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JetSetVets: The ultimate private-jet, ride-along-vet & concierge-pet service

Both CNBC and the Daily Mail have run an AP story profiling JetSetVets, America’s only private-jet, ride-along-vet, concierge-pet service that was founded by celebrity veterinarian Dr. Cindy Bressler who has a house call practice in New York and the Hamptons. She’s also partnered with Los Angeles and Beverly Hills veterinarian Patrick Mahaney and Blue Star Jets, a New York-based private jet brokerage that promises to have a small, medium, large or jumbo jets ready to go anywhere in the world in less than four hours (they were even the subject of a conversation between Charlie Sheen and Michael Douglas in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps).

The vets will dispense medicine, change dressings, monitor IVs and drips and handle any in-flight medical care required by a pet as well as provide alternative services such as acupuncture, massage and laser treatments. The company will also prepare animals for trips, apply for travel documents, provide an on-flight chef to prepare specialty meals and work with veterinary hospitals when needed in an emergency.

The article goes on to describe how the cat of one New York client was diagnosed with cancer and needed radiation available only in Colorado. So the client, his assistant, the ailing cat and its feline companion plus Dr. Bressler made the trip there, but the cat’s VIP treatment did not stop there:

At the hotel, the cat’s owner had the presidential suite remodeled to resemble his New York apartment and hired the hotel chef to cook his pet gourmet meals when chemotherapy and radiation treatments zapped its appetite. The owner even had his cat’s litter airlifted to Colorado so it would be familiar.

After 10 days with the cat, Dr. Bressler returned to New York.

As you can imagine, the JetSetVets service comes with a pretty hefty price tag as renting a jet can cost between $1,000 and $12,000 an hour while vets Bressler and Mahaney charge $200 an hour. And then there are other extras like pet nurses, pet chefs, pet medical equipment, pet drugs and other pet related services plus added jet-related costs that aren’t included in these figures. In other words, you need to really love your pet and really be rich to use JetSetVets!

The OppiKoppi Music Festival’s beer drone technology

If you thought there was nothing drone technology could do that would impact your life in a meaningful way (other than to perhaps spy on it!), think again because at South Africa’s Oppikoppi Music Festival, concert goers could use an app combined GPS technology to have a drone accurately drop plastic cups full of beer:

Since getting to the Oppikoppi festival, which is held on a dusty farm in the northern Limpopo, is a challenge in and of itself due to the poor condition of the local roads, the organizers probably wanted to make it easy to deliver beer to concertgoers.

Carel Hoffmann, director of the Oppikoppi festival, has said an app registers the position of users using the GPS satellite chips on their phones:

“The delivery guys have a calibrated delivery drone. They send it to the GPS position and drops it with a parachute.”

For the sake of safety, Dean Engela, the co-founder of Darkwing Aerials which is the South African company that is providing the beer drone for the festival, told CBSNews.com:

“There’s going to be one campsite designated to the beer drop. The campsite will be notified that there will be drones in the air.”

The octocopter will only fly outside of the festival area while it makes its way to “District 9” to deliver beer while those inside the campsite will be told in advance that a drone will be flying above them during the show. Currently, the drone is hand-guided, but the developers say they will eventually fly on a GPS grid.

The South African built drone was nicknamed “Manna” after the Old Testament story of bread that fell from the sky to feed the Israelites travelling through the desert following their exodus from Egypt. Hoffmann has also told the media: “It’s an almost Biblical thing that beer is dropping from the sky.”

Even Rand Paul, the United States Senate’s foremost critic on drones and drone surveillance, has tweeted a link to an article about the beer delivery drone, adding: “Perhaps I am not against ALL drones!”

A pilot ends up in hell…

A pilot dies and goes to hell. As he is waiting for the devil, he notices three doors. The devil is nowhere in sight so he walks over to door number one and peeks inside. There he sees a lone pilot, sweating over emergency after emergency, non-stop bells and horns.

Quickly closing that door, he creeps to door number two. There he sees a pilot going over checklist after checklist after checklist.

Slamming closed that door, he steps over to the 3rd and last door. Inside is a pilot, along with three flight attendants who are pouring coffee, serving dinners and cold compresses to the pilot. Smiling he slowly closes the door and goes over and sits down.

The devil finally arrives and tells him to choose a door. He laughs and chooses door no. 3.

“Sorry,” says the devil. “Door no. 3 is flight attendant hell…”

The Jetlev: Soar with this water-propelled jetpack

If you are looking for a way to combine water activities and flying, look no further than the Jetlev – which can lift a person 30 feet or about 9 meters high by pumping water from a backpack through a hose connected to a small, unmanned boat:

The Jetlev is starting to show up for recreational rental in warm water vacation spots like San Diego, Key West and Cancun, Mexico, but they have also been a source of concern in Hawaii according to the AP.

Specifically, University of Hawaii coral scientist Bob Richmond has told state officials he is concerned about the noise the devices make because fish avoid areas that are too loud plus he is worried that fish and coral larvae could get pumped through some of the equipment the watercraft uses and die. There have also been complaints from fishermen.

These concerns have prompted the state Department of Land and Natural Resources to call a public meeting last month to discuss the devices. At the meeting, the department’s top enforcement officer expressed alarm over unsafe Jetlev maneuvers, such as riders dive-bombing into the water next to moving boats.

Jeffrey Krantz, the owner of H2O Sports Powered by Seabreeze, which operates the sole Jetlev in commercial use on Oahu, has suggested the state set aside special areas for jetpack use. His company takes about 10 people on Jetlev rides daily at a rate of $179 for 15 minutes while a quick look at the Jetlev’s maker’s website reveals the new 2013-model year JETLEV R200x starts at around $68,500 – meaning Jeffrey has a pretty good rate of return on his investment in the device and he won’t want to see it get banned.

This weekend’s UK air shows

If you have not made any plans this weekend, there are four aviation related events or UK air shows either ongoing or scheduled from the weekend into Monday:

Today Until Sunday

35th Bristol International Balloon Fiesta at Ashton Court, Bristol. In its 35th year, the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta is Europe’s largest annual Hot Air Balloon event and one of the UK’s top five outdoor events with 500,000 visitors during the show’s four days. Approximately 150 hot air balloons took off at Ashton Court Estate at 6am and 6pm yesterday and are scheduled to do so again this coming Saturday plus the Royal Air Force Red Arrows will fly today at 4PM; the all female Breitling Wingwalkers are scheduled for 12pm and 5pm on Saturday; and the RAF Typhoon display is scheduled for 1PM Saturday and 4PM Sunday. The best part about the event is that its absolutely free.

Today Until Monday

Whitby Regatta at Whitby, North Yorkshire. Probably the oldest sea regatta on the northeast coast after 173 years, the Whitby Regatta 2013 is four days of entertainment embracing yacht racing, rowing races and various free forms of entertainment finishing up with a prize presentation and spectacular firework display. While there will be an RAF display at the event, boats will obviously take the center stage – including a raft race on Sunday and a parade on Monday of many decorated themed floats.

Sunday

Record Breakers and Air Racing Air Display in Old Warden, Bedfordshire. The Shuttleworth Collection will be celebrating the daring of aerial record-breakers and racers at this Sunday’s air display. Book in advance online until Saturday and its £20 while its £25 per person on the day at the gate.

Sunday + Monday

Blackpool Air Show in Lancashire. Taking place over the famous Blackpool promenade, flying at the Blackpool Air Show air show starts at 2.15 pm on both days plus there will be trade stands opening at 10 am which will include simulator’s, Haribo, Sundae’s Ice Cream, RAF Association, Career information stands, Royal British Legion, Pilot Stands and much more. The best part about the show is its free.

Video highlights of AirVenture 2013 in Oshkosh

AirVenture 2013 in Oshkosh ended last weekend and despite the lack of current military aircraft participation due to government budget cuts, officials with the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) say about half a million people attended this year’s show – roughly the same number of attendees as last year. Official figures also counted 2,115 international visitors registered from 64 nations, with Canada (562 visitors), Australia (257), and South Africa (187) being the top three nations (but these figures only include visitors who registered at the International Visitors Tent).

In addition, more than 10,000 aircraft arrived at the Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh and other airports in east-central Wisconsin and the total showplanes numbered 2,341, including 867 homebuilt aircraft, 858 vintage airplanes, 343 warbirds, 130 ultralights, 92 seaplanes, 27 aerobatic aircraft and 24 miscellaneous showplanes. There were also 821 commercial exhibitors – a record.

If you were not able to attend AirVenture 2013, there are already a couple of great videos highlighting the best of what is arguably the most important general aviation airshow in the world. To begin with, there were plenty of lights, pyrotechnics and smoke to make the night airshow at AirVenture on July 31 a real spectacle as you can see from the following videos:

Another highlight of the show was the flypast of Swiss adventurer Yves Rossy, also known as “Jetman,” in his custom-built jet suit along side of a B-17 bomber:

Finally, the Terrafugia Transition “flying car” also made its first public debut flight:

Next year’s AirVenture promises to be even more exciting because 2014 will include the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I and the 75th anniversary of the jet engine.

Golf Hotel Whiskey: for pilots and aviation enthusiasts