Ben's Air Blog

San Francisco (SFO) to Paris (CDG) on the B777-300ER In February, Airways was invited by Air France to cover Paris CDG Airport's 20th anniversary as a hub.  I covered the story for Airways .  Air France covered my flights to Paris and back in Business Class.  Here are my trip reports.  

  I am happy to report that my article about Air North’s Hawker Siddeley HS 748 is the cover subject in the April 2017 issue of Airways magazine – complete with a cover photo taken by yours truly!   Air North is the last airline worldwide flying the HS 748 in scheduled passenger operations.   Two ATR-42 Combi’s are to replace HS 748 flights in the first quarter of this year.   Although Air North is keeping the HS 748 for charter and cargo flights, sunset has definitely come for this venerable British propliner. This is a pretty special issue for me.  Long time aviation cohort Bill Hough has an article about the Ford Trimotor, featuring gorgeous air-to-air photos from yet another aviation buddy, Sagar Pathak . Find Airways at your local newsstands.   Or if they don’t exist anymore (like around where I live), you may purchase on-line directly from Airways or download the app ( iTunes or Google Play ) and purchase the electr...

Whew!  It has been a busy final quarter of 2016.  In October, I flew on Singapore Airlines’ inaugural non-stop flight from San Francisco to Singapore, on board my first A350 ( Trip Report ). Two weeks after near the Equator in Singapore, I found myself crossing the Arctic Circle in the Yukon.  I flew in an Air North Hawker Siddeley HS 748 before they to retire from scheduled passenger service in early 2017.  It was also my first flight on the HS 748 (and very well be my only/last flight). Which leads into my final video trip report for the year.  The story to go with it was published in the April 2017 issue of Airways magazine . Two weeks after the Great White North, I was back in the Tropics.  This time on a real vacation in Maui. All that travel in five weeks!  (26,326 total miles) I certainly had a productive year in 2016.  Looking back at some highlights: In January, I had a closeup look of the fire-damaged Dyna...

San Francisco to Singapore Non Stop on Singapore Airlines’ Inaugural A350 Flight Credit:  Singapore Airlines

See my video of the arrival and departure. March this year, Southwest announced that they were starting service to Long Beach (LGB) on June 5th.  My good friend and fellow photographer Rick suggested us taking the inaugural flight.  Southwest had received four slots at the noise-sensitive, capacity-controlled airport and the airline decided to use all four slots for service to Oakland (OAK).  This further solidifies SWA’s position as the dominant airline in California, flying to all five Los Angeles area airports (LAX, BUR, ONT, SNA, LGB) – 10 cities in total in California with 160 daily intrastate flights and 19 unique city-pairs.

I went to Seattle in April for AvGeek Fest 2016 for a fun filled aviation weekend put together by the wonderful folks at Airline Reporter, Future of Flight, Museum of Flight, and Boeing. We got exclusive access to the Dreamlifter Operations Center (an AvGeek Fest first), tour of the Dreamliner Gallery, an on-the-factory-floor tour of the Everett Plant (home of the 747, 767, 777, and 787), a tour of the Renton Plant (home of the 737 – not open for public tours), and to top off – a walk around of Boeing’s newest baby – the 737-8 Max. Boeing even pulled out the Seahawks 747-8F out for us!  Alas, Boeing does not allow photography on their property so I was not able to take photos while on any of those tours.

There is something prestigious about seat 1A.  Sure, anyone can grab that seat this day and age when flying on an all-economy or regional airline.  But for someone like me who grew up in the 70s watching jumbo jets flying overseas – seat 1A was something special.

Flying on the Last US Airways Flight from PHX to SFO October 17th, 2015 was a significant day for the merger between American Airlines (AA) and US Airways (US).  Known as “Cutover”, the two airlines switched to a single Passenger Service System and became a single airline that day.  The two airlines now have a common reservation system, a single airline policy, and single airport operations.  For the customer, there is just one airline – American.  (The two airlines were already flying under a single operating certificate, received in April of this year).

Hainan Airlines San Jose to Beijing Inaugural In February 2015, Hainan Airlines announced that they would start new service between Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International (SJC) and Beijing (PEK) in June using the state-of-the-art Boeing 787 Dreamliner .  As a resident of the San Jose area and a big fan of the 787, of course I had to fly on the inaugural flight.

Flight in a Vintage 1929 Ford Tri-Motor The Ford Tri-Motor, known affectionately as the Tin Goose , was world’s first mass produced airliner.  Built with corrugated aluminum, the Tri-Motor resembled more like a tool shed than an airplane.