Leaving SYD airspace The flaps on the mighty beast were fully extended. Moving onto the runway, the familiar roar of the four 747 General Electric engines came to life. Rolling down the runway, we accelerated slowly, leisurely using a huge amount of runway, before climbing smoothly and steadily out of Melbourne (Tullamarine) Airport. The climb was gentle and we turned almost casually over the farmlands north of the airport before executing a neat turn to head toward Sydney, the Australian coastline, the Pacific Ocean and Los angeles International airport (LAX) I say “familiar” because this was my 93rd take…
Yearly Archives
Yearly Archives for 2011.
My 747th flight approaches
On Sunday, I will fly my 747th flight in my life. After my 737th flight on a Boeing 737, I managed to to score this flight on a Qantas Boeing 747!Looking forward to Sunday in terms of the flight! Related Posts Tuesday Trip Report: 737 @ 737 How I got hooked on Flightmemory.com
United Flight 93
United is reinstating a United 93 as a flight starting 21 May 2011. The flight used to be operated by United from Newark to San Francisco using a Boeing 757 until September 11, 2001. On that date, approximately 46 minutes into the flight, hijackers diverted the plane towards Washington, D.C. The asumption is the target was the US Capitol or White House. The passengers attempted to regain control of the plane from the hijackers causing the plane to crash into fields in Pennsylvania, about 240 km from D.C. killing everybody. A movie was made about the hijacking. United removed Flight…
My 745th flight!
Auckland to Wellington on Jetstar yesterday was my 745th flight…2 to go and I have my 747th! On a Qantas 747!
United’s Oil Consumption will be expensive
According to Airways Magazine for June 2011, one out of every 350 barrels of oil produced in the world is used by the combined United-Continental airlines to fuel their 1262 planes! Every increase in oil has gotta hurt. Whats their long term plan for oil one wonders? If peak oil theory is correct then they face a very expensive future as oil becomes even pricier.
Hotels and Power Outlets
I just want to plug in my computer and charge it! Why is that so difficult? So many hotel rooms have no outlets. Others have a couple but the radio and lamps fill them. I have had to move furniture, work in the bathroom, squat on the bedroom floor all to get electricity! Anyone else have this issue?
Korean Air–lets go shopping!
In 2009, Korean Air foreshadowed it would be installing duty free stores on its ten new A380s. The airline is already the number one airline company in the world for in flight retailing! Now they have revealed the store layout. It will be located at the back of the lower deck near the rear stairs. The store will replace 13 economy seats. The Korean A380 will have the lowest number of seats on board out of all of the airlines flying it (see my previous Blog post on the Korean A380). The duty free “store” is made…
Virgin Blues
Tonight I fly from Los Angeles to Sydney. I desperately hope this flight departs on time. Last flight from Australia to Los Angeles, left 11 hours late.I had flown in from Auckland to connect onto the LA flight and was met at the gate by a V Australia rep. As a result of an engine explosion on a flight out of LA all of the V Australia services had been delayed in a roll on effect.I was very impressed with the way V looked after its transit passengers. They bussed us to a hotel, gave us a…
Virgin Blue bites the dust
Virgin Blue is no more. After 11 years affixing the sides of planes across Australia, Virgin Blue. Pacific Blue and Polynesian Blue are all becoming Virgin Australia in the worst kept rebranding “secret” (was it meant to be a secret?). I love the new TV ad: First some history. For many years, Australia had a very cozy duopoly between two domestic airlines: Trans Australian Airlines (TAA) and Ansett. TAA became Australian Airlines and then merged with international airline Qantas. Ansett was bought out by Air New Zealand who started with a small shareholding and grew that holding. But there still remained…
Amazing A380 Cotrail
A huge contrail from an Airbus A380 filmed from cockpit of a KLM Boeing B747 above the South China Sea. You may need to watch it twice.
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