I’ve flown a mates Varieze. It was lovely as long as you were prepared to never consider shortish grass runways again. It was the first of 3 sidestick aircraft that I’ve ended up doing a lot of my flying in.

Pietenpol aircamper is quite similar to a 2 seat Luton. Cubs are nice but probably too expensive. The Vagabond might be a better alternative. Luscombes are nice but could be a bit expensive on maintenance if you later on find corrosion. The Champ is nice but personally I found it a bit dull to fly. Austers are cheap but quirky and getting on a bit. Although some people question their skittishness on the ground, I’d be looking out for a Kitfox (or similar) if I was you.

Virgin already have 19 contracts with other airlines for widebody Airbus and 747 maintenance at the new LGW maintenance hangar. Could it be something returning home after maintenance?

Beware of trying to consider the above as gospel. As has been mentioned earlier there are so many variables this is a ‘how long’s a piece of string’ question. I have often got an A346 out of runways shorter than 3100m.

That’s funny, I could swear I’ve seen that spelling ineptitude before!

You’re going to be in for a very big surprise then!

Have done in the past but I guess the new purchase will reduce that cost immensely.

I was overhead Irkutsk heading eastbound at the time of the crash but didn’t hear about it until we got to our hotel and switched on BBC World. Very sobering.