Scania and International Face Off

Glenn Adams sent us these webcam grabs from Germany of our new mast truck (white) nose to nose with the Scania mast truck (blue).

Looking in.

The ship kiting in the wind makes getting the shots a challenge

NASAs visitor lounge taken over

What clothes look good with an airship?

Shoes?

Eureka is the setting for a fashion shoot today.

Home again

Hello NASA!

Interviews

Ricardo, the KGO contest winner being interviewed.

Hovering

Working on photo opps for KGO

Happy engineer

Rob from KGO who gets it all to work.

Sunrise

24

Broadway

Oakland wakes up. Headed towards the Caldecott tunnel for a traffic
report.

Toll plaza

Headed to SF.

Breaking news....

Fire in Berkeley... Crews arrived and it's now out!

Coming up..

Jennifer waits for the next segment.

Smiles

Joanne after some coffee! Waiting for the Sun to come up.

Good morning San Francisco!

Watching the Bay wake up.

Getting the news

Jennifer Jones gets a script update as we cruise up hwy 101.

Dark O'Clock

Joanne (Director of Sales) and myself are already at our HQ this morning, just checking in the KGO folks for our live morning breakfast show from the air. It's calm outside and very very quiet! Yours truly is about to perform the safety briefing (yes - how the lifejackets work, the seatbelt and all that). In a small company such as ours, it helps to be able to do such things! I'll be on the flight for the show, so I'll post as the sun comes up. Now, where is the coffee...?

Fun Visitor

Today we were delighted to meet with Marcelo da Luz, his team, and his solar powered car project. It was especially fun to have this UFO-like vehicle on the NASA airfield - perfect for staging a 'Take Me To Your Leader' photo caption! NASA are really encouraging green aviation and transportation ideas - some of our neighbors at NASA Ames include alternative algae based fuels.

Anyway, we think it looks great with Hangar One in the background, and with the airship.

A Green Pint

A day early, but we're hoisting a green pint to St. Patrick at our "return to service" BBQ.

(Note the vintage Goodyear airship advertisement in the background.)

Test Flight..

Today is our 'return to flight' day after the annual maintenance. Eureka took to the air an hour or so ago after all the engine run up tests were completed. Our chief engineer, Matthew, just sent me this from his iphone... Fritz in the left seat, Jim in the right. Yay!

Light at the end of the tunnel

Our annual maintenance cycle is almost complete. We're looking forward to our "return to service" "lederhosen luncheon" party next week.

Stairway to...

What is the best way to get into the rear ballonet for inspection? The "belly button"!

[Brian seems to be fixated on this aspect of the airship! Here's his previous post on it. - Alex]

The gondola has been empty

For the past few weeks, the toilet and all of the seats and toilet have been removed. Soon enough everything will be replaced, all polished and ready to go for season 2.

Our new mast truck coming along nicely

As much as we love the Mercedes and the MAN mast trucks, one day the MAN will go back to Germany, and we will have this new mast truck (built to US specifications) to take its place.

Handling: " A Little Floaty"

Yes, the Road and Track April Fools edition is up on the website featuring a test of our Zeppelin, "Eureka".

Enjoy.

Back at Base

Photo of the mast system remote at night

Interviewing Kate

Golden Gate Park

Mike plus on-board router

Live from the euuuuuureka!

Lloyd Lindsay Young (left), KGO weatherman, and Bret Burkhart, reporter, begin a broadcast.

Live in 5!

KGO team setting up the feed...

Live Broadcast Today on KGO News Radio

Airship Ventures Zeppelin "Eureka" takes to the air today, in our first live radio broadcast on local radion station KGO AM 810. We'll be doing the drive time show, 4pm to 7pm. Folks not local to San Francisco can hear it via a live audio stream at the KGO web site.

An Underwater Look at the USS Macon Wreckage

Searching iTunes today, I found this informative video on the Macon debris field provided by Stanford University. You can download it for free from iTunes

Our route yesterday

Our route yesterday took us from Moffett Field, to Marina Airport, a 1 hour tour of the Monterey Bay, followed by a 2 hour Macon commemorative flight out to Point Sur, back to Marina, and then home.

Marking the moment...

After telling the story of the two airmen who perished this day in 1935, Chris dropped some roses in remembrance.

Pt. Sur Lighthouse

Passing the Point Sur Lighthouse on our way to the crash site...

Macon debris field briefing

As part of the pre-flight briefing, Chris Grech of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) showed some sub-surface views of the Macon debris field and led a discussion regarding the history of the event and exploration of the site since it was re-discovered in 1991.

Marina Airport

Mike Hart, Airship Pirate

Mike wearing his Abney Park airship pirate shirt. We frisked him upon discovery.

Moss Landing

Departing for Marina 12:18pm

Busy week (what flights to Monterey look like)

A nice graph from the satellite tracker showing our trip down to Monterey and back last weekend.

Hangar Flying Coffee Drinking

We invited a local group of pilots over today to share wisdom and swap
stories.

Doing the quarter mile with Road & Track

Road & Track invited us to show our stuff - 0 to 60, 60 to 0, 360 in place and 'landing on a dime' among other fun tasks. The team are having a blast! Can't wait to see it in print.

Airship Ventures at Macworld Expo

Thom and Brian M. Staffing the Airship Ventures pod at Macworld Expo.

Back to Monterey in January!

We liked it so much, we're headed back to Monterey January 16, 17 and 18!

Tickets are available for the transit flight down to Monterey and back as well as for flights during that weekend. If you missed out last time, or are curious to see the delights of this wonderful part of the California coastline, call our guest services team (650) 969 8100.

The Size is Deceptive

We're getting some new clothes, well, an additional branding. Our phone number is not so easy to read on the underneath if the airship is flying the 'wrong way'. We also still meet people every day that see 'Eureka' and have no idea that you can buy a ticket to fly because, well, you can't do that on the blimps that come to the Bay Area. So we came up with something very simple that tells people you can fly with us. Here is a wonderful picture of Josef from Airbornegrafix lying on the floor with one of the side decal sets. Its huge!