i don’t want to butt in whalebone, but when stewart says Jumbo, i assume he means jumbo water tower in colchester, so i would hazard a guess (i can see me being totally wrong here) that its taken from a fire escape from the sixth form. am i right?

here’s my 5 cents worth

I’m a part timer in a 24 hr call centre in the UK. I sometimes have to deal with Indian call centres for UK insurance companies. The call centre that i work at, works for a very large number of companies who deal with vehicle insurance and vehicle breakdowns, some of which are the largest insurance companies in the UK – think ships, a white something, and a precious jewel, as well as many other very big vehicle breakdown service, and vehicle warranty service providers – we run the acutal brekadown service of behalf of these companies.

I can say with some confidence that this call centre is quite safe, and will not be moving to india. This is becuase, (and we are a call centre that answers calls, not one that makes those annoying advertising calls – want some windows?) the job requires knowledge of the country – specifically geographical knowledge – we answer calls to people who have broken down in their vehicles and we send out a recovery operator to assist clients – its not the AA or RAC, btw. I believe (like passengers wanting real pilots at the front, not computers), people who have broken down in the UK and are distressed as a result, will want to speak to a british person in the UK, and not someone 8000 miles away, or however far it is.

On the language side, iIfind that indian call centre staff are ok in what they do, but sometimes understanding each other becomes a slight problem. Over all, the worst problem with language and being able to understand the person on the other end, comes not from indian call centre staff, but from british people who can’t talk properly, or (without being racist) non-white British people who have a distinct asian accent. When I come accross someone with this accent, its harder to understand them than it is to understand indian people working in the call centre.

Also, i have to occasionally speak to people in one of the continental EU countries, which i think is the Netherlands, who are not english born. yet, they speak English wonderfully, and again, without being racist, much better than some British or British Asians.

i work in a relatively small call centre – stereotypically i think people believe, and in most cases quite rightly, that call centres are vast noisy places with hundreds and hundreds of desks, all with ringing telephones to go with them. It maybe, i think, be in these sorts of places that customer service is not up to scratch becuase the call centre is harder for the supervisors to control.

In the centre that i work in, we work for about 75 companies, (not just breakdown and vehicle insurance companies) and recieve about 7000 calls a week, yet there are just 20 desks. As a result, its more a controllable team, with a group of very good supervisors, who can provide the best of service. as a result of being relatively small, its cheaper to run than the big ones. The company that i work for is also runs its own vehicle breakdown policy service – we are not just a call centre operating for other companies.

Ok, economically, its cheaper to relocate some call centres to india, but i can safely say that some will remain.

wild guess…can’t remember the name, but was Bruce Willis in it????

the most spectacular that ive done is chambery (aix le bains), another french alps approach. ive been led straight into a mountain by the atc on the approach before, and then you get told off for climbing to avoid it becuase you’re 300 feet above your assigned altitude.

i use a small program called fsscreen, type that keyword into avsim library, and download it. its a very small download. whenever you use FS, open the program, and whenever you press the print screen button on the keyboard, whatrever is on the screen at the time, is saved into a FSscreen folder for later viewing

its easy to use, and doesn’t reduce frame rates. i thnk there are some other programs available, but im not sure.

hope that helps

If you’re looking for real airlines and realistic aircraft flying around the flight sim world, then try Projectai.com.

There are loads of files you can have for hundreds of airlines. Go into official files, and select the ‘PAI installer and special packages’ menu option and download the PAI installer, and the FAQ file. Once you’ve done that download the ‘FS2002 General Aviation traffic installer (realistic registrations)’ in the FS02 Special Packages area. This replaces all those unrealistic american registrations on the GA aircraft. then download the one below that – if you want – this gets rid of the default airlines in FS. then you can download the airline (and cargo) files giving your FS world realistic airlines with livereis and realistic timetables.

once you’ve satisfied your needs there, have a look at all the other sections on the website. hope this helps

i like the smell of petrol, early morning dew, freshly cut grass (even though i end up sneezing), and i like freshly washed clothes and also airing cupboards. 😀