Cheers! Me on Horizon Air this last weekend flying to Reno (review coming soon).
In 11 days I will be celebrating two years of writing this blog. A lot has changed since then and it has been an awesome ride. I have loved being able to share my passion for airlines and aviation and it seems some of you enjoy it too. Today marks a big milestone for my life and for the blog and I hope it all works out for the best.
On top of writing the blog, I have been working at a 40 hours per week job. It has been difficult to juggle both (on top of other stuff in everyday life), but very worth it. An opportunity came up recenty where I am able to only work 20hrs per week until September 1st, where I go to 30hrs per week after that and I took it!
I will be selling my car, tightening my belt on expenses, but I am willing to do so to make a serious effort on this blog. I hope to provide more and better content and have more time to do some pretty cool stuff (ie get a ride in a Beechcraft Starship).
As always, if you have any suggestions about making revenue, blog ideas or anything, please feel free to contact me.
I am very excited and look forward to bringing more unique content for the blog!
I constantly hear people say, “flying just isn’t the way it used to be.” Sure it isn’t, less food, more fees, but there are also lower fares. One service that we have seen a big decline in is food service. We have gone from getting a free meal to feeling lucky to have some free peanuts. Brett Snyder, who writes the blog CrankyFlier, took a look at the cost per passengers airlines spent in 1990 versus today and he found some pretty interesting things.
United Airlines ends up spending the most (probably from First Class) and Southwest ends up spending the least (is that a shocker?). I am actually kind of surprised that average costs haven’t decreased more since the 1990’s.
Photo from NASA's Terra satellite in 2007, showing a cloud bank riddled with canals and hole punches. State boundaries are shown in blue.
Airplanes can do some pretty awesome things, but did you know they can make it rain? I am not talking about special research aircraft sent up to “seed” the clouds, I am talking about everyday airliners that can make it rain and punch holes into the sky.
We all learned in science class that water freezes at 32 degrees. However, droplets that make up clouds can be as cold as -35 degrees F. When an airliner flies through the cloud, the temperature will drop, causing the droplets to freeze. When the droplets freeze, they fall to the ground as snow or rain, leaving a big hole in the cloud.
This doesn’t happen each time a plane flies through a cloud, the conditions must be just right. Turboprops are more likely to produce to effect versus jets, because they fly at lower altitudes and they do not have hotter jet engines, allowing the air to cool even more.
Most of the time as an airplane goes through the sweet-spot a hole is made, but sometimes the airplane is able to continue in that sweet spot and form “canal clouds.”
So next time you are on the ground and get a short rain or snow fall, take a look up, it could have been caused by an airline.
This classic 1958 video sells Pan Am’s new jet service. Does this make you think about the “good old days?” Well think how much those tickets cost and I bet a new Boeing 737 or Airbus A320 is more comfortable. Plus there was no Wi-Fi back then!
I think this might be the largest airline I have done a livery of the week on. Normally I try to find smaller or unknown liveries (with special legacy liveries here and there). But seeing (online) a photo of a Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 747 just motivated me to share, I love it!
The simple tan up top and blue and gold tail. I don’t know why but I just really enjoy the over all look.
The airline was founded in 1945 with one DC-3 and now currently has a fleet of 114 aircraft. The original DC-3 was a gift from American President Franklin D Roosevelt to King Abdul Aziz. The airline flies to over 75 destinations around the world and is based in Saudi Arabia.
Some other aircraft types with the livery:
* Boeing 747SP
* Boeing 747-400 * MD-11
* Don’t think it looks as good on a smaller MD-90
* Check out this amazing E-170 at night with the tail lit
