Tag Archives: Qantas

Episode 255 – Steve McNeilly, Aviation Tutorials

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VH-OLS “Spirit of the Sapphire Coast”

Guest Steve McNeilly is president and founder of Aviation Tutorials, providing interactive training software for pilots and flight simmers. He’s been in aviation for thirty years, he’s an airline pilot, A&P mechanic, instructor, examiner, book author, and FAA WINGS training provider.

We talk about how Steve came to develop these professional grade simulation tutorials which are light on theory and heavy on “this is what you need to do.” Also, pilots using iPads, drones in the airspace, electric drive systems for airliners, thrust reverser depoyment at altitude (Steve’s done that in a DC-8).

The week’s aviation news:

David Vanderhoof’s Aircraft of the Week is the D.H. 86 Express Airliner.

Ryan Cambell

Ryan Cambell

In this week’s Australia Desk:

After an “interesting” week in Australian federal politics, Minister for Transport & Infrastructure, Anthony Albanese, is now also the Deputy Prime Minister, leaving Steve & Grant to ponder whether this will be good for aviation or not. In more positive aviation news, 19 year old Ryan Campbell has set out on his attempt to become the youngest person to fly solo around the world; a record which has only recently been set by American, Jack Wiegant. Ryan is flying in a Cirrus SR-22, VH-OLS, named “Spirit of the Sapphire Coast”, tracking east from Wollongong, just south of Sydney, across the Pacific to the USA (including a stop at Airventure 2013), then on to Europe, Asia and back to Australia. We spoke to Ryan a couple of days prior to launch and we present part of that interview in the week’s report.

Follow Ryan’s progress at www.teenworldflight.com and @teenworldflight on Twitter.

In other news, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau has handed down it’s findings into the cause of the Qantas A380 engine failure on board VH-OQA, in 2010. Although this has been covered earlier in the show, we popped our two cents in as well, including the fact that Rolls Royce ended up paying some hefty compensation.

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 180 – Mary Kirby from APEX

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The Aerobatic Project

Guest Mary Kirby is is Editor-in-Chief of the Airline Passenger Experience magazine and the APEX media platform. We talk about the current state of inflight internet connectivity, what passengers expect aboard the flight, the GoGo IPO, and why we’re going to see more announcements. Also, pressure on interior suppliers as a result of the huge numbers of narrow body orders going on the books, and how that’s delaying aircraft deliveries. We touch on airline alliance interior commonality, and the outlook for embedded IFE.

Find Mary at the APEX Editor’s Blog and on Twitter as @APEXmary. The Airline Passenger Experience Association is at apex.aero.

The week’s aviation news:

David’s Aircraft of the Week is the Cessna A-37 Dragonfly, also known as the Super Tweet.

In this week’s Australia Desk report: 12th A380 arrives for Qantas, more A380s coming to Melbourne as Emirates signals their intentions, cracks appearing in some A380s including one QF aircraft, 150 Qantas pilots now working for Gulf based airlines during their down time, tragic balloon crash in New Zealand kills 11 people.

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.

This week on Across the Pond, Pieter talks to new aerobatic pilot and author of The Aerobatic Project, Lauren Richardson. Lauren explains what’s its like to transition from a 152 to a Pitts Special and what it was like in her first aerobatic competition. Lauren can be found on Twitter @Groovy_Nut, while Pieter can be found on Twitter as @Nascothornet or XTP Media’s Facebook Page.oba

Mentioned in the episode:

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 175 – Bits and Pieces VIII

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Broad Area Maritime Surveillance Unmanned Aircraft System

This is another Bits and Pieces episode. Occasionally, we take holiday weekends off and instead of recording a new episode together, we each contribute a pre-recorded segment and put them all together into a complete episode.

Here’s what we have this time:

Benet Wilson, the new Director of Media Relations for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. Benet talks about her new job and provides some information about the AOPA Air Safety Institute. Find her personal site at AviationQueen.com.

David Vanderhoof brings us three interviews from Northrop Grumman about UAVs from the PAX River show:

Walter Kreiter, Director BAMS UAS Business Development.

Tighe Parmenter, Business Development, Navy UCAS Program.

Dion Kolliopoulas on the Firescout.

The Across The Pond segment this week has Pieter looking at his aviation travels. What was his favourite aircraft to fly on, what was the best looking aeroplane that he had flown on, and where in the world is his favourite airport. He also describes the most unusual aircraft he has ever piloted. The full list of aircraft he has travelled on can be found on his blog Alpha Tango Papa.

In the Australia Desk report, Steve likes the current exchange rates, RAAF C-17 acquisition programme progresses, 4 ex-RAAF C130H aircraft gifted to Indonesia, 23 ex RAAF F111 airframes dumped in landfill in Queensland, Qantas CEO death threats investigation dropped by New South Wales police, Qantas social media blunder, Tiger Airways has best on time performance for 2011, Virgin Australia announces $68M loss, CASA announces review of UAV procedures.

Dan Webb brings us some airline news, including the slot swap between Delta and US Airways at Laguarda and Washington National airports, and some results (and speculation) on the recent FAA slot auction.

We received one listener v-mail on the recent tarmac delays at Bradley International Airport in Connecticut. We’ve got that as well as a response from Rob.

Finally, for those who like the outtakes, we have quite a few: a little from this episode, a few from the AusDesk, and past outtakes from Pieter Johnson. We finish up with part of the episode 174 pre-show that gives you a little insight about what actually happens before the show starts.

 

X-47B UCAS

 

Mentions:

Next week we’ll return to our usual format with the full complement of co-hosts and a great guest.

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 www.brotherloverocks.com.

 

MQ-8B Fire Scout

All post photos by David Vanderhoof.

Episode 131 – News, Listener Mail, and Politics

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AmSafe

Max, Rob, Dan, and David discuss the week’s aviation news and spend time with listener mail. Steve and Grant from the Plane Crazy Down Under podcast have a great Australia Desk Report, and Pieter Johnson brings the European perspective with his Across the Pond segment.

The week’s aviation news:

Listener mail:

Seventeen year old Nick looks forward to being a commercial pilot. Keith introduces us to the HowItFlies.com aircraft directory. Jim asks about downloadable Airplane Geeks segments. Jordan has some questions about 787 delays and Boeing’s strategy. John points out the flight of the Chinese J-20 stealth fighter. Dawson explains PAPI lights. Alex comments on American security paranoia. Another Alex says the U.S. Government needs to chill out. Micah reports on the improving health of Harriet and her desire to fly away.

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 122 – Jon on the Passenger Experience

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Qantas A380

Guest Jon Norris is a board member of the Airline Passenger Experience Association and chairman of the APEX Technology Committee. APEX is a non-profit association of businesses and professionals that create, deliver, and manage the airline passenger experience. He’s also the Vice President of the Cabin Design Office at Airbus. Find APEX on Twitter as @theAPEXassoc and Jon as @nonnyjorris.

We cover aviation news from the past week, and we also have David’s This Week in Aviation history segment, the Australia Desk report by Steve and Grant from the Plane Crazy Down Under podcast, and Pieter Johnson’s latest Across the Pond segment.

The week’s aviation news:

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 54 – Taking it One Mile at a Time

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787 On Display at Everett Factory Following 787 Premier - July 8. Photo courtesy Boeing.

Ben from the One Mile at a Time blog joins Dan, Max and Rob to talk aviation news and how to fly a lot of miles on the cheap.

We also have our report from the Airplane Geeks Australia Desk, an additional airline news report from Stephen, and a This Week in Aviation segment.

Dan’s aviation website pick of the week is Widgetheads.net, a Delta Air Lines fan site.

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

Follow the Airplane Geeks on Twitter as @AirplaneGeeks, send us email at thegeeks@airplanegeeks.com, or leave us voice mail at (81….

This episode’s opening and closing music is provided by Brother Love. You can visit his site at brotherloverocks.com.

Episode 51 – Farewell Courtney

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a380

This is Court’s last episode as he leaves the podcast to head North in search of employment.  Rob Mark from JetWhine.com and Dan Webb from ThingsintheSky.com replace Courtney as Max’s co-hosts and, as usual with these two, things get funny quickly.

Max’s pick of the week is AerHub.

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 44 – RunwayGirl

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snakes

We had a great time talking with Mary Kirby, or perhaps better known as RunwayGirl from the Runway Girl Blog.  She takes the time to talk earnings (or lack of), bad PR, and snakes.  Yes, snakes.

Max’s pick of the week is aircraft.factualtv.com

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 42 – Evan Sparks Talks Aviation Policy

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armrest

Evan Sparks joins The Geeks this week as we talk aviation policy.  There’ s quite a bit of emails and we finally get our listener voicemail up.  Of course, as usual there’s the news:

Max’s pick of the week is e-Go Aeroplanes.

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 28 – Good Riddance 2008

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737 Crash in Denver

Max and Court welcome Will Hawkins, Rico Sharqawi, and David Allen from APilotsStory.com and Pilots Flight Pod Log Podcast.  We wrap up 2008, and discuss the breaking news out of Denver:

Data recorders found after Denver plane accident

ExcelAire Pilots Face Criminal Trial

British Airways, Qantas Talks Fail on Ownership Split

AOPA: TSA Plans To Step Up GA Scrutiny At Commercial Airports

TSA to listen to pilot concerns on proposed security program

Ten Worst Air Travel Stories of ’08

Max’s pick of the week is the Plane Spotter Radius Search.  Drag the little plane spotter guy to some location on the map (typically someplace near you) and it shows the planes within a 10 mile radius.

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 you’d like mentioned on the podcast, this is the best
way to go about it.