A Blast From the Past

A Blast From the Past
Here is an Oldie Goldie - Northeast Airlines Conviar 240.

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Cabotage Service Is Not The Answer

 Cabotage Service is Not the Answer
 
Yesterday an article by Matthew Yglesias appeared in Slate asserting that repealing our nation’s cabotage laws and allowing foreign airlines to service U.S. routes would revive airline competition and provide cheap fares to consumers. In response to this flawed position, ALPA has commented:
“Apart from starting from the erroneous premise that the airline industry is not vigorously competitive, Mr. Yglesias hasn’t thought his proposal through. Cabotage would mean that a foreign airline does business in the U.S. domestic market subject to the laws of its own country rather than U.S. laws. If Air China were permitted to operate cabotage service, for example, it would be doing business in the U.S. domestic market as a Chinese business, subject to Chinese tax law, not U.S. tax law, Chinese labor law, not U.S. labor law, Chinese environmental law, not U.S. environmental law, etc. We don’t permit this in any other business sector: if Toyota wants to build cars in the U.S. it must set up a U.S. corporation to do so and have its U.S. plants be subject to U.S. laws; if Airbus want to build planes here it must do the same.
There is no good reason to treat the airline sector differently. This misguided “cabotage is a cure” idea has been raised repeatedly over the years, usually by commentators with no experience in the airline industry. Not surprisingly, it has been consistently been rejected by policy makers of all stripes. We don't need foreign airlines operating in the US domestic market under foreign laws. We need government policy that supports a level playing field for U.S. air carriers so that they can compete in the international marketplace and continue to provide safe, affordable air transportation for travelers.” 

  
Just thought that I'd throw my hat in the ring on this subject. Now you know where I stand.  

Hiking Down to Emearld Bay State Park on Lake Tahoe

Now, you all know that Capt'in Fletterhozen, Owner and Chief Operating Officer of Royal Air Fletterhozen Airways, usually takes his family on the most Exotic Vacations imaginable. And of course,... this year was no exception; as you'll see from the series of posts coming your way.

The first posting of the series has the Fletterhozen family taking it easy in the Northern Lake Tahoe region of California, enjoying everything this area has to offer. For the first outing, the family made the hike down from Highway 89 to the beaches of Emerald Bay on the Southwest side of Lake Tahoe. Nestled on the West end of the Bay is the Great Vikingholm house, and here is what the California State Parks webpage says about this historic home.    



Vikingsholm is one of the finest examples of Scandinavian architecture in the western hemisphere. Mrs. Lora Josephine Knight purchased the property encompassing the head of Emerald Bay and Fannette Island in 1928 for $250,000.

Before starting construction of the summer home late that year, Mrs. Knight and her architect traveled to Scandinavia to gather ideas for the construction of the house. Work on the home ceased at first snowfall in the winter of 1928, and was started up again in the spring of 1929.

Two hundred workers were brought to Emerald Bay and started hand hewing the timbers, carving the intricate designs, hand planing the wood for the interior walls, and forging the hinges and latches. Most of the materials to construct the home came from the Tahoe Basin.

Trees were cut for their size and lack of knots, and the granite for the foundation and walls was quarried from behind the house. The ideas for the construction came from buildings dating as far back as the 11th century. Some sections of the home contain no nails, pegs, or spikes.

One of the interesting architectural designs is the sod roof which covers both the north and south wings of the complex. The interior of the home has paintings on some of the ceilings and walls and two intricately carved dragon beams. The six fireplaces are of Scandinavian design with unusual fireplace screens.

Most of the furnishings in the home were originally selected by Mrs. Knight and reflect typical pieces used in Scandinavian homes of the period. A number of original antiques were purchased and others were reproduced to exact detail, even to the aging of the wood and duplication of scratches.

The furnishings on the second floor were reproduced from the architects drawings of 18th and 19th century museum pieces. A step into Vikingsholm is like a step back into medieval times and a chance to gain an appreciation of a unique style of architecture and the person who had it built.

This home is so authentic to Scandinavian homes of the period, there is even a sprinkler system installed to water the roof where local grasses grow to this day.

 After taking in a swim on the beach, the Mrs. and the Fletterhozen children took to the water in Kayaks to explore the surrounding Bay.  They are on the left side of the boat in the foreground.

And while they were underway, the Capt'in spotted a BEAUTIFULLY restored wooden Chris Craft powerboat cruising by the beach. Coming down Emerald Bay to take pictures of the Vikingsholm just behind the beach area is a favorite pastime.      
  That is it for Day One, a good time was had by all! 

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

These really exists: Giant concrete arrows across America

I had this great story come to me from a good friend, I was thought it was so interesting that I just had to share. Thanks TC





Every so often, usually in the vast deserts of the American Southwest, a hiker or a backpacker will run across something puzzling: a ginormous concrete arrow, as much as seventy feet in length, just sitting in the middle of scrub-covered nowhere. 


What are these giant arrows?  Some kind of surveying mark?  Landing beacons for flying saucers? Earth’s turn signals? No, it's…



The Transcontinental Air Mail Route




Cement
 Arrows, Transcontinental Air
                            Mail Route

Every so often, usually in the vast deserts of the American Southwest, a hiker or a backpacker will run across something puzzling: a ginormous concrete arrow, as much as seventy feet in length, just sitting in the middle of scrub-covered nowhere. 

What are these giant arrows?  Some kind of surveying mark?  Landing beacons for flying saucers? Earth’s turn signals? No, it's…


The Transcontinental Air Mail Route

A re-creation of a 1920s map showing the route of airmail planes; the dots are intermediate stops along the course.
·     On August 20, 1920, the United States opened its first coast-to-coast airmail delivery route, just 60 years after the Pony Express closed up shop. 

    There were no good aviation charts in those days, so pilots had to eyeball their way across the country using landmarks. This meant that flying in bad weather was difficult, and night flying was just about impossible. 

·     The Postal Service solved the problem with the world’s first ground-based civilian navigation system: a series of lit beacons that would extend from New York to San Francisco. Every ten miles, pilots would pass a bright yellow concrete arrow. Each arrow would be surmounted by a 51-foot steel tower and lit by a million-candlepower rotating beacon. (A generator shed at the tail of each arrow powered the beacon). 

    Now mail could get from the Atlantic to the Pacific not in a matter of weeks, but in just 30 hours or so. 

·     Even the dumbest of air mail pilots, it seems, could follow a series of bright yellow arrows straight out of a Tex Avery cartoon. 

    By 1924, just a year after Congress funded it, the line of giant concrete markers stretched from Rock Springs, Wyoming to Cleveland, Ohio. The next summer, it reached all the way to New York, and by 1929 it spanned the continent uninterrupted, the envy of postal systems worldwide. 

·     Radio and radar are, of course, infinitely less cool than a concrete "Yellow Brick Road" from sea to shining sea, but I think we all know how this story ends. New advances in communication and navigation technology made the big arrows obsolete, and the Commerce Department decommissioned the beacons in the 1940s. 

    The steel towers were torn down and went to the war effort.  But the hundreds of arrows remain. Their yellow paint is gone, their concrete cracks a little more with every winter frost, and no one crosses their path much, except coyotes and tumbleweeds. 

    But they’re still out there!