100 Years of Aviation in Singapore

It was on the evening of 16th March 1911 that a French pilot Joseph Christiaens piloted a Bristol Boxkite Biplane. He took off from the Old Racecourse at Farrer Park from an unprepared airstrip, offering rides to many people for $50 a head! Pricey it may have been, apparently it had many takers. Farrer Park is now just grassy area near the Farrer Park MRT station on Race Course Road. There is no Race Course here but the name remains. Race Course Road is now famous for many Indian restaurants and Singaporean Indian restaurants that are famous for signature dishes such as the "Fish Head Curry".

LAKE AIRCRAFT

Added a couple of more pictures including this landing pix that I liked.

This is a write up about me and the Lake Amphibious Aircraft. It is more of an information page for the Aircraft with a link to see video of this Aircraft. This Blog may not be of much interest to everyone except those with an interest in aviation.

QUESTIONS ON YSR CRASH

I am sorry for this sad post but I guess it reflects how I am feeling today and the anxiety of the previous day when the Helicopter first went missing. I have to ask some plain and simple questions

MASKS EVERYWHERE!

First it was the Japanese who always went around the World wearing masks and gloves long before this new bug called H1N1 came along. Now, it seems Indians have panicked (thanks to the high decibel, repeated screeching of anchors on news channels there) and loads of them were seen wearing these masks without knowing whether the masks they had on were really going to stop the infection from hitting them or not.

Mysore Airport 2009

So after much waiting, decades of it in fact, maybe we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Naysayers are still at work saying that the Airport is inadequate, large Aircraft cannot operate from them and that additional land needs to be acquired, this is not the end of the story..blah..blah...blah.

Dubai Air Show - 2007

Like most Air Shows, there were people from the defense forces from around the region, I found too many of them from the Pakistani Air Force. Here I thought that they had an emergency going on in that country...More...

Super Jumbo is in Singapore

What takes the cake, however, is the Singapore Airlines suite class. For the first time in modern aviation, there is actually a suite, a private enclosure that is more like a small room. The suite class is a step beyond First Class, as they say. . .More. . .

Mysore airport upgrade

I don’t see the prospects of an A-320 landing at Mysore airport for some years to come. For the record, this is what officials say it would take to make this happen. . .More. . .

Regional airlines

Aviation is paving the way for new "regional airline" operators to connect hitherto unconnected airports, using "regional" aircraft. There are some riders attached to the policy to ensure that regional routes are the primary business of the operators . . .More. . .

Singapore snapshot - 2

I saw people flying radio controlled Airplanes in the field area. That got me up in a heart beat and I ventured out to see what was going on. As the morning matured, more people came in with their Airplanes to fly them. Visiting each Airplane and talking to the owners of these models, I realized that Singapore has a vibrant aero model flying scene. . .More

FIRST BLOOD DRAWN?

I have heard that the other Airlines are all keeping a positive attitude - that's good because that's all they can do; keep positive. They will paint red all over the skies with their results this year, notwithstanding bravado statements from the "glitterati" of aviation. The sector is set to lose something like Rs.1,800 crores and that’s no small change!. . . More.. .

AIRLINE MISHAPS - INDONESIA

The distressing thing is that the aircraft continued to burn for a long time after the crash and one could not see any real fire fighting activity to douse the aircraft. One wonders at the type and quantity of equipment they have (or do not have) to handle such situations. . . .More. . .

The great merger story

One of the things that a reporter can do these days before putting out stories is browse the web, collect better information and then say what they need to say in print, online and on TV. Not so in the CNN-IBN case. The reporter makes a sweeping statement that AI-IA will be Asia's biggest Airline when merged into a single entity. . .More. . .