Grand Rapids Airport (GRR) News and Developments

[walker]

21 hours ago, GRDadof3 said:

What part is horrifying to you? . . .  Personally I like to have a window seat . . . 

WINDOW SEAT:

[Raildude's dad]

20 hours ago, GRDadof3 said:

They do "float." You can push a jet car 500 mph on salt flats and they never go airborne. The difference with a plane is that the air traveling under the wing goes faster than air traveling over the wing. This difference in air pressure causes the plane to lift (float) off the ground.

Oh Jeff my friend, we are going to argue semantics. It's the shape that causes the lift.  It takes a ground speed of 185 mph to get the big silver tube known as a 747 to lift off the ground.  So by Merrian-Webster 185 mph isn't floating.   I'm disagreeing with you all in fun. I'm always impressed when the turbines wind up and off we go pushed back into the seat back, like wise when they reverse thrust with full flaps tp slow down.

Quote

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/float

t

[GRDadof3]

14 hours ago, Raildude's dad said:

Oh Jeff my friend, we are going to argue semantics. It's the shape that causes the lift.  It takes a ground speed of 185 mph to get the big silver tube known as a 747 to lift off the ground.  So by Merrian-Webster 185 mph isn't floating.   I'm disagreeing with you all in fun. I'm always impressed when the turbines wind up and off we go pushed back into the seat back, like wise when they reverse thrust with full flaps tp slow down.

t

To drift on or "through." Bingo.

Yes, the same principle that causes an airliner to lift (float, lol) is the same principle that causes a sailboat to move forward (wind traveling along the back of the sail travels faster than wind on the front side, causing a pressure difference and force upon the sail). A lot of people, including myself at one time, think that the wind just pushes the sail forward. My FIL was a competitive sailor.

Anyway, back to the airport. 

 

 

[RegalTDP]

3 hours ago, GRDadof3 said:

To drift on or "through." Bingo.

Yes, the same principle that causes an airliner to lift (float, lol) is the same principle that causes a sailboat to move forward (wind traveling along the back of the sail travels faster than wind on the front side, causing a pressure difference and force upon the sail). A lot of people, including myself at one time, think that the wind just pushes the sail forward. My FIL was a competitive sailor.

Anyway, back to the airport. 

[Chester Cheeto]

On 1/14/2020 at 9:50 PM, GRDadof3 said:

The difference with a plane is that the air traveling under the wing goes faster than air traveling over the wing.

[wingbert]

On 1/16/2020 at 1:43 PM, mielsonwheels said:

So then, how are planes able to fly upside down?  Bernoulli’s theorem is actually flawed or incomplete.  There is great disagreement over the actual source of “lift”.

 

[ironyisadeadscene]

36 minutes ago, wingbert said:

So then, how are planes able to fly upside down?  Bernoulli’s theorem is actually flawed or incomplete.  There is great disagreement over the actual source of “lift”.

 

I read the plan has to have a positive angle of attack so it deflects air downward 

[GRDadof3]

3 hours ago, wingbert said:

So then, how are planes able to fly upside down?  Bernoulli’s theorem is actually flawed or incomplete.  There is great disagreement over the actual source of “lift”.

 

Apparently planes that fly upside down have symmetrical wings, and use "angle of attack" to provide the physics that give lift.   ie, you can't fly a Boeing 737 upside down. 

[RegalTDP]

4 hours ago, wingbert said:

So then, how are planes able to fly upside down?  Bernoulli’s theorem is actually flawed or incomplete.  There is great disagreement over the actual source of “lift”.

 

There are only two reasons to ever fly upside-down: (1) When your Pepsi bottle gets stuck and (2) when you need to flip the bird to the Soviets. Other than that, this is irrelevant.

[arcturus]

Didn''t realize the new Allegiant routes for GR were part of 44 in total including 7 out of Midway.

https://www.airfarewatchdog.com/blog/50096619/44-new-routes-and-3-new-cities-on-allegiant-from-33-one-way-or-63-roundtrip/?source=66080

[BLUESCRUBS]

So the 2019 Airport statistics are due out today. Anyone have a guess as to where it GRR will end up at? Below is the passenger data since 2003. Perhaps 3.8 Million?

 

2003	1,976,833	2011	2,275,332
2004	2,150,125	2012	2,134,956
2005	2,090,505	2013	2,237,979
2006	2,015,846	2014	2,335,105
2007	1,990,896	2015	2,550,193
2008	1,809,445	2016	2,653,630
2009	1,771,465	2017	2,811,622
2010	2,185,924	2018	3,263,234

[Pattmost20]

1 hour ago, BLUESCRUBS said:

So the 2019 Airport statistics are due out today. Anyone have a guess as to where it GRR will end up at? Below is the passenger data since 2003. Perhaps 3.8 Million?

 

2003	1,976,833	2011	2,275,332
2004	2,150,125	2012	2,134,956
2005	2,090,505	2013	2,237,979
2006	2,015,846	2014	2,335,105
2007	1,990,896	2015	2,550,193
2008	1,809,445	2016	2,653,630
2009	1,771,465	2017	2,811,622
2010	2,185,924	2018	3,263,234

I'll say 3.6 Million

[gvsusean]

2 hours ago, BLUESCRUBS said:

So the 2019 Airport statistics are due out today. Anyone have a guess as to where it GRR will end up at? Below is the passenger data since 2003. Perhaps 3.8 Million?

 

2003	1,976,833	2011	2,275,332
2004	2,150,125	2012	2,134,956
2005	2,090,505	2013	2,237,979
2006	2,015,846	2014	2,335,105
2007	1,990,896	2015	2,550,193
2008	1,809,445	2016	2,653,630
2009	1,771,465	2017	2,811,622
2010	2,185,924	2018	3,263,234

4!!!!!!!

[MJLO]

1 hour ago, Pattmost20 said:

I'll say 3.6 Million

This

[walker]

6 hours ago, BLUESCRUBS said:

So the 2019 Airport statistics are due out today. Anyone have a guess as to where it GRR will end up at? Below is the passenger data since 2003. Perhaps 3.8 Million?

They are going to announce the total Tuesday, Jan 21,  and have a little ceremony with free cupcakes for anyone that shows up along with a drawing for a free travel voucher and parking.  They are also going to take photos of an unsuspecting  random traveling couple and award them a travel voucher.  Hope the couple they choose should be traveling together:

Ford Airport to Surprise “GRRand Passengers” After Record-Breaking Year   

Edited January 21, 2020 by walker
for clarity and to fix typo

[MJLO]

8 hours ago, walker said:

They are going to announce the total Tuesday, Jan 21,  and have a little ceremony with free cupcakes for anyone that shows up along with a drawing for a free travel voucher and parking.  They are also going to take photos of an unsuspecting  random traveling couple and award them a travel voucher.  Hope the couple they choose should be traveling together:

Ford Airport to Surprise “GRRand Passengers” After Record-Breaking Year   

Of course they do it on Tuesday, I fly out on Mondays.  Damn Them.

[arcturus]

https://publish.twitter.com/?query=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FFlyGRFord%2Fstatus%2F1219657709445881856&widget=Tweet

 

[joeDowntown]

3.58M rounds up to 3.6M, right?

Joe
 

[sparky05]

On 1/18/2020 at 6:31 PM, RegalTDP said:

There are only two reasons to ever fly upside-down: (1) When your Pepsi bottle gets stuck and (2) when you need to flip the bird to the Soviets. Other than that, this is irrelevant.

“Because I was inverted.”

[BLUESCRUBS]

28 minutes ago, joeDowntown said:

3.58M rounds up to 3.6M, right?

Joe
 

1 million more people flew out of GRR in 2019 vs 2015. That is pretty explosive growth. The expansion can't come soon enough.

[walker]

On 1/14/2020 at 9:50 PM, GRDadof3 said:

. . . The difference with a plane is that the air traveling under the wing goes faster than air traveling over the wing. This difference in air pressure causes the plane to lift (float) off the ground.

 

On 1/15/2020 at 7:06 PM, Raildude's dad said:

. . . It's the shape that causes the lift. 

 

On 1/16/2020 at 1:43 PM, mielsonwheels said:

 

On 1/18/2020 at 2:19 PM, wingbert said:

So then, how are planes able to fly upside down?  Bernoulli’s theorem is actually flawed or incomplete.  There is great disagreement over the actual source of “lift”.

 

On 1/18/2020 at 2:56 PM, ironyisadeadscene said:

I read the plane has to have a positive angle of attack so it deflects air downward 

 

On 1/18/2020 at 6:05 PM, GRDadof3 said:

Apparently planes that fly upside down have symmetrical wings, and use "angle of attack" to provide the physics that give lift.   ie, you can't fly a Boeing 737 upside down. 

 

On 1/18/2020 at 6:31 PM, RegalTDP said:

There are only two reasons to ever fly upside-down: (1) When your Pepsi bottle gets stuck and (2) when you need to flip the bird to the Soviets. Other than that, this is irrelevant.

 

On 1/16/2020 at 12:33 PM, RegalTDP said:

Obviously, above is a summary of the discussion about what makes planes fly.  I should know better than to get involved in an engineering fight but it just happens that today my February copy of Scientific American arrived in the mail and right on the cover right to the right and below the magazine name it says "Why Do Planes Fly?"  So, I look inside at the article and it basically says WINGBERT is right.  How often does someone here say that?  Interesting article and it's online too, but unfortunately there's a paywall.  The link below is as close as you can get to it without paying $6.99 for the issue but if you click on the link and slide down slightly you will see the answer in the article's headline:

SC: the enigma of aerodynamic lift 

And if you are interested enough to want to read the article, they'll let you buy it.

[wingbert]

11 hours ago, walker said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Obviously, above is a summary of the discussion about what makes planes fly.  I should know better than to get involved in an engineering fight but it just happens that today my February copy of Scientific American arrived in the mail and right on the cover right to the right and below the magazine name it says "Why Do Planes Fly?"  So, I look inside at the article and it basically says WINGBERT is right.  How often does someone here say that?  Interesting article and it's online too, but unfortunately there's a paywall.  The link below is as close as you can get to it without paying $6.99 for the issue but if you click on the link and slide down slightly you will see the answer in the article's headline:

SC: the enigma of aerodynamic lift 

And if you are interested enough to want to read the article, they'll let you buy it.

Oh my.  Don’t worry, I won’t let it go to my head.  I’ll go back to quietly lurking now.  

[GRDadof3]

I flew in and out of GRR for a trip this week, and it was BUSY (but efficient). Now my only complaint is that it always seems to be under construction.

I flew into Concourse A around 5:15pm today and the entire concourse was packed full of people. Hardly an empty seat anywhere. Then the pickup/dropoff area out in front was wall-to-wall cars. It really felt like a real airport. lol. I've never seen it like that before. 

 

[GR8scott]

15 hours ago, GRDadof3 said:

I flew in and out of GRR for a trip this week, and it was BUSY (but efficient). Now my only complaint is that it always seems to be under construction.

I flew into Concourse A around 5:15pm today and the entire concourse was packed full of people. Hardly an empty seat anywhere. Then the pickup/dropoff area out in front was wall-to-wall cars. It really felt like a real airport. lol. I've never seen it like that before. 

 

The concourse will be enlarged but it will end up being a rather large airport for only a single level pick up and drop off area and traffic through there will only get worse. Seems like maybe a missed opportunity to integrate something like that when they built the parking ramp although I guess they could always engineer building a roadway on top of the single level terminal and expand partially upward for drop offs/check ins if really needed

[MJLO]

They didn’t do a press release for it, but GRR’s January traffic was up 18.5% to 304k people.  I’d be surprised if that wasn’t the busiest January on record.  I’m sure favorable weather helped  play a role. To be up almost 20% after several consecutive years of double digit growth is pretty good. I’m sure traffic stats for the whole year won’t be that good, but if it keeps up that pace it will finish the year pretty close to 4 million passengers in 2020.