Some Aviation News

I enjoy flying.  I probably don't do it enough to truly detest all the crap that we put up with before getting on planes.

But, here are some pilots you might want to avoid...

Remember David Carroll, he was the singer who flew United, then they broke his guitar and he made a You Tube video out of his song about it?  Well, now United lost his luggage again. You'd think United would have some sort of special handling flag for him...

He still has his video...



Air France took delivery of their first A380.  Even in AF's classic colors, it looks ugly.

If you like videos of ugly planes....

Will Southwest Airlines Come to Atlanta?

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution quoted Bob Jordan, Southwest’s executive vice president of strategy and planning, as saying that "Atlanta, Reagan National Airport, and destinations in Mexico as places 'that are very interesting' that Frontier flies to and Southwest does not."

This on the heels of Southwest topping Republic Airlines' bid (in bankruptcy court) for Frontier Airlines. Aviation Week reports that Southwest would like to expand their operations in Denver.

For aviation industry watchers, there is the question of what will happen to Frontier's all Airbus fleet, as Southwest only flies 737's and achieves significant cost savings with their homogenous fleet.

While Southwest might want to add Atlanta to their route structure, they would have to compete with AirTran, another successful discounter who already has a massive Atlanta hub. Still, with only one gate at Atlanta, Southwest would not likely have a lot of flights here, and probably wouldn't make much of a dent, except to open up the entire Southwest route structure to Atlanta metro area residents, which is a good thing for us.

end...

Airlines to retire record number of aircraft

As an aviation buff, the AP writing about the impact of the financial crisis on retiring is somewhat bittersweet.

Go to airliners.net and search for some of these soon to be retired aircraft...


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US Air 1549

Being a bit of an aviation buff, I was amazed at the successful water landing this week of US Air's flight 1549, an Airbus A320, bound from Laguardia to Charlotte.

My first thought was that there had never been a successful water landing of a commercial airliner before, which was wrong, as this Wikipedia entry proves. Actually, I am surprised, and pleased, that there have been so many successful water landings.

Of course, that should not take away from the amazing airmanship of US Air's pilot, Chesley Sullenberger, an Air Force Academy grad, and former F-4 pilot, and, apparently, quite the accomplished pilot and safety expert. The passengers and crew of US Air 1549 could hardly have been in better hands. As the NTSB investigates, everyone fully expects they will determine a double bird strike took out both engines. Like water landings, you might be surprised how many bird strikes there are.

I don't believe this was a "miracle" as some people want to call it. Nearly all airline disasters require a sequence of unfortunate events to cause them. In this case, that sequence of unfortunate events was followed by a series of fortunate events - the skill of the pilot, the professionalism of the crew, the design and flying characteristics of the aircraft, the proximity to the glassy Hudson, the landing site itself close to ferrys and watercraft, the calmness of the passengers.

One other thing this story proves, once again, is that the press is filled with idiots. I listened to some of the NTSB's initial press conference today, and I swear, the people covering this should really spend 5 minutes educating themselves about aviation.

Don't...

2008 Blue Angels Schedule

The Blue Angels have announced their 2008 season schedule. Unfortunately, for those in metro Atlanta, no show at Dobbins this year, so, if you want to see the Blue Angels, you'll have to go to Huntsville, AL or make the long trip to South Georgia. And you can STILL say to your aviator friends (while pointing to your dolphins, and until the USS Amazon is commissioned), "You'll never see a woman wearing these."