Author: FlightDrama

The fires today around Los Angeles have escalated quickly into a major situation that is likely to develop overnight as the high winds increase.The aerial firefighting effort at Pacific Palisades is being hampered by the strong winds that are being felt across southern California.While air attack was happening early in the day, the increasing wind speeds have pushed crews beyond their limits, as reported in the Los Angeles Times just now:Palisades fire 7 Jan 2025, LA TimesThe National Weather Service has been clear and consistent about the risk, today and in the lead-up to this event:An extremely dangerous situation is…

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While tens of thousands of Southern California residents grapple with this week’s unprecedented wildfires, the American Airlines AAdvantage program is encouraging frequent flyers to help by offering bonus AAdvantage miles on donations to the American Red Cross for a limited time.Here’s what you need to know about this new offer.Earn 10x AAdvantage miles on Red Cross donationsZACH GRIFF/THE POINTS GUYYou can now earn 10 AAdvantage miles per dollar spent on Red Cross donations when you give $25 or more through this page between now and Jan. 22. You can select where your donation goes: the California wildfires, general disaster relief,…

Welcome to this year’s edition of the ch-aviation “Year in Review” report! In 2024, ch-aviation welcomed an impressive 3 million website users. That’s 1.1 million more than we had in 2022. January was our busiest month, attracting 479,496 users, with the week of January 21-27th standing out as the most active, drawing 245,916 users. Altogether, we recorded an incredible 8.3 million page views throughout the year. Examining our global audience, we’ve found that the United States and the United Kingdom are where we’re most popular. The US leads the way with over 553,000 visitors in 2024. Interestingly, London, UK, ranks…

Gratitude to my Readers! WIN ME! Today Flight To Success is on the Book of the Day Club at a special price for you! I am thankful to the Book of the Day Club, but I am celebrating all my readers this year by offering them a chance to win a really fun car, with special memories, love taps, and a story as to why I purchased this car twice. For every book you purchase during 2025, you will be entered into a drawing to win my 1997 Mitsubishi Eclipse. Last year she got a new clutch and transmission, so she is ready…

. . . of 2024 features a retrospective and discussion about the 1/72 scale ex-Mania/Hasegawa Ki-51 kit. The Mania kit of the Ki-51 was released in the mid 1970s – Scalemates suggest 1975 whilst Burns* records 1974. Unfortunately the box, only ever released as a ‘Two Types in One’ combo containing two kits, has no copyright date. The box art shown above featured one of the kit subjects from Dokuritsu Hiko Dai 73 Chutai in the foreground, with an earlier aircraft from Dokuritsu Hiko Dai 91 Chutai in the background.  Both independent Chutai originated from Hiko Dai 83 Sentai which…

Last year, the Oneworld member Finnair regularly operated flights between Helsinki and Munich using an Airbus A350. This was a significant advantage for passengers, as the onboard experience in both travel classes is much more comfortable compared to the Airbus A320s typically used on this route. For 2025, Finnair also expects strong demand for both passenger and cargo space on this route. As a result, an A350-900 will once again fly regularly to Bavaria from the end of March through October. Info As always with such news, the deployment of a wide-body aircraft is only confirmed at the gate. The…

Ryanair flight FR2501 from Gran Canaria (LPA) to Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER) faced an unusual setback on January 5, 2025, when it was forced to divert to Hannover, 250 km away, due to Germany’s stringent night curfew regulations.The Boeing 737 MAX 8-200 plane registered 9H-VUR, already delayed and scheduled to land at 22:50, arrived at BER just 90 seconds after the 23:59 “core night” curfew deadline. Despite being in the final stages of descent at 410 metres, permission to land was denied.The aircraft was rerouted to Hannover Airport, where passengers were later transported to Berlin by bus, adding over three…

A METAR map is a custom-made map with LED lights positioned at selected airports or reporting stations. The lights change color to indicate weather conditions based on METAR reports via internet. I’ve wanted to make a METAR map for a few years and finally took the plunge, and I’m thrilled with the results. Creating a map is not difficult and requires only basic tools (scissors, electric drill, hot glue gun). No computer programming knowledge is necessary and configuring the lights is easy. If you’re curious about METARs and the process to make your own map, read on! What is a…

A look at perfectionism Perfection is an important goal in flight training and piloting. We should always aim for the highest standards,. But everyone needs to understand that perfection, by definition, is not achievable (especially on a flight test). Perfection is also not the standard for a successful flight test. All FAA evaluations enforce a pass/fail (70%) standard.“Perfection is not the standard.” It is important to emotionally prepare for some stuff to go (mildly) wrong. I have been a DPE  for >25 years giving lots of tests, and have personally taken >50 flight evaluations myself; stuff happens! Emotionally Prepared? Unfortunately,…