I fly a Cirrus SR22 and I have tried a few simulators over the years, but I think this one looks pretty cool. As GA aircraft become more and more complex, the buttonology is going to get ever more important. Available near London from IP Aviation with or without an instructor.
Flying Bombardier’s New Global 6000
Last week, I got to fly to Geneva in Bombardier’s latest plane, the Global 6000. Check out my review on my Forbes column.
iPhone Weight and Balance App
When I was a PPL student, calculating a weight and balance (W&B) schedule for a flight took about 20 minutes using a form, the POH and a fair amount of mathematics. It wasn’t difficult but it was fiddly and time-consuming.
Every year there are accidents where pilots wilfully or accidentally overload or unbalance their aircraft with tragic results so W&B definitely matters.
I’m slowly moving all my aviation workflows to my iPhone and iPad. I use SkyDemon (VFR flight planning), LogTen Pro (log book), AeroPlates (approach plates and Pooleys) and RocketRoute (IFR flight planning and flight plan submission).
Now I have added Aviation W&B Calculator to handle W&B calculations.
It’s very simple to set up. Just download the plane template for your aircraft and the empty weight from the POH and confirm the arms for the different stations from the POH and you’re good to go. For the Cirrus I fly, it shows take off and landing envelopes so I can calculate fuel required and fuel burn. It replaces and Excel spreadsheet and makes it easy to do W&B for every flight. I only wish it could do passenger weights in kilograms and fuel loads in litres but apart from that it’s perfect.
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.
Convair 580 enthusiast charter
This is a guest post from Jeffrey Popoviz, a 17 year-old aviation enthusiast from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He runs Vintage Air Ventures, which runs charter flights on classic planes. He offers GHW readers a $50 discount on the next flight in August so mention the site when you book!
Ever since my first flight in June of 2006, I was hooked on flying and all things that defy gravity and fly. During the past several years nearly all of my school projects have been related to aviation, and I have read just about every book the FAA has published. Presently, I am a senior in high school, and hope to become a professional pilot in the years to come. I am currently working at my local airport, washing and waxing airplanes.
Several months ago, I decided to start my own business. My love for flying knows no bounds, however, with only 0.6 hours in my logbook, financial constraints have limited my flight time. I was determined to begin flight lessons, and therefore decided to start a business to gain the financial capital needed to begin flying. After several evenings of arduous research, I decided to start an air tour business with a large focus on vintage aviation. As Mark Twain once said “The secret of success is to make your vocation your vacation.” I have always been fascinated with vintage and classic airliners; from the Ford Tri-Motor to the Vickers VC-10. The so-called “Golden Age” of flight has always intrigued me, so I decided that a business based on my greatest passion was an excellent fit. My business, Vintage Air Ventures, focuses on organizing group charters for aviation enthusiasts from around the globe. After several months of searching, I finally found the perfect classic, rare and vintage aircraft open for an enthusiast charter- the Convair 580.
The Convair Company manufactured nearly 1,100 aircraft in the CV-240 family between 1947 and 1956. Since then, nearly all passenger Convairs have been removed from scheduled service, and only a small amount remain in use today. I was ecstatic to find such a wonderful airplane, and immediately booked the charter. In my opinion, the Convair serves as the quintessential American-made aircraft, as it was originally intended to replace the Douglas DC-3. Convairs are seldom seen nowadays and their time left in service is definitely limited.
Vintage Air Venture’s enthusiast charter on the Convair 580 is going to be an amazing experience. The flight is scheduled for the 25th of August, and will last 2 hours. The flight will overfly some of Quebec’s most breath-taking settings, and will give fellow, like-minded, aviation enthusiasts from around the world an opportunity to fly on a truly vintage aircraft from the Golden Age of Aviation. Personally, the flight will allow me to finally, after nearly 10 years, begin flight lessons and take to the skies. Please visit my website (I made it myself with no prior website-building experience) at www.vintageairventures.com to learn more about the upcoming charter flight.
On Board Boeing’s New 787 Dreamliner
A couple of weeks ago British Airways invited me to visit their newly-extended maintenance facility at Heathrow to see the new Boeing 787 which was visiting briefly. I had seen them on the production line in America but we weren’t allowed to take photos, so this was a great opportunity to see a fantastic new plane and to share some pictures with you.
British Airways was doing some tests to make sure that the 787 could fit in the new hangar and the maintenance cradles they had built for it. I was just looking for a photo opportunity!
New Rolls Royce Trent 1000 engines with this interesting scallop shape on the nacelle, which I believe is suppose to reduce noise.
The first impression is that it is very smooth, like a dolphin. Perhaps it’s the nose. And is it just me, but is there a hint of Comet in the lines?
We got a brief look at the cockpit. Note the head-up displays and the five large LCD screens.
Other planes have little trackballs but I was interested to see that the 787 has a trackpad like a laptop.
Surprisingly few knobs, dials and switches. As planes get more digital, the cockpits get simpler. I think even I could master this lot.
This is the forward crew rest area. Very cosy.
This picture shows the dimmable windows and Boeing’s business class concept with outward-facing windows (for a better view).
Smooth. Composite structure and advanced aerodynamics are part of the reason that Boeing is claiming 20% lower fuel consumption. We got to see how engineers repair composites. I had seen some of this before after a golf ball hit the wing of an SR22 that I fly. (Don’t worry, it was on the ground at the time.)
In service, I don’t think there would be so much space for walking around! But you can see the interior lighting system, cabin height and large windows in this picture.
I was impressed to see the 787 up close. Yes, it’s a few years late but some things are worth waiting for.