RE: Wearing a wire

I guess that makes sense.

But I find it odd that the RJX programme still used 4 engines – was it really a new aircraft, or just an interior upgrade of the ARJ?

RE: Wearing a wire

Maybe I am not being practical, but couldn’t they just have bolted two RR Tay’s on rather than 4 little ‘uns?

Maybe even CFM 56’s?

I know it’s a big change but surely that would be OK when it was first being designed?

RE: The people speak – no way BA!

I know this sounds a bit trite and high and mighty, but BA mess people around at their peril.

The Isle of Man is an affluent community and most locals do a great deal of travelling during the year, not just short haul stuff. My own employer spends over £500,000 a year on travel and that covers under 50 staff (and 30 of them are secretarial/support staff). The number of gold and silver executive club cards I see on briefcases is amazing.

The Island is also a vibrant democracy (the world’s oldest) and a conversation in a pub is enough to spark off action by ministers. In fact BACE publicly protested a few months ago at the amount of “hassle” they were getting from the Government over standards.

Needless to say, the new carriers (Flybe and EuroManx) are getting all the help and assistance they could ask for from the authorities!!

RE: Wearing a wire

Maybe Boeing had to transmit a lot of test data back from the aircraft, hence required more bandwidth?

I find the fact that old 146’ss have manually controlled aerials absolutely shocking! As a by the by, they also have shockingly loud APU’s, as any passenger using the rear steps will testify!

RE: The people speak – no way BA!

It isn’t just routes BA are cutting – it is standards, too.

A friend flew IOM-LPL last week. He went to ba.com to book the tickets (which is what they tell you to do) but there was an error on the website and it wasn’t accepting online payments that day.

So he called the reservations number, as requested. They took payment, but…

He was charged £10 extra for making an “off line” booking!

To make matters worse, the flight was in the next 3 days. So the tix couldn’t be posted. So they charged ANOTHER £10 so that he could pick them up at the airport!!

They keep on blathering on about e-tickets and so forth, but they haven’t made it available. They have ATM-type machines all over the place, in nearly every airport except IOM. But despite having paid for his flight and having a booking ref, he couldn’t check in until he had a paper ticket. I think the Easyjet/Ryanair model is actually more customer friendly than the BA one!

The bit that annoys me personally though, is that they refuse to allow you to transfer bags through LGW to LHR.

In terms of domestic service (not long haul, which is quite good) they have really gone downhill.

RE: Wearing a wire

I thought as much!

What is the modern treatment – is the antenna integrated into the fuselage roof, or has it been replaced by one of the loads of bumps and stuff that adorn fuselage these days?

PS – what is the plural for fuselage? I was going to type “fuselage’s” but it didn’t look right. Are we talking sheep and sheeps here?