Close Formation

Two well engineered, aerodynamic bodies in close 69 formation. Big picture view here.

El Salvador's Airline

TACA is based in San Salvador, El Savador. Cuba-Toronto a unique North American route. Not a lot of US demand. Here's the Wickipedia summary:

History
TACA was founded in Honduras in 1931 by New Zealander Lowell Yerex. According to Time Magazine, 31 December 1945, TACA was once the "world's largest cargo carrier."

A little known fact is that, during the 1940s, TACA also operated an airline named "TACA Venezuela".

TACA Int'l took a 49% stake in Nicaraguan airline Aeronica in 1992.

In 2005, TACA was 25% founder of Mexican airline Volaris

The mexican group Molotov in the song titled "Marciano" from their album Con Todo Respeto makes a reference to TACA.

Destinations
See full article: TACA destinations.

Fleet

Current Fleet
Taca's fleet has surged and ebbed throughout time. Today it is an all-Airbus fleet:

02 Airbus A321-200 (+1 Order)
21 Airbus A320-200 (One wet leased to Martinair)
07 Airbus A319-100 (+ 2 Orders)

Perfect Approach

Airbus Nosewheel

Czech Airways A-310

From here to a very rough, left gear touch down, bounce, yaw, panic nose down, stop just short of runway end. Always nice after a long flight!

Embraer 190

Air Canada fighting a decent crosswind on approach to runway 23. United 737 a few planes later lined up well outside and went around.

Lufthansa 747 Soccer Nose

Famous Lufthansa 'soccer nose' aircraft. Getting ready for the soccer World Cup which is headed for Germany this year. According to a Lufthansa press release:
"Germany is again hosting the World Cup for the first time in 32 years. Fans the world over will be coming to Germany to support their national teams playing at soccer stadiums around the country. The Lufthansa aircraft with the football nose will act as football’s ambassadors inviting all to enjoy their stay here," said Lufthansa Executive Vice President Marketing and Sales Thierry Antinori.

TAGS: Toronto, soccer nose, Lufthansa, soccer world cup

Westjet 737-700...what goes up...

Landing over Arizona's and the The Landing Strip - two well known airport landmarks.

Westjet 737-700

Departing YYZ runway 23.

World Airways Try Again

Guys, sorry, I had a better picture. Should have used this one the first time.

The Price of Fuel

The fuel line-up at the Brampton Flying Club, Sunday afternoon. Busy litte general aviation airport. Here's their website. No idea what they charge for a fill-up and it's not obvious from their site. However, if you're flying in the US, and you're cheap, here's a great site for figuring out where not to land if you need to fill up. Hint: big airports. Some of the facts from this site: national US average price per gallon of: 100LL Avgas - $3.77; Jet A - $3.76; MoGas (for flying on the freeway) - $2.79.

Photoshop vs. Paint Shop Pro

No bones about it. I'm an amateur. New with a decent camera and new to higher end photo editing. So the question was which software to go with. After checking the internet narrowed it to two options - Paint Shop Pro by Corel or Photoshop Elements by Adobe.

Both can be downloaded for 30 day trials, free from their respective web sites.

Initially downloaded Paint Shop Pro. Frankly, liked it. Only thing that bothered me - every piece of 'how to' on the internet was aimed at Elements. So, 20 days into Paint Shop, downloaded Photopshop. Even at the intitial download, should have seen where things were headed. Download and set-up operations took at least an hour. Slow, slow, frigging slow.

Now decision is clear. Technically, they're probably both similar. Couldn't find an adjustment with one that can't be made with the other. The big difference is speed. Paint Shop Pro X loads faster and is more intuitive to use than Elements. Elements is a pig. It bogs everything down. Ultimately, just too slow, too frustrating.

And here's the ultimate frustration. I never anticipated when I dowloaded something from Adobe, that it would mess with my Adobe Reader. But that's exactly what it did. Likely, there's some setting somewhere to avoid Elements loading every time I want to read a PDF - but who needs it?

The winner HANDS DOWN is Paint Shop Pro. Less than $100 and downloaded/loaded in less than 20 minutes.

Riding the Red Rocket

This is my favourite Air Canada aircraft. C-FFWN joined the Air Canada fleet in 1991. Has been painted the past 3 years in Air Canada 65th Anniversay livery - red tail, red nose, red maple leaf on a white background mid section of the fuselage. 65th Anniversary is long over but this one looks too good to repaint.

Toronto Lights

AC Embraer over the approach lights for 24L. The approach lights start in a parking lot of a business park east of Pearson airport.