Helicopters with RotorRich

Richard Cooke is a qualified helicopter pilot and I wanted to find out a little bit more about this art form of flying that baffles many (left hand right hand cyclic.......)

Richard has held a JAR PPL(H) since 2010 on the R22 and R44 and has also flown amonsgt other types the the S300 and B206. In fact he flew as part of a 13 pilt team with four helicopters from Bournemouth in the UK to Bagnères-de-Luchon in the Pyrenees in France.


Passionate about helicopters all his life we can see where it came from as his father was a Qualified Helicopter Instructor on the Lynx for the Army Air Corps. Richard today flies mainly around the east midlands in the UK and trained at Helicentre Aviation in Leicestershire.

Richard can be found on twitter @rotorrich

and Helicentre Aviation's twitter is @flyhelicentre Helicentre Aviations's website http://www.flyheli.co.uk

Mexico with Aeropodcast

Our 'adopted' Spanish Correspondent Diego Lopez-Salazar from Aeropodcast.com recently had to visit Mexico on business and a part of that visit was to review the Airline Industry in Mexico.

We asked Diego to split from our normal topic of Spanish aviation and tell us about the Mexican Airline industry, what he found and what he felt about the future for the sector.


 After some troubling connection problems Diego gave us a fabulous insight into the Mexican Airline sector and highlighted some interesting dynamics in the marketplace.

To find our more listen to this weeks Across The Pond segment on the Airplane Geeks podcast. http://www.airplanegeeks.com/2012/05/22/episode-198-kip-hawley-on-the-tsa/

Diego and all of his contact details can be found at www.aeropodcast.com

Bill Jones an American in Holland

Last summer The Airplane Geeks were contacted by Bill Jones a pilot from Kansas city Missouri. Bill travels to Europe every year and likes to take an adventurous flight on this vacation. 

This time he wanted to fly across the north sea from Holland to the UK and wanted to know if we could assist in finding a flight instructor and school. 


Well, Jelle Hieminga who guest featured on our VC Tenderness episode and then again on GA in Holland in Episode 169 stepped in to help. 

This week on Across The Pond we find out what it was like for Bill, flying in European airspace. He certainly knew how expensive it was going to be in com parison to flying back home, but what else did he find different.

 Listen in and find out.

Bill Jones with Beth and Rain Pratt

Talking Airlines with Tim Gresty

Sometimes you get to talk to someone who is a 'heavy hitter' in the industry and for the next two segments of Across The Pond, we get to talk airlines with Tim Gresty, Managing Director of Cognitio, a marketing business will bundles of experience in the airline sector.

Tim moves and shakes with the best from airline executives to politicians and everything in between, so knows a thing or two about running an airline.

Having worked in almost every continent and across many airlines we ask Tim what he thinks of the state of regional airlines in the UK and what low cost model will eventually beat the full service airlines.

Having worked across many other business sectors including travel and tourism, FMCG and the finance sector Tim is perfectly placed to comment of what it takes to run a successful airline business. Many fail because they run an airline and not a business and others trip up trying to run the business and not understanding the airline sector. Tim brings a refreshing set of views that bring clarity to an often confused and misinterpreted sector of the aviation business.

The first segment is our interview with Tim and having finished this we left the recorder running (with his permission of course) and just chatted about several other topics in the industry.

http://www.airplanegeeks.com/2012/05/01/episode-195-kelly-murphy-2/

You can find Tim at www.cognitio.co.uk

India with AeroBlogger - Bravo

This week on the segment for the Airplane Geeks podcast, we return to Hyderabad to talk to AeroBlogger Rohit Rao.

We go back over the past month to look at the latest Kingfisher progress and against all the odds they are still in business and have a plan to move forwards. 

This time though we also have a look at Jet Airways who have also been in the news for all the wrong reasons.

On a positive front India still has capacity to bring in new operators and we look at Volk Airlines, ABC Aviation, Air Costa, and Karina Airways.

But its Air India that really is interesting for aviation interest. Will they continue to survive with another cash injection from the Indian Government and why does Rohit rate them above many other airlines for service? 

Find out by listening to the Airplane Geeks podcast.

http://www.airplanegeeks.com/2012/04/24/episode-194-the-aeroscholar/

Rohit can be found @TheAeroBlogger on Twitter and http://www.aeroblogger.com/

Benelux Alpha with Aviation Platform

On Across The Pond this week we talk to Frenchez Pietersz from aviationplatform.com. about airline news from the Benelux countries of Europe, that's Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg. The programme can be found at: http://www.airplanegeeks.com/2012/04/17/episode-193-just-the-geeks/

Permission for using this photograph has been obtained from the photographer Eduard Brantjes

With so much to cover we focused on Belgium and Holland and how the KLM Air France merger is developing and what Lufthansa is doing to challenge them.

Aviation Platform is a great website for sharing aviation knowledge within the sector.  
The aim is to get those in aviation to contribute and participate on topics like technological developments, current aviation issue’s or write an IDEA to inspire others. (An IDEA is an abbreviation for Innovation, Design, and Engineering in Aviation). 

Frenchez is working with a supporting team of eight people, to keep the site running. They are planning a number of online conference / brainstorming sessions on specific aviation issues, via different social media, which will be called the Aviation Think Tank Friday (ATTF). So watch out for these!

Check them out, its an interesting concept and site. But dont forget to listen in to what Frenchez has to say in our first Benelux review. 

You can find them:
Web www.aviationplatform.com

Twitter www.twitter.com/AviPlatform
Facebook www.facebook.com/pages/Aviation-Platform/207288782635407

Linkedin www.linkedin.com/groups/Aviation-Platform-82780?gid=82780&trk=hb_side_g

Student Pilot Bravo

This week on Across The Pond we get to talk to Neil Bradon again. An avid Airplane Geeks follower Neil is also our adopted student pilot. We are watching his progress through from his pre solo days last year in Ireland to his new found wings over Arizona.

 When we last talked to Neil in Episode 168 he had solo'd and was facing a new life in the USA. We find out this week how the transition went and what the differences are between flying in the UK and Ireland and the blue skies around Phoenix. Listen in and follow Neil's progress.

Neil can be found at www.getmyppl.blogspot.co.uk and lives his life on Twitter as @Pilot_ngb

You can find the episode http://www.airplanegeeks.com/2012/04/03/episode-192-mike-flies-seaplanes/