Up in the air, it's a bird, it's a bloody big plane...

Some of you may or may not know that Iqaluit had a visitor today. As this story points out the Airbus 380 is the largest passenger jet in the world and she's in town for cold weather testing. Everybody in town is angling for a ride, but because of insurance reasons, that's not going to happen.

However, since she can hold about 550 people, I figure it would only take about a dozen trips or so.

Naturally enough, a plane this big produces some excitement in a town of about 6,000. So from about 9:45 to 11 a.m. this morning, Iqaluit basically shut down so everyone could find a spot to see her land.

Immediate thoughts? That it is, in fact, a goddamn big plane. And that photographing a goddamn big white plane flying into a town covered in snow on a bright, sunny day is a bigger challenge than you might think.

Secondly, that some people are already concerned that it isn't cold enough. The engineers (and aren't they always the problem) want temperatures colder than -30 for testing. It's about that today, but it will be getting up to about -20 for the rest of the week.

Third, there are an awful lot of digital cameras up here.

Finally, you know you live in a small town when half the population shows up to see an airplane land.

Anyway, here she is...