Flying Around the Web

Five Airports One Flight

For those of us dreaming of flying the London Airports, this video of Five Airports One Flight is astounding to watch. If you are wondering how they managed it, there’s a comment by the original poster stating that “It’s not what you know, but who you know…” in terms of getting permission from air traffic control. There is also a comment that:

Unfortunately the opportunity to do this only happens a few days either side of the longest day. Outside that it is too dark to get over Heathrow before the first inbounds arrive.

Airline Empires

For a quiet moment of nostalgia, take a look at the flash slide show of airline empires with some wonderful old photographs of the airfields of the past.

Ask a CFI

I’ve only recently started reading ask a CFI.com but I’ve added it to my favourites for future reading. Paul answers questions and discusses issues he’s run into, including this very honest personal story about a lack of preparation when he was asked to pick up a Piper Aztec.

It was obviously bought at a real bargain and the new owner was putting in A LOT of money to restore it. I took a quick glance at the airplane, fuel on board (not much), required paperwork (ARROW) and hopped in. Some pilots refer to this kind of aircraft inspection as, “kicking the tires and lighting the fires.” I don’t remember kicking the tires.

Going Around

Cranky Flier calls out Associated Press for a terribly misleading video implying that go-arounds are unsafe.

Oh good, so a passenger with no flying experience knows that it’s a horribly unsafe maneuver? Please. As tempting as it may be, I can’t say I fault this guy for thinking that. A go-around can be a scary thing if you don’t know what’s happening. So who can I fault? The AP for putting this garbage on the air.

With a headline “The TSA blog: I read it so you don’t have to” Gadling’s Aaron Hotfelder writes about the American Transportation Security Administration blog with a Q&A post regarding the new ID requirement for airline passengers in the US. Be sure to read the full post with comments in what Aaron calls “the best comment thread ever”.

Note to the TSA: there’s a reason why community managers don’t come cheap.