I’ve been getting utterly swamped by classes (and just recently discovered that 24 is actually pretty good). Sorry about the two week dead zone.

A big ol’ batch of photos from Reno is up at Flickr in its entirety. While you’re Flickring, check out Martin’s UND aviation photos to see what we fly up here – his camera’s a lot better than my cameraphone, and he somehow finds the time to take photos in the air.

Interesting news in the aviation world lately, with Airbus announcing more A380 delays. The most bizarre twist in this ongoing series of screwups is that, according to analysts, the airlines don’t care! Airbus pays them off (effectively) each time the aircraft is delayed; the launch customers have now gotten back almost $35 million per plane, or 26% off. This is like buying something online and getting money back every week until they restock – nobody’s going to walk away or switch to Boeing when the price keeps going down.

Maybe by the time the A380 is in revenue service Airbus will be paying the airlines to accept free aircraft.