Its moving!
787 is moving!!!
KOMO: 747? 787? They’re the same, right?
This just cries out to be ridiculed and made fun of as wide as possible. Seriously, this is a professional news organization in an area where aerospace is one of the top 2 industries.
Seriously, KOMO, you deserve all the raspberry you can get for this. It’s just sloppy and lazy. No excuses — you are NOT the average person who may not see the difference — you are in the business of ACCURACY and by god in the Seattle area you need to know your airplanes. Would a TV station in Detroit make a story with a caption about a Mustang yet have the picture be a F150 truck? Must I even explain this to you?!
Next you’ll show a screen shot of Apple Macintosh OS X in relation to a Microsoft Windows 7 story. Seriously, guys, this is that bad…and if you can’t see that — wow, I’m astonished and kind of embarrassed you are in my town. You guys are being THAT stupid. And you haven’t even corrected it after hours of people leaving comments on your own website!
Shame on you.
Here’s the link to the story, which hopefully they will correct. But I took a screen shot to proove KOMO’s stupidity:
A decade of blogging
I’ve been blogging for a decade. 10 years already… huh!
While this is certainly an interesting point in a time line, it’s really only an electronic analogue to a diary. I’m sure many people have been keeping diaries for longer. Nonetheless I’m kinda tickled to meet this milestone. I started “blogging” before “blog” was even a noun or a verb; indeed before it was even a popular catchphrase. Indeed I had my first web page back in 1995 (See my “Deep Archive” link above)
That’s a lot of time and bandwidth (timewidth?) dedicated to my own banter. What have I accomplished in that time?
As it turns out quite a bit. I became a true adult (still out for some debate). I had a successful consulting company (official corporation even!) and then transferred clients/closed it after my clients became successful and got gobbled-up by other, bigger corps in what became the dot com bomb. I moved to California and back. I bought a house. Got cats. Sold a house. Bought a condo. Used five different types of blogging software. Stumbled into a great relationship. And generally observed what made me laugh and ranted upon the stuff that irritated.
As I look back at some of my entries it makes me smile and laugh a lot. Also I cringe a lot…was I THAT shrill, really? Or was I THAT stupid, really? But that’s the deliciousness of time and becoming older — the cumulative benefit of your experiences always makes you wiser and wiser.
So what will the next decade have in store? Who knows….That is what is fun, and worth living!
-Garrett
1998:
http://www.gmwnet.com/archive/1998/
1999:
http://www.gmwnet.com/archive/1999/2/
http://www.gmwnet.com/archive/1999/3/
http://www.gmwnet.com/archive/1999/
2000:
http://www.gmwnet.com/archive/2000/1/
http://www.gmwnet.com/archive/2000/2/
http://www.gmwnet.com/archive/2000/3/
2002
http://www.gmwnet.com/archive/2003/1/
2003:
http://www.gmwnet.com/archive/2003/2/
2004:
http://www.gmwnet.com/archive/2004/1/
2005:
http://www.gmwnet.com/archive/2005/1/
http://www.gmwnet.com/archive/2005/2/
2006:
http://www.gmwnet.com/archive/2006/1/
P.S.: I’m going to attempt to add these old entries to my database. So if you subscribe to the RSS feed you may see a slew of new entries. I’ll be careful to set the date in the posts properly, but I’m unsure if they will appear in the RSS feed because they are “new” entries as far as the database is concerned…
My ride to MSO
The 25th anniversary paint job Horizon Q400. Nice ride…they had Top
Pot donuts for us this morning 🙂
Airline Timetables Disappear, Airline Dorks Die a Little Inside
My God, I think that’s me there…
I know a spy
I have a secret…I know a spy! Really. Okay, maybe not true “Cloak and Dagger” type stuff, but in an industrial way. I bump into Boeing’s “analyst” for Airbus all the time at my local watering hole. We talk aerospace and aviation shop talk. It’s like my dream come true.
We’re enjoying drinks right now…
Shhhh…mums the word. I have no other evidence to support my claim. But then again, if I told you more I’d have to kill you… 😉
Virgin America LAS-SFO-SEA Oct 2008
From a trip report I posted to airliners.net.
The actual trip to Vegas was nice — very relaxed. I didn’t even bring my laptop!! Although I later was feeling quite detached from the world. Guess I have Internet addiction, but since I can claim that is my career hopefully I can avoid those nasty visits to the therapist LOL!
___________________________
Bottom lines at the top:
–Nice new airplanes, of course.
–Nice staff, not outlandishly cute, but happy & professional
–Exit row reservation of $15 is worth it
–Upgrade to first class $50 worth it…perhaps
–Red is cool, but needs some work. Holds promise
–Will definitely fly again; all-in-all superior to other competitors that I have flown
In brief…my first time on Virgin America as I was trying their product to see what the fuss was all about after a 3 day quickie in Vegas. I usually fly either Alaska (We’re nearly slaves to it in SEA for west coast stuff) or Southwest for short trips like this.
I forgot my camera — 20 lashes with a noodle, I know.
LAS-SFO VX909
Scheduled: 3:35P
Actual: 3:35P
Load: 85-ish%
Reserved an exit row window on this leg. Found the legroom more than some domestic first class cabins I’ve sat in. Definitely worth the $15 for me. Seats are comfy and did not feel “squashed” into them and I’m a pretty big guy. The side wall does start curving into your headroom if a window seat, though. Not enough to make me unhappy for 1.5 hours. Weather was gorgeous all along the coast, so spot on-time departure. Arrived 40-35 minutes early into SFO!
The Red in-flight entertainment is nice, but still seems buggy — slow screen redraws and artifacts. Google maps is slow. TV is good. Music good (obviously as a Virgin product…) Navigation of the screens was a little confusing, but I’m getting old and analog, so perhaps it’s just me. Once the kinks are worked-out and the final features added it will indeed be killer.
Now had a 4 hour layover in SFO, but that was planned — had dinner with some friends which was fabulous. Returned to the airport an hour before departure only to find a gate change to the other side of the SFO Int’l terminal to G83. Quite long walk — not something you want to do when you have no time.
SFO-SEA VX748
Scheduled: 8:45P
Actual: 8:45P
Load: poor (perhaps 33%?)
Got an upgrade to first class on this leg. After cheap Vegas hotel and no gambling I figured i could afford the $50 upgrade luxury to try it out — I AM an airplane lover after all, so it’s research, at least this is my excuse to myself… 🙂
First class is really akin to a good International business class. Unbelievable seat pitch — I could not reach-out and touch the seat in front of me without getting out of my seat. Seat comfy. Only annoying thing was there is no place to rest a single drink glass as the arm rests are padded and contain the tray table on one side and the Red screen on other.
We were served a BBQ chicken salad, which I poked thru as I was stuffed from dinner, but it was good and appropriate for the quite late hour. All-in-all for this short flight the $50 wasn’t particularly worth it when I knew from the first flight that $15 extra scores an outstanding seat totally sufficient for 1-3 hour coastal flights.
I later sat in a “normal” coach seat for a few minutes. It did feel more constricted, obviously, but I would not hesitate to sit in one of these either. As good or better than other airlines.
Oh, and we arrived 30 minutes early in SEA as well. Must have been the excellent weather, I’m sure. Vividly shows you, however, how much delay airlines pad into schedules some times (yet still are late…I know, a huge other topic! 😉
Summary:
IMHO this is a superior product compared to the normal airlines I endure when doing quick flights on the west coast. Perhaps not mind-blowingly so, but definitely a noticeable step above the rest. If Virgin America flies to a destination I want to go to I will choose them over anyone else from now on; let’s hope that network of theirs is expanded. I think they have the potential to really take-on a certain airlines if they can hang in there during the tough times and passengers take notice.
________________
http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/trip_reports/read.main/135267/
Witty runways
I’m a sucker for witty writing that is of the dripping-with-sarcasm-yet-only-one-inch-from-the-truth category.
This is a prime example. Although Seattle is finally getting it’s 3rd runway this November after decades of constipation, London Heathrow (perhaps the most important international aviation gateway on Earth) is just now getting it’s druthers and really getting deep into the expansion mode.
So my fellow airliner geeks at airliners.net (a.net) have risen to the occasion and have commented on possible timelines as such!
to wit, in part (fair use):
“June 2009 – Submit public tenders for various designs for its replacement.
July 2009 – All designs rejected by local residents.
August 2009 – A rare and previously thought to be extinct breed of dust mite is discovered in T2.
Late-August 2009 – A charity single entitled “Save the mites = Save our future (and our Children’s future)” is released by two ex-Pop Idol nobodies. It goes straight in at number one.
September 2009 – Local residents set up an action group called T.W.A.T.S – (Team Worried and Against Terminal Success) which pickets Parliament to demand that the area is left for animals to graze on, as anything other than this course of action represents what basically amounts to Planetary Homicide. They lodge their formal complaints to the planning commission, which rules that in light of the new complaints against the massive expansion of Heathrow airport and the obvious and irrefutable damage replacing the terminal building will do to London’s green belt, that all previous planning permissions and tenders are null and void. A new planning process is started.
October 2009
The best airline (any?) commercial ever
OK, I’m late to the party… (big surprise!)
This commercial that United aired during the Olympics is simply a masterpiece. It is an epic film in 60 seconds.
Normally I’m not a huge sappy guy, but this one softens even my hard edges. It is so nuanced and heartfelt — literally; the way the heart gets cut-out and slipped in a pocket. They way you see the light thru the empty heart during the presentation. They way the bird flies thru it and the score is outstanding. Plus just a hint of United’s famous use of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” at the end, which has to be one of the most effective, and really great, corporate identities out there.
Just too bad United is really going through some rough times, as obviously they have some incredible talent and feeling somewhere in that leviathan body. This is beautiful.
Anyways, here it is…