
It took 9,500 flowers to make this lei for the Hawaiian Airlines A330
Last week I showed a photo of Hawaiian Airline’s brand spanking new Airbus A330 and it had a fancy lei on it. I asked how many flowers do you think it took to make the lei?
Via the comments and people emailing me I received over 60 guesses. They ranged from 330 to 330,200 (both guesses a play off the being an A330, I am guessing) The answer? According to Hawaiian Airlines it took 9,500 dendrobium orchids to make the lei on the Airbus A330. Now that is a lot of flowers.
And who was closest? David Brown. Seriously. But it isn’t me, it is another David Brown (there are a lot of us out there and he has an aviation blog too). Mr. Brown guessed 9855 flowers, which was closest to 9500. I will be mailing him his prizes. Thank you all for participating!
On June 4th the A330 had its maiden flight from Honolulu to Los Angeles. This is the first of 27 new A330s and A350s that Hawaiian plans to introduce into its fleet over the coming decade. Check out this photo of the A330 being pushed back from its gate at Honolulu.

CLICK TO WATCH - Korean Air Boeing 777 has a hard landing
Last week I posted this video from YouTube showing a Korean Air Boeing 777 having a rough landing. Then, it vanished from YouTube and from around the net. I tried to find another copy, but no luck. Then a reader, Ruben, found another copy. Thank you very much!
Any landing you can walk away from is a good one in my book. Watching a huge Boeing 777 bounce around like a Cessna 172 with a new pilot at the controls is entertaining (knowing it all turns out ok).
To learn more about what is going wrong here and maybe what the pilot could have done, check out John Croft’s blog on Where the Cro(ft) Flies.

A few Boeing 787's among other Boeing products from the sky. That is the Future of Flight in the background. Photo by Liz Matzelle
Saturday was the first sunny day in the Seattle area in a long time. The whole thing about Seattle always being rainy is normally not all true…however the past week and a half it sure has felt like it.
On Saturday Liz Matzelle (@ImperfectSense) was able to get a flight above Paine Field (KPAE) and she took some pretty sweet photos. Can you identify the planes in all her photos?
I recently took a tour on the ground of KPAE, but you can’t beat being in the sky.
Check out Liz’s 25 other amazing photos of KPAE from the sky!

Air Madagascar Boeing 767-300 (5R-MFF)
Can you take a guess where Air Madagascar is based? If you guessed Madagascar, pat yourself on the back. If you knew its headquarters is located in Antananarivo, Madagascar, give yourself a double pat. The airline’s official name is Socit Nationale Malgache des Transports Ariens, but goes by “Air Madagascar” for short (good thinking).
The airline was founded in 1947 using two DC-3’s and six de Havilland DH89’s. Currently it has a fleet of three ATR 42’s, two ATR 72’s, four Twin Otters, three Boeing 737’s and two Boeing 767’s. Back in 1979, the airline purchased a Boeing 747-200B, which was phased out in 1999 by the Boeing 767-300.
Air Madagascar mostly flies to destinations in Africa, but also to China, Thailand and France.
Thank you @vivekmayasandra for this suggestion!
Image: caribb
I originally posted this video from YouTube, but it was deleted. I have found another copy, so check it out.