Squawk as you see fit (Off Topic Thread)

Hotblack Desiato · 29-08-2018 1:33pm

TedR wrote: »

I do get that, I just would have thought where a pilot is completely aware that he is in a difficult position and is working hard to recover the situation, it would be an added distraction and an added level of stress to have a robotic voice nagging you over and over.

The married pilots would be used to it.

JCX BXC · 07-09-2018 11:24pm

Anyone have any good apps for METAR and TAF's? Preferebly one that has quick access to the last few Metars. Pilot weather (which I paid for) has always had on and off functionality issues, but the latest is unresolved for over a month and all support seems to have disappeared. It's a pity as the app is easy to use with a very good layout.

smurfjed · 08-09-2018 5:35am

Have you tried AEROWEATHER? I think that the IPAD version has historical reports.

JCX BXC · 08-09-2018 9:45am

smurfjed wrote: »

Have you tried AEROWEATHER? I think that the IPAD version has historical reports.

Sadly, Pilot weather is just the new name for Aeroweather. The android version always gave previous Metars and a good decoding tool for learning certain codes you'd never come across before, but lately it's deteriorated.

smurfjed · 08-09-2018 10:09am

Interesting, I use the IOS PRO versions most days without issue.

JCX BXC · 08-09-2018 10:25am

smurfjed wrote: »

Interesting, I use the IOS PRO versions most days without issue.

Interesting, must be an android formatting issue.

Charlie-Bravo · 02-11-2018 11:43pm

Any idea what happened here yesterday?

https://www.thejournal.ie/norwegian-airlines-4319985-Nov2018/

JCX BXC · 02-11-2018 11:49pm

astrofluff wrote: »

Any idea what happened here yesterday?

https://www.thejournal.ie/norwegian-airlines-4319985-Nov2018/

Apparently R116 checked to see if their landing gear was down.

L1011 · 29-11-2018 8:12pm

Positive of todays trip to RIX - first flight on a CSeries/A220. Frame in question was delivered as a CSeries - one of the older ones, their second actually - but has rebranded externally as A220-300.

Negative - my suitcase is still AWOL, probably in AMS, but not recorded as being on the late flight to RIX. And Air Baltic think a tenner a day is enough as an allowance. They'll be getting my travel insurance excess and can fight me for it.

Hotblack Desiato · 30-11-2018 12:49am

L1011 wrote: »

Frame in question was delivered as a CSeries - one of the older ones, their second actually - but has rebranded externally as A220-300.

Interesting. Who pays for that? It's not as if it'd need to be repainted yet.

A lot of repainted aircraft (not just new frames) have the manufacturer and type logo very carefully applied in a consistent position and style - do the manufacturers incentivise this in some way? In effect it's an ad for them.

If I was doing a trip like that I'd be more worried about the case going missing on the way home, would travel insurance cover replacing cheap foreign booze at Irish tax rates? Hardly! My comiserations and enjoy your stay

Edited to add: Compared to a 737 or 320 is the 220 more comfy? More quiet? Adequate overhead storage?

L1011 · 01-12-2018 2:39pm

Nice enough inside, not as quiet as billed - hydraulics certainly noisy anyway. Overhead is basically the same but for 1/6th fewer passengers, still crowded as BT charge heftily for bags

My case arrived to the hotel by TNT 46 hours after we landed. Fully intact and bloody freezing, luckily the main liquids in it were alcohol based (cologne etc). Had a rush tag for the late flight last night so it spent a day and a bit either on the tarmac or in the baggage facility in AMS - and they kept claiming it was not traced

They'll be getting a H&M and a supermarket receipt for clothes and toiletries anyway

Nforce · 21-01-2019 1:59pm

BA Retrojet coming soon. It'll be painted in Dublin, apparently..

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/pictures-ba-reveals-boac-747-400-retrojet-more-t-455159/?cmpid=SOC|Twitter|Flightglobal|sf206329358|sf206329358&sfid=701w0000000uP3H#sf206329358

https://twitter.com/DaveWallsworth/status/1087328455841275904?fbclid=IwAR1kdZcEhepz2Gdw2_bMRmQjR7DbXY9rwu-sP0GDQJm-iuanfpKsh-80RbY

RadioRetro · 21-01-2019 4:37pm

Excellent, I used to fly quite a bit with BOAC as a kid, usually on VC10s.

Tenger · 22-01-2019 1:19am

Saw that info. Should look great.
However I do wonder at the timing.
Imperial Airways was founded in 1924, so more like their 95th birthday?

JCX BXC · 22-01-2019 1:24am

Tenger wrote: »

Saw that info. Should look great.
However I do wonder at the timing.
Imperial Airways was founded in 1924, so more like their 95th birthday?

Very interesting. Seems like a marketing scheme more than anything else!

However, it's nice to see that they're painting the 747's which means (short of guarantees) they'll be around for another few years in a business sense.

RadioRetro · 22-01-2019 12:16pm

Tenger wrote: »

Saw that info. Should look great.
However I do wonder at the timing.
Imperial Airways was founded in 1924, so more like their 95th birthday?

BOAC came into being in 1939 with a merger of Imperial and other carriers. It took an act of parliament to get it done. So more like the 80th anniversary?

Tenger · 23-01-2019 11:47pm

RadioRetro wrote: »

BOAC came into being in 1939 with a merger of Imperial and other carriers. It took an act of parliament to get it done. So more like the 80th anniversary?

I would agree with you only that the marketing info for the retro shows the log "BA 100"

BA trace their lineage back to Imperial Airways. This was formed in 1924 with the Speedbird as its logo.
BEA was formed in early 1946 as a subsidary of BOAC but was wholly seperate by August 1946.
BA itself was formed in 1974 with the merger of BOAC and BEA.

So line is Imperial-> BOAC-> BA.

Looking through history on wikipedia. Imperial Airways was created by the merger of 4 UK airlines in 1924.
-The Instone Air Line Company, formed in April 1920.
-British Marine Air Navigation, formed in 1923.
-The Daimler Airway, formed in June 1919.
-Handley Page Transport Co Ltd., formed in 1919.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Airways
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instone_Air_Line
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Marine_Air_Navigation_Co_Ltd
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daimler_Airway
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handley_Page_Transport

tricky D · 24-01-2019 5:30pm

My Dad used to travel as a young man between England and Zambia. IIrc the route was a permutation/combination of Southampton, Sicily, Cairo/Alex, Luxor, Khartoum, Port Bell/Kampala and Victoria Falls. Anybody suss what type? Broke down in Khartoum once and had to wait a week for the part, but fortunately he knew some local on the flight so had a place to stay.

RadioRetro · 25-01-2019 12:50pm

tricky D wrote: »

My Dad used to travel as a young man between England and Zambia. IIrc the route was a permutation/combination of Southampton, Sicily, Cairo/Alex, Luxor, Khartoum, Port Bell/Kampala and Victoria Falls. Anybody suss what type? Broke down in Khartoum once and had to wait a week for the part, but fortunately he knew some local on the flight so had a place to stay.

1950s, 60s, 70s? I only ask as I lived in Khartoum in the 60s and we travelled to/from London by BOAC VC10 or Sudan Airways Comet.

tricky D · 25-01-2019 1:58pm

Early 50s

RadioRetro · 25-01-2019 3:37pm

Ah, afraid I wasn't around then.

RadioRetro · 25-01-2019 3:58pm

Fished this October 1954 BOAC timetable from timetableimages.com. Although your dad may have been on another flyer such as East African Airways.

L1011 · 25-01-2019 4:24pm

That distance (and the nearly two days to Joburg) in what is basically a pressurised DC4 wouldn't have been fun!

Hotblack Desiato · 25-01-2019 8:02pm

L1011 wrote: »

That distance (and the nearly two days to Joburg) in what is basically a pressurised DC4 wouldn't have been fun!

Those Merlins were bloody noisy too!

tricky D · 25-01-2019 8:24pm

RadioRetro wrote: »

Although your dad may have been on another flyer such as East African Airways.

Short Solent was what he flew on. All ports or rivers for landing/to. It wasn't long before the airports were built and boats no longer required.

https://www.tothevictoriafalls.com/vfpages/tourism/flyingboats.html

Hope to get there in the near future.

Jude13 · 19-03-2019 10:45am

I just booked upgrades with Emirates using my miles and as of 01 March they no longer provide chauffeur service when upgrading using miles.

Tenger · 20-03-2019 2:00am

Jude13 wrote: »

I just booked upgrades with Emirates using my miles and as of 01 March they no longer provide chauffeur service when upgrading using miles.

Oh the horror! :eek:

Jude13 · 20-03-2019 9:52am

Devalues the well earned miles further.

Nekarsulm · 27-03-2019 1:46am

"The man who wanted to fly"

Went to see this film tonight.
I think it'd interest many on this forum.
Great film, and very thought provoking.

Jeff2 · 27-03-2019 4:05am

Sounds nice.

GBX · 15-04-2019 3:08pm

Anybody want to buy a Concorde engine?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/113701876820?ul_noapp=true
https://silodrome.com/concorde-jet-engine/amp/

Rawr · 15-04-2019 5:36pm

GBX wrote: »

Anybody want to buy a Concorde engine?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/113701876820?ul_noapp=true
https://silodrome.com/concorde-jet-engine/amp/

(Clicks link....adds to Basket.)

Good thing it's complete with afterburner....otherwise I wouldn't want it

smurfjed · 15-04-2019 6:16pm

These are some pretty impressive climb rates even for a corporate aircraft... the 4 **** indicate a rate greater than 10,000 feet per minute.

Strumms · 22-04-2019 12:49am

The fûcking Garda chopper has been hanging around my street, well over my street the last 35 minutes at a relitivly low level at 00.49... rendering my chance of sleep...low as well... I just hope whoever is being sought trips over their brain.

zell12 · 24-04-2019 8:41am

Inquitus · 02-05-2019 6:03pm

zell12 wrote: »

SNIP

That looks a tad unfortunate!

Noxegon · 17-05-2019 7:43am

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/after-two-faulty-boeing-jets-crash-the-trump-administration-blames-foreign-pilots/2019/05/15/e940a692-774e-11e9-b3f5-5673edf2d127_story.html?utm_term=.fd670e31d175

Mod Note Link does not work if you have ad blocker enabled

I suspect the 737 Max recertification in Europe may take a lot longer now...

Nijmegen · 17-05-2019 9:26am

Oh boy oh boy. Talk about strong words. The thing is, most of the professional analysis I've seen on the matter disagrees completely with the assertions being made. There doesn't seem to be much room for fact based cool discourse in the US any more on a whole range of issues, which will erode their place in the world faster and faster I'd say. Personally as an EU citizen I wouldn't like EASA to be waving through FAA certificates anymore without robust sense checking. And I'd say a lot of airlines and their pilots, who have some clout at decision making level, will be looking at this and wondering if there's anything Airbus etc might do to increase capacity over the coming years.

tricky D · 21-05-2019 2:04am

Niki Lauda

RIP

jmayo · 22-05-2019 11:19am

Actually the more I hear and read about Boeing the more I do not want to fly in any of their new products.
First there were all the issues with production of the dreamliner in their cheap labour plant in Charleston.
Then there were the thermal runaways of the lithium ion batteries.

Now it seems that they have been allowed to self certification for the FAA.

And the 737 Max just shows the corners they have cut in software design and even worse the fact they can't be assed letting their customers know the full issues with their systems.

Now the US authorities and administration are blaming others for their failings.

How many people picked up on an article written only in Feb of this year where Boeing management were planning to "streamline" it inspection processes.

In the last quarter of 2018, Boeing failed one element of its quality control audit on the 747, 767 and 777 legacy airplane programs in Everett, a setback in its plan to shift its quality system to one that relies on fewer inspectors overseeing the work of mechanics.

Quality inspectors at Boeing, angry at management’s plan to streamline and automate some quality-control processes with fewer inspectors overseeing the work of mechanics, point to a recent quality-control audit that missed one of its targets as evidence that the company’s effort is unwise.

Boeing plans to eliminate up to 900 quality- inspector positions as part of a sweeping transformation of its manufacturing system over the next two years. The idea is to move away from reliance on inspections by a second set of eyes to find any defects after a mechanic does a job. Instead, Boeing is redesigning tasks to make it easier for mechanics to get things right first time, and deploying smart tools and digital technology to track and monitor quality.

Boeing is now all about the share price and are cutting corners at every opportunity.
And it seems when the sh** literally hits the fan it is the fault of foreigners.

L1011 · 06-06-2019 1:23pm

Onboard a flight to SCQ that's still at the gate 20mins after scheduled. Jesus lads, maybe don't tell the pax that the delay is due to a "minor defect being addressed". Flight is mostly auld wans and I suspect panic may set in

Hotblack Desiato · 06-06-2019 2:45pm

All off on the Camino no doubt. Reminds me of the flight I was on into Dubrovnik that was mostly pensioners going to Medjugorje, slightest bump of turbulence and they'll all have the rosary beads out!

L1011 · 06-06-2019 3:46pm

You usually fly to Barca or Porto and walk to Santiago but I believe some less physically capable people just go to the cathedral. Abnormal number or PRM getting assistance for instance.

Last time I took this flight a few years ago the outbound was basically empty and the inbound was rammed with a heavy luggage load - and basically no kids either way. But it seems to have picked up more demand since including families

Weather is awful here so it was a very bumpy approach and what felt like either a higher speed landing or impeded braking

highlydebased · 07-06-2019 6:35pm

Santiago is a nice enough place too with great tapas bars - went there for a weekend 2 yrs ago as Vueling offered cheap fares ex LGW for weekends at the time. Bugger all to do during the day but at night people come from nowhere!

DecTipp · 12-06-2019 3:43pm

Hi I'm just after coming back from london where airport security was very strict and rightly so , but I came across this article
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6425057/What-hed-terrorist-Mail-Sunday-reporter-gets-INSIDE-Ryanair-jet-London-Stansted.html

It sounds unreal that a baggage handler can have free reign where he can manage to get into a plane unsupervised,

faoiarvok · 12-06-2019 3:53pm

if he was a terrorist he could easily have hidden an explosive device in a suitcase with devastating results.

No mention made of how they would expect him to get any device airside. Pretty sure ground crew go through similar security checks to passengers when they arrive for work.

Hotblack Desiato · 12-06-2019 4:53pm

What next?
CREW members have access to COCKPITS SHOCK

Tenger · 12-06-2019 5:41pm

The Daily Mail does like to overly dramatize everything

Zonda999 · 14-06-2019 8:37am

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/9289901/boeing-747-sunk-underwater-theme-park-bahrain/

NINTCHDBPICT000497414039.jpg?w=960

Alternative to the boneyard anyway! Story says its former reg TF-AAA. Air fleets says this was originally a Malaysian 747-200 first flying in 1981

looksee · 23-06-2019 9:43pm

Two fighter jets were sent to accompany a plane back to London as a woman was causing a disturbance on it. Reasonable enough to go back if she was being a danger, but what help would the jets be? Even if they were supposed to shoot the plane down if it showed signs of doing a 9/11, dropping a plane on London would hardly be an improvement? Any thoughts?

Squawk as you see fit (Off Topic Thread)

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