I was traveling over the Christmas holiday - and picked up a couple of mostly useless trivia;
The US Airways "Arizona Cardinals" plane (pictured above), has not had it interior updated since America West and US Airways merged in 2005. It still has an America West interior.
And finally - even though for the last 5 years - the TSA has been hitting us over the head w/ the '3-1-1' rule for liquids apparently some people still don't get it. A man behind me was trying to bring a full size bottle of wine in his backpack.
It seems whenever I am traveling to Dulles (Washington Dulles - IAD) and I get an upgrade ahead of time - it means that my bags will be handled extra slowly.
(the orange 'Priority' tag on the bag is supposed to mean that the bag is one of the first ones off the plane and delivered to baggage claim).
Our plane landed at 4:05pm ET, and we were at the gate by 4:15pm. The gate was on the 'Z' concourse - right up against the main terminal so we didn't have to take a shuttle bus from the gate to the terminal. But the first bags didn't start showing up until 4:40pm and our last bag (pictured) didn't show up until 5pm (and we were the next to last passengers to get their bags).
I had the same thing happen to me 5 years ago - when I was flying back to Dulles from a business trip to India. I flew back on Christmas Eve and got upgraded to First Class for the flight from Frankfurt and so my bag was Priority tagged. And it was one the last ones off the plane (so I was slow getting through Customs).
I am beginning to think that ground crew at Dulles must just work differently or really don't care about those tags - and it is there just to make me the customer feel like I am getting something special.
The Boeing 787 Dreamliner finally got into the air today for its very first flight after 2 years of delays.
Now all that remains is to see if any problems crop up during flight testing - and that Boeing can now ramp up production to meet the existing customer orders.
I was walking through the bookstore the other day - and noticed that the staff had displayed several of Douglas Adams' books as "Sci Fi Classics" and it got me thinking. What makes a book or a movie a classic?
I discovered "Hitchhikers" in the early 80's and quickly became one of my favorite reads. I think I liked the quirky feel of it - like Monty Python in outer space (w/ an actual plot).
But when you think of Science Fiction "Classics" what comes to mind are the giants of Science Fiction. Arthur C Clarke. Issac Asimov. Frank Herbert. Robert Heinlein. Groundbreaking authors who defined Science Fiction as a literary genre. But Douglas Adams?
2009 marked the 30th anniversary since "Hitchhikers" was first published, but unfortunately Douglas did not live to see this milestone. He died of a heart attack in 2001.
He has left each of us to determine if "Hitchhikers" deserves to be called a Classic of Science Fiction.
Soviet Star Wars programs, in this month's issue of Air&Space/Smithsonian (article provides more detail on a Soviet orbital laser, that I touched on in a post a couple of years ago).
Two articles about the 'Shuttle Jr' (X-37) that appears to be finally heading into orbit as a technology demonstrator. One article on SpaceFlightNow, and the 2nd article is also in this month's Air&Space/Smithsonian.
The plane have been rennovated, so instead of 180+ passengers, it is now equipped for 50, and is based at NASA's Moffett Field (near to Google's Mountain View CA headquarters).
Sorry for the low volume of posts for October. It was a busy month - a week of vacation (family in town), and then a business trip back to the East Coast.
I was looking over the calender and realized that the end of 2009 is getting closer. Amazing how time flies.
On Flickr, there are on average over 700,000 pictures uploaded every day. The top 500 pictures - as determined by 'interestingness' - are listed in a section of Flickr called 'Explore'.
(I didn't find the picture on Explore until last Friday, Oct 2nd, and then as of this morning - other pictures had climbed up and bumped me out of the top 500).
But now I know that it is possible for pictures other than babies, cats and sunsets to make it into Explore.
Last weekend (9/19) I spent most of Saturday out at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway airport (aka Williams) on the other side of town - waiting to take a picture of an Antonov AN-124 'Ruslan' departing - after being parked at the airport for the last week.
The AN-124 was the Soviet equivalent of the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy - and was given the NATO codename of 'Condor' during the Cold War. But unlike Galaxy's that have reached the end of their militarily useful lives (and have ended up on the disposal side of D-M AFB aka the Boneyard), the Ruslan has gone on to a successful life as a heavy-lift cargo aircraft - in the private sector. One of its jobs has been to ferry components of the Atlas EELV from Denver, CO to Cape Canaveral, FL.
I didn't find out about the Ruslan coming into the Phoenix area - until after it had already landed. But some of my fellow aviation photographers did manage to catch it as it was coming in.
Even though the Antonov has visited Phoenix, in the past, it isn't something that is regularly scheduled - so I was determined to get some pictures of it. On the ground - and preferably - when it took off.
[I went to the airport the day after it landed to take pictures of the Antonov on the ground]
So I packed up and went to the airport Saturday morning and joined some of the other photographers who had the same thoughts. Part of the flight crew showed up around lunch time and the word was that the plane was going to leave between 3pm and 4pm. Then at 3:30pm - the flight plan was filed with a departure at 5:30pm.
There was still one unknown that could make or break the pictures - which direction was the plane going to take-off. We had a plan to cover either possibility (the three runways are parallel to each other, so we were less concerned about which one).
Once it started taxiing - it was clear it was going to come back towards us - and then take-off going to the Southeast - so after a couple of quick shots of it taxiing - we jumped in the cars and headed to the South end of the airport. The problem was - the Ruslan taxied faster than we expected, and then didn't hold at the end of the active runway before taking off. So we didn't get to our planned location, and ended up just pulling over on the side of the road and quickly taking pictures.
All of my pictures - both on the ground, a quick taxi shot - and then a series on the actual take-off are in the slideshow (link embedded below).
No one knows if the plane was carrying any cargo. Based on how quickly it was taxiing - I was thinking it wasn't. But then based on how slowly it climbed after take-off - it could have been. Only the flight crew knew for sure.
There must have been something special about it - because it was viewed more than 400 times on Monday (9/14). It looks like someone or something was just trolling through Delta group on Flickr, because the referrals to my picture were from the adjacent pictures in the group.
Phoenix Sky Harbor airport is a hub for US Airways (after its purchase by America West) and Southwest Airlines. Because those are the primary users of the airport - the majority of the aircraft that go in are Boeing 737's and Airbus A318/A319/A321's. So aside from the daily British Airways flight from London (a Boeing 747), or the UPS or FedEx cargo planes (767 and MD-11 respectively), the opportunities to plane watch get pretty boring pretty quickly.
A friend found out that an Air China Boeing 747 was going to be coming into Phoenix over the Labor Day weekend. It was going to arrive on Sunday, fly up and back to the Grand Canyon on Monday, and then depart on Tuesday. So trying to capture a picture of this jumbo coming in and out of Phoenix, became a 'Photocall' for the aviation photography group I am part of.
The embedded link below goes to a slideshow of my pictures from both the arrival on Sunday and then the departure up to the Grand Canyon on Sunday (more details below the slideshow link).
During a pre-arrival drive through of the airport - it looked like it was going to be something more than just a normal charter. A reception tent was set-up out on the ramp - and the Police were out and just waiting.
Then there was the flight path this plane had been taking. It started in Beijing - and flew to Toronto (fuel stop), and then on to Havana (Cuba). From there it went to Nassau (Bahamas) for three days before flying to Phoenix.
One of the other photographers finally found a story on-line about this trip - on a Chinese web site (local press didn't have a clue). It was the Chinese equivalent to the US Speaker of the House - on a fact finding tour of the Americas.
Which would explain the next stop the plane made after leaving Phoenix - Andrews Air Force Base, outside of Washington, DC. [for those of you who don't know - Andrews Air Force Base is the home to another rather famous Boeing 747 - Air Force One].
It has been over 2 years since Boeing rolled out their newest, revolutionary airliner - the 787 Dreamliner.
This plane is revolutionary in that instead of being constructed of aluminum - most of the plane is carbon fiber. This makes the plane lighter and means it can go farther on a load of fuel.
But the design and assembly of this plane has not been without its issues. Boeing has outsourced the major assemblies of this plane to other, foreign manufacturers - and just performs final assembly at the Boeing Everett plant (in an attempt to speed production, and lower Boeing's own labor costs).
They even retrofitted a set of 747's - the Dreamlifter - to shuttle Dreamliner pieces from manufacturer site to Everett.
The assembly issues seem to be behind them now - but everyone is still waiting for the plane's first flight (since that's what airplanes are supposed to do - FLY). But in late July - Boeing announced that the first flight was delayed again - this time for a structural/design issue where the wings join the fuselage/body and did not give a new estimated date for the first flight.
A week later - the Seattle Times published a story saying that this structural/design issue was worse than was being reported, and had occurred at an earlier point in the stress test.
There are normally challenges that face any new design - but more so in this case because of the new materials being used. And you know its bad - when the current poll on FlightGlobal asks which might fly first - the 787 - or a Pig.
One of the things I do each day as part of my Flickr addiction - is look to see which pictures are attracting peoples attention.
Considering the majority of my pictures are of airplanes - it isn't any surprise that the most viewed pictures are of them. But what is sometimes surprising - is when an 'ancient' picture - like the JSF prototype at the Smithsonian (UHC @ Dulles, VA) - from 5+ years ago - gets high views.
Even more surprising - is when something completely outside the aviation environment gets a lot of views. Like the Ringling Bros Circus clown. But I think that was due to the fact that the clown's father is on Flickr too - so I am pretty sure the picture has gotten back to her.
BBC published a story this morning that the proposed (UK) National ID card had been unveiled, and provided a shot of the sample - w/ each field labelled.
Obviously - no one actually looked at the picture and matched the field description with the actual numbered call outs.
Compare my reading of the call outs and the card (below) to what the BBC published;
Symbol meaning a chip is embedded in the card
National Identity Registration Number
Citizenship. (was #4)
Place of birth (was #6)
Signature - digitally embedded
Date of Card issue and date it becomes invalid (was #3)
Photo taken to biometric standards
Biometric chip holds fingerprint record
Swipe zone. Information which can be automatically read by computer
HA! - since I first read the story - the BBC went back and updated the graphic to have the correct labels. Wonder how many complaints/comments they got over it.
I took my daughter to see the Disney/Pixar movie "Up" yesterday and on the way out of the theater there was this green movie poster w/ a large QR code, a date (9-9-09) and a rating (PG-13) on it.
I took a picture of it w/ my Blackberry (obviously) to see what this movie was for. I wasn't able to find a QR decoder for my model of Blackberry - so it had to wait until I got on-line this morning. I uploaded the picture to ZXing's Decoder and got the following URL;
After making sure my security software was up to date - I went ahead and went to the URL. Turns out this goes to an exclusive trailer for Tim Burton's new animated movie "9".
I got up and out of the house at an ungodly early hour this morning to get to the airport on the otherside of the Valley where White Knight 2 (aka VMS (Virgin Mother Ship) "Eve") had spent the night after its unscheduled landing on Friday.
I met up with some of the other local aviation photographers and waited to see when she was going to leave. Since the payload (Spaceship Two) wasn't being carried - WK2 was in the air in less than half of the runway.
The pictures below are from her departure almost right over us.
It is now scheduled to leave sometime tomorrow morning and the crew would prefer no one take pictures of it on the ground. Waaah!
[UPDATE - 5:27pm MST - the unscheduled landing made the local paper's website, so I guess it isn't much of a secret anymore. The guy who took the picture that's not shown above any more (it was being used by another web site w/o giving Joe credit, so the picture got removed) - made the local news Friday night.]
The Airbus A330, operated by Jetstar, was flying from Japan to Australia when a window in the cockpit caught fire.
Until they can determine what caused Air France #447 to crash - I think any Airbus operator will err on the side of caution for any seemingly minor problem.
I took this picture last summer in our backyard pool - with a simple disposable Fuji (film) underwater camera. Cassidy has been taking swimming lesson's since she was a toddler - and each session they try to take a underwater picture to sell to the parents. Emphasis on 'try' because it is an indoor pool and unless the light is just right - the pictures are usually pretty murky. So I was trying to take a half decent underwater picture to share with family and friends.
Skip ahead to this Spring. I post and share my pictures via Flickr. On Flickr there are groups for different interests. Several months ago I had come across the Popular Photography magazine group on Flickr and joined it. Every couple of months the staff from PopPhoto will post requests for specific types or themes for pictures that they need for upcoming issues.
In March - there was a request for an underwater picture taken with a compact camera (not with a high end SLR in a housing) and I submitted this picture. The staff at PopPhoto contacted me and asked me to sign a release for the picture.
I didn't find out that it was actually going to be published - until the June 2009 issue was published. My picture appears on page 55 as part of the tip on "How to... Dive in using a compact".
[The tips should be published on the PopPhoto web site at some point in the next couple of weeks. When it is - I will include the link to the article].
So for aviation photographers - that meant a chance to take pictures of Air Force One as it came into land. I had some vacation to use up - so I took the day off and went down early to find a good place to take pictures from. I ended up on an upper level of the airport parking garage - with a good view of the north side runway.
Below is the link to the highlights of this mini photo trip on my Flickr photostream.
I think Arizona must be leading the nation in the number of deployed photo radar cameras. It is a very divisive issue.
Lots of people see this as a method to 'enhance revenue' - while others say it has improved highway safety. I will admit - I have seen fewer accidents on roads with the cameras in place. But I also don't see the camera flash that often. Most of the cameras are in fixed locations and all of the camera (even the mobile/truck mounted ones) have to have warning signs posted in advance of the camera.
One jurisdiction has actually started turning them off - because the cost isn't covered by the $$$ from the tickets.
So who knows - maybe they will have to go back to a actual police officers in airplanes flying over w/ radar guns to monitor the traffic flow. Or they could just start using Apache's. After all - Boeing is building them just over in Mesa, AZ.
I was leaving town last week on a business trip - and I had the first flight of the day. Too bad no one told the airline that they had a full load of passengers ready to go flying with them. TSA was ready to screen the bags - but they can't screen them until they get checked in.
[Standing around waiting for someone to check bags - is only obnoxious - when you arrive at the airport at 4am, and would rather have been sleeping longer instead of standing around waiting].
90 minutes before the flight - at least 6 staff members streamed out of the behind the scene's hideaway and proceeded to check everyone in and direct us up to the 'B' gates.
Where the security checkpoint - wasn't open yet. So it was time to walk to the other end of the Terminal to go through the 'A' security checkpoint. And then walk back to the 'B' gates (because the moving walkway inside of security was being replaced on the A -> B pathway).
Oh - and when I walked past the 'B' checkpoint - there was at least enough TSA staff to have a lane open.
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