JetCheck

JetCheck’s Farewell

Jonathan Heckman — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 22:00:15 +0000

Dear Readers,

As time moves forward and my education continues, I knew someday I would have to let go of JetCheck and say goodbye. I know I’ve said this before but this time JetCheck is not coming back. I will be leaving JetCheck to move on to big and better things. In mid-late May, I will begin an internship with the Allegheny County Airport Authority (PIT and AGC) and starting in September will be an intern at Daytona Beach International Airport.

I cannot tell you how much I have learned from this experience. These past years of reading, writing, and getting involved in the news / social media side of the aviation industry have been incredible! I’ve had the opportunity to network, meet and interact with so many fantastic people and I hope that you will keep in touch. If we’re not connected on Twitter yet, I’m @JetCheck.

As for this website, the JetCheck.net domain will disappear eventually but I plan to maintain jonathanheckman.com (which currently redirects to JetCheck but will switchover soon).

There are plenty of great bloggers and aviation sites out there, so I hope you’ll find the links on the right-hand side of this page useful.

Blue skies!

Jonathan

JetCheck’s Favorite 1980′s Airline Commercials

Jonathan Heckman — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 13:30:01 +0000

I’m not sure if you’re one for the catchy fancy tunes and group singing, but there’s something about 1980′s airline commercials that make me wish I could travel back then. Air travel seemed much simpler back then – the meals, the free baggage, the very few electronic devices (cell-phones, iPods, iPads, etc) – and it’s interesting to step back and compare today’s airline industry to the 1980′s. Here are a select few of my favorite 1980′s airline commercials:

Video: Short Take-Off and Landing Contest

Jonathan Heckman — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 13:30:44 +0000

Like most college students, I spend a fair amount of time on YouTube. Yet, unlike most college students, my time on YouTube is spent watching aviation related videos, like airline commercials or airport time-lapses, and I stumbled upon this clip of a STOL (short take-off and landing) contest at Valdez, Alaska. How does it work? The winner is the pilot who lands or takes off in the shortest distance – pretty cool, right? I enjoy watching these sorts of things and I think you will be impressed by the skills of these pilots.

Happy April!

Airport Body Scanners: Safe? Unsafe? They’re Safe

Jonathan Heckman — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 13:30:08 +0000

Even before body scanners were rolled out at airports nationwide, questions quickly arose from the public regarding privacy and radiation levels. Following the news two weeks ago that some body-scanners mistakenly emitted ten times as much as the normal radiation level, a new study published Monday by the Archives of Internal Medicine reports that body-scanners are “no significant threat” to your health.

How insignificant is the radiation from these machines? According to Time, it would take 50 airport body scans for a person to endure to equal the amount of radiation exposure from a single dental X-ray. It would take 4,000 airport scans to equal the radiation exposure from a mammogram, and 200,000 airport scans to match the radiation delivered by one abdominal CT scan.

As for the cancer risks, the study’s authors calculate that among 100 million passengers who take 750 million flights a year, there would be an additional six cancers over a lifetime attributed to radiation from scanners. Note that’s on top of an estimated 40 million cancers that are expected to occur.

This study has the opportunity to play a significant role changing the way the flying public views body scanners and air travel all together. ”If individuals feel vulnerable and are worried about the radiation emitted by the scans, they might reconsider flying altogether since most of the small, but real, radiation risk they will receive will come from the flight and not from the exceedingly small exposures from the scans,” wrote the authors, Pratik Mehta of UC Berkeley and Dr. Rebecca Smith-Bindman of UC San Francisco. Ever since the body scanners first started appearing at airports, most research and data available on their safety was available via the TSA and not an accredited third party. This not only backs up the TSA’s claims, but might help the public to become more willing to trust the TSA

During JetCheck’s tour of Jacksonville International Airport, our Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University group of students had the opportunity to speak directly to a TSA supervisor working at the airport. He claimed that the body scanners were safer than household lightbulbs. Yet despite the minimal radiation levels, passengers continue to opt out of the lines. Some credit this to safety, but the other primary concern is privacy, but that’s a topic for another day.

Airport Scanners Appear Safe (nlm.nih.gov)
Airport Body Scans Pose Little Risk (online.wsj.com)
Airport Scanners Radiation Risk ‘Extremely Low,’ Independent Research Shows (huffingtonpost.com)

Second Baltia Air 747-200 Undergoing FAA Required Maintenance

Jonathan Heckman — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 13:30:20 +0000

A colleague and former JetCheck writer, Andrew Young, recommended that I take a close look at Baltia Air Lines, a 21 year start-up airline based in New York City. According to a recent press release, the airline’s second airplane, a Boeing 747-200 (N706BL) formerly operated by Northwest Airlines and Kalitta Air, entered the Kalitta maintenance facility in Oscoda, Michigan on March 15, for required FAA maintenance. It appears as though both airplanes are just about ready, but how long will it be until the carrier begins operations?

For those unfamiliar with Baltia Air Lines, the carrier has a base of operations in Terminal 4 at New York’s JFK International Airport. According to the airline, they are, after JetBlue and Virgin America, the only new start-up United States Part 121 (heavy jet operator) airline in existence with Department of Transportation approval. Baltia aspires to become the leading airline on trans-Atlantic flights between major U.S. cities and capital cities of Eastern Europe. The airline “intends to provide high quality three-class passenger service, and reliable cargo and mail transportation. Baltia plans to begin their scheduled air transportation as the only U.S. airline, connecting directly, to two of the world’s most prominent cities – New York and St. Petersburg.”

It’s safe to say that Baltia has a well-defined target market. Their operations start-up date is unknown, but the airline still has yet to jump a major hurdle: FAA air carrier certification. Yet in the mean time, Baltia is prepping their 747. They’ve even launched a website and have made some progress in social media, but I cannot pull up their Twitter page anymore – what happened? However, Baltia posted a YouTube video, highlighting plane #1′s arrival at a maintenance facility in Malaysia:

There’s been a lot of debate on the air carrier’s choice of the Boeing 747-200, as it is far from new and probably not seen as congruent with the “high quality” brand they’re selling. However, one thing is for certain, the airplane sports attractive capital costs.