Summary: Jeff Nielsen (“Capt. Jeff”) flies for a major legacy airline and produces the Airline Pilot Guy podcast, subtitled: The View From My Side of the Cockpit Door. Jeff served in the Air Force as a C-141B and T-37 Instructor Pilot, and in his commercial career has flown the B-727 (all seats), the L-1011 (as First Officer) and the “Mad Dog” MD-88/90 (as Captain). In Airline Pilot Guy, Jeff presents news and views from an airline pilot’s perspective, and answers listener questions about airlines and flying. We talk to Jeff about Porter and the CSeries, B787 batteries, lights in the cockpit (laser beams and St. Elmo’s Fire), being an airline pilot, and many other topics. See the Airline Pilot Guy Facebook page, Jeffs personal Facebook page, and follow him on Twitter as @airlinepilotguy. The week’s aviation news: Porter aims to become Canada’s 3rd national airline CSeries Order Could Bring Major Shift In Porter Business Model Porter’s CSeries order still faces hurdles CSeries on track for first flight in June, says Bombardier Drones replace ‘The Right Stuff’: Fighter pilots make way for remote warfare Researcher shows how to hack (and crash) a passenger aircraft with an Android phone… Aircraft Hacking – Practical Aero Series (pdf) Investigators Probe Jet’s Crash Into Sea In Bali In this week’s Australia Desk: With Grant off this week due to illness, PCDU team member Ben Jones steps in to help bring us this report. In the news, Virgin Australia issues a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange announcing it’s acquisition of Skywest is complete and right on cue, the first Skywest Fokker 100 in Virgin colours makes it debut in Perth. The last RAAF F-111C to fly, A8-109, is transported by road from Queensland to Wollongong in New South Wales to take up residence at the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society (HARS). The aircraft, now fully decommissioned, has been fully repainted in 1980s era colour scheme. Further news this week on Australia’s first two F-35 JSF airframes, designated AU-1 & AU-2. Lockheed says they are on schedule to be delivered by 2014, at which point RAAF aircrew can begin training. The latest PCDU video is now online – Steve’s review of the RAAF KC-30A Multi Role Taker Transport, including footage of refuelling of two 77SQN Hornets over eastern Victoria RAAF Airbus KC30A Multi Role Tanker Transport. 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. Hurricane at the recent RAF Northolt Night Shoot. Photo Courtesy of Global Aviation Resource and Gordon Jones In this week’s Across the Pond segment: Pieter is joined by Gareth Stringer, his fellow co host on Aviation Xtended and Editor at Global Aviation Resource. They discuss some of the changes made to GAR that have invigorated some of the aviation social media tools and improved quality of the GAR family of products. Find Pieter on Twitter as @Nascothornet, on Facebook at XTPMedia, and at the Aviation Xtended podcast. Tiger Moth Mentioned: Betty in the Sky with a Suitcase. Lake Hood Seaplane Base. Skytrax. More Turbulence For Planes Amid Climate Change. Weather: Jet Stream Blamed For UK Cold Snap. 3D Antarctic Ice Map ‘Clue’ To Climate Change. Study Says Climate Change Shrinks Animals. Opening and closing music courtesy Brother Love from the Album Of The Year CD. You can find his great music at www.brotherloverocks.com.
