Happy Birthday Hawaiian Airlines

HAWAIIAN AIRLINES A330-243 N378HA (CN 1615)  

Hawaiian Airlines, formerly known as Inter-Island Airways, was founded on the 30th January 1929. Inter-Island Airways, a subsidiary of Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company, began operations later that year on the 6th October 1929, with a Bellanca CH-300 Pacemaker, (a six-seat utility aircraft) providing short sightseeing flights over Oʽahu. Scheduled service began a month later on the 11th November using Sikorsky S-38s with a flight from Honolulu to Hilo, via intermediary stops on Moloka'i and Maui. On the 1st October 1941, the name was changed to from Inter-Island Airways to Hawaiian Airlines when the company phased out the older Sikorsky S-38 and Sikorsky S-43 flying boats. The first Douglas DC-3s were added to the fleet in August 1941. Modern pressurised equipment was introduced from 1952 in the form of the Convair 340. Further Convair 440s were added in 1959-60, most of the Conair's being converted to turbine propeller power in 1965-67. The last were sold in 1974. Hawaiian Airlines started to offer jet service in 1966 with the acquisition of Douglas DC-9-10 aircraft, which cut travel times in half on most of its routes.
Hawaiian Airlines is the flag carrier for Hawaii. It is the largest airline on the island of Honolulu and is the 10th largest commercial airline in the USA. The airline operates its main hub at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport on the island of Oahu and a secondary hub out of Kahului Airport on the island of Maui. Hawaiian Airlines operates flights to Asia, American Samoa, Australia, Hawaii, New Zealand, and the United States mainland. Hawaiian Airlines is owned by Hawaiian Holdings, Inc. of which Peter R. Ingram is the current President and Chief Executive Officer
Hawaiian is the oldest US carrier that has never had a fatal accident or a hull loss throughout its history, and frequently tops the on-time carrier list in the United States, as well as the fewest cancellations.

As of January 2019, the Hawaiian Airlines fleet consists of the following aircraft: 

Aircraft	In service	Orders	Passengers				Notes
			F	S	Y	Total
Airbus A321neo	11	7	16	44	129	189	Deliveries through 2020
Airbus A330-200	24	—	18	68	192	278
Boeing 717-200	20	—	8	—	120	128
Boeing 787-9	—	10	TBA				Deliveries start in 2021 Options for 10 additional aircraft.
Total	55	17

The company slogan is Come Voyage with us - Hawaii starts here 

Helicopter crashes while fighting fires

ERICKSON Inc SIKORSKY S-64E N176AC (CN 64003)     File Photo

Investigators will look at whether thick smoke was partly to blame for a firefighting helicopter crash in regional Victoria which temporarily grounded similar aircraft across Australia.

The two pilots and an engineer were re-filling the 6000-litre Sikorsky S-64E Skycrane when it crashed into a dam about 7pm last night while fighting the Thomson Catchment Complex fires in remote Gippsland (Victoria). The trio has since been released from hospital with minor injuries.
"Fortunately they were close to the water so they haven't fallen a great deal," Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning deputy chief fire officer Darrin McKenzie told reporters near the scene today. The highly-trained crews from Canada and the US spend southern hemisphere summers working in Australia. "It would have been a significant shock, as you would expect, but their training stood them in good stead and as I said, that kicked in straight away and they were able to swim to the shore where they were able to receive medical attention," Mr McKenzie said.
The helicopter, with the nickname "Christine",  remains in the dam and authorities, along with aircraft operator Kestral, are co-ordinating a retrieval. "The helicopter collided with water and came to rest inverted resulting in minor injuries to the three crew and damage to the helicopter," reported the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, which is investigating the crash along with WorkSafe under the lead of police.
The probe will interview witnesses and crew, collect and examine flight data and check operation and maintenance procedures and manuals. "There's a number of hazards, obviously smoke and visibility and operating in a smoky environment," Mr McKenzie said of the challenges facing firefighting pilots. "This particular (terrain) was surrounded by a forest and it was quite steep."
Early today Emergency Management commissioner Andrew Crisp said the crash had meant the grounding of Australia's other S-64E Skycranes, including two in NSW, one in South Australia, and a second in Victoria.The aircraft were cleared for use by late afternoon.

Severe fire conditions are predicted for the state on Wednesday, with warnings in place in the Mallee, Wimmera and South West regions. Melbourne city can expect a top of 37C (98F)  with northwest centres pushing 42C.(107F)

Aircraft Information
Airline: Erickson Inc
Aircraft: Sikorsky S-64E Skycrane
Registration: N173AC
Serial Number: 64015
Engine: P & W JFTD12A-4A
Age: 52 Yrs


Story sourced from here
https://www.themercury.com.au/news/breaking-news/firefighting-choppers-grounded-nationally/news-story/cf4f4a536a5b0e7125f4eee53147cf8d

Spotting from the Ibis Brisbane Airport

As you can see from my last two posts I spent the night at the Ibis Brisbane Airport with my beautiful wife (and fellow plane spotter) doing some plane spotting. So I thought I would do a post on the hotel for anyone thinking about going here. When I booked the room over the phone I asked for room 815 as I was told this is the best room to ask for for plane spotting. Check in time was the usual 2pm but we arrived just before 1pm and as our room was ready we were allowed to check in. I paid $159 for the room over the phone but doing a goggle search (for this blog) and I found you can get a room for as little as $139.00. We had to pay $40 for parking on top of this as well. There is Wi-Fi available, on arrival you are entitled to one hour internet time complimentary, if you are an ACCOR member you get free Wi-FI for the whole period of your stay. If you are not a member you can pay $10 for a 24 hour period. There are some restrictions on this I was informed but you can have up to three devices per room.. There are two hotels across the road from the airport, the Pullman, a 5 star hotel and the Ibis, a 3.5 star hotel. The hotels are side by side and are only a four minute walk from the domestic train station. The air train operates from 5am - 10pm daily. The Ibis has 243 rooms including 99 Superior rooms. Once in the room we thought the room was incredible, as we not only had a wide window facing south east, we had a tall smaller window facing north. It turns out there is a ninth floor so room 915 would be the same but slightly higher. Room numbers ending 14, 13 and 12  would be just as good but only offer a single window with a south eastly view.
Despite having a roof top garden restaurant it is closed to guests and is only open to functions, this was extremely disappointing as I was not only looking forward to eating up there but doing some spotting from there.

FACING EAST SOUTH EAST

FACING EAST

THROUGH SMALL WINDOW



FACING NORTH EAST

FACING SOUTH

If you look south from the window you can see aircraft parked at the logistics apron (the old international)

The room had an incredibly comfortable bed, a mini bar fridge with milk inside for a cuppa (no mini bar) there was a jug with tea and coffee. The in wall air conditioner work very well and the shower was hot and powerful.
There is no room service available but there is a restaurant / bar / café down on the ground floor called the "Cribb Island Beach Club" . A buffet breakfast is available from 5.30am - 10am and a continental will cost you $11.90 and the full cooked breakfast is $19.90.

If it is lunch you are after there is a café / takeaway section there as well offering take away sandwiches, pies and coffee.
While we had a few drinks in the bar yesterday afternoon, I noticed they had a large selection of beers on tap, house cocktails and wine by the glass or bottle. We had dinner in the restaurant last night and we found the prices were not extreme. Dinner is available from 5pm -10pm. If you get hungry during the night or just want a snack, there is a vending machine in the foyer.


If you walk to the other end of the corridor you can see the work going on for the new runway due to open in mid 2020

Day two of two days spotting at Brisbane airport

After the best night sleep for some time, I woke just after 5am. As the morning sun was rising in the east and I was shooting towards the sun, it made for some interesting challenges until the sun rose high enough not to be a problem. I must say it was really nice just sitting there looking out the window and seeing this.

Below are some of the photos we took this morning before we had to check out.
Images marked ** are my wife's photos

HEVILIFT ATR 72 -500 VH-FVM (CN 0979)

KOREAN AIR B787-9 HL7208 (CN 34817)

MALINDO B737-8GP 9M-LNY (CN 39871)

SINGAPORE A350-941 9V-SHB (CN 262)

QANTAS B737-838 VH-XZJ (CN 39365)
MENDOOWOORRJI LIVERY

QANTAS B787-9 VH-ZNF (CN 36239)

QANTAS B737-838 VH-VQX (CN 33723)

QANTAS A330-202 VH-EBP (CN 1174)

EMIRATES A380-861 A6-EEQ (CN 141)

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KOREAN AIR B787-9 HL7208 (CN 34817) **

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AIR NEW ZEALAND B777-319 ZK-OKM (CN 38405)

SINGAPORE A350-941 9V-SME (CN 041) **

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AIR CANADA B787-9 C-FGHZ (CN 37169)

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HAINAN A330-243 B-5979 (CN 1591)

SINGAPORE A350-941 9V-SME (CN 041)

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CATHAY PACIFIC A330-343 B-LAP (CN 1343)

CHINA AIRLINES B777-36N B-18052 (CN 41822)