Aviation BS and Photo Thread

This is rad. I'll try and go.

This is also rad.

 

https://youtu.be/cW5xqL6z70E

 

Now I'm not so interested in this whole pilot thing....

 

San Fran.

 

Chasing Hurricane Harvey on Thursday

 

Back from my second trip to Mexico - West coast this time for the labor day weekend. And crossed over 330 hours too

Headed to Vegas today for work in the 206

On the ramp at MMPE

 

Southwest First Class

 

Best seat in the plane!

 

I'd fly them more if I could always have that seat!

 

Business class gives you pass A1-A15.

 

Yeah, I'm not willing to pay almost $600 round trip to have that seat when i can fly First on American for the same or less

 

I had it in an employment contract once that I got to fly Southwest whenever possible. It wasn't until after they hired me that they realized what it meant. So while my coworkers were suffering on American and United, I was happier on Southwest (where I can actually sit in the seat without having my knees buried in the seat in front of me).

Being a federal employee now means back of the bus in the short seats, so now I don't like to travel.

 

I'm not knocking Southwest, I actually enjoy flying them. However their prices have become so steep that it's often cheaper to fly American (I'm based in Dallas) in a higher fare class than it is to fly Southwest. I just priced an itinerary from Dallas to Nashville that was $294 on AA and $425 on SW.

 

I think a lot of that has to do with SWA's fuel contracts. When gas was pricy, they were cheap because they were paying less than everyone else. When the other airlines dropped their prices (albeit slowly) when fuel prices dropped, SWA didn't come down all that much because they were locked in at a higher rate. I'm sure that if gas prices go back up (like now) then SWA becomes competitive again.

 

That would make sense, it would definitely be more convenient to fly Southwest from Love but at the current pricing I can't justify it. I do have a hefty stash of RR points I can use though

 

How strong are your glasses that you wear when you fly (i thought I noticed glasses on there at some point in the video)? I am jealous. I am too old to try and fly military (I think, I'm 29 going on 30 next year), but that is what I always dreamed of (however my first few times taking lessons flying props I was nervous as hell which I think discouraged me from trying then). Did it take you long before you felt comfortable (and without major nerves) flying? I went to a recruiter in Chicago for Marines and the Lt. there said s/t about guys applying who were psyched watching Top Gun and how that wasn't a good reason to fly or s/t (I vaguely remember that part now) but Top Gun was a big reason why I loved planes so that discouraged me too. Mentality-wise though things have changed significantly between then and now, however my wife and 10 month-old son basically make it a zero possibility of it happening. But if there's a chance I always like knowing there is. Healthwise I qualified back then on all the basic test requirements, but I now have, according to my eye dr 20/40 vision in my left eye and double astigmatism so that may dq me unfortunately. I always wanted to fly fighter jets.

 

Just booked (probably) my last flights on an American Mad Dog. Gonna miss those seats

 

At a little airport in NM, nice Citation sitting here. Apparently the owner also has a Gulfstream and a helicopter. If you're reading this, do you need any pilots???

 

I won't miss the noise on those things though, I took one back from Vegas a couple years ago and man are they loud compared to a newer 737 or A320

 

Probably took my last flight on a 747-400 last week. Can still get on the -8, but much less common than the -400. To me I feel like the 747 gets off the ground way more easily than the A380, but that's just a couple different examples and I have no clue on payloads for either during those takeoffs.