Official Aviation Thread...

[LateFan]

Meanwhile, our DC-3 Miss Montana has made it full circle back to Montana. 35 days on the road. Greenland, Scotland, England, Normandy, Berlin, and back.

Here's a post from the trip back through Greenland -

"The Miss Montana Crew is working hard to get home but just ran into a road block.

"They are now leaving Greenland after having to pay an unexpected fee to open the airport as today is a holiday there. Now they are headed to a place in Northern Canada because when they called Goose Bay yesterday to get fuel scheduled they said they wouldn’t have any for 2 days - this morning that changed to 8 DAYS!!!

"Crew is staying positive! We will be planning our new route stop by stop till we make it home. This new route is unfortunate for all the people in Goose Bay and Connecticut that were excited about seeing us stop to visit. Those locations will no longer be on our route. The extra flight miles and fuel cost are also unfortunate.

"Please keep following us and watching the crew on the tracker and send prayers for a safe trip and arrival back home."


D-Day +75 years


Fuel, where is the fuel...?


Greenland looks like such a wild place....

[LateFan]

Over MT again...
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Yellowstone River near Billings
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[LateFan]

Lined up with the big boys
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"That's All Brother" led the first wave over Normandy in 1944.
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[LateFan]

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C-47s and gliders the day after D-Day. Imagine the volume of material that had to be moved in the days after.
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[LateFan]

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[LateFan]

More 737 problems.....jheezuz....

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-48752932

[LateFan]

Miss Montana is home in Missoula. She flew to the Rivers & Radials airshow in Lewiston ID this weekend, with lots of warbirds, and is making various hops around the area. Here's a grass runway in the trees at Spotted Bear, which is on the edge of the Bob Marshal Wilderness, a vast area. She hasn't been to this runway for over 40 years, but she has many hundreds of landings at this place long ago.

https://www.facebook.com/missmontanatonormandy/videos/317201179233458/

https://www.facebook.com/missmontanatonormandy/videos/2556326387719297/

[flyboyx]

More 737 problems.....jheezuz....

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-48752932

Southwest is feeling the pinch. I wonder how many flights they have cancelled? Its pretty tough to replace 50ish airplanes in your fleet when they disappear overnight.

I’ve been told that one of those overseas companies that lost an airplane had a reputation for extremely shoddy maintenance. It sounds like boeing is planning to use that as an excuse not to pay.

[george graves]

I wonder how many flights they have cancelled? Its pretty tough to replace 50ish airplanes in your fleet when they disappear overnight.

Not to mention getting the crew to work. Passengers and packages are the easy part. They always show up on their own. How does hubs that get the crew in? Embraer?

[flyboyx]

It’s not 100% clear to me what you are asking George. As far as getting crews into their domicile in order to start a trip, we are responsible for that on our own.

For example, I live in Houston, but the company I work for doesn’t have a crew base there. I can live any darn place in the world I please just as long as I can figure out how to get to work in order to start my trip each week. This is how it works for all passenger airlines in the USA. I’m completely on my own, but I have heard of an instance or two where a crew member was bumped off several flights, there were no reserves available, so the scheduling Dept actually ponied up and picked up the tab for a full fare seat in order to get the flight out on time. Once or twice, I have had to buy a flipping ticket in order to get to work. This is something that generally pilots are fundamentally opposed to doing.

Some cargo companies like Fedex and atlas buy tickets for their crew members on whichever appropriate airline to get the guys(ladies) to work. None of those companies fly the MAX though.

[BlackbirdM3]

Anyone attending Oshkosh this year? I'm heading out on the 21, back on the 29th. I'm looking forward to shooting at least one more magazine cover shots.

Will

[LateFan]

Miss Montana the DC-3 and some of the Normandy squadron are planning on Oshkosh.

[BlackbirdM3]

I'll be sure to get a few pics of M.M. I know the layout and have a much better idea of what to expect so I should be more efficient in my getting around the area and shooting what I really want to capture. I also have a new laptop so I can actually process stuff at a reasonable pace.

Will

[LateFan]

Does each year have a theme, or a featured type, or era of plane?

[BlackbirdM3]

Nope, different celebrations every year. This year its NASA's 50th anniversary for the Apollo program, as well as Aerial Fire Fighting, and D Day. Oh, there is also a gathering of Mustangs as well. Some of the highlights are the XP82, a Fairey Firefly, a Mosquito (Rod Lewis's, I'm looking forward to getting some pics of a flying Mosquito.) Its going to be a target rich environment.

Will