Emily Fleming, Raptor Biologist with Pacific Northwest Raptors, and Goliath, the Harris’ Hawk, in front of YVR’s radar “golf ball”
Airplanes and birds don’t play well together.
Just ask Captain Sully and First Officer Jeff, whose encounter with a flock of Canada Geese turned their A320 into a glider. Or talk to the crews of the approximately 150 planes per year at Vancouver International Airport that report bird strikes. Flight safety can be seriously compromised, repair costs for the airlines are huge, passengers are often inconvenienced, and for the birds, well, it’s fatal.
Vancouver International Airport (YVR) is located on the shores of the Strait of Georgia, on a large island in the Fraser River Delta. And just like the passengers who connect at YVR, the millions of birds that annually use the migratory Pacific Flyway like to stop in the Vancouver area to get something to eat and have a rest. Boundary Bay, south of YVR and the location of the general aviation Boundary Bay Airport (ZBB), is an internationally-recognized Important Bird Area. Even the main Vancouver air navigation aid, the YVR VOR, is on the same island as the renowned Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary.
We have shared quite a few amazing videos from SpeedBirdHD and this one does a nice wrap up of the many things seen at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) over the last year. It is a little longer at 34 minutes, but for sure worth watching. Enjoy!
On January 15th, I was on a flight from my home town of Seattle (SEA) to LAX and everything went just like normal, until we landed at LAX. A flight attendant made an announcement that there was a soldier who had died for our country on-board, and asked if everyone could please remain seated when we arrived at the gate to allow the military escort to leave the aircraft first. As we taxied, passengers on the plane clapped in support and to show their respect — it was pretty amazing.
Delta unveils special “Spirit of Seattle” livery on a Boeing 737 in Seattle – Photo: Delta
There has been a lot of talk over the last few months about Delta Air Lines. They have been doing many good and smart changes, a few not so good things, and some crazy things that makes me wonder what the heck is going on. I wanted to take a look at the last few month (and maybe a bit beyond) to try and figure out what Delta has been up to.
If you wind the clock back a few months, what Delta was up to seemed to make a bit more sense than they do now. Expanding their west coast presence was a good thing. Turning the Los Angeles to San Francisco route into the equivalent of the Delta Shuttle on the west coast was smart. Adding more services to Seattle to turn it in to a new focus city is good as well, but also a little crazy. Why crazy? Well, Delta is partners with Alaska Airlines and it seems the two of them have decided to publicly show their competitive side, while still trying to be “friendly” towards frequent fliers.
Bombardier CSeries Flight Test Vehicle 2’s first flight on January 3, 2014 – Photo: Bombardier Aero
Bombardier Aerospace has confirmed that the Entry-Into-Service (EIS) of their CSeries aircraft is now scheduled for the second half of 2015.
Yesterday’s announcement likely wasn’t a surprise to industry watchers and financial analysts, who have believed that Bombardier’s previous ’œone year after first flight’ EIS of September 2014 was overly optimistic and aggressive. The CSeries is Bombardier’s first ’œclean-sheet’ design in decades, with state-of-the-art fly-by-wire flight controls, along with sophisticated, highly-integrated aircraft systems. Bombardier is no doubt hoping that the new EIS schedule will be looked at as realistic and achievable, given the work to be done.
’œWe are taking the required time to ensure a flawless entry-into-service. We are very pleased that no major design changes have been identified, this gives us confidence that we will meet our performance targets,’ said Mike Arcamone, President, Bombardier Commercial Aircraft. ’œWhile the process has taken more time than we had expected, our suppliers are aligned with the program’s schedule and together, we will continue to work closely to move the program steadily forward.’
CS100 FTV2 on a cold, windy winter day at Mirabel Airport (YMX) – Photo: Bombardier Aero
