Episode 349: Health says “No”

Posted on May 13, 2015 by admin

Unfortunately Grant’s sick and Steve’s not able to get a solo episode out so no Australia Desk this week.

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Episode 348: Real World gets in the Way

Posted on May 6, 2015 by admin

Steve’s stuck at work and Grant’s got friends over for dinner so no Australia Desk segment this episode, sorry :(

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Episode 347: Soap boxes galore as CASA, Jetstar & the F35 feature

Posted on April 29, 2015 by admin


The boys are back and only slightly embarrassed for thinking last week was the US public holiday. Ooops :)

Meanwhile, the Australian government have publically given CASA parameters for the changes they want to see made (basically: CASA are to assess cost impacts & implement the Forsyth Review).

Surprisingly, Jetstar are signing on for another 10 years at Avalon airport (YMAV) and in military news, RAAF SQNLDR Andrew “Jacko” Jackson becomes the first Australian pilot to qualify on the F35.

Finally, the boys will be joining others from the PCDU team at the Wings Over Illawarra airshow at Wollongong next weekend where they’ll be doing the commentary with Peter “Ando” Anderson and also shooting the airshow DVD.

PS: We also have bloopers for this episode which you can play via the player below:

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Episode 346: What? It wasn’t a holiday?

Posted on April 22, 2015 by admin

Whoops, the boys got their wires crossed and thought this week was a public holiday in the USA. Apparently it’s not a holiday for about a month.

DOH! :(

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Episode 345: Barossa Airshow

Posted on April 15, 2015 by admin


Steve and Grant traveled to South Australia this week to provide commentary at the Barossa Airshow, located at Rowland Flat in the famous Barossa Valley wine region. They’re joined by their locally based reporter, Maikha Ly, who worked as ground crew for one of the many wonderful aircraft that were present for the airshow – in this case, an 87% scale replica WWI Nieuport bi-plane.Another Maikha Selfie Shot

In the news, the Australian Government has announced the purchase of a further two C-17 Globemaster III aircraft for the RAAF which will increase the fleet size to eight. They will be based at RAAF Base Amberley in Queensland in a deal said to be worth $A1billion, $A300million of which is earmarked for infrastructure upgrades at the already crowded facility. Of the stock of so called “white tail” C-17s left in the Boeing inventory, there are rumours that the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) may be considering the purchase of up to two aircraft – unless Airbus can do them a deal on a couple of A400Ms instead, of course.

Listen at the end for a cameo appearance by Steve’s son, Chris, who was helping out as well.

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Episode 344: Charges? Charges? We don’t need no steenkin Charges!

Posted on April 8, 2015 by admin


Grant’s getting on his soapbox once again as it seems that CASA are proposing to increase their rates yet many of us think they should first improve their processes and provide safety cases for the services they provide. Sadly, given they’re a government department (and thus a monopoly with no competition), they have no incentive to improve.

On a calmer note, we have a new RAAF DCAF (Deputy Commander Air Force) as Air Commodore Warren McDonald CSC, the current head of the Air Mobility Group, is promoted to Air Vice Marshal to fill AVM Leo Davies’ shoes as he moves from the role of DCAF to CAF, replacing Air Marshal Geoff Brown.

No doubt one of the people that CAF & DCAF will be meeting with is HRH Prince Harry (aka “Captain Wales”) who is visiting Australia to spend a month with the Australian Army in various locations about the country, including Sydney based 6th Aviation Regiment.

Finally, Steve & Grant will be providing airshow commentary at the Barossa Airshow near Adelaide on Sunday so come on out & enjoy a great show if you’re in the area.

PS: We also have bloopers for this episode which you can play via the player below:

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Episode 343: Two Crew Good but One Crew Not Bad Either

Posted on April 1, 2015 by admin


Grant’s back from an exhausting week working on hot air balloons at Canowindra in rural New South Wales but at least he got a chance to fly one of them before he made the long drive back home. Meanwhile, Steve’s feeling relaxed after recovering from his illness last week.

With the tragic news of Germanwings Flight 9525 unfolding this week, Australia joins the “Two Crew Cockpit Rule” club effective immediately. Our friend Owen Zupp also commented on it at his The Pilots Blog site and notes that we should ensure that quickly implemented solutions do not, in turn, introduce new issues in the future.

Meanwhile, RAAF 75SQN F18 Classic Hornets are replacing 1SQN F18 Super Hornets in the Middle East as part of Operation Okra and the first RAAF EA18G Growler shipset has been created at Northrop Grumman & sent to Boeing for final assembly.

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Episode 342: We’re not here right now

Posted on March 25, 2015 by admin

Sorry folks, Grant is up in Canowindra (rural New South Wales) working on hot air balloons and Steve’s not feeling well, so we’ve had to skip this week’s Australia Desk.

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Episode 341: Grand Prix handling displays are better than the cars :)

Posted on March 18, 2015 by admin


Grant’s back from the Canberra Balloon Spectacular where he’s had a blast playing with balloons including one that’s basically a chair lift hung under a balloon envelope. Woo hoo :)

Meanwhile, Melbourne has hosted the Formula 1 Grand Prix but it seems that Team Red Bull aren’t happy with F1 in general. Hey, maybe they’ll put money into more aviation events?

At least the F/A-18 handling display & Roulette formation aerobatics team were fun and the Qantas 747 handling display by VH-OEH was pretty awesome.

Speaking of Qantas, it seems they were the subject of the latest Facebook scam with plenty of people being suckered in by it.

Finally, Australia & NZ are sending relief flights to Vanuatu after the island was hit hard by Tropical Cyclone Pam. Flights have included C17 loads of emergency supplies and C130Js with recovery teams.

PS: We also have bloopers for this episode which you can play via the player below:

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Episode 340: Pilatus PC24 is Super Sexy!

Posted on March 11, 2015 by admin


Pilatus PC24 as it should look in flight

Pilatus PC24 as it should look in flight

Steve is solo this week as Grant returns from hot air balloon operations interstate and was planning to chat with a guest about the arrival of Qantas 747-400 VH-OJA into the Illawarra Regional Airport in Wollongong but unfortunately the guest had to delay due to health issues.

So, instead this week we present an interview with Andre Zimmerman from Pilatus Aircraft about the development of their new PC-24 business jet, recorded at the 2015 Australian International Airshow.

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