The Super Returns

After a two-month hiatus, Qantas has brought the Airbus 380 back to LAX: Flight 93 from Melbourne arrived on runway 24 right about 7:30 this morning. I know some of you were hoping for a runway 25 arrival so that you might see it on the Cargo City webcam. Sorry to disappoint, but the arrival runway for the A380 is determined by where the aircraft is going to park on the airport. This is because there are only certain runways and taxiways that can accommodate the behemoth, and it also requires several vehicle escorts anytime it's on the move. Said escorts have to be in position prior to the airplane arriving, and so the whole process is planned out about an hour before the target even shows up on our radar. The preferred gate for the A380 is 123, at the north end of the International Terminal. This is because it's the easiest operation for all concerned: more direct taxi route, fewer vehicle access roads that have to be blocked, and that's the closest gate to the ramp where the airplane will subsequently be towed to spend the day. Gate 101, at the south end of the TBIT, is the second-choice gate, and is usually only used if we have two A380s on the ground at the same time. Since Qantas is reintroducing the A380 on the LAX flights only on a limited basis, I don't expect we'll have to worry about that for a while.

Sorry about that shadow in the middle of the shot - it's the control tower!

And now for something completely different:

This is the first Chevrolet Volt that I've seen outside of an auto show, seen today while parked at the electric vehicle charging station at Terminal One - and yes, there are already two chargers that a Volt can plug into installed here. LAX is a great place to see electric cars; behind the Volt is an electric Toyota RAV4. We also see a number of MINI-Es and Teslas:

Clean windows!

We had clear skies today, and visibility was pretty good until this happened:

This was going to be my excuse for any bad calls I might make, but they finished up before I could get away with anything!

I took this lousy shot yesterday - before they cleaned the windows - and I wish I could blame the dirty windows for the poor quality, but the fact that it was dark is more to blame. Virgin Atlantic used to bring in Airbus 340-300s like this one all the time, but now we usually get A346s.

Speaking of yesterday, the power outage at Terminal One created quite a line of people - all the way to Terminal Two

Departing VIP

One step at a time . . .

It's been said that there's nothing like a little exercise to start your day. Try climbing 20 flights of stairs! Thanks to a blown transformer, a good chunk of LAX was without power this afternoon when I arrived at the tower. When I came in, they had just freed a guy who'd been trapped in the elevator for about a half hour as he was leaving for the day. At that moment, the power was back on, and I was told that the elevator was okay to use. I had one small chore to tend to before I headed up, and while I was getting that done the power went out again. Good thing I needed to make a copy, or else I'd have been the next one stuck in the elevator!

While we were still in the air traffic business thanks to back-up generators, things were pretty much at a standstill in some parts of the airport: Terminals One, Six, Seven, and Eight all were affected by the power outage. Aircraft on the ground couldn't be unloaded because the jetways couldn't be moved up to the doors. Passengers couldn't go through screening because the x-rays. scanners, and metal detectors were all out of service. Southwest, United, Skywest, and Continental all had airplanes delayed or diverted.

By sundown, things were more or less back to normal, and so we were able to appreciate a beautiful sunset:

Qantas A380s to return

Before you get excited - No, the A380s are not back at LAX. Yet. At least one reader has asked when they will be, and it sounds like next week. Qantas has already put their A380s back into service on other routes, so the airplanes can be seen coming and going elsewhere in the world - just lately not in North America.

AP article

Australian Business Traveler article

Huffington Post article

Qantas to resume A380 service - Yahoo News

Air Distances between LA and foreign cities

Long-haul flights - Wikipedia