A really big plane (and a small photo dump).

[Joey P]

Somehow, and I still don't know how, I saw a blurb somewhere in my early morning daze a few days ago that an A380 was going to be landing in Milwaukee that day. I really didn't give it much thought. A few hours later I started to wonder why that was news worthy so I tried to figure out where I saw it, never did find it, but on my quest I first found some kind of plane watcher forum; they (and there seemed to be a handful of Milwaukee members) all seemed to be quite excited about. After that I found my way to the wiki article for the A380 and learned that it's the largest passenger plane in the world and there's only 85 of them. It supports between 525 and 850 people, depending on how the seating arrangement is set up (1st/Bus/Coach vs all Coach) while a 'typical' airliner holds closer to 150 to 250. Even the Dreamliner (or the newer 787) get to about half of what this behemoth holds.

Anyways, some more poking around showed me that this plane was still in the air on a non stop direct flight from Paris. For some reason (and my guesses are all speculation), they chose to bring it aaaaaalllllll the way from Europe to the midwest for Cold Weather/Deicing tests on one of the engines.

If anyone cares to, you can take a look at some of the online pictures of this plane in MKE. One of the engines is bright pink. It doesn't belong on that plane and will eventually end up on another one, but that's the one they're testing. Why Milwaukee instead of some place closer, I don't know.

The funny thing was that when we were waiting/watching for it to land, it was a few minutes later than the flight tracker said it would be. It was coming from behind us (we were inside) and just as we started to assume that maybe it was early and we missed it so we started to look around the airport, checking all the usual places for planes that don't belong a the airport, wondering if it was this plane or that plane this HUGE thing just dropped out of the sky like a ton of bricks, hit the runway and stopped way sooner than I thought it would.

Anyways, some pictures:

This does not do it justice, it's zoomed in and probably 3/4 of a mile away (as the crow flies). What's important about this picture is that all white plane behind it.


This was a picture I caught while I was at a red light (or driving slow, I don't remember). That plane that looks like it's backed into a parking spot...same one from above.


Here's one of the ones I like. Since it was Saturday, after hours, I figured I would drive into the parking lot of business where they have it parked. I mean, what's the worst that'll happen, they'll ask me to leave. I was able to drive right up to where the Civic is parked, but you can't get the scale from that close. There's that white plane again.

Now, about that white plane, for the non-plane buffs. That's a plain old, boring Boeing 727. All week I've had customers asking where the 'big plane' is, after I point it out to them and they don't seem as impressed as they should be, say 'see that plane behind it, that white one' and then explain to them that that's a 'normal' plane, a 727, the kind of plane that when you're 'going on vacation' you fly on. You know, the kind with 3 seats down one side and 3 seats down the other side. It usually takes them a few seconds to grasp how small it is compared to how big the other one is, go back and look at the first picture. I'll give them a some credit, however, that the 727 has been stripped of all the decals/paint so it does look odd. OTOH, the thing has been sitting at a major intersection for a few years (they just moved it a few weeks ago, probably for this), so we've all seen how big it is. Also, before anyone calls me out on the seating arrangement thing, we don't usually (ever) get wide body planes here and I think this is the first double-deck plane that I've seen here, but I've mostly tuned out the airport at this point.

So that's that, it's only supposed to be here for two weeks, but it's been here longer than that, I think, and to the best of my knowledge it hasn't moved from that spot. I'm hoping I get to see it take off, I curious as to how much runway space it takes. I'm guessing very little. The A225 looked like it took about 15 feet and it was in the air.

About that photodump
A few months ago we had a handful of Ospreys randomly show up. No idea why. I never got to see them fly, but I can't imagine they were as impressive as the Harriers doing donuts about 100 feet in the air.


Oh, and I made a hanging light out of a Hershey's Syrup can...be impressed. I'm consistently surprised at every.single.person instantly saying 'what'd you do with he chocolate?". Well, I just poured it into something else, but did you just meet me today, I go through a big (the 48oz bottle, the one with the little handle, next to the small one that 'normal' people buy like twice a year) of syrup every week, it's not going to be a problem.



Oooh, found one other one I forgot about. A few days ago I noticed something in my tree. From afar it looked like an egg, but it was way too big. As I got closer it looked like it might be a (peeled, half eaten) banana, but a banana, in my tree? Anyone want to venture a guess before opening the spoiler?

FTR, if you guessed "poppy seed bagel" you're automatically on the suspect list for putting a god damn bagel in my tree.

Lastly, I've said it a million times before and I'll say it again, I'm so glad I work this close to the airport. I'd really miss it if I didn't. I'm really like living, literally, a stones throw from it. At least now that I (mostly) can't hear it. I'm not under a flight path anymore. I'm like across the street from airport properly and never hear planes landing or taking off, but I used to live probably 10 miles away, but under a flight path and that was awful.

[Jaglavak]

Osprey. I need an Osprey, definitely.

[Joey P]

Originally Posted by Jaglavak

Osprey. I need an Osprey, definitely.

You can have one, but you'll probably fly it directly into the wall in front of you....really, really fast. You know how when someone teaches you how to drive stick they tell you to let your foot off the clutch slowly the first time or the car lurches forward (then dies), that, but more.

Also, FTR, I'm using "Harrier" and "Osprey" in their generic sense. I'm sure that's some antiquated term that's been replaced a half dozen times and it's now just a bunch of letters and numbers that only the buffest airplane buffs and military/air force people really care about. Like the gun nuts that say 'clip, what's a clip?" Shut the fuck up, you know what I'm talking about, sorry, magazine, your highness.

Looking, no idea which exact variants I saw, in it's current form the Harrier Jump Jet is now F-35 Lightning II and what we originally called the Osprey is currently...apprently still the Osprey.

ETA, looking at F-35s, that's now what I saw. I very clearly remember seeing the turbine exhausts pointing down and those don't have that.

[Pogo]

Part of the excitement for Milwaukee might be that the A380 sightings might be non-existent there (although I could be wrong.) in the future. The A380 is so big that many airports can't land them (runway-wise) and the ones that can had to upgrade their gate/jetway facilities so that the plane can dock.

It is possible that Milwaukee's gates cannot handle an actual passenger A380 flight which would mean that except for this test flight, you'll never see an A380.

Or maybe Milwaukee's airport can handle it and my idea is incorrect.

[Joey P]

Originally Posted by Pogo

Part of the excitement for Milwaukee might be that the A380 sightings might be non-existent there (although I could be wrong.) in the future. The A380 is so big that many airports can't land them (runway-wise) and the ones that can had to upgrade their gate/jetway facilities so that the plane can dock.

It is possible that Milwaukee's gates cannot handle an actual passenger A380 flight which would mean that except for this test flight, you'll never see an A380.

Or maybe Milwaukee's airport can handle it and my idea is incorrect.

They're certainly non-existent here, but checking, the A380 requires 9800 feet of runway to take off when fully loaded and our longest runway is 9900 feet, just barely cutting it. Of course, it won't be fully loaded since they're won't be any passengers on board, which also means less fuel. Also, they could use less fuel and fly somewhere and refuel. But if I'm reading it right, the flight home could be made on a half a tank.

As for the gates, I'd be surprised if any of our concourse gates could handle that plane.

I'm sure the excitement is more just because 'oooh, look, a plane that's different than the other ones'. I'm close enough to the airport and the airport is just sort of right there, that we get a lot of spectators when anything is going on. President in town, ospreys next to the observation area, A380 landing etc. When the air show is in town we get all kinds of acrobatic jets (think Blue Angels) that put on a show about 5-10 miles away, but people come over here to watch them take off and land before and after the show (they will do a few loops and flips, and it's still fun to watch them take off and land in formation).