Lovely pics. Nostalgic. Any of UK operators in PMI in the same era ?

I just love these old aeroplanes too, guys.

I recall a Condor DC-10 taking off in sparkling silver fuselage and with just a yellow fin. Pamla must have been an amazing place in the late 1960s with the Spantax and other Douglas pistons based there. I suspect all those DC4, DC6 and DC7 aircraft came to Gatwick and Heathrow on some summer days. I lived near Heathrow and we heard a regular (newspaper) Iberia flight trundle over into the airport about 11pm when everyone else had just about gone to sleep. I believe that was one of the Spantax DCs or another Palma based DC operator. 🙂

We only photographed 2 UK operators as we were only there a couple of hours and it wasn’t so busy as it is today (but the airlines and types were better IMHO. 😉

Palma was pretty deserted of all but a handful of families who’d come to watch the aeroplanes, as I recall. Sounds like it is now as busy around the perimeter as on the runway. lol

SMXFAN… I had no idea there was a viewing gallery to go and watch from. It looks like the old one that Gatwick used to proudly have. I saw those people and thought they were just pax waiting to depart.

Sarah

Orion 737-200 – I thought this had a nice livery

Dan-Air London 737-200

Yes! This is the old issue come back to haunt us all. Should a computer fly the plane or should the human do it? I think Airbus has stepped over the line into dangerous lands with their systems (designed by NON-pilots as nJAYm points out!).

These auto-flight systems are subtly taking away the flying instincts from airline pilots that they grew up learning on Pipers and Cessnas.

Like

… a quick and positive response to a stall warning system
(all three pilots ignored the stall warner for over a minute).

… and a clear verbal understanding about who is the handling pilot at any time
(both ‘first officers’ were hands on and when the left seater attempted to lower the nose he was unaware that the other guy was still pulling the stick back and holding the aeroplane in a fully stalled condition).

And they should have jumped up and taken action when they heard the radio altimeter react at 4000 feet. Admittedly the 330’s RA voice alert said “pull-up pull-up”; not helpful when in a nose-up stall condition. Older Radio Altimeter systems would have said “Terrain Pull-up” and this would give a different message over the ocean (eg: we are going into the sea).

But any pilot understands that low/no airspeed, nose high and in a fast descent = deep stall.

I can’t see why this accident happened except to think nobody was actually the pilot-in-command, everyone was ‘discussing’ like a good team crew.

Airline pilots need to fly hands-on more and fly auto-flight systems less. Computer systems are not yet so reliable that pilots are ‘stand-by’ systems. I doubt they ever will be in my lifetime. Until computers are more reliable and safer than humans we should safeguard those flying skills of the pilots rather than teaching them to become systems operators who are over-reliant on the FMS.

Maybe I am just getting old but this is one of the most disturbing crashes I have heard about. No engine fell off, no stabilator runaway happened, no structural failure. A perfectly servicable aeroplane and three pilots doing their best to recover from a stall (!!) and 220 people die for what? No meaningful reason I can see. It is really sad.

Nice little set of pictures, I never used another type of camera before I got my DSLR in June.

I went to all different areas on the airfield front and back best place I liked was right where they take of, at the front of the airfield got some great shots there.

Well, if you have only been taking pictures since June then your photos are all the more impressive!

DSLRs (like their forebears, SLRs) are the only way to take professional-level photos. My little compact camera is a Lumix (a good one) but even with the optical 12x zoom it cannot get anywhere near the performance of a DSLR. The photo of the Hurri landing shows that a slow shutter speed was used by the camera, due to the lens not having a good, wide aperture when using the zoom; whereas your air shots are perfectly sharp. But I can drop my camera in my handbag and have it around all the time, which I could not do with a DSLR.

What is good about taking photos at the runway threshold (they had a special photographers’ enclosure there) is that pilots have to stay the other side of the runway for displays. This means, unlike in the old days, they are rather forced to perform a standard pattern to get around and back in front of the crowd quickly. So at the end of the runway they often turn behind the crowd (abeam them) and back again. So some excellent close-in, turning views are seen.

I guess with these big modern jetliners there is space in the gear wells of the mains. I recall this happening back in the 1970s when someone jumped a 707 and fell out of the wheel bay when the gear was lowered for landing – dead naturally (thank god) as the stowaway didn’t take into consideration -60 degree temps and no air.

I would love to ignore the olympics from 5000 feet but the weather is too poor. 🙁

It seems like we collect the toys we couldn’t have as children. (Like Misrair’s impressive travel shop airliners which we all saw back in the 1960s and 1970s.

Or maybe we did have some of these toys and feel nostalgic about them even today.

Boys collect airfix aeroplane models and train sets as grown men. Girls collect dolls and doll related stuff.

I feel that when someone wants to keep the toy ‘mint and unopened they are bowing down to the adult in them that sees the value of the item.

Is there any point to it? I feel, yes and no. Yes because we have an interest and sometimes a passion for these items. But no, because any true hobby has no point. And surely that IS the point. I feel these hobbies and in fact any hobby is about switching off from the task/goal oriented world we are forced to live in as adults. So doing something that gives us ‘fun’ (a child thing) but has no real value is a great way to wind down and out of the adult survival rat-race mode we live in.

So I feel hobbies and collecting is really valuable to us psychologically. Like horse-riding, flying or sailing. No point to it, and that is the point – and a whole lot of fun.

Sarah