egpxDon’t forget that the routing isn’t fixed. The jet SID takes you on runway heading for fifteen miles or so before a turn to the south for another fifteen miles then another turn southeast towards Dean Cross. This would take you pretty much overhead Prestwick but in all likelyhood you would have been turned by my colleagues on the ScACC Galloway sector towards Dean Cross before that. A 05 departure should take you a similar way with a left turn to the west at about 5 DME. Hoiwever, if it is quiet a right turn can be given towards Dean Cross which saves quite a few miles. Used to be the norm, now less so I’m afraid. As for heights, most aircraft will exceed the minimum altitude restrictions by thousands of feet.
In general you are likely to fly over or near to Kilmarnock, Dumfries, Lake Windermere, Preston, Manchester, Birmingham and Luton on a flight to Stansted.
egpxThe third option sounds most appealing to me. Fly down the night before, spend a night at a Heathrow hotel (the Travel Inn is perfectly adequate) and much less hassle in the morning before the flight to JFK than a 0655 departure from Leeds which would probably spend half an hour in the Bovingdon hold with them worrying about making the connection.
Not sure if bags could be checked through and boarding passes issued for a flight the following morning but if so, even better!
egpxKnow what you mean about the cost of airfare from Vancouver to Victoria, very expensive,
So just what is the fare from YVR to Victoria? The harbour-harbour fare was about CAD126 each way which made a return flight about £120. I’ve no doubt Ryanair Canada 😮 would be cheaper but I didn’t think it was too bad for a city centre-city centre service.
egpxThat was a good read. We flew into Vancouver on a MyTravel A330-200 (the one with downstairs loos) from Gatwick. The flight wasn’t full each way so we had 3 seats each to sprawl out on. 😀
The connection to Victoria was with Air Canada Jazz on a Dash-8. 15 mins in the air and cost nearly as much as the flight from Gatwick to Vancouver!!
Ah yes, the illogicability of air fares :confused: Our trip to YVR was also on an A330-200, only ours was an Air Transat example. No downstairs bogs. This was a shame as putting the toilets downstairs might have given us a bit more space in the cabin. I could just about take the nine abreast configuration and subsequently narrow seats but the seat pitch couldn’t have been more than 30″. It was a bit like spending nine hours in a barrel :rolleyes:
There was more room in the floatplanes. 🙂
egpxSlowthing
Thanks for those pics – brought back memories of the summer when I flew into and out of that very harbour. You might want to have a look at this thread which detailed my trip:
egpxBlimey, a nostalgia thread that is so old that reading it is nostalgic itself 😉
Gimmie Dan-Air and Air UK. Dan-Air for keeping the Comets going for longer than they would have otherwise done. Never flew in one, dammit. Got my first flight deck ride with them on a 727, MAN-PMI. Also got an upgrade to business class on a 1-11 back from Vienna once. Didn’t actually make much difference but we loved it at the time.
Air UK were another fine airline that were ultimately swallowed up by KLM which was a shame as they were a useful competitor to BA/BMA in the domestic market. Flew GLA-STN on numerous occasions befor the locos priced them out of the market and into the arms of their Dutch sugar daddy. 🙁
egpxReminds me of a time quite a few years ago when I was controlling a United Airlines flight out of LHR, probably going to LAX or SFO. Can’t remember the aircraft type. The watch supervisor brought me over a message he had received from United Ops for me to pass on to the pilots. They were to turn on the heating in hold number 3 as it contained a pair of dogs. 😮
The flight was probably 35-40 minutes out of LHR by then so I suspect the poor mutts were starting to get a bit on the cold side. But hopefully they would have thawed out soon after the pilots complied with the request and made it to their destination with the owners being none the wiser 😉
egpxSo what’s the general concensus amongst the flying community here then…? Are these limits too harsh and are pilots better off not having a beer between shifts at all ?
As someone who is subject to the same rigorous limits, it simply leaves me erring on the side of caution. If I’m working a morning shift I will not have any alcohol the day before. If I’m working a late shift (2pm start), I might have a beer or a glass of wine with my evening meal the day before but that is all.
Luckily, I don’t drink much so it isn’t any great problem to me. It just worries me, though, that someone might just lose their job and even end up in prison without even realising they are doing anything wrong. The rate at which alcohol is purged from the system varies tremendously from person to person. A beer the evening before a shift should be OK but will the alcohol have completely gone by the morning? Suppose you are on your way to work in the morning and are involved in a minor road traffic accident? The police breathalyse you and find that your breath is half the legal driving limit. As soon as they found out where you were driving to you could be prosecuted and probably your life is ruined.
By the way, although I think the limit is harsh I’m absoloutly against flying or cotrolling aircraft whilst under the influence of drugs and alcohol and those that do deserve to face the consequences. However, in the above scenario I don’t think the person is under the influence but technically he is committing an offence. And in these circumstances the courts tend not to make any distinction between a technical breach of the law and an absoloute breach.
So, in answer to your question Allen, yes, I think the limit is too harsh or at least it should not be the only criteria used to determine if a pilot or ATCO is committing an offence.
egpxExcellent shots.
It was the CPH flight that diverted in, was gone by 0645 though so not many people up at that time to catch it I’d imagine, nice way to start your morning knowing you’ve got an aircraft overflowing with **** parked on the other side of the airport.;)
Indeed! What got me is that there was no stand for him to use at EDI. Surely it would have been better to divert to Glasgow where all the passengers who were, no doubt, positively busting, could have nipped into the terminal for a relaxing slash whilst they fixed the cludgies on the aircraft :confused:
It wasn’t the only diversion that night. A KLM 777 Dulles-Amsterdam diverted into PIK as it was short of fuel. Don’t think it stayed very long 😮
egpxI am so impressed. I flew the day before on another Dash8 from SAS, from Turku to Copenhague. Does anyone know if it was the Banke Viking?.
It was a nice an smooth flight, but landing in CPH was a bit rough, on one side of the undercarriage. I am just imagining what was the scene inside in the time of the crash.
Q400 landings are ALWAYS rough 😮
egpx99% sure it would have been doing an “affinity charter” where “like-minded” people (e.g. the Alderley Edge Steam Train Appreciation Society) would charter an aircraft to go to somewhere like New York where they were expected to visit members of the “New York Anglo-Appreciation of Steam Train Heritage” but ended up forgewtting about the “planned” trip and just had a break in New York instead.
1978/1979 were good years for seeing PA and TW (they seemed to alternate Sundays) with their 707s operating in summer; saw 2 PA 707s in one day, and if one casts their minds back, seeing 748s at Dan Air Engineering being looked at by them (my favourite being a Bouraq Indonesia variety!).
Affinity charters, eh? I remember them. Later on we got Advance Booking Charters where those of us not privileged to be members of the AESTAS (as it became known 😀 ) could get a cheap seat across the Atlantic, but only under certain conditions.
Ah, the good old Bermuda agreement. We protect your main airline if you protect ours. 🙁
egpxNice pics Robert. I guess you weren’t there early enough to capture the Continental 757 to (I think) Hamburg that diverted to EDI due to the toilets not working 😉
egpxThat was terrible!
egpx… I’d certainly consider a priest blessing an aircraft with holy water somewhat more ‘normal’ than sacrificing goats, although I’m sure had I grown up in Nepal I’d think differently.
Paul
Which is precisely my point – one man’s religion is another’s superstitious calptrap. At least the Nepalese will have a rather nice goat curry after their religious ceremony. All the Irish got was a damp aeroplane :diablo:
egpxSo, these people have the level of technical knowledge required to operate a machine as complex as a 757, yet sacrifice goats to try make the thing fly? I realise people’s cultures and beliefs vary dramatically from country to country, but this is just worrying. :confused:
Paul
Yeah, but is it any worse than Aer Lingus getting some bloke in a frock to sprinkle ‘holy’ water over the nose of each aircraft when it is delivered to Dublin?
Well, perhaps it is worse for the goats… :rolleyes:
egpxThat shot was taken five or six years before the time I used to spend time on top of Manchester Airport. By then the VC10 and Viscount was in BA colours. SAS were using DC-9s, the Dan-Air Comets had red tails and I don’t ever remember seeing a World Airways.
The one legged hostie was still there, though 😉
Great place to spot, with access to the pier roofs. Wardair 747s were the (literally) big thing. Nothing like as busy as it is now, of course. I remember one Sunday afternoon seeing a Lufty 737 land. The next airline movement was an hour later when it took off again :rolleyes:
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