For decades, military aircraft have blasted over the tops of stadiums during the national anthem. With sequestration and sweeping federal budget cuts, however, military flyovers have become a thing of the past for the time being. Last month in Kansas City, a group of private pilots took it upon themselves to preform what very well may be the largest formation flyover ever.
On Sunday, October 13th, 2013, 49 homemade Van’s RV aircraft entered a tight formation and synchronized their flyover to occur at the very end of the national anthem. Not only did these pilots pull of an amazing formation flight, but each plane left a pink smoke trail in honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Tom McNerne, one of the flying pilots, posted video from his point of view on YouTube and detailed the difficulties of the extreme flyover. “I was flying, if you look close in the reflection you can see I am holding the chart and the stick in my left hand, throttle in my right hand. My wife was right seat keeping an eye on the other traffic. 2 helicopters and the blimp. The obstacle alert is from my Garmin Area 560. If you look at a sectional chart, there are TONS of towers around the stadium. It calls any obstacle even if you’re still above it. Some we were below, hence the urgency. A few towers are 2100 MSL if I remember.”
You probably are aware that seeing tri-jets [those airliner with that third jet in the tail] is becoming a rarity, especially in the United States. Luckily for us AvGeeks, there are still quite a few cargo carriers [and a scheduled passenger airline] still flying these classic beauties.
Recently SpeedBirdHD shared a compilation video of tri-jets that still fly in and out of Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on a daily basis. Hard to believe that someday these birds will only be found in a museum, but until then — enjoy!
Check-in area of the new international terminal at NAS – Photo: Blaine Nickeson | AirlineReporter.com
This is the second installment in my visit to The Bahamas. For Part 1, covering my inbound travel “experience” and amazing first-night welcome, click here.
Our first scheduled event for the day, and main reason for my visit, was a tour of the brand-new Lynden Pindling International Airport International Terminal. No, this isn’t the terminal you’ll use for U.S.-bound flights; those operate out of their own (although also very new) terminal, which has a CBP Pre-Clearance facility. Rather, the new terminal supports all non-U.S. international flights, primarily to Canada and the U.K., and also flights to the “Family Islands” of The Bahamas.
The trophies all lined up ready to be handed to the winners of the SimpliFlying Social Media Awards – Photo: Artstudio23.com
On a recent flight from Seattle to Phoenix I did something that has become more common. My flight was delayed and I conversed with the airline via Twitter to see if there was anything I could do to make my now-25-minute connection. Had the airline not had a presence on Twitter, I could have been stranded. This was not a first though for me; I often deal with the airline social media teams to get situations handled, or to help with a booking. Social media and airlines seem to go hand-in-hand lately, but what airlines have the best social media presence?
October saw a selection of travel social media heavyweights all gathered for the 4th Annual SimpliFlying Social Media awards in Amsterdam. Over 37,000 votes were collected for the evening’s events to choose the winners.
N570AS, “Adventure to Disneyland” taxis to the gate after flying in from painting – Photo: Bernie Leighton | AIrlineReporter.com
Alaska Airlines, in conjunction with Disney and the Make-A-Wish Foundation, has debuted its latest Disney special scheme. The newest version, which AirlineReporter exclusively spied a day ahead of the official launch, features popular characters from Disney-Pixar’s Cars franchise.
The aircraft was officially rolled out this morning in a ceremony at gate C-9 of Seattle Tacoma International Airport. The plane departed for Santa Ana’s John Wayne Airport due to its proximity to Disneyland. What made this flight special, other than the fact that it was the first commercial service of a new special livery, was that it was a surprise for four children on a very special holiday. Coming from as far away as Barrow, Alaska, these kids were being treated to an amazing vacation adventure from the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
If there was any doubt Alaska and Disney were going to make a big deal out of this, I was blown away when I arrived at the gate.
