Happy Halloween!

R.I.P. Glen Dell

It's a very sad moment in aerobatic aviation the South African pilot Glen Dell died today of burns sustained after the crash of his aircraft.

Red Bull Air Race Glen Dell Official Photograph

Dell was an experienced pilot and with a very large career in aviation from flying helicopters in the South African Air Force passing through aerobatic aircraft and as a Senior Captain in South African Airways.

Mário Pereira photo

I had the opportunity to be with Dell here in Portugal during Porto's Red Bull Air Race in 2008 and to me the memories of that time was the simplicity and the sympathy of Mister Dell. Surely the skies are poorer but persons like Glen Dell are those who make us all dream and believe in aviation. 

Is this the fate of aviation industry?

Sometimes I think that some posts of this blog can one day turn against Me because of what I write, but there are certain things that cannot pass for Me without being marked and posted here, that's the main purpose of this Blog.

Today in a Facebook Group of Portuguese pilots a friend posted and advert for an airline flying in Indonesia and quoted that the advert was only for those with their pockets full of cash. Read the following part of the advert and understand why is that.

No flight time requirements No minimum age requirements Price and Payment Plan: Assessment: to be issued shortly and to be paid to the TRTO directly B767 Jet Orientation Course, American FAA B767 Type Rating Course and B767 additional training to proficiency: $20,000 to $25,000 USD depending on pilot's proficiency to be paid to the TRTO directly. Airline Conversion Course and one thousand two hundred fifty (1250) hours as a Boeing 767 First Officer: €44,500 EUR. €5,000 EUR is due after program acceptance and once program agreement has been signed and €39,500 EUR is due upon completion of the B767 training to proficiency course. No salary while attending the program. No VAT / taxes are to be added to the above costs. Pilots are responsible for their living expenses at their home base but receive assistance from the airline to locate housing. During overnights while on duty, airline covers hotel expenses, meals and transportation. Basically you pay to fly! Great huh?

Airbus widebody family flight with the A350 XWB, A380 and A330

Happy Birthday TAP Portugal

Sixty seven years ago the first flight of TAP departed from Lisbon Airport heading for Madrid, the aircraft a Douglas Dc-3 with the registration CS-TDF.

Happy Birthday TAP for 67 years of high standards in safety and a remarkable service.

From: forum.voaportugal.org

Boeing 787-9 First Flight Live!

http://www.newairplane.com/787/787-9/

Ryanair Starts operation from Lisbon

It is true the last major Airport in Portugal mainland will receive Ryanair on next November. For now the low cost airline will operate four routes from Lisbon, connecting the Portuguese capital to London, Paris, Frankfurt and Brussels.

Apart of all the problems involving this low cost carrier it is known that there is a great probability if not 100% sure that there will be an increase of passengers to Lisbon and hopefully representing an increase in tourism. However the new route operated by the budget carrier will affect directly the Portuguese Flagship Airline TAP that will now have a strong competition in four of its most profitable routes in Europe. The Portuguese airline is now undergoing a possible privatization process as the last one was canceled after the only interested failed to fulfill all the requirements, and now this new "boy in town" can represent a set back when negotiating  TAP's value.

Bombardier CS100 first flight

Today the new CS100 from Bombardier made its first flight and Bombardier company already remarked the low noise emission of the aircraft during take off and landing proving to be a well built product and looking into the future of aeronautics.

The CS100 sets in the 100 to 149 seat capacity range and will compete directly with Embraer E-Jet models and others.

This first flight was also the first flight of the new Engines by Pratt & Whitney, the Geared Turbofan Pure Power engine is also part of the aircraft certification program.

The maiden flight departed from Montreal-Mirabel International Airport at 09:55 AM Local Time and landed in the same airport at 12:25 AM after a series of tests during flight reaching a maximum altitude of 12500 feet and 230 knots during this first flight.

Expedition E350 - Stalls, Spins & Slow Speed Stability

Here is a video promotional of the Expedition E350 where you can see some stalls and spins with respective recoveries all the wing has markers for you to follow the turbulent air building and the response to the controls. Enjoy!

Pic Of The Day!

Landing - Ukrainian Style

Emirates Executive | A319 Luxury Private Jet | Emirates

Emirates unveiled its Airbus A319 Luxury Private Jet for their new product to the luxury market that prefer the comfort of a business jet instead of a already luxurious First Class. Here is a quick tour.

Peter Chandler visits the A350 XWB cockpit

Amazing Aircraft video

Wolfe Air Reel from 3DF on Vimeo.

Is there a seat for Me?

According to Aviationnews.eu Boeing is predicting a pilot shortage all around the world for the upcoming years.  Since last year that the so called recovery of the commercial aviation is news all around the world but this growth seems to be slow.

According to Boeing the market will require:

498,000 new commercial airline pilots

556,000 new commercial airline maintenance technicians

Distributed as follows:

Asia Pacific – 192,300 pilots and 215,300 technicians

Europe – 99,700 pilots and 108,200 technicians

North America – 85,700 pilots and 97,900 technicians

Latin America – 48,600 pilots and 47,600 technicians

Middle East – 40,000 pilots and 53,100 technicians

Africa – 16,500 pilots and 15,900 technicians

Russia and CIS – 15,200 pilots and 18,000 technicians

In fact here in Portugal with the end of the regional flights to Bragança, Aerovip is struggling with two Dornier DO228 and a Shorts 360 that pass more time on its hangars than flying and generating income. The flight school of the same business group, Leávia reduced the number of flight instructors as it doesn't has enough students to keep up. The only good news around here is that TAP Portugal, Portuguese flag carrier is expecting at least two new Airbus A330 to increase its capacity for long haul routes and there are rumors that the expansion of the fleet wont end with this two new aircraft. A good thing as the new aircraft will need new pilots and the company already is operating at its personnel limits. Wait and see.

Pic Of The Day!

A very good aviation picture but a very sad moment. Óscar Rodrigues a Portuguese Spotter recorded this moment of three Canadair firefighting aircraft were refilling their tanks for another go at Serra do Caramulo fire here in Portugal. The aircraft belong to the French "Securité Civile" and came for a help to this year's fire season as for all the rented airplanes and helicopters weren't enough to face all the fires. Only this summer the forest fires already took the lives of 5 firefighters and several houses burned to ashes.

Photo: Óscar Rodrigues

Lighter Aircrafts thanks to new baggage containers

Air France has completed the renewal of its 3,650 long-haul baggage containers. The new units are now built of composite fiber materials and claim to be 11 kilograms lighter than the previous ones bringing with this decrease in weight a better performance to the airplanes and less CO2 emissions with the same cargo. Being lighter these containers are easier to move providing a gain in time in operation.

Air France claims to have saves about 8,000 tons of CO2 that result in a 2,500 tons of fuel saving. Impressive.

The new containers are fitted for the Air France long-haul fleet composed by Airbus A380, A340, A330 and Boeing 777 and 747.

B17 BATTLE DAMAGE THIS PLANE FLEW HOME IN THIS CONDITION TO THE 92ND BOM...

Since my early days that one of my favorite aircraft is Boeing B-17 most because of its smooth lines radial engines and an incredible toughness.
This video is about toughness of the Flying Fortress the Snake Hips returned in such a bad condition due to flak that it is amazing that it sill returned to home base.

Meanwhile in Brasil...

Today is almost a record day, a sad record I should say.
A Helicopter crash landed in front of Marginal Tiete, São Paulo, Brasil but once more with no fatalities to report.

EAA founder Paul Poberezny passed away.

A sad news for EAA community and aviation in a whole. Paul Poberezny EAA founder passed away this morning  at the age of 91 and after a long battle with cancer.

My sincere condolences to the family.