Smokin'!

altriagiv.jpgOn Friday Deanne and I were on our way back from Pleasanton when she suggested that we stop by the Livermore Airport just to see if there was anything interesting there. There's always the odd assortment of private planes and business jets, and the occassional "rare" visitor. So we were rather surprised to see not one but TWO Gulfstreams sitting on the transient jet ramp. Gulfstreams are very big airplanes and quite rare at Livermore. It was great to see them. Of particular interest was the larger of the two, which had it's APU running and the door open. Deanne and I were debating as to what model of Gulfstream it was, so I asked the friendly flight attendant who told me it was a G-IV 300 series, only 8 months old. I was completely wrong, I thought it was an older model. Deanne was right...as always. We sat and waited for a while so we could watch it depart. Seeing a plane that size depart from a small-ish airport like Livermore is quite spectacular. After all the well dressed passengers arrived and the doors were closed, the plane leapt effortlessly into the sky. Amazing. And so quiet. I had noted down the tail number of the plane N607PM, as I was curious to see who owned this magnificent bird. We stopped by Ken's shop to say hi and I punched the tail number into landings.com - it was owned by Altria. I paused for a moment.....Altria.....Altria.........ALTRIA! aka Philip Morris.....DING! the tail number = 607 Philip Morris - ugh. A little more research yielded the fact that they have a small fleet of these intercontinental business jets, as well as helicopters, and, incredibly, a Dornier 328 jet! Interesting fleet for a questionable organization.