Many years ago I used to live close by the Shorts factory in east Belfast and Skyvans, 330s and 360s were daily sights (and sounds). My bedroom offered a view over the airfield and most of the newly built aircraft were logged at one point or another as they undertook their test flights prior to delivery.

The C23A Sherpa (the Military version of the SD330 still in use with the US Army) was a favourite at airshows – the looks on people’s faces as the rear ramp came down and a Jeep or LandRover emerged was a real delight.

I recall a jump seat flight on G-OBOH operated by the now-defunct Community Express on 28th June 1996 into East Midlands from Belfast City. I was going to work over that weekend at the Waddington Airshow and my flight was a freebie to get me there on time. Boy was it cramped or what!! I’ve jump seated everything up to B747 and this was one tight fit. Come to think of it, passing years (and extra poundage) now mean I’d struggle to get into the Captain’s seat, never mind the poxy little jump seat. 😮

By the way the Ulster Aviation Society have the SD330 prototype in their collection at Langford Lodge near Aldergrove, which still contains some seating. The flightdeck and cabin lighting can be powered to give visitors a better impression of how things used to be. As the aircraft was in a non-flyable state when it was donated by Shorts, it had the wings removed outboard of the sponsons, and was taken by low loader to the old Nutts Corner airfield, from where it was lifted by Chinook into the Langford Lodge site !!

Could see you guys at BHD around 08:30-09:00 if that suits and that’ll leave the rest of your time free for whatever else you’ve planned. If you want to send a PM I’ll give you my contact details.

Sorry, for Go2 in my previous thread, read Jet2. Typographical error I’m afraid. :confused:

Didn’t American only paint their A300s grey because of the amount of composite materials in them? There was no such thing as ‘shiny aluminium’ in quite a number of areas of the aircraft, and so it was the closest thing they could get to a ‘metal’ look.

For me it’s a case of looking closer to home for some of the worst liveries – easyJet and flyBE being the two worst culprits.

The best looking livery though has to be the 1980s/90s classic BA of dark blue bottom, red speedline and light grey top, with the BA ‘crest’ on the tail. Absolutely world beating. Funny how United adopted a similar look at the time 😎

I’ve been looking recently too for a better printer than my Epson 670 which is now about three years old. I read in my computer mag about the superb quality of the Canon i560, and went to look on the Canon website for more info about it. If you check out the site at http://www.canon.co.uk you can send a JPG to them and they’ll print out a 6″x4″ test print for you on their premium paper on your chosen test printer. It’s all automated, and your sample print, together with a publicity leaflet on themodel you chose, will arrive by post within about two working days.

The sample I got back was astonishing in its quality – practically indistinguishable from a conventional 35mm 6″x4″ from any decent processor. Cost of the printer in the High Street – around £150-£160 incl VAT.

With Loganair having pulled out of the initial plans to take over BA CitiExpress’ GLA/EDI to BHD flights, FlyBe have now increased their frequencies on both routes to fill the gap.

The company I work for would typically have between 10 and 20 commuters travelling each way between BHD/BFS and GLA every week day, and the removal of the BACX flights was going to be a huge headache. The fact that FlyBe have now included flights at times which make a normal ‘day away’ on business possible, is a great relief. Their first offerings on the BHD-GLA route were out of BHD before 07.00 and not returning again until around 20.00 – far too long for regular travellers. Good to see that they have the capability to adapt to the new opportunities opening up to them.

Interesting to note as well in a recent Belfast Telegraph article that they are also considering opening up a scheduled BHD-PMI flight each weeknight, using one of the BHD based 146s. This would leave BHD before the night time closure of the airport, returning from Palma by breakfast time to allow it to recommence scheduled intra-UK flights. Wonder how much those flights might come in at?