Aviation History...sort of

If you like French people and the planes they build, you'll like this.

The link below will take you to someone's video of the first USA landing of the "new" Airbus A-380 mega-jumbo-ginormous double-decker monstrosity at Los Angeles Int' Airport. Another one landed at the exact same moment at JFK in New York City. So technically it might be the second landing. I didn't hear which plane actually touched the runway first. Anyway, the vid is shot from the very same place that I usually go, next to the In N Out Burger. This happened last Monday, March 19th, 2007. The people there are clearly very excited.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OeJ1HpPyhA

Why 2 at the exact same moment in time? Originally, the first US landing of the A380 was slated for LAX, but then was changed to JFK. Whoever has authority at LAX to put this together apparently raised a big stink over this. Big enough to have the Airbus A380 World Tour people (I made that up) land 2 planes at the same time. I heard the LAX plane had to hold over LA for a bit b/c the JFK plane was running behind. The planes had to land at the exact same moment for everyone to be happy.

Seriously, I'm not kidding.

Woopdeedoo anyway, I say.

I mean, it's cool I guess that it's even bigger than a 747-400 and can be ordered to have gyms and bars and other type never-before-seen stuff. But from what I hear, carriers aren't really ordering that stuff anyway. The Int'l market has a need, especially in Asia, and cargo would have been great but....

The plane is, ballpark guess without looking it up, over 2 years past when it was originally supposed to be delivered to the first buyers. FedEx and UPS both cancelled ALL their orders for the jet. Other passenger-carrying airlines have cancelled some of their orders, leaving Airbus/EADS with 100-something firm orders left. I've heard the plane is 200 million a PIECE and to break even on the project, Airbus needs to sell way more than they have scheduled to be bought.

Guess what FedEx is buying instead? The Boeing 777 freighter. That's right. Boeing. AMERICA baby! There's a saying in the industry. "If it ain't Boeing, I ain't goin'."

Take that, Frenchies.

Okay, so technically I fly a "French" airplane but it's the Canadian type of French so it's not as bad.

(Disclaimer: In truth, the author of this post doesn't actually hate French people as perhaps portrayed. However, he is a supporter of Boeing over Airbus as Boeing still uses control yolks, not silly side-sticks like Airbus. To each his own.)

West Coast Trip

If you didn't already know, back in the Fall of last year, the DOT awarded ASA/Delta with a bunch of Mexico routes out of Los Angeles Int'l airport. So we opened up a crew base out there, moving the former Dallas base that moved to Salt Lake City to LA. And now it's closing. Yup. Delta realized, DUH, that having an Atlanta-based airline operate a 80-pilot, 6-aircraft base on the other side of the country just doesn't work.

So I'm trying to get as much flying as I can out there between now and June 1st, when Express Jet (aka Continental Express) will base 10 ERJ-145's out there in Delta colors. Ahhh regional airlines. It will be nice to work for a major airline one day and not be at the mercy of another company than your own.

For now, in order to cycle airplanes through the LA system and back to ATL for maintenance, we have trips that go out there. The CRJ-200 was not intended for flying coast to coast, so we do it in 4 legs. The cross-over cities are Tulsa, Oklahoma City, and Fayetteville/Bentonville, Arkansas (XNA, otherwise known as Northwest Arkansas Regional, aka Wal-Martland). I did mine through XNA.

My trip started in Augusta, GA, the previous night's overnight. Here's what we did:

AGS-ATL
ATL-XNA
XNA-SLC
SLC-LAX

It was incredible to be out west again, flying above the mountains.




Breckenridge, Colorado ski resort, west of Denver.




Short final in Salt Lake City.

And flying into LAX...words cannot describe. Years of being there, watching planes, eating In N Out, dreaming of flying the big planes. And now I get to land a plane there myself. The Captain asked me in XNA, "Do you want to fly into Salt Lake or LA?" Hmmmm....LA!




Taxiing to the gate at LAX.


We touched down at 5:48pm local and didn't duty in the next day until 5:40pm. So I parted ways with my crew and waited for mom to pick me up. She was over at the In N Out burger in the hopes that I would land on runway 24R so she could take my picture. Unfortunately, we were "side-stepped" to 24L and she didn't notice us b/c her attention was focused on an American Eagle turboprop that was landing on 24R, right next to us. It was pretty cool landing side-by-side like that, less than a football field length apart.

We ate dinner at Killer Shrimp, one of my favorite local restaurants I hadn't been to in a while. The next morning, we woke up early. I actually beat mom out of bed as I was still on eastern time. BTW, dad was in Miami on business. We had a nice breakfast and then headed out. First off, we headed south to Manhattan Beach to replace Allison's birthday presents that had been broken in the mail and sent back to my parents. Then it was over to the MdR beach, with a stop at The Cow's End for a coffee to sip while strolling in the sand.




Me with a massive pile of seaweed.


After walking the whole beach and back, it was lunch time and you know what that means, In N Out! It was a perfect day for spreading out the blanket on the grassy knoll while 747's parted your hair.




A festival of goodness!




Mom gets her hair parted by a 747.


I was hoping to get a shot of an ASA CRJ landing but none ever came by. After a while, we headed up to Santa Monica for more airplane-watching, this time smaller stuff. I know, you're thinking, SHEESH! Seriously, I never do it except when I'm in LA. I don't know what it is. Santa Monica airport is very exciting though. It's busy like LAX except with private aircraft. And you get to watch from 3 stories up, literally right next to the runway. So it's quite an awesome view. Even non-aviation enthusiasts appreciate it. Plus, there's a chance you might see someone famous. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie keep their Cirrus SR-22 there. :-P




A Challenger bizjet takes the runway for takeoff.


Then came the inevitable. It was time to go to work. But that wasn't so bad. Because "work" for me isn't really like going to work for everyone else. Especially when I'm flying LAX back to SLC.

I met up with my crew at gate 53A, where our aircraft was waiting having just flown in from Culiacan, Mexico. Well not all was well. Upon landing, the crew couldn't get the left engine thrust reverser to stow back after using it. Long story short and 2.5 hours later, we departed into the night for Salt Lake.




The left thrust reverser as it's NOT supposed to be at the gate.




Friendly Skywest mechanics almost finished fixing the reverser.




In N Out Burger as seen just before departing Rwy 24L.


I'm heading out that way again next month, this time with 2 LAX overnights and a 20-hour San Francisco overnight, all in the same 4-day trip. I'm planning on renting a car and driving over the Golden Gate Bridge. :-)

Can't wait!!! :-)

Barbershop 101

I got this wild idea that instead of going to Great Clips for a haircut once a month at a cost of $15 per visit, why not do it myself?!? So last night I bought a set of Wahl clippers from Target. At a super low price of $19.99 for the kit, these babies will pay for themselves after only 2 cuts!

Those of you picturing my hair right now, it is a simple cut. It doesn't require the usage of scissors and only takes about 10 minutes for them to accomplish at the store.

Well, it took me a little longer than 10 minutes, as this was my first attempt. Plus, I was doing it myself so holding the clippers correctly at different angles, etc, was challenging. Also, I started out by taking just a little bit off at first and moved my way up to more. It's still not quite as short as I get it at the pro shop but I'm sure I'll work my way up to that next time. :-)

Here's the results in digital form. I think it turned out well.

And now for some random pictures.

Vincent likes to camp out on the receiver whenever we're watching movies. It warms up and oh boy does he like that!





Time to finish doing laundry and cleaning my car. Hope everyone is having a good week!