Latitude is where we are lost and longitude is how long we’ve been lost there!
Source: AviationHumor.net
Jersey whooper swan falls in love with a £6million chopper
The Daily Mail has a rather bizarre story about a whopper swan in Jersey who lost his mate a few years ago and has fallen in love with a £6million Eurocopter EC155. Even more strange is the fact that although dozens of different choppers fly in and out of the runway every week, the whooper only has eyes for the EC155. He even recognizes the chopper’s engines when it flies in, chases it down the runway and then sits and nestles by it until the chopper’s owner flies off again!
Since the pilot and local airport officials were afraid the swan would fly into the chopper’s rotor blades, they decided to have a vet clip his wings. And while there are many swans in the area, there aren’t any other whooper swans.
A local employee told the Daily Mail:
‘He seems very happy but I would like to find him a female white swan – but this is Jersey and there aren’t many around.
‘So if anyone can help me find him a mate that would be brilliant. It would also stop him flying around the airport when his feathers grown back.’
So if you know of a lonely female whooper swan in need of a mate, please contact the Jersey Airport or the nearby Les Mielles Golf and Country Club before his wing feathers grow back and this love affair ends in tragedy!
Remembering the “Dambusters” mission
Earlier this month, aviation enthusiasts and military veterans alike gathered outside Sheffield to mark the 70th anniversary of one of World War II’s most memorable air assaults: Operation Chastise, otherwise known as the "dambusters" mission.
The gathering was extra special because vintage aircraft, including a Lancaster bomber, recreated a dambuster mission by performing three runs over the Derwent Dam in Derbyshire which, coincidentally, was used back in 1943 by the 617 Squadron pilots to train in preparation of the daring night missions using “bouncing bombs” against dams in Nazi Germany’s industrial heartland in the Ruhr Valley.
If you want to learn more about the actual mission, a quick look at YouTube reveals the following documentary narrated by Actor Martin Shaw who also talked to the last living RAF veteran of the mission as well as a survivor of the tsunami that was caused by the Moehne dam’s destruction:
The Aviationist blog has posted the following footage from onboard the RAF Memorial Flight Lancaster as it flew over the Derwent Dam:
Finally, PlanesTV has the following footage taken from the ground of the Lancaster flying over the dam:
Another trailer for Disney’s upcoming “Planes”
Disney has released another sneak peek of its upcoming movie “Planes,” a 3D animated comedy adventure featuring a plane named Dusty who has dreams of competing as a high-flying air racer. The problem is that Dusty is not built for racing and he is also afraid of heights – forcing him to turn to a seasoned naval aviator for help in qualifying to take on the defending champ of the race circuit.
The last time we posted a trailer for “Planes,” we noted a number of viewers on YouTube were less than thrilled by what they saw and the same can be said about comments for this new trailer:
The latest release date for “Planes” (at least in US theaters) is August 9th. So I guess we will have to wait until then to see whether this animation soars with movie goers or crashes hard!
Can you confirm your aircraft…?
Controller: “FAR1234 confirm your type of aircraft. Are you an Airbus 330 or 340?”
Pilot: “A340 of course!”
Controller: “Then would you mind switching on the two other engines and give me a 1000 feet per minute, please?”
For male flyers: Is this the best airline commercial ever?!!
At least for male travelers, this two minute airline commercial from Russia might just be the best one ever and perhaps not long enough! No word on whether it was effective and actually led to more passengers…