The Australia Desk

Steve’s back and he tells us about his trip to the USA, including the flights on Qantas A380s. During his three week trip, among tons of other fun activities, he managed to log two flights of his own in Cessna 172s. A huge thanks goes to listener Fred Samson who contacted Steve and offered him the chance to fly a G1000 equipped 172 with him through the SFO class B airspace, taking in views of the...

Grant’s been flying a balloon again and he’s taken Evan Schoo & Albert up with him. They take a moment from the flight to record an intro then Grant slots in the following news items: 1) Changes have started at CASA but the official response to the Aviation Safety Regulatory Review (aka The Forsyth Report ) haven’t come out yet . That response is due by the end of 2014 2) The Qantas Founders M...

Grant’s flying solo for this one after a hectic weekend of social fun. After a quick return to New Zealand news to talk about the Martin Jetpack company going for an IPO , he then covers some problems with CASA’s recent introduction of Part 61 licenses . After that it’s on to the military and we’re wondering how the RAAF will fit their two new C17s into the available space at RAAF Base Amberley no...

In one of the shortest AusDesks of all time, Grant chats briefly with Errol Cavit & Zac Yates after the recent Wings Over New Zealand Forum meet-up in the New Zealand Warbirds hangar at Ardmore Airport near Auckland. In addition to Grant scoring a flight in a de Havilland DH.83 Fox Moth, there were plenty of amazing aircraft (including a 2-seat Spitfire) and excellent presentations during the...

We recorded live with the Geeks and talked about RAAF fighter pilots being deployed in an active combat area, the Women's World Hot Air Balloon Championship, and the Great Tiger Moth Air Race in Australia. We also joined in a few other conversations outside the scope of the Australia Desk while sitting in with the Geeks. You can hear them in the “outtakes” file also attached to this episode.

Grant’s been at the Moorabbin Air Museum for the 75th anniversary of Wirraway A20-10, the oldest surviving Wirraway in the world. The Wirraway was based on the NA-16 (which became the T6 Texan) and was made in Australia by the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation . In other news, the RAAF sends two E7A Wedgetail AEW&C aircraft to Red Flag in Alaska and the Army’s Tiger ARH simulators get a major...

Taking advantage of the Bits N Pieces nature of this episode, Steve & Grant sneak in a longer AusDesk than usual. This time it’s back to Qantas who have announced a record loss thanks to some restructuring they’re doing as they chase a return to profitability (it’s got to happen eventually, right? :) ) They include a clip of Ross Greenwood on 2GB interviewing Alan Joyce and hitting him with so...

Grant’s back from a week in Cairns covering Exercise Pitch Black 2014 which has brought together combat aircraft from Australia, Singapore, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates and the United States. Thanks to our contacts with the RAAF media department, Grant was airside at Darwin & Tindal RAAF bases getting photos and videos plus recording plenty of content for a future PCDU episode. In amongs...

Steve & Grant are in Sydney to shoot video for Airbus as the A350 XWB makes its first visit to Australia so where else should they record the OzDesk than beside the bizjet ramp? TigerAir may be growing a little too quickly once again as they’ve had a couple of recent safety related incidents Growth is good for Brumby Aircraft, an Australian light sport manufacturer who have just signed a manuf...

Steve’s very happy this week & not just because Matt Hall came 3rd in Poland: Steve’s been flying! Meanwhile, the first two RAAF F-35s are unveiled in Texas in two separate events and Qantas are once again considering splitting their International & Domestic arms as the proposed changes to the Qantas Sale Act just aren’t enough in their eyes .

Steve & Grant are joined by their friend Owen Zupp who has recently finished re-enacting the first airmail flight in Australia to help celebrate its centenary. He’s also recently launched a new website called The Pilots Blog , seen great traffic from his new book Fifty More Tales of Flight , been in France with the new A350 and been busy with way more exciting aviation related activities than...

The boys are back and they’re trying to remember how to make an AusDesk. Fortunately they remember how to do it and can tell us about Air New Zealand’s new 787-9 arriving in Auckland and the customised Zodiac seats in Economy class . They also talk about Australia’s Defence Science Technology Organisation being commissioned to produce the F35 ‘Iron Bird’ test unit .

The southern winter weather has taken its toll on Grant this week, so Steve flies the segment solo. In the news, the constant doom & gloom surrounding aviation maintenance job losses was brightened slightly with the announcement by Air New Zealand & Etihad of an agreement to use each other’s line facilities in Melbourne and Los Angeles. In a boost for Melbourne, Etihad’s local line mainten...

This week the boys are back and they’re chatting with Alex Fisher , a 17 year old who is currently flying solo around Australia to raise funds for the Royal Flying Doctor Service and become the youngest person to circumnavigate Australia solo by aircraft in the process. Alex has named his project “ Flight of Solidarity ” ( www.flightofsolidarity.com.au ) and thanks to sponsorship from Spidertracks...

Grant’s sulking because Max forgot his name last week and it takes all Steve’s producer skills (and a few beers) to get him back into the groove. Once that’s achieved, it’s on with the show: CASA acknowledges that the new Wellcamp airport near Toowoomba is likely to have airspace issues once it’s up & running Meanwhile, Sydney’s second airport at Badgerys Creek will take up to a year just to g...

Congratulations all round for the Airplane Geeks team as they’ve hit 300 episodes and “Woo hoo” to us too as we’ve been along for a big chunk of the ride too. Of course, given all the re-takes we’ve done and the “themed” AusDesk episodes we produced, it feels like we’ve done well over 300 Australia Desk segments already :) In amongst all of this, we take you back to Qantas as, after all, it’s been...

The boys are back & recovered from working at Wings Over Illawarra 2014 last week and they’re reporting on the Australian Federal Government’s recent approval to purchase an additional 58 F35s , taking our total confirmed purchase to 72 aircraft. Meanwhile, a brand new Cirrus SR22 had an engine failure over the Blue Mountains and the pilot deployed the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS) t...

The boys are back in the studio and wishing they could be back flying again like they were for last week’s AusDesk . Meanwhile, they missed out on a bit of important news from last week: The Federal Government have announced that Badgerys Creek will definitely be the site for Sydney’s second airport & work is to begin immediately. Of course, we may have skipped over it because we’ve heard it a...

Just for a bit of a change of style, Steve & ATC Ben recorded most of this Australia Desk segment while flying a Cirrus SR20 from Essendon Airport (YMEN) in Melbourne to Temora (YTEM) on a day trip to the RA-Aus NatFly event . In addition to chatting about the flight, they also discuss the dreaded “user fees” and costs of flying here in Australia, along with the recent news that Avalon Airport...

The boys are staying in their home state of Victoria this week, leading off with a story about Hainan Airlines’ parent company HNA Group signing an MOU with Avalon Airport owners LinFox to spend 18 months expanding Avalon in readiness for a Melbourne-China route. Meanwhile, Victoria’s premier promises to build a rail link from Melbourne CBD to the airport . Must be an election coming up, eh? :) Ai...

Grant’s back on deck (mostly) after an intense couple of weeks dealing with health issues and a CASA audit. He joins Steve to review the following news items: We’ve got more 787s coming to Melbourne: Royal Brunei have started flying their 787s from London to Melbourne Air NZ’s new 787-9 looks fantastic ! United converting the LAX to Melbourne route from 747s to 777s but their 787-9s will be here b...

Once again Grant is unavailable due to illness so Steve is joined by award winning aviation journalist and Principle at Communications Intelligence , an independent aviation and defence consultancy, Andrew McLaughlin. With the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370 continuing into its fourth week, we discuss the prominent role being played by the venerable Lockheed P3 Orion in the operati...

Grant’s out sick but Steve gets Jonesy in to help out and it’s a good thing too ‘cos he’s in Perth, Western Australia and that seems to be where almost everyone with a long range maritime surveillance aircraft is too. At this stage the search for MH370 is focusing on an area of ocean some 2,000km to the South West of Australia with three RAAF AP-3C Orions and an RNZAF P3-K2 Orion staging from RAAF...

Steve and Grant are back after recovering from the Tyabb Airshow last weekend. It was an amazing show with a great crowd and fantastic aircraft on display. Out of interest, PCDU are producing the official airshow DVD! Follow our Facebook page & website for more updates on that. Meanwhile, in the news: John Holland Aviation Services looking to wind up their operations at Tullamarine. Alan Joyce...

Team PCDU have been at the RAAF’s Centenary of Military Aviation airshow at Point Cook and Grant’s been busy schmoozing in addition to the interviews the team have been busy recording. Some of the news items this week include: The RAAF have named the first two pilots to go to the USA and get trained on the F35 Qantas announces how they’re going to get out of the bad situation they’re in and it inc...