Crossing the Skies

CrossingTheSkies will be at Passenger Terminal Expo ‘10

Aviationer — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 20:41:33 +0000

Finally, the blog team will be attending the Passenger Terminal Expo ‘10 at Brussels during Tuesday 23th and Wednesday 24th. This exhibition tries to gather airport-related companies such airport managers, airport owners, airlines, handling companies and consulting firms.

This year the main subject will be the Automated People Movers (a.k.a. APM), those automated trains that move hundreds of passengers from satellite terminals to the main terminals. Besides, some other issues will be discussed such sustainability, privatisation and passanger experience enhancing among others.

There will be several parallel events, like the World Airport Awards, giving some symbolic prices to the best airports in terms of performances, growing, passengers’ experience and even cleaningness!

We’ll post some pictures when we get back home, and hope to have a great time there.

Bookmark It!

Red Bull Air Race 2010 World Championship is back

Aviationer — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:30:52 +0000

Once again, this year the Red Bull Air Race opens in Abu Dhabi on 26 & 27 March. The world’s top 15 pilots will start their six-month long battle for championship points in the first of eight races on a total of five continents.

The World Championship will take place in some of the cities already visited by previous Red Bull Air Race Championships, and these are:

- Abu Dhabi (UAE) 26&27 March

- Perth (Australia) 17&18 April

- Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) 8&9 May

- Windsor (Canada) 5&6 June

- New York (USA) 19&20 June

- Lausitz (Germany) 7&8 August

- Budapest (Hungary) 19&20 August

- Lisbon (Portugal) 4&5 September

Want more information? Just browse www.redbullairrace.com and you’ll get pics, videos, news and much more. Just keep tuned with CrossingTheSkies, because there’s more to come!

Red Bull Air Race. Font: www.redbullairrace.com

Bookmark It!

Kids controlling New York airspace

Aviationer — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:49:39 +0000

That’s what happened on Feb 22, 2010. Apparently, one of the JFK air traffic controller brought to work with him his son and his daughter (first day the son, next day the daughter). He was actually authorized to bring them to work. The fact is that the daring daddy allowed them to speak through the mic and control the airplanes, converting the JFK tower into a kindertower.

Finally, somebody recorded all the conversations via liveATC, and the video came out. Now this air controller is resting at home with his kids with no job and no money.

Check this video!

Bookmark It!

Load & Balance Sheet

Aviationer — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 20:50:10 +0000

The load & balance sheet (or the load sheet and the balance sheet) are two types of templates generally used in air transport. Their main goals are:

- To load the aircraft in a correct way, ensuring that the aircraft doesn’t exceed any operational limit (like MTOW, MZFW or MLW).

- To lay out properly the payload in order not to alter so much the center of gravity.

- To inform the captain about the payload distribution, as well as the center of gravity position.

With all this information (total load in compartments, passengers weight, cargo weight, moment index, %MAC), the captain should be ready to set the trim correctly, so the aircraft behaves in a same way whichever way the load has been loaded in.

Here you have an example of a loadsheet referring a flight from New York JFK to Geneva GVA. This document shows you the total passengers onboard, the load in compartments, the different weights depending on the flight stage and some other information.

On the other hand, we have the balance sheet from an Airbus A320. Once you have inputted all the pax and cargo weights, you get the moment index or the %MAC (Mean Aerodynamic Chord) that enables the pilot to set the aircraft trim in the proper position.

Bookmark It!

Airport Madness 2

Aviationer — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 10:43:07 +0000

Howdy!

From CrossingTheSkies, we wish you a fantastic and a happy 2010. To première this new year, here you have an awesome flash game named Airport Madness 2 (there’s an old version called Airport Madness) that will blow up all your productivity at work.

And again, for this year I expect to increase my posting rate, as well as the quality and rigorousness of every single post. Of course, if you have any comment/proposal to this blog, CrossingTheSkies.com is willing to hear those and make this blog much more pleasant for all of you.

Bookmark It!

Airport vehicles. Are they slow?

Aviationer — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 17:00:43 +0000

Everybody who has flown sometime, is familiar with the airport vehicles. There’s thousands of them around the world, different models and different brands. Today we gonna see some of them, and their main features.

Aircraft steps

This steps provide to passengers a connection from the ground to the airplane. It is often mounted on a light truck or a van, and it can be a extensible or fixed stairs.

Luggage truck

This little truck tows a whole load of packed trailers, with all the passengers’ luggage. Although, the ULD containers are widespread. The Unit Load Device, is a container to load the baggage in, and they fit in the aircraft deck, so the luggage truck tows ULD instead of rusty trailers.

Fuel tanker

That is, a truck full of fuel (usually loaded with Jet A-1, but 100LL for GA is Ok as well) that provides airplanes with kerosene. It’s basically made up of a rear tank, a pump and a hose. Sometimes, they are simply a pump and they get the fuel from a ground hydrant.

Bendy bus

The bendy bus is comprised of two rigid parts, and it is articulated. They are used as people mover, to transport passengers from the terminal to the remote aircrafts. It’s also possible to use a single bus though.

Fire truck

The fire truck is a special motor vehicle, adapted to fight the fire in case of an emergency landing or a crash. They usually have a water tank and a water gun, able to launch compressed water to parts set on fire up to 200 feet.

Catering truck

This van serves the airplanes with the most extraordinary and exquisite (¬¬’) airline food, to make passengers feel comfortable when flying. It is basically a big metal box that can be lifted, in order to reach the aircraft height.

Aircraft tow

This tow is just a truck that it frequently lifts the front wheel of the aircraft, and push it back to the correct position to start the taxi to the runway. Sometimes, this little bugs cannot lift the aircraft, so there’s a towing bar that is attached to the front wheel and the truck just tow it back.

These are the most used vehicles used in an airport. Although, you can find some more out there. Now, have you always thought that airport vehicles were slow to hell? Top Gear don’t think so.

Bookmark It!

Dreamlike. Dreamline

Aviationer — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 11:01:25 +0000

There it goes!

Finally, the Seattle-born Boeing 787 Dreamliner is ready to go. After 2-year delay, the brand new B787 Dreamliner got his first flight at Paine Field, against Mother Nature. They completed all the basic flight tests to the main parts of the aiplane, including instruments and controls.

The Dreamliner will have room for 250 passengers (even though the airlines can actually modify the seating layout) and it will be able to fly up to 2800 miles (4600km) with any stopover. Boeing Co. has right now about 840 orders, giving them a worth of 140 billion US dollars.

Here is the first flight video. Notice the torsion of the wings because of the composite materials used in this bird.

Bookmark It!

Full throttle and downhill

Aviationer — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 09:56:34 +0000

I always thought that downhill was for bikes, maybe a buggy could do that as well. These two guys decided to do that…with an airplane. In fact, they get the Highlander, an amateur-built STOL aircraft that can actually land in less than 150 feet (50 meters) and in steep runways up to 40º. Amazing.

There’s no doubt they from USA, not only for the accent, but also for the country-like music they listen to when flying.

This vid has been recorded from another hill, from the outside, so you can appreciate much better the acrobatics.

This vid instead, show you the acrobatics onboard the airplane.

Extract from LandingShort.com

Bookmark It!

Joking around

Aviationer — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 12:49:13 +0000

These two guys were trying to land at Gustaf III of Saint Barthélemy (a.k.a. St. Barth) (and the IATA/ICAO code is SBH/TFFJ) doing some jokes in one of the most difficult approach to an airport EVER!

Or are they Bert & Ernie?

Bookmark It!

Air France A380 back to JFK due to computer trouble

Aviationer — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:02:52 +0000

The recently unveiled Air France A380 that was flying from New York Kennedy Airport (KJFK) to Paris (LFPG) was forced to land back to New York, just 90 minutes after it took off. It is said that a minor computer problem could make that happens.

“It was Friday 30th at night. After 90 minutes of normal flight, the airplane was obliged to go back to the departure airport, New York Kennedy. The airplane is brand new, and it’s breaking in. The minor computer trouble caused some lost of accuracy on navigation parameters” an Air France spokesman said.

Air France A380

The Air France A380, the largest double-decker ever, lift his flight a week ago (Friday 20th) from Paris Roissy-Charles de Gaulle to New York – J.F. Kennedy with more than 500 passengers onboard.

Bookmark It!