Bizarre Dec. 24 flight plan filed...TTC escalator woes...Jim's Deals of the Day
I just heard about this and it's a little spooky. It seems that somebody has filed a flight plan with NAV CANADA for Thursday night and plans to make what might be the longest flight in world history, with MILLIONS of stops around Canada and, this is really hard to fathom, all around the world.
I'll let the good folks at NAV CANADA take it from there.
NAV CANADA reports that a flight plan for an aircraft departing the North Pole on December 24, 2009 has been filed with millions of destinations in Canada and around the world.
NAV CANADA says it has not handled a flight plan of this size for about a year noting that this breaks the record that was set on December 24 -25 2008 by a Mr. K Kringle. NAV CANADA does not reveal the identity of pilots filing flight plans but an unnamed source confirmed that it is Mr. Kringle. “The paperwork says Kris Kringle, but everyone knows him as Santa Claus,” said the NAV CANADA source speaking on the condition of anonymity.
The details are confidential, but NAV CANADA has confirmed that aircraft will carry a huge cargo of brightly coloured packages and will fly at a tremendous speed guided by a flashing red light at the nose of the craft.
“That red light makes the aircraft’s nose so bright. It worked especially well on one foggy Christmas Eve several years back,” recalled one air traffic controller.
A new feature of this year’s special flight will be high-tech equipment on board the sleigh that will allow NAV CANADA to pick up the flight as it flies over Hudson Bay on the Company’s new Automatic Dependent Surveillance - Broadcast (ADS-B) System.
In the past, when it flew over the 850,000 square kilometres of Hudson Bay the sleigh would disappear from the radar screens because of the lack of surveillance coverage. “That was always a concern, but the situation has now been resolved with our new ADS-B system around the Bay and the North Pole’s decision to invest in the on-board equipment,” says a NAV CANADA spokesperson.
Great stuff, guys. Thanks.
ESCALATING TTC ISSUES
I know this is a travel blog, but I have to travel to get to work to write my blog most days, so cut me a little slack. I should probably pass this along to The Fixer at the Star, but I've about had it with the TTC. The token situation is a joke; running out and making people line up to buy tickets and all. I don't mind tickets so much, but there's an automated entrance north of Lawrence Avenue that I like to use, especially in the winter. Tickets won't work at the automated entrances, of course, so I have to trudge two blocks south to the main Lawrence station in the morning. Then I get inside and have to backtrack another block north to get to the platform. It's not a big deal for me, but there are a lot of seniors in the area and it's a hardship for them to have to walk another two blocks, especially if we get some snow and ice.
It's the TTC's fault for screwing up the token situation with the price hike, so shouldn't they at least put someone at the automated stations to take tickets in the morning? Is that too much to ask?
Worse, for most people, are the STUPID escalators at the north end of Lawrence. They're constantly being repaired. And I mean constantly. It's rare not to see huge piles of escalator equipment lying on the platform, surrounded by ugly, plastic screens to keep people away. Workers come regularly and spend months in repairs, then come back and do it all over again a few weeks later. Can't they build a friggin escalator that works?
It's a minor inconvenience, as there are two escalators. USUALLY the one that goes up is the one that's left operating during construction. That still creates issues for people who have a hard time getting DOWN five flights of stairs, and there are lots of folks with walkers or canes or who have trouble with their knees or joints. But what's remarkably idiotic is that twice in the past week I got home after a long day of work and found that the single escalator that was in operation was going DOWN! That meant thousands of folks had to trudge up 70 or 80 stairs, then go through the turnstiles and walk up another 30 stairs to get to the street.
COME ON GUYS, THIS ISN'T ROCKET SCIENCE!
JIM'S DEALS OF THE DAY
Okay, that's enough. It's the season to be jolly, so here are a couple of ways to enjoy Toronto's winter. Just hope the escalators are working at Pearson (sorry; can't help myself).
http://www.travelalerts.ca/ccount12/click.php?id=2007
http://www.travelalerts.ca/ccount12/click.php?id=2008
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