Elf Meg Nogg
Elf Meg Nogg
Elf News Reporter at North Pole News Network
Elf Meg graduated from Southern North Pole University with a degree in journalism. For several years she was a star reporter for the North Pole Gazette and then briefly served as a producer for North Pole Radio News. She brings her experience in media to North Pole Flight Command, serving as both an Elf News Reporter for North Pole Radio News and Managing Editor of North Pole Flight Command.com
Elf Meg Nogg
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Thanksgiving Break Scheduled for Test Flights

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Thanksgiving is a major celebration at the North Pole and all personnel associated with the test flights of Santa’s sleigh are coming home to take a break and celebrate the day. This happened at Halloween as well. All test pilots, reindeer, engineers and designers are expected home no later than November 23rd.

The sleigh, as of this date, is officially somewhere in Mexico and has been pushing north for several days.

When those crews return they will be piloting version #9 of Santa’s sleigh.

Per policy, we cannot disclose technical details or differences in each version of the sleigh. It is quite normal for a new sleigh design to go through several versions during the testing process.

A good break from test flights give the reindeer opportunity to rest up and for teams to gather together to compare notes before heading back out to continue testing the sleigh.

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Elf Meg Nogg
Elf Meg Nogg
Elf News Reporter at North Pole News Network
Elf Meg graduated from Southern North Pole University with a degree in journalism. For several years she was a star reporter for the North Pole Gazette and then briefly served as a producer for North Pole Radio News. She brings her experience in media to North Pole Flight Command, serving as both an Elf News Reporter for North Pole Radio News and Managing Editor of North Pole Flight Command.com
Elf Meg Nogg
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Test Flights Begin Again

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Version 8 of Santa’s Sleigh will head into Sector 5 direct from the North Pole this morning.

It is not known how long the sleigh will be in Sector 5 or where precisely it is headed. We are not even sure how long Version 8 of this year’s sleigh will be flown. We have been told that versions 9 and 10 are nearly ready to go.

After the Halloween break it is hoped by many that we get better news coming from the test flight teams. So far designers and engineers have been stymied by mysterious problems. As they have tried to work through them the sleigh has seemed to developed problems in areas where there were no problems before. This is especially surprising since this year’s design is based on last year’s sleigh, which was used in a record setting run by Santa.

Test teams are not prepared to answer our questions about this year’s sleigh. Normally we could share news of what the test flights were doing but this year it is a different story.

We are hoping for good news soon. Designers, engineers and test pilots are weary of having to report discouraging news all the time.

For the record, Santa himself says he is not worried about the sleigh. He has expressed confidence in the development team in figuring things out so that this year’s flight can be successful.

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Elf Meg Nogg
Elf Meg Nogg
Elf News Reporter at North Pole News Network
Elf Meg graduated from Southern North Pole University with a degree in journalism. For several years she was a star reporter for the North Pole Gazette and then briefly served as a producer for North Pole Radio News. She brings her experience in media to North Pole Flight Command, serving as both an Elf News Reporter for North Pole Radio News and Managing Editor of North Pole Flight Command.com
Elf Meg Nogg
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Halloween Break Ordered for Pilots and Reindeer

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A break for all test pilots and reindeer working the test flight teams has been ordered. Starting tomorrow, October 28th, teams will be returning to the North Pole for the break. After the North Pole Halloween Party scheduled for October 31st the pilots and reindeer will return to active duty.

This break gives crews from Research and Development to position Version 8 of Santa’s Sleigh to begin testing Tuesday, November 1st. We are awaiting a decision from Flight Command about where those tests will take place.

We also anticipate clearing the tracking map of past places where the sleigh has flown since July. This will give us all a fresh take on the test flights as we go into the month of November.

November is expected to be a big month of testing.

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Elf Meg Nogg
Elf Meg Nogg
Elf News Reporter at North Pole News Network
Elf Meg graduated from Southern North Pole University with a degree in journalism. For several years she was a star reporter for the North Pole Gazette and then briefly served as a producer for North Pole Radio News. She brings her experience in media to North Pole Flight Command, serving as both an Elf News Reporter for North Pole Radio News and Managing Editor of North Pole Flight Command.com
Elf Meg Nogg
Latest posts by Elf Meg Nogg (see all)

New Sleigh Headed to Sector 1

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Yet another new design version of Santa’s sleigh has been sent to Sector 1.

Today, Sunday October 23rd, is a rare day off in the flight schedule. Pilots, reindeer and flight crew are in the Philippines taking a day off while the new sleigh version is sent there before test flights resume tomorrow.

Version 7 of Santa’s sleigh will focus on speed improvements that engineers and designers have been working on the past several weeks.

It is anticipated at that over the next two weeks the focus will be on high speed tests. That is why the sleigh will be in Sector 1 – there is lots of open water over the Pacific.

That means the possibility for trackers to spot Santa’s sleigh, day or night, over the next couple of weeks is very slim – unless they happen to be out in a boat over random areas of the Pacific.

Word from the Sleigh Barn is that versions 8 and 9 are already being worked on. They are awaiting results of the test flights of the next few weeks before adjustments are made and the next version is sent for testing.

Many questions have been sent in about Dasher and Prancer. We are happy to report that they are healthy and doing very well. It is not yet known how long they will stay assigned to the test flight team. No other reindeer adjustments are anticipated at this time.

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