Posts in the category "Air traffic control":

Monday evening I was fortunate to be in the audience at Seattle’s Museum of Flight for a  presentation by the recently retired Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, the now-legendary pilot of US Airways Flight 1549 who was able to successfully land a plane in New York City’s Hudson River.

He began the evening by showing the NTSB’s animated version of the US Airways 1549 flight path (below) and then went on to talk a bit about his family, his upbringing, his training as a pilot, the importance of preparation and teamwork, and his philosophy of work and life. After he was done, some of the kids in the audience got to ask a few questions as did some of the aviation geeks from our high-tech community.

(Here’s a link to a more detailed report on the evening by SeattlePI.com aerospace reporter Aubrey Cohen)

Before Captain Sullenberger’s speech, I spent some time in the Amelia Earhart exhibit, which will be at the museum until May, 2010. In addition to photo panels and film clips telling Ms. Earhart’s life story, there’s a section showing some of the products she endorsed to help pay the bills, including Amelia Earhart luggage and Lucky Strike cigarettes.

All in all, quite an inspiring evening.

Categories: Air Travel, Air traffic control, Aviation history, Celebrities, Exhibits, History, aviation
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On Saturday, while everyone else was plotting how to get a first view of the 787 Dreamliner during its (probable) Tuesday test flight, I joined a group of children from Spokane for a flight to the North Pole.

One of the perks of being welcomed into the elf brigade for the night was a visit to Santa’s flight center, where I was able to snap photos of these very important internal memos.

And, my favorite:

Categories: Air Travel, Air traffic control, Baggage, Carry-ons, Fun Stuff
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While working on a column about airport viewing areas I came across at least one airport that provides a link on its Web site to audio of the communication going on between pilots and the air traffic control tower.

The Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) includes a pre-recorded sample of the chit-chat and promises that you’ll get to hear the live feed when you visit Founder’s Plaza, the airport’s well-appointed viewing area.

Want to hear what’s going on at, say, your airport?  There’s a good chance that the air traffic control communications are feeding in real-time on LiveATC.net. It’s got a live feed from DFW airport and keeps adding more airports all the time.

Categories: Air Travel, Air traffic control
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