#sts — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #sts, aggregated by home.social.
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Happy pub day to Globalizing Wildlife!! edited by @rafdebont , Vanessa Bateman, and Tom Quick, with an essay by me on otters, shipping, oil, and the California coast
(I tried to snap it "in the wild" but had to settle for a backdrop of my neighbor's shrubs)
More on the book here: https://uncpress.org/9781469694757/globalizing-wildlife/
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Happy pub day to Globalizing Wildlife!! edited by @rafdebont , Vanessa Bateman, and Tom Quick, with an essay by me on otters, shipping, oil, and the California coast
(I tried to snap it "in the wild" but had to settle for a backdrop of my neighbor's shrubs)
More on the book here: https://uncpress.org/9781469694757/globalizing-wildlife/
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Happy pub day to Globalizing Wildlife!! edited by @rafdebont , Vanessa Bateman, and Tom Quick, with an essay by me on otters, shipping, oil, and the California coast
(I tried to snap it "in the wild" but had to settle for a backdrop of my neighbor's shrubs)
More on the book here: https://uncpress.org/9781469694757/globalizing-wildlife/
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Happy pub day to Globalizing Wildlife!! edited by @rafdebont , Vanessa Bateman, and Tom Quick, with an essay by me on otters, shipping, oil, and the California coast
(I tried to snap it "in the wild" but had to settle for a backdrop of my neighbor's shrubs)
More on the book here: https://uncpress.org/9781469694757/globalizing-wildlife/
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Happy pub day to Globalizing Wildlife!! edited by @rafdebont , Vanessa Bateman, and Tom Quick, with an essay by me on otters, shipping, oil, and the California coast
(I tried to snap it "in the wild" but had to settle for a backdrop of my neighbor's shrubs)
More on the book here: https://uncpress.org/9781469694757/globalizing-wildlife/
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Ho preparato un progetto #SpeechToSpeech che va in produzione alla #PyConIT 2026, attivo tutto il giorno in una sala.
Cos'ha di speciale ? È il primo a usare #AmazonPolly in #BidirectionalStreaming interamente in #python 🐍.
🎤 A #PyConIT 2026 il mio #talk: dalle necessità alle scelte, fino ai grattacapi affrontati.
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Ho preparato un progetto #SpeechToSpeech che va in produzione alla #PyConIT 2026, attivo tutto il giorno in una sala.
Cos'ha di speciale ? È il primo a usare #AmazonPolly in #BidirectionalStreaming interamente in #python 🐍.
🎤 A #PyConIT 2026 il mio #talk: dalle necessità alle scelte, fino ai grattacapi affrontati.
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📯#DigitalHistoryOFK: Zachary Loeb (Purdue University) explores “What’s the worst that could have happened? Y2K and the Risks of the Information Age.” This talk asks how Y2K was treated as a crisis aiming to help us better understand and navigate technological risks today.
📅Wed ,27 May 2026, 4–6 pm (CET), online
ℹ️https://dhistory.hypotheses.org/13480#4memory #DigitalHistory #HistoryOfTechnology #CriticalInfrastructure #STS
@historikerinnen @histodons @digitalhumanities -
📯#DigitalHistoryOFK: Zachary Loeb (Purdue University) explores “What’s the worst that could have happened? Y2K and the Risks of the Information Age.” This talk asks how Y2K was treated as a crisis aiming to help us better understand and navigate technological risks today.
📅Wed ,27 May 2026, 4–6 pm (CET), online
ℹ️https://dhistory.hypotheses.org/13480#4memory #DigitalHistory #HistoryOfTechnology #CriticalInfrastructure #STS
@historikerinnen @histodons @digitalhumanities -
📯#DigitalHistoryOFK: Zachary Loeb (Purdue University) explores “What’s the worst that could have happened? Y2K and the Risks of the Information Age.” This talk asks how Y2K was treated as a crisis aiming to help us better understand and navigate technological risks today.
📅Wed ,27 May 2026, 4–6 pm (CET), online
ℹ️https://dhistory.hypotheses.org/13480#4memory #DigitalHistory #HistoryOfTechnology #CriticalInfrastructure #STS
@historikerinnen @histodons @digitalhumanities -
📯#DigitalHistoryOFK: Zachary Loeb (Purdue University) explores “What’s the worst that could have happened? Y2K and the Risks of the Information Age.” This talk asks how Y2K was treated as a crisis aiming to help us better understand and navigate technological risks today.
📅Wed ,27 May 2026, 4–6 pm (CET), online
ℹ️https://dhistory.hypotheses.org/13480#4memory #DigitalHistory #HistoryOfTechnology #CriticalInfrastructure #STS
@historikerinnen @histodons @digitalhumanities -
Last was "Contraception" by Donna Drucker. This is an insightful quick read on the history of contraceptive technology, spending time with the development of the different classes of methods and products in this space and their health and social effects. Highly recommend
Full review: https://bookwyrm.social/user/bwaber/review/11312053#anchor-11312053 (4/4) #STS #history
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Last was "Contraception" by Donna Drucker. This is an insightful quick read on the history of contraceptive technology, spending time with the development of the different classes of methods and products in this space and their health and social effects. Highly recommend
Full review: https://bookwyrm.social/user/bwaber/review/11312053#anchor-11312053 (4/4) #STS #history
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Last was "Contraception" by Donna Drucker. This is an insightful quick read on the history of contraceptive technology, spending time with the development of the different classes of methods and products in this space and their health and social effects. Highly recommend
Full review: https://bookwyrm.social/user/bwaber/review/11312053#anchor-11312053 (4/4) #STS #history
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Last was "Contraception" by Donna Drucker. This is an insightful quick read on the history of contraceptive technology, spending time with the development of the different classes of methods and products in this space and their health and social effects. Highly recommend
Full review: https://bookwyrm.social/user/bwaber/review/11312053#anchor-11312053 (4/4) #STS #history
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Last was "Contraception" by Donna Drucker. This is an insightful quick read on the history of contraceptive technology, spending time with the development of the different classes of methods and products in this space and their health and social effects. Highly recommend
Full review: https://bookwyrm.social/user/bwaber/review/11312053#anchor-11312053 (4/4) #STS #history
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#CfP for the journal Worldwide Waste
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#CfP for the journal Worldwide Waste
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#CfP for the journal Worldwide Waste
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#CfP for the journal Worldwide Waste
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Production in construction up by 0.8% in the euro area and by 1.2% in the EU – Euro indicators
Overview In March 2026, compared with February 2026, seasonally adjusted production in construction increased by 0.8% in the…
#Europe #EU #EuroZone #ei_is #EuroArea #Eurozone #Industry #sts #tradeandservices
https://www.europesays.com/europe/49490/ -
https://www.europesays.com/sk/76307/ Proces k minuloročnej tragédii v Ružinove pokračoval výsluchom svedkov #Bratislava #deti #Ružinov #SK #Slovak #Slovakia #Slovenčina #Slovensko #ŠTS #svedkovia #tragédia
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https://www.europesays.com/sk/76147/ Proces k minuloročnej tragédii v Ružinove pokračoval výsluchom svedkov #Bratislava #deti #Ružinov #SK #Slovak #Slovakia #Slovenčina #Slovensko #ŠTS #svedkovia #tragédia
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Production in construction up by 0.8% in the euro area and by 1.2% in the EU – Euro indicators
Overview In March 2026, compared with February 2026, seasonally adjusted production in construction increased by 0.8% in the…
#Europe #EU #ei_is #EuropeanUnion #Industry #sts #tradeandservices
https://www.europesays.com/europe/48948/ -
i've been thinking about my WIP industrial ag mega-zine as being a collage project primarily, but also as a bit of a "museum exhibit in magazine form". it has a lot of visuals, and texts that go with them. a lot of the items in it are primary materials - ads and articles from the time period i'm looking at (primarily the 1950s-1960s).
so it was neat to see several of the images i have in my folders of primary materials in this science history institute exhibit on the history of science and school lunches (specifically the "prosper plenty" image and the painting of chemistry implements dancing around on a field - you can see them behind the presenter in the still below).
i mean, they DO have an actual gas chromatograph machine which i guess is pretty cool, and probably their materials are originals instead of jpg's, but hey, they're the science history institute and i'm just a nobody 😅
anyway, the still below is from this video about the exhibit: https://www.sciencehistory.org/collections/blog/a-bite-of-lunch/
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i've been thinking about my WIP industrial ag mega-zine as being a collage project primarily, but also as a bit of a "museum exhibit in magazine form". it has a lot of visuals, and texts that go with them. a lot of the items in it are primary materials - ads and articles from the time period i'm looking at (primarily the 1950s-1960s).
so it was neat to see several of the images i have in my folders of primary materials in this science history institute exhibit on the history of science and school lunches (specifically the "prosper plenty" image and the painting of chemistry implements dancing around on a field - you can see them behind the presenter in the still below).
i mean, they DO have an actual gas chromatograph machine which i guess is pretty cool, and probably their materials are originals instead of jpg's, but hey, they're the science history institute and i'm just a nobody 😅
anyway, the still below is from this video about the exhibit: https://www.sciencehistory.org/collections/blog/a-bite-of-lunch/
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i've been thinking about my WIP industrial ag mega-zine as being a collage project primarily, but also as a bit of a "museum exhibit in magazine form". it has a lot of visuals, and texts that go with them. a lot of the items in it are primary materials - ads and articles from the time period i'm looking at (primarily the 1950s-1960s).
so it was neat to see several of the images i have in my folders of primary materials in this science history institute exhibit on the history of science and school lunches (specifically the "prosper plenty" image and the painting of chemistry implements dancing around on a field - you can see them behind the presenter in the still below).
i mean, they DO have an actual gas chromatograph machine which i guess is pretty cool, and probably their materials are originals instead of jpg's, but hey, they're the science history institute and i'm just a nobody 😅
anyway, the still below is from this video about the exhibit: https://www.sciencehistory.org/collections/blog/a-bite-of-lunch/
-
i've been thinking about my WIP industrial ag mega-zine as being a collage project primarily, but also as a bit of a "museum exhibit in magazine form". it has a lot of visuals, and texts that go with them. a lot of the items in it are primary materials - ads and articles from the time period i'm looking at (primarily the 1950s-1960s).
so it was neat to see several of the images i have in my folders of primary materials in this science history institute exhibit on the history of science and school lunches (specifically the "prosper plenty" image and the painting of chemistry implements dancing around on a field - you can see them behind the presenter in the still below).
i mean, they DO have an actual gas chromatograph machine which i guess is pretty cool, and probably their materials are originals instead of jpg's, but hey, they're the science history institute and i'm just a nobody 😅
anyway, the still below is from this video about the exhibit: https://www.sciencehistory.org/collections/blog/a-bite-of-lunch/
-
i've been thinking about my WIP industrial ag mega-zine as being a collage project primarily, but also as a bit of a "museum exhibit in magazine form". it has a lot of visuals, and texts that go with them. a lot of the items in it are primary materials - ads and articles from the time period i'm looking at (primarily the 1950s-1960s).
so it was neat to see several of the images i have in my folders of primary materials in this science history institute exhibit on the history of science and school lunches (specifically the "prosper plenty" image and the painting of chemistry implements dancing around on a field - you can see them behind the presenter in the still below).
i mean, they DO have an actual gas chromatograph machine which i guess is pretty cool, and probably their materials are originals instead of jpg's, but hey, they're the science history institute and i'm just a nobody 😅
anyway, the still below is from this video about the exhibit: https://www.sciencehistory.org/collections/blog/a-bite-of-lunch/
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European Statistical Monitor: May edition – News articles
Today, Eurostat released the European Statistical Monitor, a dashboard with monthly and quarterly indicators covering different areas, such…
#Economy #agr #economyandfinance #EconomyofEU #EconomyoftheEU #EUeconomy #Europe #ext #generalandregionalstatistics #hicp #lab #NRG #sts #websitenews
https://www.europesays.com/3002364/ -
European Statistical Monitor: May edition – News articles
Today, Eurostat released the European Statistical Monitor, a dashboard with monthly and quarterly indicators covering different areas, such…
#Europe #EU #agr #economyandfinance #EuropeanUnion #ext #generalandregionalstatistics #hicp #lab #nrg #sts #websitenews
https://www.europesays.com/europe/47090/ -
Permanent full-time post in 🌏 #histsci at UCL #sts
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:bxjgkel5ijz5mia25th2hmbs/post/3mm6w5jyqky2y -
Permanent full-time post in 🌏 #histsci at UCL #sts
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:bxjgkel5ijz5mia25th2hmbs/post/3mm6w5jyqky2y -
Permanent full-time post in 🌏 #histsci at UCL #sts
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:bxjgkel5ijz5mia25th2hmbs/post/3mm6w5jyqky2y -
Permanent full-time post in 🌏 #histsci at UCL #sts
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:bxjgkel5ijz5mia25th2hmbs/post/3mm6w5jyqky2y -
Permanent full-time post in 🌏 #histsci at UCL #sts
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:bxjgkel5ijz5mia25th2hmbs/post/3mm6w5jyqky2y -
STS Cerraduras: Instalación y Cambio 24H
La seguridad de tu hogar o negocio es prioritaria, y para ello ofrecemos servicios de instalación y cambio de STS cerraduras alta seguridad con garantía y eficacia.#STS #STSBarcelona #STSBCN #CerradurasSTS #Cerrajeria #Cerrajeros #Cerrajero #Cerraduras #Llaves #Seguridad #Puertas #Ferreteria #Vivienda #Hogar #Urgencias #Cerrajeros24H #Claves #Serrallers #Català #SeguridadHogar #CerrajeroBarcelona #Barcelo
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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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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. ↩︎
