January 31
Time for this week’s airplane p0rn.
And this is one taken on the ground in Downtown Seattle – about a block from the Space Needle – A SAS Airbus A340 climbing out and beginning its long flight back to Scandinavia.
More Airplane p0rn next week!
January 29
In a lot of my trip reports (and a lot of others I read), you’ll find a little map in there 9 out of 10 times.
I use and prefer the maps generated by Karl L. Swartz’s Great Circle Mapper (old version).
Here’s one generated by the old version
Maps generated by the Great Circle Mapper
Well it seems Karl has been very busy and has released gcmap.com and has put some real work into it. Little things for example… like airport labels..
Maps generated by the Great Circle Mapper
They’re also scalable maps too…
Maps generated by the Great Circle Mapper
And perhaps most visually exciting is the Blue Marble overlay
Maps generated by the Great Circle Mapper
It’s also configurable for non airline geeks so when you get a map out, and say you’re going from LHR-ORD, there’s an English translation..
Maps generated by the Great Circle Mapper
Overall – a very worthy update to a very worthy tool.
Highly recommended if for the visual impact this tool has its purposes.
January 29
Hello gentle readers (both new and old). A few announcements:
1) More old trip reports are appearing as I get the chance to tidy and press publish.I’ve added:
2) I have a backlog of posts I am slowly working though (least of all – an Analysis of ANZ’s new seats, Deltas seats). Whilst I can’t bring everything to the plate quickly, I’ll cover bits and bobs as time allows.
3) Highlighted titles -You may have noticed I’m using **’s in my titles for important breaking stuff. I’ll continue too to mark out if something important has happened in the world.
4) More GhettoIFE related stuff. As I come up to my next round of travel in March, I’ll be looking more at devices that fall into the GhettoIFE category and seeing if they’re any good, or if they’re really toilet. I’ll also be publishing my guide to building GhettoIFE for the Apple iPhone and possible adaptation methods for other devices (of course if any manufactures wish to have their device “accredited”, feel free to drop me an email)
5) The Airplane p0rn section is growing each week. For some reason, A330′s seem to be very popular at the moment. Got a request? Drop it into my inbox
6) The Tagline at the top has changed. Sometimes shorter is better 
I can’t count still.
Thank you again for choosing and viewing GhettoIFE.com!
January 28
Well for those of you who haven’t lived under a rock today would had heard of Apple releasing it’s newest toy… The iPad
For Ghetto IFE users, what’s the interest in this device?
Take you standard iPod Touch. Now pimp the screen. There you go. All the usual tools (including Safari, Mail, Photos, etc etc are there).
In terms of entertainment, there is a nice large screen for music and video, with an alleged 10 hour runtime of VIDEO. In other words, LHR-BKK, LHR-SIN, LHR-SFO, SFO-TYO etc range is the name of the game.
In travel terms, it should fit in your bag nicely – least of all it’s only 1/2″ thin, 1.5lb/685gramms heavy, with 16GB storage to start with, up to 64GB (non expandable), and it’ll load all your Application you’ve got from the App Store.
One of the new features is it’s also going to be an Ebook Reader. This I’ve got a few concerns about (you try staring at a bright backlit screen for hours – doesn’t do your eyes any good). An eInk based reader might be a better option.
For those who are going try to use this for business (and good luck getting on your accounts), iWork will also make an appearance too.
For a device like this, WiFi and 3G (The WCDMA2100 standard – not EDVO or WCDMA1700) will make an appearance too. It’s SIM unlocked, so it should be able to be used in any country you like with whatever data plan.
Overall….
I’m sorry, I would had expected a bit more – but I thought overblown iPod touch would be the order of the day… and I’m not off the mark.
It’s pricing is about cheap netbook level, and a bit beyond that if you add 3G Radio. As it’s pre-pay, I don’t expect operators to subsidise this at all as a lot of operators still have to get over charging silly amounts per megabyte still.
The lack of multi-tasking is quite frankly getting to the point of unacceptability, and is a point to address in the next iPhone software – and the unwillingness of Apple to open up the platform to Java and Flash is getting downright annoying.
January 27
Oh dear… This one completely slipped off my radar, but I still think it’s worth including…
How this is related to flying is beyond me (it might have something to do with Auckland – but that’s to be proved – and even then the campaign has been pulled
) , but this is Air New Zealand – the company that has introduced ghetto sleeping systems and a new Premium Economy product…
… that I’ll go into a bit later on today…
January 26
El-Al are offering a status match with BMI for those abandoned after the BMI LHR-TLV service was terminated
To qualify, you’ll need a your BMI membership details, and a statement that must include two flights to/from TLV within 12 months with BMI or any Start Alliance partner
Details are at http://www.elal.co.il/ELAL/Hebrew/HidePages/MatmidDeals/bmi_info_general240110 (Hebrew Only)… but run it through http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev;=_t&hl;=en&ie;=UTF-8&layout;=1&eotf;=1&u;=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.elal.co.il%2FELAL%2FHebrew%2FHidePages%2FMatmidDeals%2Fbmi_info_general240110&sl;=iw&tl;=en and you should get the jist of it…
Happy matching!
January 26
More details are slowly emerging regarding the ET409 air accident that happened this yesterday
January 25
Well it’s begun. Unite has commenced the ballot on possible strike action. The ballot that runs from now (25/01) until 22nd February, with the first action possible from 1st March.
Unite reiterates it will not call action over Easter – trying to buy the public off with a sympathy “We’re hitting businessmen, Willie Walsh and not families” line.
Unite is also angry over the plans to replace their staff with other recruited staff (either internally or via leasing), citing it, would put passengers’ lives at risk.
Unless Unite and BA can bang heads together, sort themselves out so the company can survive, this is really going to drag on….
January 25
An Ethiopian Airlines flight 409 from Beirut to Addis Ababa has crashed 5 minutes after take off.
Search and Rescue operations are in progress – it is unknown if any of the 83 passengers or 9 crew survived.
The plane – a Boeing 737, is said to have disappeared from radar screens some five minutes after take-off in stormy weather at about 0200 local time.
News is still developing in this story – updates will follow during the day.
January 24
Emergency teams in Mashhad, Iran have been attending the scene of a landing accident involving a Tupolev Tu-154M.
The TU-154M owned by Taban Air flight 6437 from Abadan to Mashhad , suffered damage on landing, losing its undercarriage and a wing.
Iranian State media said almost 170 people were on board and that at least 46 were injured. There were no reports of fatalities in the incident. The rear end broke up, and passengers were evacuated from the plane.
It seems the plane landed in fog at Mashhad airport, where the tail of the plane hit the ground, caused plane skidded off the runway and burst into flame.
January 23
Well the UK has decided paranoia must rule again, and the Home Secretary – Alan Johnson has said the UK terror threat level is being raised from “substantial” to “severe”,
Whilst no specific threat has been given in relation to the threat increase,
The decision to raise the threat level was made by the UK’s Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC).
Mr Johnson says
“We still face a real and serious threat to the UK from international terrorism, so I would urge the public to remain vigilant and carry on reporting suspicious events to the appropriate authorities and to support the police and security services in their continuing efforts to discover, track and disrupt terrorist activity.”
So the sky isn’t falling yet – but it could do soon!
The rise is in response to the perceived increased threat from international terrorism following the NW253 Incident on Christmas day.
Again – Mr Johnson stressed there was no intelligence to suggest a terrorist attack was imminent.
In other words, the free pass for extended security at airports and transport hubs has now been given a free ride.
Kevin’s hint: Allow extra time for travel.
