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Catching the Great American Eclipse at 35,000 Feet
- jjjsdf87777 9y agoFabulous! I live in Portland and watched the eclipse from my backyard. I remember seeing a passenger plane way up and thinking "I wonder what it looks like from there."
- ethbro 9y agoDoes anyone have pointers on where I could get an estimate on average maintenence costs / flight hour & fuel costs for a Boeing 737-900ER? Interested in working up a rough number for how much this cost to make happen. Can't imagine it was profitable. And very cool! Edit: Per Boeing [1], they quote $151 / flight hour in actual service on a 737-800. Random site [2] gives fuel on a 737-900ER as 0.17 km per litre / 0.40 NM per gallon. Edit2: After some digging, here's the flight track: https://flightaware.com/live/flight/ASA9671/history/20170821/1409Z/KPDX/KPDX https://flightaware.com/live/flight/ASA9671/history/20170821... [1] http://www.boeing.com/commercial/aeromagazine/aero_15/costs_story.html#2 http://www.boeing.com/commercial/aeromagazine/aero_15/costs_... [2] https://www.aircraftcompare.com/helicopter-airplane/Boeing-737-900ER/29 https://www.aircraftcompare.com/helicopter-airplane/Boeing-7...
- danielvf 9y agoA small sized business jet charters for about $1,000 an hour. I'd guess a long 737 would go for between $10,000 and $25,000 an hour. Edit: Here are some charter prices: http://www.aircharterguide.com/Aircraft/Manufacturer/BOEING http://www.aircharterguide.com/Aircraft/Manufacturer/BOEING
- KGIII 9y agoWith charter, you skip the TSA. It can even make financial sense, of you're a group and were going to fly first class. Also, a buddy who has a plane time share is handy. Given where I live, I know a bunch of pilots. The time share plane was new to me. That's kinda need and not that expensive.
- sokoloff 9y agoConklin and de Decker are a respected (though not perfect) source for variable operating costs for various airframes. They list the various BBJs (which are based on 737s) at $5360-$5749 per hour. https://www.conklindd.com/ReportTemp/ACEWebReports/_%20BBJ_%20BBJ%202_%20BBJ%203_2017082520125160.PDF https://www.conklindd.com/ReportTemp/ACEWebReports/_%20BBJ_%... BBJ3 is based on the 737-900ER
- ethbro 9y agoThanks! So that looks like ~$26,125 for a 4.75 hr flight in pure costs (fuel, plane and engine maintainence) exclusive of crew pay. If the numbers are totalling the line items above. So call it around $50k all included. Depreciation doesn't look like it's in that number either, but I'd say that's probably ignorable when you're as heavily utilized as a major carrier plane is. That seems like a good ballpark number for something a carrier would agree to. Not something to do every day, but arguably worth the PR and not going to torpedo the company either.
- sokoloff 9y agoThe CdD figures usually do include crew costs, so they attempt to be "all-in" numbers, minus cost of financing. The reason they're $0 on the report you're looking at is they're trying to sell you the report with the actual figures, not that those costs haven't been included. Crew rates for majors are published. Here's Alaska's: http://www.airlinepilotcentral.com/airlines/legacy/alaska_airlines http://www.airlinepilotcentral.com/airlines/legacy/alaska_ai... Call the flight crew $300/hr, and the cabin crew probably another $150/hr.
- ethbro 9y agoAh, was confused as they lined them up below the total line, so was assuming they might break them out.
- jrochkind1 9y agoOf course it wasn't profitable, it was promotional. Compare to marketing budget for TV ads and such.
- mikeash 9y agoThat $151/hour is only maintenance. Fuel, crew, and depreciation will add substantial amounts on top of that.
- bdamm 9y agoThere's no way that a 737 costs $151/hr to maintain. Small, simple, 4 or 6 seat single-engined airplanes (albeit on the high end) cost that much. Commercial airliners are going to be in the thousands of dollars per hour.
- mikeash 9y agoYou're right. On closer examination, that's specifically airframe maintenance. So that would exclude engines and probably other important and expensive things.
- ethbro 9y agoGood point. I was interested in how much Alaskan had to foot for pure curiousity reasons. I have no idea how much the actual cost of a flight is.
- mikeash 9y agoI'm curious too. I wish I had something more concrete than "it's much higher than that." The best bet may be to look at charter prices, then divide by some small factor (2-4?) to account for profit margins and the better economies of scale an airline will have and such.
- KGIII 9y agoIf you ping me tomorrow, I can try to get you those numbers. I know a bunch of pilots. They'll even let me fly the plane. I'm sure they will have some sources but it's too late to bug them tonight.
- deleted 9y ago
- stordoff 9y ago> Can't imagine it was profitable. The comments clarify that "This was an invite-only charter, special for the eclipse!", and the images show members of the press, so that was probably never the goal.
- brndnmtthws 9y agoIs anyone else bothered by the term "American" eclipse? I don't think astronomical events have any notion of nationality.
- rdiddly 9y agoI object to the phrase "great American" because it's hackneyed & trite.
- KGIII 9y agoThis is America. You can complain, if you want. You have that right. We also have the right to laugh at you. It was a pretty great eclipse.
- rdiddly 9y agoYeah. I get it. It was great, like every eclipse is great. And it was visible in America. So strictly speaking it was indeed a "great American eclipse." But not everything that's technically true deserves to be turned into a Cheesy Marketing Buzzword Made Of Wishful Thinking. America is on the down-slide of greatness. You can tell this by taking an honest look around, but also just by listening to the widespread shrill insistence on how great it still is. So "Great American This" and "Great American That" is not only played-out as I said, but probably inaccurate as there become fewer and fewer great things to be found in America. Anyway. The phrase "Great American Eclipse" also sounds just a tiny bit like America is taking credit for the eclipse, when of course the eclipse didn't need any help from America. America just happened to be underneath it this time around. Finally it reeks of the same old American self-congratulation (for things that are not at all unique to America) that you can see almost anywhere in America, including your comment, patronizingly reminding me of my rights.
- KGIII 9y agoYeah, I think you're reading that into it.
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- gruez 9y agoHow much do flights like these cost?
- kukanani 9y agoYou couldn't buy a ticket, invite and media only.
- jvermillard 9y agoanother cool one is the 70's one using the Concorde: https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/8q8qwk/the-concorde-and-the-longest-solar-eclipse https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/8q8qwk/the-concor...
- curiousgal 9y ago>Great American Eclipse That is rather egocentric to be honest. It is just a solar eclipse that happened to be visible in the U.S. this time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_solar_eclipses_in_the_21st_century https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_solar_eclipses_in_the_...
- crunksht 9y agoI disagree. Calling it the 'Great American Eclipse' is fair because it crossed over the entire country coast to coast making it accessible to just about every major population center by car. It was also only visible in America. That's pretty neat.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- rbg246 9y agoThe title really rankles me -it was a brilliant eclipse and it was an eclipse only viewable in America, I understand this completely but it still rankles possibly irrationally. I am not opposed to calling things American when, like I am not opposed to calling the 20th Century the American Century but there is something deeply annoying in claiming an astronomical thing as one's country. It's like a form of possession and maybe its the Sun but for some reason it really really annoys me to give the event an American adjective.
- kinkrtyavimoodh 9y agoYou should ideally be more annoyed at a century being called the American century because it's insulting to all the other people and nations who also existed and were doing their shit. On the contrary, the eclipse literally did not exist for those outside America.
- rbg246 9y agoBut it is equally also not something you owned that is the only point I am making - noone is saying 'literally' it's the world's eclipse, it just rankles when someone takes possession of something they do not own - rational or irrational. Perhaps something more interesting to explore would be me and 10 others in the thread above think that way.
- limeblack 9y agoThis is nothing new from Alaska Air. I congratulate them for this! In fact this happened near Hawaii https://blog.alaskaair.com/alaska-airlines/news/eclipse-flight/ https://blog.alaskaair.com/alaska-airlines/news/eclipse-flig... in 2015.
- kyleblarson 9y agoAlaska is a great airline. I fly about 70k miles per year on them and am very rarely disappointed.
- dforrestwilson 9y agoWhat do you like about them?
- snapetom 9y agoBeing in Seattle, they're the local airlines for me, so a lot of my flights go through them. They have top to bottom great customer service - from the call centers to check in staff to flight attendants. Everything just works with them. I've had odd requests/problems here and there before, and the call center staff really try to work with you to solve the problem. And they're US based, not a call center in India. I also never get the feeling the check in agents are just mailing it in. I've had bad experiences before with agents before (a tired AA agent once just through my suitcase on to the belt right after I told him I was checking in a firearm), but it seems Alaska cares a lot more and they're better trained (more consistent). They also are a great community partner here and sponsor a lot of events and organizations including things like Pride celebrations.
- praneshp 9y agoAt least in SJC, they are the only airline that consistently loads from both ends of the plane. I like them for that.
- deadc0de 9y ago
- 1024core 9y agoBest part of the video: https://youtu.be/8FwF1DvksIQ?t=52s https://youtu.be/8FwF1DvksIQ?t=52s
- dredmorbius 9y agoAgreed. Seeing the moon's shadow racing across the Earth was pretty damned slick.
- reiichiroh 9y agosteve mnuchin is that you?
- marcosscriven 9y agoI travelled last minute London -> Chicago -> Portland -> Salem to see my first total eclipse. The Saturday night flight to Portland was packed with excited passengers, all talking about the eclipse. The captain (Spirit Airlines) even announced the flight as the 'Eclipse Express', to cheers from everyone.
- zeep 9y agoHow many planes crossed the total solar eclipse's path? probably a bunch...
- Larrikin 9y agoHow much did the guest have to pay?
- coss 9y agoGod that music...
- njarboe 9y agoI was watching the eclipse in Corvallis and, about 10 minutes before totality, a plane jetted around at high altitude and left a contrail[1]. The new cloud, in the otherwise perfectly clear sky, began to drift toward the sun and I thought, "There could be few better symbols of the attitude that some of %0.0001 have to the rest of us than this." Fortunately, even though the contrail did drift over the sun during totality[1], it was very thin (and dark) and did not distract and the event in the least. I'm glad Alaska Air did this flight over the Pacific and not where they would distract hundreds of thousands of people with their flight. Anyone know how to find out what flight (or private jet) was the one I saw was? Would be an interesting fact to add to my memory of the event. Please forgive the many artifacts from this smartphone camera. [1] Before totality (https://njarboe.com/eclipse/beforeTotality.jpg https://njarboe.com/eclipse/beforeTotality.jpg) [2] During totality (https://njarboe.com/eclipse/totality.jpg https://njarboe.com/eclipse/totality.jpg). This photo was right at the beginning of totality and in no way captures what I saw, but does show where the contrail ended up. I was more interested in experiencing the eclipse than trying to get a photo.
- ryanwaggoner 9y agoFascinating that you have no idea what flight it was, but you immediately chalked it up to another example of "the 0.0001%" harming you. That's pretty ridiculous. For all you know, it was on some kind of humanitarian mission. Statistically, of course, it was probably just a routine commercial jet full of average people. What's crazy to me is someone on the ground in a small town thinking that the global ATC system should route around them (and apparently all small towns and random gatherings of people) so that they won't miss seeing an eclipse.
- njarboe 9y agoEarlier in the day, before the eclipse, there were a dozen or more private jets flying over my sister's place into the local airport when the previous days there were none. Some even had to circle (to wait for others to land?). This probably primed my mind about private jets. Then this jet was not just flying straight through but came from the south, turned to the east, and then headed south. Could have been NASA? That is why I was querying about how one would find out about it? My thought about it was more of how perfect the symbolism would be if the jet was say Ellison's than a knee jerk reaction against the 0.0001%. The efforts and accomplishments of many 0.0001% er's have brightened my life over the years and I wish most of them the best of luck.
- limeblack 9y agoHere is a picture I took after messing with the aperture and having quite a long lense https://i.stack.imgur.com/YvyJB.jpg https://i.stack.imgur.com/YvyJB.jpg from Robinsville NC. I swear you can see stars in there but could be wrong.
- DigitalJack 9y agoMercury was visible to the naked eye, but I didn’t see much else. Was not really looking for stars though. Nice shot, btw.
- tzs 9y agoWhere I was watching (the "day tripper" area at Solartown in Madras, Oregon) there was one bright point source reasonably near the Sun which I assume was Mercury [1]. Overall the sky was brighter than I expected, and if there were stars visible there were not many of them. There was also some idiot's drone buzzing above us, with red lights on two of its opposite arms and green lights on the other two arms. [1] or rather, I assume it was the same planet you saw.
- waynecochran 9y agoThat was Venus. not Mercury.
- DigitalJack 9y agoI sit corrected :)
- 4ad 9y agoIt was neither. It was Regulus. Mercury was further away (still relativelly close) and Venus was much further away.
- 4ad 9y agoAmazing how one gets downvoted for stating simple, trivially verifiable facts. https://i.imgur.com/VYqvYHAr.png https://i.imgur.com/VYqvYHAr.png http://www.americaneclipse2017.org/maps/the-sky-during-totality/ http://www.americaneclipse2017.org/maps/the-sky-during-total... http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/observing-news/total-solar-eclipse-all-sky-maps/ http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/observing-news...
- kukanani 9y agoI was on this flight, and it was incredible! AMA
- senatorobama 9y agoWhat was it like EXITING totality? Was it like God said, let there be light?
- kukanani 9y agoIt was pretty incredible. The "diamond ring" really bursts out over the edge of the moon, and then it's glasses on or look away, because the sun's back.
- rdslw 9y agoWho sit on the left side of rows?
- whipoodle 9y agoDid people really call it the Great American Eclipse? I hadn't seen that phrase before this.
- kukanani 9y agoYep, I think it was a Twitter trending topic.
- astdb 9y agoConcorde (or the Tu-144) could've kept up with the shadow
- planteen 9y agoThey did this on June 30, 1973. While it stayed in totality 10x longer than would have been possible on the ground, it did not stay for the entire path of totality. Look at the umbral velocity - only the bottom of the parabola is obtainable by even a Concorde. http://xjubier.free.fr/en/site_pages/solar_eclipses/TSE_19730630_Concorde001.html http://xjubier.free.fr/en/site_pages/solar_eclipses/TSE_1973...
- dmovsis 9y agoBut it`s kinda very beautiful !!
- nerd7473 9y agoWho's ready for the next one?