Summary: Guest Matt Desch is the CEO of Iridium Communications, the world’s largest satellite system with almost 650,000 customers around the globe. Matt is a commercial/instrument/multi rated pilot and owns a Cessna T210. He also volunteers as a member of the Board of Trustees for AOPA, and flies for Angel Flight as well. The $3 Billion Iridium NEXT program is set to launch 81 new satellites in a low-earth orbit constellation that will include ADS-B receivers to support the NextGen navigation system. These satellites will relay aircraft signals into the air traffic controllers in real-time to enable world-wide navigation. This will allow, for example, vastly reduced aircraft separation over the Atlantic, yielding and more efficient flights. The service will be provided through Aireon, a joint venture between Iridium and Nav Canada. Find Iridium on Twitter as @IridiumComm and on Facebook. Matt tweets as @IridiumBoss. The week’s aviation news: NJ Man Faces Fine for Disrupting Airport Satellite Stricter FAA Pilot Training Rules Won’t Improve Safety Navy’s Big Surprise: Carrier Drone to Make a Comeback David Vanderhoof’s Aircraft of the Week: the Air Tractor AT-502. Grant and Steve In this week’s Australia Desk: It’s Edition 200 of the Australia Desk! First Boeing 787 in Jetstar livery rolls out of the Everett paint shop. Worldwide Saber Reservation System crash takes Virgin Australia down with it. A Virgin B737 collides with a Jetstar A320 during pushback at Melbourne Airport – up to $2million damage. The New Zealand Government has issued a travel warning concerning flights taken in Tonga on board the Chinese produced MA60 turboprop aircraft, citing safety concerns. Ryan Campbell continues his Teen World Flight, leaving the USA & Canada and touching down in Reykjavic, Iceland. He’s heading to the UK and Europe from there. Track his aircraft – VH-OLS. AOPA Australia are holding a Safety Seminar in Perth on August 31st & September 1st at the Royal Aero Club of Western Australia, at Jandakot Airport. Highly recommended for local pilots. Here’s to the next 200 Aus Desks! 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. In this week’s Across the Pond segment: This week we continue our discussion with Oussama Salah on the Middle East and North Africa. We conclude the discussion on cargo and how a new airport should be built to fully integrate into the whole road, rail and sea transportation system. We also discuss the ‘evolutionary’ low cost versus full fair process with the news that FlyDubai is bringing Business Class into its existing low cost fleet. www.linkedin.com/in/oussamasalah www.oussamastake.blogspot.com Find Pieter on Twitter as @Nascothornet, on Facebook at XTPMedia, and at the Aviation Xtended podcast. DC-10 Water Tanker drop by Stephen Tornblom Mentioned: Spidertracks Heavens-Above (Real-time satellite, ISS, and Space Shuttle orbital pass information, maps, and star charts. Find Iridium Flares.) Paul Filmer P-8 Poseidon fires first Harpoon anti-ship missile People Angrily Tweet At United Airlines Parody Account Thinking It’s Real, Parody Account Hilariously Responds Why You Can’t Use Phones on a Plane (must watch video) Opening and closing music courtesy Brother Love from the Album Of The Year CD. You can find his great music at www.brotherloverocks.com.
