If you look up ‘awesome’ in the dictionary it says ‘watch this video’. HD video of Felix Baumgartner’s 24 mile high parachute jump.
Is Airplane Repo on the Discovery Channel fake?
We have written a couple of times about the airplane repo business (see Risky business: Being an airplane repo man and Meet an airplane repo man) plus the Discovery Channel has even created a reality TV series called Airplane Repo where repo men chase multi-million dollar jets across America. However, just how real is the Discovery Channel’s Airplane Repo show?
That was the subject of a recent thread on the Airline Pilot Forum with a moderator under the pseudonym UAL T38 Phlyer pointing out:
And somehow, they always have time to mount belly-cameras—-more than one—-on these airplanes they are in a ‘hurry’ to takeoff with. On a Canadair, I assume they used more than duct-tape.
He or she then added:
I saw it the other night (surfing through it). They took a Cessna from a ranch in Texas. A ranch-hand gave chase to one of the guys on the ground. The guy who took the plane buzzed him repeatedly to drive him off.
Now, unless this was done with the full blessing of the FAA (under the auspices of an ‘air show’), only a dunce would allow video of such an event to actually be broadcast.
UAL T38 Phlyer concluded it was “staged, mindless spectacle for the uninformed” while rightside02 added:
Totally staged and a joke, I would guess about 14 percent of what you see is really true. The rest is drama for ratings, which I understand, the public wants drama.
Next new show, jersey shore cast gets the ppl and does the repos themselves !
Someone then posted a question to ask what happened to a reality show where they had a variety of people competing in flight training for some sort of prize, but then someone answered that the show only lasted about two episodes – no doubt because it could not compete with the Jersey Shore.
Finally, TheFly posted:
Just saw an episode where they “repod” a Beech Jet 400. There’s was a cut scene from inside the cockpit just as V1 is called, the attitude indicator is in a 60 degree bank and around a 15 degree nose down pitch. Engines probably weren’t event running.
Fake.
Taking all of the above comments into consideration, we would like to ask you our readers whether or not you have seen an episode of Airplane Repo. If so, what’s your verdict? Real, fake or just plain entertaining?!!!
Flying Legends, Pilot Safety And A Life In Aviation
As Amelia Earhart said, you can either be a passenger or a pilot. Janeen Kochan is definitely a pilot in this best and broadest sense. Also an instructor, examiner, mechanic, bomber pilot, human factors expert and role model. Read my interview with Janeen Kochan on my Forbes column.
Round the world in seven days for charity
Richard Tams, British Airways’ head of UK & Ireland sales and Management Consultant and oneworld Emerald top tier frequent flyer, Andrew Solum, are warming up for a globe-trotting week’s challenge to raise money for charity.
The tenet of their challenge is simple: make it round the world by hook or by crook (or in reality by oneworld partners) within seven days in order to raise at least £20,000 for the Comic Relief Children’s charity Flying Start.
The daring duo will set off on September 15 from the oneworld headquarters in New York. That day they will start with American Airlines from New York to Chicago then on to the Tokyo Narita international hub of Japan Airlines.
The following day they will fly with Japan Airlines from Tokyo to the Hong Kong home of Cathay Pacific and on September 17 undertake a three-flight schedule from Hong Kong to Kuala Lumpur with Cathay Pacific, Kuala Lumpur to Singapore with Malaysia Airlines, which is on track to join oneworld at the turn of the year. They will then travel on from Singapore to London with Qantas arriving early on September 18.
British Airways will carry them on to Amman, base of Royal Jordanian.
On September 19 they will fly from Amman to Frankfurt with Royal Jordanian, then with airberlin to Germany’s capital city.
On September 20, they will take to the air again with airberlin to Frankfurt, then off with LAN to Madrid. From its base at the Spanish capital, Iberia will then carry them to the Moscow hub of S7, landing early on September 21, before a swift transfer to S7 for a flight to St Petersburg.
The following day (September 22) they will begin the last leg of their journey heading with Finnair from St Petersburg to its own Helsinki home then on to Heathrow to connect on to their final flight, a British Airways jet from London to New York arriving at 8.55pm local time.
In total they will cover just over 30,000 miles, flying along the way on every oneworld member airline and via 11 of the alliance’s major hubs.
Tams said: “I’ve done a lot of flying in my time at British Airways, but never so many destinations in such a short period. We’ll be going through
16 airports, flying on ten different aircraft types and visiting 11 countries on 12 airlines. We won’t even have time to stop and enjoy the views!
Mr Solum said "it will be tough going on standby staff tickets with no guarantee where we’ll be seated, but at the end of the day, every penny we raise will make a difference to a child – and that is really our driving force for this challenge."
Tams added “We’re enormously grateful to our oneworld partners for supporting our challenge – it’s a great reflection of the reach the alliance has. I’d also like to thank our hotel partners in this, the Global Hotel Alliance, Starwood and Marriott.”
“The travel trade have also already been really supportive and we’ve already hit £8,000+ of our target but we really want to reach at least £20,000 so we’re asking everyone to dig deep and help us out. Anyone can pledge money at:
http://donate.ba-flyingstart.com/funraiser/roundtheoneworld.”
The money raised will all go directly to Flying Start, the global charity partnership between British Airways and Comic Relief UK. It will help to improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of children living in the UK and in some of the poorest countries across the world. The aim of the charity is to help create lasting change by giving children and their families the chance to start supporting themselves.
This is a guest post from my friend Andrew Solum about his upcoming charity adventure.
iPad as kneeboard
Tietco kindly sent me a MyClip Thigh iPad and iPad 2 kneeboard. It’s a neat little strap that goes round your thigh and clips onto your iPad so you can use it as a kneeboard. It’s very comfortable and easy to use. The strap itself is also very compact so you can fold it away into your flying bag when you don’t need it. Order online for $39.95. Let’s face it, this is going to be the cheapest iPad accessory you’re going to buy and probably the most useful.
Are biofuels the future of green aviation?
Thomson Airways became the first UK airline to fly customers on sustainable biofuel when flight TOM 7446 flew from Birmingham to Arrecife on October 6th. To celebrate they prepared this cool infographic.
There was a really interesting podcast about the future of energy on NPR’s Planet Money recently which suggests we need to make some really big changes to make any kind of dent in CO2 output.
