Cliff BarnesThe fact is simple, you pay your money and take your choice….BUT, the effect of these carriers entering the industry has been hugely beneficial, and actually for the fisrt time since deregulation in Europe has generated REAL competition, thereby offering consumer benefits. If you look at free market structures and the debates which took place prior to deregulation you will realise that it is the LCCs that have stimulated markets in Europe.
I have the same opinion. As a tax payer, I think there is something very wrong with carriers such as SAS when they can’t give ordinary people a possibility to travel for a reasonable amount of money. Instead, carriers such as SAS tends to focus on business class. Why would they need my tax money for that?
Fact is that Ryanair et al have done more for the average citizens possibilites to travel than any government supported national carrier in Europe.
Cliff BarnesOK, I have watched this thing now on and off as it keeps popping up, let me see if I have this cronology correct:
Young fellow wants to set up an “airline” but he basically has an idea for an air taxi operation on a tiny scale.
He initially gets good response, lots of encouragement, etc. He manages to sort some investment, and all looks like he may actually get this off the ground, and in that incredibly over-regulated environment known as UK airspace, that is a BIG achievement! so not one to be minimized.
He has to change his plans enroute numerous times, and it appears that with no AOC he must essentially wet lease to make it happen. No suprise there, it is done every day. This he arranges, and eventually he manages to get a couple flights done, and it’s now a day by day, see what happens kind of operation. He has attracted the interest of the media, and they have hyped it to a degree, he has of course risen to this, perhaps to his detriment. And this little venture now appears to be hanging on a thread, maybe it will work, maybe not. Is that basically the timeline of events to date?
So my question, and it is to the majority of those who appear to spend all day every day tracking this venture, … why??? just what is upsetting you all so much here? have you all pre-purchased tickets in hopes of flying in the Navaho, or whatever he is sub chartering now? do you want to get good airside pictures? why do you CARE????
Because guess what, this is just one more tiny example of a guy trying to be involved in aviation.
Maybe it is because there is so little in the way of general aviation in the UK, that you see this as a massive venture, but it is not, if he was doing this in Canada, no one would even bat an eye, it would be a case of, ” oh look, he is trying to do trips in a Navaho, big deal, oh well maybe he will pick up a few”
Really, I am just amazed at the rage exibited on this board towards what is a complete non event.
Me, I don’t care, I have 0 involvement in such things, I have flown in the large aircraft contract environment for many years, (B747) and I fly with guys all the time that “want” to start an airline, do they, well no, almost never, but it is a hot topic, and pilots traditionally make lousy managers.
Now this fellow is not really a pilot, but he just skipped a few steps and went straight to the wants an airline stage.
If he really has a comm, and maybe a frozen ATPL, he is probably best to try for an entry level jet job, they are in abundance in the UK, and he can see how the big boys really screw up an airline. Then when he has watched from the inside for a number of years, maybe he would realise that it is not really worth the effort anyway!
But please, all you guys that are hanging on every word, and action of this tiny venture, you are only making yourselves look foolish. because the attention you are giving to this far outweighs the actual operation.
But carry on, and I will catch up again in a month or so, and note again that because the “website” has not been updated it has thrown you all into an apoplectic rage!
Really, boys there is better things to rant about, oh and keep taking pictures.Sometimes I see myself! 🙂
Thumbs up for this post canadair!
I’ve read some threads about Alpha1 over some time now and I can’t really see what all the fuzz is about. It’s a young lad who wants to start a small airline – I couldn’t care less. But what does amuse me is to see the amount of time people actually spend on following his progress.
In Sweden we have a word for people who are longing for others to fail – it’s called ‘jantelag’ (jante-law), saying something like “You should not think you can be successful when I can’t”. Gee, I thought it only applied to swedes, but I can see that it does to brits just as well…
regards,
Cliff
Cliff BarnesCliff: Mate to bust your bubble a little (and appoligies before hand), but tyhey also designed the Type 417 aka Collins Class. Australia had planned on fitting the Sterling AIP system to the subs but the budget for that and the Vertical launch tubes was blown out by the problems incurred in the design.
Kockums has recently been in court over the fiasco and have been force to pay back a huge sum for design flaws and company oversights.
I knew you were going at me for those Collins! 😀
To be serious mate, I think the worst problems those submarines have experienced is the kindergarten style Kockums and Australian common wealth have discussed the issues in. Most obvious thing is that both parties solves these issues at court instead of sitting down with a nice cup of coffee discussing it at the Australian Submarine Corporation.
As a sidenote to the comment about Kockums being dragged into court – it gets even worse, I reckon Kockum dragging Australian common wealth into court for having sent parts of the propulsion system (propeller?) to USA for ‘redesign’. A case that they actually won. So, it really is kindergarten…
regards,
Cliff
Cliff BarnesForget about U212 and U214. The newest submarine Kockums built is the Gotland class (A19) from mid 90’s – being the first AIP submarine operative and definetely on par with what their german colleagues have produced. So it would make more sense to just build a couple of Gotland class submarines in that case.
What I meant was that the company that actually build U212 and U214 also happens to own Kockums, who builds the A17 and A19 class. Both companies are very potent players in the AIP technology with two different approaches. Therefore, I think it could be interesting to see a joint design intended to replace their older designs in ten years.
Cliff BarnesThe programme died when Denmark left (perhaps even when Norway left). The political colour(s) of the Swedish government that has to realise this is irrelevant.
Actually it didn’t. They carried on even after the danes left – but I do agree that sitting on a design influenced by specific norwegian and danish needs when the only customer is supposed to be Sweden is not a good thing.
If the blue parties would have been in charge they would have revised the design to make it better suited for specific swedish needs. The oldest swedish submarines are over 15 years old, so they need to be replaced in the coming 5-10 years if they want a modern submarine fleet. Sure thing, you could upgrade bits and pieces of it, but who wants to drive a Volvo 240 in the year of 2010? 😮
The smartest move would be to have a little chat with ze germans, especially since Kockums is a part of german GSC.
Cliff BarnesRather his point was there are no all-athiest groups….(think of a mythical “Atheist Doctors in the Third World” or “Non-believers Children’s Hospital”) doing good deeds.
Excuse me, but what is the point in organizing ‘Atheist doctors in the Third World’? Being atheist doesn’t neccesarily mean that you share exactly the same opinions as all other atheists. We’re all individuals you know. Sometimes we do share the same opinions as other people – and we organize us in organizations such as Doctors without borders (‘Médicins sans frontières).
I have a problem with christian people who only do what the bible tells them to. You can see how their faces shines with a smile when they meet handicapped people and organize aid – but their eyes aren’t smiling. They’re virtually just doing this because the bible tells them to, and because it gives them a lot of positive reactions in newspapers etc. Therefore, they are very eager to tell people that they are from this and that church.
Another thing is the hypocrites that call themselves christians. I knew a military fighter pilot who was a christian (and my assigned instructor). So please enlighten me how you could be christian and a military personel trained to actually kill people? It doesn’t make sense if you read the bible.
regards,
Cliff
Cliff BarnesRather his point was there are no all-athiest groups….(think of a mythical “Atheist Doctors in the Third World” or “Non-believers Children’s Hospital”) doing good deeds.
Excuse me, but what is the point in organizing ‘Atheist doctors in the Third World’? Being atheist doesn’t neccesarily mean that you share exactly the same opinions as all other atheists. We’re all individuals you know. Sometimes we do share the same opinions as other people – and we organize us in organizations such as Doctors without borders (‘Médicins sans frontières).
I have a problem with christian people who only do what the bible tells them to. You can see how their faces shines with a smile when they meet handicapped people and organize aid – but their eyes aren’t smiling. They’re virtually just doing this because the bible tells them to, and because it gives them a lot of positive reactions in newspapers etc. Therefore, they are very eager to tell people that they are from this and that church.
Another thing is the hypocrites that call themselves christians. I knew a military fighter pilot who was a christian (and my assigned instructor). So please enlighten me how you could be christian and a military personel trained to actually kill people? It doesn’t make sense if you read the bible.
regards,
Cliff
Cliff BarnesCliff, You have no clue what your talking about do you? You can’t just say we are calling up the Army or Air force and send downt he Helos it just doesn’t work that way.
– So please, enlighten me. Exactly what prevents the US armed forces or mr Bush from doing this. The law? You can’t seriously say that the worlds most well equipped armed forces are incapable of evacuating these people. This looks like lack of leadership to me.
Besides if your going to send down Hundreds or Helicopters/trucks/buses ect. ect. then you need to have a plan in place and have supplys ready. And for the record no the US Arm Forces don’t have all those resources you think they do.
– Do you remember the tsunami in Thailand 9 months ago? The european nations managed to evacuate their people within 3-4 days from half the globe away. And no, they din’t have all their resources at hand neither, but they sent all their military transports + all the civilian airliners they could get (no matter what it costed). And they didn’t have a plan for that scenario neither, but guess what – they improvised.
As for the Jack*ss Kanye West he needs to keep his mouth shut.
– Why should they shut their mouth when things aren’t working? In europe, some countries (as Sweden) were late with their aid during the tsunami – but a roar from the people and the news papers who criticised the lack of leadership made them (the politicians) speed things up a lot.
As for excepting other Countrys help well thats nice but really folks what can the rest of the World Provide that we don’t already have here in the US. Me thinks this is a few Countrys Politiniuons trying to show the rest of the world that see we do like those damn Yanks.
– You are contradicting yourself here. First you said the armed forces didn’t have the resources needed. Now you say they have, and to that I agree. I also agree on it being ridiculous that certain countries offers aid to US. Sure, the gesture is nice, but it isn’t really needed. USA can sort this thing out by themselves, and getting other countries involved in this would only make things harder.
regards,
Cliff
Cliff BarnesCliff, You have no clue what your talking about do you? You can’t just say we are calling up the Army or Air force and send downt he Helos it just doesn’t work that way.
– So please, enlighten me. Exactly what prevents the US armed forces or mr Bush from doing this. The law? You can’t seriously say that the worlds most well equipped armed forces are incapable of evacuating these people. This looks like lack of leadership to me.
Besides if your going to send down Hundreds or Helicopters/trucks/buses ect. ect. then you need to have a plan in place and have supplys ready. And for the record no the US Arm Forces don’t have all those resources you think they do.
– Do you remember the tsunami in Thailand 9 months ago? The european nations managed to evacuate their people within 3-4 days from half the globe away. And no, they din’t have all their resources at hand neither, but they sent all their military transports + all the civilian airliners they could get (no matter what it costed). And they didn’t have a plan for that scenario neither, but guess what – they improvised.
As for the Jack*ss Kanye West he needs to keep his mouth shut.
– Why should they shut their mouth when things aren’t working? In europe, some countries (as Sweden) were late with their aid during the tsunami – but a roar from the people and the news papers who criticised the lack of leadership made them (the politicians) speed things up a lot.
As for excepting other Countrys help well thats nice but really folks what can the rest of the World Provide that we don’t already have here in the US. Me thinks this is a few Countrys Politiniuons trying to show the rest of the world that see we do like those damn Yanks.
– You are contradicting yourself here. First you said the armed forces didn’t have the resources needed. Now you say they have, and to that I agree. I also agree on it being ridiculous that certain countries offers aid to US. Sure, the gesture is nice, but it isn’t really needed. USA can sort this thing out by themselves, and getting other countries involved in this would only make things harder.
regards,
Cliff
Cliff BarnesThis can’t be a tough decision.
U-214 is coming with an AIP from start, and they do know how to make AIPs. Kockums, which had the first kind of AIP system operational on the Gotland class submarines way back in 1996 has recently sold sterling engines to the japanese subs (if I’m not completely mistaken). GSC offers fuel cells, and they have ’em operational on italian and german subs. Kockums is a part of GSC, so they have two different AIP systems operational and ready to sell. How many have the french, and how much experience do they have? Zero.
Before any smartass tries to say that AIP isn’t all that important;
go ask the french how they performed in combat duels against the swedish AIP submarine Halland a couple of years ago. Hint: Halland didn’t loose one single duel.
(Source: http://www.mil.se/index.php?lang=S&c=news&id=884 in swedish)
Cliff BarnesSomething else that really gripes me is a bit of news which recently came out. As many of you have heard, superstars have banded together to raise funds to send to the victims of this tragedy. I was wondering how long it was going to take but it was finally thrown on the table.
Kanye West, a hip-hop singer, was quoted yesterday as saying that “George Bush does’t care about blacks!”. This statement was made during a concert in New York (Could be mistaken about location) being broadcasted on NBC. There is enough happening right now with people looting, raping and shooting at rescue teams and the devastation suffered by those whom have lost everything. Someone who could be considered as a role model such as Kanye West should have thought more about making this statement and the consequences his actions could have. I wondered how it would take for someone to throw the race card out in the open. No respect for this man!
Well that’s the way you see it. I’m not saying that George Bush is racist – but there’s certainly two sides of each coin. Kanye West is probably seeing this from his point of view. You can just look how media describes the ‘looting’ in New Orleans in the link attached to get a hint.
regards,
Cliff Barnes
Cliff BarnesSomething else that really gripes me is a bit of news which recently came out. As many of you have heard, superstars have banded together to raise funds to send to the victims of this tragedy. I was wondering how long it was going to take but it was finally thrown on the table.
Kanye West, a hip-hop singer, was quoted yesterday as saying that “George Bush does’t care about blacks!”. This statement was made during a concert in New York (Could be mistaken about location) being broadcasted on NBC. There is enough happening right now with people looting, raping and shooting at rescue teams and the devastation suffered by those whom have lost everything. Someone who could be considered as a role model such as Kanye West should have thought more about making this statement and the consequences his actions could have. I wondered how it would take for someone to throw the race card out in the open. No respect for this man!
Well that’s the way you see it. I’m not saying that George Bush is racist – but there’s certainly two sides of each coin. Kanye West is probably seeing this from his point of view. You can just look how media describes the ‘looting’ in New Orleans in the link attached to get a hint.
regards,
Cliff Barnes
Cliff BarnesWell I must say that I’m truly surprised by the way the american government handled this one. I mean seriously, the american armed forces are having such resources that it should be a piece of cake to send in a couple of hundred of helicopters / trucks / buses / whatever to evacuate people.
regards,
Cliff
Cliff BarnesWell I must say that I’m truly surprised by the way the american government handled this one. I mean seriously, the american armed forces are having such resources that it should be a piece of cake to send in a couple of hundred of helicopters / trucks / buses / whatever to evacuate people.
regards,
Cliff
Cliff Barneswhy doesnt indian capatalize on this and market Tejas?
Because Tejas is far from finished?
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