Fills this week’s “Madness” quotient on PlaneMadness.Com!
~Capt’n Chris

You might remember a while back when I interviewed Patrick McCall, who was the pilot of the PC-12 involved in this. You can listen to the interview here. Anyhow, AvWeb.Com has obtained this radar video and they have given me permission to reproduce it here. You can see by the video just how close the F-16 came to one of the GA aircraft, as well as hear the pilot’s radio transmissions concerning the event.

Capt’n Chris

This is very good in my opinion, but then again hardly anything Newt says isn’t.
~Capt’n Chris

This had to get the heart going…
~Capt’n Chris

I’ll be back in full swing soon, I just need this time to re-charge so I don’t podfade!

Thanks
~Capt’n Chris

This image was released by NASA on Memorial Day. This is the Mars Phoenix Lander parked on the surface of the red planet. In addition to the American Flag, note the DVD, which contains information for future explorers.

~Capt’n Chirs

The lander sent back 48 amazing pictures of the it’s surroundings.

Preparations are now under way for the lander to use it’s trench-digging robotic arm, it’s primary task to check the surrounding soil for signs of life.

The lander’s mission will last for 90 days and as more photos come, I will be posting them here!

Check out one of the lander’s images so far:

According to his trainer he was blown out of his nest as a chick, raised and then re-released, only to return to humans for food. In other words, he had become imprinted.

So now Challenger travels to sporting events nationwide and thrills audiences everywhere he goes. One of the things I found fascinating is that with this bird’s large size and 6 foot wing span, he only weighs 6 pounds.

Amazing!
~Capt’n Chris

Check out this amazing video of a hydrofoil record speed attempt. It really is amazing and reminds me of a scene right out of the 1995 movie Water World. And the coolest part (at least to me) are the underlying physics that make it all happen.

Basically it’s really simple- A hydrofoil is a submerged wing that’s attached to the boat above it. As the boat accelerates, the wing under the water produces lift- Just like a wing on an airplane. Remember it’s still fluid dynamics, whether it’s air or water.

The great part about hydrofoils is that as the boat accelerates, overall drag is reduced- The opposite of aircraft. That is because as the foils produce lift they raise the boat out of the water and walla, the drag of all that water on the boat’s hull is gone!

Check this next video out. This guy is a retired Boeing engineer who converted his Bayliner with hydrofoils. The other part I thought was really cool is that he uses his laptop as an autopilot to control bank angle!

And last, check out how much fun the guy in this next video is having. It’s a great video to watch and is of a hydro wakeboarder being pulled behind a boat. I’d embed the video here, but it’s author has requested that it not have that capability, so I’ll post the link instead: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoGqdZNdb_o.

Well, that’s about it for hydrofoils today. Check back though because I find hydrofoils so fascinating, I just may do another post about them in the near future!
~Capt’n Chris

There are 40 species of flying fish in the world and are found in warmer waters just about everywhere. The species has probably been doing occasional long flights for thousands of years, only to be captured on film finally by today’s camera laden society; Which brings up another point- You would think that these flying fish would be like fillet mignon for the local sea birds, or sort of like that rare, really good tasting treat they only get once in a while. Or, perhaps they eat them quite a bit, as it would seem like they’d be easy prey.

Anyhow, thinking of the mechanics behind the unique ability these fish have demanded that I do some further research. According to the National Geographic website, the fish actually begins it’s flight underwater. Like an airplane accelerating down a runway for take off, it propels itself to about 37 miles (60 kilometers) per hour. Seriously, just like an airplane, once Vr is achieved the fish literally angles itself upward until it leaves the water. Once out the water these fish can reach heights of 4 feet (1.2 meters) and have been known to glide 655 feet (200 meters).

The thing that sets this fish apart from other animals that break the water’s surface is that it takes actions to stay airborne and commonly achieves success in doing that. The fish beats it’s tail like the propeller on a hydrofoil, serving to propel the fish, which creates more lift and therefore… prolongs it’s flight.

It’s really quite amazing, but even more so to watch.

~ Capt’n Chris

Links:

• Main Page
• News
• Mission Overview
• Launch
• Images
• Multimedia
• Spacecraft & Instruments

You can visit www.nasa.gov/phoenix for updates.
~Capt’n Chris

I don’t know what it is really that caught my eye about the Su-47, as I’ve seen forward swept wing prototypes before; Most notably the Grumman X-29 shown at left (photo courtesy of NASA); of which two were built in the 1980’s and tested for a decade. In fact, the X-29 was the first forward swept wing aircraft to fly in level supersonic flight, by the way.

I guess I just always found the forward swept wing design concept fascinating, with a kind of ‘counter-culture’ influence that once manifested, created something that we all kind of just looked at in a dumbfounded gaze. I hadn’t given the X-29 any thought though in years and so when I saw Sukhoi’s variation of the concept, I found myself being lured back into that same gaze again!

There are plenty of websites out there with great info on the Su-47, most notably below. Interesting though, a quick sweep of Sukhoi’s website yields absolutely nothing.

More Info on the Su-47

• Sukhoi Su-47 Berkut
  Googlepages quick aviation links page with a considerable amount of info.
• AirForce-Technology.Com
  Another very comprehensive collection of good facts
• Wikipedia
  Article on the Su-47

Su-47 Quick Specs

• Length: 22.6 m (74 feet 2 inches)
• Wingspan: 15.16 m to 16.7 m (49 feet 9 inches to 54 feet 9 inches)
• Height: 6.3 m (20 feet 8 inches)
• Max takeoff weight: 77,162 lbs (35,000 kg)
• Maximum speed: Mach 2.1 (2,550 km/h, 1,550 mph)
• Range: 3,300 km (2,050 miles)
• Service ceiling: 18,000 m (59,050 feet)
• Rate of climb: 230 m/s (45,300 feet/minute)

It’s worth mentioning that the word Berkut has been used to name an aircraft before. Also in the mid 1990’s, a variation on Burt Rutan’s Long EZ design hit the market as a kit and you can check that out here. For the sake of this post though I won’t get into that ‘Berkut’ except to say that at the time I feel in love with it and wanted one, so perhaps I’ll do a blog post in the future on it.

That’s all for now!
~Capt’n Chris

The other is that I’ve covered Yves before. In fact, he was the subject of the very first PlaneMadness Podcast on May 2, 2007. You can check it out, if you don’t mind a real trip back to yesteryear, a USB mic, or quite a nervous host.

I can’t help but find it somewhat coincidental though that in PlaneMadness’s one year anniversary month, Yves is back out before the cameras again. Perhaps I should do a full episode about him and pursue an interview now, but since I’m not reporter Megyn Kelly, the opportunity for that was probably more of an option for Episode #1! (Capt’n Chris would be forever indebted though, if someone out there reading this just happened to know Yves and could provide the hookup…).

You can find Yves’s latest video here, but personally (and aside from the barrel roll and a reported loop?) I happen to like the video below a little better.

Maybe it’s the pulsating rif from Moby that adds just the right amount of awe to a jawbone that’s already on the ground? I don’t know, but there’s one thing I do know- I definitely want my own jet wing now!

~Capt’n Chris

Official Website: http://www.Jet-Man.Com

Air Traffic Controllers

This show is completely dedicated to Air Traffic Controllers. In that respect I have, with permission from the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), included in this episode actual ATC recordings of flight assists or “saves”, where Air Traffic Controllers truly saved the day for pilots who were in real trouble.

And, all of the recordings you’re about to hear are the basis for this year’s Archie League Awards, where NATCA honored the controllers in these recordings for their outstanding work.

You can check out the official awards program here.

You can also click on the links below for expanded information overall, and specifically, for more detailed information on each of the riveting audio clips you’re about to hear.

• Awards Winners & Detailed Info
  
• Audio Recordings & Transcripts
• President’s Award
• Honorable Mentions
• Video of Awards Presentation
• Photos
• Official Press Release

I think you’ll find this episode of the PlaneMadness Podcast fascinating!
~Capt’n Chris

What I want to discuss today is the subject of crew hotels. I’d expect that most folks who aren’t in the airline industry would probably be surprised to learn that to crew members, the subject of what hotels we stay in is a very important topic.

To understand this, one has to imagine spending half their life in hotels. That’s right. For a typical crew member, a 15 day per month schedule could be called average. For more senior folks (see Pilot Seniority), that number’s less while for the more junior folks, it’s more. But for an average amount of time that a crew member spends in a hotel per month, 15 days away from home seems like pretty typical schedual. So you can see why crew members care quite a bit about where their airline decides to put them up - These hotels can become like our second homes.

First let me mention that when a union is involved, there are contracts in place which determine to a large extent what hotel accommodations are utilized. This is true in many cases for non-union carriers as well who have verbal agreements with their employee groups. These contracts may stipulate things like:

• Each crew member to his or her own room
• No rooms on the first floor
• Restaurants within walking distance
• Availability non-smoking rooms, etc.

But let me turn away from the legalese contract mumbo-jumbo and just focus on some basic tenets of crew hotel worthiness. When you ask two crew members what they think of the same hotel, they may disagree on certain things, but they’ll probably all agree on the following:

• Hotels within walking distances of shopping centers, restaurants, movie theaters, etc. are better then any hotel ‘in the sticks’
• Big name hotels are usually cleaner then ‘mom and pop’ type outfits
• Getting you’re own room is always better then sharing one
• Never take a bath. Always take a shower. Too many other people have used it before you!
• Free internet is the only kind; Hotels that still charge for internet access are draconian!
• Why do they always put us on the same floor as the 12th grade girls soccer team?
• The hotels with shuttles that go somewhere besides the airport are revolutionary!
• Jacuzzi bubbles are nice
• Jacuzzi bubbles are annoying

The debate could rage on, but I think you can see what crew members care about and what makes a good crew hotel. By the way there is no one particular hotel chain in my opinion that provides a better crew hotel then another. They all seem to have their pluses and minuses. A lot of the time what makes or breaks a hotel is location anyway. I’d rather have a fair hotel in a great location then a great hotel in a fair location, but that’s just me- On my overnights I try to get out of the hotels as much as possible!

And with that, I’ll wrap it up. Fly safe.

~Capt’n Chris

Speaking of The Offspring, I’ve been listening to them for 15 years, since their early years in Orange County California where I’m originally from myself. I can vividly remember driving through LA traffic every night on the way to college while listening to ‘Bad Habit’ - A song about, well, bad traffic… among other things! Most of the band members are around my age and interestingly enough I’ve got a very good friend who lives next door to one of them and another good friend who is working for one of them. With all this I still haven’t met any members of The Offspring, suffice to say how cool that would be. Also, you may have caught Joe d’Eon’s excellent interview with Dexter Holland several months back. Dexter is an avid pilot, I’ve seen his airplane a few times, but for the sake of his privacy, I’ll keep it’s type and location to myself.

On another note, you may have noticed that I added the category “About the Job” to this site. I’ll be posting everything I write that has anything to do with being an Airline Pilot in that category now.

So with that, I wanted to give you a little insight into the subject of seniority, something I said I’d touch on in a future post. The easiest way to explain the term ’seniority’ to anyone who’s unfamiliar with it would simply be to describe a totem-pole. Now imagine that there’s a bunch of nicks in that totem-pole, from top to bottom, and every nick is one hire date of one pilot at an airline, starting from the top down. The pilot at the top was the first pilot hired and has first choice in everything from domicile to aircraft to even the tiniest little details having to do with his/her schedule. In other words, seniority is everything to an Airline Pilot.

Each airline has it’s own seniority list - it’s not something you can take with you when you leave. Hence all of the problems with integrating seniority lists when airlines merge. Even more important, seniority protects you when airlines have trouble and furlough pilots. The lower you are on the totem-pole, the greater the chances are of getting laid off when times are tough. So it’s important to get hired at what you think will be your final airline at as early of an age as possible.

Although no one has the exact answer, I think most pilots would agree that getting hired at a major in your early thirties should be good enough; although I know plenty of pilots who were hired at the majors in their mid-twenties, one of which is set to retire at his carrier as the number one pilot - And he will have been since the age of 54. Another pilot I know was hired by a major carrier in the 1960’s at the age of 20. Yes, 20. He retired #2 but essentially was the number one pilot since the actual number one had been out on a medical for some time. That’s pretty impressive when you consider that the major airlines employ literally thousands of pilots!

Well folks for lack of time I’m going to have to cut this post short - I need to get ready for work. Look forward to more posts ‘About the Job’ in the coming days/weeks as I try to fill this category up!

As always, fly safe!

~Capt’n Chris

Airline Pilots spend a lot of time on the road, as you probably already know. The specific amount of time each pilot spends away from home varies with airline, domicile and seniority. By the way, the terms domicile and seniority mean the city you are based in and the length of time you’ve been with the airline, respectively. The more seniority a pilot has, the less amount of time he or she has to be away from home, typically, and for that matter the greater choice in domiciles we can choose from to boot. I’d go into greater detail on seniority, but I’d like to stick to the meat of this post (pun intended). Note to self: Make a post about seniority in the near future.

I’m back out on another trip as I write. The airline put us up in a Marriott this time, and in the way of crew hotels, this one isn’t bad. The area is nice (that’s ‘crew code’ for safe to walk in), the hotel is clean, the furniture looks new and the air conditioner control unit on the wall is state-of-the-art, a tell tale indicator of basic hotel ‘air’ worthiness!

So it was no surprise this morning when I went downstairs for breakfast to find a full buffet for only $8.95; $7.71 after my crew discount. At first I was a bit skeptical that I could get a quality buffet for such a low price. I thought the food had to be limited in choices or perhaps it was served in such minute quantities that a double serving was in order on everything just to get a regular sized meal! But to my smug grin it was none of the above. As a result I actually felt that I had discovered a rare find and was quite happy.

We airline pilots spend a significant portion of our annual income on food. Not hard to believe, considering the amount of time away from home our career demands. I’d be able to give you a very accurate amount of 2007’s airline food bill if I was at home right now, since that’s where I keep track of it on my desktop computer via Quicken. But for the sake of expediting this post to ‘press’ so to speak, I’ll try to figure it out here in the hotel room as opposed to waiting.

We’ll use a typical three day trip as an example. Day one, the show time is usually so early that I just grab a banana and some water on my way out the door. I’m hungry again by 11:00 AM or so and that’s when I usually grab a sandwich from the terminal. I find the cost of an airport sandwich is usually around $10 bucks. Come dinner time I’m getting the munchies again and by now since we’re usually at the hotel the crew and I will generally grab something in either the hotel restaurant or in a restaurant near by. I usually spend another $20 dollars there but sometimes it’s higher if we go out for specialty food like sushi, etc. So we’ll say day one’s total food bill is around $30 dollars. Day two’s show time is usually early if day one’s release time was late afternoon and in that case day two pretty much matches day one as far as eating habits go. Day three can sometimes show later in the afternoon in which case I’ll grab breakfast like I did this morning and then catch dinner in the terminal later on in the evening.

All and all, I figure I spend $30-$45 dollars per day on food while I’m out on a trip. If you take the average of that ($37.50 per day) and multiply it by each of the days I’m gone:

• A 2 day trip costs $75.00
• A 3 day trip costs $112.50
• A 4 day trip costs $150.00

Now, the question of how many days I’m gone per month/year needs to be answered and it varies, so again we’re back to averages but they won’t be that far off from the real numbers. I figure, depending on the month, that I’m gone between 12-18 days. So we’ll use the average of that:

• 15 days per month
• 180 days/6 months per year

So now let’s take the average daily expenditure on food and multiply that by the number of days per month/year I’m gone:

• $37.50 X 15 days per month = $562.50 average monthly expense on food
• $37.50 x 180 days per year = $6750.00 average yearly expense on food

I look at the yearly expense and think, “…damn, that could be another motorcycle!”

Now, this post wouldn’t be complete or fair if I didn’t tell you that the airline compensated us for what’s known as TAFB, or Time Away from Base. TAFB is a calculated hourly per-diem amount for all time from initial trip check-in to the final release time after the trip is over minus that time where the main cabin door is shut and the parking brake is off. In other words, it’s an hourly wage outside of the time where I’m flying the airplane- Which makes sense because we crew members ought to be paid for the time we’re sitting in the hotel (away from our families) for the airline. That amount varies by airline but it’s usually not over $2.00 per hour - Yes, $2.00 per hour. It’s not a wage that’s governed by individual state minimum wage regulations; rather, it’s covered under the Railway Labor Act which is Federal in nature and therefore overrides state labor laws.

In a nutshell, if I do 6 hours of flying in a day, that’s covered under one wage- the higher one, while all the other time is covered under the lower, per-diem wage.

I must say though that most crew members I know just count their per-diem wage towards their ‘total’ wage and take the subject of food pretty seriously, since in the end it all effects the bottom line still.

And with that I need to hit the gym and get ready for work, so I’ll sign off for now. Look for another blog post tomorrow.

Capt’n Chris

It’s been an interesting voyage. Along the way I’ve been privileged to have met a lot of you and I look forward to meeting more of you in the future! I want to extend a heartfelt thank you for all of your support through your emails, your comments, and for buying me a Starbucks now and then.

I especially want to thank all of you for making my efforts worth it - Without your input and feedback it wouldn’t have been as rewarding or nearly as enjoyable. I look forward to continuing to provide you with more interesting content in the future!

All the best and thanks again,
~Capt’n Chris

Seems as though the South American drug cartels are going high tech- They are building crude submarines to haul their drugs in. This is a video from the United States Coast Guard intercepting one of these subs. As you can see, although they resemble the type of sub used in the civil war, they are quite effective and reports are that they can carry as much as 20,000 lbs. of cargo at 15 knots. In the last 6 months alone, the Coast Guard has intercepted 42 of these crafts!

~Capt’n Chris

Top Gear - Television Show in the UK

The Airline Debacle
Charge More, Merge Less, Fly Better - NYT.Com
Mergers Alone Won’t Solve U.S. Airline Problems - AW&ST

World Airways - Last Flight from Da Nang
Click here…

R/C Turbine F-16 - with Afterburner
Click Here..

Perfect Gear Up Landing
Click Here…

Superstitions run rife after Soyuz mishap - Austrailian Broadcasting Corporation
Click Here…

Cessna Reintroduces Classic 195… With Glass And FADEC - Aero-News.Net
Click Here…

David Palermo Photography
Click Here…

Rescuers: Missing Priest’s Chances of Survival Fading - FoxNews.Com
Click Here…

Man Claims He Launched Mysterious Red Lights in Skies Over Phoenix - FoxNews.Com
Click Here…

Music in this Episode
Brother Love - There She Goes

In the mean time I’ll spare both you and myself from any reiteration of events during these last few weeks but I would like to take a moment to comment on this debacle of airline merger hell we now find ourselves in - that’s you and me. I say that because I work in it and you either do too or, you’re a customer of this industry.

We are in the process of watching the airline industry completely reshape itself. It’s profound, alarming, and quite honestly downright scary as an employee to watch. The current phase of that restructuring is the merger mania we’re in now. Everyone’s panicky to get merged as soon as possible both out of desperation over the price of oil and in wanting to take advantage of the current administration that’s still in office. Airline managements feel the democrats (if they should win) would be less favorable to anything which would make the American public suffer anymore.

Now a little about mergers: Airline mergers are never good. That’s just an opinion and I realize a strong one at that, but in my own experience that always seems to be the case. Airlines merge not because they want to, but because they have to. Some in the “know” would also argue that there are no such things as mergers- that there are only just ‘acquisitions’ where one airline (the stronger one) absorbs a less stronger one. I guess I’d have a hard time arguing against that.

So seeing that airlines merge because they have to, it might make you wonder why. Here’s a short answer- It’s because when the market turns downward the airlines are at the ‘tip of the stick’ so to speak. It’s just an industry which feels the market’s highs and lows much more sensitively then many other industries. When people’s discretionary income goes down they don’t travel as much, plain and simple.

In these situations the airlines find themselves overloaded with too many employees, routes, and equipment. That’s when they cut back and often times merge when cutting back alone is not enough. You could almost call this the “basic tenants” of airline operating principal- A sad but true reality. But what comes when merging isn’t enough? Many of my peers and I feel that with the price of oil only going up, we are in very scary, uncharted territory now.

It’s hard when these things happen for us pilots because along with our pay our lifestyles also suffer. Many of us have to transfer to another airplane, domicile, and/or sometimes even have to move out of state just to keep our jobs. But that’s all based on seniority- when you were hired versus every other pilot. The longer you’ve been with an airline, the better off you are. Think of it as a totem pole. Those pilots that have been with the airline the longest tend to suffer the least when it comes to reduced flying and cutbacks.

All one can do is be prepared. I do this by continual study of the industry, which by the way this site and podcast are great for. So, if I had to make a few (albeit bold) predictions now, I’d guess that we’re going to see the following in the coming weeks and months:

• American will merge with Continental and British Airways will have some kind of stake and/or alliance in the resulting combined company
• United and USAir will merge and should not face the same kind of government grief they did before- I think this administration will be kinder in light of today’s woes. The resulting company’s future in my opinion is very dark though. I can already feel the tectonic plates of pilot discontentment brewing beneath this one and to say it’s going to get ugly on the pilot side would be an understatement. Plus there’s heavy overlap on both company’s routes which will require dramatic restructuring/cutting of people and equipment at an equally dramatic cost to the pilots involved.

All and all we’ll end up with just a few major airlines in the United States when the dust settles. When this exactly is… is anyone’s guess. But here’s what it will mean to the flying public:

• Fewer choices in airlines
• Fewer choices in routes
• Higher fairs
• Longer waits
• Increased growth at the regional airlines which will equal increased utilization of smaller regional aircraft

So, with all this uncertainty I figure I need a little time to myself to regroup. Like I posted on Twitter, I purchased a road bike. I’ll be heading off to Cambria, California tomorrow for a ride along the Big Sur. I’m hoping to get all the way to Ragged Point and back (24.4 miles each way) but we’ll see. One of the cool things is that I’ve got a GPS (typical geek) and can plot my actual course on Google Maps. So I’ll do that and post it here when I get back. Also, I’ll get another podcast out this Thursday or Friday.

Thanks for your continued patronage!
~Capt’n Chris

But when it comes to the TSA, they seem to be held to a higher level of accountability. This is because they directly effect us - You, me and every other American who goes to the airport. Every time we travel we have to endure this governmental beast of a bureaucracy - For me, it’s every time I go to work.

So when I heard about this TSA story I was not only shocked, I was quite appalled and then plain irate.

In it, MyFoxColorado.Com is reporting on a screener who brought a gun through a security check point, was caught, and then did not face any charges as a result OR even loose his job. To talk about this double-standard on the scale required would take hours or even days, but that’s not my point and I don’t think you’d stay long enough anyway.

Rather, I’d prefer to take this discussion to a higher level. The was an excellent article on April 25, 2008 in The Wall Street Journal by Peggy Noonan entitled, “The View from Gate 14″. It’s a highly suggestible read. Noonan describes how as a country we have become desensitized to unacceptable pat downs, pokes, prods, and other violations of our rights at TSA checkpoints - while at the same time we seem to be harboring an ever growing anger towards our elected officials for this “guilty until proven innocent” attitude they have taken against us while at the airport.

As an American Citizen, I watch first hand as my right to be proven guilty turns into a ‘right’ to be proven innocent every time I go to work or otherwise fly on the airlines. In this case, here is a TSA agent who was proven guilty, and then made innocent through the same perverted sense of airport justice that assumes everyone is guilty no matter what… Except TSA agents, apparently.

It’s ridiculous. It’s insane… but it begs a few basic questions:

• What’s the real reason he got off?
• What would have been the real outcome for one of us “non TSA folks?”
• Why the double standard???

It’s questions like these that the American People are going to have to get answered, or else we’re all just going to be continual victims of our own ignorance.

‘Nuff said.
Capt’n Chris

I have had the privilege of taking part in an email exchange with a couple of Airline Captains who flew during Edward Daly’s era. One was even a World Airways Pilot. I asked for and obtained permission to duplicate those emails here. I would love for these guys to join up on PlaneMadness.Com (HINT… HINT..) but until then, this is the next best thing. I think this kind of insight into airline yesteryear is absolutely incredible and deserves all the attention I can give it.

You can see the emails at the bottom of this post.
Capt’n Chris

Here’s another top-notch find from PlaneMadness Member SpeedBird48.

It’s Dan Rather from 1975 doing a report for the CBS Evening News on the deteriorating situation at that time in Da Nang, South Vietnam.

On the directive of it’s owner, Edward J.Daly, World Airways sent a number of flights into Da Nang to transport stranded refugees out of South Vietnam.

On this final flight, the US Embassy and the Vietnamese government warned that they would be unable to secure the airport from mobs of people. Still, Daly wanted to send one last flight in to pick up women and children and transport them to safety.

Instead, crowds mobbed the Boeing 727 after landing as it continued moving on the tarmac. Daly himself fought off soldiers who were pushing women, children, and their own relatives out of the way to get a spot on the plane.

So instead of a load of women and children, the 727 was mostly full of men, who shockingly had pushed their own family members out of the way to get on. The plane was also heavily over-loaded, and people were jam-packed in the cargo compartments - with the doors still open in flight.

After departure, the pilots were never able to get the gear up, as their were people in the wheel wells. The rear stairs never came up either, as there were also a number of people clinging to them as the airplane climbed- Most of which fell off but Daly crawled out onto the stairs himself and pulled the one last survivor in.

This is a tale of heroism and bravery on World Airways and Edward Daly’s part.

Many thanks to SpeedBird48 for the link.

Capt’n Chris

—– Original Message —–
Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2008
To:
Subject: World Airways - Last Flight from Da Nang

Bob, one time I landed at E.L. Cord’s Fish Lake Valley ranch. (E.L.Cord founded American Airlines and hired C.R. Smith) The ranch foreman told me that the day before a guy named Ed Daley was there, in a Citation jet, and he got off the plane wearing a brace of revolvers. The foreman thought it was pretty cool. <g>

—– Original Message —–
Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2008
To:
Subject: World Airways - Last Flight from Da Nang

Steve, I knew all those guys. My only “combat” experience with Ed Daly was in 1979 when we were on strike and he came to the picket line with a revolver. He was waving it all over the place. I was about 3 feet from him and turned to go get my picket sign when I heard the damn thing go off. I dived into the iceberg plants and then heard the bastard laughing. He fired off a couple more rounds then left. He used to come out and arm wrestle us on the picket line. He was very strong. He was known to show up to union negotiations with a gun, slap it on the desk and say, “OK you sons of bitches let’s talk!” Our union was the Teamsters and he even scared them. I’ve got a lot of Daly stories some funny but most were sad. He was a mega drunk and won World in a poker game.

Bob
p.s. Sometimes on a quiet night I can still hear all my different airline uniforms fighting in the closet! World always won-must be the Daly legacy!

How unbelievably beyond completely cool can this be? I’m serious folks the ‘awesome’ factor here is so far off the charts with this one, that it’s in low Earth orbit by now. This guy put what he calls an “afterburner effect” on his R/C Turbine F-16. Now whether or not that constitutes a real afterburner I don’t know, however his use of the word ‘effect’ has me thinking it’s just that. An effect.

So after watching the video and thinking about it, I went searching the internet just to see if any companies were offering a real R/C Turbine with a real afterburner - Turns out there is one. It’s a German company and some details can be found here.

Anyhow, enjoy!
Capt’n Chris

It’s another ‘classic’ from The Onion!
-Capt’n Chris

They are real forward thinkers. In a day and age of record oil prices, this new ’shuttle’ makes it skid mark on America, as it delivers passengers by van instead of by cost prohibitive means like airplanes.
At least they have a since of humor. Hopefully SouthWest does too.

-Capt’n Chris

Southwest Airlines Now Taking Passengers To Destinations By Shuttle Bus

DALLAS—On-time departures, cushioned plastic seats and easy-to-hold metal poles will present a level of comfort never before experienced on Southwest flights.

04/15/2008 - Question & Answer Session Afterwards