Monday, January 10, 2011

Flying + War Machine

One thing I love about my job is getting to fly in an airplane! Of course, it's not an everyday thing, but I just get really excited when I know we have a flight test coming up haha! Although I don't think I'd like it to be everyday, especially in the winter time since the plane takes a lot of time to prepare and we have to do all the equipment installation in the freezing cold. Our pilot is a very skillful fellow and a very cool guy to talk to during the flight which makes the whole experience even more enjoyable. This time is my second time on the plane, first time I didn't even know I was going to be going on a plane so I didn't bring my camera and therefore only got this crappy footage from my cellphone. But this time, I brought my camera, so I got some more footage and pictures of the scenery from above.

Checking everything before takeoff
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Takeoff! The winds were pretty strong today at about 15 knots on the ground, you can see after the plane is off the ground, our plane was heading to the right about 20 deg even though we were still going straight. There were a lot of stomach-dropping turbulence at the low altitude as well...I'll eventually get use to it!


Initial altitude was 3500 ft above sea level. Just flying to the testing grounds right now.
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It still takes me a while to realize where we are flying over even though I've been living here for so long lol! It's just that everything looks the same up here! They are either houses, fields, or trees LOL! We are going about 90 knots here and it doesn't even look like we are moving haha


Elevated up to 5000 ft now
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After several hours of flying, we were done and started heading back to the airport. I am glad we were done so soon as the pilot and I were both starving! It's hard to see anything facing towards the sun, but you can just make out the Toronto skyline on the horizon.
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Eww...didn't even know this picture came out this way...probably because of the smog in the downtown area? Or maybe just a dirty spot on the windshield lol?
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Circling around for clearance to land. The winds were much better here than it was up north. We landed in another airport up there to do some changes, and when we were landing, the plane was heading 20 deg towards the right while going straight even when the plane was inches above the ground. But as you can see here, our pilot is awesome and our landing wasn't bumpy at all.


Time to pack it up! At the airport with a bunch of other cool planes haha, I'd like to see that big yellow one fly!
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Since we were done by 3pm, first I went to grab some food and then checked out Walmart to try my luck to see if I will find some of those 6" IM2 Hasbro Legends. Managed to find a War Machine which I was looking for, the paint was alright so I picked that up. Also spotted a Mark VI, but the paint job looks like a battle damaged version LOL, maybe it's a battle damaged variant LOL! Also saw Hulkbuster, but was not interested in this sculpt so I passed on that too. Still on the hunt for a nice Mark VI though!

The "Avengers Assemble" symbol is an interesting one, maybe we will be seeing 6" Legends for the Thor and Captain America movie line too? I hope so!
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Here you can see the other figures in the wave: Mark VI, Hulkbuster, and Titanium Man.
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3 comments:

  1. What line are you in? You can fly in a plane..Air crew??

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  2. cool! You are a pilot? If i see the 6" war machine I will get it too however it is very rare for me to spot any at my retail.

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  3. @desmond: I am a systems engineer for a mobile mapping and GIS company. We occasionally go for flights to test our equipment.

    @LEon: Nope, I am not the pilot, although I am very interested in obtaining a license for flying, it's just so much fun! Ya I was very lucky to get the WM. I saw the previous release once and I thought to myself that I am just going to wait for a sale since they are about $20 each, bad idea, these were gone within a few days and I've never seen them again. So this time I saw the WM and the paint is not bad, I picked it up right away! I am still looking for the Mark VI, although I could do without him, but I definitely wanted the WM for sure!

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