Podcast (tiah): Play in new window | Download (2.4MB)

March 3
In 1911… With Capt. Benjamin D. Foulois navigating a course and Phillip Parmelee at the controls, the Wright Type B on loan from Robert F. Collier sets an official U.S. cross-country record from Laredo to Eagle Pass, Texas. It flies the 106 miles in 2 hours 10 minutes.
In 1919… Airplane builder William E. Boeing and Eddie Hubbard of Hubbard Air Service make the first international airmail flight from Seattle, Washington to Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
In 1950… Quantas Airways limited inaugurates a passenger service from Sydney to Tokyo.
Quantas is based in Sydney, with its main hub at Sydney Airport. It is Australia’s largest airline and is the world’s second oldest airline.
Quantas was founded in 1920 as “Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services” and had a fleet of 7 de Havilland aircraft by 1926.
Today, Quantas operates 247 aircraft world wide with 79 more aircraft on order.

In 1960… The longest nonstop flight ever made by a Royal Air Force aircraft is completed when a Vickers Valiant B.Mk.1 piloted by Sqdn. Ldr. J. H. Garstin flies around the British Isles for a total distance of 8,500 miles aided by two inflight refuelings.
1972 – Mohawk Airlines Flight 405 crashes as a result of a control malfunction and insufficient training in emergency procedures.
In 1974… In the world’s worst air disaster, a DC-10-10 of Turkish Airlines loses an aft cargo door after taking off from Paris en route to London, resulting in a complete loss of control. The aircraft crashes, killing 346 passengers and crew. This is the second time a cargo bay door has been lost from aircraft of this type. As a result, a latch modification becomes mandatory.
2005 – Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly an airplane non-stop around the world solo without refueling.

And that is what happened TODAY in Aviation History. See you Tomorrow!

Podcast (tiah): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:07 — 2.2MB)

March 2
In 1918… Lloyd Andrews Hamilton becomes the first American to receive a commission in the British Royal Flying Corps when he is assigned as lieutenant with No. 3 squadron in France.
In 1932… The 20-month old son of aviator Charles Lindbergh was kidnapped from the family’s home in Hopewell, New Jersey.
In 1949… Commanded by Capt. James G. Gallagher, the crew of 14 aboard the Strategic Air Command B-50 Superfortress, named the Lucky Lady II, of the Forty-third Bombardment Group, USAF, completes the first nonstop round-the-world flight of 94 hours 1 minute. Flying a distance of 23,452 miles the B-50A is refueled four times by KB-29 tankers before landing back at Carswell AFB, Texas.
In 1969… After a lengthy succession of taxi and runway tests, the first prototype Concorde 001 (F-WTSS) makes its first flight, with Andre Turcat at the controls. The flight lasts 29 minutes.
The Concorde aircraft is a turbojet-powered supersonic passenger airliner which flew from 1969 to 2003. It was a product of an Anglo-French government treaty, combining the manufacturing efforts of Aérospatiale and the British Aircraft Corporation. (The French word concorde translates to the English concord as agreement, harmony, or union.) Concorde entered service with Air France and British Airways in 1976.
1972 – The Pioneer 10 space probe is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida with a mission to explore the outer planets. (more about this tomorrow)
1998 – Data sent from the Galileo spacecraft indicates that Jupiter’s moon Europa has a liquid ocean under a thick crust of ice.

And that is what happened TODAY in Aviation History.

Podcast (tiah): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 4:38 — 3.3MB)

March 1

1912… Capt. Albert Berry makes the first parachute descent from a powered airplane in America when he jumps from a Benoist aircraft that is being flown by the company pilot, Anthony Jannus. The aircraft flew t a height of 1,500 ft. over Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis, Missouri, and Berry uses a static line parachute.

1925… Ryan Airlines begins the first regularly scheduled passenger airline service flown within the mainland United States. The service runs between Los Angeles and San Diego.

1928… An airmail route between France and Chile is opened with a fast sea link between Dakar, Senegal and Natal, Brazil.

1933… U.S. Air Commerce Regulations are amended to increase the flying time required for a pilot’s license from 10 hours to 50 hours.
1956– The International Air Transport Association finalizes a draft of the Radiotelephony spelling alphabet for the International Civil Aviation Organization.

1962– American Airlines Flight 1 crashes on take off in New York.
The aircraft was a Boeing 707-123B, U.S. Registry N 7506A. It was delivered to American Airlines on 12 February 1959, and that same day. At the time of the crash, it had accumulated 8,147 hours of air time during the course of 3 years. Its last periodic inspection had occurred on 18 January 1962 at 7,922 hours of air time.
The aircraft received instructions to taxi to Idlewild’s Runway 31L at 09:54 AM EST, and clearance to proceed to Los Angeles non-stop under instrument flight rules. Flight 1 became airborne at 10:07 AM EST. Following American Airlines procedures and Departure Control instructions, the aircraft initiated a left turn. In the course of the turn, the Boeing banked too far, flipped 90 degrees, and began an upside-down, nose-first descent in a nearly vertical dive.
Flight 1 crashed into Pumpkin Patch Channel, Jamaica Bay, at 10:08am

Some notable victims of the crash were:
W. Alton Jones, multi-millionaire former president of Cities Service Company (now CITGO) and close personal friend of Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Admiral Richard Lansing Conolly, USN ret., president of Long Island University and two-time Deputy Chief of Naval Operations.
Arnold Kirkeby, millionaire realtor and former head of the Kirkeby chain of luxury hotels.
Louise Lindner Eastman, whose daughter Linda Eastman would later marry the Beatle Paul McCartney.

1962… Los Angeles Airways sets up the world’s first commercial service using turbine-powered, multi-engine helicopters, the Sikorsky S-621L, which could accommodate up to 28 passengers.
1966 – Venera 3 Soviet space probe crashes on Venus becoming the first spacecraft to land on another planet’s surface.

And that is what happened TODAY in Aviation History.

This podcast brought to you by FlightRadio.com – Your source for Air Traffic and aircraft frequencies for your Radio scanner

Today I talk about a use for Google Reader that wasn’t available a week ago.

I talk about Google Listen for Android. I’m about to retire my iPod for Podcast Listening. My Droid does it all!

I played a song called “google” from Tom Smith over at Musicalley.com

Starting March 1st there will be a new podcast from GOTN called “Today in Aviation History” . See the post below this for information on how to get that.

Like to say thank you to Mike from Perth, NSW, Australia and Jim From Ohio for joining me on ustream.tv for the live recording. It was great chatting with you guys after the show!

Thanks for Listening!

Catch you Next week!

If you like Geek Of The North, you will likely enjoy Jeffery Powers podcasts which can be found over at www.geekazine.com

Geek of the North is a proud member of the The Tech Podcast Network – If it’s Tech, it’s here!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 25:39 — 23.6MB)

Podcast (tiah): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:05 — 1,010.2KB)

The second show here on Geek of the North will begin as a daily (7 days a week) podcast talking about all the things that happened on this day in history of aviation. As you know, I am an aviation geek and I’m also a History geek. So why not combine my passions and create a short (5 min. or so) daily podcast? Well, I’m going to do it.

I will have more information here on Geek of the North in a week or so.

**Update – The new podcast RSS feed is – http://geekofthenorth.com/feed/tiah/ – Just cut an paste this into your favorite podcatcher – It should be listed in the itunes store soon. **

Tune in Thursday to a podcatcher near you for the regular weekly Geek of the North Podcast.

-Mike

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:23 — 25.2MB)

This podcast brought to you by FlightRadio.com – Your source for Air Traffic and aircraft frequencies for your Radio scanner

Today I talk more about Google stuff along with a couple of listener voice mails.

Google Chrome for Mac WITH EXTENTIONS – I’m using chrome almost exclusively now that I can have it on my Macbook with Adblock and Bookmark Sync. It’s good.

I also talk about the Virtual Air Traffic Simulation Network (www.vatsim.net) – VATSIM is a worldwide network of Aviation enthusiasts that have live Air Traffic Control for your flight simulator software. Read more about them at their website – www.vatsim.net and on their Wikipedia page.

Thanks for Listening!

Catch you Next week!

If you like Geek Of The North, you will likely enjoy Jeffery Powers podcasts which can be found over at www.geekazine.com

Geek of the North is a proud member of the The Tech Podcast Network – If it’s Tech, it’s here!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 41:07 — 37.8MB)

This podcast brought to you by Flightradio.com – Your source of air traffic and aircraft communications frequencies and information on the net.

Today I talk about Google Services such as Gmail, Wave, Buzz, IG, Android, Chrome and search.

I also talk about the Light Sport Aircraft license and the Cessna 162 SkyCatcher Aircraft.

Thank you for taking time out of your week to listen to Geek Of The North!

Catch you next week!

-Mike

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:36 — 44.8MB)

Re-launch #3 ( 3 times is a charm )

This podcast is sponsored by FlightRadio.com – Your Source for Air Traffic Control and aircraft communications frequencies for your radio scanner.
And, by Rubber Duck Land – the internet’s biggest selection of synthetic waterfowl and other novelties at www.rubberduckland.com

Subjects covered:

iPad by Apple – Just a big iPod touch (which isn’t a bad thing)
I want an Android Pad. Is one coming?
Windows 7 vs. XP vs. Vista – Windows Vista isn’t that bad is it? – I am going to upgrade to Windows 7 this weekend – Wish me luck!
iAPRS – iPhone App for Automatic Position Reporting System by John Martin, KF8KK www.kf8kk.com/iaprs/
Switching to Chrome for a week. Will it stack up to Firefox? We will see.. Report at 11!
and, HTML5 trial by Youtube. www.youtube.com/html5/

Thank you for taking time out of your busy week to listen to me! Check back next week for another episode of Geek Of The North.

As you can see, I’ve been tweaking and tweaking the look of this website. Partly because I could never get it “just right” and partly because I’m having a ball learning more and more about Wordpress.

As you also know, I’ve had a couple of false starts on launching the podcast. Part of that is I was trying to do a show that isn’t my style. Much like Strange Today. That was a great podcast, but it wasn’t “me” and if I can’t just be me, then I’m not motivated to do it on a regular basis.

So, to that end, I’ve widened the scope of what I want this show to be. It’s going to be ME talking about the tech subjects that I like to talk about in a way that I like to talk about them. Relaxed, unscripted and comfortable. Like I’m talking to you over a beer or cup of coffee. I hope you will like the new format.

I’m also going to be sticking to a strict schedule. (yeah, I’ve said that before) So, anyway… My schedule is as follows:

Monday: No Podcasts. Use this for Web work
Tuesday: Record Mike Dell’s World (main feed)
Wednesday: Other recording projects (like BanjoTrax on Ed’s Mixed Bag)
Thursday: Record Geek Of The North
Friday: Record What’s Up With That (once in a while) and/or record the ***yet to be named new show with co-host***

Unscheduled: ipadio updates (see www.mikedell.com for info on that) and / or record Mike Dell’s World (unplugged feed) Also, record for www.flightradio.com as needed.

I want to take my podcasting to the next level of dependability.

I really appreciate that you take a slice of time out of your week to listen to me and I think it’s only fair that I make sure I’m there for that time, every time and all the time.

-Mike

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:52 — 31.9MB)

Stories from today’s podcast:

Aircraft Seatbelt Airbags

Cockpit PC ban

AirBus A330-200F

Hams win Prizes – http://www.arrl.org/

Farmers Twitter Too!

Stanley Tools acquires Black & Decker – What will they come up with?