Tag Archives: Pinnacle

Episode 233 – USAF Test Pilots School

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Major Brandon “Cain’n” Abel

We talk with Major Brandon “Cain’n” Abel, and Major John “Manson” Appelt, Experimental Test Instructor Pilots from the USAF Test Pilot School. Greg Morris from Gauntlet Warbirds joins in.

The USAF Test Pilot School is a 48 week program for classes of 20-24 students. Graduates go on to test and evaluate weapons systems as test pilots or test engineers. We talk with Cain’n and Manson about the selection process for admission into the School, the variety of aircraft flown at the School, and what a flight test mission involves.

The week’s aviation news:

David gives us a debrief on the Airpigz.com meetup at the Smithsonian’s National Air & Space Museum in Washington, D.C. and at the Udvar-Hazy Center next to Dulles.

F-22 by David Vanderhoof

In this week’s Australia Desk report:

Qantas experiences teething problems with its new alliance partner as their booking system allocates premium economy seats on Emirates aircraft – a class not available with that carrier.

Tiger Airways profits slip as they await a ruling by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission on their proposed takeover by Virgin Australia.

Jetstar Japan takes delivery of two new A320s.

The first former RAAF C-130H to be gifted to Indonesia (formerly A97-006) takes to the skies following deep maintenance in preparation for the transfer.

The USAF confirm they are sending two F-22 Raptors to this year’s Australian International Air Show (Avalon), and unlike their last visit in 2011, this time they’ll be putting on an aerial display.

Grant is heading to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia this week as a guest of Malaysia Airlines to cover their launch into the One World Alliance.

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.

Fairey Barracuda

In this week’s Across the Pond segment:

Naval Air Historian Matt Willis joins us to discuss his new book on the Fairey Barracuda a mono wing fleet air arm torpedo bomber from the second world war. Designed to be a mulit functional aircraft, the ‘Barra’ suffered reputational challenges from its perceived weaknesses. However, it proved itself many times and flew well into the ‘50’s.

Not a single complete airframe is left of the 2,600 Barracuda’s built but there is a project being delivered by the Bluebird team and supported by the Fleet Air Arm Museum at Yeovilton to recreate a lasting memory to this both beloved and sometimes sneered upon aircraft. To Pieter, it is of course the chariot on which his father flew the majority of his fleet air arm missions and activities and therefore remembered with a little more fondness than others.

Matt can be found at www.navalairhistory.com and on Twitter @NavalAirHistory.

Matt’s published books include: Blackburn Skua and Roc and Junkers Ju 87 Stuka.

Naval History Links:

In Memorium:

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 232 – The Airline Reporter Returns

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David Parker Brown from the Airline Reporter.com blog returns as our guest.

We talk about the grounding of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner fleet, the new American Airlines livery, and using personal electronic devices on flights.

David is organizing the Aviation Geekfest in Seattle February 16 and 17, 2013 with lots of exciting activities planned for the event.

Also find Airline Reporter.com on Twitter as @airlinereporter and on Facebook.

The week’s aviation news:

NTSB photo of Lithium Ion battery

David’s Aircraft of the Week is the The Martin 167 Maryland bomber.

In this week’s Australia Desk report:

Qantas reduces its 787-8 order by one airframe (not related to the current AD issues) while their management is still managing to upset the their international pilots, BAE Systems to test their Taranis stealth UAV in the remote Outback areas of Australia, HNZ takes delivery of three new AW109SP helicopters for use on a ten year contract with mining company Rio Tinto, and the federal government blocks a bid by a local municipal government to have a second airport built in their area.

In this week’s Across the Pond segment:

We find out this week why North Sea Helicopter Pilot Ian Grosz intends giving something back to aviation in the form of Take Off a scholarship programme focused at youngsters in Scotland. Follow @Austerpilot on Twitter.

AN-12 arriving in Calgary by Ian Kershaw

Mentions:

B-52 flight, 50 years ago in Maine, led to key safety changes
On Gratitude and Flying from the Bill Next Best Blog
SAS captain uses whiskey to deice wings of aircraft

The music in Pieter’s recordings:

The music for both Across The Pond, Xtended and my segment on PCDU is performed by a UK band called WhiteHarts.

If you would like to see where they are on the internet you can go to my Blog – AlphaTangoPapa.Blogspot.com and see the very large credit to the band along with the links to their website presence. Not saying no one has ever been there but its quite prominent on the front page below the Airplane Geeks logo.

The link to me, is that my son Anthony played Bass for WhiteHarts for a while. They no longer play as WhiteHarts but all still play in some format or other. The guy singing the track I use in ATP which is called ‘Seven’, is Joe Bernie.

The track I use on Xtended (called ‘Epic’) is now exclusively Xtended’s to use and has not yet been published by the band (and I think unlikely to be).

The guitar infills I sometimes use you are correct are by one of my brothers, although since being involved in an road traffic accident, he is no longer able to play, which is very sad as he was very talented.

And finally I am a drummer (in the very distant past) so you never know, there might one day be a percussion insert!

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 230 – Kicking off 2013 with Richard Aboulafia

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:37:17 — 44.6MB)

Trevor Smith from Desertpilot.com with the 1942 Champ

Guest Richard Aboulafia is Vice President, Analysis at Teal Group. We look at some of the major aviation developments from 2012 and look ahead to what we can expect in 2013.

We discuss narrowbody orders and the need for efficient aircraft in order to compete. With narrowbody technology on a plateau, it’s the efficiency of the engines that drive the economics.

China and Russian commercial aircraft prospects are covered as is Chinese military aviation. Also, prospects for general aviation in the U.S., the retirement of the Space Shuttles, the growth of commercial launch capability, and what that means for aerospace.

As for Boeing, Richard says watch the promptness of the 787-10 launch, and the 777X. Meanwhile Airbus is physically establishing itself on U.S. soil to mitigate exchange rate vulnerability, maybe put pressure on the unions, and help their prospects for the next military competition.

F-35 partner country concerns with price and delivery, airframer reluctance to take on commercial risk, and program vulnerability in times of budget crunch. Also watch the Korean FX3 fighter competition between the F-35 and the F-15. Even the USAF tanker resurfaces with issues getting the new hangars for them.

See Richard’s personal site at RichardAboulafia.com.

The week’s aviation news:

David’s Aircraft of the Week is the Aeronca 7AC Champion.

In this week’s Australia Desk report:

Looking forward to upcoming issues for 2013, the Qantas/Emirates tie up is going ahead as the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission gives its approval, while Virgin faces an uphill battle to get it’s buy out of Tiger Airways & Sky West approved. ADS-B will factor in the news in 2013 as Australian carriers who operate above FL290 are required to use install equipment and use it by mid December, and the LSA (RA-Aus) sector is facing an interesting period as CASA exercises its oversight powers and grounds up to 1,000 aircraft.

In this week’s Across the Pond segment:

This week on Across The Pond we return to Southampton Airport in the UK to continue with a new mini series focusing on behind the scenes. Last year we spoke to Dave Lees, Managing Director who gave us his strategy for growth and customer service at the airport and who has now kindly allowed us a behind the scenes look at some of the areas we don’t normally see. This week we talk to Dan Townsend, Airport Assurance Manager who tells us all about their innovative and world leading technology used for avian control.

Find more about Southampton Airport at SouthamptonAirport.com and their blog, and follow them on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.

Must attend events:

Mentions:

A Skycrane dipping at the Fern Lake Fire, Colorado by Paul Filmer