New Year Blessings

Image taken from Threadless.com.
Link to the shirt can be found here.

Come to Florida. The pandas are doing it... X-D

Things to thank for:

10.) The orchid bloomed when I returned, with more flowers to come.

9.) Coming home from winter wonderland, to find that my roommate and friends are as goofy as ever.
8.) Reconciled with mom this past year.
7.) Learned how dangerous it is to ride a toboggan.
6.) Learned how to sharpen saw blades, split wood, and ride a tractor.
5.) Saw F-WWJB twice in one year...knowing that I will probably never see her again when she goes into service.

4.) Get to know fantastic spotters, oversea and local.
3.) D80 and my Suzuki.
2.) My room is clean, and I discovered that I have a floor.
1.) Meeting Dan.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

P.S. Zack, thanks to you, I have this shirt now. I will wear it to work, and be ridiculed by a 60-some year old Grummanite who still believes women have no place in engineering.

In my messy cubicle, I will be coding, wearing a panda hat with a panda shirt, and drink copious amount of Sugarless Red Bull. I will set the standards for future generation of female engineers. Really, I will.

Avro Vulcan - XH558

I am a newbie when it comes to military aircraft. I started learning about warbirds after one of the spotters from across the Atlantic Ocean made fun of me for calling the Boeing Stearman a "biplane". ;) Since then, I've been doing my very best to have as much enthusiasm for some of these modern day testosterone charged "flying coke cans" as I have for the comparatively "sluggish" but graceful large capacity airliners.

World War II and the Cold War presented a set of aircraft that seem to be a compromise between power and grace. For this entry, I would like to bring your attention to one of my favorite military aircraft. A former bomber for the Royal Air Force, she is one of the strangest looking but in my humble opinion, one of the most graceful, deadly aircraft ever to grace the sky.

Her name is the Avro Vulcan, and as of October 2007, only one has been restored to flying condition.

Avro Vulcan - XH558
Maiden Restoration Flight
Date: 18 October 2007
Taken by: Karl Drag
Location: Bruntingthorpe, United Kingdom
Link to image on Airliners.net

The Vulcan was part of the V-Bomber, a term used for the Royal Air Force strategic nuclear strike force during the Cold War. The three bombers were made from different aircraft companies, but all had names that started with the letter "V": Handley-Page Victor, Vickers Valiant, and the Avro Vulcan.

If you've never heard of aircraft companies like Handley-Page or Vickers, that is because either they do not exist anymore, or were purchased and absorbed by a larger entity. We are talking about the early 1950's when these aircraft first took to the sky, and you probably can't tell from the look of the planes: The aircraft in the V-Bomber look incredibly...retro-futuristic. There is no other way for me to describe these odd birds.

The Avro Vulcan was (and still is today) powered by variants of the Rolls-Royce Olympus, the same line of engines that became the powerhouse for the Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde. The sound that the Vulcan produces, is unlike anything I have ever heard of on other aircraft. When the engine is on full-throttle, she produces this distinct organic "roar" sound. Below is a sample from XH558's maiden restoration flight...you will hear the roar 13 seconds into the clip:

If embedded video does not work, please click here.

She was designed to cruise at an altitude of 55,000 feet, near the speed of sound (around the same as our modern day Boeing 747) with a maximum speed of 0.96 Mach (627 MPH), and to carry a payload of approximately 9.5 metric ton of bombs. By sheer accident, the Vulcan has the potential of stealth (except for her vertical tail plane), because the body of the aircraft has a small radar cross-section.

And the Vulcan is big. Actually, she is HUGE. The currently flying Vulcan XH558 is the variant model B.2, which includes an 111 feet wingspan. However from interviews of former Vulcan pilots, they remarked that despite her large size, she is quite maneuverable, therefore she can roll and behave a bit like a fighter:

If embedded video does not work, please click here.

The following clip shows how the aircraft was flown back when she was still in service. The crew had to wear insulation and oxygen mask to work and breathe at high altitude. This is also a good clip to hear the pilots go through the checklist of initializing equipment, comm check, and eventually, starting the engines. Here again, you can hear that same "roar" sound when the plane took off, right after the pilot said "100, 110, 120, 130...Proceed to rotate."

If embedded video does not work, please click here.

Finally, we have a clip of her maiden restoration flight on 18 October 2007:

If embedded video does not work, please click here.

Thanks to Sonicbomb.com for providing some of the precious footage of the Vulcan.

Flight International did an article about the restoration project and the succesful maiden flight. The link can be found here.

Fly on, XH558...

A Day In The Life...

Passing out from too much Thermodynamics...

Of course, times like finals week always make me wonder why the heck I decided to go back to college in the first place.

Then of course I realize: "Oh yeah...planes..." ;)

Taken on 8 December 2007
Tail No.: G-DAJC
Sanford International Airport (SFB)

Spotter's Log: A380 At Orlando International Airport (MCO) - 13 Nov 2007

A380, serial number F-WWJB, parked just outside of the Continental hangar.

"Hey, just letting you know the A380 will be here like the 2nd week of Nov (if you didn't know already)! "

A fellow spotter, Justin C., wrote to me about this piece of news back in October. I hadn't been following aviation forums. School and work has taken up a large part of my time.

But as soon as I read his email, I immediately researched on Airliners.net forum. Recently, they did a server overhaul and the website has been acting strange since then. Eventually I was able to find out the date and time.

And then the serial number.

F-WWJB.

I paid her a visit back in 19 March 2007, on a soccer mound en route to JFK.

Now, she is coming to my airport. Airbus wanted to check whether Orlando International can handle the A380 in the event when she had to be re-routed from Miami International.

I knew from that point, that on 13 November 2007, I will be taking the afternoon off.

Visitors

Visitors flocked to the Continental hangar to catch a glimpse of the plane that will make Airbus go down in history for making one of the most dangerous economic gamble they have ever made in their 30 years career.

After landing, the A380 taxied to the Continental hangar. The beautiful thing about this visit was that I could see her in open air. In JFK, I was only able to view her behind tinted glass from Terminal 1. This time, I climbed a small wall, sat precariously on the top and watched her from afar.

Spotters from all over the world came to see her. I was surrounded by tourists speaking in German. I was able to meet Justin C. for the first time after many months of email communication. On top of that, I was able to meet Mario, Ricardo, Stephen, and a Delta ramp rat name Mike. Throughout the day, we discussed aviation gossip and possible future for Delta Airlines.

I managed to catch a guy with a D200, trying to get a better view of her through the fence. When he finally scaled the wall and sat next to me, I found out that he is a helicopter pilot and wishes to become a medic pilot. We talked about flying in air shows as a good way of earning hours and building experience, and the latest camera models Nikon released within the past few months (D3 and the D300).

I stayed up there for a long time, staring at the A380 from afar as politicians and businessmen were given exclusive tours to the interior of the plane. It is unfair but that is how it is: People who care about her and travel many miles to greet her stay outside of the fence and see her from afar. People who don't care and are wealthy get the VIP tour.

The Arrival

On 13 November 2007, Airliners.net forum topic on the A380 Arrival to MCO was already going crazy with speculation. Earlier that day, I listened to KMCO from LiveATC.net and noted that at 7:15 AM, the arrival was northbound. While I was at work, one of the spotters mentioned that the controller will change arrival orientation to southbound just for the A380.

I asked one of my friends, who is a pilot, whether it is possible for control to change runway just for one plane. He said that it is possible if and only if the wind is oriented in such a way where changing the runway is feasible. So before I left Melbourne, I checked the wind speed for Orlando: 7 knots from heading 0.0 - dead north. I took a gamble and decided that the arrival will still be northbound, jumped on my motorcycle and headed towards the AirTran hangar near runway 36L.

When I arrived, I met Justin and Ricardo. Justin decided to try his luck for runway 18R, and left to go to the Flight Safety building anticipating a southbound arrival. Ricardo and I stayed at the AirTran hangar and waited.

This was it. No one around had a ham radio so there was no way for us to listen to what the controllers were saying.

Suddenly, one of the spotters shouted: "THERE SHE IS!!!"

I was ecstatic. The same plane that I saw in JFK was gliding in, just like the first time I saw her back in New York City on the soccer field. Everyone around me cheered, and like a dork I shouted as her landing gears touched the tarmac:

"That's right! You LAND INTO THE WIND!!!"

Full Circle

My Panasonic Lumix caught my first A380 shot back in 19 March 2007. The plane was backlit, but to this day, is still my favorite image of the F-WWJB.

Now, with my Nikon D80, I was able to give this camera a chance to capture the same plane I took many months ago.

First capture: Panasonic Lumix FZ50

Date: 19 March 2007
Airport: John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)
Runway: 22L

Second Capture: Nikon D80

Date: 13 November 2007
Airport: Orlando International Airport (MCO)
Runway: 36L
Accepted by Airliners.net on 1 December 2007 - link to image

I didn't expect to see F-WWJB again after that day in JFK. Orlando Airport is not exactly a main international hub, and chances of an A380 flying into MCO again will be rare, at least in the foreseeable future. I am really glad to have the opportunity to see her again, and this time I was able to see her in the open air. On top of that, I was able to make new friends: spotters from Airliners.net who came out to greet her arrival. I was able to find a small group of people who share my interest and live within the state of Florida.

Epilogue

F-WWJB left MCO two days later, 15 of November 2007 at 6:55 AM EST. I was not able to see her departure, due the fact that I had to study for an exam and needed adequate sleep. Other spotters were able to catch her as she left that morning. They commented that upon takeoff, her engines were serenely quiet as she soared into the sky, an almost angelic presence...

Taken on 15 November 2007
Departure on runway 18R
Photo by Chris Weyer of the ATL Spotters
Link to image on Flickr