RE: Emergency Landing of flybe 146. Serious Injurys

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 13-12-02 AT 07:30 PM (GMT)]It is SOP (standard operating procedure) in my company to make a PA at the beginning of the cruise and again just before descent. On a night flight I always advise passengers in my first PA if they are planning to sleep to leave the seatbelt fastened over the top of the blanket so that if the seatbelt sign goes on the cabin crew can check they are secure without having to rouse them to find out.

Mongu – excuse my ignorance but your suffix *** Ellan Vannin *** – is this the phrase that you have to say for luck when crossing that bridge? Sorry for going off topic.

RE: Plane age

16 years ago(!) I used to fly a Tiger Moth (G-ACDC). It was 56 years old then! It still belongs to the Tiger Club who are now based at Headcorn but when I used to fly it they were at Redhill. The picture shows it taxiing at Shoreham in the 1930’s!! The following text I have copied from the Tiger Club website.

G-ACDC is the third DH82a Tiger Moth built and the oldest still flying, it was registered on 6th February 1933 and was one of 10 allocated for use by the De Havilland School at Hatfield where it remained until November 1941.
CDC was officially impressed into the R.A.F. as BB726 on 30th October 1940 and went first to No. 1 EFTS at Hatfield until November 1941 then moving onto No. 28 EFTS at Wolverhampton. It served out the rest of the war there, being retired to 9 MU at nearby Cosford on 21st July 1945. From Cosford it was re-issued to RAF Dyce on 9th June 1952 for the summer season and was again returned to store at 20 MU Aston Down in November 1952.
The Tiger Club still has CDC’s first post-war logbook. This includes a card showing it was Lot number 79 at a R.A.F. auction in 1953. In preparation for auction it was brought up to flying standard at R.A.F. Aston Down and signed off there in September 1953. CDC was purchased by A.J. Whittemore (Aeradio) Ltd who had it flown to Croydon where it went into storage. The civilian registration G-ACDC was officially restored on 4th December 1953. In July 1955 it was sold to locally based Continental Aircraft Services and a short while later moved on to Rollason Aircraft & Engines Ltd at Croydon.
Rollasons converted CDC to civilian standards and at this time it had accumulated 4980 hours. During this overhaul the Tiger was completely stripped down and most of the structure was found to be sound though a new starboard upper wing was required and the antispin strakes, fitted by the military, were removed. CDC was then repainted to the old De Havilland colour scheme of maroon and silver and signed off on 24th June 1957 by Adrian “Dev” Deverill who was to look after her for the next 35 years.
It was on the 6th September of that year that CDC suffered a minor mishap on take-off at Croydon and the starboard upper wing was replaced again. It seems that repairing Tiger Moths in those days was a quick job as she was flying again on 13th September. In October an unfortunate accident occurred when a Chipmunk taxiied into CDC but the only repair required was a new rudder.
During 1958 a new racing propeller was fitted and CDC was used until the early 60’s for racing It won at least one race in the hands of David Phillips and was then converted back to the original specification. CDC then lived a busy life with general club flying and participating in the airshows that the Tiger Club was beginning to organise.
It was during the Rochester Air display in September 1963 that CDC suffered her most serious accident. It was a very windy day and Neville Browning was trying to entertain the crowds with a crazy flying display, when he was caught by a strong gust. The aircraft completed several somersaults before coming to rest, luckily without injury to the pilot. After being recovered back to Rollasons, it was found to need all four wings to be replaced and the front fuselage and cockpit to be rebuilt. It was agreed at Dev’s insistence that CDC would no longer be used for crazy flying, due to the historical value of this aircraft.
During 1964 Barry Griffiths devised a new display item and CDC was used for the first show. This required Barry to be dressed up as a mad professor, carrying a black box that was supposed to be a radio control for CDC, which was being flown by Neil Williams. The box exploded in a cloud of red smoke and CDC at this point appeared out of control and started attacking its controller. The cost of the black box meant it did not occur again, though the crowd thoroughly enjoyed it. The first logbook finishes at the end of 1964 when the total flying time was 6146 hours.
Since those early days CDC has continued as the flagship of the Tiger Club and as its most popular aircraft.
CDC is still to be seen flying at Headcorn in her original maroon and silver colour scheme and has now accumulated over 13,000 hours.

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RE: Emergency Landing of flybe 146. Serious Injurys

Okey dokey, time for some seatbelt details here.

Quote Mongu – ‘It is semi-mandatory though. Whenever you are asleep on long haul, you are woken unless the cabin crew can spot your seat belt over your blanket.’

If any cabin crew are doing this when the seatbelt sign is off you are perfectly in your rights to tell them where to get off. They are 100% right if the signs are on though.

Quote LukeEGTE – ‘…but it confuses me why when the seatbelt signs are turned off, you hear the clicking of so many seat belts being unfastened. I mean, having your seatbelt loosely fastened isn’t excacly painful, infact I don’t even notice it.’

Fully agree. I think some people just like to do the opposite of anything they are forced to do.

AndrewM – I’m sure an earlier (now edited) post said about leaving the seatbelt signs on all the time. While this is sensible on very short flights it becomes problematic on longer ones. There will always be some upstart who will start harking on about false imprisonment! It is a fact of life that a human being needs to relieve themselves once in a while so the seatbelt signs need to have an off period to accommodate this. If we left the signs on all the time and just allowed people to get up to the loo at their own discretion we would lose any element of control. Now I expect most people would say that they are a big boy now and can make up their own mind when it is safe for them to go to the toilet. What they never think about is that while they may be prepared to accept the responsibility for falling over and hurting themselves on the way when it gets turbulent, what about the other people they fall on and injure? Do those people sue the passenger? No they sue the airline.

Turbulence (aspecially CAT-clear air turbulence) is a difficult thing to predict and we are obliged to err on the side of caution. We don’t try to antagonise the passengers with the use of the seatbelt sign despite what some people think. It mostly can’t be seen, so the answer to the constantly asked question ‘how long will it last?’ is nearly always ‘how long is a piece of string?’.

RE: My thoughts on security

Go on Mongu, at least give us the gist.

RE: Should Alan Shearer be called into the England squad?

I’m a Charlton fan myself.

RE: Just curious…….

Libra (one of the air signs!)

RE: Britannia/Tui Flight information please

Most likely a 757, otherwise 767. The 2 B738’s are currently being operated by the Swedish part of the operation.