{"id":354,"date":"2012-03-12T15:39:48","date_gmt":"2012-03-12T22:39:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chrisbenesh.com\/currents\/?p=354"},"modified":"2012-03-13T10:14:28","modified_gmt":"2012-03-13T17:14:28","slug":"a-little-plane-spotting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chrisbenesh.com\/currents\/2012\/03\/12\/a-little-plane-spotting\/","title":{"rendered":"A Little Plane Spotting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Those who know me really well know that in addition to my interest in birds, I’ve had a life long fascination with planes. \u00a0In fact, I learned how to use binoculars not by looking at birds, but by looking at planes beginning around the age of six. \u00a0Every now and then, I enjoy spending a little time watching them. \u00a0This is a good thing, since I spend a great deal of time in and around airports.<\/p>\n

I approach planes in much the same way I approach flycatchers, gulls, shorebirds or other challenging IDs. \u00a0I want to understand the nuances that separate one from another. \u00a0Not just “is that an Airbus A320 or a Boeing 737”, but whether that Airbus is an A318, A319, A320, or A321 and whether that 737 is a 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, or 900. \u00a0I know, pretty darn geeky.<\/p>\n

Anyway, this was a fun little weekend for me. \u00a0Two things set it off. \u00a0First, I noticed that my favorite rare small plane, the McDonnell-Douglas MD-90, is now flying occasionally\u00a0in and out of Tucson. \u00a0Since there are fewer than 30 flying in North America, it’s like discovering you’re suddenly on a Whooping Crane flyway. \u00a0The second bit of news was even more significant. \u00a0My friend Deb sent me an email noting that a Boeing 787 Dreamliner had arrived in Phoenix on Friday as part of a world tour designed to allow many of the businesses that supplied parts and technologies to see the finished product. \u00a0This is the first of the next generation of commercial aircraft coming online. \u00a0It is an amazing plane for too many reasons to explain here, but it has many innovations that will greatly increase passenger comfort and it will be much more fuel efficient than current airliners.<\/p>\n

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My first stop was Tucson International Airport, where I saw the mad dog take off bound for Minneapolis. \u00a0It was great to see this slick airliner on my home turf. Then I headed up to Phoenix to meet up with Deb and have a first look at the Boeing 787. \u00a0We spent some time enjoying it and watching the comings and goings of other aircraft. \u00a0It was great to see it on the tarmac, but I wanted to see it in action, so I planned to returned to Phoenix Sky Harbor the following morning in order to catch its departure on the next leg of its tour.<\/p>\n

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There was an added bonus when I arrived at PHX the following morning. Another MD-90 was parked at the Delta terminal (a newly acquired one that I had not seen previously). \u00a0I got to enjoy its taxi out and takeoff. One of the features of the MD-90 is how quiet and powerful it is, allowing it to be used in urban areas with strict noise limits and at high elevation airports where the air is thinner. \u00a0It is basically a slightly stretched MD-80 with much more powerful, higher bypass engines. \u00a0They have short take off rolls and launch quickly into the sky. \u00a0They are a blast to fly on.<\/p>\n

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Eventually, the star of the show, the 787 fired up its Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines and taxied out for takeoff. \u00a0Its takeoff roll was an amazing sight. \u00a0First of all, it was incredibly quiet and it rotated into the sky using just a fraction of the runway a plane of its size would normally require. \u00a0It may look awkward to some, but to me it is a thing of beauty. \u00a0I can’t wait to have the chance to fly on one someday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Those who know me really well know that in addition to my interest in birds, I’ve had a life long fascination with planes. \u00a0In fact, I learned how to use binoculars not by looking at birds, but by looking at … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chrisbenesh.com\/currents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chrisbenesh.com\/currents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chrisbenesh.com\/currents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrisbenesh.com\/currents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrisbenesh.com\/currents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrisbenesh.com\/currents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":369,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrisbenesh.com\/currents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354\/revisions\/369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chrisbenesh.com\/currents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrisbenesh.com\/currents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrisbenesh.com\/currents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}