Jeju Air and Jin Air - Korean LOCs

Partly (25%) owned by Jeju Provincial Government - Jeju island Korea, this new LOC (Low Cost Carrier) is very interesting business model in the Far-East aviation industry. Jeju island has been developed mainly its tourism industry and today more tourists prefer to fly economic, in other words, the cheaper option attracts more tourists in general. Jeju air owns mainly small airliners such as Bombardier Dash 8 (de Havilland Canada) turboprop airliners and Boeing B737-800.

As high speed railways network is expected to be installed between major cities throughout Asia soon or later, aviation industry is in need of maintaining customers. Jeju Air is one example and another is Jin Air.

Jin Air is a subsidiary owned by Korean Air. Why the Korean national flag - Korean Air entered into the LOC is because there are three main reasons (in my opinion)

1: KTX (Korea Train Express) - TGV (France) bullet train which was expected to steal customers.

2: New airlines were expected to be LOCs such as Jeju Air (as mentioned before) and Hansung Airlines based in Chungcheong.

3: Any huge national flag aviation giants are in need of connecting passengers for their main long haul routes which generally LOCs cannot deal as it is rare for LOCs to have bigger airliners. Under the massive competition from LOCs, even bigger airlines are in need of adjusting to low fare.

This whole of the battles in the Korean market will be soon brought to other Asian nations. Japan or China should deregulate the market more flexibly, otherwise neither customers nor the airlines will not be able to get the benefit as long as the entire airlines and the authority are afraid of possible changes (even the results of the deregulation will be positive to all).

PS: ANA (All Nippon Airways) plans to install own LOC.

FSX on new 13-inch Aluminum Macbook

New Macbook has been released. Unlike previous white Macbook, new Macbook looks similar to Macbook Air, aluminum body. The price from 1.299USD (2.0GHz) and 1.599USD (2.4GHz) Intel Core 2 Duo CPU with 2GB memory and Geforce 9400 M.

More expensive than previous white Macbook not much difference in terms of CPU but the GPU is what makes new version expensive. Nvidia Geforce 9400M G is what makes Macbook (not only Macbook Pro) a huge graffic advantage as well as the capability of HD video.

IF anybody willing to play FSX on this Macbook, from what I can understand all specs about this new Macbook, I would strongly suggest upgrading memory to 4GB for 150USD extra as FSX is very much graffic demanding soft.

Already cnet has previewed how Apple Macbook (Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M) performs and the result is promising, although I doubt very much without upgrading to 4GM memory and installing Windows XP just for playing FSX with integrated mobile graffic card might not be reasonable but the only about capability is enough for basic fsx playing.

New Macbook Pro has 2 GPUs (Geforce 9400M and 9600GT) without any doubt, its a fsx playable machine.

FSX flying online

FSX - Flight Simulator X, users can fly online together with pilots around the world directly connecting to one of many servers via multi-players module already equipped in the game.

OR VATSIM (Visual Air Traffic Flight Simulation Network)

There are something users should follow just not to annoy other players and fly just like in the real world with navigation as all airplanes should follow the ATC navigation flying on route. SID (Standard Instrument Departure) or STAR and Aeronautical Charts.

Some useful sites

Route Finger (free)

What all you need is to type the departure and the destination airport codes and the result page tells you the route for any flight which you can use the WP (Way Point) for setting up the FMC (Flight Management Computer) - note: this site provides WP NOT for real flight (limited to online flight only). If you seek for real aviation world, read the chapter "AeroPlanner"

squawkbox (free)

Communication program for online pilots which is designed for online chat tool - very important for communicating with the ATC.

AeroPlanner (recommended payment service)

Online Flight Planning site which can be used free for EAA members. This site is basically for professional pilots, but also for some advanced FSX pilots.

The following video is the perfect tutorial of SID and STAR

Boeing B747-800 Intercontinental

Boeing B747-800 is the extended version of B747-400 with longer body with the passenger capacity between B777 and A380, Lufthansa has already ordered B747-800 just to take cover different demands, but for now B747-800 will be more often used for freighter (B747-8F) as the delay and cancellation of A380 caused this.

B747-800 will be the longest commercial airliner (240 ft or 76.4m) than the current longest A340. Unlike A340, B747-800 will be not only the longest airliner but more fuel efficient airliner than B747-400.

Although Boeing Yellowstone project Y3 new generation high capacity long range airliner is unknown. The demand for long range airliner will be questioned as the world economy struggles. It is the only question of the replacement of the current B747-400 is about to retire soon, so maybe the announcement of Y3 new airliner will be too late. Also the biggest problem will be more likely the choice of jet engine GEnx (the same as B787) will be the only engine supplier for 10 years, this will leave British Airways or Qantas the current No.1 B747-400 user impossible without Rolls-Royce Trent engines.

My personal verdict: B747-800 will be VERY popular but only limited to the best freighter choice. Would like rather choosing A380 for the high passenger capacity or B787 and B777 for the medium capacity, not sure any reason to go for B747-800 as the world airlines fear the greatest difficulty for even more tough competitions.

B747-800

How to make FSX video for Youtube

Many FSX fans make many fsx videos just like myself, I would like to suggest for anybody interested in making fsx video.

What do you need?

1: Flight Simulator X (game soft). It is a MUST requirement.

2: Video capture software: FSX itself has photo capture feature integrated, but for making video, video capture soft is required.

GameCam (payware or freeware), payware covers sound, but if you plan to make a video without original sound but with other music file, freeware version is just perfect. From my personal experience, GameCam running on Windows Vista with DX10 not working properly (should be fixed), otherwise it is just too good.

Fraps is DX / OPEN GL "screen" capture soft. It can capture practically anything running on the PC screen. It is also free but I have no idea how to capture sound.

3: Windows Movie Maker: video editor, adding information and music. It is inevitable for the edit purpose alone.

For Windows XP: Windows Movie Maker 2.1 Download site

For Windows Vista: Windows Movie Maker 2.6 for Vista

The difference between XP and Vista version is HD support which is very little to do with game capture.

ADVICE:

When you make any video for YouTube in particular, the best quality of Video can be watched on YouTube site is 3.0mb/s DVD quality. YouTube prefers 4:3 video.

There are many Tutorial videos on Video Capture software or Windows Movie Maker on YouTube.

LOC (Low Cost Carrier)

LOC (Low Cost Carrier) or budget airline has been the key success in the free aviation market. Airlines which fly as low cost as they can manage, in order to make profits. Today even big International airlines try to have own LOC, some reasons should be addressed.

1: short haul flight, city hopper,  are not necessary to pay expensive ticket specially tourists. No need for meal nor drink as Catering service costs airlines.

2: long haul, tourist routes which are not necessary in need of business class. Because long haul flights depend on business passengers in most of cases, this is the reason, even long haul flights might also be operated by LOC.

3: ticketing and ground workers: ticketing is normally via web, as passengers can buy tickets at home, this reduces the system cost and ground staff work force.

"generally" LOCs use smaller planes and not many different types of airliners for the maintenance and pilot cost. Airbus A320, A330, Boeing B737 and also Embraer E-jets. Bombardier CRJ. More smaller airliners will be the main force for the LOCs to make more profits mainly because smaller airliner with high average passengers per flight.