Fly Me Friendly

Podcasts I Enjoy (Starting with Plane Crazy Down Under)

Posted on December 8, 2013 by Falcon124

As most of you will know, my friend Steve Visscher & I are the producers & hosts of the Plane Crazy Down Under aviation show. We’ve been putting out episodes on a mostly regular basis since July in 2009.

Given I produce a podcast & love aviation, it’s only natural that I’d also follow a few other aviation podcasts. Mostly they’re audio ones as I listen while driving or doing chores. Sadly, I don’t usually get much time to watch many video podcasts.

I’m often asked by friends which aviation podcasts I listen to so they can add to their collection of aviation shows. To save repeating myself, I figure I’ll post some articles in this category for each of the shows in my podcatcher’s list.

Naturally, I’m starting with my own show :)

Show:	Plane Crazy Down Under (aka PCDU)
Style:	“Audio Magazine” (variety of content)
Online at:	PCDU Website (http://planecrazydownunder.com) Facebook page PCDU at Twitter
First Episode:	July 2009
Overview:	Plane Crazy Down Under looks at the world of aviation from an Australia/Pacific perspective with content primarily covering aviation topics from Australia and New Zealand. Episodes are released every 4-6 weeks and typically run for about 1.5 to 2 hours. Steve & Grant are often joined by co-hosts who produce additional content on a semi-regular basis, giving a wider background of coverage & helping gather plenty of content. Guests have included aerobatic display pilots, air traffic controllers, business owners, adventurers, politicians & military staff. PCDU is also appearing on community FM radio in Melbourne and is working to syndicate its content to more stations in the near future.
Grant’s Thoughts:	Hmmm, this is tricky as I’m reviewing my own show :) Steve & I have grown PCDU from its basic beginnings and it’s very much a labour of love. We enjoy producing it and it’s opened a number of doors for us, providing even more access to the aviation world we love so much. Feedback so far indicates most people enjoy it as much as we do so expect to have lots more episodes coming out in the future :)

Posted in General Information, Podcasts | Tagged aviation, listening, PCDU, podcasts, Steve Visscher | Leave a comment

ALAANZ Seminar with Minister Gordon Rich-Phillips

Posted on November 22, 2013 by Falcon124

The Hon Gordon Rich-Phillips, State Minister for the Aviation Industry

I was invited to attend an Aviation Law Association of Australia & New Zealand (ALAANZ) Victorian Branch seminar featuring the Honorable Gordon Rich-Phillips, Victoria’s State Minister for the Aviation Industry as guest speaker. The seminar was held on the 21st of November (which was also Montgolfier Day :) at the Victoria Law School in Melbourne.

We’ve interviewed Minister Rich-Phillips a few times on the Plane Crazy Down Under show so I was keen to attend, record his presentation & say Hi once again. Having attended a previous Victorian Branch seminar last year, I was also looking forward to catching up once again with Charles Giacco (ALAANZ committee member & national student coordinator) and socialising with attendees after the presentation.

Gordon’s presentation provided a good overview of Victoria’s aviation infrastructure & industry as well as covering the state government’s efforts to expand aviation’s future within the state. I was very happy to hear that the state government is committed to keeping Melbourne & Avalon airports curfew-free as well as ensuring that developments at our airports do not impact on existing aviation operations (eg: Essendon’s owners wanting to shorten the main runway). They’re also continuing to invest large amounts in the development of regional airports to facilitate their use for emergency services and to provide business, medical & community services with good access to regional centers.

There was plenty of additional content as well as a good Q&A session at the end, all of which I’ll be writing up in a separate post. We may also include some of the audio in a future episode of Plane Crazy Down Under.

Aviation Law Association of Australia & New Zealand

After the presentation we relocated to the Judges Common Room on the 2nd floor of the Old Registry Building for refreshments & socialising. As with the previous Victorian Branch seminar I had attended, the post-seminar mingling was rewarding for the chance to renew existing acquaintances & make new ones. Given ALAANZ members cover a range of aviation environments including airlines & airports, insurance, finance, safety, military and much more, the people attending are quite interesting & have a wealth of information. ALAANZ are also very active in recruiting student members which helps the students gain exposure to real-world issues & build the industry networks that will be of great benefit after they graduate.

The Victorian Branch seminars are open to non-members and attendance fees are very modest. I highly recommend these events for people with an interest in aviation law, regulations and procedures as well as for the valuable networking opportunities they can provide to anyone in the aviation industry. If you’re wanting to find out more about ALAANZ and the seminars, why not contact them and ask to be added to their events mailing list?

Posted in Commentary, General Information | Tagged ALAANZ, Aviation Law Association of Australia & New Zealand, Charles Giacco, Gordon Rich-Phillips, law, procedures, regulations | Leave a comment

Montgolfier Day, 2013

Posted on November 21, 2013 by Falcon124

Montgolfier Balloon of 1783
(Public domain image via Wikipedia)

Happy Montgolfier Day!

On this day in 1783, the first free flight by humans in a hot air balloon was recorded in Paris, France as Pilatre de Rozier & Francois d’Arlandes flew a Montgolfier balloon to an altitude of 3,000′ and traveled a distance of 9 kilometers during a 25 minute flight.

The brothers Joseph-Michel Montgolfier and Jacques-Ã‰tienne Montgolfier were paper makers in Paris who noticed that laundry would rise when held over a fire. This observation inspired experimentation with paper boxes & bags which they found would also rise. Their experiments lead them to believe that it was the smoke that made items lift from the ground, a theory about as accurate as the old phlogiston theory of combustion but it seemed to work for them :).

They then figured that a really big paper bag over a super-smokey fire would be able to carry people into the air and thus set about to prove it. During the year leading up to the first manned flight they experimented with designs and launched an important test flight on 19 September 1783 with animals on board. The animals were selected with a very scientific approach and included a sheep (much like a human in physiology), a duck (a control item as it’s a flying bird so shouldn’t have been affected by the flight) and a rooster (a bird that’s not used to altitude). If these three survived then it should be OK for humans too.

Suffice to say, the three animals survived the flight (and the landing!) so the brothers moved on to a series of tethered lights up to about 100′ off the ground. As these were successful, the crowning moment was the launch of the first manned free-flight on November 21st, 1783. From the early days ballooning was exciting and, as our first form of manned flight, established great volumes of aeronautical knowledge, forming the foundation for much of the aviation that we know & take for granted today.

Even the word “pilot” comes from the name of one of the first aeronauts: Pilatre

Balloons flying in 2013 over the Hunter Valley

For a balloonatic like myself, today is a special anniversary day as it was thanks to the Montgolfier brothers, to Pilatre & Francois and to those who followed them that I am able to work in commercial ballooning, hold a pilot’s license & get to go fly modern balloons. Sure, they may have changed somewhat since 1783 but many of the concepts discovered over 200 years ago still apply today.

Besides, it’s thanks to this that I get to say:

“Balloonatics: looking down on people since 1783!!” :)

Posted in balloons, Commentary, flying, General Information | Tagged 1783, balloon, fire, france, Francois d'Arlandes, heat, Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier, Joseph-Michel Montgolfier, Montgolfier Day, paper, Paris, phlogiston, Pilatre de Rozier, pilot, rises, smoke | Leave a comment

Interview with a Balloonatic

Posted on October 1, 2013 by Falcon124

Grant & Kathy about to launch near Bacchus Marsh

Back in June 2013 I took Kathy Mexted for her first ever balloon flight. It was also my first flight over the Bacchus Marsh area and the first time I’ve ever done circuits (complete with a touch-n-go) in a balloon (but that’s another story).

Kathy is one of the occasional contributors to the Plane Crazy Down Under show that I co-host, writes incredible articles, takes great photos & is herself a pilot. While she’s often found flying their Piper Cub, she’s also flown other GA aircraft such as Bonanzas & Warriors. Given all the flying she & her family are involved in, I was rather surprised to find she’d never experienced the early morning joys of ballooning.

Clearly Kathy is also a bit of an adventurer and perhaps brave beyond belief as she did not run screaming when I told her I’d be flying a balloon out her way if she wanted to come & join the fun. Suffice to say that despite my relatively low hours, the pre-dawn wake up and the frost on the ground, she came out and had an absolute blast as we floated serenely through the skies over Bacchus Marsh.

Inevitably the experience inspired her to write an article about it for the Aircraft Owners & Pilots Association of Australia‘s (AOPA Australia) Australian Pilot magazine.

Clothing that references Plane Crazy, AOPA and the ABF? Score! :)

At this point in the story I’ll introduce Kreisha Ballantyne-Dickes, the Publications Editor at AOPA Australia and editor of Australian Pilot. Kreisha’s a lovely, enthusiastic & energetic lady who also flies aircraft and has a wicked sense of humour (as the title of her blog may suggest :) ).

I first met Kreisha in 2012 at AusFly in Narromine where she was promoting AOPA while I was doing commentary & running AusFly Radio with the PCDU crew. We’ve caught up at a number of aviation & social events since and she’s been wanting to include an article or two about ballooning since she found out I’m a balloonatic (she particularly loves that word! :) )

With Kathy’s article about her flight with me being drafted, Kreisha decided that she’d put ballooning content in an issue of Australian Pilot and that an interview with me would nicely balance out Kathy’s article. Go figure!

Enter Phil Buckley of Heritage Flightgear Displays. Phil is also a writer & photographer who contributes to Australian Pilot and I’ve known through Plane Crazy Down Under for a number of years.

Kreisha had Phil interview me about flying balloons and after a few phone calls and some emails, he managed to extract enough content to produce an article. Kreisha then combined his article with Kathy’s and some ballooning photos from Kathy, myself and some friends of ours into a six page spread in the October/November issue of the Australian Pilot magazine. I also managed to score the cover photo which surprised me no end as it was a “quick shot” I grabbed on my phone (a Galaxy S III) while flying alongside another balloon.

As if all that weren’t enough, Kreisha has also given me permission to host PDFs of the articles & cover image here on my site as well as reproduce them in the Australian Balloon Federation‘s Aeronotes magazine. Most excellent :)

You can access the content by clicking on the images or links below:

View Cover in detail

Read the Articles

Posted in balloons, flying, General Information, Published | Tagged AOPA Australia, Australian Pilot, Bacchus Marsh, balloon, balloonatic, Heritage Flightgear Displays, Kathy Mexted, Kreisha Ballantyne-Dickes, magazine, Phil Buckley | Leave a comment

The Lake 2012: Day 2: Brisk n Windy

Posted on July 2, 2012 by Falcon124

Big empty fields that can be found near Mildura

Once again another “oh-dark-thirty” wake up and prepare for whatever the day could provide us. I grabbed my muesli bar & piece of fruit “first breakfast” before we all headed over to the briefing room to see what the weather held for us today.

Like yesterday, it looked like we’d be tight for winds but there was a good chance for a successful morning flight. Filing out of the briefing room, some folks went to grab a bit more food while the rest of us coordinated our crew and ensured our equipment was ready to go.

Not long after it’s 7am and the light is starting to show on the horizon as we arrive at Werrimull Oval to get set up. This time my set up & take-off were a lot better (not quite as rusty :) ) and we were in the air with everyone else.
Climbing out over the town, we had a great view of everyone else in front of us as we rose up into the fast air, gaining on those down low ahead of us.

Paul & James

In addition to my instructor Paul, we also had his nephew James on board who was getting some of his first instruction on flying balloons. Not long after take-off, I handed over to James who flew us under Paul’s guidance for most of the time we were in the air.

As predicted by the pi-ball we put up earlier (a small helium balloon that lets us monitor winds in the bottom 1,000′ – 2,000′), we found slower, more Westerly winds close to the surface and faster, more Sou-Westerly winds aloft that curved around to almost Southerly by about 2,000′.

After some time in the air, James handed over to me and I started to get ready for the landing. The wind near the ground had sped up and I botched my first attempt at landing, aborting with heat & going back up to try again further down wind. Part of the problem was the hand-over had been done with very little time for me to get back into the feel of the balloon & the conditions. If I had been a more experienced pilot, it wouldn’t have been an issue, but as a student, I was still getting the hang of it.

After a long drag landing

Not to worry, we spied another field and I was able to bring us in for a fun drag landing, leaving a rather long furrow in the dirt until we finally came to a halt. Lots of fun :)

After breakfast & then relaxing plus doing some “day job” work for a few hours, we went to the afternoon briefing and all indications were that it would be rather windy and not likely to allow a flight to proceed. People were still going to the nominated launch field to check it out so we tagged along, driving past a farmer’s gear (including a rather large tractor :) ) to get to a huge open field of typical Mildura dirt. There we found everyone hanging around & watching Angus inflate his balloon in the winds.

Everyone else had decided to stay on the ground but Angus thought he could make something of it, so with the help of some crew and a few guys on board the basket, he braved the winds & his balloon rolling about as it inflated. Sure enough, he made it work and got it into the air, winding up having a fun flight with a reasonably slow landing. Go figure.

The rest of us headed to the pub for a drink then back to the Lake for dinner and bed.

Actually, it’s a medium sized tractor in these parts

Angus inflating in the wind

Posted in balloons, Flight Notes, flying, Learning to Fly | Tagged "drag landing", Angus, balloons, cancel, farmer, field, flight, Lake Cullulleraine, Mildura, TheLake12, wind | Leave a comment

The Lake 2012: Day 1: Back to the Burners

Posted on July 1, 2012 by Falcon124

Everyone staggering in for the morning briefing

It’s just before 6am and everyone’s staggering into the briefing room for the first welcome & weather briefing. Morning briefing on Day 1 always starts a bit earlier & runs a bit longer so we can get the overview & welcome. Roll call is taken to ensure that we’re here and (hopefully) ready to absorb the information being handed out.

I’ve been up for a bit over an hour, getting used to the brisk conditions and grabbing a couple of bits of fruit for breakfast. My initial checks of the weather information has me thinking we may not get this flight as winds are likely to be at the top of our acceptable range. Still, you never know! (it helps to be an optimist in ballooning :)

The welcomes & overviews completed, the weather briefing confirms that we’re in with a chance to sneak a flight in as we’ve had clear skies overnight which helps create an inversion, preventing stronger winds from mixing down to the surface. There’s also the phenomena where a slight pressure change occurs just as the sun rises over the horizon, dropping winds briefly & giving us a small window of better conditions for launch.

Sounds good, right? :)

Well, it all worked out OK and we were up & flying not long after sunrise despite being the last ones off the field (yeah, I’m rusty, OK? :) The flight took us from Werrimull Oval up towards Mildura and included some low level flying as well as fast flight at 2,000′ (about 50-60kph). I got to practice using the winds to try & catch up with another balloon (hare & hound). I’ll post a full report on the flight when I write it up in my Flight Notes but suffice to say it was fantastic to be back in the air once again.

Following the flight it was back to the camp for a cooked breakfast then we loaded the empty/used LPG tanks from Maaike’s balloon into our basket & I went into Mildura to refuel. It’s roughly a half hour drive to get there, about half an hour to refuel and then another half hour back to camp. Fortunately I’ve got lots of podcasts to listen to :)

The afternoon routine generally includes having a shower while it’s warm as I find there are few things worse than finishing a hot shower & having to dry off in cold air in the early morning or late at night :) After that it’s grab one or two sandwiches that have been prepared for our lunch then get online & work through some emails, reports & planning.

Afternoon briefing was at 3:30pm and it was confirmed that the winds were too high for us to bother trying to fly, so we continued on with our various tasks. For some this was studying & preparing for their theory exams, a few folks reviewed emergency procedures while for me I was still catching up on some items my “day job” and writing these blogs.

The social event organised for after dinner was a trivia competition with people arranged into teams based on the tables they were sitting at for dinner. A fun event but I had to bail out towards the end to record the latest Australia Desk episode for the Airplane Geeks. Standing outside in the cold chatting on a cellphone made for an “interesting” time. Fortunately it didn’t run too long :)

It’s not uncommon to find a single tree in the middle of a paddock here

We had a tip-over & drag landing, sliding about 20m before we finally stopped (the basket has been stood up again in preparation for packing it up)

Posted in balloons, Flight Notes, flying, Learning to Fly | Tagged "drag landing", balloons, camp, flight, Lake Cullulleraine, Mildura, paddock, TheLake12, tree | Leave a comment

The Lake 2012: Day 0: It’s a Bloody Long Drive!

Posted on June 30, 2012 by Falcon124

Toyota Troopy 4WD + the balloon on a trailer

They say that every journey starts with a single step & my first step to get to Mildura was getting to the Picture This Ballooning shed before 6am to pick up the Toyota Troopy 4WD & balloon I was taking up to The Lake. Fortunately our Operations Manager “Hendo” had already packed the gear in the Troopy, prepared the balloon & tanks on the trailer and hooked everything up. All I had to do was throw in my stuff & drive off. Fantastic! Thanks Hendo :)

So at about 06:15am I left the shed & started the long 606km (377 mile) drive up to Lake Cullulleraine, near Mildura. Aside from a few of the longer/larger hills, the Troopy managed to keep up with the 100kph & 110kph speed limits on the highways all the way out despite towing a trailer. I made a few stops for bio breaks & one to put some more diesel in the tank but otherwise it was point the noise towards Mildura and keep driving. While not the quietest or smoothest vehicle to drive over long distances, I had a good collection of aviation & science podcasts to listen to and was able to stay focused & alert for the whole journey.

Watching the terrain change to flat, wide, open areas and the green slowly disappear was quite fascinating as the route moved from coastal city up into the hills to Bendigo (1,000′ elevation) then back down onto the inland plains on the way to Mildura (170′ elevation). Once you get out to Mildura, you’re in “The Mallee” area and the ground becomes brown/red dirt over limestone with dunes of sand/dirt over generally flat terrain.

Approaching some Silos

Making a pitt stop for vehicle & driver

Eventually I arrived in Mildura & topped off the tanks before heading 1/2 hour down the road towards Adelaide to Lake Cullulleraine and the camp ground where I will be staying for the next 8 nights. I arrived about 2:30pm after over 8 hours of driving, claimed a bunk and caught up with the rest of the group who are here to fly balloons. While some I already knew, many are new faces so it will be a chance to meet many new balloonatics :)

The weather looks a bit windy to begin with but should settle into some great weather for flying as the week progresses. Watch this space :)

At the Hattah Lakes Store you’re a long way from most other places

I’ve claimed my space! :)

Posted in balloons, flying, Learning to Fly | Tagged balloons, Bendigo, drive, Lake Cullulleraine, Melbourne, Mildura, The Lake 2012, The Mallee | Leave a comment

Going to “The Lake”

Posted on June 26, 2012 by Falcon124

The Australian Ballooning Federation are working with the Mildura International Balloon Fiesta to host “The Lake” event at Lake Cullulleraine near Mildura in the “Mallee” region of north-west Victoria. If you’re wondering just where that might be, check out the Google Maps reference plus there’s a collection of photos of the Lake area and general shots of the Mallee landscape to give you an idea of where it’s held.

This week long event brings balloonatics together from all over Australia to have some fun flying over the great, open countryside around the area. While the primary focus has been on developing student pilots with plenty of instructional flights, there’s also a number of novice pilots building their experience and some old hands giving the benefit of their many hours.

It starts on Friday 29th but most people will arrive on Saturday 30th with the first official briefing occurring early on the Sunday morning. The general routine is two flights a day (morning & late afternoon/evening) plus a few seminar sessions and time for students to study & sit their exams during the middle of the day. Most evenings are a time to relax & unwind, chatting with others about flying (or, for many, passing out & getting as much sleep as possible for the next early morning start :)

This will be the seventh Lake event to be held and my second (I was at the previous one in 2010). Last time I took a tent & made use of a powered site to run a heater in the early morning. The heater was essential to warm up a bit & face the morning as overnight temperatures were dropping to -2 degrees. Brrrr. Always ‘fun’ getting out of a tent that’s covered in frost :)

This time I’m going to brave the bunk house which is warmer but a little less private (which is saying something as tents aren’t always *that* private :)

Currently the plan is for me to drive a 4WD up from Melbourne bringing one of the balloons we’ll be flying then bring it all back at the end on Sunday the 8th of July. I’m looking forward to getting current again and seeing if I can nail a few good flights. It’s been over a year since I last flew and I’m eager to back into it :)

Of course, the weather is already shaping up to be rather windy on the first Saturday & Sunday but should be calming down a bit after that. Guess we’ll see.

Watch this space :)

Posted in balloons, flying, Learning to Fly | Tagged ABF, balloons, bunk house, camping, hours, Lake Cullulleraine, Mallee, MIBF, Mildura, tent, The Lake, training | Leave a comment

Flying Shirts – Escape Slide

Posted on June 10, 2012 by Falcon124

May as well have fun as you escape the plane

I caught this shirt on Threadless and it was a no-brainer. After all, if you’re going to exit a burning aircraft, you may as well have some fun in the process :)

I’ve not yet worn it on a commercial airline flight yet but it’s definitely one I’ll be considering for the near future!

Update: The shirt is called “Happy Thoughts” and can be found on the Threadless site. It’s out of print at present but if enough of you request it, they’ll bring it back.

Posted in Clothing, General Information, Humour | Tagged airliner, clown, crash, escape slide, Landing, water | Leave a comment

Fantastic Plastic: 787 ZA003 DreamTour

Posted on May 27, 2012 by Falcon124

787 ZA003 parked at BAe Systems

Today I attended the 787 DreamTour event at Melbourne airport thanks to an invitation from Qantas & Jetstar. What a fantastic time I had, especially as I was able to bring a few of the Plane Crazy Down Under team with me.

We started at the Qantas Maintenance Base car park where we signed in with Qantas, got on a bus & were taken over to the BAe Systems hangar where the 787 was parked. Having walked around ZA001 at Oshkosh 2011 I was ready for the paint scheme, the size & the ‘feel’ of the aircraft. The new angle with today’s event was that I actually had time to get on board AND had the opportunity to record an interview one of the pilots then have some casual chats with a few of the Flight Test Engineers accompanying the aircraft on the tour.

At Qantas Engineering waiting for the bus

After chatting with one of the engineers, I approached a Boeing rep to request an interview with a pilot. They were fine with this and after a short wait, we got to record about 15 minutes of very informative content with Captain Todd Abraham covering systems, training & his flying career. Suffice to say, we’ll be getting it out on the next Plane Crazy Down Under episode :)

After that we went on board & headed straight to the cockpit (my favourite part of the tour – funny that :) then checked out the demonstration interior, looking at the various classes of seats and chatting some more with the engineers. While we could have stayed there all day chatting with the engineers & learning more fascinating information, eventually we went back outside to walk around underneath the aircraft once again.

Checking out the systems on the Flight Deck

Finally it was time to drag ourselves away & catch the last bus back to the car park where Steve & I wound up recording another Australia Desk segment for the Airplane Geeks. Not the first time we’ve recorded at Melbourne Airport (YMML) but it was definitely hard to focus on reporting the news after experiencing the 787.

I’ve already loaded the few photos I had time to take on my Flickr stream and we’ve also started to load the photos Steve Visscher & Steven Pam took on the PCDU Flickr stream. Please do check them out as there are some great shots that the guys managed to get.

What a fantastic day it turned out to be. We learned so much about the aircraft’s systems, test gear & methods as well as getting to go onboard & experience the cockpit. Thanks once again to Qantas & Jetstar for inviting me and making a bit of extra space for the team. Thanks also to Boeing for allowing us to record the interview with Todd.

Getting a feel for the size of the Rolls Royce Trent 1000 engines

Steven Pam can be found hamming it up when not taking photos :)

Posted in General Information, photos | Tagged 787, BAe Systems, cockpit, DreamTour, Jetstar, Melbourne, PCDU, Qantas, Steve Visscher, Steven Pam, ymml, ZA003 | Leave a comment