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Plane Crazy Down Under

Special Interest

Looking at the world of aviation from an Australia / Pacific point of view

Location:

United States

Description:

Looking at the world of aviation from an Australia / Pacific point of view

Twitter:

@pcdu

Language:

English


Episodes

PCDU Episode 130: Avalon 2017 – Alpha

4/15/2017
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 […]

Duration:01:22:50

PCDU Episode 129: Going Back to School

2/28/2017
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 […]

Duration:00:49:42

PCDU Episode 128: Unprecedented

10/30/2016
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 […]

Duration:03:15:05

PCDU Episode 127: From the Vault

7/17/2016
We’ve gone back into our archives to pull out some great content that we never got around to releasing before. We have some more interviews from Avalon 2015 (yes, we recorded lots didn’t we? :) ) and we also have WGCDR Tim Alsop (now a GPCAPT :) ) walking us through planning & implementing an […]

PCDU Episode 126: Emirates Wants You!

3/10/2016
They say patience is a virtue and hopefully our audience has plenty of it because it’s been a while since our last episode was released. Fortunately we’ve been able to make some time available to record content, edit it and get this episode into the feed. For this one Steve & Grant are joined by […]

Duration:02:05:07

PCDU Episode 125: Avalon Charlie (The Avalon Airshow Goodness Continues)

8/2/2015
Welcome back to our coverage of the 2015 Australian International Air Show (aka Avalon Airshow) with our third release of content recorded at show. It’s been a while since the last episode and we’re sorry for that but as with many labours of love & fun, life gets in the way and paying the rent, […]

Duration:01:25:50

PCDU Episode 124: Avalon15 Bravo (Yet more Avalon Airshow Goodness)

3/11/2015
The Australian International Airshow (aka Avalon Airshow) may well be over for 2015 but our collection of content recorded at the show is still being worked on. Here’s another hour of interviews & discussions and we suspect there may be another two episodes before we’re through with all of it. This is what happens when […]

Duration:01:11:39

PCDU Episode 123: Avalon15 Alpha (It’s Avalon Airshow Time :) )

2/27/2015
The Australian International Airshow (aka Avalon Airshow) is held every two years and runs for 6 days with the first 3 being trade-only. The 4th day of the show is always on a Friday and the public start coming in around midday then stay for the night show, a feature of Avalon for well over […]

PCDU Episode 122: Farewell 2014

12/31/2014
As the final hours of 2014 draw to a close, we’re getting our last episode for 2014 out the door. The boys have been kept pretty busy with their day jobs lately but, despite this, they’ve managed to do some flying: Grant’s been taking friends on their first balloon flights including Evan Schoo and Darren […]

PCDU Episode 121: Exercise Pitch Black 2014

10/1/2014
During August, Grant spent a week in Darwin covering Exercise Pitch Black 2014, a major multinational “war game” exercise hosted by the Royal Australian Air Force. Held every two years, Pitch Black is Australia’s version of the Red Flag training exercises held in the USA and in 2014 the RAAF was joined by forces from […]

Duration:01:03:32

PCDU Episode 120: History & Records

7/31/2014
Steve’s very happy to have finally started converting currency into currency as he’s logging hours in a Flysynthesis Texan and progressing towards getting his RA-Aus license. Grant’s been too busy with work to get many hours but did finally get to log some “special shape” time in his balloon logbook. Naturally, both Steve & Grant […]

Duration:02:21:21

PCDU Episode 119: F-35 Joint Strike Fighter: The RAAF Approach

6/3/2014
With Australia’s confirmed purchase of a total of 72 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, Steve & Grant are joined by Andrew McLaughlin from COMINT (Communications Intelligence) to discuss the F-35 and its operation within the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). We also feature a number of great interviews with Lockheed Martin staff and an in-depth discussion […]

PCDU Episode 118: Can you fly to NatFly 2014?

4/26/2014
Just to be different, this episode Steve joins ATC Ben on a BenAir flight from Essendon (YMEN) to Temora (YTEM) to attend the NatFly 2014 event. With the Cirrus SR20’s autopilot keeping them on track, Captain Ben & FO Steve introduce the show before opening up their packed lunches. Sadly, Sierra Juliette Alpha (VH-SJA) did […]

Duration:00:50:07

PCDU Episode 117: Holler for a Marshall, an AIR Marshal

2/26/2014
With the RAAF’s Centenary of Military Aviation air show only a couple of days away, we thought we’d mix up some content that promotes the event as well as some chats Grant recorded with a number of past & present members of the RAAF at the Temora Aviation Museum’s “Warbirds Down Under” event back in […]

Duration:01:54:34

PCDU Episode 116: High Performances

2/15/2014
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 […]

Duration:00:20:37

PCDU Episode 115: Farewell 2013

12/31/2013
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 […]

Duration:02:25:51

PCDU Episode 114: AusFly 2013 – Back Together Under One Sky

12/9/2013
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 […]

PCDU Episode 113: Fleeting Dreams

10/21/2013
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, […]

Duration:01:02:37

PCDU Episode 112: Federal Election 2013

9/6/2013
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 […]

Duration:00:59:57

PCDU Episode 111: Radio Killed the Podcast Star (Almost :) )

8/25/2013
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 […]

Duration:01:58:37