Through The Mist Darkly

Ready to start.

Switches on.

Contact.

Let ‘er spin!

Tags: Uncategorized by EyeNo
No Comments »

I can’t count how many onboard safety lectures I’ve sat through but none have been as entertaining as this one.  A Southwest Airlines flight attendant has a little fun.  He will probably catch hell from management but he covers all the details while making sure that the entire plane was listening.

YouTube link.

Tags: Uncategorized by EyeNo
No Comments »

Now that the A380 has flown its first commercial flight, Airbus is excited to announce the next model hot off the drawing board.  “The A3 will be to the small aircraft market what the 380 was to the large carriers”, said a spokesman.

Tags: Uncategorized by EyeNo
No Comments »

Absolutely stunning picture of a wounded Canadian soldier crawling to safety after a shelling by Taliban fighters in Howz-E Madid, Afghanistan.  The, as yet, unidentified soldier was only slightly hurt.

The battle comes as Parliament debates whether the troops should stay until 2011 or come home in 2009 as originally planned. 

(Picture by Finbarr O’Reilly of Reuters, published in the Toronto Star)

Tags: Uncategorized by EyeNo
No Comments »

Singapore Airlines took delivery of the first Airbus A380.  Lovely looking bird.

Tags: Uncategorized by EyeNo
No Comments »

My flight back home was on one of the venerable British Airways 747-400s.  As we draw nearer to the first revenue flight of the  Airbus 380 on October 25th, the 747 will be relegated to the status of the second biggest commercial aircraft.

The chances of me ever flying the 380 are remote, Toronto just isn’t on anyone’s list of destinations for the flying whale.  Hopefully, I’ll still have plenty of opportunity to board the 747.

Boeing literally bet the company when it announced plans to build the world’s largest aircraft way back in 1965.  Five years later, PanAm flew the first passengers from New York to London Heathrow and the world of air travel was never the same.  The initial forecast of 400 planes produced has grown to over 1400 deliveries.

The very first 747 I ever flew on was a CP Air (Canadian Pacific Airlines) 100 series way back in 1982.  The Empress of China was a lovely bird - all orange and silver - and an incredible sight.  Huge and majestic.  The first thought upon seeing one was “How do they get this thing off the ground?”.  Four massive engines putting out over 63,000 pounds of thrust each lift almost 1 million pounds gracefully.  There’s still nothing like the sight of a 400 with wings flexed at a seemingly impossible angle rising slowly, almost too slowly, as it embarks on a long overseas journey.

Descriptions of the size of the 747 are hard to grasp so a picture like this one gives you some impression of just how big the bird really is.  A Qantas 747-400ER being pushed back at Heathrow Saturday afternoon as we prepared to leave.  A powerful tug and the ground communicator dwarfed by the immense aircraft.  Longreach indeed.

Same aircraft, spooling up in preparation to taxi out to the active.

Finally, shot along the wing as we cruise at 36,000 feet at .98 mach over the Atlantic. Compare the straight wing of the Qantas above with the flex shown here.  On the ground, you can’t even see the outboard engine but once she takes to the air, the wing tip rises until you swear it’s going to snap.

The future of the 747 is cloudy.  For sure, the existing airframes will continue in service for decades to come but there’s not much interest in Boeing’s next version, the 747-800i.  The “Intercontinental” is not seeing any orders though a lot of interest is being shown in a freighter version.  Airbus may rule the skies when it comes to VLCT (Very Large Commercial Transport) but airlines are unsure if 800 passenger aircraft are the wave of the future or whether smaller, more fuel efficient models like the Boeing 787 or the Airbus A350 make better sense.

Whatever the future, the 747 stands as a testament to the vision and ingenuity of Boeing’s designers.  A great aircraft that will always be my favorite.

Tags: Uncategorized by EyeNo
No Comments »

Check-in at Zurich airport.  Early morning, very crowded, very chaotic.  Standing in line with the rest of the sheeple, we were treated to the antics of a, clearly, American tourist on his way home.

Not content to stand patiently in line, he proceeded to bull his way to the front.  Old ladies with their massive luggage were no match for this protector of the free world. ”Back of the line!”, a brave soul suggested as he stormed through.  “I’m in business class.”, was his snarky retort.

Guess what?  So am I and most of the other people.  Not his problem.  All bullshit and bluster he got to the desk and proceeded to make a big show for the captive audience.  The rest of us just shook are heads and shuffled forward.  It took me another 20 minutes to get through, 5 minutes for passport control and then a 2 minute train ride to the security line.

Guess who I met up with?  Yep, his highness had to stand in another line and he was none to happy.  Unfortunately for him, you can’t bully security so he had to meekly submit to the indignities of low level functionaries and their procedures.

Why do people feel the need to act like assholes?  What does it get them?  Air travel is a slow, frustrating business these days.  You might as well make the best of it.

I’m now sitting in the same lounge as he is waiting for my flight.  With my luck, he’ll be my seatmate on the trip to Heathrow.  Perhaps I’ll be able to bask in his glory close up.  Be still my heart.

Tags: Uncategorized by EyeNo
No Comments »

This picture was taken at about 6AM sitting in the lounge at London’s Heathrow airport as they get ready to push a British Airways 767 back from the gate (or stand as they call it in England).

It’s coming up to 3pm here in Winterthur Switzerland. My Blackberry tells me that - it’s been changed to Central European Time. My watch and my body tell me that it’s 9am and I’ve now been up for 28 hours. I got a bit of sleep on the plane coming over the Atlantic but certainly not nearly enough to reset the body clock.

I arrived here at the Hotel Wartmann across from the train station (Banhoff) only to be told that my room wasn’t ready. Finally got into it a half hour ago.

Now comes the decision time. I’m scheduled to have dinner with a few of my colleagues in about 4 hours - do I stay up and tough it through or do I try and catch a few hours nap? My body says SLEEP but my brain says staying awake is the best way to make the time change. Guess I’ll let the brain make the call and hope I don’t pass out at dinner.

Tags: Uncategorized by EyeNo
No Comments »

Time for another business trip to Switzerland.  Flying out this Saturday on British Airways through Heathrow and then on to Zurich.

Once again I’m staying in the lovely city of Winterthur which is starting to feel like home.

The picture comes from my trip to Mt. Engleberg last year.  No time for sightseeing this trip, out Saturday - back the following Saturday.

Tags: Uncategorized by EyeNo
No Comments »