Google Buys Fighter Jet?

There is a news report that beleives that Google has added a Fighter Jet, a Dornier Alpha Jet, to their fleet.  Is an attack on Microsoft eminent? 

 

The airplanes that Google uses, a 757, a 767, and two Gulfstream V’s,  are not actually operated directly by Google, but by another company named H211, LLC.

All of these airplanes are partially used by NASA and have permission to operate out of a NASA airport that private jets are not usually allowed to operate from.

I don’t believe the Google founders themselves are actually pilots, but I have heard that Google CEO Eric Schmidt is an avid pilot, so maybe he is looking to have some fun with a fighter jet.

DayJet Fleet For Sale

I always thought DayJet was an interesting idea, but it looks like they were not able to pull it off.

A fleet of 28 former DayJet Eclipse 500’s are now ready for immediate sale.  You can read about them here.

Maybe it’s time for a Gold Seal Corporate Jet? 

Steve Fossett Search News

A blogger over at Fox News is reporting that a couple discovered some documents while hiking in the mountains.

Apparently these documents appear to be FAA cards with the name Steve Fossett on them.  They also found some tattered clothes nearby.
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Skycatcher Prototype Crashes

A prototype for Cessna’s entry into the LSA market, the Skycatcher, crashed during a routine test flight on Thursday September 18th.
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Operation Teacup

“Operation Teacup” has  put out a call for volunteer aircraft owners, flight instructors, and  pilots to assist with  emergency, hurricane relief flights, into Haiti, the Dominican Republic, The  Bahamas, Houston and  Galveston, Texas and other surrounding areas needing emergency relief help from the recent hurricanes.

Volunteers should visit the website at http://www.operation-teacup.scieron.com

Funny Aviation Video

I saw this posted out on StudentPilot.com by WesJones and gave it a look.

It’s a pretty funny video of a conversation between a captain and ATC.

I’m not sure how they do these animations as it looks as if they might have used real eyes and mouths.  Take a look for yourself and watch it here.

My “Perfect” Flight Bag

When I bought my original flight bag, I did what most pilots do when they purchase their first flight bag: bought a huge bag and threw everything I had aviation related into it. I basically ended up with heavy, and quite large, aviation locker.

Now that I’ve “matured” as a pilot, I’ve started my hunt for the perfect flight bag to replace my “locker”.
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BNL Singer Survives Accident

Sometimes we find out someone famous is a pilot in interesting ways.  I was reminded of this again last week.

I’ve been a big fan of Barenaked Ladies since before they were on the radio nationally.  I used to date a girl from Canada that went to High School with the BNL guys, so she turned me on to them back in 1994.

One of their singers, Ed Robertson, happens to also be a pilot.  He got his ticket back in 2005 and now owns a Cessna 206 Floatplane which is featured in a show on OLN called Ed’s Up.

On August 24th, Ed and three passengers survived some sort of crash in a wooded area near Bancroft, Ontario.  They apparently put it down in some trees and had to crawl out the window but did not have a scratch on them.

I’ve been trying to find out some more about his TV Show Ed’s Up as apparently his airplane plays a big part in the show. 

It looks to be something similar to Dirty Jobs, but not neccessarily as Dirty.  I was able to find a full episode where he flew to the states to become a Pit Crew member for a day.  It looks like a fun show and I hope it comes out on DVD soon as I would defineatly buy a copy.

I’d also like to try and get him on The 25 Zulu Show to have him talk about his adventures on Ed’s Up with his airplane.

Union Strikes at Boeing

Customers of Boeing will be waiting for their new planes a little while longer as 27,000 assembly line workers have walked off the job on Saturday after two days of talks broke down.

Workers in Seattle, Oregon and Kansas have walked off the job as of 12:01am on Saturday.

It appears that the strike will dealy delivery of the first of the 787 Dreamliner jets.

Of all the problems facing Aviation in recent years, this isn’t going to help.  You can read the whole story here.

TAF Format Changes

On November 5th, 2008 some minor, but important, changes will be rolled out regarding TAF formatting.

Mostly the changes pertain to the Time format being updated to ICAO standards, but we’ve created a nice short multimedia presentation to go over the changes.

You can find this presentation at www.tafchange.com.

This is the first in our Gold Seal NOTAM series were we discuss important information to airmen.

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