Tag Archives: A350

Episode 254 – Simple Flight

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A350XWB First Flight

At Simple Flight, Al and Marc produce a aviation radio show that goes live Sunday nights from 8:00pm to 10:00pm Central Time (U.S.) You can also listen to the audio archive anytime, or subscribe as a podcast in iTunes. Since the Simple Flight show is live, Al and Marc get a lot of listener interaction in real time.

The website offers other content for pilots, including an aviation blog, aviation photography, flight instruction. We talk about the live show, the next great flying club – delivering new pilots to aviation, and even Rod Rakic’s new Open Airplane project.

Find the guys and the site on Twitter as: @Al_H2Oloo (clever, eh?), @mepner, and @SimpleFlightNet.

The week’s aviation news:

David Vanderhoof’s Aircraft of the Week is Sue’s Bird, the Piper PA-24 Comanche.

Embraer KC-390

In this week’s Australia Desk:

Winter weather has been causing trouble in for flights Australia’s south east this week, especially with fog causing many diversions. Mid week, two B737s, one Qantas & one Virgin Australia, diverted to the rural city of Mildura in Victoria; an airport normally accustomed to regional turboprop aircraft, and one that lacks an ILS. As the fog began to envelop Mildura as well, the Virgin 737, after two missed approaches, declared a fuel emergency and landed in what has been described as below minima for the airport. This has lead to an ATSB investigation which is due to report by March 2014.

Virgin Australia flight makes emergency landing in Victoria

Low fuel diversion involving Boeing 737-8FE, VH-YIR, Mildura Airport, Victoria on 18 June 2013

RAAF KC-30A tankers now operational and recently participated in Exercise Aces North, the culmination of the Fighter Combat Instructor course, in the skies over the Northern Territory.

KC-30As participate in Aces North

GippsAero rolls out GA8 Airvan number 200

Australia’s entrant in the Airbus Fly Your Ideas contest, from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, places second overall. A great result!

Melbourne’s RMIT comes second in Airbus Fly Your Ideas global competition

Grant talks about his balloon flying over the weekend with PCDU team member, Kathy Mexted

Find more from Grant and Steve at the Plane Crazy Down Under podcast, and follow the show on Twitter at @pcdu. Steve’s at @stevevisscher and Grant at @falcon124. Australia Desk archives can be found at www.australiadesk.net.

Mentioned:

Opening and closing music courtesy Brother Love from the Album Of The Year CD. You can find his great music at www.brotherloverocks.com.

Episode 246 – Mary Kirby Knows the Airline Passenger Experience

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Mary Kirby

Guest Mary Kirby is Editor in Chief of the Airline Passenger Experience magazine and the APEX media platform. She has extensive experience as an aviation industry journalist.

Mary gives us some observations from the Aircraft Interiors Expo 2013 held in Hamburg April 9-11, 2013, including ultra-slim seats and positive hopes for passenger use of Personal Electronic Devices. IFE and connectivity are becoming the cost of doing business for airlines, and the inflight experience is approaching the multi-screen experience that people have now in their living rooms.

Mary proves she was right and Max was wrong when he predicted that IFE systems would be replaced by passenger owned entertainment content. If fact, we’re seeing more screens inflight and more aircraft are now ordered with embedded IFE.

We talk about who the inflight connectivity players are and what they are doing, and their participation in social media, including Panasonic Avionics, Gogo, OnAir. Jetblue has agressive plans with Live TV.

Reaching out to consumers through social media is new for the IFE industry, and Mary believes this B2B2C communication is not only taking over the IFE world, but we may see the same with interiors.

Speaking of interiors, Mary gives us some observations about the A350XWB and B787 interiors as they relate to the passenger experience.

Find Mary Kirby at the APEX Editor’s Blog and on Twitter as @APEXmary. Follow APEX as @theAPEXassoc.

The week’s aviation news:

For a little change of pace, David relates historical aviation events to the all the aviation geek birthdays occurring around this time.

In this week’s Australia Desk:

United 747 collides with aerobridge at Melbourne Airport. Virgin Australia finally gets approval to buy 60% of Tiger Airways, while Singapore Airlines buys a chunk of Virgin Australia from Richard Branson.

Links :

Find more from Grant and Steve at the Plane Crazy Down Under podcast, and follow the show on Twitter at @pcdu. Steve’s at @stevevisscher and Grant at @falcon124. Australia Desk archives can be found at www.australiadesk.net.

Lt Cmdr Ian Sloane

Lt Cmdr Ian Sloane, Commanding Officer for the Royal Navy Historic Flight in front of the Sea Fury

In this week’s Across the Pond segment:

Returning to the Royal Navy Historic Flight we talk to Lieutenant Commander Ian Sloan about over wintering the aircraft and preparing for the airshow season.

Links :

Mentioned:

Moving the Endeavour from LAX to the Science Center.

Moving the Endeavour from LAX to the Science Center by Brian T. Coleman.

Opening and closing music courtesy Brother Love from the Album Of The Year CD. You can find his great music at www.brotherloverocks.com.

Episode 241 – Jon Ostrower

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Qatar Airways 787 DreamlinerQatar Airways 787 Dreamliner

Jon Ostrower, Aerospace Beat Reporter for The Wall Street Journal returns as our guest. We talk with Jon about the Boeing press briefing in Tokyo where they annoyed the NTSB over 787 battery issues. Jon attended the International Society of Transport Aircraft Trading (ISTAT) Americas Conference and we get his impressions from that event, including industry concern about the sustainability of the huge narrowbody order volume in light of uncertainty about the future economic situation.

We discuss Airbus progress on the A350 widebody (will we see it for the Paris Air Show?) and a larger Bombardier CSeries that starts to encroach on 737/A320 class airliners. Their test aircraft strategy employs a bit of concurrent flight testing. We also talk about the operating economics of old aircraft versus the new fuel efficient planes.

Follow Jon on Twitter as @JonOstrower, visit his Facebook page and his photos on Flicker.

The week’s aviation news:

In this week’s Australia Desk:

The Regional Aviation Association of Australia calls for more assistance from Canberra for the increasingly struggling regional sector…but receives a less than favourable response from Canberra

Fiji Airways (formerly Air Pacific) launches the first of three new A330s, which will replace its ageing fleet of B747-400s

Grant speculates about the LionAir’s possible plans to enter the Australian market

A minor fire in the Melbourne ATC Centre causes an evacuation and delays in the skies over south eastern Australia during the week,

Find more from Grant and Steve at the Plane Crazy Down Under podcast, and follow the show on Twitter at @pcdu. Steve’s at @stevevisscher and Grant at @falcon124. Australia Desk archives can be found at www.australiadesk.net.

In this week’s Across the Pond segment:

In memory of Sub Lieutenant Derrik Armson, Barracuda Pilot in the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm. See Naval Air History and follow @navalairhistory.

Find Pieter on Twitter as @Nascothornet, on Facebook at XTPMedia, and at the Aviation Xtended podcast.

Ryan’s Su-30MKK Flanker G 1:72 scale modelRyan’s Su-30MKK Flanker G 1:72 scale model

Mentions:

Opening and closing music courtesy Brother Love from the Album Of The Year CD. You can find his great music at www.brotherloverocks.com.

Episode 236 – The Last Great Airline Merger

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The Helicopter MuseumPhoto courtesy of The Helicopter Museum

Industry analyst Henry Harteveldt returns as our guest. Henry is now with Hudson Crossing. Previously, he was Chief Research Officer and Co-Founder of Atmosphere Research Group, and before that he was with Forrester Research.

We talk with Henry about the merger of US Airways and American Airlines, including labor relationships, maintenance, competitive effects, the merging of company cultures, and other steps necessary before the deal is done. We also touch on airline brand loyalty and airline fees.

The week’s aviation news:

This week David takes a break from his Aircraft of the Week segment and gives his views on budget sequestration, a means of budget control used under the Budget Control Act of 2011.

In this week’s Australia Desk report:

We’re joined by Ben Ippolito, a PCDU team member and Air Traffic Controller, to discuss future changes to air traffic management in Australia and the news that authorities are looking at ways to better integrate civil and military systems.

Find more from Grant and Steve at the Plane Crazy Down Under podcast, and follow the show on Twitter at @pcdu Steve’s at @stevevisscher and Grant at @falcon124. Australia Desk archives can be found at www.australiadesk.net.

In this week’s Across the Pond segment:

This week we visit the world’s largest dedicated helicopter museum. With over 80 aircraft from all parts of the world its a wonderful place for all Avgeeks and certainly a hidden gem of a museum.

For more, see The Helicopter Museum website, The Helicopter Museum on Facebook and @HeliCollections on Twitter.

Find Pieter on Twitter as @Nascothornet, on Facebook at XTPMedia, and at the Aviation Xtended podcast.

Mentions:

Opening and closing music courtesy Brother Love from the Album Of The Year CD. You can find his great music at www.brotherloverocks.com.

Voices From The DC-3

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DC-3 by Paul Filmer

Guest Julie Filucci manages the Cessna Pilot Centers program for Cessna, but she’s also written the book, Together We Fly: Voices From The DC-3. Published by Aviation Supplies & Academics, the book tells the story of the Douglas DC-3 through the voices of the people involved with it, from its design and production to the present day. Julie had completed her type rating in the airplane several years ago, and did an article for AOPA Pilot on the airplane for its 70th anniversary in 2005. “The feedback from that article was the most I’d ever received for a piece during my time at AOPA. And not just pilots wrote to tell their stories, but also engineers, mechanics, stewardesses, soldiers, and regular folks who had taken their first airline trip in the airplane. Capturing their voices became a quest for me, as so many of the people from the airplane’s early days have passed on.”

Learn more at the book’s Facebook Fan Page, and at Julie’s blog. Follow her on Twitter as @julieinthesky.

The week’s aviation news:

Steve and Grant discuss a variety of aviation topics in the Australia Desk Report. Find them on the Plane Crazy Down Under podcast, and follow the show on Twitter at @pcdu. Steve’s at @stevevisscher and Grant at @falcon124.

This week on Across the Pond, Pieter Johnson talks to Phil Wallis, Chief Engineer for the Anglo American Lightning Organisation who has the task of getting English Electric Lightning XS422 back into the air. Its a rivetting insight into how to get a 1300 mph interceptor aircraft capable of 20,000 fpm climb airworthy after sitting around in a container for many years. The AALO Team can be found at www.XS422.com, on Twitter Twitter as @EELightning, and on Facebook. You can find Pieter Johnson on Twitter at
@Nascothornet.

 

XS442 in flight during her RAF service with the ETPS in the 1980's. Photo credit: AALO / Crown

XS442 in flight during her RAF service with the ETPS in the 1980’s. Photo credit: AALO / Crown.

Mentions:

Follow the @AirplaneGeeks on Twitter and on Facebook, send us email at thegeeks@airplanegeeks.com, or leave a message on our listener line: (361) GEEKS01.

Opening and closing music is provided by Brother Love from the Album Of The Year CD. You can find his great music at http://www.brotherloverocks.com/.

Episode 109 – Plane Gabbing with Gavin

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Guest Gavin Werbeloff is a long time aviation enthusiast who tweets as travel_buddha. He’s active on the online aero community, initially through fleetbuzz and then flyertalk, and he’s written a few pieces for travelcrisis.com.

The week’s aviation news:

Mentions:

Follow the @AirplaneGeeks on Twitter and on Facebook, send us email at thegeeks@airplanegeeks.com, or leave a message on our listener line: (361) GEEKS01.

Opening and closing music is provided by Brother Love from the Album Of The Year CD. You can find his great music at http://www.brotherloverocks.com/.

Episode 74 – Joshua on Airports

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900lx_4a

Our guest this episode is Joshua Abramson, he’s the Airport Manager at Winchester Municipal Airport, and also an aviation advisor for the Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) which carries out applied research on problems that are shared by airport operating agencies. We talk with Josh about issues of concern to regional airports. His website is Airport Solution, which is home of the Airport Executive blog.

The news:

David Vanderhoof has another This Week in Aviation. His links this week are The Flying Clippers and Pan Am Clipper Flying Boats.

We also have Steve Visscher and Grant McHerron from the Plane Crazy Down Under podcast with their Australia Desk report. The guys sent along a second bonus clip that we found very funny and think you’ll enjoy. We also have some listener mail.

Follow the @AirplaneGeeks on Twitter, send us email at thegeeks@airplanegeeks.com, or leave a message on our listener line:  (361) GEEKS01.

This episode’s opening and closing music is provided by Brother Love from the Album Of The Year CD. Visit his site at http://www.brotherloverocks.com/.

Episode 48 – Weekly News and T-Shirts!

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HotelCooking

Max and Court have so much news and listener feedback that they decided to start splitting the episodes into two parts.  Also, we’ve finished a couple of T-shirts!  You can find the link to the right of the home page or follow it to our store here.  This first part of episode 48 includes the news and listener feedback, while the next section (to be published tomorrow) will include our interview with Christopher White, Director of Public Relations for Airtran.

News:

Listener Submitted Articles:

  • Cooking on a layover (The picture above should speak 1,000 words)

Don’t forget to send us your ideas for Airplane Geeks T-Shirts!

The Airplane Geeks are now on Twitter! You can follow us @AirplaneGeeks.

Make sure to sign up for our new newsletter, “Airplane Geeks Week in Aviation.”
We’ll be bringing you these show notes, as well as some of the week’s news we didn’t have time to cover.
You can sign up at AirplaneGeeks.com.

Brother Love is responsible for this episode’s opening and closing
music, and you can visit his site at brotherloverocks.com.

If you have a question or a comment for the Airplane Geeks, you
can send it to thegeeks@airplanegeeks.com.

You can also leave us voice mail at (812) 757-4252. If you have
a question or comment you’d like mentioned on the podcast, this is the best
way to go about it.

Episode 41 – Talking with Jon Ostrower

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boeing787

Jon Ostrower, AKA Flightblogger, joins The Geeks  this week as we cover the latest news.  We talk everything from the 787 to Formula One!

Max’s pick of the week is Mako’s RC Jet Club.

The Airplane Geeks are now on Twitter! You can follow us @AirplaneGeeks.

Make sure to sign up for our new newsletter, “Airplane Geeks Week in Aviation.”
We’ll be bringing you these show notes, as well as some of the week’s news we didn’t have time to cover.
You can sign up at AirplaneGeeks.com.

Brother Love is responsible for this episode’s opening and closing
music, and you can visit his site at brotherloverocks.com.

If you have a question or a comment for the Airplane Geeks, you
can send it to thegeeks@airplanegeeks.com.

You can also leave us voice mail at (812) 757-4252. If you have
a question or comment you’d like mentioned on the podcast, this is the best
way to go about it.

Episode 27 – Talking Airplanes with Richard Aboulafia

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Embraer Phenom 100

Richard Aboulafia, an industry analyst and VP of analysis at Teal Group, joins The Geeks this week as we talk airplanes.  It turns out that Richard is not only very knowledgeable about the aviation industry, but he’s also very funny.  We spend almost the entire hour talking with him about the news:

Airlines’ on-time performance improves in Oct.

Invest in Aviation Infrastructure, Groups Tell Congress; Relatively Small Investments Could Yield Big Local Returns

Analysts see worrying trend in airport incursions

Embraer Phenom Wins Brazilian Certification

Bombardier to bring CSeries 110 to market first

ANA Mulling Seeking Compensation On Boeing 787 Delay

Airbus and Boeing plan loans for buyers

AIA dailyLead Special Report: Looking forward to 2009

Max’s pick of the week is a double shock with Aircraft Nicknames and Aviation Alias.  Both sites offer the endearing and sometimes humorous nick-names we give our aircraft.

Make sure to sign up for our new newsletter, “Airplane Geeks Week in Aviation.”
We’ll be bringing you these show notes, as well as some of the week’s news we didn’t have time to cover.
You can sign up at AirplaneGeeks.com.

Also, please keep supporting the first aviation radio station at  Flightline Internet Radio.
You’ll be able to hear excerpts of The Airplane Geeks weekly.

Brother Love is responsible for this episode’s opening and closing
music, and you can visit his site at brotherloverocks.com.

If you have a question or a comment for the Airplane Geeks, you
can send it to thegeeks@airplanegeeks.com.

You can also leave us voice mail at (812) 757-4252. If you have
a question you’d like mentioned on the podcast, this is the best
way to go about it.