Video of the week (3.12.10)

by Kent Wien on

Last week we kicked off our new feature, the ‘Video of the Week’ with a wonderful scene taken from the nose gear of a 747 that was flying freight in Africa. This week, the pilot and videographer uploaded a “How-To” video that shows just how those exceptional scenes were captured, and just how they managed to lower the nose gear without dropping the main landing gear at the same time.

While that’s not this week’s video of the week, we just couldn’t get away from Balleka’s YouTube channel just yet. I wanted to share a video he did from the perspective of the Flight Engineer or “FE.” The FE is in charge of that rather large panel that sits behind the pilots on older aircraft like the 727 and, in this case the 747-200. In this rather amusing video, the “FE” laments that he’s working with “Clowns to the left of him and Jokers to the right.”

Full disclosure: I was an FE for over 4 years and I can certainly relate. It’s a thankless job that doesn’t even offer the chance to hand-fly a landing at the end of the day-which is the best part of the trip.

So here’s Balleka’s tribute to the FE, called the FE’s Lament 2010.

Do you have a great travel related suggestion for our Video of the Week? Fill out this form or just include my twitter handle @veryjr in your tweet about it. Maybe we’ll use it as next week’s Video.

Gadling TV’s Travel Talk 004: Holi Festival, Travel Discouragement Act, Good & Bad Pilots, and Scuba Diving!

by Stephen Greenwood on


Gadling TV’s Travel Talk, episode 4 – Click above to watch video after the jump

Ready to go subterranean? Travel Talk takes you to Monterey, California this week for a special episode under the sea!

This week we discuss India’s Festival of Colors, the United States’ new Travel Promotion Act, frozen ferries in the Baltic Sea, and a pilot who managed to fool authorities and fly commercial planes unlicensed for 13 years! Also, we speak exclusively with cargo pilot & Video of the Week contributor Matt Wright!
Bruce is back to show you how to stay fit on the go; Sheila brings us a new segment on dating practices from around the world, and we take a look at California sea life from above and below the water.

If you have any questions or comments about Travel Talk, you can email us at talk AT gadling DOT com.

Subscribe via iTunes:
[iTunes] Subscribe to the Show directly in iTunes (M4V).
[RSS M4V] Add the Travel Talk feed (M4V) to your RSS aggregator and have it delivered automatically.

Links:
Karma Champagne

Boston.com’s Big Picture (Holi 2010)
Matt Wright’s Belly of the Beast (747 Video)
Hosts: Stephen Greenwood, Aaron Murphy-Crews, Drew Mylrea
Special guest: Bruce!, Jim Covel, & Sheila.
Produced, Edited, and Directed by: Stephen Greenwood, Aaron Murphy-Crews, Drew Mylrea
Special thanks: Monterey Bay Aquarium!
Music by:

“The Beat”

“Bake”
Griffin Kelp
http://myspace.com/griffinkelp
“LMA”
.aron bass.
courtesy of musicalley.com

“Jam 2 Rock”
Bencast
courtesy of musicalley.com


Poll of the Week!

%Poll-42707%
Last week’s results:
Only after we can monitor our congressmen and senators. (39.7%)

Yes – there are too many lives in their hands! (37.9%)
No – it’s an invasion of privacy! (12.1%)
Wait, we can’t already do that on in-flight entertainment? (8.6%)

Video of the week (3.05.10)

by Kent Wien on

Welcome to a new feature at Gadling. We’ve been doing the photo of the day, culled from many of the contributors to the Gadling group on Flickr, for years. But we’ve come across enough exceptional videos that we’ve now decided to share them with you each Friday.

The video chosen for our first Video of the Week is from Balleka, a 747 freighter pilot who had the crazy idea to stick an inexpensive Contour HD helmet camera on the nose gear of a 747-200. While the taxi-out and takeoff are entertaining to watch in HD, the approach and landing are simply spectacular. I honestly can’t stop watching this video, in fact.

As Balleka says, “The flight was from Johannesburg, South Africa to Maputo, Mozambique, and we were cleared for a visual approach onto RWY 05 as we were passing FL120 about 25nm out. Airline flying doesn’t get much better than this!”

I agree. But there’s absolutely no way I’ll be mounting my camera to the 767 nosegear anytime soon.

Do you have a video you’d like to suggest for our Video of the Week? Let me know via twitter or contact me through Gadling.

Fly first-class on a A340, A380 or 747 for the price of coach – Airplane tip

by Gadling Staff on

If you want to fly in comfort on an international flight, but don’t care for the frills of first-class (or don’t want to pay for them), purchase four coach seats in a row.

A row of 4 seats is long enough to lay across and is just as comfortable as a flat first-class bed. You also get to carry four times the luggage (while saving as much as 50% off the price of a first-class seat), and you can also order four different meals. Finally, as an added bonus, you earn four times the frequent flier miles.

The only downside is that you’re still in coach class.

Boeing releases snazzy new 747-800 interiors

by Grant Martin on

Development of Boeing‘s 747-800, heralded as a direct competitor to the A380 has been underway for several years now. The super jumbo jet will feature many of the same engineering marvels that the 787 will, including swept wings, cut engine nacelles and similar cockpit controls, and will some day be the largest commercial airplane built in the western hemisphere.

So far, however, nobody has seen concepts of the interior. What new concepts from the 787 will be carried over? What new exciting upgrades will passengers of the 748 be amazed by?

Well, that mostly depends on the carrier that purchases the aircraft. Yes, seat quality, color, spacing and class is all determined by the airline, so don’t go blaming Boeing for your 3″ of leg room on your next transoceanic flight.

What Boeing has done, however, is released conceptual drawings of several 748 interiors, including a special “VIP” aircraft that is decked out to the nines. In several of the renderings that you can see at The Sydney Morning Herald, features like spiral staircases, a dining area and even a library are prevalent. Wouldn’t that be nice?

The passenger version of 747-800 is slated for delivery in 2011 with Lufthansa as the first customer. Don’t forget your reading glasses.