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General aviation/airplane news and chat

Elpenor said:
Nice pics, I planned to go this year but I’m not able to walk enough to get round a museum currently. Was the Concorde fully open?
Click to expand...

www.iwm.org.uk

Accessibility at IWM Duxford

All of our front of house staff receive training in disability awareness. If you have any queries, or need any assistance, please ask. We will be more than happy to help you.
www.iwm.org.uk www.iwm.org.uk
  • Wheelchairs and mobility scooters are available for loan, free of charge. Please telephone 01223 497 240 or contact us, to reserve a wheelchair or mobility scooter (subject to availability).
  • A free site transport vehicle is available upon request throughout the day for visitors, with space for wheelchairs

I seem to remember you said you suffered from sciatica? I don't know if this is appropriate for your condition but there are definitely ways and means that could help there.

In other Duxford news they are having a Flying Day today, sort of a mini airshow.

www.iwm.org.uk

Flying Days: Model Aircraft Centenary

Celebrating 100 Years of the British Model Aircraft Association, be part of the last day of our Flying Days season. Join us on Sunday 9 October 2022 for Flying Days: Model Aircraft Centenary.
www.iwm.org.uk www.iwm.org.uk

Live coverage here!

 
spitfire said:
www.iwm.org.uk

Accessibility at IWM Duxford

All of our front of house staff receive training in disability awareness. If you have any queries, or need any assistance, please ask. We will be more than happy to help you.
www.iwm.org.uk www.iwm.org.uk
  • Wheelchairs and mobility scooters are available for loan, free of charge. Please telephone 01223 497 240 or contact us, to reserve a wheelchair or mobility scooter (subject to availability).
  • A free site transport vehicle is available upon request throughout the day for visitors, with space for wheelchairs

I seem to remember you said you suffered from sciatica? I don't know if this is appropriate for your condition but there are definitely ways and means that could help there.

In other Duxford news they are having a Flying Day today, sort of a mini airshow.

www.iwm.org.uk

Flying Days: Model Aircraft Centenary

Celebrating 100 Years of the British Model Aircraft Association, be part of the last day of our Flying Days season. Join us on Sunday 9 October 2022 for Flying Days: Model Aircraft Centenary.
www.iwm.org.uk www.iwm.org.uk

Live coverage here!

Click to expand...


Thanks but I’m not sure my condition is quite that bad to merit the use of disabled facilities. I’d feel a bit of a fraud. I’m happy to leave it for a year or so until things improve. The planes aren’t going anywhere.
 
I'm not too concerned with such incidents as forgetting to lower the landing gear, as any modern airliner will surely remind the pilot pronto in a very loud way to take corrective action long before it's too late to do so. It sounds bad and it sure ain't great PR, but in my layman's opinion it's a probably a rather minor thing actual risk-wise.

Other operational errors could be more serious I'm sure. I'd be interested to hear the thoughts of our resident pilots.
 
The state the planes are in would be more of a concern for me. So many of them will have just been parked up for months and I know maintenance will have been done but times are hard for the airlines and history tells us this is when corners are cut.

I'm sure it'll be fine though.
 
spitfire said:
That's awesome, I never knew jets could go into reverse!

eta I knew about reverse thrust on airliners but never knew fast jets could do it.
Click to expand...

The Tornado had them, selected by rocking the throttles left. You could pre-arm them to come on when the main gear touched down. This was the dreaded PATRL (Pre Armed Thrust Reverse and Lift dump) landing which had to be demonstrated at your annual dual check with the squadron QFI. The interesting phenomenon with PATRL landings was the the reverse thrust would blow the air brakes clean off the fuselage if they were deployed at the same time so the procedure was to stow and lock the air brakes but the air brakes were hydraulic (slow) and the TR buckets were powered by engine bleed air (very fast) so if you were a bit slow with (or forgot) the AB lock the rev/rev thrust would rip them off. I've seen it done...
 
I’d assumed military jets had thrust reversers just as commercial aircraft do, for braking purposes. Judging by the last few posts it sounds as if most of them do not?
 
I might be talking out of my hat, but in the case of the Viggen I think their inclusion was part of the philosophy of “maximum flexibility“, which dictated that the extra weight & complexity was worth it because it allowed the plane to land (and take off again) from a much wider range of strips.

Didn‘t they carry this over into the Grippen, ensuring it could operate from roads for circumstances when all the runways had been bombed?
 
MrCurry said:
I might be talking out of my hat, but in the case of the Viggen I think their inclusion was part of the philosophy of “maximum flexibility“, which dictated that the extra weight & complexity was worth it because it allowed the plane to land (and take off again) from a much wider range of strips.

Didn‘t they carry this over into the Grippen, ensuring it could operate from roads for circumstances when all the runways had been bombed?
Click to expand...

The Viggen used a (modfied) JT8D engine from a 727 which was already adapted for reverse thrust but the Gripen uses an F404 from the F/A-18 which has no reverse thrust and could only have it added at vast cost if at all.
 
I decided I would treat myself to a business class upgrade for my BA flight to Madrid today, and I was unexpectedly rewarded with a Club World bed :) For whatever reason they were operating a 787-8 this morning.

Mind you, apparently they’re just about to start A380s on the route for crew training purposes, so it could have been an even nicer experience.
 
For staff training they use 787's on this route and for November A380's, but only the lower deck. Iberia 1545 to Heathrow is an A350 with flat beds so if you return on that it would also be worth an upgrade if not too pricey.
 
A380s on the Frankfurt route too.

I had my best ever nights sleep on a plane in an empty A380 World Traveller Plus cabin on the way back from San Francisco. Flew it in Club World to Hong Kong too.

Not sure if I’ll get to fly it again
 
Bahnhof Strasse said:
For staff training they use 787's on this route and for November A380's, but only the lower deck. Iberia 1545 to Heathrow is an A350 with flat beds so if you return on that it would also be worth an upgrade if not too pricey.
Click to expand...
Cheers. I’m on the 7.35 am Iberia return flight this coming Monday. Do you happen to know if they’re using an A350?
 
T & P said:
Cheers. I’m on the 7.35 am Iberia return flight this coming Monday. Do you happen to know if they’re using an A350?
Click to expand...


It's an A330, another long haul aircraft, but business is already sold out. Economy is only showing one seat available (arse end of 1/2 term), so check in online or you may get bumped...
 
mx wcfc said:
Rather ironically, COP26 is proving to be a bonus for plane spotters....

www.bbc.co.uk

COP26: Aircraft carrying world leaders excite planespotters

World leaders flying in for the climate conference gives a "once in a lifetime" chance to see rare military and civilian aircraft.
www.bbc.co.uk
Click to expand...
I always find any kind of articles commenting on the supposed hypocrisy of people supporting environmental issues travelling by plane to events about the environment. As if the environmental damage caused a few return plane journeys would be so bad it’s not worth undertaking, even though many or most of those leaders attending will lead to new agreements sparing the planet of billions of times greater amount of pollution in the long term.
 
Bahnhof Strasse said:
It's an A330, another long haul aircraft, but business is already sold out. Economy is only showing one seat available (arse end of 1/2 term), so check in online or you may get bumped...
Click to expand...

Iberia does seem to have a very small business cabin on its long haul flights. I guess there isn't much market for it on its core routes.

I've got a short haul flight on their A350 coming up soon. Will be weird to be a wide body for just a couple of hours.
 
Teaboy said:
Iberia does seem to have a very small business cabin on its long haul flights. I guess there isn't much market for it on its core routes.

I've got a short haul flight on their A350 coming up soon. Will be weird to be a wide body for just a couple of hours.
Click to expand...


Normally just 5 rows on Iberia, guess if you have the money to spend on long-haul business you'd opt for a better experience with pretty much any airline other than Iberia..?

In the east they do things properly, we flew Dragon Air HKG-HKT and back, an A330 with wide seats that went back about 45 degrees with footrests, 3 course meals served on real plates, TV's etc. This for a ~3 hours flight is the norm out there :cool:
 
The A330 was rammed full yesterday morning. It seems air travel is picking up :)

You were right about business class being fully booked Bahnhof Strasse . Though I wouldn't have minded paying for it, as I was knackered and the passenger next to me was of a robust composition. Having said that, the economy setas still seemed to have more legroom than short haul configuration on most airlines I can think of.
 
Teaboy said:
Iberia does seem to have a very small business cabin on its long haul flights. I guess there isn't much market for it on its core routes.

I've got a short haul flight on their A350 coming up soon. Will be weird to be a wide body for just a couple of hours.
Click to expand...
For a while, I was commuting once a week from London to Manchester, and used to get the morning BA shuttle. Which was a 767 - a huge aircraft for the dozen or so who travelled on it. Positioning flight, apparently.
 
T & P said:
The A330 was rammed full yesterday morning. It seems air travel is picking up :)

You were right about business class being fully booked Bahnhof Strasse . Though I wouldn't have minded paying for it, as I was knackered and the passenger next to me was of a robust composition. Having said that, the economy setas still seemed to have more legroom than short haul configuration on most airlines I can think of.
Click to expand...

Short haul business class in a wide body plane is certainly something I'd consider paying for, in Europe anyway. I think Iberia have Premium Economy on some of their wide bodies as well which is something I'm also keen on.
 
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