N631S

Thursday, December 24, 2009

NORAD Has Santa Contact

With links to Google Earth and videos of St. Nick in various airspaces.

Official NORAD Santa Tracker

Smiles here, for sure.

Posted by Frank Van Haste at 12:00

Categories: Aviation Odds and Ends

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About N631S

N631S, the 1977 Cessna 182Q that was the main character in this blog, has moved on to new ownership. The blog will remain in place for a while, as an historical artifact.

About Me

Frank Van Haste
I'm an instrument rated Private Pilot. Home is in Alexandria, VA.

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Aviation Glossary

Some abbreviations, acronyms, jargon and terms of art from posts are discussed in this Glossary.

An Aviation Thought...

Interesting Aviation Blogs:

Gary's Flight Journal

Fuel For 3 Tango Charlie
1 day ago
Hush-Kit

A former EW pilot shares the 10 best forms of jamming
1 week ago
Flying Lessons

Is Boeing Management Shakeup Linked to Criminal Investigation?
3 weeks ago
Flight To Success

Crime in Aviation
3 weeks ago
Photographic Logbook

The Fateful Call
5 weeks ago
Another Time

2023 Aviators Gift Guide
4 months ago
Cockpit Conversation

Am I Breathing?
7 months ago
Decision Height*

1 year ago
Harlan's Apollo

Harlan Stewart Neuville - Obituary
2 years ago
JetHead's Blog

Now With New Videos Embedded!
2 years ago
ATC Communication

Learning Radio Skills from Pilots
2 years ago
AskBob - Forum for Maintenance Pros

Understanding Owner and Mechanic Roles and Responsibilities
2 years ago
Adventures of an Adventurer

April 1st: Off to Florida!
4 years ago
N333C

Exeunt Omnes
4 years ago
Shortfinals's Blog

The New York International Air Show, 2019
4 years ago
Props, Pistons, Old Jets And the Good Ole Days of Flying Transports

5 years ago
Tailspin's Tales

• Fledgling Days Of American Aviation
6 years ago
The Pixie Pilot

Flying to the Beach with Fido
7 years ago
Rubber-Band Powered Blog

The art of the possible – building a survivable tanker
7 years ago
What The Air Traffic Controller Saw

A Process
7 years ago
The Wings Stayed On!

7 years ago
Three Mike Five (3M5)

"I Think He Crashed"
7 years ago
Blogging at FL250

Testing 1 2 3
7 years ago
airphoria

The Inevitable Fade of Summer
7 years ago
Tails Through Time

CHECK SIX: The F-4 Phantom's F3H Demon Roots
7 years ago
surroundedbyair

Bass ackwards
7 years ago
Airline Pilot Chatter

Windshear: Lessons Learned
7 years ago
Aviation Mentor

Delivering a New Airplane
8 years ago
NAS confusion

Someone has to do it.
9 years ago
Flying Professors

Spin Training Video
10 years ago
Golf Hotel Whiskey

Vintage British aviation posters from the 1920-1930s
10 years ago
TJ's Flying Adventures

Route Selection for X-Country Trips
13 years ago
The AVSIG Blog

Accident & Incident Summary for March 8, 2010
14 years ago

Show 10 Show All

Some Non-Aviation Blogs

Get the Flick

Boys Will Be Boys
15 hours ago
R. Doug Wicker — Author

Indonesia — Semarang, Pawon Buddhist Temple and Silver Filigree
2 days ago
Target: Babies in Open. Fire For Effect.

Droning Away
5 months ago
James Fallows :: The Atlantic

An Unlucky President, and a Lucky Man
1 year ago
What If?

Comet Ice
1 year ago
BLDGBLOG

Have Clock, Will Travel
4 years ago
Career Musings

LinkedIn's Changing Interface
7 years ago

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Book Reviews

"Greatest Hits"

Children of the Magenta Line

The video embedded below was posted on the AvSig online forum by a friend. It's a presentation by a senior American Airlines training C...
Book Review: "A Higher Call" by Adam Makos

Charlie Brown was perfectly clear about the situation. When the young journalist, having "heard a story", sought him out for an in...
Oil Change

Yesterday was the day to change N631S's engine oil. It's a long weekend and the time was available. The oil had 46 hours on it - it ...
Book Review: "Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War" by Robert Coram

John R. Boyd was a genius. He was also profane, obnoxious, arrogant, uncouth, insensitive and monomaniacal. He repeatedly developed revoluti...
Book Review: "QF32" by Capt. Richard de Crespigny

On last Thursday, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) released the final report from its investigation into the causes and conseq...
Book Review: "Understanding Air France 447" by Capt. Bill Palmer

In a recent radio interview, a doctor described a procedure followed in many hospitals when a patient dies. The attending physician stands b...
To every thing, there is a season...

Well, if anyone is still dropping by here, I have some news. After nearly 12 years and close to 1,400 hours in the air, N631S has moved on t...
Landing Light Switches

Back on May 11th, Cessna issued a Service Bulletin, numbered SEB09-6 on the subject of landing light, taxi light and beacon switches in the ...
Today at KBDR (cont'd)

Watching the weather forecasts this past weekend, it became quite clear that a Monday morning flight from the DC area to Bridgeport's Si...
Circuit Breaker Safety (cont'd)

A post on this blog from back in July titled Circuit Breaker Safety called attention to aspects of the NTSB report on the NASCAR Cessna 31...

Post Series

There have been series of posts related to a common event or theme. If you like, you can review them here.

Mid-Air Over the Hudson
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7
On-Board Weather in Action
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6
2009 Annual Inspection
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7
2010 Annual Inspection
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7
2011 Annual Inspection
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7
2012 Annual Inspection
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8

Brief Writings

How to Fly
One Way to Learn Morse Code
Requiem for a Pilot
The Old Buzzard Speaks
Thoughts on "Distance to Station"

Airports

Sui Generis

"What of the Wright boys in Dayton? Just around the corner they had a shop and did a bicycle business—and they wanted to fly for the sake of flying. They were Man the Seeker, Man on a Quest. Money was their last thought, their final absent-minded idea. They threw out a lot of old mistaken measurements and figured new ones that stood up when they took off and held the air and steered a course."
-- Carl Sandburg, 'The people, Yes!'

"The Wright Brothers created the single greatest cultural force since the invention of writing. The airplane became the first World Wide Web, bringing people, languages, ideas, and values together."
-- William H. Gates, CEO, Microsoft

AVIATORS

Wilbur Wright

"I confess that in 1901 I said to my
brother, Orville that man would not fly
for fifty years.
-- Wilbur Wright

Glenn Curtiss

"We soon learned that it was comparatively easy to get the machine up in the air, but it was most difficult to get it back to earth without smashing something."
-- Glenn H. Curtiss

Harriet Quimby

"There is no reason why the aeroplane should not open up a fruitful occupation for women."
--Harriet Quimby

Eddie Rickenbacker

"Aviation is proof that given the will, we have the capacity to achieve the impossible."
-- Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker

Charles Lindbergh

"If one took no chances, one would not fly at all. Safety lies in the judgment of the chances one takes."
-- Charles A. Lindbergh

E.B. "Jepp" Jeppesen

"There's a big difference between a pilot and an aviator. One is a technician; the other is an artist in love with flight."
-- Capt. Elrey B. Jeppesen

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

"The aeroplane has unveiled for us the true face of the earth."
-- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Ed Musick

"Sunset, 0639 GMT."
-- Capt. Edwin C. Musick, ever laconic, in response to a request that he radio comments about the sunset over the Pacific that would make good copy for the newspapers.

Jimmy Doolittle

"I have been luckier than the law of averages should allow. I could never be so lucky again."
-- Gen. James H. Doolittle

Ernie Gann

"The emergencies you train for almost never happen. It's the one you can't train for that kills you."
-- Ernest K. Gann

C.A. "Chief" Anderson

"She told me, 'I always heard Negroes couldn’t fly and I wondered if you’d mind taking me up.' All her escorts got tremendously upset and told her she shouldn’t do it. ...When we came back, she said, 'Well, you can fly all right.' I’m positive that when she went home, she said, 'Franklin, I flew with those boys down there, and you’re going to have to do something about it.'"
-- C. Albert Anderson

Steve Cavallo

After a forced landing: “The main thing I was trying to do was not hurt anybody. I would have landed on the beach, but the beaches were full. The only thing that was open was this strip. If I didn’t go there, I would have been in trouble.”
-- Stefan A. Cavallo

Eddie Allen

"You would not call in an architect after you built a house."
-- Edmund T. "Eddie" Allen, on the need to integrate Flight Test with Design.

Tom Riti

Lt. G. Thomas Riti (top row, left) and the crew of B-24J Ruff Knights, 1944.

Paul Tibbets

"If you give me the same circumstances, hell yeah, I'd do it again."
-- BGen. Paul W. Tibbets

Jackie Cochran

"I might have been born in a hovel but I am determined to travel with the wind and the stars."
-- Jacqueline Cochran

Chuck Yeager

"If you want to grow old as a pilot, you've got to know when to push it, and when to back off."
-- BGen. Charles Yeager

Richard Ogg

"We had a certain job to do. We had to do it right or else."
-- Capt. Richard W. Ogg

Bob Hoover

"Nothing said I had to crash."
-- R.A. Hoover

John Glenn

"People are afraid of the future, of the unknown. If a man faces up to it and takes the dare of the future, he can have some control over his destiny."
-- John H. Glenn, Jr.

John Boyd

"To be somebody or to do something. In life there is often a roll call. That’s when you have to make a decision: to be or to do."
-- Col. John R. Boyd

Eric Moody

"Good evening ladies and gentlemen. This is your Captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are all doing our damnedest to get them going again. I trust you are not in too much distress."
-- Capt. Eric Moody, Speedbird 9, 24 June 1982

Al Haynes

"Whatever you do, keep us away from the city."
-- Capt. Alfred C. Haynes, as his crippled DC-10 (UA232) approached KSUX.

Eileen Collins

“Whether your commander is a man or woman doesn't really matter when it comes to getting your mission done.”
-- Col. Eileen M. Collins, USAF (Ret'd)

'Sully' Sullenberger

"That's what we're trained to do."
-- Capt. Chesley B. Sullenberger

Richard de Crespigny

"The overriding job of any pilot is to fly the plane - to aviate! There is no computer, manual, autopilot or carefully crafted standard operating procedure that will ever replace that key responsibility: to keep the aircraft in the air in one piece. As the pilot-in-command in the flight deck, you can delegate the navigation and you can ask someone else to work the radio, but you can never delegate your responsibility to aviate."
-- Capt. Richard Ch. de Crespigny

DESIGNERS