Tower: “Delta 351, you have traffic at 10 o’clock, 6 miles!”
Delta 351: “Give us another hint! We have digital watches!”
Hudson landing animation
$100 Hamburger top 10
For those of you flying across the pond in the near future, the author of “The $100 Hamburger: A Guide to Pilot’s Favorite Fly-In Restaurants” has just announced his best of the best list for 2009. After a review of 1,675 airport friendly restaurants in the USA, subscribers to the $100 Hamburger voted the Southern Flyer Diner in Brenham, Texas (11R) as the winner while the following restaurants were voted as the 2009 runner ups:
1. Final Approach Sheboygan, WI (SBM )
2. Gaston’s Lakeview, AR (3M0)
3. Hard Eight BBQ Stephenville, TX (SEP)
4. Harris Ranch Coalinga, CA (3O8)
5. Matthew’s Paseo Robles, CA (PRB)
6. Pilot Pete’s Schaumburg, IL (06C)
7. Rick’s Café Boatyard Indianapolis, IN (EYE)
8. Sky Galley Cincinnati, OH (LUK)
9. The Downwind Café Port Orange, FL (7FL6)
10. We-B-Smokin’ Paola, KS (K81)
A presentation team will be formed to make an in-person visit to each of the restaurants to confer the award. In addition, another 15 restaurants were given Best of the Best status.
Goodbye Concorde, Hello Bizjet
“I’ll miss Concorde,” says Kevin Roberts, CEO Worldwide of ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi. “Speed is everything today and Concorde gives you an extra day a week. Working in NY for a French company based in Paris and a key agency in London, Concorde was meant for me. It gives me a big time competitive advantage.”
How to put out cabin fires
On a very serious note, Aviation Mentor has posted a detailed and excellent entry about fighting a pilot’s worst nightmare – an in-flight cabin fire. The key point: if you own an aircraft or (especially) if you are renting an unfamiliar aircraft, take the time to determine if there is a fire extinguisher on board, what kind of extinguisher it is, that it works, and that you know how to use it. Furthermore, the writer points out that:
I’ve seen extinguishers mounted underneath the pilot’s seat and in locations that are not only inconvenient, they could be downright dangerous in an emergency when every second counts. And if you aren’t following a preflight checklist that includes the fire extinguisher and you can’t actually see the fire extinguisher, you’re likely to forget about it. Out of sight, out of mind.
This is especially true in older Cirruses, like the ones I fly, where the fire extinguisher is mounted below the pilot’s knees. If you’re short like me, you’ll fly with the seat ratcheted forward. This makes getting to the fire extinguisher a real challenge because you have to move the seat back first.
Don’t Panic!
A stormy flight aboard a Boeing 707, and off-duty airline stewardess is sitting next to a man in the grip of a white-knuckle fever as he watches, through his porthole, the aircraft’s wing bending and bouncing in the tempest. The stewardess tries to reassure him; she works in the industry and flies all the time, she tells him. There is nothing to worry about; the pilots have everything under control.
“Madam,” he replies, “I am a Boeing Engineer and we did not design this aircraft to do what it is doing.”