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

, , ,

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.

/1 Comment/by
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)

Sleigh Fails in Heavy Weather

, , ,

It has been a rough year testing the new design of Santa’s sleigh. Today Santa’s Sleigh has been in the hurricane zone of the southeast of the United States, where Hurricane Ian has made landfall in Florida. It was planned for the sleigh to be tested by the heavy weather.

It failed.

There’s no two ways about it. This sleigh, with it’s present design, cannot fly in horrible weather.

It needs to be able to face any weather conditions on earth – both for the safety of Santa and of the reindeer.

So all 12 test sleighs were sent into the hurricane zone under different conditions – loaded, empty, partially loaded, high altitude, low altitude, high speed, low speed, etc.

The sleigh failed in every instance.

Test pilots have not been ordered out of the hurricane zone but they have been limited in their assignments for now.

A new design of the sleigh was underway anyway and a new version is being rushed to the zone tomorrow. Test flights will continue as they bring in the new version of the sleigh to take advantage of the unsettled weather the hurricane provides.

Sometime in the coming days, the new sleigh version will head to another sector for continued testing.

It is not known if another opportunity for heavy weather testing will become available. But with each version of the sleigh that is released they basically have to restart the flight routine anyway. There will be future storms before Christmas and we are certain flight command will again chase those storms. A hurricane, such as Ian, is a rare opportunity in sleigh test flights.

Fortunately, this storm showed vulnerabilities of the current sleigh that needed to surface. Even though we say the sleigh failed it’s a good thing it was discovered. This moves the process of getting a working design for Santa by Christmas forward.

Sleigh test pilots are anxious to try the newest version.

/0 Comments/by
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 Sleighs Ready for Testing

, ,

The end of the road comes today for the first generation of the newly redesigned sleigh that Santa will fly this year. It will be a sleigh design that goes down in dubious history simply because it crashed last week.

But it is not unusual for a year’s first design to end dubiously. They never get Santa’s sleigh right on the first go around. In fact, there are as many as 15 or 16 different versions of Santa’s sleight tested each year before one is identified as “the” sleigh for Santa on Christmas Eve.

Since this year’s sleigh is based on last year’s record breaking flight, there won’t be 15 or 16 versions of it. There just isn’t time for that.

But the next generation is ready – freshly painted and ready for the test pilot and reindeer teams when they arrive at the North Pole.

The test flights, under this new design, will then move to another location to begin extensive daily testing. We will share that location with you in about 24 hours. The final touches are just now being put on the flight plan.

We have received, via the tracker elf reports from SantaTrackers.net, several purported sleigh sighting reports and some images. Here is an image shared with us from Southern Colorado just tonight:

Not Sleighs

Flight Command has received many such images in the past 36 hours or so. But those are not sleighs you are seeing, but rather satellites.

None of the images like this that we have received match up with the timeline of the current flights.

So we are still awaiting our first images of sleighs in flight for this year.

Maybe it will happen with the new sleighs we are sending out.

/0 Comments/by
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)

Sleighs Continue Mad Dash Eastward

, , ,

The caravan of sleighs – ultimately heading for retirement at the North Pole – are doing their last bit of test service on this, their 2nd day, of extended flight.

The plan is for them to push over the Regional Tracking Center at Wiseman’s Creek in Australia before taking a long route north over the Pacific Ocean to visit Sector 5. We are uncertain of their exact flight plan but know that in time they will fly over the Regional Tracking Center in Mistletoe, Kentucky.

It is assumed that the long course towards Australia, over the Pacific and then the entirety of Sector 5 will take most of the day, if not all of it. It’s an ambitious flight plan. We do not know when they are stopping or where they will be staying the night. (It certainly will not be in Mistletoe, Kentucky. There are no facilities there to house sleighs, test pilots or reindeer).

The next day, which we believe will be the final leg of this long journey, should take them to the North Pole, where our test flight teams will be paired up with new sleighs. Those new sleighs are of a corrected design.

Those new sleighs will leave, presumably after another day or two, and head to a new theater of action, where a more traditional flight plan will be planned.

Once we know of those plans, we will inform you.

/0 Comments/by