Ian,

some of our many reasons for the B744 was Days off, excellent destinations, lifestyle, golf courses down route to name but a few………not cargo capacity…..HEEEEEEEEE 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 only kidding mate.

This is actually quite an interesting point as it shows how 2 companies (Cathay and Virgin) use the same aircraft in such different ways. If you were a 744 pilot in Virgin you would be doing the inferior trips with LESS days off and more bullets! The 744 is becoming Virgins ‘charter’ type aircraft. If it’s lifestyle you’re after (which I am) as a Virgin pilot you need to avoid the 744. It looks probable to me that the 744’s may well end up entirely at LGW and MAN. As I live so close to LHR that’s where I want to be based.

In the 90’s Aer lingus could operate their A330’s with hold cargo alone and still make a profit. Virgin can do the same with the A340-600. This means that the expanding fleet to be on in VS is the one that is less concerned about wavering passenger numbers. SARS, terrorism, etc…….cargo in the hold doesn’t stop flying like passngers do.

Well I’m biased, Victor, but I particularly enjoyed the second and third one!

Airbus are quite rightly nervous of this product as there is an awful lot of development work to be done to make the A330 competitive against it. I hope they achieve it as it will give us as pilots a better end product regardless of which manufacturers type you fly.

I wouldn’t be surprised if MyTravel sold holidays from NCL but sent them on TCX or BY. There are a lot of agreements between the charters to save sticking airframes where the market is largely saturated already.

The rubber tip is a no go item if it is missing IIRC! If ice builds up on the tip of the spinner the rubber vibrates due to the imbalance and throws the ice off before it gets too big.

The press will always refer to any landing at anywhere other than the destination as an emergency landing whereas most are in reality just precautionary landings. While the decompression itself would bean emergency procedure both landings I would class as precautionary.