Kip Powick

Bonus! Intrepid columnist offers ‘extra extra’ analysis of WestJet’s ‘Previous Seat’ at ‘Extended Comfort’ prices Air travel could be made comfortable and attractive again if airlines kept it simple, re-classed the extras as basic, and raised their fares much higher. They don’t do this because they fear competitors will take advantage. Air travelers are being seduced into “cheap” airfares made expensive by adding extra Jet is now selling an extra service category that gets you a little more legroom, maybe a free drink, and, yes, early access to the overhead bin for your carry-on. WestJet calls it an Extended Comfort Seat. I call it a Previous Seat, as in the kind of seat you once got as a matter of course before airlines began nipping smaller and smaller bites out of you. You, lucky readers, get an extra extra: deep analysis of what the Extended Comfort Seat category means to you as a citizen passenger, to the airline industry, and extra extra extra, to the planet’s health being incrementally damaged by your unnecessary flight. WestJet hasn’t yet announced what the deal will cost but I’d pay it sight unseen, if I ever flew WestJet, which I won’t. The kind of passengers who think they’re flying a Greyhound bus do tend to erupt over minor issues like seat recline and switching seats with strangers. But the biggest stress right now seems to be carry-ons. Many people love their carry-ons because that’s their luggage. They pack with such care and privation that they won’t need to wait at the luggage carousel for suitcases that may never arrive. That’s it. They fly light. Others fill the carry-on with essentials on the assumption that the airline will lose their luggage and destroy the vacation, or that the flight will go astray and they’ll spend three days in an airport hotel with the minimum comforts and a handbag. All this misses the point. Air travel could be made comfortable and attractive again if airlines kept it simple, re-classed the extras as basic, and raised their fares much higher. They don’t do this because they fear competitors will take advantage. But really, they have a customer base who can only be convinced to buy what they cannot afford if it’s sold to them in dribs and drabs. Sadly, the same thing has happened with taxes. Governments, harried by tax-haters for decades, are afraid to raise taxes. So they shuffled tax responsibilities onto other levels of government — hot potato taxing — and taxed bit by bit as with carbon pricing (excellent), Toronto rainwater fees, garbage collection fees, recycling fees and so on. They pray that voters don’t add it all up, which many do. And many say, these fees sound reasonable, but why can’t you just tax me once a year and stop making me go through this sieve of fees, this fishing net? It’s the same psychology as making you buy a place for your carry-on, a bag you bought specifically to fit the little cage they test you on at the gate. Theatre chains charge you for booking online, which is actually cheaper for them than hiring ticketing staff. First came tipping for staff standing behind a counter. Perhaps apocryphally, some grocery stores are offering a tip option for people who self-checkout. Amazingly, the tip doesn’t go to you. Venice is now charging €5 for day-trippers, meaning people on cruise lines who land, litter, clog the place, buy nothing nice, lower the tone, and leave six hours later. This will help but it won’t save Venice. Only big decisions will do that. Big price hikes across the board will make flying attractive for those who need to fly, as in cross an ocean. A cloud of fees, the little flying bugs that the Scottish call “no-see-ums,” will not achieve this. If fares rose, people would agitate for high-speed trains that European and Japanese governments seem to drape over their landscapes like necklace chains. Instead we are seduced into “cheap” airfares made expensive. They are driving many low-budget airlines out of business. I never thought I would see industry-wide price hikes as collective action, but collective is the way to go now. Individually, we’re being fleeced.

Cloudy here......it was sunny here, all day yesterday....shoulda had the eclipse yesterday

Going into my bunker...Heard, via various sources, that the end of the world arrives 24 hours after the eclipse has passed. Sorry, no room for anyone else, no matter how popular you think you are.....

What went Wrong near the end of takeoff ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRNmwiB1oiQ

Finished/Open in 2017

The Golden Hawks were the premier RCAF display team and were followed by the the Golden Centennaires and now the Snowbirds. If you are not aware, that is a painting of the Golden Hawks doing a MISSING MAN formation fly past. The aircraft that has pulled up represents the individual that was killed in a training accident, Sam Eisler. The Missing Man formation is rather heart wrenching for the next of kin and emotionally difficult for the pilots as well. I have done two, one as the PULL-UP, (#2), and one as # 4. ....RIP Brian and Rick

Oh, you young'n I graduated out of PG in 1964 and checked "ye olde log book" but never flew that tail number. ...Don't know where, or why, it crashed in 1966

Sketch not done by a pilot......all pilots know it is BRAKES unless that switch that is pointed out is needed to BREAK something.... And the other switch labeled BREAKS IN AIR is partially correct because SPEED BRAKES do tend to BREAK up the air...:)

Ok.. Thx....I was thinking of L.M. who was killed in a car accident over there. We went through pilot training together.

Larry M ???

What else is he ging to say re-- recent good arrivals....???.."time for a better price Boeing cause I am, obliquely, backing you up"...

The original C-23 did have that range, 195 NM, and the reason for that was that the aircraft was assigned to carry cargo and a few personnel between all the USAF bases in Europe after WW II. Then came a flood of variants and most notable was the fact that the aircraft went from a single tail to a twin tail with a rear ramp and a cargo door on the side. The orignal C-23 had no side windows, they were incorporated in the second variant as Shorts C-23B and along with the mods were changes in structure, fuel load, range, and speed. A similar sequence of events happened with the C-130 There was the C-130A, C-130B, C-130E, C-130H, and a C-130J In actual fact there are over 40 varients of the Hercules out there including the AC-130, the Hercules Gunship used in Vietnam. While stationed in Colorado Springs, I found that my neighbour across the street was a Spectre Gunship pilot and he told me he could put a cannon shell through my bathroom window from 10,000 feet !! (In Vietnam the slang for the AC130 was "Spooky") The C-23, like the C-130, has/had a lot of varients and it is very difficult to distinquish one varient from another because, outwardly, most models look very similar but really aren't.

BRIDGE TOTALLY COLLAPSED IN BALTIMORE TODAY A more complete story can be found in the NON-AVIATION Forum

WORLD'S LARGEST AIRCRAFT, (only one made), GONE Possible Duplicate Information/Post ?? The AN225 was prepared for evacuation, scheduled for the morning of 24 February 2022, but on that day Russia invadedUkraine with the airfield being one of their first targets. A ban on civilian flights was quickly enacted by Ukrainian authorities, however the runways were made unuseable. On 24 February, the An-225 was said to be intact however on 27 February, a photo was posted on Twitter of an object tentatively identified as the An-225 on fire in its hanger There is a possibility the 2nd AN 225, nowhere near being completed, will be completed with parts of the destroyed aircraft...

Documentary on the tragedy of the space shuttle, COLUMBIA, re entry....... CNN on 07 April

aef drink.mp4

July 12, 1967...Voodoo 442...First time supersonic.. Popped up to FL540 speed 1120MPH (Mach 1.8) It was a bit disappointing as nothing really happens that one can see, just a "burp" and then through Mach 1.0 CF 104.....Mach 0.9 .....on the deck, over the trees, is much more.... Yahoooooooo (about 600 kts) There is an artist, (painter), in Colorado Springs who painted numerous USAF aircraft as well as as Air Force One for each President. He lived beside me while I was in COS and said he had never done a Canadian aircraft and asked if he could paint the CV580 I was flying, (Smoky02). I got him approval to go on the airfield and he shot 3 rolls of 35mm film of the aircraft, painted the aircraft on final at Peterson Field. Had the unveiling at our house and then he did a Harvard with me, solo, doing a clover leaf aerobatic while going through training become an RCAF pilot. As far as I know he also did a painting for the EA to DCINC NORAD, LCOL Al Sunvall who had been on a Voodoo Squadron and the model he used was the last photo of the Voodoo (as seen above) with full afterburners.....I don't know if the LCol was the piloting the bird. The unique thing about the Colorado Springs artist is that he is also the master at "Starlite" painting. He has developed a technique that uses UV and fluorescent paints to change his paintings under different light frequencies. His paintings go from a Day scene to a Night scene under Blacklight. My CV580 goes from a day light scene to nite scene when shown under a "black-light" and I think the Voodoo he did has the same features. My two paintings are going to be donated to the RCAF museum here in Dotville