Brad Valentine

[Trent @Trenciarte]

The Atlanta Braves got 19 outs from a former 7-Eleven employee and a 21 year old rookie to beat the billion dollar Dodgers.

Baseball is a beautiful sport.

[KC-10 Driver ✈️ 👨‍✈️ B-737 Wrangler @MCCCANM]

Some good questions came up about using Midway & Wake Islands for “alternate” airfields if you have no options in Hawaii.

To begin, both are pretty far away. Midway (PMDY) is 1,139 nm from Honolulu, a little more than half the distance back to SFO. Wake (PWAK) is only around 100 nm less than going back to SFO…but at least going to SFO, you’d have a tailwind. It would probably take longer to get to Wake than to try to get back to SFO (which is closer than LAX).

Wake is still in use by the military. Not very frequently, but I went a few times many years back. There is a small support group stationed there & a contingency barracks you could probably squeeze the passengers into if you diverted in.

Midway is not supported by the military. The albatross population on Midway is enormous & bird strikes are almost guaranteed. There were 600,000 albatross nests on the tiny island(s) at last count. You’re going to have a bad time when up to 1.2 million large birds panic when they hear your engines coming in.

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife service now owns the runway, has a small outpost there & charters a small number of flights, but they have to follow specific guidance, like coming in at night as quietly as possible, to avoid hitting birds & grounding the airplane.

Both airfields serve as “Emergency Use Alternates” by any aircraft crossing the Pacific, but it’s gotta be a pretty serious emergency to land there. Crossing the Pacific requires special procedures known as “ETOPS” (Extended-range Twin-engine Operational Performance Standards). You can’t get too far away from an emergency airfield under ETOPS, and in the Pacific, WAK & MDY are very convenient.

Wake has been maintained by the military for strategic purposes, but as I said they’ve mostly abandoned Midway. It’s become a problem; the U.S. DOT has said that maintaining the runway on MDY in a suitable condition (there are standards that must be met) to serve as an ETOPS emergency alternate is going to get very pricey in the next few years, as the runway is deteriorating rapidly. They have proposed just letting it deteriorate & not using it as an alternate anymore.

Actual use of Midway as an emergency alternate is rare. There were only 11 commercial & military jets that diverted into MDY between 2003 & 2021, according to the best data I could find. Yes, most trans-pacific flights plan on it being available, but they don’t actually use it…so the question has become whether it’s worth it to renovate MDY.

I won’t weigh in on that. I think it could change our routes some, but maybe not that dramatically. You might need to stay further South to be able to reach WAK in the allotted time, or go much further North, to be able to reach Adak (PADK) in the Aleutians.

Anyway, if I leave one impression on you with this post, I hope it’s that there is a “Tyranny of Distance” in the Pacific. It’s a huge strategic concern for the military…it protects us until it doesn’t, and when it doesn’t, it makes it hard to project power in any meaningful way.

Hope that helps!

[Adam Stern @A_S12]

.@NASCAR’s swear jar contest has already stirred up 974 million earned media impressions after the first week of the Chase, per data from the auto racing property, which has adopted a spunky marketing approach this year.

➡️ NASCAR worked with its agency @72andSunny on the idea.

[Lifelong Jedd Fisch Hater @dawg206]

SEATTLE 😭

[MLB @MLB]

OTD 15 years ago, the @Mariners hosted “Larry Bernández” Bobblehead Night

The man himself threw out the ceremonial first pitch 😂

[Liam Blutman @Blutman27]

This is one of the funniest stories I’ve ever read

This man is diabolical

[Dirty Mo Media @DirtyMoMedia]

Jeff Gordon and Kyle Larson had to teach Corey Day how to drive a stick shift.

But Corey learned pretty damn quick.

[Aviation @xAviation]

There’s really no bad angle on a 747.

📸: gyula_aviation

[Ace² 🔜 idk @LN2_R0gue]

"My law breaking is fine, your law breaking isnt"

[Jeff Gluck @jeff_gluck]

Pasting the full NASCAR press release here because it’s so unusual. This is honestly a great way for NASCAR to have some fun with driver storylines and not be so stiff/corporate. Stir it up a little, why not?

[Airways Magazine @airwaysmagazine]

Qantas' stunning "Yam Dreaming" 787-9 on final for 26R.

📸: Ethan Hermawan / Airways

#qantas #boeing #avgeek

[Brad Valentine @bv1244a]

You mean stupid shift. Prefer my iPad over a stupid IFE screen.

[JonNYC @xJonNYC]

Looks like we know the man who gets the credit for this huge AA shift

[The Ghost of Cal Raleigh @D0ntgetdoogled]

I still remember this. The amount of chaos that ensued was unreal.
Heads up play by the goat Cal Raleigh. And honestly one of the best hits Dylan Moore ever took on our team.

Mariners have a big game today. Will the momentum continue??!? Let’s go boys!

[StreamerBatch @StreamerBatch]

when you get added to a random soccer mom group chat by mistake (1/2)

[@miami_rick 🇺🇸✈️ @miami_rick]

Later tonight I’ll be flying our very own museum piece and last ever produced 747 N863GT into Guadalajara, Mexico. It’s been a few years since I’ve flown into that airport so I’m very much looking forward to landing there again. As of now the arrival is planned for a very early 03:20am local time (09:20Z). Winds are expected to be from the southeast at 10 knots starting at 21:00Z with thunderstorms and rain in the vicinity expected between 23:00Z and 03:00Z just prior to our arrival and then the winds die down to calm starting at about 06:00Z. My question for the locals or those who operate in and out of there regularly: what’s the preferred arrival runway when the winds are calm?

[Brad Valentine @bv1244a]

@xJonNYC Dumbass. Cough cough dumbass.

[KC-10 Driver ✈️ 👨‍✈️ B-737 Wrangler @MCCCANM]

The flyovers in DC are great & I’m glad we’re doing it.

It’s a *massive* effort, though. Ground crews, ATC, pilots, spare jets & crews as well as a host of others. Tankers to top everyone off. The logistics are wild.

To everyone that worked today to make it happen:

THANK YOU!

[Airline Reporter @AirlineReporter]

Our fav AvGeek spot of the new C Concourse expansion at @flySEA? The Lookout a C, where you can plane spot!

[Airline Reporter @AirlineReporter]

We are touring the new C Concourse at @flySEA and so far, we are very impressed!

[Fireball @NASCARFireball]

I think what sticks out most to me with NASCAR on Prime is it makes NASCAR feel like a big deal

FOX and NBC treat NASCAR like an afterthought. Prime gives NASCAR the same love they do NBA and NFL, and the drivers feel like famous athletes appearing in commercials for big brands