We have built something pretty good — how do we keep up that momentum?
July 23rd will be AirlineReporter’s seventh birthday. Thinking back on all the words, miles, people, and good times, it is amazing where we are today. We have a wonderful team of passionate, wonderful folks who have helped us grow in ways that I never knew imagined. I have loved (most) of it, and am so excited that you could be a part of this journey.
This enterprise started as a hobby and then morphed itself into a second job — one that really doesn’t pay. During all the changes and travel, I still held a full-time job (which did not even relate to aviation). Recently, I made a pretty big leap and took a new job, which I love, that is only part-time. This leaves me with some much-needed hours in the day to help AirlineReporter grow, but we could use your help.
My home for almost 16 hours with Hello Kitty
I was recently down in Houston to welcome EVA Air’s first flight, a Boeing 777-300ER, with a new Hello Kitty livery. After all the hoopla for the inaugural, I had a few hours before flying to Taipei, in Royal Laurel (aka business class) and I was excited. The Hello Kitty theme runs much deeper than just the fancy livery, and wanted to see what the full flight experience would be like.
The Shining Star Hello Kitty 777 arrives in Houston – Photo: David Parker Brown | AirlineReporter
By the time I arrived back at the airport, at about 10:30 pm, I had last showered at about 6:00 am and was about to take a 15hr 40min flight. My goal was to shower before departure — not just for me, but for those who would be flying around me.
Those in business class have access to the Executive Club in Terminal D, which was recently renovated, but it was lacking showers. However, since I had a business class ticket on a Star Alliance airline, I also had access to any of the United Club lounges. I looked online and saw that the United terminal E lounge was open until 11:30 pm and had showers — awesome!
Keep reading to learn how you can win a model of the EVA Air Boeing 777-300ER with Shining Star Hello Kitty livery…
Platform at Alicante station – Photo: Ant Richards
Spain is a proud and mesmerizing nation, perched on the Iberian Peninsula on the southwestern tip of Europe. A country that conjures many festive, passionate, and eye-watering images, as well as its fair share of sometimes erroneous stereotypes. It’s a stretch of land that is as diverse in its geography as its people, cuisine, customs, and its four official languages ’“ yes, contrary to what many believe, there are four main languages and a few offshoots from some of these that are just as official.
Spain is much more than just bullfights, tapas, siestas, soccer, loud neighbors, and flamenco. It is one of the world’s tourist powerhouses, and for good reason. Spain is a country that I tend to visit quite often, for family and other practical reasons; my main destination being Madrid.
On this occasion, however, my Iberian travels took me to Alicante. A coastal city that lies on the Costa Blanca, Alicante is the second largest city in the Comunitat Valenciana, after its capital, Valencia. My final destination would be Calpe.
Vietnam Airlines Airbus A321 – Photo: Aero Icarus | Flickr CC
After spending the previous couple of cold winter months in Seattle, New York, and Boston, as well as visiting Tokyo (cold), Kyoto (cold and breezy), Taipei (rainy), and Hong Kong (windy and rainy) on this trip, I was glad to have planned a “vacation within a vacation” to spend some time in the sun and sand in the middle of my Asian trip.
Danang (sometimes spelled Da Nang), the third-largest economic center in Vietnam behind Saigon and Hanoi, is famous for its stretches of beaches along the South China Sea. The area known as “China Beach” to American soldiers during the Vietnam War is currently earmarked for luxury resort development.
Hyatt Regency Resort & Spa Danang – Photo: John Nguyen
Danang International Airport (DAD) is also the country’s third-busiest airport and treated as Vietnam Airlines‘ (VNA) central domestic hub, though it has quite a few direct international flights on foreign carriers as well.
I was fortunate enough to book a mid-April stay (one of the best times to be in Danang, weather-wise) at the Hyatt Regency Resort & Spa Danang, selected because of its location right on the water and a private beach.
Ground crew checking out a grounded plane – Photo: David Parker Brown | AirlineReporter
As one might imagine, the life of an aircraft mechanic is not a glamorous one. Earlier, I passed along a few memorable tales of my time as a mechanic for a larger regional airline. This time, I would like to elaborate on what a typical day is like for an airline mechanic. For me, my average day would start with a grueling drive.
Being a union shop, my seniority was high enough that I could have taken a first shift position (6:00AM to 2:30PM); however, I found the days off I could get on second shift better, since I was one of the senior mechanics on that shift. Upon arriving at the employee parking lot and catching the shuttle bus to the terminal, the fun would start.
Aerial shot of a busy airport – Photo: Don Wilson | Port of Seattle
A typical day at the office would start with all eight mechanics on duty gathering for a team meeting, where our lead and supervisor would go over the status of the planes that were currently either broken, or inbound with issues, and divvy out the day’s assignments. Sometimes, there would be one or two airplanes with unresolved issues that would be turned over to second shift by first shift.
If I was assigned to one of those planes, it would be a mad dash to whatever gate or hardstand (a remote parking spot, usually for out-of-service aircraft) the aircraft in question was parked at to get a verbal and visual turnover from the mechanics coming off shift. Since there was only 30 minutes of shift overlap, we had to make this quick! If we were not assigned to a plane that was already broken, we were on standby. If we were lucky to be on standby, we would monitor the arrivals status board and hang low until a call came in.
