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20050103 Monday January 03, 2005

I'm Back!

I just got back from a really nice vacation visiting my family in Norway. It's been ten years since my last winter-time visit to Norway. The temperature in my hometown Tynset was cold the first couple of days there (-22° Fahrenheit, or -30° Celsius). But I got to go cross-country skiing, and I hadn't forgotten how - I guess it's like bicycling - once you know how you never forget.

Everything about the trip was great. Celebrations were a bit somber this year though because of the Tsunami catastrophe in Asia .

Flight Camera View I flew with SAS. Perhaps some other airlines offer this too (but certainly not all, since I've flown several other big carriers in the last couple of months), but I was really blown away by their flight camera feature. Unlike the Channel 9 feature offered by United Airlines (where you can listen to cockpit transmissions), you can choose to view the forward facing (or the downward facing) camera on your TV screen. This works at all times, including during take-off, during flight, during landing, and even while the airplane is taxing back to the gate after landing! It was quite a kick to "participate" in the landing process, seeing the airplane aligning with the lit-up runway, seeing the approach angle and so on. It reminded me of some flight simlator computer games I've seen, but with unbelievably realistic graphics!

I'm reasonably rested from the plane ride home and now I'm catching up on e-mail.


(2005-01-03 10:49:37.0) Permalink Comments [2]