The Australia Desk

Getting right into the spirit of the Poseidon Adventure, Steve and Grant report on the recent news confirming that the RAAF will indeed be getting the P8A Poseidon (and some HALE UAVs such as the Triton). After that, the conversation inevitably moves back to Qantas and the current brinkmanship & positioning going on around the Qantas Sale Act and requests for government backing of Qantas’ debt...

Steve and Grant chat with Mike Yeo from The Base Leg blog about his trip to the Singapore Air Show. Topics include RSAF Chinooks, sales at the air show, the A350, the 787, military display teams, China’s trade show presence but lack of actual aircraft on display and general buzz from the show.

The boys record this week’s segment a little early as they’re going to be in rural New South Wales near Canberra celebrating Grant’s wedding. Yup, that’s right, Grant & Kitt are finally getting married and everyone’s still wondering what she sees in him. Meanwhile, to ensure you have something to listen to, the boys play a snippet from an interview they recorded with Matt Hall about his prepar...

At last Steve’s back on deck and Grant is very happy that he’s offered to do the editing. YAY! Once Steve manages to squeeze his funky wheel chair in behind the studio desk, the boys start chatting about the news and, wouldn’t you know it, here’s Qantas *sigh*: Qantas 747 maintenance going off shore General Peter Cosgrove steps down from QF board to become GG Virgin Australia creates board positio...

ATC Ben, Damien, and Jonesy join Grant to talk about the new Brisbane West Wellcamp airport being built near Toowoomba. Damien has some fantastic analysis & raises a few points about its location, its impact on the military bases nearby and what it may mean for the existing Toowoomba airport.

Steve's still out recovering from his operation so Grant gets ATC Ben, Jonesy and Damien Rose to join the fun. Qantas copping a US$90k fine for a form of tarmac stranding Qantas pulls their 737s out of Hobart and sticks to 717s Air India 787 lines up on Essendon GA airport instead of Melbourne airport

With Steve just about to go into the surgeon’s hands, Grant calls on ATC Ben, Jonesy and Kathy Mexted to help out. As you might expect, the result is a bit of a roller coaster as the team talks about: Qantas gets downgraded  by another agency (Moodys) as expected but otherwise it’s still somewhat quiet. Air New Zealand A320 has an  engine failure  departing Melbourne (and doesn’t la...

Steve and Grant kick off the new year on the AusDesk by reporting about New Zealand! Yeah, that works, right? :) Glyn Powell, the man who made the fuselage & wings of the DH Mosquito recently restored by AvSpecs in NZ has been awarded the Queen’s Service Medal for his efforts . 787-9 test aircraft visits NZ (AirNZ is the launch customer) and will then head to Alice Springs in Australia for hea...

It’s not just Rob who reckons an AusDesk can be produced by just saying how Qantas and Jetstar are in trouble. Steve and Grant have had enough too and, even though lots of column inches are being generated this week about the group’s woes, they’re not going to spend time discussing the issues as they’re pretty much as they were last week. Instead, they’re going to hassle David a tad about the “Cla...

Rob's telling the boys to get their knees up in his own, shall we say, unique manner? Well, it's *mostly* appreciated and nothing a hammer can't solve, so on with the show: Qantas are collapsing into a sea of red as they announce a $250-$300 million loss for the first half of the year. The Qantas woes are even impacting  Jetstar  who are threatening to withdraw their flights from Avalon...

PCDU crew members ATC Ben and Steven Pam join Steve and Grant this week.  The Qantas vs. Virgin Australia foreign ownership row dominated the local aviation headlines again this week with Australia’s Federal Treasurer, Joe Hockey, publically floating the concept of changes to the Qantas Sale Act (1992) which would permit foreign investors to acquire greater percentages of the airline’s stock....

Some days it takes two goes to get it right when recording an episode, or even when getting knee reconstruction surgery. Ouch! To avoid becoming the Australian Medical Desk, we change back to aviation topics. Etihad A330 pilot declares Mayday due to airspeed indication issues after departing Brisbane. Virgin Australia sets their lawyers after Qantas who has been asking for employee support. Indone...

Steve and Grant are introduced to a whole new term this week: “ Drip Pricing ” – it seems the ACCC are using the term to cover all the various additional charges that most airlines (especially the “low cost” ones) are using. Apparently they may be considered “false representation” or “misleading or deceptive conduct.” Meanwhile, in other news: The newly elected Australian Federal government has la...

With Grant back on deck this week, we start by talking all things 787 with the news that the Civil Aviation Safety Authority has  cleared Jetstar  to add it’s first such aircraft to their AOC, allowing them to begin passenger flights starting very shortly. Air New Zealand has a number of 787-9 aircraft on order for their fleet and announced this week that the Auckland to Perth will be th...

Grant is taking a break this week so PCDU’s Western Australia correspondent, Ben Jones (aka Jonesy) joins Steve for this report. In the news, it’s Melbourne Cup week which, although a horse racing event, provides aviation enthusiasts a feast of extra aircraft and aircraft movements to check out.  One Melbourne based helicopter pilot didn’t enjoy the festivities quite so much when her Bell 206...

Steve can't find Grant who seems to have dropped off the face of the Earth, so he sends in an apology message but that doesn't stop David doing some Ghost Hunter sleuthing. With the help of Audacity, he's played a few Australia Desks backwards and has found some disturbing messages, including one that could explain some of Rob Mark's odd reactions after each episode. Fortunately he's realised that...

It’s that time of year again and we’re not just meaning Spring’s inevitable hayfever allergy attacks: Yes, it’s the Qantas AGM once again! Joyce  forecasts red for Qantas  this year as yields are expected to drop 3% across the board (no sign of increases in travellers post election). Speaking of  kangaroos , flying and red: a roo hopped into one of Melbourne airport’s concourse shop...

Steve and Grant were on hand at Melbourne International Airport for this report as  Jetstar ’s first Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, VH-VKA (c/n 36227), arrived at the end of her delivery flight from the USA.  Although not the first Dreamliner to operate commercially in Australia (that honour went to Air India), VKA is the first of type on the Australian civil aircraft register and the first of...

Grant’s getting all nautical thanks to his recent interviews in Sydney for the International Fleet Review but Steve’s choice of music may give the wrong impression (or was that in the bloopers?). It was quite the event and Grant steps us through the ships and aircraft that he & the team have managed to check out and the associated interviews that have been gathered. Grant's also been for his f...

It’s that time of the year again and Grant’s found Steve to be more animated than ever, especially as his team (the Mighty Hawks) has won the AFL Grand Final. Confused? How do you think Grant feels having to talk football with Steve? At least there were lots of bizjets in town bring the fans from Western Australia. QantasLink’s 14th 717  is experiencing life after death having been resurrecte...

Steve and Grant have finally finished running around to various events in Australia (for now 🙂) and have (finally!) put together a “real” Australia Desk. They discuss their experiences at the AusFly event in Narromine then quickly review a few headlines: Qantas made a profit??? An alliance between Air New Zealand & Virgin Australia??? Elvis isn't coming back to Australia??? (the Skycrane...

At the recent AusFly event, Grant and Ben Jones caught up with Dick Smith (an Australian entrepreneur, pilot and adventurer) and  Ryan Campbell  (the youngest person to fly around the world) to record a quick chat about their trips around the world plus how Dick advised Ryan.

Steve and Grant are back home after the Aviation Careers Expo and, for this "Bits and Pieces" episode of the Airplane Geeks, they bring us an extended Australia Desk report featuring interviews with Andrew Rankin, General Manager of Strategy and Business Development,  Aviation Australia , Jody Kitchen from  CTC Training , and Trevor Ryan, Flight Safety Training, Aviation Australia.

The boys were supposed to be off this week but, in honour of Rob Mark mis-identifying Grant's reference to "Sabre Check-in" (you know, the airline booking system with its check-in module ) as a "sabre chicken," they've sent in something about the dreaded Saber Chicken but, in this case, it's a Lightsaber Chicken. Let the clucking commence!

Grant spent the week vacationing in Bali, Indonesia, and while this is enough to make the rest of us jealous, he did take the time to compile some notes on the flights he took to get there, flying on Virgin Australia in business class. In other news, Jetstar and Qantas announce that Melbourne will be the  base for their 787 Dreamliner fleets , no doubt taking up residence in the former mainte...