Monthly Archives: April 2009

One “Flu” over this cuckoo’s nest

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Three days fighting some bug.  I’d probably feel better if it wasn’t for the news about this new evil influenza strain coming out of Mexico.  A combination of swine, avian and some other variety flu have come together into some sort of unholy trinity of nastiness. 

I had to take Thursday and Friday off work and I missed a Wings & Wheels meeting this morning over at the museum.  My body is revolting and I didn’t even need to look into a mirror to know it.  Achy, stuffy and just generally miserable.  It’s an incredible 26C outside and I should be out cleaning up the lawns and soaking in the glorious sunshine trying to put some colour into this pasty Canadian winter “tan”.

A day and half to get rid of this thing so I can get back to work on both jobs.  Lots to do for my paying job and twice as much to do for the museum. 

Spam as fine literature

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Checking the Gmail spam bucket for mislabelled messages you once in a while come across a classic.  Today’s gem:

She will learn once and for all that your pork steeple is the best!

I doubt that Shakespeare could have said it better.

Quite a week for Boeing

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Some milestones in the last week or so.

6000th 737


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The 737 has been in production for 40 years and on April 16th the 6,000 airframe was delivered to Norwegian Air Shuttle.  That’s a lot of airplanes!

777th 777

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From first delivery in 1982 to 777th on April 10.  Air France shows off the new livery on a 777-300ER.

End of the line for 747-400

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The very last 747-400 rolls off the line on April 16th. 1,419th in the series. Boeing continues the ‘47 family with the new 8F freighter. Sad to say that due to the economy this one might head straight to the desert for storage.

Frustrated

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I don’t often get too “geeky”.  Although I have been in the IT business for over 20 years, I try not to slip into propeller head mode.  Sometimes, however, you just have to vent.

Every couple of years I have to replace the router on the home network.  Why?

/NERD MODE ON

image There are a couple of ways to connect to the internet from home.  The most basic is “dial-up”.  As it sounds, it’s just a phone connection that allows you to dial a specific number and connect through a ISP (Internet Service Provider) server.  Very slow and I left that behind years ago.

Cable companies started providing “Broadband” service and it was good.  Piggybacking on the basic cable signal, broadband opened new worlds of speed and reliability.  I was hooked!

Starting off with a direct connection from the cable modem to the PC, everything was great until I started to need to connect multiple machines at the same time.  Along comes the router.  Descriptive name – it takes the single connection from the cable company and routes or splits it to more than one computer. Relatively cheap and simple to set up (well, they weren’t cheap or easy in the beginning but now they are).  It’s the “cheap” that is the problem.  They’re not very reliable and are prone to screw up or “brick” as they say.  Yes, they essentially turn into a brick on your desk.  Useless, unfixable and ready for the trash.

On Thursday I purchased my 4th router.  Another $100.  Setup – simple – in 5 minutes and off we go!  Well……we sort of got going.  Access a website once, no problem.  Try it again, no luck.  My Vista laptop would connect on a hit or miss basis and the only way to correct it was to reset the router which would give you a whole 10 minutes of surfing before it would get stupid again. Hmmmmm.  My work laptop wasn’t having the same problem.  After scratching my head for a while I figured out that I had a DNS problem.  The work machine had no problem because I use a VPN tunnel.  VPN – Virtual Private Network.  It creates a secure “tunnel” though the net to allow me to connect to our private systems.  AND it uses different DNS connections.

DNS – Domain Name Server.  Specific servers out on the ‘Net that resolve IP addresses.  When you go to my site www.eyeno.net, the request has to be translated into 208.109.14.24 .  DNS is a wonderful thing and it makes the internet a much friendlier place.  So what was my problem?

The new router is a Linksys WRT160Nv2.  Very sleek and modern.  It came loaded with firmware 2.0.2 build 11.  Completely up-to-date and completely pooched.  Searching a few forums I find that everyone is having problems with this version.  Solution?  “Downgrade” to an earlier version (2.0.2 build 8).  Pretty simple to install and everything now works just fine.

NERD MODE OFF/

So Linksys, owned by networking giant Cisco Systems, is selling a product that they know has a serious flaw in its software and has done nothing to correct it!  If it wasn’t for the dedicated nerds who inhabit networking forums I would be throwing a brand new piece of hardware against a wall.  And spending more money.  Or spending hours talking to a call centre in India.  Thank you anonymous geeks.  Have a Jolt Cola and bag of Cheetos on me!

Wings & Wheels – Meet the Aircraft – Part 4

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Lockheed 10A Electra CF-TCC

Lockheed 10A “Electra” registration CF-TCC.

From their website:

On September 1, 1937, Trans Canada Airlines (the forerunner of Air Canada) operated its first scheduled passenger flight – a fifty minute trip from Vancouver to Seattle.
The route had been acquired from Canadian Airways Ltd. along with two ten seat Lockheed 10A "Electra" aircraft. Shortly after, TCA bought three other LI0As, all brand new, direct from Lockheed’s plant, at a purchase price of  $73,000 each. They were dubbed the "three sisters" and bore the registration letters of CF-TCA, CF-TCB and CF-TCC.
After flying for a couple of years for TCA, CF-TCC was sold in 1939 to the Canadian Government, who turned it over to the RCAF as part of the war effort. Then it was sold again, and went from owner to owner during some forty years. One day in 1975, a retired Air Canada employee recognized it at a Texas Air Show when he saw the faded shadow of the registration letters, CF-TCC,  through the paint work.
Air Canada kept track of the aircraft and finally re-purchased it in 1983. The plane was flown to the Airline’s Winnipeg maintenance base where it was rejuvenated and refurbished. Pratt & Whitney Canada arranged for the complete overhaul of its two engines and for furnishing accessories and spares.
In 1986 Air Canada flew the aircraft on a fifty stop "sentimental journey" across Canada with CF-TCC arriving in Vancouver in time for Expo "86.  It was on display there at the Air Canada pavilion complete with sound effects as the engines cranked over.
Today, CF-TCC participates in diverse promotional activities, including conducting flights to raise funds for charitable organizations. It has flown across Canada in the last few years raising money for "Dreams Take Flight".
The aircraft weights 4724 kilos (10,500lbs) with a full payload including fuel. It has a cruising speed of 256 KPH (160 mph) and a cruising altitude of 4,800 meters (16,000 ft).

 

Lockheed 10A Electra CF-TCC

A beautiful memory of times gone by.  Great to see her return to Wings & Wheels.

Wings & Wheels – Meet the Aircraft – Part 3

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Wings and Wheels 2008

The CF-18 Hornet.  Canada’s fighter.  From the 425 Squadron in Bagotville Quebec, the Hornet is a regular visitor at Wings & Wheels.  Pilots and spectators alike love coming to Downsview Airport every year.

Hornet and Arrow

One of the highlights of past shows has been the opportunities to see the CF-18 beside the museum’s CF-105 Arrow replica.  Separated by nearly 50 years, both aircraft represent the apex of aviation technology for their respective times.

CF-18s have served in the first Gulf War as well as in the conflict in the former Yugoslavia.  Approximately 80 still serve in an air defence role across Canada and the fleet is undergoing a modernization project.

Wings & Wheels provides an opportunity to get very close to both the aircraft and their crews.  “Cherry”, standing, was extremely friendly and great with the hundreds of kids who got a cockpit view during the 2008 event.  His arrival and departure was a real treat (especially the special manoeuvres on arrival).

At least one CF-18 will be at the 2009 Wings & Wheels Heritage Festival.

(BTW, the plane in my masthead picture is Cherry’s Hornet performing a “runway check” last year)

Some “good” flying

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c-ggtj

(note: not the plane in question)

So Adam Leon, 31, is charged with stealing a Cessna 172 from a flight school in Thunder Bay Ontario and leading authorities, including a pair of F16 fighters on a merry chase before finally landing 6 1/2 hours and 783 miles later outside a little town in Missouri.

A strange story for sure but what I’m wondering is how did he fly so far for so long.  I don’t have the POH (Pilot’s Operating Handbook) for the C172R that I’m taking flying lessons on with me but those figures seem a tad on the high side.  So I decided to do some Googling to see what I could come up with.

First let’s look at the distance.  For flight purposes, we always work in nautical miles while the 783 would be “normal” miles.  We calculate that out to be:

783 miles = 680 nautical miles

Now it’s off to the POH.  I don’t know what model of Cessna Mr. Leon was flying or whether or not it had extended tanks.  Calculating range and endurance is based on so many factors – fuel load, pressure altitude, throttle settings, winds aloft……… that you can’t just pull a number out of your ass but let’s take a look at a “typical” entry from the book.

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Some reports had him flying at 14,000 feet which is crazy unless the aircraft is equipped with oxygen so let’s use the 12,500 figures.  If he ran at 2200 RPM then he could keep it in the air for 6 1/2 hours as reported but his range is less than 550 nautical miles, about 130 short of the reporting distance.  So, we have to assume that he either had a larger fuel capacity or one hell of a tail wind or the news services have it all wrong (no voting!!).

The unfortunate thing here is that this will probably lead to stricter controls over general aviation, especially for those of us who fly fairly close to the US-Canada border.

Wings & Wheels – Meet the Aircraft – Part 1

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The headliner of this year’s WWHF is “Hawk One”.  A lovingly restored Canadair CL-13 Sabre 5, Hawk One comes to us from Vintage Wings of Canada in Gatineau Quebec.

Here’s Hawk One in flight

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Unfortunately, regulations prohibit aerobatics over the city of Toronto so it will be on static display but I’ll definitely be there, camera in hand, for the arrival and departure.

8 weeks

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Eight weeks from today I’ll be counting down to the end of the 2009 Wings & Wheels Heritage Festival.  If everything goes to plan, over 9000 visitors will have already come and gone and the place will be packed.

The planning is in full force with budgets being tweaked, vendors being contacted and the call is out for volunteers.  It’s been a struggle with lots of roadblocks and I’ve come really close to quitting more than once.  Managing a volunteer-run event is very much like herding cats.

For the next 2 months, most of the postings here will revolve around Wings &  Wheels.  Hopefully you’ll get a good idea of how something like this gets pulled off successfully. 

Or perhaps not.