CONTINENTAL RETRO B-737!!!!!

Last night as I was waiting for my ride home, I noticed our "retro" painted CONTINENTAL  B-737 parked at my favorite photo op location in Ft. Lauderdale.  Of course I pulled out my trusty camera and started clicking away.......while my girlfriend Maria, sat watching me do this..........at MIDNIGHT.  Needless to say she wasn't a real happy camper, but you have to take the opportunity when it presents itself........LOL.   I think this is one of my favorite shots now.   

UGLY AIRPLANE PAINT JOB!

I'm probably not the first person to criticize an airplane's paint job, but this one is down right "weird".........  This airbus was parked in Ft. Lauderdale last week and garnered all sorts of comments over the radio frequencies.  What do YOU think??????  :-)

NIGHT CONTRAIL

During a recent flight to the west coast, I took this photo of a jet making a contrail in front of us. The colors just seemed to "work" for me and I was in awe at the sunset/contrail combination. It's too bad so many people never get to experience the wonderful sights we experience as pilots. I am truly blessed to have such an incredible office!

WINGLET!!!

Usually I wouldn't post a photo like this, but for whatever reason, it seemed "right" to me. The combination of the lines, sunset, and light just made this photo click for me. Anyways, this little piece of metal costs approximately $800,000 plus installation bringing it to a whopping $1 MILLION per B-737. These "winglets" as they're called, help to save 2-5% of our fuel burn. On average, it takes about 3.5 years to pay for the winglets through the fuel savings. Pretty neat!

THE VANISHING BREED..... CONTINENTAL

Every day fewer and fewer "CONTINENTAL" logo planes are flying. It's sad to see such an incredible airline literally vanish before our very eyes. Luckily, I've taken hundreds of photos of the planes from this great airline. It was quite an honor to fly CONTINENTAL planes for the past 13 years. This photo was taken last winter....hence all the "white" powder from snow removal efforts.

ALPA SWIMSUIT ISSUE!!!!!

I was recently notified that one of my St. Maarten photos (SXM!!!), made the COVER of the December issue of the Air Line Pilot Association's magazine! Here's a picture of the cover! They wrote that my photo was the "inspiration" for the issue........so they called it a "swimsuit" issue. What a great Christmas present and quite a surprise too!

FLOAT PLANE FUN!

Yesterday one of my good friends called and asked if I wanted to go flying for an hour or so in their Cessna 185 float plane. Since I'm a bit nuts about flying, I accepted. We went out and did a few water landings on Greenwood Lake, in NJ/NY. After that, we took a ride up the Hudson for a spectacular view of Manhattan and NYC! What a great afternoon. A big thanks to the Pipitone family for the flying and wonderful evening/dinner too! Here's a couple of shots I took of the plane (one is of the mirror under the wing that is used to check if your landing gear is down for "land" landings and to ensure the wheels are up for water landings). I've got to tell you, landing on a lake is REALLY NEAT!

ENGINE SYMMETRY

Here's a shot I took of one of our new airplanes engines a couple of days ago. It was on one of our new B-737-900ER's. Seems like every time I get to fly a new plane and see a clean engine like this, I'm drawn to taking a few photos of it. The lines and symmetry of this design are incredible. Hard to believe an engine can be so beautiful!!! ;-)

JET SHADOW

Jet shadows are rather hard to take since the clouds generally don't offer a "solid" background for the camera to focus on. Every now and then I luck out and get one of those shots that I so desperately try to take. Here's a shot of a B-737 just before we enter the clouds. I would say that for every 100 shots I take of something like this, only one or two will even come close to being a keeper. Hope you like the shot.
(For those of you who know "positions" in the cockpit, I was a copilot when I took this picture, hence the view you see. ;-) ).

LAST FLIGHT FOR CAL

Well, yesterday was "officially" my last flight as a pilot for CAL. It was a sad day for me. After 12 years of flying with a great company, we're being "merged" on the 1st of October. I'm on vacation till the 4th of October, so I'll miss the transition day. Oh well, I'd rather be on the beach anyway..........;-) Here's a shot of me in Las Vegas before my last flight.

OLD CONTINENTAL B737 in MEXICO

A week ago during my trip to Mexico City, (MEX), we noticed an old Continental B737 that had been apparently purchased by someone in Mexico. The paint job was horrible, and the plane just seemed to be wanting someone to care for it. It's sad to see a plane I used to fly looking like it did. Unfortunately, there' plenty more where that one came from. I've seen B-727's in Roswell, NM (my hometown!) that I used to fly all over Europe, being chopped up and sold as scrap. It leaves a sick feeling in my stomach to see these reliable planes put down. But life goes on..................

GOING GREEN

Continental was been selected to be one of the "guinea pigs" for testing "green fuel" or "bio fuel". This particular aircraft was flown using the oil from the jatropha bean. Apparently this will save us a lot of money, and burns much more efficiently than the jet fuel we currently use. However, since this type of plant and the testing of it's abilities is still in its infancy, we may be waiting for jet fuel from this plant for a long, long, time. At least it's a start.............and the green wingtips sure are an attention getter too!

REFLECTION IN LOS CABOS

As we taxied into Los Cabos (SJD), Mexico, on my last trip, I saw a neat reflection of our plane and took this photo after we had parked. The airport authority always has 15-20 ground staff waiting to meet the plane and usually they are all standing in a row, perfectly spaced, and ready to go to work. Too bad they don't meet our planes in the USA like that...... Seems we're lucky if someone shows up 10 minutes after we arrive on the ramp...... ;-)

LONG, SKINNY, and DISAPPEARING

Continental is one of the few airlines in the world flying the long, skinny, Boeing B757-300 series aircraft. Slowly we are adding winglets to them to make them more fuel efficient. This plane is so long, that when you're riding in the back and looking up front, whenever you hit a little bit of turbulence, you can actually see the tube bouncing up and down. It certainly gets your attention the first time you see it. The engineers that designed this plane must have been quite good at computing stress points since this plane MUST have a lot of them. A few months ago Continental had the first and ONLY B-757-300 with winglets in the world. Pretty neat, eh?

SXM........HOW LOW CAN THEY GO????

Well, I got to go to my most favorite place in the world (my future retirement home!! ;-) ) St. Maarten (SXM), and had a great time as usual. I'm amazed at how low some of these pilots drag their planes in over the beach in order to give the spectators a thrill. This guy was REAL low........... and fast too. Not quite sure how many times he's done this, but every day he does the same thing, and he seems to be pushing the safety envelope with each and every approach. Hopefully he doesn't ruin the "view" for everyone by clipping a fence one day. Supposedly that's already been done by a B747, and they rebuilt the fence to keep spectators a bit further from the runway. In any case, it's the neatest place in the world to watch airplanes and I can't wait to retire there one day.......! Come on retirement!!!!

BEAUTY IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER

I know, it's a "cliche" saying, but sometimes when I'm taking photos, something catches my eye that appears "beautiful" to me. So...........here's a "beautiful" photo I took (at least to me), of one of Continental's new B-737-900ER engines. It seems so crisp and clean, and the symmetry is incredible. Hard to believe an "engine" can be so photogenic, doesn't it? ;-) Off to work for a few days, so I'll post more when I get back.

WATER CANNON SALUTE

The other day upon our arrival in Houston (IAH), I noticed two fire trucks parking on both sides of a jet way. I knew a "retirement flight" was going to be coming at any minute, so I got my camera ready for the event. Here's a shot of a "water cannon salute" honoring the pilot retiring on this flight. I met up with the happy camper a few minutes later and he was certainly excited to know someone had "captured" this special event for him. He told me he'd have the pictures framed and hanging as soon as I sent them to him. Hopefully they're on his wall by now. Pretty neat!!! Okay......off to Newark for the next week, so I'm not sure if I'll get a chance to post here or not. Keep checking back and I'll see what I can do. karl

FLYING THROUGH A CONTRAIL

Here's a neat shot of what it looks like to fly through another planes contrail several minutes after the plane has passed by. Usually a contrail will fall approximately 3-500 feet or so, but this contrail held its altitude pretty well. We were flying at FL370 (flight level 370 or roughly 37,000 feet above the earth's surface) when I snapped this shot. Every now and then while flying through a contrail like this, we'll experience a nice "bump" or jolt in the ride. Ahhhh......all in a days work! Well, tomorrow I'm off to work for four days. I'll be back on the 6th........so see you then!

AIR FORCE 2 IN FORT LAUDERDALE

While commuting to work a couple of days ago, I had the pleasure of seeing Air Force 2 (the vice presidents plane as it is called when he's on it) parked in Fort Lauderdale. It was pretty neat, although I'd have rather seen AF 1 (the presidents plane). President John Kennedy was responsible for the paint scheme currently used on the presidential fleet. I have to admit that it really does seem "presidential" doesn't it?

GRUMMAN GOOSE AT THE BEACH!!!

The other day while enjoying my time at the beach, a Grumman Goose flew by several times. Here's a nice shot I took of it while it was zipping down the beach. I looked up the registration number on it and it was built in 1940!!! This plane is 69 years old and still going strong!!! Just goes to show you how well built some things in this world are! Too bad they don't make them like this any more.