Last Saturday, I decided to drive around Paine Field located in Everett, WA. I have done it before, but not since I started my blog. I wanted to see what planes I could see and how close I could get before hitting a fence. I was quite surprised with some of the views I found.
I took my camera and iPhone along and took pictures and thought you might be interested in what I saw:
The best part, it was all free and anyone can access all the areas I went. The day was gray and rainy, but well worth it. Turns out a Twitter follower, Kevin (@TxAgFlyer), followed the same path on Sunday and got some pretty nice pictures with the sky being blue and purple, instead of gray.
Jeanne Grauberger, who was a TWA flight attendant from 1956 to 1962, was among those at the Lockheed L-1011 touched down.
Most airline enthusiasts have a special place in their hearts for the Lockheed L1011 Tristar. There aren’t too many airborne around the world today. You might be able to catch the Sand’s L1011 that they flight high rollers to and from Las Vegas or you could have been in Kansas City, Missouri on Saturday. That is where one L1011, that started life at TWA, made its last flight to the Airline History Museum.
At first it looked like “Elle” (the name of the L1011) was heading to the scrap heap. A generous donation by Paul Pristo helped to not only save Elle from being destroyed, but also making her airworthy to do the flight from the desert in Roswell, New Mexico to the museum in Missouri.
Originally the flight was supposed to occur back in April, but the FAA put a stop to the flight due to serious safety concerns. To get approval from the FAA, Elle had to satisfy 28 airworthiness directives. The L1011 had a complex history, starting life in the US, but also flew in Africa and South America, where maintenance rules are more lax. There was also concern about the rear wing spar having cracks, which is a common issue for these large planes. Planes that were flying in the US had modifications done, but since Elle was out of country she did not. Luckily there were no signs of cracking and after $60,000 of mechanical upgrades, she was ready to make the journey.
On Saturday, Elle was ready to go and so were her fans. The flight crew has stayed certified on the L1011 by training on a surviving simulator owned by Delta Air Lines in Atlanta. Because of the age and potential issues, the FAA required only essential personal be on the plane, it wasn’t fully pressurized, and it must fly lower and slower than normal.
The flight on Saturday went perfect. It was exciting for the guest gathered to see this wonderful airplane fly once again. Elle will be turned into a classroom for children to come to the museum to learn about airlines and flight. It seems like she has found a wonderful new home.
If the idea of listening to a lot of smart airline people compete in a Jeopardy-like format sounds AWESOME to you, you might be an airline nerd. Today at 5pm PST, the first episode of Jetpardy will be playing, you don’t want to miss it. These will be the contestants:
Different places on the internet say this pilot was landing in severe crosswind, others say he just wasn’t set up to land correctly. Either way, this is one impressive landing.
Boeing's static test airframe for the Boeing 787 leaving the Boeing hangars
It is always fun to see the large hangar doors at Boeing open. It is more fun to see it when aircraft comes out. Today, I got to see the Boeing 787 Dreamliner fatigue airframe leave the Boeing hangars. I snapped a few pictures from the Future of Flight and from a road close to the test plane. The Boeing 787 is a beatiful aircraft, but you could tell this jet-less airframe has been used and abused — she didn’t look so great. Flight Story Aviation Blog has some great pictures of her back in April 2008.
