Steven Frischling (“Fishâ€) builds jigsaw puzzles that divine the state of air travel, and he might be unique in his methodology. Fish also follows aviation security pretty closely.

We talk with him about what he sees in the air travel industry, including which airline is the best when it comes to social interaction and demonstrating a commitment to customer service. And of course, you can’t talk with Fish without getting his comments on airport security.

Fish blogs at Flying With Fish and you can follow him on Twitter as @FlyingWithFish. He also runs Travelers’ Night In, a travel chat on Twitter every Thursday At 3:30pm EST. Follow the #TNI hash tag.

The week’s aviation news:

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• Spirit Airlines tops complaint list
  

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• At Denver International Airport, dining soars beyond grab-and-go
  

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• European Commission Begins Crafting Rules on Drones
  

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• Delta, Leader Of The U.S. Airline Industry, Challenges Boeing And Export-Import Bank
  

David Vanderhoof’s Aircraft of the Week: From Failure to Success, Part 3, The Many Countries of the P-3.

In this week’s Australia Desk:

Staying closer to home this week, the boys lead off with a story about Hainan Airlines’ parent company HNA Group signing an MOU with Avalon Airport owners LinFox to spend 18 months expanding Avalon in readiness for a Melbourne-China route.

Victoria’s premier promises to build a rail link from Melbourne CBD to the airport. Must be an election coming up, eh?

Air Marshall Mark Binskin is promoted to Chief of Defence Force and Grant recently recorded an interview with him.

Find more from Grant and Steve at the Plane Crazy Down Under podcast, and follow the show on Twitter at @pcdu. Steve’s at @stevevisscher and Grant at @falcon124.

Rob Mark’s Aviation Minute: This week Rob talks about SATAS – the synthetic air traffic advisory system to prevent midair collisions at non-towered airports.

BA 777 by XTP Media

In this week’s Across the Pond segment:

Pieter goes back to the spot 40 years ago at London Heathrow Airport, where he watched the planes come in wave after wave as a young boy. He still wonders at the awesome nature of aircraft flight and ponders the question how something as big as a Boeing 777 can vanish.

Pieter also has a suggestion for a great museum to visit – the Farnborough Air Sciences Trust (@FASTmuseum), followed by a visit across the road to the National Aerospace Library, both of which are free and you will see aircraft, aerospace items and memorabilia seen no where else in the world.

Find Pieter on Twitter as @Nascothornet, on Facebook at XTPMedia, and at the Aviation Xtended podcast.

Mentioned:

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• The U.S. PIRG Education Fund report, The Unfriendly Skies: Five Years of Airline Passenger Complaints to the DOT
  

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• Other People’s Airplanes
  

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• NTSB To Complete 787 Battery Investigations In March
  

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• Boeing 787-8 Design, Certification, and Manufacturing Systems Review (FAA) [PDF]
  

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• Another battery incident troubles Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner
  

Listen to the NBAA Flight Plan podcast from the National Business Aviation Association.

Post photo: DH 89A Dragon Rapide in Royal Flight colours, Wanaka 2010, courtesy Errol Cavit.

Opening and closing music courtesy Brother Love from the Album Of The Year CD. You can find his great music at www.brotherloverocks.com.