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Plane Crazy Down Under

Steve V & Grant Mwww.planecrazydownunder.com
Looking at the world of aviation from an Australia / Pacific point of view
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Episodes

PCDU Episode 42: Wings Down Under

This episode we’re joined by Will Horton from the Wings Down Under blog to chat about recent aviation news items. We also have Anthony Simmons returning for another View from the Lounge segment and a chat with Damien Rose about his flight training up in Toowoomba. The episode wraps up with some listener mail and […]

Sep 03, 2010

PCDU Episode 40: Australian Federal Election QuickCast #2: Ken Hill & Tim Sheen

Australians are about to go to the election booths on Saturday 21st August so we’re working to bring our listeners information about the aviation policies of the various political parties. We’re not trying to tell you how to vote, just doing our bit to raise awareness of the importance of aviation within the political community […]

Aug 19, 2010

PCDU Episode 39: Australian Federal Election QuickCast #1: Warren Truss

Australians are about to go to the election booths on Saturday 21st August so we’re working to bring our listeners information about the aviation policies of the various political parties. We’re not trying to tell you how to vote, just doing our bit to raise awareness of the importance of aviation within the political community […]

Aug 17, 2010

PCDU Episode 38: Dick Smith: Around the World in Many Ways

Dick Smith is an entrepreneur well known to most Australians, ranging from the country wide chain of Dick Smith Electronics stores he created to Dick Smith Foods and Australian Geographic. Another very important aspect of Dick’s life has revolved around aviation. In addition to owning & flying his own aeroplanes & helicopters, he has also […]

Aug 09, 2010

We tried to get to Oshkosh 2010

Air Venture: Oshkosh is the place to be if you’re into aviation. There’s something for everyone from home builts to military to warbirds to commercial to seaplanes to antiques to balloons and everything else imaginable. If you love aviation, you have to get to Oshkosh. For the past four years a group of aviation podcasters […]

Aug 08, 2010

PCDU Episode 37: It’s “Flight Attendant,” Grant

It seems that Grant has always had troubles with the label “Flight Attendant” ever since his sister joined Australian Airlines and mistakenly told him she would be a “Trolley Dolly.” Ooops :) In this episode we’re joined by Janene Murdoch, Tania Tracey and Amelia Kelly. Janene used to be a flight attendant with Ansett in […]

Jul 30, 2010

PCDU Episode 36: Incidentally, Matt…

Most of you will have already seen Matt Hall’s splash on the river at Windsor back in June. Then he was denied a go at racing in New York, to which he responded very diplomatically, which in turn taught some of us how to “take our lumps.” This episode we have a good chat with […]

Jul 14, 2010

PCDU Episode 35: Perseverance & Persistence

These days it’s quite common to find ladies in command of commercial airliners, bizjets and combat aircraft. Thirty years ago, however, this was certainly not the case here in Australia and a female required a stubborn streak & thick skin to push through and gain acceptance in a very male dominated world. While the situation […]

Jul 03, 2010

PCDU Episode 34: Arching over the Swamp

This episode we feature an interview with Hannes Arch, the Austrian Red Bull champion in 2008 who came second in 2009 and is currently second on points for 2010. We have a great chat with Hannes (starting at 0:05:38) about his involvement in extreme sports, his love of flying and his approach to the Red […]

Jun 17, 2010

PCDU Episode 33: Four Degrees of Separation from Ben Sandilands

In this episode we join noted aviation journalist Ben Sandilands from Plane Talking to review the latest news & information. When we called Ben, he was experiencing a heat wave of 11 degrees Celsius at his home in the mountains near Canberra. Meanwhile, here in Melbourne we were thinking winter was upon us as the […]

May 28, 2010

PCDU Episode 32: Switch to Plan Delta

This episode features a discussion with Peter Gibson, the manager of corporate communications at CASA. He’s joined us to explain the airspace changes that will come into effect on June 3rd, changes which will impact Class D, see the transition of GAAP to Class D and introduce the mandatory carriage of radios at all certified, […]

May 13, 2010

PCDU Episode 31: Red Bull all The Way

The Red Bull Air Race came back to Perth this year and Steve was there, flexing his newly minted press credentials and discovering the amazing world of the Red Bull media centre. Sadly, Grant was working in Indonesia and so couldn’t be there to help hang out, rub shoulders with the stars and quaff a […]

May 07, 2010

PCDU Episode 30: Antarctica: The Last True Wilderness

The first aircraft to be used in Antarctica was Henry Mawson’s Vickers REP monoplane. Sadly, it had been damaged in Australia before arriving in Antarctica and was used as an “air tractor” to pull sleds. Even that didn’t work out and it was dumped, eventually being found again only recently. Given that inauspicious start, it’s […]

Apr 20, 2010

PCDU Episode 29: What’s in a Checklist?

Some in-cockpit audio provided by a listener triggered a discussion on the differences in pre-landing checklists (GUMPS vs BUMFTH vs BUMFOH vs whatever). All of Grant’s aviation books & manuals are still in boxes after moving house so he had to rely on his memory with predictable results. Talk about incentive to go out and […]

Apr 05, 2010

PCDU Episode 28: Save the Liberator

The B24 Liberator was the most produced heavy bomber of World War 2 and saw service in all theaters of the war. The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) flew B24s along side those of the USAAF, based in northern Australia and Papua New Guinea. These aircraft flew long range missions of many hours duration, typically […]

Mar 27, 2010

PCDU Episode 27: Trans World Adventures

The common theme in this episode is about going around the world, first by bringing Saj Ahmad (Fleetbuzz Editorial) in the UK and Ben Sandilands (Plane Talking) in Australia together to talk about financial reports from QANTAS, Virgin & Tiger plus general discussions about airlines in Australia, past, present & future. We then chat with […]

Mar 09, 2010

PCDU Episode 26: Enjoying the Views

You can always count on this podcast to have some interesting, opinionated and, occasionally, diverse points of view. This episode really brings them all and (bonus!) includes a whole new view as we introduce Anthony Simmons and the “View from the Lounge” segment for your listening pleasure. We’ve also got another great discussion with Owen […]

Feb 24, 2010

PCDU Episode 25: Fan Boys

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 […]

Feb 13, 2010

PCDU Episode 24: Misuse of Accents

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 […]

Feb 03, 2010

PCDU Episode 23: Australia: A TSA free zone (for now)

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: […]

Jan 15, 2010

PCDU Episode 22: Farewell 2009

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 […]

Dec 31, 2009

PCDU Episode 21: London Calling

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 […]

Dec 18, 2009

PCDU Episode 20: A Tribute to Pip Borman

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 […]

Dec 10, 2009

PCDU Episode 19: Interview with a Vampire … Pilot (& Other Stories)

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 […]

Dec 05, 2009

PCDU Episode 18: Tally Ho, it’s the Red Baron!

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 […]

Nov 26, 2009

PCDU Episode 17: The Ipanator says “Rivet Shower? Not on *my* Watch!”

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 […]

Nov 19, 2009

PCDU Episode 16: Rant on Steve, Rant on

We review the latest news items, Steve gets to vent on a few topics and Owen Zupp returns to help us select the winner of our first competition.

Nov 14, 2009

PCDU Episode 14: Lang’s Great Journeys

We recorded a lecture presented by Lang Kidby at the Australian National Aviation Museum (Moorabbin Air Museum) about flying a Vickers Vimy replica aircraft from England to Australia to re-enact the 1919 flight by Keith & Ross Macpherson Smith and an Avro Avian from England to Australia to re-enact Bert Hinkler's completion of the first solo flight from England to Australia in 1928.

Oct 29, 2009
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