Watch this short clip with Andy Rooney from 60 Minutes on why we shouldn’t travel. I agree with pretty much everything he says but my excitement came from the fact that it gives more credence to the importance of general aviation and the push to avoid commercial airlines.
Let’s face it - airlines must change the way they do business to attract new customers and make the old ones happy again. They’ve lost a lot of brownie points with continuous delays, canceled flights, pricey and less affordable tickets, angry customers, and disgruntled employees. It’s a very complex issue but changes must happen or people will just get angrier and less likely to travel. A campaign “not to go anywhere” is not the answer, airlines changing their business models is. For more on the subject read the ideas IBM has for the growing problems airlines face.
Last week I had the amazing opportunity the sit in a Gulfstream GV cockpit at Peatchtree Dekalb Airport. It was my future father in law’s last flight as a corporate pilot after 38 years with the company and he invited me down to look around. Needless to say I gladly obliged.
The aircraft was striking. Not a single speck of dirt, looked like somebody buffed it with a diaper. Nice, shiny and much larger than expected. The G-V first rolled out in 1998 and was at the time the longest range business jet of over 6,500 nautical miles. For a mere $42 million and about $100,000 plus in monthly operating expenses you can have one. I’m saving up every month. Here’s a video of one taking off.
Read Orville and Wilbur Wright’s Flying Machine patent application submitted one hundred five years ago on March 23, 1903. The patent for the flying machine was officially approved on May 22, 1906. I’m no expert on aviation physics by any means but its amazing to me how much of a grasp these fellas had on the subject over a century ago.
On a related note, Athens EAA 780 is doing some major research on the flying inventions of Ben Epps. We found something quite exciting to say the least so stay tuned for updates.
For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been working on a project for the aviation blogger community called Wingaroo. Its a new search engine specifically created to search aviation blogs. Here is the introduction I wrote on the ‘about’ page:
Wingaroo was created in 2008 for the aviation community. Wingaroo provides the opportunity to discover hidden jewels of information from high quality, hand picked aviation blogs. We understand that thousands of people from around the globe dedicate countless hours with their personal blogs writing about their experiences and interests. Aviation bloggers provide a much more personal experience and touch for their readers than their commercial counterparts and its about time to give them some credit.
Wingaroo is a custom built search engine specifically created to search aviation blogs. Its powered by Google’s Custom Search Engine program. Sites are added to the list daily so you can always have a rich search experience.Updates and developments to our site will always be documented on Wingaroo’s blog to keep you informed.
I hope everyone gets some good use out it. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to improve your search experience. Once again…welcome to Wingaroo.
I highly recommend taking ten minutes to watch this slide show from aviation and motorsports photographer Tim Adams. It gave me goosebumps. Most of the slide show is of classic warbirds. The other half is of the American LeMans Racing Series shot at Road America. I figure if you like classic airplanes you like race cars…right? If you haven’t seen an ALMS race you’re totally missing out. The season starts next weekend at the famous 12 hours of Sebring. Here is the ALMS 2008 schedule. See if the series is coming to a racetrack near you! I know, I got off the subject of aviation a tad bit but I couldn’t help it.
The Digital Aviator posted a great story today of an SR-71 test pilot when one of his test flights went completely awry. I couldn’t even imagine getting in another plane yet alone another SR-71 after this experience. Can someone say big cahounas?
IBM has an insightful feature encouraging airlines to adopt new business models so that the aviation industry can survive in these tough times.
“Airlines and airports face escalating costs, revenue growth constraints and an increasingly dissatisfied customer base. By offering passengers a highly differentiated experience and simultaneously enhancing its operational efficiency, the aviation industry can position itself to become and remain profitable in a volatile business climate. To accomplish this, we believe the industry should adopt a new business model that combines distinctive customer services, a flexible infrastructure and greater collaboration, among partnering airlines and between airlines and airports.”
Topics discussed include: Self-service kiosks, improved baggage handling, better security (some of this stuff actually scares me like the RFID chips…yikes), and building more intelligent airports.
Here is a very cool aerobatic formation video of the P-51 Four Horseman. The background music is very cool and I’m amazed to see how graceful and precise the pilots are. Love the camera angles in the cockpits as well.
On my days off of work I always try to make it up to the airport (AHN) for a couple of hours to stare at the runways. Striking up random conversations and waiting for planes to land or taxi out for take off is a great way of forgetting the stresses of the day. It takes my mind off everything except aviation. Some days are are slow some days are busy. The beauty of just sitting on the bench right outside of the terminal is the unpredictability of
what’s coming next. It could be a business jet, a wardbird, a Cessna or a military trainer. You just never know. Once I get a handheld scanner I can listen for the next approaching craft but for now I like the uncertainty.
Yesterday, I was just about to leave the airport when I saw these two aircraft on the horizon. They were two T-34c Mentors (pic above) from the Navy. Whoa…have to see these things taxi up. Two minutes later they appeared right in front of the terminal. And to think I was just about to leave. After they arrived I wanted to stay for three more hours but I was hungry. Okay…I guess I have to eat.
Bruce Dickinson’s main profession is to rock out with his metal band Iron Maiden. Now, after flying a few years with his commercial pilot certificate for Astraeus, he is able to do two jobs at once. When he’s not banging his head on stage he flies his band, gear and entire road crew from venue to venue around the world on their new customized Boeing 757, flight number 666. Rock on!
