Posted 9/13/2012 05:36:00 PM by Douglas

It’s good to see the last space shuttle getting some air-time before it gets mothballed out in L.A., but this is a bit ridiculous.

After taking off from the former shuttle landing strip Monday morning, Endeavour and its carrier jet will fly low over Kennedy and the beaches of Cape Canaveral, then head west toward NASA points along the Gulf of Mexico. The pair will swoop over Stennis Space Center in Mississippi and Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, where the shuttle booster rockets were made.

Next stop: Ellington Field near NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Endeavour will remain at Ellington until Wednesday morning so space center employees can see the shuttle up close. Houston had bid for a shuttle; the loss still nags many there. NASA chose New York City as the winner for the shuttle prototype Enterprise, which was relinquished by the Smithsonian to make room for Discovery.

After leaving Houston on Wednesday, Endeavour will stop for fuel at Biggs Army Airfield in El Paso, Texas, and then perform a low flyover of the White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico, which served for decades as an emergency shuttle landing site. Then it will head to NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base in California, another old shuttle touchdown venue.

On Thursday, Endeavour will fly to Northern California, home to Ames Research Center in Mountain View. NASA plans low-level flights over San Francisco, Sacramento and other major cities before heading to Los Angeles and a late-morning arrival at Los Angeles International Airport.

NASA was mum Thursday regarding the exact times of all these flyovers for security reasons. Officials warned that the weather needed to cooperate to allow for such a full and busy schedule.

Did you catch that? After that rather lengthy description of the shuttle’s whereabouts, all for the express purpose of public visibility, NASA claims it can’t tell the exact times, because of security. Doesn’t that kind of defeat the purpose? As well as coming pretty close to becoming a scene in Airplane!

Ted Striker: My orders came through. My squadron ships out tomorrow. We're bombing the storage depots at Daiquiri at 1800 hours. We're coming in from the north, below their radar.
Elaine Dickinson: When will you be back?
Ted Striker: I can't tell you that. It's classified.

It’s just that silly. They approve:

Labels: Airplane

Posted 11/28/2010 09:03:00 PM by Douglas

Leslie Nielsen died? Surely you can't be serious? I am serious, and don't call me Shirley.

Leslie Nielsen, the Canadian-born actor who in middle age tossed aside three decades of credibility in dramatic and romantic roles to make a new, far more successful career as a comic actor in films like “Airplane!” and the “Naked Gun” series, died on Sunday in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He was 84.

I just want to tell you both good luck. We're all counting on you.



Barbara Billingsley, now Leslie Nielsen?

Labels: Airplane

Posted 10/16/2010 08:59:00 PM by Douglas

Barbara Billingsley, the actress most famed as June Cleaver, had died.

Barbara Billingsley, who as June Cleaver on the television series “Leave It to Beaver” personified a Hollywood postwar family ideal of the ever-sweet, ever-helpful suburban stay-at-home mom, died Saturday. She was 94.

But that's not what I know her for:



Shiiiiii!

And here she is talking about her experience learning jive for her Airplane! role:



RIP, classy lady!

Labels: Airplane

Posted 6/16/2010 04:42:00 PM by Douglas

Do you like movies about gladiators?

If one of your pilots gets ill, you never know who else on the plane might be able to help land the aircraft safely.

On Monday, it was a flight attendant with an an [sic] inactive pilot's license who helped land an American Airlines jumbo jet after the co-pilot became incapacitated because of stomach flu.

Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffin' glue!

Just want to tell you both good luck. We're all counting on you:

Labels: Airplane

Posted 6/18/2009 05:32:00 PM by Douglas

Did the pilot have the fish for dinner?

The pilot of a Continental Airlines flight from Brussels to Newark died over the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday, but the jet landed safely with two co-pilots at the controls. The 247 passengers aboard Flight 61 weren't told of the pilot's death and flight attendants continued serving snacks, though the crew did ask for the help of any doctors aboard.

Several passengers approached the cockpit, including one doctor who told The Associated Press the pilot appeared to have suffered a heart attack.

Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffin' glue!

Just want to tell you both good luck. We're all counting on you:

Labels: Airplane

Posted 4/14/2009 05:09:00 PM by Douglas

I wonder if the pilot had the fish for dinner?

White, 56, landed the plane on his own about 30 minutes later, coaxed through the harrowing ordeal by air traffic controllers who described exactly how to bring the aircraft to safety. The pilot died, but White somehow managed.

When a controller asked whether he was on autopilot, White replied: "I'm in the good Lord's hands flying this Niner Delta Whiskey," giving the code for the aircraft.

White had logged about 150 hours recently flying a single-engine Cessna 172 but had no experience flying the faster, larger King Air. He declared an emergency to air traffic controllers — White already knew how to use the radio. On Sunday afternoon, he got his first lesson landing the larger craft.

Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffin' glue!

Just want to tell you both good luck. We're all counting on you:

Labels: Airplane

Posted 1/27/2007 01:31:00 PM by Douglas

Last week I thought this story was a bit odd, but not quite blog-worthy. Pilot dies, plane landed by copilot. No big whoop, right? Then it gets weird.

Addison said the steward asked if anyone on board was a doctor. He didn't think much of that.

Then he says he saw two people pull the unconscious pilot from the cockpit and perform CPR on him.

"I was trying to calm myself, tell myself that I'd be alright. Then I got anxious. I started thinking about my wife and my child. Even more, I was thinking about the pilot and his family," Addison said.

Addison then heard another announcement. This time the flight steward was asking if anyone knew how to fly a plane.

It turned out, the man seated next to Addison was a pilot.

"So I leaned over and I said, 'can you handle this?' He said, 'I have a small plane. I'm going to go up there.'"

That man helped the co-pilot make an emergency landing. Addison said it was a hard landing, but it was a safe one.

The pilot died right in front of Addison. He said he died three minutes before the landing.

Addison also said applause from the 210 passengers rang out for the co-pilot and the passenger who stepped up and helped out.

Huh? Why would the copilot need "help" from a passenger with 50 hours of stick time in a Piper cub? Isn't this exactly the reason the copilot exists in the first place? So they can land the plane if the pilot, oh, ida know, dies?!?

Turns out, he died of natural causes. I would have guessed he had the fish for dinner.

Labels: Airplane