So you think you had a bad day.....

An F-18 stalled and crashed while making a low pass over an airfield in Canada. The pilot ejected just in time, and whole experience was caught on film and video (more pics and full video available here.)

The pilot was hospitalized but survived. (I remember reading that the rocket ejection seats are so powerful that pilots who eject have their spines compressed by a few inches, an effect which lasts a few days.)

Cool flying stuff

A selection of cool aviation pictures:

Whoah! Here's a picture of an F-16 pilot ejecting a second before impact (and out of danger to the 60,000 people attending the airshow.) I don't know what's more amazing, though - the pilot's escape, or the fact that someone perfectly captured the image. (image via the Flight Image of the Day blog.)

Check out this graphical representation of world aviation flow in one day. (via The Economist).



Finally, someone has turned a 747 into a hotel. Located near the Amsterdam airport, I'd definitely stay there, except for the fact that I think Amsterdam is a stinkhole, and I hope to never spend time there again.

Online timewaster: aviation photos

Everybody has their favorite web sites where every now and then you visit the site and enjoy it, but end up saying to yourself "I really should be doing something more productive." And then you spend ANOTHER hour on the site, or perhaps longer, until something more serious forces you to move along. If you're reading this, you're online, and if so, you'll either instantly understand what I'm talking about, or, you're an absolute liar - everybody has a favorite online time-sink.

For some folks, it is online celebrity & gossip sites, but for me, it is aviation photography. So, in an effort to justify the time I've spent surfing sites like this, I offer a few samples to get you hooked, and implicitly validate my online fetish.

(Either that, or I just want to show a few cool images, all from Airliners.net, and none of them taken by me.)

Thanks for indulging me. What's your favorite online time-sink?





(pictures: #1 is a landing at St. Maarten airport. #2 is the Plane Graveyard at an Air Force base near Tuscon, and #3 is an aerial view of the San Diego airport.)

One crazy pilot....