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What a day… Today surely has been a great day. With my friend Ross having flown all the way over from Australia for a couple of weeks to visit and enjoy a free couch to sleep on. What it meant for me other than someone to talk to at times was I could get a chance to play tourist for a few days.

Day 1 was scheduled to be the true Avgeek activities. Since it is usually better to see the Boeing factory on a weekday we would do the factory tour first thing. Then the afternoon would be spent at the Museum of Flight. A good half day would be needed at Paine Field for tour time, spotting and allowing ample time to shop.

The tour was great and Ross really enjoyed it. It was my third time doing the factory so I had seen it all before but getting to see the aircraft half built and seeing them come to life is always amazing to me.

I was excited afterwards though for some spotting time. Plenty on the schedule with two Dreamlifters, some 777 movements and a 767 or two. What was unexpected though was a Ryanair 738 doing touch and gos and rejected landings and 2 brand new 787s on their first flight. What made it all the more amazing was the fact one of thosr first flights was this amazing beauty from China Southern

From Seattle Spotting 2012

After picking up my bike and grabbing some lunch on the move we spent a few hours at the Museum of Flight including their annual book sale (where I picked up a few titles i had never expected), Ross exploring the Concorde for the first time and the arrival of one more 787!

Damn good first day, loved it all! Tomorrow will be just as much fun I hope!

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Something wierd has been going on lately with my running and I just can’t explain it. My average run (pretty much 4-5 days a week) is 5km (just over 3 miles). I usually average at least 31-33 Mins depending upon which of my running routes that I take, whether it is a flat or slight incline, twisty, curvy or just out and back no thought required. I feel thats a good pace for me, I can push myself to go the low 31s or I can rest my body a bit and end up in the high 33s. I have a number of running routes I use that allow me to vary my runs so that I am not doing the same route day after day. I have routes that are easier and some that I use for punishment (I even have an 8k and 10k loop that are for my punishment days when I have been just that little bit naughty).

But if you were to go into my running history on the Garmin Website you will see my fastest ever 5k was 28 mins and that was a proper race where I was pushing myself to the limits

As you can see, it is a really good pace and I am really happy with it. But as of late my runs on the same routes that were averaging 31-33 have dropped to be around 29-30. I can’t explain it. I don’t feel like I am pushing myself any harder (there are days that I do push myself though).

Take this mornings route for instance, here is a capture from one of my average times on the same route:

This run was barely weeks ago and to be honest, Its pretty average, not to fast, not to slow, a good pace in my eyes. But now compare this to this morning:

Same route (may not be the same direction but that shouldn’t matter with this route), Same day of the week. I don’t get it. Maybe its the colder weather forcing me to output better or I am running better in the colder weather? Maybe someone who is a pro runner can help explain it to me. Either way, I don’t feel like I am pushing myself harder at the moment, but maybe I am and just not realising it.

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What a week!

It has been a crazy week full of photo work, touching up photos not only from last weekends trip to LA for some spotting but also from Dreamliner Day on Monday and some time at Paine Field after my friend Kinny came to visit.

I did get some amazing shots though including the following:

From Dorkfest LAX Spotting

My First Ever 747-400 Combi and the 2nd of the KLM Asia schemes (i now have both a 777-300ER and the 747 Combi in this scheme, just need the 777-200ER and i have the full set).

From Dorkfest LAX Spotting

The Skyteam Liveried 737-800 belonging to Delta

From Dorkfest LAX Spotting

The Beard!!!!

From Dorkfest LAX Spotting

A 747 belonging to Air New Zealand, these shoudln’t even be in Los Angeles.. so its kinda rare!

From Dreamliner Day Spotting

The Huskies Dash 8 from Horizon

From Dreamliner Day Spotting

A 747-400 belonging to Atlas Air (only ever seen their freighters not their passenger jets)

From Dreamliner Day Spotting

Two Brand New Emirates 777-300ER’s. One on its Delivery Flight (Above) and one on a Photo Flight with a Loud as hell LearJet (below)

From Dreamliner Day Spotting
From Dreamliner Day Spotting

So many photos in there so… heres the links to all the folders from what was an epic epic long weekend (and another long weeked coming up as well).

Dreamliner Day Spotting
Dreamliner Day
Dorkfest LAX Spotting
Dorkfest 2012

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The last book from my classics list for a while, back to Avgeek books now

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

The book is “The Adventure of Tom Sawyer” by Mark Twain. Something that i am sure most people would of red as a child or in school. I am pretty sure I had read this as a child, but i really can’t tell if I did or not. The book follows the adventures of Tom Sawyer and what is seemingly his actions as a young school boy.

I don’t know what it is about this book but it just confuses me. Sure it was written based on the american south in the late 1800s. But I can’t quite work out if it is the way it is written or I just don’t understand it but it confused the heck out of me. The text, the descriptions of certain things just felt off. But then I don’t know how life was back then. To be honest it was a bit confusing and in some cases quite boring.

The book jumps around quite a bit and it describes him “smoking and drinking” but I swear that he would be like 7 or 8 years old? If that is true, did people really let their children do that back then? So confusing!!!! Maybe I am just to modern or something but yeah, that threw me for a loop at least.

I ticked Tom Sawyer off the list, now to just read Huckleberry Finn at some stage which is the other book that goes with this one (both characters appear in both books apparently).

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Well it was bound to happen. Swiss Airlines cancelled my ticket. They decided not to honor the fare (shock horror) and just outright cancelled the ticket.

They did apoligise and sent me the following email:

Dear Sir/Madam,

We are writing in regards to the travel you recently booked with Swiss International Air Lines Ltd. from Yangon (RGN), Myanmar. Unfortunately, as you must have been aware of, the fare you purchased was incorrect and resulted from an inadvertent error that was out of our control. While SWISS honors its commitment to the highest level of customer service and safety in air travel, it must also honor its obligations to its employees and shareholders.
We are not obligated to provide our services for compensation that is obviously erroneously published and commercially infeasible. We are aware that good travel bargains are quickly recognized and booked, however principles of fare bargaining dictate that a service provider does not give away its services for almost free or at a loss.
Because the fare you booked was not valid, we will unfortunately have to cancel your reservation and ticket. We are extremely sorry for this error and we are not increasing the price of your ticket; rather we will promptly issue you a full refund for the total price you paid for the ticket. The full amount will be automatically credited using your original form of payment. In the event that you would like to rebook your itinerary at the appropriate price, please contact your nearest SWISS service center or your travel agent.
SWISS deeply regrets the inconvenience caused by the publication of the erroneous fare to the passengers who may have thought they had booked and purchased a valid ticket for an erroneous cost. We apologize for this unfortunate situation and trust your future travel on SWISS is comfortable.
Sincerely,
Swiss International Air Lines Ltd.
Malzgasse 15, Basel/Schweiz
Registereintragung/Registration:
Handelsregisteramt des Kantons Basel-Stadt

 

Not exactly the most nicest of emails, not even addressed to me personally. Total fail there. The booking is still showing live on Travelocity, so i will give it a few days to see if it dissapears, my card hasn’t been refunded yet. I sent a complaint to Swiss, not demanding they honor the fare but more the usual “blah blah blah i thought it was real, blah blah blah”. What i did ask for is that they cover the foreign currency fees if I get charged any by my credit card due to the refund. But I doubt they will do that, but hey.. worth a shot right?

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Well Monday this week was pretty damn busy for me. A day full of driving, fun, awesomeness and just down right #avgeek nirvana.

I spent a fair amount of time in the truck monday, as I had to drive down to Kent (bout 10-15 mins South of SeaTac) to pick up my boxes which have finally arrived from Brisbane. After the stupid import company withheld the packages for 2 weeks to get extra cash out of me (part of the reason i had been stressed so much lately) I finally was able to pick up my stuff which was just awesome to see those boxes and my bike! My Glorius bike.

But the Avgeek portion of the day was truly awesome. As my 2nd time as a Correspondant for airlinereport.com I was on assignment to cover the Arrival of the First commercial service for a 787 to Seattle. It was an awesome experience and you can read all about it here The time was great (though adding to my sunburn i am sure), getting ramp access is truly a priveledge and I am really grateful I could do this.

To add more greatness to the day, a friend of mine from Twitter was arriving on the flight for a couple of days so after making him wait several hours thanks to the ANA festivities, we ended up hitting the road up to Paine Field for a little bit of spotting, catching 2 new Emirates 777s (one delivery and one doing a photoshoot with a lear jet) and then we headed out for some Sushi, Tempura and Teriyaki at Rikki Rikki in Kirkland.

It was great having someone visiting, getting to play host and tour guide all at the same time, also seeing a familiar face was a great thing, helped improved my spirits 1000 fold. Now my time this week will be spent with doing up the photos not only from Monday but also from Saturday still as I struggle to get through them all!

It sure has been a thrilling long weekend, with more fun and frivolity coming up!