Didn’t the Vanuatu cabinet hold a meeting years ago underwater in scuba gear to highlight the threat of rising oceans overtopping the islands. They demanded that the UN provide funding to evacuate the threatened islands. That why I was surprised that they were spending millions to upgrade the airpor...
Jump to postAn article in today’s Wall Street Journal discusses how the Dubai real estate market is suffering from declining sales and serious overbuilding. Valuations of many properties have declined around 25% since 2016 and the Dubai government is being pressured to “Do Something.” What that “Something” migh...
Jump to postMy wife and I are regular Viking River and Ocean cruisers. And when we go to Europe or wherever to meet the ship we spring for business class. Viking has enough pricing power to offer very good airfare deals so we can fly business for less than premium economy. We were originally attracted to Viking...
Jump to postAir Evac and VIP modules. I’m sure the orders will come rushing in now.
Jump to postMy wife and I are Americans and recently crossed the Atlantic on Viking Sea from Bergen, Norway to Montreal. We were following in the “Wake of the Vikings” so the ship visited Viking related places along the way. We visited Shetland, Faroe, Iceland, Greenland and Newfoundland. Finished up in Saguena...
Jump to postIt could also be caused by unknowingly using substandard bearings with fraudulent documentation. That is an all too frequent problem in military aviation today when so many projects are sourced from multiple vendors worldwide. These sub performing components are extremely difficult to detect since i...
Jump to postI don’t think we can characterize it as the “best plane ever” unless someone steps up to buy some more. Airbus needs to stop hemorrhaging money on certifying additional capabilities that only cost them additional money to retrofit to earlier frames. For which they can’t even charge the original cust...
Jump to postReminds me of a WW2 submarine movie where after the boat has survived a severe depth charging a grizzled chief laconically says, “Send a telegram to Bath Ironworks, Thanks.” I don’t think aircraft are customarily tested on flying through brick walls.
Jump to postWith these positive developments in additional capabilities being added has there been any renewed procurement interest?
Jump to postWhen do we anticipate the first revenue flight by HiFly? Sitting around waiting for months costs a lot of money and they have already missed the northern hemisphere summer.
Jump to postOld Danny Boy, sorry but while I occasionally post opinion I never post crap regarding verifiable facts. Your attention is invited to the August 21st, 1980 article in the Washington post titled “Saudi Plane Deaths Total 301.” It was a Lockheed L1011 Tri-Star from Karachi to Riyadh and then to go to ...
Jump to postRemember the Saudi Aircraft landing on fire in Jeddah after a 7th century Yemeni pilgrim was brewing up his tea with a pressure stove in his seat. In those days (late 70's/early 80's) the pilgrims were locked in the cabin without any flight attendants and the flight deck door was welded shut. The fl...
Jump to postAs a former special ops mission planner I commented on this thread years ago that the A400M just didn’t have the mission flexibility needed to support many of the missions we carried out. Subsequent events have borne that out. It is a good aircraft for moving slightly larger loads than a C-130 but I...
Jump to postVery few foreign countries, much less individual foreign cities, have historically had their own widely recognized unique Chinese names. Most countries have to make do with something using Chinese characters that vaguely sound like what the country name sounds like to Chinese ears. There are only 43...
Jump to postWhen we lived in the UK my family and I went to Tenerife for a vacation because it was better weather and much cheaper to go there than take four persons to Brighton or someplace nearby. The staff at the hotel were astonished to find that we were Americans and said "they had never had Americans...
Jump to postAs a young American Army warrant officer flying nap of earth in the near vicinity of the DMZ in Korea in the 1970’s we took cables across valleys and draws very seriously indeed. We were resupplying installations near, or even in, the Administrative Nofly Zone. You had to be really careful as US and...
Jump to postInteresting article in today’s Wall Street Journal about problems with the new German F-125 frigate. Over cost, too complex, software not reliable, failed sea trials, etc. The Journal opined the basic problem was insufficient project management experience with large scale military projects. The mone...
Jump to postI was posted to the American Embassy in Mogadishu 1979-81 and was always amazed the GSG9 team were able to pull it off with so little loss of life. The single runway was both very short and unlighted so getting their aircraft down without alerting the terrorists was a real challenge. In the aftermat...
Jump to postReally enjoyed the comments on this thread. My thanks to the contributors. We live 8 miles from CHO and have been very pleased with the way it has grown since we moved here in 2009. Back then there few flights and it seemed fairly expensive. As a long time United Mileage Plus member we would drive t...
Jump to postAny A400M's involved in Caribbean hurricane relief? Seems like it would be a good mission for them.
Jump to postMy wife and I added to the January numbers. Had a great visit but were weathered out from seeing any Northern Lights. Airport definitely is under pressure from all the travelers but they are still handling it fairly well.
Jump to postGrowing up an Air Force brat I remember the USAF of the '50s when it was fairly common for pilots to legally check out a T-33 for the weekend. All counts for cross-country flying time and there was room in the aircraft for golf clubs and an overnight bag. But I also saw the 4-Star commander of Tacti...
Jump to postGrowing up an Air Force brat I remember the USAF of the '50s when it was fairly common for pilots to legally check out a T-33 for the weekend. All counts for cross-country flying time and there was room in the aircraft for golf clubs and an overnight bag. But I also saw the 4-Star commander of Tacti...
Jump to postLike several other posters caught up in the Great Delta Debacle I received the semi-sorta-apology from Ed Bastian yesterday. I also was promised the 20,000 miles gesture even though I hardly ever have flown Delta. Delta also sent me six separate emails to my personal email address offering six, non-...
Jump to postNow through a fortuitous six available seats today on American MCO-DLT-CHO my family and I have arrived home having safely escaped the clutches of the Delta Deathstar. My last interaction with Delta was to cancel their pathetic proposed rebooking for us Monday MCO-ATL-RIC, they couldn't actually get...
Jump to postThanks to USFlyer Msp's suggestion about American having some seats to CHO my family and I are at the American gate 53 at MCO waiting for the 0520 Charlotte flight on the way to a connection for Charlottesville. I realize all airlines have their bad days but we feel quite letdown by Delta's fumbled ...
Jump to postDiary of a refugee family from the Great 2017 Delta Debacle. BLOT: Delta: No planes, no crew, no bags, no hope. On Friday, 7 April our family ended a really great vacation at Walt Disney World, turned in our luggage at the resort airline desk and boarded the Mickey Magical Express bus for Orlando Ai...
Jump to postIn the 1980's when I was posted in China the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) were the sole non-military operator in the country. Their pilots were all PLAAF officers and their aircraft were elderly and sketchily maintained Soviet aircraft. Flights were very infrequent at even major reg...
Jump to postIn the 1980's when I served in China it was fairly common on Chinese domestic flights for passengers to be given a folding chair to take on board in order to sit in the aisle. (The flight attendants told you to hang onto the seats on both sides of your.) That was when the Civil Aviation Administrati...
Jump to postWihat effect, if any, do you think the current economic conditions roiling the capital markets around the world will have on airliner sales? As of Thursday morning the worldwide paper losses in China alone are around two trillion dollars and in other countries another six or seven trillion. I imagin...
Jump to post<table border="0" align="CENTER" width="95%" class="quote"><tr><td><font size="2" face="ARIAL, Helvetica, Geneva" color="#9A9DA0">Quoting <a href="/profile/mrg" class="quote" target="_blank">mrg</a> (<a href="#135" class="quote">Reply 135</a>):<br/><i> Quoting GRIVely (Reply 132): Oh, you don't have...
Jump to postMy family and I were posted to Mogadishu 1979-1981 and had occasion to fly Somali Air a number of times. We always got there more or less on time and in reasonable order. Big problem coming in from Rome was that due to foreign exchange shortages they could never afford to take on a full catering loa...
Jump to postAs a former Army officer who once planned tactical airdrops into contested drop zones I don't envy my modern counterparts in the European military trying to replicate our planning objectives. To insure the majority of our packages, equipment and/or paratroopers, arrived at least somewhat safely, we ...
Jump to postTricky stuff software. One of the biggest challenges in aerospace software, well, all software really, is the difficulty of understanding how the various modules interact with sensors and other modules in a bewildering variety of possible states. With your "desired operation" flow chart in hand you ...
Jump to postI appreciate that certain Airbus apologists on here are trying to differentiate between errors caused by Airbus and those attributed to subcontractors. However, if BMW killed a passenger because of an obscure subcontractor-supplied airbag over pressure problem it is still BMW's fault. If the logo sa...
Jump to postIn my business, aerospace, if you have a payload failure, much less a launch failure, you carry out a top to bottom and very thorough review of everything. Procedures are reviewed, documentation checked, subcontractor <acronym title="Aerocaribe (Mexico)">QA</acronym> records examined, software perfo...
Jump to postHas the temporary flight suspension by A400 operators been lifted yet? Any additional flights after the "Confidence" flight?
If not yet lifted any hints when the plane will resume normal flight ops?
As an early speculator on a software problem being the main cause of the accident I have been watching the subsequent discussions with interest. Software problems are extremely difficult to identify, very expensive to fix and almost impossible to guarantee that particular problem will not recur beca...
Jump to postMy father was in the Air Force in the 1950's up until the '60s. We generally lived on <acronym title="Air France">AF</acronym> bases and my friends and I were all plane crazy. In the 50's our fathers flew F-84s, F-86s, F-94's and then F-100s. A month never went by without the loss of at least one je...
Jump to postWow, if they are serious about flying again Tuesday or Wednesday I hope they truly know what happened and are convinced it won't happen again on the next flight. Is EASA going to grant them a type 21 (<acronym title="Porto Alegre - Salgado Filho (POA / SBPA), Brazil AND Posadas - Aeroclub (POA), Arg...
Jump to postThree engines failed on takeoff! Has that ever happened previously to any other aircraft in the history of aviation? And the French want to resume test flights tomorrow? About the only way I could understand them being willing to do that so quickly would be if they had an ironclad reason for such an...
Jump to postThe crew member said there were multiple engine failures on takeoff. What could have caused that? Bird ingestion? Contaminated fuel? Software problems? Wrong grade oil? Crew error? Bad fuel pumps? Electrical problem? Some other problem? Seems important to find the cause even if it is an inconvenient...
Jump to postSeveral news sources are reporting both black boxes have been found and turned over to an investigating judge.
Has anyone heard what kind of "mechanical problem" the crew reported?
Thanks for the suggestions and advice. I will monitor my online credit card to see when the credit is reapplied. Fortunately, I had the resources to be able to book new tickets as the flights <acronym title="Washington - Dulles International (IAD / KIAD), USA - Virginia">IAD</acronym>-<acronym title...
Jump to postMy family is planning a trip to Walt Disney World in a few months and had booked six seats <acronym title="Washington - Dulles International (IAD / KIAD), USA - Virginia">IAD</acronym>-<acronym title="Orlando - International (McCoy) (MCO / KMCO), USA - Florida">MCO</acronym> on Frontier. This mornin...
Jump to postThis only makes economic sense for a passenger when the ticket costs are nonsensical. For instance, it is often cheaper to book a flight WAS to Orlando that transits Atlanta than it is to fly WAS - Atlanta. Why wouldn't a passenger get off at the intermediate Atlanta stop if they didn't have checked...
Jump to postI want to thank everyone posting on here for their keeping us so well informed as to what was going on while it was underway. Your information was far superior to anything from the so-called news services. As more information comes out I am sure we will hear the officials of the countries involved s...
Jump to postIn 1955 my father was in the Air Force and stationed at Sandia Labs. Our family lived on Kirtland AFB and the B-36s frequently took off right over our houses. You didn't confuse the noise of a B-36 overhead at 500 feet for any other airplane. That's for sure. As an Air Force brat I was always a plan...
Jump to postRampart,
Thanks for the Avanti confirmation. I had forgotten about the similarity to a Starship. Especially from the port side low angle I saw.
Cheers,
GRIV