This week for me has certainly been one surrounded by planes. However, it didn’t involve any flying. Puzzled? Alright, let me fill you in: I visited the 2011 Avalon International Airshow on 3 days. Where is Avalon? Glad you ask – Avalon (IATA: AVV) is a small regional airport about 60km South of Melbourne, Australia’s second largest city. Every other year Avalon hosts Australia’s largest International Airshow attracting Hundreds of Thousands of public and hundreds of industry & trade visitors from around the country and abroad. While I was hoping for a lot more civil aircraft demonstrations, the airshow otherwise lived up to the motto of “feel the power”: From a jet-engine-equipped glider, the always impressive Mustangs to the newest Royal Australian Air Force plane, the F/A-18F Super Hornet, if it had an engine and made a lot of noise, it was on display. My favourite bit though was the transport aircraft C27-J Spartan (pictured) flown by the Italian Air Force performing jaw-dropping manoeuvres and even included a roll!
Outside of my airshow runs, the week was dominated by the BA bed bugs story and the interview with Zane Selkirk I published on Monday. LateDeparture subsequently received additional web hits, quite a few comments and even a handful tips on how to avoid those nasty creatures altogether. One of those tips suggested to use a product that according to the manufacturer’s website is “the clean, green, non-toxic way to eliminate bedbugs, deer ticks, and other arthropods”. For other tips, I urge you to (re-)read Zane’s website and the follow-up comments from her readers.
Other aviation news this week were rather boring if you ask me: there was Tulsa International Airport (IATA: TUL) that launched its own rewards program, USA Today writing about the Top 10 airport restaurants in the US (actually, this one is not that boring! I might even try their recommendation for LAX, “Encounter at LAX” next week when I’m there and compare notes…) or the reminder from London City Airport (IATA: LCY) that it won’t be affected by a potential industrial action (read: strike).
That’s it for this week. Next week you’ll see the part 2 of the LAX research I started before I actually fly there for real. Stay tuned and have a good week!
[Photo by LateDeparture – all rights reserved]