RE: Suitable equipment for new airline

My wife worked on a BA contract post Gulf war where several TriStars and a DC10 were used to recreate Kuwait Airlines but the DC10 was withdrawn early due to being unpopular for the reasons previously mentioned.

RE: Suitable equipment for new airline

Interesting how all the types being mentioned here have type ratings that allow pilots to fly different sizes of aircraft on a day to day basis (A319/320/321, B737-200 to 900, EMB170/190). There is often a political element in the decision process, eg in the Middle East (certainly in Saudi) there is a distinct aversion towards McDonnell Douglas products as they had heavy Jewish connections. This was why the TriStar sold well in the region when it was arguably slightly inferior to the DC10.

RE: London City – Brilliant Airport

When the 7.5 degree glideslope was in place (and the runway was not much over 800 meters) in was Dash 7’s only. They had to lengthen the runway by half as much again and reduce the glideslope angle to allow other types to get approval into LCY. I have recently done a couple of approaches into Bodrum, Turkey in a 757-300 which is a 4 degree ILS 9as opposed to the usual 3 degree) and that feels like you are standing on the rudder pedals! The rad alt call outs (50, 40, 30, etc.) seem to come at you very fast and encourage you to flare too soon promoting high risk of a tail strike, so I dread to think what a 5.5 or a 7.5 degree look like!

RE: How old are you?

33, not quite as far outside London as T5.

RE: Air France pilots to strike.

True, but performance degradation starts from the first drop.

RE: Air France pilots to strike.

Slightly off topic but… did you know that up until a couple of years ago Air France pilots were allowed to have a glass of wine with their meals in flight!