Wings of Paradise: Hawaii's Incomparable Airlines

Recently received my copy of this new book, and read it over the holiday weekend. I enjoyed it immensely, and recommend it to anyone interested in Hawaii's aviation history. Unlike some of the previous books, it covers the entire industry, rather than focusing on either Hawaiian Airlines (as in Kennedy's Hawaiian Air) or Aloha Airlines (50 Years of Aloha, published by Aloha Airlines itself). Both of these books are slanted towards the history of the airline's story they're trying to tell, such as often referring to Aloha as "Brand X" in Kennedy's Hawaiian Air. You get some of this feeling from Wings of Paradise, as well, but because it alternates between telling the story of Hawaiian, Aloha, Mid Pacific, Royal Hawaiian, Discovery, Mahalo, and others, you get a pretty balanced picture in the end.

My biggest complaint with the book is that it's a bit short on recent details. Coverage of Island Air, for example, is pretty much limited to the start as Princeville Airways, the acquisition by Aloha and name change to Aloha IslandAir, the crash on Molokai, and the final name change to Island Air, and the sale to Gavarnie Holding, though the acquiring company isn't mentioned by name in the book. Omitted from Island Air's history is the airline's brief flirtation with the Dornier Do 228 and eventual replacement of the Twin Otters with the Dash 8. It also missed the point that a contributing factor to Mahalo Air's downfall was the replacement of new ATR-42s with older examples that ended up costing the airline a lot in maintenance expenses. I can forgive omission of some of the recent events due to the lead time in book publishing, such as Island Air's planned acquisition of Q400 aircraft and details on Mesa and FlyHawaii's plans (though FlyHawaii is also not mentioned by name). But completely omitting Pacific Wings is a definite oversight.

However, one must keep in mind that it's easer to find out about more recent events, and perhaps omitting them now is reasonable course of action in favor of waiting to see how they effect the industry in the long term.

Movies

I realized today that the last movie I saw in a theater is out on DVD. This can mean one of several things, or more likely, a combination of all.

1. I don't see enough movies.
2. Most movies aren't worth watching in theaters.
3. Movie to DVD time is a lot lower than it used to be for VHS.
   

Green Day Videos

I was watching a few Green Day videos earlier today (American Idiot, Holiday, and Boulevard of Broken Dreams, if you must know) and noticed they had a green tint to them. At first I was thinking it was a reference to The Matrix, where the simulated world of the Matrix is presented with a green tint, drawing a sort of connection to the two.

Then I remembered the name of the band...

Website back up

Finally, my web site is back up. Took longer to get the DSL installed in my new apartment than I originally expected.

Web Site Down

Yes, my web site that hosts Quanterium.com including The Mueller Quadrant and Mid Pacific Images is currently down. I expect it should be back up around November 1st.

This Can't Be Good

This quote from today's Honolulu Star-Bulletin caught my attention:

Faris said he was surprised the cash-strapped airline has been able to survive this long, and agreed with Aloha that it needs to hasten its emergence from bankruptcy.

It can't be a good sign when your bankruptcy judge is surprised that you're still in business.

I Want My Money Back

First they go to WalMart and steal plasma TVs. Now they're using the money we (the taxpayers) gave them to buy expensive shoes and purses.

Star Trek: New Voyages

If you haven't seen this yet, what are you waiting for? Go. Download. Watch. NOW!

Cats

• Eat
• Sleep
• Stare out window

Did I miss anything?

And then there were 10

All our elementary school science textbooks are now out of date.