Tomorrow, I fly to Portland, OR for a one week business trip. If you’re a total geek like me you can track my flights on FlightAware:

• United 173 leaves KBOS at 0800 EST headed for KSFO.
• United 562 leaves KSFO at 1248 PST headed for KPDX.

Once the appropriate flight plan is filed my flights will show up as “scheduled” then after wheels-up they’ll be tracked by FlightAware (like all flights conducted under Instrument Flight Rules). FlightAware’s tracking is delayed by 6 minutes.

If you’re even more of a geek just like me you can also listen to ATC all over the world at LiveATC.net which isn’t delayed like FlightAware. So you can listen to flights moving from Boston Clearance Delivery, to Boston Ground, then Boston Tower, Boston Departure, then to Boston Center and so on… across the country until NORCAL approach, and so on.

I’ll be returning next Saturday on Alaska 802. Alaska 802’s tracking seems to have some strange issues, including regularly showing up with “result unknown” while a duplicate entry shows up in FlightAware with a slightly different aircraft type code with the normal completion. I believe this may be a bug in FlightAware, perhaps due to Alaska Airlines use of Required Navigational Performance, which is what the aircraft type suffix indicates.

Except for the flights, I’ll generally be reachable via cell phone, text message, email, and IRC/Jabber as time allows.

In the Volkswagen Golf, and many other cars, there is a light on the dash that illuminates when the cruise control is turned on. But the light reflects the state of the cruise control “master switch,” not whether or not the cruise control is actively controlling the throttle. Since the Golf is a drive-by-wire car, the pedal doesn’t move when it is manipulated by the cruise control. While the master control must be on to enable all cruise control features, it does not actually take control until you press set or resume.

On an aircraft, there would be one light for the master enable and a second light to indicate that the cruise control is actually active. Or, commonly, a light with an amber (armed) and green (active) indication. This is perfect for vehicle cruise control indicators as well. That way the driver always knows the state of the system with a quick glance. I don’t know why more manufacturers don’t do this - it merely requires using a dual color LED.

These pictures of supercell thunderstorms from the cockpit of an airliner are incredible. Supercell thunderstorms are the most severe type of thunderstorm, and they usually feature high winds and hail. They are also likely to spawn tornadoes. Usually at the altitudes commercial jet airliners fly at (30,000 ft+) you are above any weather. But in those photos you can see the anvil of the thunderstorm extending far above the aircraft at 36,000 ft. Click on the photos for larger versions.

Weather is an amazing force. Whether it is sailing, flying, or hiking in the White Mountains, any outdoor activity requires respect for weather. We understand an awful lot about weather systems, but thunderstorm activity and tornadoes are still difficult to predict with certainty. In the storm mentioned above the water droplets in the storm cloud are actually dense enough that the aircraft weather radar can’t penetrate through to the other side. Our technology is defeated by water. Fortunately, aircraft still have the ability to give storms plenty of room and go around them, and our ability to predict the general characteristics of storms has made flying much safer.

I often hear people complain about delays in commercial aviation which are caused by things like thunderstorms over the Great Plains. The fact is, pilots would rather stay on the ground and wait until they have a clear way across instead of risking contact with powerful storms. When large scale storms cross the country they affect the many routes taken by aircraft all across the country in complex ways which limit capacity. It is better to wait on the ground than in the air. The amount of fuel burned while flying a holding pattern is immense.

Earlier this evening I did some work on my car and to test drive things I drove over to Pease (KPSM), our local big airport. Pease used to be an Air Force Base, but now it is open to the public. It is also still used by the 157th Air Refueling Wing of the NH Air National Guard. The Air Refueling Wing flies the Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker.

In Durham at UNH, one can frequently see KC-135s flying overhead at low altitude. They are easily recognizable by the refueling boom which is visible at the back. The reason why these aircraft frequently overfly Durham and Newmarket is because they are flying a air traffic pattern for one of the runways at Pease. They fly the pattern over and over again for training.

When I got to Pease I sat for a little while in the Park and Ride lot near the south end of the airport. This is at the beginning of Runway 34, which was the active runway since there was a brisk wind coming in from the north. I waited for a little while, watching the sunet, then spotted an aircraft headed south on a downwind leg over Durham. I watched as it turned to a base leg, then final. With such a big aircraft they set up for a long final and the base to final turn was barely visible. But, landing lights were clearly visible and I could tell the plane was definitely descending for landing on Runway 34. Soon it was quite close and at this point it was obvious it was a USAF KC-135.

Above you can see the plane passing over the ILS transmitted at the end of Runway 34. My camera has great zoom capabilities but at this point it was basically zoomed all the way out. The picture doesn’t do the size of the plane justice.

I watched as the plane touched down.. then, much to my surprise, the pilot took off again. This is called a touch-and-go and is frequently used during training since it allows you to make lots of take offs and landings, and generally practice the most important phases of flight. It was just a surprise to see touch and goes in such a large plane.. I had previously been used to seeing Cessnas at Boire Field in Nashua!

This time I could track the plane in my field of view the whole time it flew the pattern, then came in for another touch and go. Instead of watching from my car in the parking lot I crossed to the airport perimeter and watched from near the fence. It truly is impressive to see such a large plane coming in from so close. You could also clearly see the course corrections and wind affecting the aircraft during the short final approach. Of course, these are pilots in training so a bit of a rough landing is to be expected :)

Unfortunately by that time it was nearly dark, so no good pictures. You can check out the blurry ones, plus high-res versions of the others, in the gallery.