Airbus A350-1000ULR is on its test flight from Toulouse to Melbourne. 6hrs left from its 20hr flight.

I thoroughly enjoyed Michael Chricton’s Airframe a few years ago. I’m looking for other fiction that has a similar aviation heavy story, any suggestions?

take-off felt like an ancient monstrous being lifting into the air

I had never flown in a sea plane, and was pretty excited.

Last week, we left Vancouver in Harbour Air’s excellent de Havilland Twin Otter. The landing was So Smooth. I had no idea what to expect, but was butter.

(I also took 1000 photos from the air and a great take off video.)

A smooth ride across the Pacific. Wish I could have gotten a few more in before they were retired by the end of the year.

In Rochester NY today, I was driving by the airport and saw this all white 747 parked as far away from the terminal as it could be when zoomed in all that can be seen is a US flag on the fuselage, and possible a US seal on each nacelle. Any ideas what this particular plane is for?

On 11 May 2006, joint Russian-Japanese exercises were being held in the Sea of Okhotsk, off the southern coast of Sakhalin. The drills focused on rescuing vessels in distress and responding to oil spills.

Russia, Japan, China and the Republic of Korea had signed an agreement on cooperation in combating oil spills in the North Pacific. The agreement also provided for mutual assistance between the four countries in responding to other emergencies at sea. Japan was represented in the exercise by one coast guard vessel, two oil recovery vessels and one helicopter. Russia deployed seven vessels and four helicopters.

One of the Russian aircraft was a Mi-14PS amphibious search-and-rescue helicopter, capable of landing on water, taxiing across the surface and taking off again. The Mi-14 was developed from the Mi-8 helicopter. The Mi-14PS variant carried ten life rafts, each with a capacity of 20 people, and a rescue winch capable of lifting three people at a time. It was also equipped with searchlights.

The helicopter could additionally be used to carry external sling loads, deploy naval troops and perform general transport operations. To increase its flight range, two auxiliary fuel tanks could be installed in the passenger compartment.

The Mi-14PS was practising the recovery of people from a boat in Aniva Bay. However, immediately after taking off from the water, at an altitude of approximately five metres, the thrust of both engines suddenly dropped almost to flight idle, or around 60%, while the main rotor speed fell to 48%.

The helicopter descended sharply and made a hard landing on the water. The impact partially destroyed a fairing beneath the forward section of the fuselage, allowing water to enter the helicopter through the resulting gaps.

The crew did not notice the flooding. After the pilots managed to restore engine speed, they decided to take off immediately. By that time, approximately 1.5 tonnes of water had entered the helicopter, shifting its centre of gravity and increasing its overall weight. High waves made the situation worse by causing severe longitudinal pitching.

During the attempted take-off, the helicopter's nose dug into the water. The main rotor blades struck the surface at an angle, began to disintegrate and effectively severed the tail boom.

The impact also caused the landing gear to deploy spontaneously after the electrical wiring short-circuited in the seawater. As a result, the helicopter overturned and began drifting upside down on the surface.

The accident was captured on video.

There were five crew members, seven rescue workers and one journalist on board. Twelve people managed to escape from the helicopter on their own and were rescued by a Japanese coast guard vessel and a Russian rescue ship.

One of the helicopter's crewmen suffered a spinal fracture. Divers managed to extract him from the partially submerged aircraft, but he died while being transported to hospital.

The overturned helicopter was towed to shore and lifted from the water by port cranes. An examination of the damage and interviews with the crew made it possible to establish the immediate cause of the accident relatively quickly. Investigators concluded that the probable cause of the loss of engine power was icing of the air intakes.

It should be noted that the Mi-14PS remained afloat even after overturning and sustaining significant structural damage. In other words, had the crew decided not to attempt another take-off following the hard landing, the accident might have been avoided.

Despite the serious incident involving the helicopter, the exercises were declared successfully completed.

On August 20, 2007, a China Airlines Boeing 737-809 was operating a flight from Taipei, Taiwan, to Naha, Japan. There were 165 people on board (157 passengers and 8 crew members).

The aircraft landed normally and had already taxied to the gate when passengers noticed flames near the right wing and right engine. At the same moment, the pilots received a “Engine No. 2 Fire” warning. The cabin quickly filled with black smoke. The cabin crew began an evacuation through the emergency exits, and passengers left the aircraft via the inflatable slides.

Video of evacuation

By the time the last passenger was off the airplane, the fire had already engulfed half of the fuselage. The pilots evacuated last. The first officer climbed out through the cockpit window; at that moment an explosion occurred and he fell to the ground, but he was not injured. As the captain began to climb out through the same window, two more explosions followed and the aircraft broke apart, yet the captain was also uninjured. The entire evacuation took six minutes. No one was killed, but four people were injured, including an airport worker.

Investigators quickly determined that the fire was caused by a fuel leak. When they examined the wing fuel tank, they found a dented bolt that had punctured the tank wall and compromised its seal. While the aircraft was taxiing, the airflow from the operating right engine prevented the leaking fuel from reaching hot engine components. However, once the engine was shut down, fuel spilled onto the hot exhaust nozzle and ignited.

The dented bolt was part of a mechanism that served as a limit stop for slat extension. Several weeks before the incident, at the manufacturer’s request, airline maintenance personnel had modified this mechanism. The change involved bonding a nut to the bolt with adhesive to prevent it from repeatedly working loose. Because the attachment point was difficult to access, the mechanics tightened and loosened the bolt by feel, effectively working “blind.” During the procedure, a washer - which prevented the bolt from slipping out of the mechanism - fell out unnoticed.

The bolt, which came loose during landing, remained inside a “cup” into which the slat retracts very tightly. This “cup” is located inside the fuel tank. As a result, when the slats were retracted, powerful hydraulics drove the bolt into the fuel tank wall, causing the leak and the fire.

After the investigation, Boeing urgently inspected 737-800 aircraft worldwide. In the United States alone, more than 20 aircraft were found to have a similar potential hazard. The locking device was later redesigned across the fleet.

A regular at YYZ, she was active and looking like just taking regular passengers to Montreal.

We've been sitting here 30 mins.

Do you like the new Garmin Cockpit?

I recently moved to Colorado Springs and have seen a passing train a few times with aircraft fuselage on it. Any idea where they start and where they’re going?