It’s our first episode for 2025 so we’re allowed to say Happy New Year, right? Even though it’s February, right? We may be Australia’s longest running aviation podcast but we’re taking a very long time to get to episode 200 :) This episode we follow our dreams into the stratosphere and beyond, featuring a great […]
We’ve been a little busy lately and it’s been a while since our last episode, so to make up for it we’ve released this rather chunky episode of aviation goodness covering the Pacific Airshow Gold Coast 2024 event. It’s just like the old days when our episodes were long and the pause button was […]
We’re on the Gold Coast and getting ready for the Pacific Airshow once again. This year’s line-up is bigger and even more packed with amazing aircraft, including a T-33 Shooting Star which is the first of it’s kind to ever fly in Australia. Its pilot is Greg “Wired” Colyer from Ace Maker Airshows and we […]
With the Pacific Airshow returning to the Gold Coast in August, Steve and Grant caught up with Aarron Deliu, an Australian aerobatics pilot who is now based in Florida and performing at airshows and events in the USA, Europe and South Africa. Aarron put on a spectacular display at last year’s show on the Gold […]
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, keeping the family happy, doing airshow commentaries and producing the weekly Australia Desk for the Airplane Geeks often wind up taking priority over producing an episode.
For this episode, we have:
0:03:33 – Grant catches up once again with Heidi Fedak from Gulfstream and they sit on board the G650ER to discuss the bizjet market & how Gulfstream aircraft fill the various segments within it.
0:13:41 – Still on board the G650ER, Grant chats with Todd Baker who used to fly AV8B Harriers in the US Marines before transitioning to Gulfstreams to fly the top brass around.
0:21:41 – Maikha Ly spent a few minutes with Andrew Carter from The Australian Vintage Aviation Society to see how he was enjoying flying the Fokker Triplane in the gaggle of WW1 aircraft at the show. We had previously caught up with Andrew & Gordon to talk about TAVAS & the Fokker Triplane late last year at the Avalon media launch session.
0:26:06 – Maikha also recorded a chat with Gene De Marco from The Vintage Aviator Limited in New Zealand about the collection of fantastic WW1 replica aircraft they brought over for the show.
0:50:32 –WW1 Replicas from TAVAS & TVALGrant gets to meet with Dr Graham Dorrington from RMIT about RMIT’s involvement with Airbus’ Fly Your Ideas competition and I get to talk with some of the students involved before wrapping up by chatting to Isabelle Floret, Snr Vice President, Airbus Pacific. Unfortunately the background sound was pretty high & we couldn’t filter it all out so it’s a bit noisy on this one :(
1:03:41 – Inside the Airbus chalet, Grant chatted with Mike Bausor, Airbus’ A350 XWB Marketing Director about the A350 going live with Qatar Airways
1:08:23 – Bringing us back to corporate jets, Grant once again caught up with David Vellupillai to talk about Airbus Corporate Jets including the newly available ACJ330. They also discussed the A380 and its market niche, Airbus’ view on passenger seating and the nuances of supporting ACJ owners.Grant in the G650ER wondering if they’ll accept his kidney as a deposit…
1:23:35 – Show wrap up
Thanks to everyone for your patience with our delays and thanks also to those who have been contacting us to check that we’re still alive and asking when the next episode would be out. We’ve not pod faded yet & there’s still a big backlog of content for us to edit & get into the feed. Meanwhile, you can usually hear us each week on the Airplane Geeks podcast and Grant is helping out Dave Homewood with the Wings Over New Zealand Live show that comes up monthly on Warbird Radio. He’s also recently appeared on Adam Knight’s great podcast called Go Flying Australia as well as turning up as a guest on the Plane Talking UK podcast.
We’ve also been mentioned on Global Pilot Life and Airport Spotting as both sites have included us in their lists of “Favourite Aviation Shows.” Thanks to both sites for including us despite the gaps between episodes of late :)
There’s been a few delays in getting our first episode for 2012 out but what can you expect with the Summer heat to enjoy and games of Cricket to watch (or avoid :). It is with Cricket in mind that our very own Infrequent Flyer, Anthony Simmons, took some time out of his European adventures to visit the Imperial War Museum at Duxford (home of the Duxford Aviation Society) at the time of their last flying display for 2011, a day that saw some 16,000 people come to watch the show!
The focus of this flying display was the Korean War and Anthony was able to find out that the “Forgotten War” was about so much more than episodes of M*A*S*H:
Anthony chats with Lt Don Reed (ret), a 90 year old veteran of the conflict who flew with the Fleet Air Arm as an observer on Fireflies and as a Seafire pilot
He then meets Esther Blaine, the PR Manager, for a discussion on:
The history of the Duxford site
The educational programmes the IWM provides
The new “Airspace” display
The IWM’s plans for the future
Anthony is also able to further one-up Steve & Grant by noting that he’s been through a Vickers Viscount, DeHavilland Comet and Aerospatiale-BAC Concorde as well as getting up close with a Lancaster and Tigermoth. What, us, jealous??? :)
Anthony wraps it up by interviewing Mark Linney from the Golden Apple Trust about their flying F86A, the only one of its kind still flying. They chat about:
The history of this particular aircraft
Mark’s career as a pilot in the RAF flying the Tornado GR1, instructing on the Hawk and then winding up on the Harrier. After the RAF he’s now flying 747s, A340-600s and, of course, the F86
They then chat about the F86’s development, handling and history
The episode wraps up with Steve & Anthony having a quick review of the content & Anthony’s experience at Duxford.