Northwest Named Official Airline for 2008 Republican National Convention

Thursday, January 03, 2008

(SAINT PAUL, Minn.) – The 2008 Republican National Convention today announced that Northwest Airlines will serve as the Official Airline for the nominating convention. The airline will transport thousands of delegates, alternate delegates, Republican Party leaders, members of the media, and convention guests to Minneapolis-Saint Paul in September.

Here’s my blurry cell phone camera picture of the excitement (imaging hearing “USA! USA! USA!” in the background). You can tell that’s a gold metal, right?

On an unrelated subject, the low is supposed to be 48F here in Minneapolis tonight!

Find out about the planes and technology behind Microsoft’s Virtual Earth imagery.

Watch their video here:

Behind The Maps – Flying the UltraCam

Microsoft’s site currently features imagery of the Olympic sites in Beijing like the Bird’s Nest Stadium above: www.microsoft.com/ VirtualEarth

Although I’m not directly involved in aviation myself, I still enjoyed seeing everything from the latest experimental homebuilt planes to the historic military aircraft. Highlights of the show include dozens of beautiful WWII era warbirds, airshows featuring the F-22 Raptor, ultralights taking off across the road from our campsite, incredible new planes like ICON Aircraft’s incredible new plane.

Check out my pictures here:

Oshkosh AirVenture Wis. 2008-07-31_08-02

I found out Friday night at the fly-in movie that John Travolta is an aviation freak to the extent that he designed his house like an airport and owns a Boeing 707, which he flew to Oshkosh (Quantas – Australian airliner). He introduced the movie Broken Arrow at the fly-in theater. BTW, he parked his Quantas jet right in the middle of the exhibition area – it was pretty lame compared to the rest of the planes surrounding it. There’s a description of his airport-house here.

Watch some videos from the fly-in from EAA:

Mysterious Dent in Nose of NWA Minneapolis-Bound Plane

A stewardess reportedly told a first class passenger she did not notice anything peculiar during the flight from Detroit. However, she did mention that the crew had a problem with the radar in the nose.

Airlines are going to extremes to save on fuel, but will they replace canned drinks with 2 liter plastic bottles of soda?  No way! … that’s over the line.   Passengers want their cans, and they’ll get them, according to Tim McGraw, director of corporate environmental and safety programs for Northwest (not the country singer Tim McGraw, btw).

I’m still wondering why my plane drove 2.5 miles around the entire Chicago O’Hare airport (it ain’t small) before entering the runway Monday (almost a full 360).

Eight years ago, 15 percent of the price of an airplane ticket went to pay for jet fuel; now, it is 40 percent, according to the Air Transport Association, the industry trade group.

[above] At the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, fresh water is loaded onto a new Embraer 175 in the Northwest Airlines fleet. Northwest is putting less water on board as it tends to weigh 8.3 pounds per gallon, while fuel weighs 6.8 pounds per gallon.

United Airlines will be parking six of its Boeing 747s.

A couple Northwest jets conserving fuel by staying put.

Farecast is a site that not only searches current airfare prices, but also prices stored in it’s huge database of past prices which are correlated to the date the prices were offered prior to the flight.  Based on all its data, it can predict with some certainty whether the prices for a flight X number of days or weeks in the future will go down or up.  Plus you can check trends of recent prices to see how the current prices compare.

They used to predict the BHM-MSP trip, but no more   They offer the service for many routes between many major cities.  The following screenshot shows its claim to fame, the price predictor:

Even without the price prediction, the site has some easy to use filters for flight duration, departure/arrival time, cost, etc.  Plus, Consumer Reports recommends them.

Since Microsoft bought (4/18/08) and relaunched (5/21/08), Farecast you will now end up at http://farecast.live.com.

I’m wondering if they can adjust for the recent fuel cost increases?

Mt Rushmore and the Black Hills, SD

The Badlands:

Badlands, SD

Devils Tower, WY

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln chosen for their contributions to the first 150 years of the history of the United States of America.  The flags of the 50 states are flying in the foreground.

I couldn’t resists this:

Some fans threatened to never attend another Saints baseball game over the tasteless souvenir that will be given away at the game. They are giving away “bobblefoot” stalls to commemorate both National Tap Dance Day and the Senator Larry Craig incident at the MSP airport last year. WCCO gets reactions from fans.

I can certainly understand why parents would be upset – how do they explain this to their kids?  It’s not very family-friendly entertainment.

ST. PAUL, MN (May 21, 2008) – Some of the most famous dance halls in the country include Radio City Music Hall in New York, the Fox Theater in Detroit and now the list includes a restroom at the Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport. With so much fanfare around dancing, the St. Paul Saints will honor “tappers” during National Tap Dance Day.

During the Sunday, May 25 game the first 2,500 fans in attendance will receive a bobblefoot. The design is a bathroom stall, with a foot that peaks out of the bottom and “taps” up and down. The day coincides with National Tap Dance Day.

While many people tap their foot because they are impatient, others may do it because they are nervous. It doesn’t matter if your tapping style is done with a “wide stance” or is used as some sort of code, the Saints are asking all fans to tap to their heart’s content on May 25.

The stalls are already popping up on eBay: