As i promised before, i would be going to the control tower at rush hour and afterwards write a post about them.
Tragically this swine flu came and screwed me over.
The controllers advised me that going to the airport, the entry point of the swine flu could be very dangerous.
It was postponed, but i promise as soon as i go back, i WILL write a post.
In a previous post i told you readers about my trip to the control tower.
This Friday i will be going once again at 9 am for rush hour.
I promise a post.
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Last week, on a wonderful Sunday afternoon, I was allowed into the Airport Control Tower (ATC) of the Coco Tower at Juan Santamaria Int. Airport. This was my first time inside a control tower, and the views and the technology used in the world of flying astounded me.
As I hiked up the stairs of the extremely, oh so well guarded stair case of the control tower I became nervous. Thoughts popped into my head about what would happen if their was a big accident, or one of the controllers messed up and their was an in air collision, or even worse if something did happen and it was my fault!
But when I finally did get up there, I just saw some guys doing their “job”. It seemed very relaxed. As soon as I got up TACA was landing, the controllers did even bother looking. The only time they were really active was when they were talking to the plane. After that the subject jumped to women and sports.
Luckily a very generous and kind man who leads the tower explained so much to us. One of the most interesting things was that the runway’s capability can hold a 747-200 seen here. But nobody seems to care being that when the Korean president and the Republic of China’s president landed here, they both arrived in fancy Korean Air 747-400 and a China Airline 747-400. But hey, who’s looking. Every year a Boeing C-17 Globemaster lands here, and once in a while a Lockheed Galaxy, both of which use up every single millimeter of the runway and go way over the specifications for the runway. But lets keep that on the DL, and this being wow, such a heavily populated blog, try not to spread the word.
For some great pics check out jetphotos.net
And to finish off some jokes.
My wife said if I go flying again she will leave me. Boy am I gonna miss her.
Tower: “Delta 351, you have traffic at 10 o’clock , 6 miles!”
Delta 351: “Give us another hint! We have digital watches!”
=============================================
“TWA 2341, for noise abatement turn right 45 Degrees.”
“Centre, we are at 35,000 feet. How much noise can we make up here?”
“Sir, have you ever heard the noise a 747 makes when it hits a 727?”
==============================================
From an unknown aircraft waiting in a very long takeoff queue: “I’m
f…ing bored!”
Ground Traffic Control: “Last aircraft transmitting, identify yourself
immediately!”
Unknown aircraft: “I said I was f… ing bored, not f… ing stupid!”
==============================================
O’Hare Approach Control to a 747: “United 329 heavy, your traffic is a
Fokker, one o’clock, three miles, Eastbound.”
United 239: “Approach, I’ve always wanted to say this… I’ve got the
little Fokker in sight.”
==============================================
A student became lost during a solo cross-country flight. While
attempting to locate the aircraft on radar, ATC asked, “What was your
last known position?”
Student: “When I was number one for takeoff.”
==============================================
A DC-10 had come in a little hot and thus had an exceedingly long roll
out after touching down. San Jose Tower noted: “American 751, make a
hard right turn at the end of the runway, if you are able. If you are
not able, take the Guadalupe exit off Highway 101, make a right at the
lights and return to the airport.”
===============================================
There’s a story about the military pilot calling for a priority
landing because his single-engine jet fighter was running “a bit
peaked.” Air Traffic Control told the fighter jock that he was number
two, behind a B-52 that had one engine shut down. “Ah,” the fighter
pilot remarked, “the dreaded seven-engine approach.”
===============================================
Taxiing down the tarmac, a DC-10 abruptly stopped, turned around and
returned to the gate. After an hour-long wait, it finally took off. A
concerned passenger asked the flight attendant, “What, exactly, was
the problem?”
“The pilot was bothered by a noise he heard in the engine,” explained
the flight attendant. “It took us a while to find a new pilot.”
===============================================
A Pan Am 727 flight waiting for start clearance in Munich overheard
the following: Lufthansa (in German):
“Ground, what is our start clearance time?”
Ground (in English): “If you want an answer you must speak in English.
“Lufthansa (in English): “I am a German, flying a German airplane, in
Germany. Why must I speak English?”
Unknown voice from another plane (in a beautiful British accent):
“Because you lost the bloody war.”
===============================================
Tower: “Eastern 702, cleared for takeoff, contact Departure on frequency 124.7″
Eastern 702: “Tower, Eastern 702 switching to Departure. By the way,
after we lifted off we saw some kind of dead animal on the far end of
the runway.”
Tower: “Continental 635, cleared for takeoff behind Eastern 702,
contact on frequency 124.7. Did you copy that report from Eastern
702?”
Continental 635: “Continental 635, cleared for takeoff, roger; and
yes, we copied Eastern… we’ve already notified our caterers.”
==================================================
One day the pilot of a Cherokee 180 was told by the tower to hold
short of the active runway while a DC-8 landed. The DC-8 landed,
rolled out, turned around, and taxied back past the Cherokee. Some
quick-witted comedian in the DC-8 crew got on the radio and said,
“What a cute little plane. Did you make it all by yourself?”
The Cherokee pilot, not about to let the insult go by, came back with
a real zinger: “I made it out of DC-8 parts. Another landing like
yours and I’ll have enough parts for another one.”
===============================================
The German air controllers at Frankfurt Airport are renowned as a
short-tempered lot. They not only expect one to know one’s gate
parking location, but how to get there without any assistance from
them. So it was with some amusement that we (a Pan Am 747) listened to
the following exchange between Frankfurt ground control and a British
Airways 747, call sign Speedbird 206.
Speedbird 206: ” Frankfurt , Speedbird 206 clear of active runway.”
Ground: “Speedbird 206. Taxi to gate Alpha One-Seven.”
The BA 747 pulled onto the main taxiway and slowed to a stop.
Ground: “Speedbird, do you not know where you are going?”
Speedbird 206: “Stand by, Ground, I’m looking up our gate location now.”
Ground (with quite arrogant impatience): “Speedbird 206, have you not
been to Frankfurt before?”
Speedbird 206 (coolly): “Yes, twice in 1944, but it was dark, — and I
didn’t land.” =================================================
While taxiing at London ’s Gatwick Airport, the crew of a US Air
flight departing for Ft. Lauderdale made a wrong turn and came nose to
nose with a United 727. An irate female ground controller lashed out
at the US Air crew, screaming: “US Air 2771, where the hell are you
going?! I told you to turn right onto Charlie taxiway! You turned
right on Delta! Stop right there. I know it’s difficult for you to
tell the difference between C and D, but get it right!” Continuing her
rage to the embarrassed crew, she was now shouting hysterically: “God!
Now you’ve screwed everything up! It’ll take forever to sort this
out! You stay ri ght there and don’t move till I tell you to! You can
expect progressive taxi instructions in about half an hour and I want
you to go exactly where I tell you, when I tell you, and how I tell
you! You got that, US Air 2771?”
“Yes, ma’am,” the humbled crew responded. Naturally, the ground
control communications frequency fell terribly silent after the verbal
bashing of US Air 2771. Nobody wanted to chance engaging the irate
ground controller in her current state of mind. Tension in every
cockpit out around Gatwick was definitely running high. Just then an
unknown pilot broke the silence and keyed his microphone, asking:
“Wasn’t I married to you once?”
Hey fellow readers,
I know it has been a long time since I have written. Almost two months in total. But you guys already know about my trip from my last post,
On an early, well late morning in San Jose, Costa Rica a Delta 757 Etops was parked at what Costa Ricans call a remote terminal but is just a big space were airplanes spend the night. After a 30 of waiting for the crew we departed. A three and a half hour flight landed us at Hartsfield-Jackson Int. airport. The most travelled to airport in the United States and top in the world.
The biggest hub of Delta airlines which will soon be the biggest airline in the world is located here. From Regional Jets, to the mighty 777, these planes fly out from here. Six concords spread out this airport, but lucky a tram connects you. As we arrived at our gate I was so excited to see such a beautiful plane parked at the jet way. A brand new 767 glimmered in the late afternoon sun. Fitted with personal televisions and two aisles it was the imaginary plane for this flight. Four hours did not affect me, because I was able to track my flight along with watching movies and playing games. Upon arrival I would miss the plane, but I knew to travel the Pacific a more advanced plane would arrive.
At SFO, in the international terminal, at gate 31F stood a remarkable 777-200ER. Long and not so lean the beauty was my ticket out of this continent. Being able to travel 14000 km. means it is on top. A beauty from Korean Air I knew would not disappoint me.
After arriving in Korea…and waiting…we got on a very reliable, very cozy, very efficient 737. The last leg of our trip. An hour and a half flight would finish us off at a beautiful, dragon shaped airport, and the heart of Asia.
Welcome fellow travelers to Airlines, Airplanes, and Airports. This will be my final blog for the school year. So I am going to talk about two crazy trips. The first one was troubles with yours truly, American Airlines, and the second will be my trip this summer.
My first trip was with American Airlines, before Air Canada had direct service between SJO and YYZ. We had a planned a trip from SJO to MIA then onwards to YYZ. Our plane was delayed in SJO so we got to Miami late, even though the attendants said we had made up time in the air. BBBBulcrap. We got to Miami and they told us to run to the gate. Well, if George W. (W stand for: what the hell is this idiot doing in office) Bush did not take away transit, we would have not missed our plane. AA decided to send us to LGA to catch a plane to YYZ. When we got to LGA our plane was broken so they had to send a new one. We finally made it to YYZ and midnight as opposed to 5 o’clock.
A Korean air 777 or 747 will take off with full throttle from SFO on its way to ICN and then on to PEK. This will be journey for the summer. I will have to fly from SJO to ATL and then to SFO with my dad. But on the way back I have to go from PEK to ICN, to LAX, to ATL, and finally back to SJO. Big trips for little people. It is going to be beautiful to see the new terminal 3 in PEK, they say it resembles a dragon.
So this is me, your author, who’s name I think you do not know leaving. I will be posting during my trips and during my train ride through Mongolia. Do not skip because thing will get better. Peace Out.
Please enjoy the following presentation.
When you take off or land you can always see numbers like 400 or 300 speeding by, or on your ticket it shows you are departing from SJO to YYZ. These signs that you see all over the terminals and airports can mean many things, some being important to you, other only being important with pilots.
Lets start with airport codes. When landing at an airport a pilot might say, “we have begun or decent into JFK.” Meaning that he is landing at Idle wild airport or in other terms, John F. Kennedy airport. When a pilot says he needs to stop for an emergency at LAX does not mean he needs laxative, it means that he is landing at Los Angeles Airports. You can usually guess what the three letter FAA code stand for, but sometimes, in the cases of Toronto (YYZ), O’Hare (ORD) which commemorates Orchard Field, or Osaka (KIX). Now at this point things have to get humorous, Sioux City asked the FAA to change their name from SUX to something not as dirty. Not like the Finns, the Syrians, and the Japanese mind. Helsinki’s international airport has he three letter code HEL. When landing in Damascus expect to see signs saying DAM all over the place. At Fukuoka, well you might have already guessed, FUK will be your destination. Most people or at least I would try to avoid flying from FUK-DAM-HEL.
When zooming down the runway you see those signs with numbers. You cannot help to wonder what it is. Theses signs represent how many meters are left on the runway for the plane to use. At JFK’s runway 13R-31L, do not be surprised to see the numbers 6000 and 5000 go by while you are still in the air. Other signs around the runways stand for the runway numbers and the signals needed for the control tower.
Special Thanks to Patrick Smith and Ask The Pilot.
Gas
The price per barrel of gas hit $136 today as gas prices have soared other the past few months. When thinking about the price of gas, and how much an airplane uses to fly, the conclusion seems to be that airlines prices are going to sky rocket.
Speaking of rockets, what will happen to space travel? Entrepreneurs are finding business in space and as you have seen, Virgin Galactic will be asking for 20 million dollars, but since gas prices have gone up, will prices soar as well? Does that mean that space travel will be canceled or set to an extremely high price?
Once again Virgin appears. In late February Branson was able to have one of his 747’s fly from Heathrow to Holland running with one engine on biofuel. This is the future and if we do not act fast and do something, flight travel may end and the world’s form of transportation could come to an end.
My blog being called Airlines, Airplanes, and Airports, should have some information about airports. So with the help of Patrick Smith from ask the pilot lets lay down some background information about the biggest and best airports around the world.
If you are a traveler looking to avoid the worst lines and most packed airports, you might want to avoid Atlanta. The busiest airport in the world, trafficking about a bit more than 76 million people a year. This number may jump is Delta buys Northwest and makes Atlanta the busiest hub in the world. Surprisingly enough next up O’Hare with 66.5 million people going through it every year. Then we get international and move into Heathrow and Haneda. Finally at number 5 LAX rules the gate to the Asian empire. Then with www.worldairportawards.com we find out that Hong Kong int. is most comforting. Runner ups are Singapore’s Changi and Seoul int. The final two to make the top five are Munich’s and Kuala Lumpur’s trailing behind.
Moving on to a, in my opinion, better trusted network, Forbes. They also agree that Hong Kong is numero uno, and Changi’s following, then Incheon, Munich, and the only change in the lineup, Osaka killing off Dubai int., Kuala Lumpur, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and barely making it, Sidney.
Next time you travel try to make it fuel efficient and make it coincide with a non-busy airport that is a great place to relax when your American Airlines flight has been delyed…again.
Video of planes landing at Hong Kong, and one at the old Hong Kong airport.
Since I am Canadian, the major airlines in my life have been Canadian Airlines and Air Canada. I did not spend a lot of time on Canadian since it got bought out when I was young, but Air Canada has been there through bankruptcy and through turbulence. Over the years I see how Air Canada keeps on cutting its budget and how it does not care about its passengers. I remember flying Canadian and after watching the videos I can conquer with anybody that Canadian will always be better than Air Canada.
When looking at Canadian’s fleet, it is beautiful for its time. Te fleet consisted of Airbus A320’s, Boeing’s 737s, 767s, 747s, DC-10s/30s, and many small propeller used in regional service. Even though they only lasted 14 years they never had a fatality.
Now compare this to Air Canada. When I looked for their historical fleet, it was completely disorganized on their website. Some of the airplanes they used were acquired from Canadian Airlines. The Lockheed Tristar was taken out of service in 1996, the Fokker F28 was retired in 2004, the DC-9s were put down in 2002, Boeing 747s not acquired from Canadian were retired by 2004.
When I asked my parents who they thought were better they immediately responded to Canadian. What I liked, though it hurt me, was that part of the reason they went bankrupt was partially because of their excellent service.
When watching the videos below please enjoy and feel the pain we Canadian supporters feel.
PLEASE leave questions or ideas for me to write about because I am running out of ideas and I would love it if I could get some ideas that you guys are interested in. The great thing is, you do not do any work, I do the research and I answer the question.
VLJ, short for very light jet, may be the new way to travel. The VLJ’s have a range around 2000 kilometers which is great for business people wanting to travel to bordering states or countries. The VLJ’s might replace regional jets so that the destination points increase and might open a door to air taxi service. There are many VLJ’s such as the Eclipse 500, the Adam 700, the Embraer Phenom 100, and the Cessna Mustang. These planes prices range from 1.5 to 3 million dollars. Most of these planes come with a bathroom service but on the Eclipse 500 there is the choice of a bathroom, a sixth seat, or a beverage area. The problem with these planes is that they only carry around 4-7 passengers.
Even though these great things are happening were come to the cost of fuel. The world is running low on it and prices are becoming steep. My hypothesis is that airlines will begin to merge and traveling will become a lot more expensive. Scientists have started looking for biofuels that Virgin and Richard Branson have looked into and plan to start using biofuels with 747’s by the end of 2008. The problem is as more airlines are created, more planes are built. This causes pollution and might cause and end to flying. When we look at space travel it is hard to believe it will happen with so much concern for oil.
One amazing thing is even though there is a lot of demand in private air travel in Central America, there is no air taxi service.
So let’s say a plane costs 2 million dollar and resale price is 1 million. Then the whole price costs 1 million and after flying for ten years the price you make up is greater and better.
I feel this post was not great, so if you are checking out my blog leave a comment on what I should writer about or a question that I could answer.
Thx to wikipedia for information.
Delta Airlines is moving up to the top of the flying world. Delta not only may be becoming the world’s biggest and probably most important airline, but they also care about their passengers and their comfort.
On Delta’s new and old 767’s and 777’s they will be replacing the crappy seats we see today and put in awesome Cozy Suites, which give a passenger a bigger seat with more leg space, YOUR own arm rests, which means no more arm rest wars, and televisions in the back of every seat. If you have not passed out by now, and you are on the verge of it, let me remind you that this is in economy seating. After all this great news there is more, everyone gets a headrest that curves to your sides so you do not end up sleeping on some strangers shoulder. Are you tired of letting someone out into the aisle? Well now you don’t have to, the seats fold up so you can stand right at your seats. All this cool, technological stuff should be installed by the end of 2010.
Now compare all this to your crappy American Airlines. On American the seating is so cramped and small that you are almost like sitting on top the other person. Cozy Suites tries to make your airline travel as pleasant as possible. I believe American’s goal is to make sure that your trip will be screwed up as much as possible.
Cozy Suites has been working on this plan for seven years. Cozy Suites is part of Thompson Solutions, they have been working closely with Delta and plan to work with Emirates, Virgin, and Swiss Int. in the future.
If this is to come in two years, imagine what will happen in twenty years. Maybe the now business class will become the new economy class.
Thanks to Wikipedia, Wired Magazine, and Jeanne LeBlanc for providing the information.
