1972 while British Airways ran some proving flights in 1975 with a production aircraft. He also really enjoyed our Avalon 2013 coverage and admits to being a real fan of Anthony’s The View from the Lounge segments. Finally, he wonders how we manage to do all this and yet still stay married … yup, so do we! :)
• Justin Sarda sent us through a link to a beautiful set of HD cockpit photos
• Mick (aka Bom1) sent through some great comments on lap belts in aircraft having the potential to cause severe abdominal & spinal injuries in a crash (note: rather topical given the reports of similar injuries in survivors of the Asiana crash at San Francisco)
• Brian Grinter sent through a link to photos of Peter Jackson’s Lancaster that will be used for his remake of The Dam Busters. As Brian says: “It’s not your average Airfix kit!” :) :)
• 2:22:49 – Kathy mentioned that Col Griffin (ex RAAF Mosquito pilot) recently passed away. We interviewed Col back in Episode 61 (The Great Pilgrimage) and you can read more about him in Kathy’s articles in Australian Flying and Outback Mag
• 2:24:07 – Shout Outs:
• Ryan Campbell’s TeenWorldFlight is under way & he’s flying a Cirrus SR22 solo around the world
• We recommend the Aussie Aviators & Friends page on Facebook
• 2:26:39 – We’ve been hearing from many people about issues at RA-Aus and are considering producing a show dedicated to the topic. Do you have any recommendations for people & issues you’d like to have covered in such an episode?
• 2:29:09 – We’re now producing a weekly 1 hour radio show for Kinglake Ranges Radio, a local community radio station. You can tune in at 9am on Saturday’s (Melbourne time) via 94.5FM or via their livestream feed

As noted, the Kathy Mexted driven bloopers can be found at 2:34:25 – definitely worth checking out :)

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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 hours after he had arrived in Hilo, Hawaii to discuss the experience of island-hopped his way across the Pacific.

You can follow Ryan’s flight & get more information about him on his TeenWorldFlight website.

NOTE: If you check out Ryan’s sponsor list, you’ll see “Plane Crazy Down Under Podcast – Listeners and Crew.” We’re proud to have helped raise some money for Ryan’s journey and, thanks to the generosity of our audience, we were able to exceed our goal of putting $500 towards his flight.

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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 discuss his excellent Wings Over New Zealand podcast which has a large number of fascinating interviews & recordings covering the Kiwi scene. You can follow Dave’s latest updates on his Wings Over New Zealand Facebook page.

After our chat with Dave we feature more Avalon 2013 content including our KC-30A interview, a chat about the Heron Remotely Piloted Vehicle’s operations in Afghanistan and part two of Grant’s chat with Charles Cheeseman from Eco 2000. As if all that wasn’t enough, we introduce Maikha Ly who is joining the team as a roving reporter covering regional aviation events.

We’ve also got a new competition where the first 5 people who email us the correct answer to Owen Zupp’s question will win a copy of his “50 Tales of Flight” eBook. After that, it’s time for listener mail, shout outs and the wrap up.

Whew, no wonder it’s almost 2 hours long :)

The show unfolds as:

• 0:08:29 – We chat with Dave Homewood
• 0:42:11 – Interview with FLTLT Simon Press & WOFF David Bull on the flight deck of the RAAF KC-30A
• 0:55:33 – Interview with WGCDR Jonathan McMullan about the Heron Remotely Piloted Vehicle and its operations in Afghanistan
• 1:07:18 – Introducing Maikha Ly, our roving reporter covering regional events
• 1:17:21 – The second part of Grant’s chat with Charles Cheeseman from Eco 2000 (part 1 was back in Episode 103: Avalon 2013 – Day Three)
• 1:24:48 – We announce winners of our FlightPathTV competition:
• Errol Cavit from NZ
• Alex James from China
• Gary Clarkson from Melbourne
• 1:26:49 – Thanks to the donors from our audience who helped us exceed the $250 we needed to join Ryan Campbell’s “$500 Club” from his Teen World Flight project:
• Peter Gossner
• Doug & Kerri Worrall
• Brian Grinter
• Chris Fenelon
• Peter Baxter
• Gary Clarkson
• Ben Jones
• Andrew Van Der Saag
• Nick Christiansen
• Gareth Little-Hales
• Evan Schoo
• 1:29:29 – We announce a new competition, this time featuring a question from Owen Zupp. The first five people who email us with the correct answer will win a copy of his “50 Tales of Flight” eBook.
• 1:31:17 – Listener Mail:
• The AirStig has laid down a challenge for Doug Worrall’s LEO game & has completed all the missions & logged a score of 5641. Do you think you can beat his score?
• Roger Preston from Europe emailed us regarding Episode 79
• Michael Power enjoyed Avalon 2013 coverage but reckons Episode #51 (our F-111 Tribute) is still our best so far
• Mick from the Frankston line has sent us some audio of a De Havilland Comet crew doing their checks (you can hear it just before the bloopers)
• Cade Jones has been enjoying the show & wants to get into radio/media
• Mike Butorac asked us about suitable music for a video of trans-continental flight in Australia
• 1:40:36 – Shout Outs:
• Peter Merwood in NZ who flies Thunderbird 6 (a beautiful RV6)
• The Airplane Geeks for reaching episode #250 which is their 200th episode since Steve & Grant started doing the Australia Desk together
• Pieter & the gang in the UK for their Xtended aviation podcast
• David Optimal for getting his Class 1 instructor rating :)

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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 be the first quadriplegic person to fly solo around Australia! We also include a chat Steve recorded with Laurie Jones from Adventure Wings about his role as a fire-bomber and the Nanchang adventure flights they operate from Tooradin (YTDN) plus a new View from the Lounge and even a competition!

• 0:04:40 – Our chat with Dave Jacka about his flight around Australia and his On a Wing and a Chair charity.
• 0:42:41 – Steve chats with Laurie Jones from Adventure Wings.
• 1:01:15 – The View from the Lounge: Flight or Fright
• 1:07:57 – Listener Mail:
• “Shoeless Joe” from Virginia has completed his PPL
• Andrew van der Saag has some feedback on our Avalon 2013 coverage
• Adam Knight also has comments on our Avalon 2013 coverage (especially the F22 interviews)
• Scott Tavasci is an ex-RAAF C130H pilot and he wanted to correct a small error by Steve regarding his Sydney harbour flight (yes, *that* flight :) )
• 1:17:24 – Shout Outs:
• Michael Frost is a photographer and he took some amazing shots at Avalon which you can see on his Avalon 2013 web page
• Doug Worrall has released the LEO – Low Earth Orbit game and it’s fantastic fun!
• 1:22:30 – We’re going to help Ryan Campbell’s Teen World Flight by putting some money towards it (along with help from our fantastic audience :) )
• 1:26:10 – we have a competition to win one of three Flight Path TV Series 1 DVD sets but you need to listen to the episode to hear how to win. If you can’t enter the competition or don’t manage to be one of the winners, you can get 20% off the Series 1 DVD pack by purchasing it by using this special 20% discount link. Thanks again to Fletch & Mal from Flight Path TV for making the discount available to our audience.

All this AND we appeared in Episode 46 of the Stuck Mic AvCast when Len Costa came down under for a quick holiday.

Don’t forget that our new email address is [email protected]

This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

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