I don’t know how others feel about this (and this is a daily mail article so whether every fact is correct must be called into question), but I’m appalled by the Lufthansa captain’s decision – quite frankly he should be suspended by the airline.
Now don’t get me wrong; the 767 pilot who offered his help gets my praise – but for all the captain knew, this stranger could have been a terrorist.

If my first officer goes down ill (possibly poisoned?) and the next thing I know I’ve got a complete stranger claiming he’s a qualified pilot offering his help out of the blue – alarm bells should start to ring.
I didn’t think passengers were allowed into the cockpit during flight?

The captain could have landed the aircraft by himself (this happens more frequently than you might imagine, a couple of years ago a continental first officer had to land a 777 by himself after the captain suffered a cardiac arrest over the Atlantic). Or, if need be, the captain could have asked for a cabin crew member to read off check-lists and provide an extra pair of eyes.

I’m sure United B747-400’s used to fly in during the summer. I got one in August 2011 and also one back in 2009.

That’s what I thought? Aren’t they a year round thing? They fly to/from San Fran

i remember my first S340 flight on an LH from Frankfurt, the climb after take off seemed very slow, i think it was a fuel saving technique?

Maybe? Or maybe because it has hair-dryers for engines? :p

Great shots! Blue skies and sunshine + LHR = great photos… There’s blue skies here now, in fact 🙂

After looking over the comments and speaking to my brother-in-law (a photographer for a leading motor magazine), I’m probably going to go with a Nikon D70 and one of these.
It’s realistically the most viable option given my budget (I’ve had to raise it to around £210, inc. lens).

Does anyone see any major issues? Thanks for your help.

EDIT: Oh, and my brother-in-law also introduced me to London Camera Exchange (despite the name they actually have branches all over the country) – they sell really cheap second hand DSLR bodies. Plus all products are cleaned and checked for damage before being published on the website. I’ll be saving around £25 on the D70 over the cheapest one on ebay.

http://www.lcegroup.co.uk/

Wasn’t one of the main selling points of the A340 its reliability?

When the A340 was planned and designed in the 1980s, engines weren’t nearly as reliable as they are today. It was thought passengers (and airlines) would be more willing to fly aircraft with 4 engines compared to those with 2 over oceanic legs (eg. Atlantic/Pacific).

When South African Airways announced it was looking into ordering a new long haul aircraft in the late 90’s – Boeing and Airbus both sent their latest models to Jo’burg to woo the SAA CEO. Both had scheduled demonstration flights for the same day with Boeing being up first with their 777.
As the aircraft (with Boeing and SAA executives on-board) reached 80 knots on take-off the port engine experienced a compressor stall and the take-off was abruptly aborted.
Whilst the Boeing engineers scratched their heads, the SAA CEO was lead to the A340 by, then CEO of Airbus, Jean Pierson. The A340 demonstration flight went without a hitch, and afterwards Pierson said jokingly “You see, with the A340, you always have three extra engines – just in case.” And with that, the deal was pretty much sealed… Of course, back then oil was around the $20 per barrel mark.

Probably not.
Like LHR, slots at LGW are gold-dust. Whoever gets the slot will likely use it on a more lucrative route. I believe the majority of MAN-London traffic is feeder? Given most of Gatwick is ruled by point to point LCCs I doubt anyone will pick it up.

If a route’s being dropped, there’s usually a reason $$$ :p