(image courtesy of Robert Cole and PenAir)
Mt. Redoubt in Alaska is being pretty cranky. An eruption yesterday sent an ash cloud 32,000 feet into the sky causing Alaska Airlines to suspend flights to Anchorage.
Volcanic ash can cause incredible damage to aircraft engines as well as effecting instrumentation and, of course, playing havoc with visibility. The FAA has issued a NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) restricting the airspace around the volcano until further notice.
I’ll go out on a limb and say we’re seeing the end of Winter 2008-2009. 10C and brilliant sunshine. A great day to grab the camera and go planespotting near Pearson International Airport.
A beautiful PIA (Pakistani International Airlines) Boeing 777-200/LR glides in for a landing. Magnificent in the serenity of the approach. This is one quiet airplane.
Air Jamaica G6-JAF (Airbus 320-214) bringing folks home from somewhere just a bit warmer than Toronto.
Probably the strangest of the bunch. Although it wears the name CanJet complete with Maple Leaf in the C, this Boeing 737-800 actually carries a German registration D-AHFT.
It was nice to have the big camera in my hand again and feel the sun on my face. It’s time to come out of hibernation.
Lufthansa AG FINALLY announced that Swiss International Airlines will be the launch customer for the new CSeries. An order for 20 of the aircraft was announced on Tuesday with the possibility of another for 10.
Great news for Bombardier and the Canadian Aerospace industry.
Not much to do on a dreary Sunday afternoon so I took a picture of a wall. Actually it’s part of one wall in my home office. Shows how much of an aviation nut I really am.
Clockwise from top:
A picture of a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 series 20 that was given to employees in celebration of its first visit to Toronto in September 1972. Back then the plant was officially called “Douglas Aircraft Company of Canada Ltd” and was located at the Northeast corner of the land now owned by GTAA (Pearson International Airport). The buildings, which were torn down a few years ago, were also once home to Victory Aircraft (Lancasters were built there) and Avro (home of the Arrow).
Western Airlines promotional poster from 1961. Western Airlines (1925-1986) started off carrying mail and died when purchased by Delta. In between they flew all the aircraft shown on the poster – from a Douglas M-2 biplane to the Boeing 720B. The tag line is interesting “From Biplane to Fanjet, 22 Aircraft Types Have Carried the Colors of Western Airlines, America’s Pioneer Airline” An eBay find.
Opening the TSX. A recent addition to the wall.
Autographed picture of CF-18. One of my photos that I had autographed by the pilot who flew it in for Wings & Wheels 2008. “Cherry” was a great young man, very professional and friendly. And he likes to fly the Hornet low and fast! The shot was taken as he ran one of his runway “checks”. Since you can’t fly acrobatics over Toronto, Cherry announced that he was a little heavy on fuel and was running a series of runway checks to look for debris or obstructions before landing. Very low, very fast, very loud. Along with his signature it reads “Keep the blue side up” and I’ve tried to keep that in mind during my flight training.
Nearly every wall, cabinet and piece of floor has something aviation related. Every piece tells a story.
Right off the bat, let’s clear up the misconception that Sir Sandford Fleming is responsible for this mess. Sir Sandford brought us Standard Time and I think we all agree that this was a pretty good idea. Little known fact – he came up with the idea after missing a train!
The culprit here is William Willett who first came up with the stupid idea in 1907. Some say it was Benjamin Franklin but he only suggested it as a joke.
From Wikipedia:
Using his own financial resources, in 1907 William published a pamphlet "The Waste of Daylight" In it he proposed that the clocks should be advanced by 80 minutes in the summer. The evenings would then remain light for longer, increasing daylight recreation time and also saving ₤2.5 million in lighting costs. He suggested that the clocks should be advanced by 20 minutes at a time at 2 am on successive Sundays in April and be retarded by the same amount on Sundays in September.
I guess it’s a good thing that the 80 minute thing didn’t catch on. We all got used to it up until a couple of years ago when the US (thanks Bush Jr.) decided to switch to DST earlier and switch back later. Of course Canada wagged its tail and followed suit.
Supposedly, DST was adopted to help farmers and others who depend on daylight to perform their work but arguments covering everything from the fact that more french fries are sold during the day (helping the Idaho potato farmers) to more daylight = more time for outdoor sports (Sporting Goods Manufacturing Coalition) have been used to support a practice that, in my opinion, is no longer necessary.
This diagram shows what areas of the world use, or do not use, DST. In Canada, Saskatchewan never changes the clock. Last time I looked Saskatchewan has a lot of farmers so there goes that argument.
So we spend the next few days in a sleep deprived state as our body clocks reset and I have to remember that Switzerland is only 5 hours ahead instead of 6 (most of the civilized world doesn’t change for another couple of weeks).
(images from Wikipedia)
I sent a tweet a few minutes ago asking if anyone wanted to buy a migraine headache, cheap. So far no takers.
Migraines and I go way, way back but in the last year or so they’ve taken to given me an interesting warning. I now have what is classified as “migraines with aura”. Little squiggly lines of shimmering light that seem to come from my left eye now let me know that it’s time to reach for the Advil. Extra strength Advil. Oh how I love you.
The only good thing about the aura is that I now have a chance to ward off the worst of the pain. About a hour from now I’ll be in bed trying very hard to lay perfectly still. Hopefully, it will be of short duration and I’ll be good to go in the morning. By classic definition, a migraine can last from 4 to 72 hours and I’m very happy to say that I usually get rid of them within 12 hours – less if I catch them early.
If my aviation medical doctor is reading this, please ignore this post. Severe migraines can lead to the loss of your medical certificate. Mine are not serious. Honest Doctor Thicke. I swear.
No one wants it? Going once.
The first of March. I guess it came in as a lamb. Way too cold but sunny.
As February gets smaller in the rear view mirror it’s time for a quick review. At work it lived up to the standard that a full month’s work gets crammed into however many days there actually are. The trip to Switzerland ate up a week in the wink of an eye so it put more pressure on the other three. Bad economic news and minimum prospects were the order of the day.
Busy, busy month at the Museum. The kick-off for the capital expansion plan on the 20th was the highlight but it doesn’t appear to have brought in the money or the crowds we were hoping for. It’s going to be a tight year.
Lots of meetings in preparation for the Wings & Wheels Festival in May. It’s really difficult to make plans when you’re unsure that you’ll have all the space you need and you have absolutely no funds with which to get started. So, you bull ahead expecting that everything will get resolved. This is not the way my projects usually work so the learning curve has been immense. Volunteers have all the best intentions in the world but, sometimes, it really is like herding cats.
What will I take away from February? The TSX opening was fun and definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity. Who knows when I’ll get to travel overseas again so I’ll hang on to the memory of a snowy little Swiss town. I still have a job and my health. I love working at the museum, even if it sometimes gets a little frustrating.
We’ll wait to see how March shapes up.
