Denali by Air

We got a chance to fly on a Talkeetna Aeroservices (Fly Denali) plane all around Denali National Preserve to get a "birds eye view" of the Big one aka Mt. McKinley aka Denali! 

It was unbelievable. This mountain is 20000+ feet high and we got some majestic views when the clouds moved out. It was a great day to be on that little 8 seater plane.. The pilot, four of us and a Chinese family from Shanghai .. 

The little one had a bad cold and we decided not to go on the Glacier Landing tour. The fly by tour was amazing in itself. The pilot was patient and answered all of 200 or so questions the little one asked on the intercom type system..

think she was so excited by the intercom that she asked questions non-stop! They were all decent questions except for the one about the Ocean and the Pilot went "there is no ocean here!" .. think she mistook the blue yonder for "ocean" having done too many coastal trips..

A few photographs from the fly by trip..

That was the big one! The one in the photograph below is a peak that is framed in the back by the big one!

Everyone got sunglasses to protect their eyes from the light reflecting off all the snow. I did not wear it because of the logistics of taking pictures. Big mistake! After we landed, my eyes were sore for some time..

While we flew by this section which was a valley with an ice river running through it aka Glacier, thought of getting a HDR shot.. 

Was not expecting it to come out as the plane was moving fast.. but the idea worked. Went for a fast shutter speed, f/22 and high enough ISO to support the fast shutter speed. Got three images and merged them together (shown below).. You do get the detail in the shadow and the highlights on the HDR. In spite of the image having pretty much a black and white feel to it, the HDR worked! Cropped off 20% of my border, thanks to the movement but still happy with the end result!

On our way back..

Another HDR image of same location as we flew away from the Glacier..

The 17-40mm lens came in very handy for this trip. Was able to capture wide panoramas from an airplane window! 

More later..

Future of Flight - day trip from Seattle

Boeing has a museum of sorts and a tour of their assembly line in Mukilteo, Washington.

It was impressive, to say the least. But we constantly learn that technology and grandeur alone are not enough to carry the show.

First the impressive stuff.

They had the Rolls Royce Trent engine on display. This puppy is supposed to be the latest and greatest to power the 787 (yes, we saw three being built on their assembly line and one near completion) but the guide did tell us that everyone is going for the more proven GE engines!

If you are a materials engineer who did work on composites and you are in the high tech industry, this is as impressive as it gets to watching materials meet mechanics with a whole bunch of electronics thrown in, and we are not even talking about those cool aerodynamic wing tip designers !!!

They had sections of the plane on display, and an evolutionary history of the 7x7 series we are so familiar with today, in a self tour bay.

Let us say that the new 787 is a smaller plane than the 777 but is more spacious and fuel efficient and can go from Vancouver to Sydney non-stop! How? How? How?

Well, they switched from Aluminum to Composites for the entire body, a thing that was the holy grail of materials scientists for over 25 years! You see, these composite structures cannot be welded that easily and cannot be reformed or reshaped either. So you have to get it right the first time and we all know how difficult that can be!

There is also a lot of ergonomic improvements. The whole cabin area looks streched in x and shrunk in y (might be a problem for tall folks, but my guess is finally Boeing and its customers have figured out that the average person is 5 foot 5 inches and it makes sense to go wider and shorter).

They had a nice display with the cockpit. Kind of cramped and your head just spins after seeing all those dials and knobs and makes you realize why the "driver" (Jr. slang for pilot) is so important.

There were no cellphones, cameras, anything electronic allowed on the factory tour. So no pictures of the half built planes I guess.. Also the release date of the completed 787 is a closely kept secret. All we know is the first plane goes to All Nippon Airlines and is having technical difficulties!

Now, for the comment earlier about not everything being perfect. Boeing does not understand the concept of customer service (being one of two companies that makes such monster planes, probably never had to understand the concept!)

We asked for six tickets for a tour and they gave us 3 each for two different tours and did not bother to mention that they split our group! So our subsequent plans got all messed up and they had a big issue with accepting the fact that they screwed up!

That episode apart, the tour guide was extremely nice and the rest of the tour was uneventful.

Expensive but if you are a high tech or flying enthusiast, a must see if you go to the Seattle area!

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I just wanna fly...

Over the Christmas break, we had decided not to go on any long trip, partly because our trip to Santa Barbara, for the last week of december was planned way ahead and also because the BIL and his roommate were driving down to visit us!

We decided to do something local, but different.. we went on a free fall trip (just like jumping off a plane without a parachute), except you are 6 feet away from the ground inside a wind tunnel!

They spent 6 million dollars to build this tunnel in the bay area and for a modest(really!!) fee of 50 dollars a person, they give you two chances to go in the wind tunnel and experience free fall!!!

(needless to say, San looks real pretty in that suit and therefore her picture has been cropped on demand! Now back to the topic...)

Of course, there is a training class, safety instruction, gearing up with a suit, pads, helmet, ear plugs etc.. just like you would prepare for a free jump. So the preparation is half an hour for a two minute jump! That is to be expected for any adventure I guess...

It was fantastic!!

We took the kids with us into the outer chamber where they watched daddy and mommy and uncles fly. They did start screaming uncontrollably when Grandma decided to fly. Good thing no one could hear them. Grandma made an attempt which was aborted but did a nice comeback on her second try! She flew for a total of 1.3*10^-13 seconds. Those video clips will never see the light of day, I am being told!

If you want to try this, go to www.iflysfbay.com , but you have to call in well in advance to get a reservation. The instructors are really nice, courteous and extremely patient with first time fliers! They practise formation flying inside this tunnel. We watched the pros inside the tunnel for a full 15 mins before we got in. It was mind boggling..

We had a great time!

ps. make sure there is someone with a steady hand outside to take your pictures or you will get out of focus shots. It is noisy in there..
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