Plane Crazy Down Under Southern Skies Media

We recently caught up with our friend Owen Zupp to talk with him about the many ups and downs he's experienced in his career and, most importantly, his current grounding for medical reasons (starts at 1:20 into the episode). We touch on the importance of resilience and how many of the traits that make a good pilot can also help a person get through adversity.
In the second half of the show, we also chat with Owen about the final flight of Qantas' last 747-400 that drew a flying kangaroo as it departed Australian skies (from 22:16 into the episode). The discussion covers the flight path, the planning, how it was loaded into the flight management system and what it was like being in California during the height of COVID lockdowns.
Cover image credit: Kirrily Zupp

The new series has officially launched with the release of this episode and, what better way to come back to the world than at the Australian International Airshow (aka Avalon 2023) where we caught up with plenty of old friends and made lots of new contacts. It seems only fitting that our first released content should be chats with Matt Hall, Bas Scheffers and Bob Carlton so lets get into the show.
04:56 Matt Hall talks about getting through COVID, the potential for something like the Red Bull Air Race to return, the Gold Coast Air Show, flying the Avanti II and his plans for the future.16:45 Bas Scheffers talks about developments in OzRunways, their new clients and features, upgrading VH-EFB to a Cirrus SR-22, and flying an RV-4.27:46 Bob Carlton steps us through his day and night show routines, his aircraft testing work plus with his rocket scientist work in retirement.
Cover image credit : Wayne Nugent - Australian Motorsport Images

Rumours of our demise have, sadly, been accurate ... well, until now that is!
We're back and looking to give PCDU another whirl with a new series coming out shortly, but we thought a good way to get back in the groove would be to do that "Farewell" episode we'd planned to do *way* back in 2018. We are indebted to those who sent in the amazing farewell messages you're going to hear in this episode, but don't forget to stick around to the end and hear what's coming up.
Meanwhile, here's how this episode's farewell messages unfold around our chatting:
06:00 Max Flight from the Airplane Geeks.08:07 Pieter Johnson from Aviation Xtended.11:57 Carlos, Matt & Neville from the Plane Talking UK show15:56 Steven Pam.17:24 Damien Rose.23:17 Dave Homewood from the Wings Over the New Zealand show.25:06 Martin Rottler.28:01 Captain Jeff, Dr Steph, Captain Dana & Captain Nick from the Airline Pilot Guy show.31:47 Ray Davis.35:12 Glen Towler.
We wrap up the episode with a discussion of what's coming next. Stay tuned!

Steve, Grant and Maikha were on-site at Avalon recording plenty of content and this episode is our first collection of audio content covering some of the companies, people and aircraft we encountered while there. Steve & Grant have already started editing the next batch of content for Episode 131 and Maikha’s starting to wade through all the video he collected so we can show you a few of the sights from the event (and there were many!).
For now, enjoy Episode 130 (Avalon 2017 – Alpha) which unfolds as:
0:03:18 – Grant meets with Kimberley Turner, CEO and founder of Aerosafe, and chats about her love of aviation, founding Aerosafe twenty years ago and the company’s operations in the aviation safety and risk management environment.0:19:18 – Steve catches up with Patrick Coleman from Garmin to review a number of their products including the G1000 & glass cockpits, ADSB transponders, the G5 digital primary attitude indicator, the status of ADSB deployment in the USA and Australia and interfacing with their systems via tablets and cards.0:26:14 – Maikha talks to Associate Professor Andrew Kornberg about his flying experiences, the Fly for the Kids charity that he runs and the month long circumnavigation of Australia flight he is about to start to raise funds for the charity.0:40:02 – Steve chats with Matt Hall about the F-35A compared to the F/A-18A Classic Hornet then tells us about his new aircraft for this season’s Red Bull Air Race.0:49:00 – Steve reminds you to leave us a review on iTunes or help support the show via our Patreon page.0:50:22 – Grant walks through the Rocket Route fuel app with Kurt Lyall and then talks with Alan Wilson about AirBP‘s sponsorship of the app.1:00:23 – During the show Steve was exercising his radio reporter voice and provided a number of F-35A related bulletins for Australian Independent Radio News, one of which we’ve included here.1:00:52 – Steve tries to get Kreisha Ballentyne-Dickes’ awesome job with Cirrus Australia but she was too quick for that so instead they talk about Cirrus aircraft, training packages and the SF50 Vision jet.1:07:22 – Grant once again gets to hang out with Heidi Fedak, Gulfstream‘s Director of Corporate Communications, as they chat inside a G650ER. It’s an amazing corporate jet and the perfect location to talk about Gulfstream’s biggest & fastest jet, their range and the current corporate market.1:16:42 – It wouldn’t be PCDU’s Avalon coverage if we didn’t have a Timbo’s Tarmac section and this time Steve joins Grant to chat with Timbo and he braves the background noise of a BAE Hawk 127 flying past then an F-16 starting up to tell us what’s been happening air-side at the show.1:20:24 – Steve wraps up the episode.

Steve & Grant have both been back to school in the past week with Steve revisiting his old high school (Brentwood Secondary College and yes, it’s still standing) where they have a great aviation curriculum. Meanwhile, Grant’s been out to Bacchus Marsh airport to the TVSA flying school’s open day. This one’s a short episode as we’re trying to get some topical information out before Avalon Air Show 2017 starts this week.
The episode starts with Steve & Grant catching up on their adventures and unfolds as:
0:00:35 – Steve’s moved into a new house and set up a dedicated studio in the process.0:02:35 – Grant’s finally had an official RAAF media ride: he was invited to fly on the RAAF’s new C-27J Spartan. Yay!0:10:42 – Steve & Grant review the information being presented in this episode.0:12:46 – Grant talks with Daniel Pearson about TVSA, their Open Day and the Bristel LSA aircraft. Be sure to also check out Dan’s interview with Adam Knight over on Episode 37 of the Go Flying Australia podcast.0:24:33 – Steve interviews Chris Barry from the Brentwood Secondary College about their aviation sciences program, the simulators they have on site and the RAAF visiting with their F/A-18 simulator.0:31:08 – Steve & Grant discuss the upcoming Avalon Air Show 2017 where Grant’s day job will have him attending meetings & seminars and also presenting a short summary of his recent Australian Defence Magazine article for a Plan Jericho workshop. Meanwhile, Steve will be doing video presentations with AOPA Australia at their tent in the GA area.0:40:45 – Steve’s recently provided commentary at the Hunter Valley Air Show with Ando and Grant’s going to be providing commentary at the Barossa Air Show with Maikha.0:43:08 – PCDU is in the Industry Overview segment of the Cast Away Podcast Awards. Vote for us in the “Peoples’ Choice” section – you don’t even have to be Australian to vote #Winning0:45:14 – We’ve joined the trend and have a Patreon page. If you want to help give us incentive to produce more episodes, head on over to our Patreon page and start sponsoring us.
Remember, if you’re not listening to Adam Knight’s Go Flying Australia podcast, you’re missing out.

From Grant's collection of ballooning interviews to a chat with Owen Zupp about his latest book and our tribute to Hannes Arch, this episode is our biggest yet (yes, even bigger than Episode 51, our tribute to the RAAF's F-111s!). We've even captured Anthony "The Infrequent Flyer" Simmons' first ever viewing of the movie TopGun (in IMAX 3D no less :) ).
The episode unfolds as:
00:00:00 - Our tribute to Hannes Arch, the Red Bull Air Race champion pilot who tragically died in a helicopter crash in September, 2016.00:04:54 - Show start & introduction.00:14:12 - We talk with Owen Zupp about his new book: Without Precedent. It's the biography of his father that covers his time as a commando in World War 2, flying Meteors during the Korean War, flying Constellations with QANTAS and later flying in General Aviation. It's a fantastic read and highly recommended. We started by discussing Steve's recent Tiger Moth flight with Vintage Airways at Lilydale and how much fun he had finally flying an aircraft he swore he'd never go in.01:05:22 - Grant talked with Phil Kavanagh back in 2013 about the early days of sport ballooning in Australia in the 60's & 70's, manufacturing balloons in Australia, teaching themselves to fly, setting up Kavanagh Balloons, sourcing materials, new developments and the future of ballooning technology.01:27:09 - After talking to Phil, Grant caught up with Sean Kavanagh about his career in aviation ranging from being an aircraft engineer with QANTAS through to flying & making hot air balloons. Sean has flown in competitions and also been a commercial pilot flying at various locations around Australia, including the challenging city of Melbourne. In 2013 Sean was designing new balloons and burners for the company, including producing the inevitable paperwork and dealing with the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA). We also discuss in some detail the effort that has gone into designing the new Series IV Crossfire burner.01:52:50 - John Wallington is the Flight Director of the Canberra Balloon Spectacular, an annual event which has been running since the 80's. He talked with Grant in 2015 about the experience of flying over Canberra and keeping the flying side of the event running smoothly and safely.01:55:37 - Don Whitford is the meteorologist of choice for ballooning events in Australia and he spoke with Grant about his career of more than 40 years in aviation weather forecasting. They also talk about the impacts of the changing weather patterns that are being experienced recently.02:05:06 - Frank Wechter was at Canberra flying the Angry Birds special shape balloon.02:06:53 - SQNLDR Damien Gilchrist used to be with the RNZAF flying Strikemasters, Macchi 339s and A-4 Skyhawks before transferring to the RAAF about fifteen years ago and in 2015 & 2016 was the primary pilot of the RAAF hot air balloon.02:10:33 - Richard Turnbull is back from the UK flying for commercial operators around Australia and returns to the show to briefly talk about what he's been up to lately.02:12:56 - Grant chats with Ruth Wilson, Australia's first female commercial hot air balloon pilot who has been flying balloons for over 40 years and also has a fixed wing license. She was also the first Australian hot air balloon champion and...