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- A Thousand Miles from Nowhere
Thanksgiving travel might not be so much fun today:
Thousands of Airbus planes had to be grounded for a software update after it was discovered that intense solar radiation could interfere with onboard flight control computers.
Around 6,000 A320 planes were thought to be affected - half the European firm's global fleet - but many were able to fly again within hours after undergoing the update.
The UK's aviation regulator said there would be "some disruption and cancellations to flights" though the impact at airports appears to be limited.
Airbus said it discovered the issue after an investigation into an incident in which a plane flying between the US and Mexico suddenly lost altitude in October.
The A320 family is one of the largest fleets of narrow body single aisle airliners. American Airlines had 209 planes affected, but they say they have fixed them all. Juan Browne at the Blancolirio YouTube channel has a video with all the gory details. The grounding is related to an incident on a JetBlue airliner which suffered an uncommanded pitch down while on cruise on autopilot, which injured some passengers and forced a diversion.
I came across a stranded traveler yesterday on a narrow road that snakes its way across the mountains to a remote beach village on Baja. He was traveling with his five year-old boy and his old vehicle had stalled out. I was able to pull out my Starlink so he could call his brother, who drove the 10 km from the beach town to rescue him. He, and his brother, were the only cars we saw on this road all day. We left him with some snacks and drinks before we left.
I’m writing this using the Starlink connection from a small cafe on the beach. The first time we traveled in Baja was prior to the wide adoption of Starlink, and the WiFi in remote Baja areas was either nonexistent or terrible. Now, it’s commonplace. That must have some impact on life in these areas, but I have no idea what it has been or what it will be.
The Starlink dish I have, the Mini, is about the size of a sheet of paper, weighs a couple of pounds, and uses very little power. It’s the second Starlink we’ve bought, and it’s a huge improvement. The first one used more power and was far more sensitive about obstructions that blocked its view of satellites. (Starlink connects to low earth orbit satellites as they whiz by overhead, constantly switching between them. So trees, hills, or anything else between the dish and the satellite can block the signal.) The new dish has software that “remembers” obstructions and avoids them. It’s as fast as decent home cable Internet connection.
I do hate giving Elon Musk money, and I might switch to Amazon’s “Leo” system when it is available for consumer use, but Starlink is a huge contributor to our quality of life. I take some satisfaction in knowing that, even though Starlink is expensive, it’s almost certainly a huge money-loser, like everything else Elon does.
The title is inspired from Joe’s early Thanksgiving post. Maybe we should start a series. Both of us, and really Kay, too, have spent our lives places that media and popular culture consider “nowhere”.
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