Qantas crew objects to Team?

Qantas has a new safety video for its A380 passengers.  It feature John Travolta and is raising objections from Qantas employees.





According to the Seattle PI:

Cabin crew “say a ‘real pilot’ — like Captain Richard de Crespigny, credited with saving 466 lives on the failed QF32 flight from Singapore — should front the message,” The Telegraph reported.

...

Crew members also deem it “demeaning” that Travolta and others in the video refer to “the team,” a flight attendant says in the story. “It makes us feel like we work at McDonald’s.”

...More (a little)

Okay, I can see the objection on the first part. While Travolta is an actual jet aircraft pilot, I can see them preferring to see an employee do it. I'm not sure I agree Travolta is a bad choice, but I understand.

But the second objection I find baffling.  Is is a cultural issue? Is "Team" a term of derision in Australia?  Sure, it seems a little cheesy, but I'm confused by the interpretation that it's demeaning. I'm not saying the complaint is baseless.  It just strikes me as odd.

A use for Skymall

I scored an exit row window seat with an empty middle for a recent flight to Atlanta.  That's about as good a seat as I can get if I'm in coach.  It was an early morning flight (it left at 6:00 AM) and most folks were trying to sleep.  I was working on a few projects and staring at my laptop screen.

The flight attendants asked us to lower our window shades for those who still wanted to nap or were watching the in flight entertainment. When she asked me, I point to my window.

There was no shade in my window on the exit door. Apparently, she's had this problem before and suggested a magazine.  Before long, I had MacGyver'ed a solution.  Sure, the frame almost popped out of the widow (just the cosmetic frame) but it worked and kept most of the bright sun out.






I'm not sure how many Federal Air Regulations that violates, but who am I to complain.  After all, it did make it dark

High Corporate Taxes can Spur Innovation

One solution often suggested to start growing the economy is to slash corporate taxes.  When business taxes are too high, the argument goes, businesses lay people off and scale back on their research expenses and everything stagnates.


But what if the opposite is true?


In an early October, the Pacific Northwest Magazine (part of the Sunday Seattle Times) published a story about how Boeing came to dominate the commercial jet market following the Korean War.  High taxes were one reason Boeing succeeded.  Essentially, taxes were so high, that it made a significant research and development risks much less risky.  Had taxes been lower, the risk would have been much greater, and Boeing might not have chosen to invest in jet aircraft in the way they did.

Actually, Allen, the lawyer, had discovered something very interesting about the question of whose money the company would be spending. During the Korean War, Congress had put an "excess profits tax" in effect, intended to prevent military companies from making out too well because of increased demand during a war. As it happened, the law essentially defined "excess profits" as anything above what a company had made during the peacetime period of 1946-1949. For Boeing, of course, peace had been a sock to the pocketbook; it had hardly made anything in that time. Therefore, as orders ramped up for the war, Boeing stood to face the "excess profits" tax on virtually every dollar of its profit, while a company such as Douglas, which had had its hands full rolling out propeller-driven airliners after the war, wouldn't face the higher trigger until its military sales equaled the bonanza it had made on commercial sales.

What Allen clearly saw was that now was the perfect time to plow a huge amount of company money into an audacious new development project. All of it would be a legitimate business expense, reducing the "profits" for the coming years, but so what? That was all money that would have basically gone to the government. As long as he could persuade the board that he was putting the company in a long-term position of leading the field with a jetliner, its members were unlikely to object. Yes, it was a huge gamble, but for every dollar of the dice roll, only 18 cents of it would have been Boeing's money to keep anyway.

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I'm not sure that this taxes this high are the answer to all our problems; I go back and forth on the appropriate level of business taxes. 

But this is a scenario I hadn't considered before.  High tax rates may not be a way to generate revenue for the government.  They may be a away to encourage other spending, however on innovation, research, and other risky projects.

Sheriff's Helicopter -- N407KS

During the President's visit to Seattle on August 17, very few aircraft flew over the city.  The King County Sheriff's Department helicopter was one of them.  It was a gorgeous earlier in the day, and much more conducive to photography than when Air Force 1 lifted off later on.  Here are a few pictures I took of the helicopter.

More pictures are available in this set.

Looking back on it, perhaps standing on the roof with a zoom lens pointed at an aircraft while the President was in town may not have been thine wisest choice...

WA-Boom!

Who’s that hiding behind a building?

Let’s take a closer look.

Oops.  It may have gotten away.

There it is.  My.  It looks like a 747 over Seattle. That’s not so unusual.

But which 747?  Why, it’s Air Force 1.

 

Since I grew up in NYC, the announcement that the President is visiting results not in excitement, but in eye rolling.  The traffic hassles of dignitaries can be real pain.  But it doesn't happen all that often in Seattle, so folks will line the street, hoping to catch a glimpse of the President. And they did just that on 2010-08-17.

The day was not without its adventure.  At about 1:50 in the afternoon, I heard what sounded like two loud explosions in the city.  I saw no smoke out the windows, and though it might have just been a truck.  But then Twitter burst with activity.  About 15 minutes later, the consensus emerged on line that the sounds were sonic booms.  More details here.

Apparently, while the President was at an event, someone in a float plane (who didn’t check airspace restrictions prior to taking off) violated the Seattle airspace restrictions.  Two fighter jets took off from Portland, and zipped up to Seattle at near maximum speed to intercept the potential threat.  It turned out to be nothing, but it certainly added some extra excitement to the day.

At the end of the day, the President took off from BFI, heading north out over Seattle.  The plane turned right over the Green lake area (I think) and headed east to Ohio.

I got a few pictures of the aircraft through what I later realized was a really dirty lens.  The hazy skies and thin clouds also made photography challenging.

Regardless of who the primary passenger is as any given time, I’ve always found Air Force 1 to be one of the most beautiful birds to ply the skies.

747-800

Boeing's 787 has been getting all the attention in recent months.  It's a revolutionary new aircraft that I can't wait to fly in.  But it's not the only new one from Boeing.

Monday was the first flight for Boeing new 747-800 aircraft.  Most of the orders are for the cargo version, though a few carriers ordered the passenger version, too.  It is Boeing's largest aircraft every and builds on the historic success of the 747-400 and new technologies borrowed from the 787.

The Airbus A380 may hold more people, but it can't touch the 747-800 in style.  Despite all the problems Boeing has had with delays and unions, they still make the world's most beautiful aircraft.

You can read more about the flight, and see more pictures, at the Seattle PI.

For detailed information about the aircraft and test program, check out the Boeing site.

In the air finally?

Great news from Boeing today.  The 787 passed a Static Wing Test, which means they bent it and it didn't break.  That's always encouraging.

It look like it will actually get off the ground later this month.  I'm looking forward to riding on this thing in the coming years.

From the Seattle PI:

Boeing has moved up the target date for its first 787 Dreamliner flight eight days, to Dec. 14, and now plans to fly its second flight-test 787 before the end of the month, FlightBlogger reported Tuesday.

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A comment from a NW Connection Flight Attendant

I boarded the a small plane for my connection out of MSP yesterday and clambered to my seat in the far back corner.  It was a regional jet so it's not like all the way back is that far back.  But  I got there and scrunched myself into the corner, lauding silently the comfort of using a scrunched up sweatshirt as a makeshift pillow against the plastic wall.  That's the real reason to travel with a sweatshirt on a plane.  The impromptu pillow uses.  That and by wearing it, it makes is less likely people will talk to you then when you dress business casual, but that's another matter.

As I waited to drift off to a fitful sleep for the next 45 minutes, the Flight Attendant gave her safety speech, which I could probably recite from memory at this point.  And then, just as we were getting ready to take off, gave us the other important piece of information:

"Ladies and gentlemen, you'll be happy to know that neither of our pilots are asleep, arguing, or using their laptop computers."

Thanks for the update, NW!

Landing experiments at SeaTac

In the news recently, there has been increased discussion of Free Flight as a way to modernize air traffic control. But that's only one of the innovations being worked on.

In this Seattle Times article, reporter discuss the FAA's Next Generation project for landing planes.

Currently, the way I navigate in a new city, using GPS, is more technologically advanced than the way planes land at most airports. Most planes take long, gradual routes to reach a run way. The take steps down in altitude, rather than descending gradually, and they have to wait until some person miles away tells them to take that next step.

The Next Generation project, however, ties the planes autopilot into GPS navigation, combined with a preplanned approach route that lowers fuel consumption, exhaust generation, time, and impact on the surrounding community.

It sounds like a winner.

Alaska Airlines recently tested this solution at SEA.

"This is a perfect place to do this," said Mike Adams, the pilot in command of the August test flight. "Boeing is here. Alaska has a completely equipped fleet. Everybody is trained. We are so ready, we can't stand it any more."

Alaska projects reduced overflight noise for 750,000 Seattle-area residents, along with annual savings at the airport of 2.1 million gallons of fuel and 25,000 tons of carbon-dioxide emissions.

"There is nobody who loses here," Adams said.

...

The airline began using the new navigation system in 1996 to enable its planes to fly safely into Juneau, Alaska, approaching along a narrow sea channel surrounded by rugged mountains. Other airlines have since applied it in other areas, including Australia and Tibet.

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The big challenge appears to be the bureaucracy of the FAA.

The FAA's Hickey, onboard the test flight, said it's too early to estimate when the agency might approve Alaska Airlines' Sea-Tac procedures for use by all airlines.

"NextGen is a long, long process of transformation from the current system to a future system that is far more efficient," Hickey said. "It's not a big bang. It's going to be a bunch of incremental approaches."

The NextGen plan stretches through 2025. Hickey said the Obama administration is looking at accelerating parts of it.

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As someone who spend 90,000 miles a year sitting on airplanes, I certainly value safety, and I don't want anyone cutting corners, but more than a decade to fully implement something like this just doesn't make sense to me. Even the optimistic assessment from Alaska has it taking 5 years to implement at SEA.

"I think you could see us doing this with passengers in late-night arrivals in one or two years," he said. "And in daytime mainstream arrivals, potentially within five years."

Integrating these changes with airlines that have the advanced equipment that Alaska does could be challenging, but years?

Alaska has already been essentially doing this in Juneau since 1996.

The airlines are struggling now. Air Traffic Control is now facing a serious shortage of new controllers since all the new ones hired in the early 80s (following the disastrous PATCO strike) are now at retirement age.

Let's speed this up, save fuel, save money, reduce the ATC workload, and reduce the burden on airport communities.

The 787 and advanced planning

When Delta airlines bought Northwest Airlines, it picked up more than just some routes, some planes, and lousy labor relations. It also picked up NW's order for Boeing's next generation airplane -- the often delay 787.

The plane was scheduled to have it's first test flight last month, but testing showed the need to delay that process again. Originally, it was supposed to be in service in time for the 2008 Summer Olympics.

But Delta is apparently optimistic that they will one day in the future be flying the 787-800 in and out of the S-Concourse at SEA. How can we tell? They painted parking spots for it on the ground.




You can see some more views of the paint here.

And perhaps there is reason to be optimistic. A couple days ago, Boeing conducted the first self-powered taxi tests for the aircraft. You can see the video below (source: http://boeingblogs.com/randy/)

It looks beautiful on the ground. I can't wait to see it in the air.

Aviation Porn -- 747's first flight

I was looking forward to the first flight of Boeing's exciting new 787 this month. Unfortunately, that's not going to happen.

Apparently they wanted some extra time to slap some more duct tape on the wings so they don't fall off. You can read more about the latest 787 delay on the Seattle PI here. The plane is now more than 2 years late. I'm pretty sure it's missed its bus by now.

Since we won't get the first flight of the 787, I suppose we'll have to be happy with this video. It's the 1969 first flight of the iconic Boeing 747 -- the aircraft that ushered in the new era of the true jumbo jet. I believe you can still see this particular aircraft at the Museum of Flight.

A short trip

*BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP*

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have leveled out at 9,000 feet...

Huh? What?! Was I napping? Did the pilot just say, "leveled out at 9,000 feet?" Who levels out at 9,000 feet? You pass through 10,000 feet (Where it is now safe to use approved portable electronics...)

You level out between 30,000 and 41,000 feet.

Weird.

*BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP*

We will be returning to Seattle...

Why would we want to do that? We just left there and climbed to 9,000 feet.

*BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP*

As you can probably hear, we have a high pitched whine coming from the cockpit [And it's not our flight attendants] and we're not sure what's causing it. Don't worry, it's safe. The engines are both working...

Well, that's reassuring, I guess.

*BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP*

...But to be safe, and because it makes it very difficult for us to hear one another, we're going to return to SEA.

Flight attendants, please prepare the cabin for arrival...

Aw, come on. Do you really need to hear one another? Can't you just use the radio? Do we really have to delay several hours, just because some random piece of hardware in the cockpit is making a mystery noise you haven't heard before and can't fix? Stick in some ear plugs, and call it good. It's like when I fixed the brake warning light on my dashboard by covering it with electrical tape.

Come to think of it, that wasn't the best idea either. Okay. SEA here we come. Ooooh pretty view of Elliott Bay....

787 looking good

Boeing's new 787 is slated to complete it's first test flight this quarter. The project is already two years behind schedule, due primarily to supply chain problems (who'd have thought building a Boeing play without building it by Boeing would cause problems?).

It looks like it's on track now, though. By the time the plane starts shipping in quantity, the recession should be over, meaning it will be good timing for Boeing. By then we'll be well on the road to recovery. (Actually, that last sentence is just because I wanted to mix more metaphors.)

But for now, as these pictures from the Seattle PI show, it looks like it really will be a beautiful aircraft.

See the whole set here.

I can't wait to ride in one.

Breakfast at sunrise

I took this picture on my way to CES last month. My flight left at 6:30 AM while it was still dark. I got a great view of the sunrise at 35,000 feet.

And purely by accident, I also captured a reflection of my breakfast in the window. I didn't realize I did that until I looked at the pictures on my computer.

Thoughts on Flight 1549

By now, most everyone has heard about US1549, the flight that landed in the Hudson. It's now about 12 hours since all the excitement and the good news is that everyone survived.

I first heard about this flight when my Twitter feed exploded with activity. As with the Mumbai terror attacks, reports showed up in Twitter before they showed up in mainstream media. This is an important sociological shift that we see happening. The entire industry of breaking news is changing right in front of us. And not only are we lucky enough to witness this change, we are lucky enough to particpate and cause the change.

So after flipping through some Tweets, I quickly check my team's calendars to make sure none of my employees were on the flight, and then waited for more facts to come in.

It speaks to the excellent training of the pilot and crew, and their skill, that this did not become a disaster. It also speaks to the great engineering over at Airbus that the plane survived the water landing long enough for everyone to get out.

This also demonstrates the tremendous strides the NY area has made in cleaning up the river. Twenty years ago I imagine the fuselage would have just dissolved in what we called "water."

The bridges would have made this nearly impossible on the other side of the island. And in most other bodies of water, there would not have been so many watercraft readily available to rescue people.

And now we know that the whole water landing demonstration in the safety demo isn't just for show. A water landing is survivable when everything else falls into place.

US Airways is no longer listing the flight as delayed.

This is a fairly tactful way to do it.

Flight Stats, and website that tracks aircraft, however, still needs to update their descriptions. Apparently the flight is twenty minutes late.

Here is map showing more data about he flight.

I think the 300 foot altitude is an estimate.

And here's a view of where they think the plane is now.

I guess the current is pretty strong to pull it out of the river and all the way to NJ. (Actually, the plane is currently tied up in lower Manhattan.

And I never thought I would make a sentence like that in my life.

Boeing Dreamlifter at PDX

A couple years ago, I wrote about the Ugliest Plane in the World. It was a converted Boeing 747 that Boeing planned to use to haul parts of the new 787 Dreamliner from factories around the world to the Boeing plant in Everett. There are actually four of these behemoths.

It's big. It dwarfs a regular 747. Which makes sense since it's job is to spit out parts of new wide bodies.

This is how it looked back then:
Well, she actually cleans up pretty well. Here she is at the Portland (PDX) airport over this past weekend:


I shot these pictures from Marine Drive, just north of the airport. They're not great shots, but I was glad I had my zoom lens.

Actually, I was pretty surprised to her. I didn't know the Dreamlifter made trips to PDX.

Channel 9 and 9-11

I don't fly United often, but when I do, I enjoy listening to Channel 9.

Channel 9 is the channel (obviously) on the plane's inflight entertainment system that broadcasts the plane's radio communication with Air Traffic Control. You can list to the ATC centers across the country as they tell your pilots what to do and where to go. You listen in as your pilots talk back to ATC. And you can listen to all the ATC communications with other planes in your area and on your frequency.

It's in the arcane language of ATC-Pilot speak, but after a little while you can figure out most of what they're saying.

I'm amazed at how fast the flight seems when I zone out listening to the hypnotic rhythms of flight levels, turbulance warnings, directions, and assorted heading requests.

Seven years ago this morning, Channel 9 users had a different experience. I wasn't flying that day, but Putt4Eagle was on a flight from Chicago to Phoenix. A few years ago, in a chilling post on Flyertalk.Com, he recounted his experience listening to Channel 9 as the FAA shut down all US air travel for the first time in history.

On 9/11, I was listening to Ch. 9. I was on a flight out of ORD to AZ (757) seated in 5F. We had just taken off and where climbing to cruise. A flight out of Rockford, IL was squeezing between us and the UA in front of us. I watched as he lined up to get on the highway westbound. Then, abruptly, the Rockford flight called ATC and requested immediate clearance to return to home. ATC responded with some quick direction and asked if they were experiencing trouble. No, just directed to return home by company pronto. Hmmm, strange I thought.

Then the UA in front of us requested emergency clearance back to ORD. Loooong pause from ATC. Now, this is Chicago Center air space. There are no pauses. Certainly not 30-40 seconds of dead air. Hmm, man that is weird, I thought. Then like a starters pistol went off, the comm light up. Another plane req. clearance, then another, another.... boom, boom, boom. Nothing from ATC. I nudged the guy next to me and said put on Ch. 9. He could see by the expression on my face, I was serious.

ATC got on the air and started by saying this was going to go quick and pilots needed to listen up. "Protocol responses are not required, just do exactly as I say quickly". Then it began. "UA ###, turn right heading blah, blah expect Springfield airport. SWA ###, turn left heading blah, blah expect Rockford. Delta ###...." This went on for about 3 solid minutes before I rang the bell for the FA who was passing out breakfast. Our number had not yet been called. The FA came by and I said "We are all going back to O'Hare, they are landing every plane in the sky. What is going on?!?" She looked at me in disbelief and kind of leaned down to look out the window. I could see that she was about to start to tell me not to worry about it when we pitched right at about 45*s. It was so quick it nearly dumped the FA in my lap.

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I don't know Putt4Eagle, but this post stayed with me from the first time read it.


My Mother was in lower Manhattan that morning. Her story is here.

Blue Angels over Seattle

A couple years ago I posted some pictures I took of the Blue Angels as the practiced over my Seattle apartment.

For those who don't know, the Blue Angels is the US Navy's precision flying team. They perform acrobatic stunts in fighter jets in frighteningly close proximity to one another. You can learn more about the Blue Angels here. Be warned, though, it is one of those stupid, obnoxious internet sites that plays music as soon as you open the page.

They were back again this week for Seattle's annual Seafair celebration. And this time, I had a better vantage point and better equipment.

Here are some of the picture I took on Saturday.











They constantly disappear and reappear around buildings and clouds. Spotting them can be a bit difficult. The roar of the engines tells you they are close, but it's not really helpful for spotting them. The buildings distort the audio perspective, and the difference between the speeds of sound and light further complicate matters.

When I knew they were close but couldn't see them, I would look over at the other roof top photographers to see where they were pointing their lenses.

Even though I didn't see the actual show, what these pilots were doing while preparing to head back to the performance area over Lake Washington never stopped amazing me.

You can see all of my unedited Blue Angels pictures from this year here on my Flickr page.

Weeeeeeeee

I gotta say, the idea of going down the slide in a non-emergency does sound kind of fun. Of course it doesn't matter how quickly you get off the plane when you still have to deal with customs and baggage claim. And replacing the slide for the airline can't be cheap. So I guess I'll stick with the door.

GEORGETOWN, Guyana — Guyanese authorities say a first-class airline passenger was so angry at seeing economy passengers leave a jetliner before him that he yanked open an emergency hatch and slid down the chute.

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Apparently The Obama campaign thought it sounded like fun, too.

The plane, an MD-80 Midwest charter, struggled to keep the nose at the necessary angle, as it left for Charlotte, N.C., the pilot said. Later, Midwest Airlines said the problem developed because an emergency slide located in the tail cone of the plane deployed in flight and never threatened the safety of the flight. The National Transportation Safety Board said it planned to investigate the incident.

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It's getting there

What better topic for my 787th post than the upcoming Boeing 787 aircraft.

It's getting there. I was supposed to by flying, well, now. But that didn't quite work out.

From the Seattle PI:

Since October, Boeing has announced three major 787 delays, but McNerney has said Boeing finally has a revised schedule that it can meet -- first flight in the fourth quarter, initial deliveries pushed back from this month until the third quarter of 2009, and 25 Dreamliners delivered by the end of 2009 rather than 112 as originally planned.

...

Shanahan said the wings of plane No. 1 are complete, and the forward and aft body sections are nearly complete.

The center fuselage section should be completed in June, and then power can be turned on to the plane by the end of that month.

It will be a "photo finish," Shanahan predicted, to complete the work on the first plane and meet the "power on" milestone.

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As the price for jet fuel continues to climb, innovative aircraft like the 787 will become more important. Lower fuel consumption will be part of it. But the potential for a much more pleasant flying experience may help people stomach the higher airfare the industry so critically needs to charge.

There are some great resources available on the Boeing website that go into greater detail about the internal finish, larger windows, and sleek design.

It may be a few years before I get to travel on one, but I'm still looking forward to it.

More pictures available here.