#joyride — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #joyride, aggregated by home.social.
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After a month or so off due to house moving tasks, on Friday I got to re-join the #JoyRide crowd, back on the disco bike.
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After a month or so off due to house moving tasks, on Friday I got to re-join the #JoyRide crowd, back on the disco bike.
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After a month or so off due to house moving tasks, on Friday I got to re-join the #JoyRide crowd, back on the disco bike.
-
After a month or so off due to house moving tasks, on Friday I got to re-join the #JoyRide crowd, back on the disco bike.
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After a month or so off due to house moving tasks, on Friday I got to re-join the #JoyRide crowd, back on the disco bike.
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Couple accused taking truck on golf course joyride in Union County https://www.rawchili.com/5031508/ #arrested #boyfriend #cart #charged #Charlotte #Club #county #couple #Course #crime #date #dating #drove #girlfriend #golf #happen #happened #IndianTrail #Joy #joyride #latest #lawyers #man #national #NC #news #NorthCarolina #path #paths #pickup #ride #road #took #truck #Union #UPDATE: #went #what #when #where #Who #woman
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Couple accused taking truck on golf course joyride in Union County https://www.rawchili.com/5031508/ #arrested #boyfriend #cart #charged #Charlotte #Club #county #couple #Course #crime #date #dating #drove #girlfriend #golf #happen #happened #IndianTrail #Joy #joyride #latest #lawyers #man #national #NC #news #NorthCarolina #path #paths #pickup #ride #road #took #truck #Union #UPDATE: #went #what #when #where #Who #woman
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I'm just muling stuff to the new house, so I'm not thinking of upgrades to the bike soundsystem.
But I'm not not thinking of it either 🤣
I mean, this subwoofer isn't doing anything now I no longer have the car it was in 🤔
-
I'm just muling stuff to the new house, so I'm not thinking of upgrades to the bike soundsystem.
But I'm not not thinking of it either 🤣
I mean, this subwoofer isn't doing anything now I no longer have the car it was in 🤔
-
I'm just muling stuff to the new house, so I'm not thinking of upgrades to the bike soundsystem.
But I'm not not thinking of it either 🤣
I mean, this subwoofer isn't doing anything now I no longer have the car it was in 🤔
-
I'm just muling stuff to the new house, so I'm not thinking of upgrades to the bike soundsystem.
But I'm not not thinking of it either 🤣
I mean, this subwoofer isn't doing anything now I no longer have the car it was in 🤔
-
I'm just muling stuff to the new house, so I'm not thinking of upgrades to the bike soundsystem.
But I'm not not thinking of it either 🤣
I mean, this subwoofer isn't doing anything now I no longer have the car it was in 🤔
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Roxette - Joyride [4K]
"Joyride" (1991) by Swedish pop duo Roxette is a vibrant pop‑rock anthem written by Per Gessle and produced by Clarence Öfwerman, released 25 February 1991 as the lead single from their third album, Joyride. The track became one of Roxette's biggest international hits, reaching No. 1 across Europe, Australia, Canada and the US Billboard Hot 100 on 11 May 1991, and enjoyed strong year‑end placements (for example No. 4 on the European Hot 100 and No. 23 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1991). The playful Doug Freel‑directed video received heavy MTV Europe rotation and was restored to 4K for the song’s 30th anniversary; by Feb 2024 the video had over 14 million views. Released on EMI and recorded at EMI Studios, Stockholm (July 1990), the single's B‑side is "Come Back (Before You Leave)". Lengths: 4:24 (album), 4:00 (7" single). This summary is provided under Fair Usage for open‑source sharing with full attribution retained.
https://u2be.ovh/w/4aJ1AJSsWuuYCzMZED6jTo?start=0s&autoplay=1
🎵 L Y R I C S 🎵:
C′mon, join the joyride, everybody
Get your tickets here, step right this way
Hello, you fool, I love you
C'mon join the joyride
I hit the road out of nowhere
I had to jump in my car
And be a rider in a love game
Following the stars
Don′t need no book of wisdom
I get no money talk at all
She has a train goin' downtown
She's got a club on the moon
But she′s tellin′ all her secrets
In a wonderful balloon
She's the heart of the fun fair
She′s got me whistlin' her private tune
And it all begins where it ends
And she′s all mine, my magic friend
She says, "Hello, you fool, I love you"
C'mon join the joyride, join the joyride
She′s a flower, I can paint her
She's a child of the sun
We're a part of this together
Could never turn around and run
Don′t need no fortune teller
To know where my lucky love belongs, oh no
′Cos it all begins again when it ends
(Yeah)
And we're all magic friends (magic friends, magic friends)
She says, "Hello, you fool, I love you"
C′mon join the joyride, join the joyride
She says, "Hello, you fool, I love you"
C'mon join the joyride, be a joyride girl
I′ll take you on a sky ride
A feelin' like you′re spellbound
Sunshine is a lady
Who rocks you like a baby
She says, "Hello, you fool, I love you"
C'mon join the joyride, join the joyride
Hello, you fool, I love you
C'mon join the joyride, join the joyride
Hello, hello, you fool, I love you
C′mon, c′mon join the joyride, be a joyrider
Roxette
Album Artist: Roxette
Album(s): Joyride (1991)
Written by: Per Gessle
Music genre(s): Pop Rock
Released: 25 February 1991
Decade for first release: #1990s
#roxette #joyride #poprock #MarieFredriksson #1990s #pergessle #emirecords #dougfreel #mtv #youtubefree #googlefree #metafree #SongOfTheHour #SOTH #songoftheday #SOTD #MeinSongDesTages #MSDT #SongOfTheNight #SOTN #nowplaying #MusicChannel #musicVideo #music -
Roxette - Joyride [4K]
"Joyride" (1991) by Swedish pop duo Roxette is a vibrant pop‑rock anthem written by Per Gessle and produced by Clarence Öfwerman, released 25 February 1991 as the lead single from their third album, Joyride. The track became one of Roxette's biggest international hits, reaching No. 1 across Europe, Australia, Canada and the US Billboard Hot 100 on 11 May 1991, and enjoyed strong year‑end placements (for example No. 4 on the European Hot 100 and No. 23 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1991). The playful Doug Freel‑directed video received heavy MTV Europe rotation and was restored to 4K for the song’s 30th anniversary; by Feb 2024 the video had over 14 million views. Released on EMI and recorded at EMI Studios, Stockholm (July 1990), the single's B‑side is "Come Back (Before You Leave)". Lengths: 4:24 (album), 4:00 (7" single). This summary is provided under Fair Usage for open‑source sharing with full attribution retained.
https://u2be.ovh/w/4aJ1AJSsWuuYCzMZED6jTo?start=0s&autoplay=1
🎵 L Y R I C S 🎵:
C′mon, join the joyride, everybody
Get your tickets here, step right this way
Hello, you fool, I love you
C'mon join the joyride
I hit the road out of nowhere
I had to jump in my car
And be a rider in a love game
Following the stars
Don′t need no book of wisdom
I get no money talk at all
She has a train goin' downtown
She's got a club on the moon
But she′s tellin′ all her secrets
In a wonderful balloon
She's the heart of the fun fair
She′s got me whistlin' her private tune
And it all begins where it ends
And she′s all mine, my magic friend
She says, "Hello, you fool, I love you"
C'mon join the joyride, join the joyride
She′s a flower, I can paint her
She's a child of the sun
We're a part of this together
Could never turn around and run
Don′t need no fortune teller
To know where my lucky love belongs, oh no
′Cos it all begins again when it ends
(Yeah)
And we're all magic friends (magic friends, magic friends)
She says, "Hello, you fool, I love you"
C′mon join the joyride, join the joyride
She says, "Hello, you fool, I love you"
C'mon join the joyride, be a joyride girl
I′ll take you on a sky ride
A feelin' like you′re spellbound
Sunshine is a lady
Who rocks you like a baby
She says, "Hello, you fool, I love you"
C'mon join the joyride, join the joyride
Hello, you fool, I love you
C'mon join the joyride, join the joyride
Hello, hello, you fool, I love you
C′mon, c′mon join the joyride, be a joyrider
Roxette
Album Artist: Roxette
Album(s): Joyride (1991)
Written by: Per Gessle
Music genre(s): Pop Rock
Released: 25 February 1991
Decade for first release: #1990s
#roxette #joyride #poprock #MarieFredriksson #1990s #pergessle #emirecords #dougfreel #mtv #youtubefree #googlefree #metafree #SongOfTheHour #SOTH #songoftheday #SOTD #MeinSongDesTages #MSDT #SongOfTheNight #SOTN #nowplaying #MusicChannel #musicVideo #music -
Roxette - Joyride [4K]
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We had one of the Bullitts out as the disco bike for last night's #JoyRide. A glorious summer jaunt round South Liverpool.
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We had one of the Bullitts out as the disco bike for last night's #JoyRide. A glorious summer jaunt round South Liverpool.
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We had one of the Bullitts out as the disco bike for last night's #JoyRide. A glorious summer jaunt round South Liverpool.
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We had one of the Bullitts out as the disco bike for last night's #JoyRide. A glorious summer jaunt round South Liverpool.
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We had one of the Bullitts out as the disco bike for last night's #JoyRide. A glorious summer jaunt round South Liverpool.
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JoyRide
JoyRideWhat Is It?
The YouTube video JoyRide by the YouTube channel HolyBrune:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z62_AwLC7-g
Description:
Provided to YouTube by Dabeull Records
JoyRide · Holybrune · Dabeull · Rude Jude
JoyRide
℗ Dabeull Records
Released on: 2021-07-16
Composer: Dabeull
Composer: Julian Getreau
Lyricist: Laura ChaudetAuto-generated by YouTube.
My Thoughts
I like the live version better.
But I am glad that they have another version for more variety.
The end,
- John Jr
-
JoyRide
JoyRideWhat Is It?
The YouTube video JoyRide by the YouTube channel HolyBrune:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z62_AwLC7-g
Description:
Provided to YouTube by Dabeull Records
JoyRide · Holybrune · Dabeull · Rude Jude
JoyRide
℗ Dabeull Records
Released on: 2021-07-16
Composer: Dabeull
Composer: Julian Getreau
Lyricist: Laura ChaudetAuto-generated by YouTube.
My Thoughts
I like the live version better.
But I am glad that they have another version for more variety.
The end,
- John Jr
-
JoyRide
JoyRideWhat Is It?
The YouTube video JoyRide by the YouTube channel HolyBrune:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z62_AwLC7-g
Description:
Provided to YouTube by Dabeull Records
JoyRide · Holybrune · Dabeull · Rude Jude
JoyRide
℗ Dabeull Records
Released on: 2021-07-16
Composer: Dabeull
Composer: Julian Getreau
Lyricist: Laura ChaudetAuto-generated by YouTube.
My Thoughts
I like the live version better.
But I am glad that they have another version for more variety.
The end,
- John Jr
-
JoyRide
JoyRideWhat Is It?
The YouTube video JoyRide by the YouTube channel HolyBrune:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z62_AwLC7-g
Description:
Provided to YouTube by Dabeull Records
JoyRide · Holybrune · Dabeull · Rude Jude
JoyRide
℗ Dabeull Records
Released on: 2021-07-16
Composer: Dabeull
Composer: Julian Getreau
Lyricist: Laura ChaudetAuto-generated by YouTube.
My Thoughts
I like the live version better.
But I am glad that they have another version for more variety.
The end,
- John Jr
-
JoyRide
JoyRideWhat Is It?
The YouTube video JoyRide by the YouTube channel HolyBrune:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z62_AwLC7-g
Description:
Provided to YouTube by Dabeull Records
JoyRide · Holybrune · Dabeull · Rude Jude
JoyRide
℗ Dabeull Records
Released on: 2021-07-16
Composer: Dabeull
Composer: Julian Getreau
Lyricist: Laura ChaudetAuto-generated by YouTube.
My Thoughts
I like the live version better.
But I am glad that they have another version for more variety.
The end,
- John Jr
-
Flights to nowhere can be fun
I hadn’t planned on my brief visit to Vancouver for Web Summit’s second annual conference there to include any flying between my landing at Vancouver International Airport Monday and my departure from YVR Thursday morning. But sometimes, your event schedule has a gap just large enough for somebody to pilot a floatplane through.
That idea of taking an aerial tour of Vancouver got lodged in my head at Web Summit Vancouver last May–when I found myself distracted by aircraft departing from and arriving at Vancouver Harbour Flight Centre, next to the convention center and its bitmapped-orca Douglas Coupland sculpture.
And as I was nearing the end of my first five appointments on an overscheduled Tuesday, I realized that a) I had almost two hours before my next appointment and b) the weather looked ideal for flying, at least compared to Wednesday morning’s forecast of clouds and possibly rain. So I booked a 20-minute tour flight on Harbour Air’s site at what seemed a workable time before I had to walk a few blocks away for an offsite panel.
The flight on this 67-year-old de Havilland DHC-3T Turbine Otter was what I hoped and expected it to be, going from my experience taking a floatplane ride above Seattle out of Lake Union 13 years ago. Taking to the air and returning from it without solid ground below the wing feels like cheating at flying; being in a plane small enough where you can see the pilot adjust the controls and almost immediately see and feel the aircraft respond provides an extraordinary demonstration of aerodynamics at work; the views from a large and non-pressurized window maybe 1,000 feet above ground are magical.
(The timing of this particular flight was less than magical, in the sense that it seemed that Harbour consolidated its 3 and 3:15 p.m. tour flights into one that departed at 3:20 and then left me hustling to get to my panel. I’ll expand on my avoidable scheduling fail in this Sunday’s weekly recap.)
Avgeeks sometimes call out-and-back bookings like this “flights to nowhere,”1 and I’ve now taken enough of them to realize I may have a bit of a flying problem.
My introduction, as far as I can remember, took place at a 1997 air show at College Park’s airport–the oldest continuously-operated airfield in the world–at which I recall paying $20 in cash for a flight in what years-later searching suggests was a Stearman Model 75 Kaydet biplane.
I then went almost 16 years before the next such flight, my Lake Union joyride–and then followed that days later with a balloon excursion above Sonoma County, Calif., that remains my slowest-ever aviation experience.
2014 bought a work-related flight to nowhere, a hop out of Austin during SXSW on the inflight WiFi operator Gogo’s business jet. That company invited me to try out the ground-to-air connectivity on this Canadair CL-600 by texting people, so I taunted a friend on the ground with “I’m texting you from a private jet. How are you?” and got the reply I deserved.
I had another Gogo flight to AUS and back in 2016 on the 737-500 that Gogo had acquired in the meantime, on which I saw a travel journalist successfully ask the pilots for a chance to experience takeoff in the cockpit jumpseat. That led me to make the same request before another Gogo flight on that 737 in 2017, treating me to an EWR-departure experience unlike any other.
In 2019, a friend took my wife and I on a tour above Sonoma County in his Diamond Star DA40 single-engine, four-seat aircraft. That remains my smallest-plane experience, and the only one in which I got to touch the controls. Briefly.
In 2021, I had my loudest-plane experience when I spent $450 to fly on a 1945-vintage B-25 bomber out of Hagerstown, Md., my only flight to date to allow a view from a tail gunner’s seat.
And in 2023, JSX treated me and other invited journalists to a DAL-DAL hop to try out Starlink WiFi on an Embraer 145.
The last two years tacked on ORD-ORD and LAX-LAX flights courtesy of United Airlines to test their deployment of Starlink on an Embraer 175 and then a Boeing 737. And with this week’s joyride above British Columbia’s metropolis, I have to accept that I’ve developed a moderately expensive habit here.
Which is okay with me.
- The bad kind of “flight to nowhere” involves a long-haul international flight that experiences some sort of malfunction that requires returning to the departure airport, even if that requires backtracking across much of an ocean. ↩︎
-
Flights to nowhere can be fun
I hadn’t planned on my brief visit to Vancouver for Web Summit’s second annual conference there to include any flying between my landing at Vancouver International Airport Monday and my departure from YVR Thursday morning. But sometimes, your event schedule has a gap just large enough for somebody to pilot a floatplane through.
That idea of taking an aerial tour of Vancouver got lodged in my head at Web Summit Vancouver last May–when I found myself distracted by aircraft departing from and arriving at Vancouver Harbour Flight Centre, next to the convention center and its bitmapped-orca Douglas Coupland sculpture.
And as I was nearing the end of my first five appointments on an overscheduled Tuesday, I realized that a) I had almost two hours before my next appointment and b) the weather looked ideal for flying, at least compared to Wednesday morning’s forecast of clouds and possibly rain. So I booked a 20-minute tour flight on Harbour Air’s site at what seemed a workable time before I had to walk a few blocks away for an offsite panel.
The flight on this 67-year-old de Havilland DHC-3T Turbine Otter was what I hoped and expected it to be, going from my experience taking a floatplane ride above Seattle out of Lake Union 13 years ago. Taking to the air and returning from it without solid ground below the wing feels like cheating at flying; being in a plane small enough where you can see the pilot adjust the controls and almost immediately see and feel the aircraft respond provides an extraordinary demonstration of aerodynamics at work; the views from a large and non-pressurized window maybe 1,000 feet above ground are magical.
(The timing of this particular flight was less than magical, in the sense that it seemed that Harbour consolidated its 3 and 3:15 p.m. tour flights into one that departed at 3:20 and then left me hustling to get to my panel. I’ll expand on my avoidable scheduling fail in this Sunday’s weekly recap.)
Avgeeks sometimes call out-and-back bookings like this “flights to nowhere,”1 and I’ve now taken enough of them to realize I may have a bit of a flying problem.
My introduction, as far as I can remember, took place at a 1997 air show at College Park’s airport–the oldest continuously-operated airfield in the world–at which I recall paying $20 in cash for a flight in what years-later searching suggests was a Stearman Model 75 Kaydet biplane.
I then went almost 16 years before the next such flight, my Lake Union joyride–and then followed that days later with a balloon excursion above Sonoma County, Calif., that remains my slowest-ever aviation experience.
2014 bought a work-related flight to nowhere, a hop out of Austin during SXSW on the inflight WiFi operator Gogo’s business jet. That company invited me to try out the ground-to-air connectivity on this Canadair CL-600 by texting people, so I taunted a friend on the ground with “I’m texting you from a private jet. How are you?” and got the reply I deserved.
I had another Gogo flight to AUS and back in 2016 on the 737-500 that Gogo had acquired in the meantime, on which I saw a travel journalist successfully ask the pilots for a chance to experience takeoff in the cockpit jumpseat. That led me to make the same request before another Gogo flight on that 737 in 2017, treating me to an EWR-departure experience unlike any other.
In 2019, a friend took my wife and I on a tour above Sonoma County in his Diamond Star DA40 single-engine, four-seat aircraft. That remains my smallest-plane experience, and the only one in which I got to touch the controls. Briefly.
In 2021, I had my loudest-plane experience when I spent $450 to fly on a 1945-vintage B-25 bomber out of Hagerstown, Md., my only flight to date to allow a view from a tail gunner’s seat.
And in 2023, JSX treated me and other invited journalists to a DAL-DAL hop to try out Starlink WiFi on an Embraer 145.
The last two years tacked on ORD-ORD and LAX-LAX flights courtesy of United Airlines to test their deployment of Starlink on an Embraer 175 and then a Boeing 737. And with this week’s joyride above British Columbia’s metropolis, I have to accept that I’ve developed a moderately expensive habit here.
Which is okay with me.
- The bad kind of “flight to nowhere” involves a long-haul international flight that experiences some sort of malfunction that requires returning to the departure airport, even if that requires backtracking across much of an ocean. ↩︎
-
Flights to nowhere can be fun
I hadn’t planned on my brief visit to Vancouver for Web Summit’s second annual conference there to include any flying between my landing at Vancouver International Airport Monday and my departure from YVR Thursday morning. But sometimes, your event schedule has a gap just large enough for somebody to pilot a floatplane through.
That idea of taking an aerial tour of Vancouver got lodged in my head at Web Summit Vancouver last May–when I found myself distracted by aircraft departing from and arriving at Vancouver Harbour Flight Centre, next to the convention center and its bitmapped-orca Douglas Coupland sculpture.
And as I was nearing the end of my first five appointments on an overscheduled Tuesday, I realized that a) I had almost two hours before my next appointment and b) the weather looked ideal for flying, at least compared to Wednesday morning’s forecast of clouds and possibly rain. So I booked a 20-minute tour flight on Harbour Air’s site at what seemed a workable time before I had to walk a few blocks away for an offsite panel.
The flight on this 67-year-old de Havilland DHC-3T Turbine Otter was what I hoped and expected it to be, going from my experience taking a floatplane ride above Seattle out of Lake Union 13 years ago. Taking to the air and returning from it without solid ground below the wing feels like cheating at flying; being in a plane small enough where you can see the pilot adjust the controls and almost immediately see and feel the aircraft respond provides an extraordinary demonstration of aerodynamics at work; the views from a large and non-pressurized window maybe 1,000 feet above ground are magical.
(The timing of this particular flight was less than magical, in the sense that it seemed that Harbour consolidated its 3 and 3:15 p.m. tour flights into one that departed at 3:20 and then left me hustling to get to my panel. I’ll expand on my avoidable scheduling fail in this Sunday’s weekly recap.)
Avgeeks sometimes call out-and-back bookings like this “flights to nowhere,”1 and I’ve now taken enough of them to realize I may have a bit of a flying problem.
My introduction, as far as I can remember, took place at a 1997 air show at College Park’s airport–the oldest continuously-operated airfield in the world–at which I recall paying $20 in cash for a flight in what years-later searching suggests was a Stearman Model 75 Kaydet biplane.
I then went almost 16 years before the next such flight, my Lake Union joyride–and then followed that days later with a balloon excursion above Sonoma County, Calif., that remains my slowest-ever aviation experience.
2014 bought a work-related flight to nowhere, a hop out of Austin during SXSW on the inflight WiFi operator Gogo’s business jet. That company invited me to try out the ground-to-air connectivity on this Canadair CL-600 by texting people, so I taunted a friend on the ground with “I’m texting you from a private jet. How are you?” and got the reply I deserved.
I had another Gogo flight to AUS and back in 2016 on the 737-500 that Gogo had acquired in the meantime, on which I saw a travel journalist successfully ask the pilots for a chance to experience takeoff in the cockpit jumpseat. That led me to make the same request before another Gogo flight on that 737 in 2017, treating me to an EWR-departure experience unlike any other.
In 2019, a friend took my wife and I on a tour above Sonoma County in his Diamond Star DA40 single-engine, four-seat aircraft. That remains my smallest-plane experience, and the only one in which I got to touch the controls. Briefly.
In 2021, I had my loudest-plane experience when I spent $450 to fly on a 1945-vintage B-25 bomber out of Hagerstown, Md., my only flight to date to allow a view from a tail gunner’s seat.
And in 2023, JSX treated me and other invited journalists to a DAL-DAL hop to try out Starlink WiFi on an Embraer 145.
The last two years tacked on ORD-ORD and LAX-LAX flights courtesy of United Airlines to test their deployment of Starlink on an Embraer 175 and then a Boeing 737. And with this week’s joyride above British Columbia’s metropolis, I have to accept that I’ve developed a moderately expensive habit here.
Which is okay with me.
- The bad kind of “flight to nowhere” involves a long-haul international flight that experiences some sort of malfunction that requires returning to the departure airport, even if that requires backtracking across much of an ocean. ↩︎
-
Flights to nowhere can be fun
I hadn’t planned on my brief visit to Vancouver for Web Summit’s second annual conference there to include any flying between my landing at Vancouver International Airport Monday and my departure from YVR Thursday morning. But sometimes, your event schedule has a gap just large enough for somebody to pilot a floatplane through.
That idea of taking an aerial tour of Vancouver got lodged in my head at Web Summit Vancouver last May–when I found myself distracted by aircraft departing from and arriving at Vancouver Harbour Flight Centre, next to the convention center and its bitmapped-orca Douglas Coupland sculpture.
And as I was nearing the end of my first five appointments on an overscheduled Tuesday, I realized that a) I had almost two hours before my next appointment and b) the weather looked ideal for flying, at least compared to Wednesday morning’s forecast of clouds and possibly rain. So I booked a 20-minute tour flight on Harbour Air’s site at what seemed a workable time before I had to walk a few blocks away for an offsite panel.
The flight on this 67-year-old de Havilland DHC-3T Turbine Otter was what I hoped and expected it to be, going from my experience taking a floatplane ride above Seattle out of Lake Union 13 years ago. Taking to the air and returning from it without solid ground below the wing feels like cheating at flying; being in a plane small enough where you can see the pilot adjust the controls and almost immediately see and feel the aircraft respond provides an extraordinary demonstration of aerodynamics at work; the views from a large and non-pressurized window maybe 1,000 feet above ground are magical.
(The timing of this particular flight was less than magical, in the sense that it seemed that Harbour consolidated its 3 and 3:15 p.m. tour flights into one that departed at 3:20 and then left me hustling to get to my panel. I’ll expand on my avoidable scheduling fail in this Sunday’s weekly recap.)
Avgeeks sometimes call out-and-back bookings like this “flights to nowhere,”1 and I’ve now taken enough of them to realize I may have a bit of a flying problem.
My introduction, as far as I can remember, took place at a 1997 air show at College Park’s airport–the oldest continuously-operated airfield in the world–at which I recall paying $20 in cash for a flight in what years-later searching suggests was a Stearman Model 75 Kaydet biplane.
I then went almost 16 years before the next such flight, my Lake Union joyride–and then followed that days later with a balloon excursion above Sonoma County, Calif., that remains my slowest-ever aviation experience.
2014 bought a work-related flight to nowhere, a hop out of Austin during SXSW on the inflight WiFi operator Gogo’s business jet. That company invited me to try out the ground-to-air connectivity on this Canadair CL-600 by texting people, so I taunted a friend on the ground with “I’m texting you from a private jet. How are you?” and got the reply I deserved.
I had another Gogo flight to AUS and back in 2016 on the 737-500 that Gogo had acquired in the meantime, on which I saw a travel journalist successfully ask the pilots for a chance to experience takeoff in the cockpit jumpseat. That led me to make the same request before another Gogo flight on that 737 in 2017, treating me to an EWR-departure experience unlike any other.
In 2019, a friend took my wife and I on a tour above Sonoma County in his Diamond Star DA40 single-engine, four-seat aircraft. That remains my smallest-plane experience, and the only one in which I got to touch the controls. Briefly.
In 2021, I had my loudest-plane experience when I spent $450 to fly on a 1945-vintage B-25 bomber out of Hagerstown, Md., my only flight to date to allow a view from a tail gunner’s seat.
And in 2023, JSX treated me and other invited journalists to a DAL-DAL hop to try out Starlink WiFi on an Embraer 145.
The last two years tacked on ORD-ORD and LAX-LAX flights courtesy of United Airlines to test their deployment of Starlink on an Embraer 175 and then a Boeing 737. And with this week’s joyride above British Columbia’s metropolis, I have to accept that I’ve developed a moderately expensive habit here.
Which is okay with me.
- The bad kind of “flight to nowhere” involves a long-haul international flight that experiences some sort of malfunction that requires returning to the departure airport, even if that requires backtracking across much of an ocean. ↩︎
-
Flights to nowhere can be fun
I hadn’t planned on my brief visit to Vancouver for Web Summit’s second annual conference there to include any flying between my landing at Vancouver International Airport Monday and my departure from YVR Thursday morning. But sometimes, your event schedule has a gap just large enough for somebody to pilot a floatplane through.
That idea of taking an aerial tour of Vancouver got lodged in my head at Web Summit Vancouver last May–when I found myself distracted by aircraft departing from and arriving at Vancouver Harbour Flight Centre, next to the convention center and its bitmapped-orca Douglas Coupland sculpture.
And as I was nearing the end of my first five appointments on an overscheduled Tuesday, I realized that a) I had almost two hours before my next appointment and b) the weather looked ideal for flying, at least compared to Wednesday morning’s forecast of clouds and possibly rain. So I booked a 20-minute tour flight on Harbour Air’s site at what seemed a workable time before I had to walk a few blocks away for an offsite panel.
The flight on this 67-year-old de Havilland DHC-3T Turbine Otter was what I hoped and expected it to be, going from my experience taking a floatplane ride above Seattle out of Lake Union 13 years ago. Taking to the air and returning from it without solid ground below the wing feels like cheating at flying; being in a plane small enough where you can see the pilot adjust the controls and almost immediately see and feel the aircraft respond provides an extraordinary demonstration of aerodynamics at work; the views from a large and non-pressurized window maybe 1,000 feet above ground are magical.
(The timing of this particular flight was less than magical, in the sense that it seemed that Harbour consolidated its 3 and 3:15 p.m. tour flights into one that departed at 3:20 and then left me hustling to get to my panel. I’ll expand on my avoidable scheduling fail in this Sunday’s weekly recap.)
Avgeeks sometimes call out-and-back bookings like this “flights to nowhere,”1 and I’ve now taken enough of them to realize I may have a bit of a flying problem.
My introduction, as far as I can remember, took place at a 1997 air show at College Park’s airport–the oldest continuously-operated airfield in the world–at which I recall paying $20 in cash for a flight in what years-later searching suggests was a Stearman Model 75 Kaydet biplane.
I then went almost 16 years before the next such flight, my Lake Union joyride–and then followed that days later with a balloon excursion above Sonoma County, Calif., that remains my slowest-ever aviation experience.
2014 bought a work-related flight to nowhere, a hop out of Austin during SXSW on the inflight WiFi operator Gogo’s business jet. That company invited me to try out the ground-to-air connectivity on this Canadair CL-600 by texting people, so I taunted a friend on the ground with “I’m texting you from a private jet. How are you?” and got the reply I deserved.
I had another Gogo flight to AUS and back in 2016 on the 737-500 that Gogo had acquired in the meantime, on which I saw a travel journalist successfully ask the pilots for a chance to experience takeoff in the cockpit jumpseat. That led me to make the same request before another Gogo flight on that 737 in 2017, treating me to an EWR-departure experience unlike any other.
In 2019, a friend took my wife and I on a tour above Sonoma County in his Diamond Star DA40 single-engine, four-seat aircraft. That remains my smallest-plane experience, and the only one in which I got to touch the controls. Briefly.
In 2021, I had my loudest-plane experience when I spent $450 to fly on a 1945-vintage B-25 bomber out of Hagerstown, Md., my only flight to date to allow a view from a tail gunner’s seat.
And in 2023, JSX treated me and other invited journalists to a DAL-DAL hop to try out Starlink WiFi on an Embraer 145.
The last two years tacked on ORD-ORD and LAX-LAX flights courtesy of United Airlines to test their deployment of Starlink on an Embraer 175 and then a Boeing 737. And with this week’s joyride above British Columbia’s metropolis, I have to accept that I’ve developed a moderately expensive habit here.
Which is okay with me.
- The bad kind of “flight to nowhere” involves a long-haul international flight that experiences some sort of malfunction that requires returning to the departure airport, even if that requires backtracking across much of an ocean. ↩︎
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Last night's #JoyRide was a two county affair. Jumped the train to Ormskirk and then rode back through the countryside to Liverpool.
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Last night's #JoyRide was a two county affair. Jumped the train to Ormskirk and then rode back through the countryside to Liverpool.
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Last night's #JoyRide was a two county affair. Jumped the train to Ormskirk and then rode back through the countryside to Liverpool.
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Last night's #JoyRide was a two county affair. Jumped the train to Ormskirk and then rode back through the countryside to Liverpool.
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Last night's #JoyRide was a two county affair. Jumped the train to Ormskirk and then rode back through the countryside to Liverpool.
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Last night was an early summer's eve, the #JoyRide took in Everton (past the water tower) and down to the new Everton FC stadium, and back along the river through the city centre.
Town was full of people giddy from the nice weather.
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Last night was an early summer's eve, the #JoyRide took in Everton (past the water tower) and down to the new Everton FC stadium, and back along the river through the city centre.
Town was full of people giddy from the nice weather.
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Last night was an early summer's eve, the #JoyRide took in Everton (past the water tower) and down to the new Everton FC stadium, and back along the river through the city centre.
Town was full of people giddy from the nice weather.
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Last night was an early summer's eve, the #JoyRide took in Everton (past the water tower) and down to the new Everton FC stadium, and back along the river through the city centre.
Town was full of people giddy from the nice weather.
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Last night was an early summer's eve, the #JoyRide took in Everton (past the water tower) and down to the new Everton FC stadium, and back along the river through the city centre.
Town was full of people giddy from the nice weather.
