General aviation/airplane news and chat

[Bahnhof Strasse]

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.

They don't offer premium economy for sale on the Euro routes, but eco and business, if you are eco you may get lucky and get allocated a PE seat.

Some years ago we went to Glasgow, the BA 767 for the return flight was switched to the one they used to go to Nassau with, flat beds from Glasgow to London for Frau Bahn and the Baby Bahn's, this was before they offered business on domestic flights and we'd booked 2ABC (BB2 was an infant), due to the new configuration there was no seat 2C. I was gracious about it and told check in agent I didn't care about being in an economy seat, she gave me an exit seat with unlimited legroom and I had a peaceful flight with no brats or missus to disturb my calm

 

[HAL9000]

I think this company has allowed a New York Times journalist to fly a helicopter with someone supervising.

"The general aviation industry is about to change forever," Skyryse CEO and founder Mark Groden said in a release. "We're on a mission to empower anyone to fly anywhere in any aircraft as safely as the most experienced pilots in the world.”

When things go wrong, like the helicopter catches fire or suffers a major electrical failure. I'm skeptical that anyone can fly a small helicopter.

US start-up Skyryse has raised a $200 million in funding to develop a touchscreen tablet-based flight automation program that would allow “anyone to fly anywhere in any aircraft”.

Skyryse raises $200m to allow ‘anyone to fly anywhere in any aircraft’

US start-up Skyryse has raised a $200 million in funding to develop a touchscreen tablet-based flight automation program that would allow "anyone to fly anywhere in any aircraft".

www.flightglobal.com

 

[T & P]

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

Admittedly the LHR-MAD route is at most barely over two hours even when measuring from gate to gate so most people intending to watch a film might not be able to finish it, but it’s still annoying that you can’t use their IFE. On yesterday’s flight they didn’t distribute headphones so the flight map was the only usable thing.

On the outgoing BA 787 flight I went to sleep immediately but I don’t think the IFE was on. On the other hand they handed out the complimentary toiletries pouch, in business at least. Which is a total waste of money for a two-hour flight, more so as they don’t when you fly on their narrowbodies.

Anyways, even though my business class experience is very limited, I do still gather from available info online that Iberia’s overall offerings lag behind most other flag carrying major airlines. Their music playing during the first few minutes after takeoff and before landing is weird and the music itself that type of shit copyright free stuff you get when on hold in a phone call. And perhaps they don’t anymore, but they would equip their short haul birds with retractable screens, only to show cringeworthy candid camera shows or day-old news reports in Spanish only. At least they’ve improved their safety brief video, and on my plane at least the flight crew members on the PA system spoke understandable English.

 

[Elpenor]

Believe the IFE is licensed by route, so wouldn’t be available for short haul routes. When I had it to LCA it was an error apparently

 

[Storm Fox]

An Aircraft in new Flybe Livery has just flown from Maastricht to Exeter. G-JECX. So it looks like they may be starting up again.

 

[Teaboy]

An Aircraft in new Flybe Livery has just flown from Maastricht to Exeter. G-JECX. So it looks like they may be starting up again.

Is it a proper plane or one of their old Tiger Moths?

 

[A380]

Found the March 1938 copy of Popular Flying in a second hand shop.

 

[Storm Fox]

Is it a proper plane or one of their old Tiger Moths?

Looking at the history of the aircraft, it's one they owned before going bust and that had a tail-strike and need repairing.
It's a Dash-8 400

 

[T & P]

Found the March 1938 copy of Popular Flying in a second hand shop.

View attachment 295534View attachment 295535

Very cool terminal buildings. I see from Wiki that pretty much nothing remains of Gravesend, sadly. I wonder if any part of the Gatwick terminal was saved/ incorporated into the existing buildings today, or if it was razed to the ground...

 

[T & P]

In unrelated aviation news, this made me smile...

Heathrow Airport: Luggage conveyor belt filled with frozen fish crates

Passengers at Heathrow say their luggage was missing and boxes of fish were on the conveyor belt.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Teaboy]

Heathrow is such a bloody mess at the moment. Its an embarrassment really.

They should be politely told that they can have another runway and terminal when they prove they can operate two runways and three terminals to a reasonable level.

 

[DownwardDog]

Found the March 1938 copy of Popular Flying in a second hand shop.

View attachment 295534View attachment 295535

Without doing the maths I feel like 300 quid was a lot of money in 1938.

12 years after OCU is the minimum commitment now!

 

[alex_]

Very cool terminal buildings. I see from Wiki that pretty much nothing remains of Gravesend, sadly. I wonder if any part of the Gatwick terminal was saved/ incorporated into the existing buildings today, or if it was razed to the ground...

Beehive, Gatwick Airport - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[A380]

Without doing the maths I feel like 300 quid was a lot of money in 1938.

12 years after OCU is the minimum commitment now!

I posted this elsewhere and a couple of people worked out that £2 dual would be £130 which would be pretty cheap instructional time now, but you could probably find schools with those rates somewhere.

If somebody with zero hours had answered this add in spring 1938, would they have been in a cockpit for July -October 1940?

 

[DownwardDog]

I posted this elsewhere and a couple of people worked out that £2 dual would be £130 which would be pretty cheap instructional time now, but you could probably find schools with those rates somewhere.

If somebody with zero hours had answered this add in spring 1938, would they have been in a cockpit for July -October 1940?

Roald Dahl joined the RAF with zero hours in Novermber 1939 and was flying Gladiators in combat by August 1940. HIs experience was by no means unique...

 

[T & P]

Without doing the maths I feel like 300 quid was a lot of money in 1938.

12 years after OCU is the minimum commitment now!

According to an online calculator it would be around 21k today.

Presumably it is per year, rather than for the entire four-year commitment?

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Monday 8th November, 0850 hrs flight BA1 took off from 27R and VS3 from 27L at exactly the same time, both bound for New York JFK, the first time since March 2020 that UK citizens are allowed to enter the USA

 

[strung out]

Monday 8th November, 0850 hrs flight BA1 took off from 27R and VS3 from 27L at exactly the same time, both bound for New York JFK, the first time since March 2020 that UK citizens are allowed to enter the USA

Tidy

 

[T & P]

Is there a book open on which flight will land first?

 

[Teaboy]

Amazing. I wonder if Heathrow can manage to synchronise two passengers from different flights getting through immigration in less than an hour and without exposure to a massive viral load of Covid when forced to queue in an airtight corridor?

That would be incredible.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Is there a book open on which flight will land first?

Virgin's in the lead so far, the two blue planes, just off the coast of Canada...

 

[pseudonarcissus]

Tidy



View attachment 295928

things ain't what they used to be...when I was a kid synchronised take-offs meant the first flight of Concorde...

 

[pseudonarcissus]

I am getting very exciting about my first international flight in nearly two years. 48 days to go....not that I'm counting...GIG to CDG with AF. Because of the uncertainty I booked premium economy for the extra flexibility...if they offer an upgrade to business I'm going to be very tempted to splash out on the way over, at least.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

I am getting very exciting about my first international flight in nearly two years. 48 days to go....not that I'm counting...GIG to CDG with AF. Because of the uncertainty I booked premium economy for the extra flexibility...if they offer an upgrade to business I'm going to be very tempted to splash out on the way over, at least.

Don't click this link

 

[pseudonarcissus]

Don't click this link

That's a flight I'll not forget. I put Mr. PN on the flight from CDG to GIG the day before...so the same aircraft that crashed on its return flight. They have had the decency to change the flight number from 447 to 443 since then.

 

[pseudonarcissus]

when's the optimal time to call them offering money for an upgrade? the flight is 26th Dec, so surely a quiet day in business class

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

when's the optimal time to call them offering money for an upgrade? the flight is 26th Dec, so surely a quiet day in business class

The day before, often it offers upgrades during online check in. However that flight is only showing 5 seats left in business right now, so probably won't get an upgrade...

 

[pseudonarcissus]

The day before, often it offers upgrades during online check in. However that flight is only showing 5 seats left in business right now, so probably won't get an upgrade...

thanks!
I'll give it a try anyway, it would be nice to have a shower when I arrive as I've got a long drive on the 27th.

 

[T & P]

thanks!
I'll give it a try anyway, it would be nice to have a shower when I arrive as I've got a long drive on the 27th.

You can always try to buy access to the airport lounge- you can do it with many lounges.

 

[pseudonarcissus]

You can always try to buy access to the airport lounge- you can do it with many lounges.

50 euro per person for a shower seems a lot...there's not much choice for the arrivals lounge. I might use hotel points for something