Flying on the NASA DC-8: Observing an Airborne Science Lab in Action
NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center operates a number of aircraft out of Building 703 at Palmdale airport. Among those, two airliners from yesteryear…
New Terminal, New Era: Onboard Jetstar Japan’s Inaugural Flight from Tokyo to Shimojishima
Over the last couple of years, I took quite a few “special” flights – whether inaugurals or farewells. Among others, I was on Air France’s inaugural 787 flight, on the Bombardier Dash 8 Q400CC inaugural flight, as well as on the Cathay Pacific 747 farewell flight. That said…
A Retro Weekend in Budapest: Flying on the Lisunov Li-2 Over the Danube
(Posted on November 26, 2018) If the aircraft above looks familiar to you, then it’s because looks like the well-known Douglas DC-3. However, rather than being the DC-3 itself, it’s the license-built Soviet version of the DC-3, Lisunov Li-2. Back in October 2018, I had…
NASA 747, Cleared for Take-Off: Observing a SOFIA Mission
(Posted on October 27, 2018) Every summer, NASA’s airborne observatory SOFIA leaves its base in Palmdale, California, and heads to Christchurch, New Zealand to observe the Southern Sky. Being in the southern hemisphere for a couple of months not only…
Flight Review: AirAsia X Inaugural from Osaka KIX to Honolulu in Business Class
(Posted on July 3, 2017 & Flown on June 28, 2017) Back in February, AirAsia X announced that it would be launching its first route to the United States. The route – Kuala Lumpur to Honolulu via Osaka Kansai and back – was to start operating four times a week starting…
Aloha! A Quick Look at the AirAsia X Inaugural Flight to the United States
(Posted on June 29, 2017) Earlier today or yesterday, depending on where you are, I took the inaugural AirAsia X flight from Osaka Kansai to Honolulu. While I will post a detailed report later on once I am back in Japan, I wanted to post a brief overview with some of…
Flight Review: Mahan Air 747-300 Business Class from Mashad to Tehran Mehrabad
(Posted on February 24, 2017 & Flown on November 15, 2016) As you could have read in the previous part of the report, due to a delay on our flight from Tehran to Mashad onboard the Iran Aseman 727, we nearly missed this flight. Luckily, the…
Flight Review: Cathay Pacific 747-400 Farewell Flight, from Tokyo to Hong Kong
(Posted on February 18, 2017 & Flown on October 1, 2016) Last October, I had the chance to take the last Cathay Boeing 747 scheduled passenger flight. Cathay Pacific made sure the Queen of the Skies was sent off in style, and so the flight…
Tour Report: Iranian Skies & Cities II – “Flying the Classics”
(Posted on January 25, 2017 & Traveled on November 15-17, 2016) Having had a long previous day, we decided to sleep in, and head straight to the airport (with a quick stop at Azadi Square on the way) to catch our Iran Aseman flight to Mashad…
From Inaugurals to a Diversion: The Five Flights I Enjoyed the Most in 2016
(Posted on January 19, 2017) As we are approaching the end of January, I decided to look back at the flights I took last year. Having flown over 130,000 miles on over 90 segments, it was the best year both in terms of the distance flown as well as the…