Wednesday, November 26, 2008

It's video day today!

First we have a go-around in a large jet. I have posted other go-arounds before, but this one is a new one so I'm gonna add it to the collection. The one-line description says "SATA aborted crosswind landing in Ponta Delgada airport, Sao Miguel Island, Azores"




Now this one is a recent landing by a Cessna 310 with bad nose gear. The video quality is great, so that's cool too. I don't know if I would have feathered both engines before touching down - you never know if you'll need to go-around - but once the pilot has feathered the engines, watch as he/she hits the starter motor a few times to move the propellors to a horizontal position, where they are less likely to be damaged by the gear-up landing. I thought that being able to do that while in the flare was pretty slick.





The details on that one:

"AN NUYS AIRPORT, Calif. -- A small plane with a dangling nose gear glided to a safe landing today at Van Nuys Airport and both people aboard appear uninjured.
The twin-engine Cessna 310 was heading from the San Fernando Valley airport to Camarillo when the pilot realized the nose gear had only partially deployed and decided to turn back."

Whaddaya think? I'd personally rather sacrifice the engines to leave myself more options, but then again I don't pay the maintenance bills on our plane...

Monday, November 24, 2008

This is a new scam to me...we got this fax at our office an hour ago. I'm only bringing it up because it's an aviation-related scam, so that's kinda cool.



Some guy says we owe 80k for airspace fees in the UK from a few years ago. Interesting, as we have never been across the ocean in our planes. Also interesting that they don't seem to know our company name or contact info. To complete the awesomeness, this was faxed to us rather than emailed, and the FROM: name of Pietro Ferrara isn't even the same name as the person allegedly signing the notice, who goes by the made-up name of John Daniels.

Whaddaya think? Should we shoot them a cheque for 80k, just to be good neighbors?

I'm a trusting faun, but it is suspiciously similar to an email alert we got from Nav Canada a few days ago, which I'm cutting n' pasting here for your enjoyment.

----------------------------------------------------------------------


ATTENTION NAV CANADA CUSTOMERS: FRAUDULENT BILLING SCHEME SENT BY EMAIL
This is to inform you of a fraudulent billing scheme targeting our customers.
If you receive the following email notification about outstanding debt, please DO NOT reply.
Instead, disregard the message, which is NOT from NAV CANADA.
NAV CANADA has contacted the authorities and is investigating. If you would like to enquire about the status of your account, please contact Accounts Receivable at 1-800-209-0864 or Customer Service at 1-800-876-4693.
We would appreciate it if you could forward a copy of the fraudulent email that your company received, in order to assist us in our investigation. The fraudulent email should be forwarded to alert@navcanada.ca.

The text of the fraudulent message follows.

From: Richard Vaughn [mailto:no-reply@nav-canada.com]
Sent: Wednesday, November 19, 2008 1:46 PM
To: no-reply@nav-canada.com
Subject: UNPAID INVOICE

Dear Sir,

This is to notify you of an outstanding debt in the area of air
navigation service (ANS) Charges for the year 2007

If we do not receive payment within the next 48 hours, your flights will be grounded and cannot operate within Canadian domestic airspace and international airspace assigned to Canadian control.
If you have any questions relating to this warning feel free to contact
my desk. Your reference [Incident ID: 4962664].


John Daniels
Debt Collection/Unpaid Invoice Department
NAV CANADA
77 Metcalfe Street
Ottawa, ON K1P 5L6
phone: 1-866-954-6999
http://www.navcanada.ca

-----------------------------

Man, good thing Lisa supervises me on the internet, otherwise we'd be 80k poorer...

Sunday, November 16, 2008

50 years ago, this was an ad for Pan Am's Boeing 707 jet service. This ad features rare footage of the -121 "short tail" series, and the original Pratt and Whitney JT3C straight turbojet engines.

It sure looks like a glamorous ride...



Things have changed somewhat since then.

I'm up early tomorrow - I'll post some night flying pics when we land at our destination tomorrow morning.