747SP

Our illustrious fleet director has a new love - the 747SP. Tommie painted up this one in vintage AeroTexas colors. According to Wikipedia, the idea for the 747SP came from a request by Pan Am for a 747 variant capable of carrying a full payload non-stop on its longest route between New York and Tokyo. It set a world record in 1976 as the "Liberty Bell Express", when it was flown around the world in 46.43 hours, starting at JFK on May 1st with two stopovers (Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi and Tokyo-Haneda Airport).

For Members Only

One feature available to all members is a map view for each member's last 100 flights. Click on the link, "View a map of last 100 legs" to view the routes you have flown.

Charter flights have returned!

Today I'm happy to announce that AeroTexas's "Daily Flight" series has returned. Currently the plan is to update this several times throughout the day, but for now the daily flight will be just that - one flight per day. The daily flight assignments will include private and corporate charter flights, as well as temporary codeshares with select commercial airlines. This is a roundtrip flight too, with the first leg departing from a Part 139 airport. The destination however may be anything from a major airport in a metropolitan area, to a small municipal strip in the middle of little podunk! Pick your plane wisely. For now you can at least be comforted by the fact that destination charters are required to have at least a 3000 foot runway. The daily flight assignment will also be tweeted!

Click here to view The Daily Flight

FuelJabber Updated

FuelJabber is AeroTexas' own fuel planner that estimates fuel usage and requirements based on enroute times and fuelage values for selected flight simulator aircraft. Recently updated, FuelJabber uses the latest fuelage statistics to estimate fuel, and has been expanded to allow for time-based as well as distance-based fuel planning.

Check it out here.

Aircraft Popularity Ratings + Fuel Usage Patterns

Data from the AeroTexas logbook indicates that the top three most-used aircraft since January 2007 were:

Boeing 737-700 (563 flights)
Convair 240 (543 flights)
Canadair Regional Jet 200 (479 flights)

Listed in the table below are the top 30 aircraft, listed from high to low, along with fuel usage averages (click on the table to enlarged):


EQPT = aircraft ICAO code, N = number of flights, PPH = pounds per hour, PPNM = pounds per nautical mile, GPH = gallons per hour

VATSIM Status

We have a prototype of a new tool for checking the online status of VATSIM controllers. This tool displays Center controllers only - no Tower, Approach, or ATIS. It also displays route info for any AeroTexas members who happen to be on VATSIM. Check it out here

Website Update

The Squawks page is now operational again. It has not been collecting squawks except for pilot personal logs since April 13, so it seems a bit dated, but that will change as members post comments along with their flight report.

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The cargo page is now being fed with a new dispatcher.

ATR42-30 "Alamo Design"

A sneak peek into something Tommie has been working on over at the hangar...

VATMEX Fly-In

At the fly-in yesterday I heard ATX31 on Houston Center frequency and we set up a chat for most of the flight to Mexico City. He was dogedly trying to get ZHU's attention for liftoff from Laredo, and I had been airborne for a while, departing earlier from Austin. Actually ZHU was so busy, and I must have been just ahead of the horde lining up in Houston so my first contact with any ATC was entering MMTY airspace. They had two controllers on frequency - one speaking English and the other Spanish, so it was sort of a DI-lingual staffing. I flew the Vista Liners Boeing 727-100 Beta with a panel of my own mashed-up design. ATX31 was flying the CRJ-200. The airwaves were busy, but we got good attention from all the VATMEX staffed throughout Mexico. Closer to Mexico City, the terrain rose to the South and West and we got instructions to fly the TAMAL1A. In Mexico, there is a different terminal arrival procedure for each approach. We were cleared for the approach to Runway 5R, and this was my view from the flight deck.



Also notice the mass of radar echos - there's a lot of aircraft in the area. This was a fun event and I hope VATMEX does it again sometime soon.

VATMEX Fly-In Today

The !VIVA MÉXICO¡ Fly In begins today at 6:PM CDT (2300Z). AeroTexas has approved a good selection of round-trip flights to Mexico City. Suggested flight plans are below (thanks Ben!). You are encouraged to check the VATMEX Website for the latest information. See you in the air this evening - check the aerotexas voice channel during the event.

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Flight Plans

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ARRIVING Mexico City:
KAUS-MMMX: AUS2.SAT.J21.TMN.VITOS1A
KHOU-MMMX: PSX3.PSX.J177.TAM.UJ14.TMN.VITOS1A
KSAT-MMMX: BOWIE3.LRD.J21.TMN.VITOS1A
KELP-MMMX: CJS.UJ47.SLP.UJ45.QET.KOBEK1A

Departing Mexico City:
MMMX-KAUS: BETER1.BETER.J177.TAM.UJ19.MAM.J25.BRO.J25.CWK
MMMX-KHOU: BETER1.BETER.J177.TAM.UJ53.AGUAS.UJ25.CRP.LISSE6
MMMX-KSAT: BETER1.BETER.J177.TAM.UJ19.MAM.J25.BRO.J25.CRP.LEMIG1
MMMX-KELP: [SID].TLC.J13.PTJ.UJ45.SLP.UJ47.TRC.J42.DEL.UJ27.OMVAV

Status Updates and NOTAMS feed

AeroTexas now has two new ways for you to keep up with your favorite airline.



1. NOTAMS, as well as general updates to content and the website, are syndicated and fed directly to your feed reader. RSS Feeds are a way for websites large and small to distribute their content well beyond just visitors using browsers. Feeds permit subscription to regular updates, delivered automatically via a web portal, news reader, or in some cases good old email.

Click here to get the live feed






2. Some updates are simply digested better in small bites. Daily charter flights, hourly cargo assignments, and instant reports of PIREPS and squawks. We're also tweeting fuel jabs, and soon route plans. You don't need an account to view twitter posts, but twitter users can follow AeroTexas tweets in real time.

Follow AeroTexas on Twitter

Pilot Stats

A new feature has been to the Members Only area of the website. Members can now view an array of statistics from their flight log:

A table that lists for each equipment type used:
Total Flights by aircraft
Total Hours by aircraft
Total Miles by aircraft

A table that summarizes the pilot's landing performance:

On-time percentage: of all flights and the last 10 flights!
Landing performance: average vertical speed of all flights and the last 10 flights!

A table that tallies the flight rule in effect based on the weather when you landed, as well as categories for CAT II and CAT III approaches in Low IFR.