I spent the first years of my life in a tiny village on the southern tip of the island of Malta in the Mediterranean Sea. Wind permitting, arriving aircraft – mostly bringing tourists from northern Europe to Malta to enjoy the island’s mild climate – would fly along the eastern coast before drawing a graceful arc with the tip of their wings as they executed a 180 degree right-hand turn around the southern tip of the island to line up for arrival on runway 31.
As they came out of the bank, they would make landfall over St. George’s Bay. That’s when they would come into earshot. Whenever I heard an aircraft, I would dash out of the house and there, from the elevated position of our front porch, I would watch them slowly, gracefully and elegantly glide down behind a line of low hills that separated our village from the airport just a few kilometres away.
Of course, all this was many years ago and I am now an adult. But even so, some things never change and even today I still turn my head at the sound of an airplane.
So as you see, I have had a passion for aviation, flying and travel for as long as I can remember.
knightofmalta 
Hello – I stumbled across your website today while looking for photos of Swiss aircraft. What a treat. I share your passion for airliners and travel and find your stories and photographs absolutely fascinating. Amazing job.
Regards, Stephen Mullis
North Carolina, USA
Hi Stephen
Thanks for taking the time to comment and for the encouragement. I’m starting a bit late this year, first trip doesn’t start until the end of February. Do you travel much too?
Cheers,
William
hi knightofmalta, will check in biz class f AUA Bkk – Vienna tonight, came across your review, wonderful, thanks
kind regards Mag
Hi Mag
Thanks for taking the time to comment. I hope you enjoy the flight.
Cheers,
William
Grüezi William,
Being from Zurich and a frequent flyer myself, I always truly enjoy the moments when I realize there is a new post about your travel adventures. Depending on the time of the day, I crab a cup of coffee or a drink and read your latest post, often comparing with my very own experience of bespoke airline, and/or aircraft, and/or airport.
In the air since 1961, I’ve seen many places you write about, however my very own list of aircraft types flown for obvious reasons is far longer, starting with the Vickers Viscounts of BEA or Arkia, Avro 748 of Austrian, including a Boeing 707 of Dan Air leased by Air Malta flying from Zurich to your lovely island back in 1977.
I always trusted your judgement till the moment I’ve seen your socks in your recent post on the way to Muscat! 😉 Just kidding, having been London based for five years, I love colorful socks. Actually I was more worried about what you were wearing at all seeing so much of your legs. But that mystery was solved in the following post…
However I would say that the seat map of Oman Air’s Airbus 330-300 posted in your recent report about the onward journey to Kuala Lumpur is their old version with the original 1-2-1 business class configuration, whereas you’ve flown in the current staggered business class version with 2-2-2, though all with aisle access.
Now I immediately need to dive into your latest report about your trip to Colombo – last time I’ve been there was on a Swissair DC-10-30 flight through Athens, Karachi and Bombay…
Thank you for your great reports and keep posting!
Beat
Hi Beat
I’ll have you know those socks are on the cutting edge of the avantgarde! But seriously, thanks a lot for your comments. I think it’s always nice to get feedback from people who read the blog, whether it’s good or bad.
I must say I envy you though. I would have really loved to try the Viscount and I think I would give an arm and a leg just to hear the sound of the B 707 spooling again…
William
Hi William
Gratulation for an interesting blog! I am fascinating as well from the Aviation Business, that is the reason, that I started to collect Airlines Teaspoons. Yes, it is a crazy hobby but it is not so commen like Safety Cards. Unfortunately I am not a frequent flyer as you are, so maybe you could think at me on your next trip and add some new spoons to my Collection?? I would be very happy to swap the Airlines spoons against Swiss Chocolate or something else in return 🙂 Best regards and keep on going with that blog
Hi William,
What a wonderful blog! I enjoyed reading of your experiences at Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong – which I am all too familiar with, but more especially about SAS to / from China. Helped me get a feel of what to expect on an upcoming trip with them.
Looking forward to browsing your other trip diaries over the next few months… (years?!)
Best wishes
Nik
Hi Nik,
Thanks for taking the time to write a comment. It’s always nice to hear/read that people are enjoying the blog. I started writing originally because I was travelling more and more for work, and figured it would be a good way to pass the time. I didn’t ever think I’d be travelling so much for so long…
In any case, I hope you’ll enjoy SAS. They’re nothing spectacular but definitely solid.
Best wishes,
William
Hi William,
I have been a longtime reader of your blog for over 5 years now. I am a student preparing to enter university next year, and I am very interested in entering the aviation industry (not as a flight student, though). I’m curious about your work with ICAO and what I assume are various countries’ aviation authorities? I’d be delighted if you could share what type of work you do and how you progressed in your career in the aviation field. I’m also interested in learning about careers in aviation in general, since this kind of information is difficult to find on the internet. I would really appreciate it if I could gain such knowledge from you. I’m looking forward to hearing from you via my email if you prefer not making it public. Thank you very much in advance, and I’m excited to read what’s to come on the blog!
Best regards,
Justin
Hi Justin,
Thanks for your mail. It’s good to see you are not deterred by the current situation. I have no idea what the future holds for aviation, obviously. And that’s why the industry needs young people like you to reinvent aviation once the pandemic is over.
I’m happy to answer your questions, but it’s difficult to know where to begin. As you’re thinking ahead of your future career, perhaps I should start by saying that I think you should try to remain a moving target for as long as you can. What I mean by this is that it’s good if you know that you want to work in aviation. But try to remain open to other things too. I studied linguistics because I was always interested in languages. And I’ve always been an aviation geek. But I never thought that one day I could combined my studies with my hobby. That was ultimately down to a bit of good luck, an important chance meeting with somebody who helped me in many ways, and a lot of coincidence.
I will write again soon to explain some of the stuff I’ve been involved in. But if you have any specific questions, just go right ahead and I will try to answer. Or at least point you in the direction where you may find an answer. Would that work?
Best wishes,
William
Hi William,
It’s great to hear back from you. I definitely realize the specificity of pursuing a career in the aviation world, and that’s one of the reasons I wanted to learn more about it. I do have an alternate career path of joining the family business in the medical field, but my interest in that field is by nature of growing up around it rather than being very passionate about it. You are right: it is difficult to know where to begin since careers is a very broad subject, and I am approaching this with what little information exists readily on the internet.
I’ll list a few of the “sectors” that I know of, and maybe you can share your thoughts on those or others which I do not have listed. I’m not sure which “sector” you are in, but I am more interested in business, operations, and development in the industry, rather than safety or technology.
1) The teams at airlines and airports team that collaborate to establish new routes; they could also meet at Routes conferences. My home airport calls it the International Marketing and Aviation Development team. RoutesOnline was one of the first industry websites I read on a regular basis since I was 11 years of age.
2) Airport managers and other operations staff. I was under the impression that these jobs do not pay well, but each of the airport duty managers at my home airport seem to earn decent to excellent salaries, depending on seniority (all civil servants’ salaries are publicly available). I am much less familiar about what roles exist at airlines, however.
3) National government agencies in transportation or aviation specifically, plus IATA & ICAO. I understand that these jobs focus on the regulation and development of the industry as a whole.
4) Global consulting firms such as McKinsey, as well as smaller firms. I believe this is where much of the problem-solving and new innovations take place, but I have not found much information about this.
There are obviously many more, but I am seeking to learn more about the major employment sectors in the industry (business/operations/development/possibly regulatory) and what sort of careers fit into those sectors.
Thanks so much for your willingness to be of assistance. I feel a bit bad for writing such a long, personal message in your public comments section, so if you wish, please feel free to respond via email.
Sincerely,
Justin
P.S. I too have an amateur interest in world languages (not necessarily linguistics specifically). I will always stop to listen to foreign PA’s and try to replicate pronunciation, learn vocabulary words, etc. I am also trying to improve my intermediate fluency in Chinese & French (funny how I can recite a full safety demonstration in both languages though). I’d love to hear about how your work intersects your two passions if you are willing to share!