Oh what a great holiday gift! This video shows the pilot’s perspective of moving Christmas trees quickly in Oregon to be sold for the holidays. This pilot is flying a Bell 206B-3 JetRanger helicopter and the video was taken in 2011.
According to The (Vancouver, Washington) Colombian, Oregon is the nation’s largest grower and exporter of Christmas trees. The state sells nearly seven million trees per year, which is a $100 million-plus industry in the state.
Obviously, the tree farms need to move all those trees quickly from where they are grown to the trucks, and what better way to move them than using a helicopter? (well, there surely isn’t a more fun way)
So, next time you buy a tree, make sure to ask for one that was transported using a helicopter!
A model of the Shanghai Y-10. There is one extant copy, but it is very hard to get close to. – Photo: Shizhao
Today, the Chinese are building their second fully designed and built airliner, the Comac C919. However, back in 1980, they flew their first designed and built in-house airliner, the Shanghai Y-10 and it has an interesting (and quite short) history.
The Chinese aviation business after the 1949 revolution was, to say the least, lagging behind both the west and the Soviet Union.
The only aircraft assembled in China that was even close to the dimension and role of those built by their peers was the Xian H-6 a sinofied and license-built version of the Soviet Tu-16. Though the first Chinese medium bomber flew in 1959, no H-6 would ever be fitted with indigenously-designed engines. Chinese fighter aircraft followed along a similar trajectory, though their designers were offered a little more creativity in terms of adding differing body kits to license-built Soviet planes.
Something, however, was missing from the Chinese aviation industry. The skilled fabricators and support staff were there, but there was no real push for engineering talent- particularly in the civil market.
It is unclear how long the Shanghai Aircraft Research Institute had been researching a large, narrow-body passenger aircraft prior to receiving the government’s blessing in August of 1970, but the will was clearly there. Or at least, convicted Gang of Four member Wang Hongwen believed there to be. As a major player in the isolationist factions of the Chinese Communist Party, he was, in some ways, running astray of Mao’s latest internationalist gambits by trying to achieve a self-sufficient aviation industry. Let us ignore that, however.
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!
ZB-001 (N789EX) the first Boeing 787-9, takes to the sky – Photo: Bernie Leighton | AirlineReporter.com
At 11:02am this morning, ZB-001 the first Boeing 787-9, became airworthy as it departed Paine Field in Everett, Washington on its first flight.
Boeing’s inaugural flight of the 787-9 was originally scheduled for 10am Pacific Time, but as is usual for ’œBoeing Time’ there was a few delays. The weather may not have been as perfect as the flight tests for yesterday’s CS100 flight from Mirabel, but there was no rain, which is always a positive for Seattle this time of year. With over 10,000 employees in attendance and lots more of the Everett flight line crews watching (plus thousands more watching the live webcast), it was a spectacle that many were anxiously awaiting.
