Some Images of trips that I took to Margate from Springs, I really miss those hour building days!!

Hi Everyone,

So it has been ages since I posted on this blog site and I just remembered how much fun I had creating it and posting on it. Since my last post (2 years ago!!!) I have left zero four flight school and returned to live in Johannesburg, I now work for a company called Air-Tec as a flight performance officer and ill be posting a lot more about my past flights to Durban and back, failures iv experienced and the long hard road iv been on to find a job that gives me an opportunity to fly someday.

Hope you all the forthcoming blogs, and take the journey with me as I learn to become a para-glider pilot early next year.

Rising fuel prices and financial turmoil in Europe signal big problems for the international airline industry in 2012 and are likely to force a cutback in flights, according to two key aviation bodies.

Global airline organization IATA said on Wednesday that while passenger numbers on all international routes in January - usually a busy travel season - rose 5.7 percent year on year, major uncertainties lay ahead.
European air traffic body Eurocontrol, which oversees an estimated 40 percent of world passenger and cargo routes, said it had cut its forecast for 2012 flight numbers to a decline of 1.3 percent from growth of 2.5 percent.
The figures from Geneva-based IATA, the International Air Traffic Association, showed air cargo volume - a good indicator of the health of world trade - was down 8 per cent in January over the same month last year.
Earlier this month IATA reported that in 2011 as a whole air traveller numbers rose by 6.9 percent on international routes operated by its 240 members, who account for 84 percent of world passenger traffic, while cargo fell 0.8 percent over 2010.
IATA director general Tony Tyler said the cargo decline appeared to be stabilising "albeit it at weak levels."
There was also hopeful news on business confidence which was having a positive impact on corporate travel.
"However, airlines face two big risks: rising oil prices and Europe's sovereign debt crisis. Both are hanging over the industry's fortunes like a sword of Damocles," Tyler said.
At Brussels-based Eurocontrol, head of forecast and traffic analysis David Marsh said Europe's economic weakness and the fuel price "have already had a major impact on the airlines, which have cut back on the number of flights harder and faster than we had expected."
Eurocontrol predicted a drop in flights from 9.8 million in 2011 to 9.7 million this year, which would be the second annual decline since the global financial crisis of 2009.
Marsh said growth in numbers of flights landing in, taking off from, or flying over the vast Eurocontrol area was likely to resume slowly in 2013 but it would be 2014 before it got back to the all-time peak of 10 million achieved in 2008.
The airline industry has battled over the past decade to achieve steady profits but has had a bumpy ride due to the 2001 hijackings in the United States, global health scares, volcanic eruptions and economic instability.
Last December, IATA predicted its members - who do not include low-cost airlines taking an increasing slice of business in many regions - faced an overall loss of $8 billion this year.

Being a pilot and a resturant owner? Why not?

Its always been my dream to fly, and now im chasing that dream like never before. Its the most amazing feeling in the world to do what you love doing, but another dream of mine is to own a resturant and if i succeed in my flying career i want to open a resturant someday. my inspiration for cooking comes from watching Gordon Ramsays kitchen nightmares and Jamie Oliver at home, imagine coming home after an amazing flight and jumping into your car to go and see how well your resturant is doing, ofcourse im a long way away from that but no one is stopping my dreams from becoming a reality and i want this site to be enjoyable for everyone and also be here as a source of inspiration and encouragement to never stop doing what you love.

Please help grow my site

If you visit this site please click the link above my profile, you dont need to sign up to anything or buy anything just click and exit. This is to generate traffic for my site to get it started, i would really appreciate it thank you.

Boeings planned Jet to be Super-sonic

A generation after attempts to build a commercially successful supersonic jet ended in failure, the Boeing Company announced plans yesterday for a new airplane that would fly just shy of the speed of sound, or about 20 percent faster than today's jets.

The futuristic new twin-engine jet, which is being called the Sonic Cruiser or the 20XX, has a double delta-shaped wing somewhat reminiscent of the supersonic Concorde. But a horizontal stabilizer near the nose makes it look different from all of today's commercial passenger jets.

Boeing said the plane, which will seat 175 to 250 passengers, would fly at higher altitudes than conventional jets and save about one hour for every 3,000 miles it travels. That would shave about an hour off transcontinental flights in the United States and as many as three hours on flights from California to Europe.

The new airplane will not enter service until the end of the decade, Boeing said, and many of its design features must still be worked out. But it has already captured the imagination of industry experts.
could be cool,'' said Howard Rubel, an analyst at Goldman, Sachs & Company. ''It could change the game.''
For Boeing, the new jet is a surprise riposte to its archrival, Airbus Industrie, which has gained ground on Boeing in recent years and has also stolen the industry's coveted mantle of innovation with its development of a new 550-seat superjumbo jet called the A380.
Boeing had been trying to sell airlines on a stretched version of its 747 that would seat 522, compared with the 416 seats on the largest of today's 747's. But Boeing had not received any orders for the new jet, while Airbus has 66 orders for the A380.
Boeing said yesterday that it had decided to halt work on the larger 747 and instead focus on the new-generation Sonic Cruiser. ''This is the airplane our customers have asked us to concentrate on,'' Alan R. Mulally, the president of Boeing's commercial airplane division, said. ''They share our view that this new airplane could change the way the world flies as dramatically as did the introduction of the jet age.''
The announcement of a new jet, which Boeing said could expand into a family of fast jets, comes only a week after Boeing announced that it would move its headquarters out of Seattle, where it was founded 85 years ago and where it assembles all but one of its 16 passenger airplane models today.
That raised the question of whether Boeing would build the Sonic Cruiser in the Seattle area. Mr. Mulally said the decision would not be made for a few years and issued a not-so-subtle challenge to Boeing's combative unions.
''If we keep improving our competitiveness, we will earn the right to design and make it here,'' he said. ''The most important thing is that we keep pulling together to improve our productivity and competitiveness.''
The excitement surrounding a jet that does not even break the sound barrier reveals how little progress has been made in commercial aviation over the last 40 years. Passenger jets have not changed appreciably in terms of speed since Boeing introduced the 707 in the 1950's. Even the new A380, which Airbus is calling ''the flagship of the 21st Century,'' will fly no faster than today's jets, or about 85 percent of the speed of sound, which is around 700 miles per hour, depending on air temperature and altitude.
The technology exists to build a supersonic passenger jet like the Concorde, which entered commercial service in 1976 after the British and French governments essentially gave the airplanes to their two national airlines, Air France and British Airways, because no airline was willing to pay the high cost of buying them.
Until the Concorde was taken out of service last year after one crashed near Paris, the jets were only available to elite travelers paying extremely high prices.
Most experts agree that a new supersonic jet built today would still be too expensive for most airlines to operate. It also could not fly at top speed over land because of the noisy sonic boom and would fly so high that it would damage the ozone layer. Since the 1970's, the British, French, Russians and Boeing in the United States have abandoned efforts to build a civilian supersonic transport.
Mr. Mulally said the exciting thing about the Sonic Cruiser was that it could be built with conventional materials and be powered by the same engines now used on Boeing's wide-body 777. Even though it will fly faster, he said, it will still have about the same operating costs as today's jets.
Advances in computer design and manufacturing also mean that Boeing can save money developing the plane and on each copy that it makes. Mr. Mulally would not say how much the new jet would cost to develop but analysts have estimated $9 billion to $10 billion, about what Airbus plans to spend on the A380. The cost of developing the stretched version of the 30-year-old 747 was $4 billion.
''The 20XX is more than just a new fuselage and internal configuration,'' Mr. Rubel said. ''It's a whole new way of making airplanes.''
The new jet also underscores the two opposing views of the future of air travel espoused by Boeing and Airbus. Boeing has argued that a very large aircraft like the A380 has only a limited market because more travelers are bypassing large hub airports and flying directly to their destinations in smaller long-range jets like its 777. A very fast 200-seat long-range jet like the Sonic Cruiser will serve this market well.
Airbus acknowledges that air travel is fragmenting but counters that the inexorable growth in the global number of passengers over the next 20 years will require a larger plane on popular routes like New York to London and London to Tokyo.
Asked about the new Boeing design at a meeting with analysts in Manhattan yesterday, John Leahy, the commercial director of Airbus, responded much the way Boeing has responded to the A380 over the last five years. ''We've looked at that,'' he said. ''I don't think it is a very big market.''
One of the more intriguing questions that experts disagreed on was whether the new Sonic Cruiser would compete with the new Airbus superjumbo.

Byron K. Callan, an aerospace analyst at Merrill Lynch & Company in New York, said that given the choice between flying the A380 across the Pacific and saving several hours on the new Boeing jet, most premium business travelers, which are coveted by the world's airlines, would flock to the faster airplane. ''It is a category killer for the A380,'' he said.

But Steve Binder, an analyst at Bear, Stearns & Company, who was the first to disclose the existence of the new Boeing airplane to his clients last week, said that it was more of a replacement for the Boeing 767, which has been outsold by the Airbus A330 recently. ''This is a totally different market,'' he said.

Velvet sky grounded

Beleaguered low-cost airline Velvet Sky has suspended all flights for a week to “resolve difficulties”.

The airline first announced the decision on Facebook and Twitter on Monday, and later issued a statement via its owners, Excalibur Aerospace.

“As a result of recent events, the negative impact on business, and adverse publicity, Excalibur Aerospace wishes to announce a suspension of all its Velvet Sky flights, from Monday, February 27 until Monday, March 5, 2012,” it said on Facebook.

Next Monday, the airline is expected to oppose an application to be provisionally liquidated, brought by BP Southern Africa which is reportedly owed R29 million by Velvet Sky.

The company also owes money to SAA Technical and, following a commercial spat last week, has changed service providers.

This had resulted in delayed flights on Wednesday and cancelled flights on Thursday.

Further delays were experienced since Friday, when the airline took flight again. But on Monday it suspended all flights.


Excalibur Aerospace chairman Stephen Nthite said the decision to suspend flights had not been taken lightly and was not an indication that the airline was unable to resolve its problems.

“The suspension of flights will allow the company time to reconstitute its board and balance sheet and realign its short-term strategy.

“It will also allow the company time to properly resolve disputes with certain suppliers and service providers… The board is confident that the long-term outlook for Velvet Sky remains positive and that current developments will significantly improve Velvet Sky’s position,” he said.

Velvet Sky was launched amid much fanfare as SA’s only fully operational, 100 percent broad-based black economic empowerment airline.

The airline said it had since made a “significant impact” in the market, carrying more 300 000 passengers in its first year and quadrupling its capacity.

Originally serving Joburg, Durban and Cape Town with a single aircraft, it now has five Boeing 737s.

A group of people gathered at the Velvet Sky offices at King Shaka International airport on Monday as word of the suspended flights spread.

Akile Mamade was due to fly to Joburg with two others on Tuesday. “I asked them (Velvet Sky staff) how they could help me and they said we must book with other airlines.”

Mamade and his relatives were forced to book with another airline, incurring extra costs.

“We all signed application for refund forms and they said we will get the monies back after seven to 10 working days,” he said.

An Umhlanga couple were also upset. They said they had booked in January for a Joburg flight on Friday.

“We planned a trip with our three children and we have to spend more money now,” the man said. “We have no choice… It would have been better if they had refunded us today (Monday).”

The airline said customers holding reservations for dates during the suspension period could choose to change their bookings to a later date, or apply for a refund.

Customers could e-mail reservations@flyvelvetsky.com or call 0861 835 838. - The Mercury