Smile for the Camera

Helicopter off Key West Florida getting close to the sailing action. Has nothing to do with Toronto.

Lockheed Starfighter

CF-104 at the entrance to the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Hamilton, Ontario. From the Museum's website:

"The Canadian built CF-104 Starfighter was one of the most successful jet fighter aircraft to serve with Canada's Air Force. A total of 340 fighters were built under license by the Canadian government. The CF-104 was designed as a light-weight nuclear strike aircraft. The aircraft were retired from service in 1986 after being used for over 25 years until they were was replaced by the CF-18.

The CF-104 in front of the museum, bearing serial number 101641, is the "D" model built by Lockheed of which there were 39 purchased for training."

Toronto Maple Leafs

Unlike the hockey team, these maple leafs will still be flying come the spring.

Olympic Marathon Comes to Toronto

Olympic Airways Airbus A-340 'Marathon' crossing the buildings south of the 401 on final to runway 33L.

TAGS:Olympic Airways, A-340 picture, airlines

Toronto Pearson Airport Runways

KLM 747 at Toronto

This pic has been getting good views over at Flickr

The Beer Store

I know this isn't a great picture. But being Canadian, I couldn't resist the image of this A-340 settling into the Beer Store. Of course as an airline Canadian went out of business - sold to Air Canada. As a beer, Canadian is now part of Coors, giving up ground daily to great brews like Lakeport's 'Buck a Beer'.

Northwest Airlines A-319

This is a very nice looking aircraft. Classy.

TAGS:Northwest Airlines, Airbus, Toronto

Deicing - Again

Some kind of perfect record. Including last year, went 5 straight trips where at least one leg required deicing. Would really love to see the Infra-Tek system from Radiant Energy become the standard in North America. From a recent press release:

"Radiant Energy Corporation (TSXV - 'RDT'), developer and marketer of InfraTek, the revolutionary, patented, infrared aircraft deicing system, is pleased to announce that it has opened its latest deicing facility at the Oslo Airport in Norway.

Airplanes to be deiced taxi into the specially designed hangar where radiant heat waves melt snow and ice from all surfaces of the aircraft. Existing facilities in the U.S. have shown that the system is economically superior, faster, and uses 70% less glycol than the current method used around the world.

Radiant is scheduled to open another deicing facility later this winter season at JFK Airport in New York."

Wendy's Combo Meal

Westjet 737 approaching runway 23. Taken from the Wendy's parking lot. Big Bacon Classic Combo with fries and Diet Coke. I'm looking at the Wendy's website. Big Bacon classic weighs 282 grams, has 580 calories and 29 grams of fat. The fries are 440 calories and 21 grams of fat.

Maximum take-off weight for a 737 is something like 52,000 kilograms - or about 5 Big Bacon Classics.

US Air in Toronto

Gusty landing for a US Airways Express Canadair CL-600 Regional Jet. US Airways Express is comprised of several feeder airlines. Judging by the sharp looking livery, this aircraft is part of Air Wisconsin I believe.

Toronto Plane Spotting

So here's my question...how come airports make it so tough to watch the planes???This cop tossed about 30 of us off some useless piece of land that is spectacularly good for only one thing - watching airplanes come and go. Driving around the airport this Sunday, there are people everywhere watching planes - kids, families, spotters, tourists, etc. It's fun, harmless, interesting, exciting. Yet because there's no where to watch, people are parked on private land and the sides of busy streets to get a look. That's dumb. Toronto just built a brand new terminal. What about including some space for people to see the runways? There's a brand new parking garage many stories tall - but you can't see over the edges. Why??

TAGS: plane spotting, Toronto

World Airways DC-10-30

World Airways is an Atlanta based passenger and cargo airline flying 17 DC-10's and MD-11's. According to their website, World Airways is a subsidiary of World Air Holdings, starting business in 1948. They are the largest commercial carrier of US military personnel.

Air Canada Logo

A little closer look at the funky Air Canada tail logo. Airbus A-320. Not everyone's impressed with Air Canada's newest livery. Here's a quote from a Salon Magazine article: "Of course, a department store is one thing. I'd like to know why Air Canada chose to abandon its classy colors in order to paint up its aircraft in the pallid blue tiling of an airport men's room." Ouch.

Gear down, flaps down

Underside of Air Canada 767 and an Air Canada Jazz Regional Jet.

Miami final

Arriving at MIA. Easy to tell from the extended flaps that this isn't a new aircraft. Note the lack of snow!

Vectoring to Miami

Left turn over Miami beach with speed breaks and flaps extended. Still learning with the new camera. The light 'stain' visible in this pic is a little disconcerting. Is it an affect from the window? Too much light reflecting from the wing? God? Kind of surreal.

Take-off from YYZ

Air Canada 767 en route to Miami. Runway 24L.