With AA’s announcement today that they are retiring the Airbus A300 fleet — a mainstay to and from the Caribbean for over 20 years, it’s only fitting that we upload this 1990s A300 safety video, which also shows off a bit of Savvy Navigator’s talent. While this one does not feature the full-on seat-cushion twirl, you do see Savvy’s spindly fingers lifting the life vest pouch flap.

Enjoy!

Back before Savvy Navigator was offering his gay tours and taking cool trips around the world, he was a corporate guy at American Airlines. Very early in his career (like the early 1990s), he had a starring role in the AA in-flight safety videos as “The Seat Cushion Guy.” His spindly fingers also make an appearance showing where the life vests are located under the seat.

Enjoy!

For those of you who have traveled on a Savvy Navigator gay tour to South Africa, a trip highlight was always the Cape Town dinner with local historian, actor and raconteur, Guy Willoughby. 

This morning, we received word that Guy passed away today, and this saddens us greatly.

Over the past several years, Guy entertained and regaled our travelers with his insightful take on the history of South Africa, as well as the gay history of the country. An evening with Guy was always interesting and fun, and one never knew what to expect. I, Jeff, honestly believe that my own knowledge of Southern Africa history is based on the evenings spent with Guy.

Guy was truly a savvy friend, whose presence made the Savvy Navigator tour different from any other. He will be greatly missed.

Here’s his Cape Times obituary:

Cape Town - Actor, director, playwright and entertainment writer Guy Willoughby died on Tuesday of Aids-related complications, after being ill for some time.

"We've lost a great actor. He was brave and clear-sighted to the end," ex-wife Finuala Dowling told News24. "He's been sick for a while and it was a relief to speak to him about his illness and approaching death."

His death was met with shock and great sadness in the industry.

"Guy was extremely witty and wit rather than farce made him laugh. I remember him having an incredible turn of phrase," actor Anthea Thompson told News24.

She said that Willoughby was a comedian who displayed passion and creativity in his work.

Passionate and driven

"I saw a stand-up that he wrote and his work was topical and he would also look at the funny side of things - that make ordinary people laugh. He was a passionate and driven man and the range of his work was incredible."

"Of course his creativity rubbed off on those around him. I played opposite him in a play (African Star) that he wrote and he was hands on and incredibly on the go."

However, she added that Willoughby was demanding of himself in the work that he did.

"Guy was a hard task master and was very hard on himself; he always wanted the best, but I never saw him shout at somebody because they weren't doing something exactly the way he wanted."

Willoughby, renowned in entertainment and media circles, also wrote for newspapers around the country, including the Mail & Guardian, Sunday Times and Cape Times.

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Fair warning and full-disclosure notice here: This one’s for the airline geeks…

For those of you who know me well, you know that I’ve been a lifelong, passionate aficionado and fan of commercial aviation. Those close to me affectionately refer to me as the airline über-geek.

Imagine my extreme pleasure when I discovered the Flight Memory website a while ago. Flight Memory is designed specifically for my geek brethren and me, and allows us to input or upload our flight data into their online database. The website provides a repository for our flight statistics, as well as the ability to generate very, very cool maps.

Here’s how it worked for me: I have an Excel file where I keep all of my flight log data. Every time I fly, I capture the basic flight information, including the aircraft registration (aka the tail number) in my database. I’ve been keeping this database since my 20s. It comes in handy when I want to see if I’ve previously flown on a particular plane, or, more importantly, when there’s an incident.

For example, when Captain Sully put N106US into the Hudson River earlier this year, I was able to query the database and see that I’d flown twice on this particular aircraft, twice in 2001 on the USAirways Shuttle between DCA and LGA. But I digress….

After creating my Flight Memory account, I shipped off the database to the website guys, paid my low fee, and they uploaded everything into my account. Ince it was all uploaded, I had to do some manual adjusting of the data, but the bottom line is that I now have some very, very cool statistics and the ability to generate maps. With this data, I also can order some beautiful posters and with the premium membership, I have the ability to really play with the data and generate even cooler maps.

Here’s what my Stats Overview page looks like:

Here’s a visual representation of my domestic flying:

And, lastly, here’s my international personal route map:

Go take a look at Flight Memory’s website, and if you’re like me, you’ll have yet another cool tool to facilitate procrastination. 

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