ATR's?? Where???

So here begins my series about the ATR that my company is getting. I will blog about this until the day they become operational with Island Air.

The first of our flt crews are back from Houston. While there they attended ATR ground school and sim training. I was originally scheduled to attend the training. Crews were in Houston for about 4 weeks, but last minute changes by senior management had us sit this session out.

So as we roll into June, we're all wondering where the ATR's are at? The word is they are now delayed and not scheduled to arrive until August. Until then, the returning check airmen are busy putting together the first ground school for those pilots who want to bid into the new aircraft type. Ground school starts 25 June. No date set for dispatcher ground school on the new aircraft. Can't wait to work with the ATR's again, but this time dispatching them.

Changes are afoot!

I'M BACCCKKKK! After a almost year absence from this blog, I'm finally finding the time to begin posting again. Albeit I'm doing it late at night when the baby and everyone else is asleep. Anyway, I felt now is the right time to make this blog active again. To my original "7" followers of this blog, I say thanks for sticking around. To all those who visit or just happen to see my site, I also say thanks for stopping and reading. I greatly appreciate it.

As the title suggests, things are afoot where I work at. As noted in the local media and on various aviation news blogs, my company, Hawaii Island Air are going to get a "new" aircraft type. Since our aging fleet of Dash-8-100's are getting up there in time, we have decided to invest in ATR's! The company is going ahead and getting both models, the 42's and 72's. I've worked with and on the 42 models in the early '90's with another now defunct airline and i actually love ATR-42. Not to familiar with the 72's, but I'm sure it's not much diffrence.

So, I'll be deep in the transition of this aircraft within our fltops dept so I will do a regular series on this event over the course of the change over. I'll also write about anything and everything else that goes on in dispatch as well as at HNL and in aviation as well. Look forward to writing and taking pictures again and thanks for stopping by. Look forward to your comments on my blog. Till the next post...Aloha!

Busy...Busy...Busy!!

My sincerest apologies for the tardiness in keeping things fllowing on this blog. Having a newborn in the house just changes the dynamics of life. Not much time to be spent on the blog and other things.

I hope to have a couple of post added to blog in the coming week or so.

Again thanks for visiting my blog.

A bad day...err week...ahhh make that...

As with all operations a fluid as AIROPS are, we sometimes get caught in a downward spiral of endless delays, mechanical's and all the things that make civil aviation the thing it is today. We, meaning the airline I work for, just went through one of those "rough patches" recently. Now I love what I do and who I work for, but for the the past couple weeks, we in dispatch always seemed to be running an operation in crisis mode.

During one shift, I encountered several mechanical delays running into several hours of accumulated delays for all of our flights, a medical emergency at an out station and almost simultaneously an in flight emergency while the medical was going on, necessitating a return to field of our aircraft adding to the delays. I hate having to have our passengers delayed. Basically, SHIT HAPPENS!

Now, I hope at least for a while, that all this has passed and we can look forward to smoother skies for our airline. But for a while, man, it was a mental marathon with everything going on at once. Just glad to see everyone pull thru and take care of our passengers and get them to where they need to go safely, albeit a little bit delayed.

Wake Island

One of the pilots with whom I work with also happens to be a flight planner in the U.S. Air Force here in HNL. Recently he was tasked with handling a group of aircraft movements. Major Madson, call sign "Maddog" headed to Wake Island to dispatch the aircraft that were on layover and get them to their final destination.
While on Wake, he happened to take some photo's and sent them to me.
(All photo's, except where noted, courtesy of Maj. Madson)

Here's some background info on Wake. Wake Island (also known as Wake Atoll, pronounced /weik/) is a coral atoll having a coastline of 12 miles (19 km) in the North Pacific Ocean, located about two-thirds of the way from Honolulu 2,300 statute miles (3,700 km) west to Guam 1,510 statute miles (2,430 km) east. It is an unorganized, unincorporated territory of the United States, administered by the Office of Insular Affairs, U.S. Department of the Interior. Access to the island is restricted, and all current activities on the island are managed by the United States Air Force.

Photo courtesy of U.S. Air Force photo/Tech. Sgt. Shane A. Cuomo

The Battle of Wake Island began simultaneously with the Attack on Pearl Harbor and ended on 23 December 1941, with the surrender of the American forces to the Empire of Japan. It was fought on and around the atoll formed by Wake Island and its islets of Peale and Wilkes Islands by the air, land and naval forces of the Empire of Japan against those of the U.S., with Marines playing a prominent role on both sides.

The island was held by the Japanese until September 4, 1945, when the remaining Japanese garrison surrendered to a detachment of United States Marines.

Welcome to Wake Island!

Admiralty Command Post on the beach. The sign in the picture reads:

Historical Site

 Japanese Admiralty

Command Post Built

By American Civilian POWS - Completed

1942

Another site built by American Civilian POWs, This sign reads:

Historical Site

Japanese Aircraft

Revetments Built By

American Civilian

POWS - Completed

1943

Maj. Madson standing next to "98 Rock".

The "98 Rock" is a memorial for the 98 U.S. civilian contract POWs who were forced by their Japanese captors to rebuild the airstrip as slave labor, then were blind-folded and killed by machine gun Oct. 5, 1943.

 An unidentified prisoner escaped, and chiseled "98 US PW 5-10-43" on a large coral rock near their mass grave, on Wilkes Island at the edge of the lagoon. The prisoner was recaptured and beheaded by the Japanese admiral, who was later convicted and executed for war crimes.

The shell, of what once was the bunker for Major James Devereux, commander of the First Marine Defense Battalion on Wake Island.

Major Devereux fought for the defense of Wake for 15 days before being captured with his men and taken as a POW

The Marine Corps Memorial on Wake Island in remembrance of those who served there during the battle

The Base Operations Building on the airfield

The flight line with it's complement of A-10 and F-18 "Super Hornets" in the early morning awaiting their crews

During this mission, Maj. Madson caught a ride on an KC-10 mid air refuel over and back from Wake to dispatch the A-10 and Hornets. During which time he was able to take some shots of the mid-air refuel of a couple of the aircraft's

A refueling A-10 Thunderbolt, better known as the "Warthog"

And here, a Navy F-18 gets "topped off" by the Hawaii Air National Guard somewhere over the Pacific

Thanks again to Maddog for allowing me share these photo's of a very historic and important part of American History.

Lest We Forget...