Featured Sites
Every month (
or more like "occasionally"...) here I'll be featuring an aviation "Featured Site" that someone has recommended to me,
that I've accidentally stumbled over, or that members and visitors might find interesting.
Inclusion here doesn't necessarily mean the web site is actually brilliant or useful to everyone, and it definitely doesn't mean the club as a whole formally approves -- just that in my opinion it was worth highlighting.... Please email me with any suggestions.
The newest featured site is FlightHistory.com, a nice little website dedicated, as
they put it, "to developing an extensive on-line archive of aviation history. The archives are not exclusive to any one country or type
of aircraft. We are committed to providing tools for aviation enthusiasts to contribute to the site. The archives focus on the pre-jet era for
now. In time we will extend the archive to the jet era and space. Flight-History is a division of Ghosts of Aviation Inc., which is located in
Calgary, AB, Canada."
Photos and stories of all kinds of aircraft... and even a set of Merlin engine diagrams for the mechanical nerds amongst us.
The previous featured site was NASA's "Moffett Field History" Site. I used to occasionally work in Moffett's vicinity in the mid-to-late 1980's, and the huge
blimp hangars and the long stream of P-3 ASW and other aircraft coming in and out of the airfield intrigued me (not to mention, later, the
NASA U2's and the Blue Angels, etc.). Nowadays Moffett is quiet, and facing a very uncertain future, and most of us probably know it best as
the source of rather grumpy tower clearances during transitions over the Peninsula.
April's Site Of The Month: It's spring -- in the Northern Hemisphere, at least (don't get me started...) -- and it's a great time
to jump into one of the club's 172's and head for Tahoe, Truckee, or Reno (I prefer doing this in the winter, but never mind...). Before you
go, you must visit the "Mountain Flying LLC
." mountain flying site, heavily involved with the Sparky Imeson "Mountain Flying Bible", etc. Articles on everything from how
to get out of a box canyon to landing on dirt strips to hypoxia to scud running. Required reading, if you ask me.
Check out the approach and landing at Possum Creek "airstrip" (basically just a sloping bit of cleared red dirt and grass at
10,000' MSL) -- photo of the strip and approach at left by Kay Cooper.
February's Site Of The Month
was my favourite Greenland airport's own web site -- Narsarsuaq Airport, BGBW,
61 09 34 N, 045 25 26 W, elevation 112 ft, once known as "Bluie West One".
Having flown over it dozens of times in 747's, 777's, and DC-10's on the way to and from Europe, I've always wanted to visit Greenland. That's all I'll say... (well, I damn nearly did once, when I was working in Copenhagen, but I stupidly let myself be talked out of it...).
As it says somewhere in the site:
"Unless the ceiling is at least 4,000ft and the flight visibility at least 5sm (8km), pilots without a good knowledge of the local topographical and meteorological conditions are advised not to make any attempt to approach Narsarsuaq through the fjords." I'll bet.
Also check out Greenland Guide, "The Official Travel Index". I still want to go there....
January's Site Of The Month was our very own Bay Tracon
just across the Old-T's and runway 15 from the club at Oakland.
Sometime in the next few years Bay Approach will be swallowed up by the new Northern California TRACON somewhere outside Sacramento. In the meantime, browse the latest Bay Approach news, airspace definitions, the history of the facility and more. Also check out the facilities photo pages with equipment that looks like a cross between a bad 60's SciFi movie and a high school hacker's den (very Dr Strangelove), and the Delta 727 seemingly on final for 15 behind the main entrance (not to mention the L-1011 under the GG Bridge...). And you all know what they sound like, but ever wondered what the controllers look like? They're in the photos pages ("Definitely A Happy Lot!!! ", as it says). There's even a photo somewhere in there of a smiling PSA 727 (now that takes me back...), and an early Eastern 727 with the words "Whisperjet" on the tail (irony or chutzpah? You be the judge...). Anyway, these guys do a great job, so check out their web site and see who they are and what they're about.