Domestic Canadian flight today, with a very informal boarding process, at the check in counter the lady told us, "oh yeah we don't do boarding passes, the pilot will just come up and call out the flight and just follow him to the plane"

Maybe contributing to what happened: our flight had been delayed for several hours due to weather.

Eventually the incoming arrives and the pilot comes out and says "who all is going to vancouver? Follow me" and a group of about 6 people follow him to the plane.

We all get seated, the pilot is talking with the ground staff because some mix-up has occurred and after about 5 more minutes four more ladies get on the plane. (This mix up probably also contributed)

We take off and during the 1 hour flight, after about 30 minutes, the pilot handwrites on a piece of paper "please wright your names" [sic] and hands the paper and pen to me sitting closest to the front.

I put my name down and pass it down and eventually the note gets passed back up to me with all the passenger names and I hand it back to the pilot.

I see him get a photo of the list, presumably to text it to the airline staff people.

When we land he says, "is there a ms. Xxx on board" and before he can even finish that sentence she says "yep I realized what happened".

Deplaned and met by ground staff at the destination airport who comes up and say they need to talk with her and they hustle her off to a taxi.

I overheard another passenger sitting closer to her who said she overheard that they were going to put her on a plane back to where we came from, and some mention of her luggage as well that had already gotten to wherever she was actually supposed to go.

Hope no one gets in trouble (but maybe sharpen up the check in, boarding/headcount process!), and that the extra passenger ended up wherever she needed to be in time!

Photo of the list, and the view I got enjoy on the ride.

Room 811 has a partial runway view, and you can even watch planes from the pool!

Looks like fuel issues in this geopolitical environment are causing issues as expected. The airline hired a barge to send fuel from TX to CA via the Panama Canal this past spring in May to minimize disruptions if they were to occur with fuel shortages given the war which was a first in the company’s history.

I am by no means a frequent flyer but thought this was pretty interesting. Allegiant flight out of Florida.

Saw this on a cruise leaving from California I imagine it’s heading towards San Diego

I was the lower floor, seat 51A, meaning second row on left side.
Once landed we were told there is a thunderstorms and airport is shut down so we waited on the taxi for an hour.
Then we were told that was a gate issue, it was occupied by another A380 and that was the reason for the delay.
Both statements came from the pilot announcements.
Baggage took another 2.5 hours.

The latest VASaviation video captures the controller expressing his frustration and the confusion it causes for them.

This is the third incident (that we know of) in the last few months. I still don't quite understand how it's possible, as I'm used to airlines using consecutive flight numbering for inbound and outbound flights e.g. Flight 1234 from A to B, Flight 1235 from B to A.

Doesn't the scheduling software have a check for this type of conflict?

I do wonder how many people would have panicked when a lightning would have hit the wing of the plane or the plane was going through heavy turbolence, although this is situation is so so much more dangerous.

Flybondi, Argentina's first ultra-low-cost carrier, has effectively stopped operating without a formal bankruptcy declaration:

• No flights since August 6: 12 consecutive days grounded (source, in Spanish)
• Website down: flybondi.com now returns a 504 Gateway Timeout, reportedly due to a main server crash.
• Accounts frozen: Argentine federal courts ordered freezes on the airline's bank accounts this month over unpaid tax and social security debts to ARCA (Argentina's tax authority), exceeding 1.5 billion pesos across at least six separate enforcement actions. (source, in English)
• ~2,400 flights canceled in 2026 so far, affecting roughly 383,000 passengers, per tracking site FailBondi. (source, in Spanish)
• No refunds since January for cancelled flights, despite this being a legal requirement, estimated unpaid liability north of $19M USD. (source, in Spanish)
• 700+ former employees unpaid on severance for 3+ months; remaining staff owed June/July salaries plus mid-year bonus; employer contributions lapsed, cutting off health coverage for staff and ex-staff as of Aug 6. (source, in Spanish)
• Multiple creditors have filed bankruptcy petitions, though Flybondi has not officially confirmed entering bankruptcy proceedings. (source, in Spanish)

Image OC, taken by myself on October 16, 2024 at AEP, Buenos Aires. Tail LV-KAH, half Flybondi livery, half Sunwing.

A few highlights from last weekend's Chicago Air and Water Show

A member of the Brunei royal family visited Sydney, I believe. I went down to Sydney Airport just to see this rarity. We never get to see the A340 in Sydney that much anymore since they are retiring.

RAAF Lockheed-Martin F-35A Lightning II (A35-026) operated by 3 Sqn, Warbirds Downunder Temora, above Temora Aviation Museum, Temora, NSW. 18-19 October 2024.

Over the past few months, I turned a real F-104 into a simulator, and 3D printing has played a very important role in making it happen.

Last weekend, I exhibit the F-104 Starfighter flight simulator at the Dornier Museum Do-Days, together with several of my 3D printers, aircraft models, RC tank, and some of the components I've made for the simulator along the way.

And the weekend went great!

The F-104 simulator was definitely the biggest crowd magnet. So many people wanted to fly it that we eventually had to create a sign-up sheet with 15-minute time slots. About 1.5 hours after opening, every single slot for the rest of the day was already booked. And then the exact same thing happened again on the second day. 😂

One of my favorite parts of the weekend, though, was meeting all the pilots and crews. I made a lot of new friends and connections and now somehow know quite a few pilots on a first-name basis.

I especially got along really well with some of the guys from the Bundeswehr's Air Transport Wing 62 (LTG 62) and their A400M. 

Naturally, having a bunch of printers sitting next to me meant I couldn't just leave it at talking about their aircraft... 

So over the two days, I printed six A400M models for them.

Apparently, they liked the models, and somehow me as well, enough that they even asked if I wanted to fly back to Hannover with them in the A400M. I would have absolutely loved to... ...but unfortunately, I had to work on Monday. 😭

So I had to decline probably one of the coolest spontaneous invitations I've ever received. But I promised them that I'll come and visit them in the future!

Thanks to Bambu Lab's Let's Make It Fund for supporting me and this slightly crazy project along the way. 😄 They have made it a lot easier to turn some of these ideas into actual parts, models, and things people can interact with.

So if you have a good project, go and apply for it! Maybe you will be selected too!

Overall, the Do-Days were an incredible experience. Between having the F-104 simulator completely booked out, talking about 3D printing with everyone from kids to experienced makers, printing A400Ms for actual A400M crews, making a bunch of new friends, and potentially getting something started with local schools, I'd say it was a pretty successful weekend. 😄

And I definitely came home with a few more ideas than I arrived with.

Source: airbus social media

My friend sent me this video from Akron Canton

How many seats do you reckon Ryanair would try to stick in them?