Points of Interest

Iran's latest challenge to the rest of the world is on airlines' IFE systems. Airlines will be banned from overflying the country unless their IFE uses the term "Persian Gulf" rather than "the Gulf" or "Arabian Gulf" on its IFE moving maps. Aircraft found out of compliance with the requirement are threatened with impounding if not corrected within the next two weeks. The body of water separating Iran from the Arabian Peninsula has historically been called the Persian Gulf, but most Arab countries refer to it as the Arabian Gulf.

The 2010 Winter Olympics open this Friday in Vancouver, so many of you will doubtless be flying there. This winter, SimAirline.net offers flights to Vancouver from 39 foreign and 29 Canadian cities on eight virtual airlines:

International
Air Canada: Beijing Capital, Boston, Cancun, Chicago O'Hare, Denver, Frankfurt Intl., Hong Kong Chek Lap Kok, Honolulu, Ixtapa, Kahului, Kona, Las Vegas, London Heathrow, Los Angeles, Los Cabos, Miami, Montego Bay, Nagoya Centrair, Newark, Osaka Kansai, Phoenix, Portland, Puerto Vallarta, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle/Tacoma, Seoul Incheon, Shanghai Pudong, Sydney, Tokyo Narita, Varadero, Washington Dulles
Alaska: Anchorage, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Palm Springs, Phoenix, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle/Tacoma
British Airways: London Heathrow
Continental: Houston Bush
Delta: Los Angeles, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Portland, Salt Lake City
Hong Kong: Hong Kong Chek Lap Kok
KLM: Amsterdam
Korean Air: Seoul Incheon

Domestic
Air Canada: Calgary, Campbell River, Castlegar, Comox, Cranbrook, Dawson Creek, Edmonton, Ft. McMurray, Ft. St. John, Kamloops, Kelowna, Montreal, Nanaimo, Ottawa, Penticton, Prince George, Prince Rupert, Quesnel, Regina, Sandspit, Saskatoon, Smithers, Terrace, Toronto Pearson, Victoria, Whitehorse, Williams Lake, Winnipeg, Yellowknife

Although the World Cup still isn't for several more months, airline employees have found a unique way to celebrate their love for the beautiful game. Employees at mostly U.S. airports have formed soccer teams that play each other on an occasional regular basis. Teams include:
-Air Tahiti Nui F.C. (Los Angeles)
-Amerijet International
-Aviation Safeguards (JFK T7)
-Barcelona F.C.
-Caribbean Airlines / SunJets F.C.
-Handlex F.C. (Toronto)
-JetBlue Airways - Boston
-JetBlue Airways - Ft. Lauderdale
-JetBlue Strykers F.C. (New York JFK)
-JFK British Airways

You can learn more here.

A replica of a 747's Clipper Class, Pan Am's first class service, has been constructed in Redondo Beach, California. Anthony Toth, a United Airlines employee, created the replica to a late 1970s/1980s timeframe over the course of 20 years and at an expense of $50,000.

Toth, who flew on Pan Am as a child, hopes to some day turn the project into a museum. "There was no other aircraft I could walk on board that intrigued me more than the Pan Am cabin," he says. "Everything symbolized something. That meant something to me as a youngster." On those flights, he saved even the smallest items and photographed much of the aircraft interior and taped the inflight audio entertainment. For more details, you can read the article in the Wall Street Journal.

An article in September's Orient Aviation highlighted Aviation High, a school in the Brisbane suburb of Clayfield. Since opening with 250 students in 2007, it now has approximately 400 who focus their primary education on skills and knowledge to succeed in various fields across aviation. Despite its young age, it already has an excellent reputation for math, science, and engineering.

In its previous life, the facility was Hendra Secondary College, but was an initiative by the Queensland government to direct students into aviation and aerospace careers. Partnering with industry players likes Qantas and Virgin Blue, the school is installing a wind tunnel, radio room, physics laboratories, and is considering a flight simulator. At the end of each academic year, students focus on the business side by competing in AIRLINE Online, one of several airline management games.

"We offer similar subjects to other schools, but with an aerospace and aviation context," says principal Phil Cooper. "For example, if you are going to do maths and you have trigonometry, you look at an aircraft, or the glide path angle of an aircraft coming in. If you are going to do some calculations on volumes you might work out what the fuel tank volume in a wing might be. If we do history it might be the history of aviation. In geography classes we might look at the socioeconomic impact of an airport on the surrounding area."