The price of pride?
Kenya Airways chief Titus Naikuni on what will happen to Africa's multitude of small flag carriers if they don't consolidate: "Eventually, the flag will become heavier than the airline and the wings will fall off."
Touchy subject
From the "yes, this is official Uncle Sam procurement/I'm not making this up" department. My faithful Pentagon watcher Gas Giant has breathlessly passed on this latest gem from the US government:
"Sources Sought for groin rehabilitation at Dog Beach, Fort Monroe, VA".
Which reminds me of the true tale of one of our very own Budgie News hacks who, upon finally getting to his hotel after another leg of a long recent delivery flight, was so tired he put skin-soothing "jock-itch" cream on his toothbrush instead of toothpaste. "Does that mean," asked one of his completely unsympathetic colleagues the next morning "that your groin is full of minty freshness?"
Sir Reginald S. Potter saga
Thanks to the many nephews and nieces everywhere who continue to send snippets related to the (obviously) highly popular subject of weird and wonderful reggies.
Oscar Gallo from California recalls a time when he and fellow passengers were treated to not one, but two aborted take-offs - neither without ANY explanation. It was only later, after safely reaching his destination still without any cause being given, that he realised how appropriate the I-DEMO registration of his aircraft really was.
Loyal nephew Capt Sebastien Tiberghien of the French air force turns the tables on our anglo-centricity with the observation that the sight of Piper G-SOIF would make sense in arid parts of the lonely planet. "In the French way you would pronounce this as 'J'ai soif!'" (I am thirsty).
From moles deep within the bowels of the Ministry of Planes comes notice that two of the aircraft in the recent air accident investigation branch bulletins are:
G-SKID and G-DIZY.
Actually it wasn't really Bottom Kneddy at all but in reality nephew Greg Baddeley of London Stansted airport.
And from out in Zambia, nephew Mike Campbell tells me a tale of two Cessna 207s - ZK-DRY and ZK-WET. "Can you guess which one was the land plane and which was the floatplane?" (We have a song about that, don't we children?)
More Sam spam...
The US General Accounting Office says of biometric technologies (eye scans, fingerprints etc) for aviation security that some limitations exist: "For example, some people cannot enroll in a biometic system because they lack the appropriate body part."
So beware Capt "Long" John Silver and F/O "Blind" Pew, the crew of low cost carrier Bandit Air - bring along some form of alternate identification. By the way, tattoos don't count, apparently.
Source: Flight International