1
00:00:00,240 --> 00:00:05,200
Speaker 1: Australia's top aerobatic pilot, Paul Bennett, is set to make

2
00:00:05,280 --> 00:00:09,800
Speaker 1: his Northern Territory debut this weekend at the Darwin Supercarts. Now.

3
00:00:09,920 --> 00:00:15,239
Speaker 1: He is set to perform gravity defying formation loops and

4
00:00:15,440 --> 00:00:19,599
Speaker 1: stunts in this unique well it's a unique aircraft and

5
00:00:19,640 --> 00:00:22,640
Speaker 1: it's capable of reaching speeds of up to four hundred

6
00:00:22,680 --> 00:00:26,079
Speaker 1: and fourteen k's an hour. He joins me in the

7
00:00:26,120 --> 00:00:30,560
Speaker 1: studio right now, Paul, good morning, Good morning mate. This

8
00:00:30,640 --> 00:00:34,560
Speaker 1: sounds wild. That's good fun, that's for sure, I said

9
00:00:34,560 --> 00:00:35,800
Speaker 1: to you off air. I don't know if I'll get

10
00:00:35,840 --> 00:00:37,440
Speaker 1: in trouble for saying it, but it sounds like some

11
00:00:37,479 --> 00:00:38,560
Speaker 1: crazy shit that you do it.

12
00:00:38,680 --> 00:00:40,400
Speaker 2: That's a pretty good description, I reckon.

13
00:00:41,479 --> 00:00:44,720
Speaker 1: Mate, tell me, like to anybody listening this morning, that's like,

14
00:00:45,240 --> 00:00:48,240
Speaker 1: what exactly is this? Paint a bit of a picture

15
00:00:48,240 --> 00:00:48,519
Speaker 1: for me.

16
00:00:49,800 --> 00:00:51,880
Speaker 3: I guess in a lot of ways, it's making aeroplanes

17
00:00:51,920 --> 00:00:54,840
Speaker 3: do things that you think are completely impossible and could

18
00:00:54,880 --> 00:00:57,120
Speaker 3: never be done. Yep, And that's the trick of it,

19
00:00:57,240 --> 00:00:58,880
Speaker 3: but making it safe at the same time.

20
00:00:59,760 --> 00:01:02,720
Speaker 1: I mean, like, how do you get to the point

21
00:01:03,000 --> 00:01:06,760
Speaker 1: as somebody who can fly flying aircraft when and how

22
00:01:06,800 --> 00:01:08,160
Speaker 1: do you reach a point where you're like, do you

23
00:01:08,200 --> 00:01:10,639
Speaker 1: know what, I reckon? I can make this plane flip,

24
00:01:10,680 --> 00:01:12,280
Speaker 1: I reckon, I can make it do all sorts of

25
00:01:12,319 --> 00:01:13,120
Speaker 1: crazy stuff.

26
00:01:13,440 --> 00:01:14,920
Speaker 3: Well, it's not in your first couple of hours. I

27
00:01:14,959 --> 00:01:17,840
Speaker 3: can assure you that maybe once you get to five

28
00:01:17,920 --> 00:01:19,640
Speaker 3: or six thousand hours and you go up high and

29
00:01:19,680 --> 00:01:21,880
Speaker 3: you start trying to figure some stuff out, which I've

30
00:01:21,920 --> 00:01:25,080
Speaker 3: done for a long time. I guess, yeah, that's what's about,

31
00:01:25,080 --> 00:01:26,880
Speaker 3: trying to make airplanes doing possible things.

32
00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:28,800
Speaker 1: Were you a crazy kid? Were you a kid that

33
00:01:28,800 --> 00:01:30,880
Speaker 1: your mum worried about, you know, the different things you

34
00:01:30,920 --> 00:01:33,000
Speaker 1: might get up to on your mountain bike, or or.

35
00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:35,400
Speaker 3: As crazy as I thought as I thought I was,

36
00:01:35,440 --> 00:01:37,080
Speaker 3: but like I did, used to jump off the roof

37
00:01:37,080 --> 00:01:42,839
Speaker 3: of the umbrella.

38
00:01:40,480 --> 00:01:42,920
Speaker 1: Because no joke. As the mom of a teenage boy,

39
00:01:42,959 --> 00:01:45,680
Speaker 1: I'm listening, you know, I'm hearing more about what you do.

40
00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:50,360
Speaker 1: I'm thinking, wow, you know, boys and girls, But certainly

41
00:01:50,640 --> 00:01:52,240
Speaker 1: it sounds it sounds crazy.

42
00:01:52,360 --> 00:01:53,880
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a bit crazy and a bit mad. And

43
00:01:53,920 --> 00:01:55,840
Speaker 3: now I've got a twenty year old that's following my

44
00:01:55,840 --> 00:01:58,200
Speaker 3: footsteps trying to do the same thing. So that's more

45
00:01:58,240 --> 00:02:00,000
Speaker 3: scary than me do when it could be honest.

46
00:02:00,080 --> 00:02:03,600
Speaker 1: It is, isn't it when your kids do do different stuff? Now,

47
00:02:03,640 --> 00:02:06,800
Speaker 1: tell me about your aircraft and what sort of makes

48
00:02:06,800 --> 00:02:07,360
Speaker 1: it unique.

49
00:02:08,240 --> 00:02:10,680
Speaker 3: That's four hundred doll spower six cylinder engine, which is

50
00:02:10,680 --> 00:02:13,200
Speaker 3: probably the sort of the highest performance engine you can

51
00:02:13,240 --> 00:02:16,120
Speaker 3: get in this topic category of aeroplane. But it's a biplane,

52
00:02:16,560 --> 00:02:19,400
Speaker 3: which you know, possibly nowadays you might say is a

53
00:02:19,440 --> 00:02:22,080
Speaker 3: little bit unusual, but just a lot more agile than monoplanes.

54
00:02:22,120 --> 00:02:24,240
Speaker 3: It's lighter, it's overall weight s lighter, so I can

55
00:02:24,240 --> 00:02:26,880
Speaker 3: hang on the prop for longer, and it just it's

56
00:02:26,919 --> 00:02:29,320
Speaker 3: short so it can go end over and just does

57
00:02:29,360 --> 00:02:30,320
Speaker 3: the coolest tricks ever.

58
00:02:31,040 --> 00:02:34,600
Speaker 1: So, like, how did you travel or how have you

59
00:02:34,760 --> 00:02:37,200
Speaker 1: trained to get to a point where you can do

60
00:02:37,240 --> 00:02:39,400
Speaker 1: this kind of thing? Because I would imagine it's not

61
00:02:39,480 --> 00:02:42,160
Speaker 1: just sort of you know, the training in terms of

62
00:02:42,200 --> 00:02:44,160
Speaker 1: like getting your hours up as you know, as you

63
00:02:44,320 --> 00:02:47,880
Speaker 1: touched on and becoming competent pilot to begin with, but

64
00:02:47,960 --> 00:02:50,799
Speaker 1: even physically, like it must be quite a physical strain

65
00:02:50,880 --> 00:02:52,960
Speaker 1: on your body, is it in terms of you know,

66
00:02:53,120 --> 00:02:55,120
Speaker 1: making an aircraft twist and turn in the way that

67
00:02:55,200 --> 00:02:55,519
Speaker 1: you do.

68
00:02:56,080 --> 00:02:57,920
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, when you do like plus ten or eleven

69
00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:01,519
Speaker 3: g's and minus eight or nine got to You've got

70
00:03:01,520 --> 00:03:03,120
Speaker 3: to have your G talents up, so you've got to

71
00:03:03,160 --> 00:03:05,200
Speaker 3: practice almost every day to be able to do it.

72
00:03:05,240 --> 00:03:07,560
Speaker 3: So if you have a week off, you'll find it.

73
00:03:07,600 --> 00:03:09,880
Speaker 3: Then you'll start getting towards graying out, like you won't

74
00:03:09,919 --> 00:03:12,000
Speaker 3: be able to fly the full sequence. So you sort

75
00:03:12,000 --> 00:03:13,560
Speaker 3: of got to practice every day, like I'm going to.

76
00:03:13,840 --> 00:03:15,880
Speaker 3: I've been flying up here for the last two days,

77
00:03:15,880 --> 00:03:17,520
Speaker 3: so now I'm going to go and practice this afternoon

78
00:03:17,560 --> 00:03:19,079
Speaker 3: to keep me G talents up.

79
00:03:19,560 --> 00:03:22,240
Speaker 1: But it is a lot of fun, mate, just graying

80
00:03:22,280 --> 00:03:23,600
Speaker 1: out mean passing out.

81
00:03:24,200 --> 00:03:25,320
Speaker 2: Yeah, you lose your vision a bit.

82
00:03:25,400 --> 00:03:28,120
Speaker 3: So it's like the curtains come down and then you

83
00:03:28,160 --> 00:03:30,320
Speaker 3: can you can release their back pressure on the stick

84
00:03:30,320 --> 00:03:31,480
Speaker 3: and the curtains go back up again.

85
00:03:31,520 --> 00:03:32,280
Speaker 2: That's how it works.

86
00:03:32,880 --> 00:03:35,880
Speaker 1: My mind is blowing like I can't even I can't

87
00:03:35,920 --> 00:03:37,840
Speaker 1: even begin to imagine it. I'm someone who gets a

88
00:03:37,880 --> 00:03:40,200
Speaker 1: bit carsick, you know, if I go around too many turns,

89
00:03:40,240 --> 00:03:43,280
Speaker 1: So I don't think i'd even be slightly capable of

90
00:03:43,960 --> 00:03:45,120
Speaker 1: doing something like this.

91
00:03:45,360 --> 00:03:46,760
Speaker 2: You may not want to come for a ride.

92
00:03:47,400 --> 00:03:50,200
Speaker 1: I don't reckon I'd be able to tell me about

93
00:03:50,280 --> 00:03:52,520
Speaker 1: some of the you know, the different things that people

94
00:03:52,560 --> 00:03:55,560
Speaker 1: are going to be able to see you do at

95
00:03:55,640 --> 00:03:56,960
Speaker 1: Hitton Valley this weekend.

96
00:03:57,440 --> 00:03:59,240
Speaker 3: Well, you see our planes go forward, but you don't

97
00:03:59,240 --> 00:04:01,520
Speaker 3: always seem go backwards. So I'm going to go straight

98
00:04:01,560 --> 00:04:03,200
Speaker 3: up in the sky, rolling to the left, and then

99
00:04:03,240 --> 00:04:06,160
Speaker 3: I'm going to reverse back down back through exactly where

100
00:04:06,200 --> 00:04:10,000
Speaker 3: I just came from, come back a thousand feet, going

101
00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:11,640
Speaker 3: to do some forward flips. So there are plane's going

102
00:04:11,640 --> 00:04:14,160
Speaker 3: to go end over in front ways. I'm going to

103
00:04:14,200 --> 00:04:16,839
Speaker 3: double hammerhead so it's going to go end over in sideways.

104
00:04:17,800 --> 00:04:20,440
Speaker 3: It's pretty cool if you haven't so, I mean, obviously

105
00:04:20,480 --> 00:04:22,520
Speaker 3: I haven't been a Darling before. There's not many people

106
00:04:22,560 --> 00:04:24,680
Speaker 3: around that can do some of these tricks, so it

107
00:04:24,720 --> 00:04:28,000
Speaker 3: should be a pretty cool thing for Darling people to see.

108
00:04:28,160 --> 00:04:32,960
Speaker 1: How cool cool I mean, you are Australia's top aerobatic pilot.

109
00:04:33,720 --> 00:04:35,839
Speaker 1: You know what's it like sort of getting to the

110
00:04:35,880 --> 00:04:39,200
Speaker 1: point of your craft where that is what you consider it.

111
00:04:40,120 --> 00:04:42,960
Speaker 3: Well, there's always room for improvement, you know, you can

112
00:04:43,000 --> 00:04:46,320
Speaker 3: always do better and so and there's always new maneuvers

113
00:04:46,360 --> 00:04:48,799
Speaker 3: that we haven't really figured out yet. I'm always working

114
00:04:48,839 --> 00:04:52,960
Speaker 3: on some new minervers. But you can't necessarily put them

115
00:04:52,960 --> 00:04:56,320
Speaker 3: into a display sequence until you've you can repeat them

116
00:04:56,360 --> 00:04:58,599
Speaker 3: over and over and over again, because when you start,

117
00:04:58,640 --> 00:05:01,560
Speaker 3: you practice up higher, and when you obviously it's down

118
00:05:01,600 --> 00:05:03,039
Speaker 3: a lot lower to the ground, so you can't have

119
00:05:03,080 --> 00:05:04,680
Speaker 3: anything going wrong or have any mistakes.

120
00:05:05,960 --> 00:05:09,360
Speaker 1: Wow, were like, weed? Do you practice at home?

121
00:05:10,240 --> 00:05:12,240
Speaker 3: I live in Newcaston. I've got a private air field

122
00:05:12,279 --> 00:05:14,640
Speaker 3: five miles to the west, so I practice there almost

123
00:05:14,640 --> 00:05:15,320
Speaker 3: every day.

124
00:05:15,760 --> 00:05:18,760
Speaker 1: How cool. And your son is keen to get into

125
00:05:18,760 --> 00:05:19,240
Speaker 1: it as well.

126
00:05:19,480 --> 00:05:19,960
Speaker 2: He's into it.

127
00:05:19,960 --> 00:05:22,280
Speaker 3: He floes formation with us now in our formation team,

128
00:05:22,320 --> 00:05:26,880
Speaker 3: and he's doing solo. He's one several advanced competitions. So yeah,

129
00:05:26,920 --> 00:05:28,120
Speaker 3: he's on the way up the ladder.

130
00:05:28,120 --> 00:05:30,960
Speaker 1: How cool. Where have you just been all over the

131
00:05:30,960 --> 00:05:32,000
Speaker 1: world doing this stuff?

132
00:05:32,560 --> 00:05:34,480
Speaker 2: Yeah? We do our shows all over the world. This

133
00:05:34,560 --> 00:05:35,000
Speaker 2: is well.

134
00:05:35,000 --> 00:05:36,720
Speaker 3: Now this ticks off all the boxes for Australia. I

135
00:05:36,760 --> 00:05:39,520
Speaker 3: hadn't flown in NT before, so now I have. So

136
00:05:40,000 --> 00:05:43,120
Speaker 3: that's all of Australia as well as we do a

137
00:05:43,160 --> 00:05:46,240
Speaker 3: lot of shows in China, South Korea. As soon as

138
00:05:46,240 --> 00:05:48,440
Speaker 3: I get back, hopefully I'm going to get back on

139
00:05:48,520 --> 00:05:51,840
Speaker 3: Tuesday hour or Wednesday morning. This aerplane gets packed to

140
00:05:51,880 --> 00:05:54,159
Speaker 3: get air freighted to the US to go to Flight,

141
00:05:54,200 --> 00:05:55,800
Speaker 3: the biggest air show in the world at Oshkosh.

142
00:05:55,960 --> 00:05:57,960
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, so it's got to go across as well.

143
00:05:58,000 --> 00:05:59,840
Speaker 1: That makes sense, you know that you've actually got to take.

144
00:05:59,720 --> 00:06:02,480
Speaker 3: Your Yeah, I've got other airplanes that I'll send to

145
00:06:02,600 --> 00:06:05,279
Speaker 3: China and South Korea, but yeah, this one's my favorite

146
00:06:05,320 --> 00:06:07,800
Speaker 3: one that normally lives in Australia, but because it got

147
00:06:07,800 --> 00:06:10,040
Speaker 3: built in America, they want to see it back in America,

148
00:06:10,080 --> 00:06:10,680
Speaker 3: so I'll take it.

149
00:06:10,800 --> 00:06:14,000
Speaker 1: Yep. Now someone's message through asking what's the plane like

150
00:06:14,400 --> 00:06:16,120
Speaker 1: for those plane spotters out there.

151
00:06:16,720 --> 00:06:21,040
Speaker 3: It's yellow, bright colors, it's loud. It's quite small, biplane,

152
00:06:21,080 --> 00:06:25,960
Speaker 3: so wing on the top, wing on the bottom. Yeah,

153
00:06:25,960 --> 00:06:27,680
Speaker 3: I don't know how else to describe it. Cool s

154
00:06:27,720 --> 00:06:28,039
Speaker 3: I can thing.

155
00:06:28,120 --> 00:06:29,680
Speaker 2: Ever. Have a look at my website, you'll see a

156
00:06:29,680 --> 00:06:30,320
Speaker 2: picture of it.

157
00:06:30,480 --> 00:06:32,320
Speaker 1: And what kind of like what's you know, what are

158
00:06:32,320 --> 00:06:33,720
Speaker 1: the capabilities of that?

159
00:06:35,040 --> 00:06:38,760
Speaker 3: Well, it's more capable than what the human body can handle,

160
00:06:38,839 --> 00:06:42,240
Speaker 3: you know, like so we can handle say twelve g's.

161
00:06:42,400 --> 00:06:45,320
Speaker 3: I normally keep it at ten or eleven minus eight

162
00:06:45,600 --> 00:06:47,960
Speaker 3: or nine, which is a lot of crossover in the g's.

163
00:06:48,279 --> 00:06:52,360
Speaker 3: So it's very strong it's very agile. The surfaces move

164
00:06:52,400 --> 00:06:53,800
Speaker 3: a long way like it's got a lot of travel,

165
00:06:53,839 --> 00:06:57,440
Speaker 3: but it's very very touchy on the control So flying

166
00:06:57,440 --> 00:07:00,839
Speaker 3: a long way from Newcastle to here extremely touchy, so

167
00:07:00,880 --> 00:07:01,560
Speaker 3: you can't relax.

168
00:07:01,720 --> 00:07:04,360
Speaker 1: Yeah right, how many years have you been doing this

169
00:07:04,440 --> 00:07:05,040
Speaker 1: kind of stuff?

170
00:07:05,200 --> 00:07:05,680
Speaker 2: Twenty four?

171
00:07:05,920 --> 00:07:08,000
Speaker 1: How many times do you reckon? You've what was it?

172
00:07:08,080 --> 00:07:08,720
Speaker 1: Grade out?

173
00:07:09,440 --> 00:07:12,560
Speaker 3: I've never actually fully grayed out, but because I can

174
00:07:12,600 --> 00:07:14,640
Speaker 3: control it, yeah, I've come close to it.

175
00:07:14,840 --> 00:07:17,080
Speaker 1: Jeez. Look, this is what I mean like the you know,

176
00:07:17,160 --> 00:07:21,520
Speaker 1: it's actually kind of the physicality of it as well,

177
00:07:21,600 --> 00:07:23,760
Speaker 1: would be like it would be really tough.

178
00:07:25,120 --> 00:07:27,520
Speaker 3: It makes you tired, that's for sure. It would makes

179
00:07:27,520 --> 00:07:29,160
Speaker 3: you feel old after a day's fine.

180
00:07:30,680 --> 00:07:33,040
Speaker 1: Now tell me, do you know what time you're going

181
00:07:33,080 --> 00:07:34,800
Speaker 1: to be taking to this guy's over the weekend?

182
00:07:34,960 --> 00:07:37,080
Speaker 3: I think it's eleven twenty five and twenty five on

183
00:07:37,120 --> 00:07:39,280
Speaker 3: Saturday and two twenty five only on Sunday.

184
00:07:39,760 --> 00:07:41,480
Speaker 1: I reckon, There's going to be a lot of people

185
00:07:41,800 --> 00:07:44,880
Speaker 1: very very keen to see what you do. It's been

186
00:07:44,920 --> 00:07:47,720
Speaker 1: awesome speaking to you this morning. I'm truly fascinated by it.

187
00:07:47,760 --> 00:07:49,400
Speaker 1: As soon as you leave the studio, I'm going to

188
00:07:49,400 --> 00:07:51,520
Speaker 1: be googling and trying to have a look at exactly

189
00:07:51,520 --> 00:07:54,480
Speaker 1: what it looks like. Thank you so much for joining

190
00:07:54,560 --> 00:07:57,520
Speaker 1: us in the studio this morning. Paul Bennett, Australia's top

191
00:07:57,840 --> 00:08:00,920
Speaker 1: aerobatic pilot. Thank you, thank for me, Thank you