Recently in Odd stuff Category

Everyday tale of life in flight-test. I wonder who was first to notice?

IDENTIFICATION
  Regis#: UNK        Make/Model: B-78      Description: B 787 DREAMLINER
  Date: 05/07/2010     Time: 2245

  Event Type: Incident   Highest Injury: None     Mid Air: N    Missing: N
  Damage: Minor

LOCATION
  City: SEATTLE   State: WA   Country: US

DESCRIPTION
  AIRCRAFT LOST TAIL SENSOR CONE UPON LANDING, BOEING FIELD, SEATTLE, WA

INJURY DATA      Total Fatal:   0
                 # Crew:   2     Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:    
                 # Pass:   0     Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:    
                 # Grnd:         Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:    

WEATHER: UNKNOWN

OTHER DATA
  Activity: Other      Phase: Landing      Operation: OTHER


  FAA FSDO: SEATTLE, WA  (NM01)                   Entry date: 05/10/2010 

 

And here´s a trailing cone that hasn´t fallen off. The idea of this work

was to work out what length of line would be stable. The pressure sensor

is the rigid bar highlighted towards the end of the movie - the cone

is just to keep the whole thing stable.

Trailing-Cone-Stability.wmv

And finally, since the whole fascinating question of trailing cones has

probably never been so thoroughly explored on a blog before, here´s a picture

by Matt Cawby of Seattle of a 787 trailing cone before flight.

View image 

Opinions in the pilot community will doubtless be divided over the conduct of this American Airlines Boeing 767 captain who doesn't like the runway he's been given and doesn't care who knows it. To the point of unilaterally switching runways at JFK, declaring an emergency, and carrying on his own sweet way. Opinions in the ATC community may be less divided.

KJFK_EMERG.mp3

I'm assuming this was a nice clear day and he could see where he was going.

Recording courtesy of LiveATC.net

How about "an airshow"? Which makes you wonder how many people will turn up for the actual Victory Day parade in Moscow in four days time after getting rather more than a sneak preview of the aerial component yesterday. All the tank freaks I suppose.

Having set off down the road of chronicling the recent achievements of female pilots in the world's military aerobatic teams, I guess I'm now stuck with it. You'll recall how the Red Arrows and Patrouille de France both announced their first female pilots last year, and then the Patrouille confirmed the appointment of a female leader this year.

Well, now it turns out that Canada's Snowbirds have gone the same route. So congratulations to Lt Col Maryse Carmichael who is their new commander. (Just need some new aircraft now and all will be well.)

Canadian readers may point out that this was announced in January. OK, sort of. In a highly successful attempt to bury the good news, Canada's Department of National Defence announced the news thus: Canadian Forces Snowbirds to gain leadership depth. I guess it meant something to somebody.

...zey grurr urp in zee murst deelartful way...and once in a while they become leader of one of the world's premier jet aerobatic teams.

So chapeaux off to Commandant Virginie Guyot, first featured in this blog just about a year ago, and who is this year leading the Patrouille de France.

My story of the volcano is just one of a gzillion of course - but educational for travellers. You can follow the saga of what happened to my wife and I on Facebook. In brief, we just failed to get out of Madrid on Thursday night as our flights (him on business on Easyjet, her on holiday on Ryanair - long story) were in the first wave of cancellations. What happened next was interesting.

My early days in communications have actually been pretty challenging professionally, but sometimes I think there's less to it than it might seem. For example:

AIG statement on the resignation of ILFC founder Steve Udvar-Hazy, 4 Feb 2010:

"On behalf of AIG, I would like to thank Steve for his tireless service to ILFC," said Robert H. Benmosche, AIG President and Chief Executive Officer. "We are grateful for the work he has done to continue ILFC's leadership in the industry."

AIG statement on the resignation of John Plueger, 26 Mar 2010:

"On behalf of AIG, I would like to thank John for his tireless service to ILFC," said Robert H. Benmosche, AIG President and Chief Executive Officer.
Douglas M. Steenland, non-executive Chairman of the ILFC Board of Directors, said, "We are grateful for the work John has done to continue ILFC's leadership in the industry."

Presumably the sheer intellectual effort of saying something was so challenging that it just seemed simpler to say nothing. But what to make of the subtle sharing of the quote in the second case? Ilfcologists everywhere willl be pondering that one I'm sure.

Finally got my first visit to Airbus's Getafe facility a few miles south of Madrid today and, even though obviously I'm currently biased towards my primary employer, it's hard not to be impressed by the ultra-leading-edge composites and other manufacturing technology there.

Obviously the pride of Getafe right now is the magnificent beast shown below refuelling an itsy-bitsy Boeing E-3F AWACS. In the refuelling community, as I've been learning, the very occasional hairy things that happen usually involve tanking to large aircraft rather than to fighters. So topping up the AWACS, with its dorsal radome, has given everyone a lot of satisfaction. Particularly as it so happened that when the loaned AWACS turned up at the rendezvous it did in fact need refuelling for real so the first 'trial' was actually done in anger.

So driving into work on this sunny Seville / Sevilla morning with not many cares in the world, I have one of those "what the heck is that doing there" moments.

In fact I first have a "what the heck is that" moment. But there´s no doubt about it - tucked in with the usual couple of 737s, TNT 146, bizjets and light-singles there is unquestionably a Boeing C-17. Which in the actual home of the mighty A400M is not wholly expected.

And not just any old C-17 either.

Apologies for the lousy pic, but I only had my Blackberry and was getting very funny looks from the airport police on whome I did not fancy trying out my Spanish. But here it is.

 In fact the aircraft in question is this one. And I haven´t been able to find out what it´s doing here. Does anyone out there know?

So, unexpectedly early in the market wars to come, the two contenders meet. Not for the last time you can be sure.

Here´s our own Sevillan candidate this week at the EADS media briefing. It´s MSN2 which will fly in March. MSN1 is airborne on its sixth flight right at this moment.

When I was hired for this Airbus A400M communications contract, I was told early on "it'll be good if you can liaise closely with the test pilot - Ed Strongman (seen left discussing the flight with his British customers)  - very nice chap, you'll like him". What I quietly thought was "Oh Lord...". Here's the story.