Some of the story may be overhyped in the typical sun fashion (That paper isnt even fit for bog roll).. but there is one key element in the story.

His stamped got noticed on paperwork while he was away….. that says to me, that the engineer in question may be a berk…but the safety control systems worked and spotted the danger!

Longest flight : London Heathrow-Singapore 13hrs 20mins

Shortest flight : Melbourne-Devonport 1hr

Longest delay : 6hrs with Air UK..Fokker100 couldnt land at Salzburg due to freezing fog..Bussed to Munich

Biggest a/c flown on : British Airways 747-400

Smallest a/c flown on : Saab 340

Largest airport visited : Hong Kong-Chep lap kok

Smallest airport visited : Devonport,Tasmania. No ATC, No Fire Cover

Your favourite airline company flown with : Air2000/First Choice

Worst company flown with : Ryanair (pre o’leary on a ATR42 from LTN to Galway)

Best plane flown on : Air Canada A340

Worst plane flown on : British Airways 747-136

Best looking cabin crew : Kendall Airways (Melbourne-Devonport)

The CAA has announced that Ferrovial will have to keep commitments to expanding and improving the airports officially outlined in the Govt’s plan. And as it is the CAA the tells BAA what to charge for landing fee’s etc etc, don’t expect to be able to hike prices to pay for them. Ferrovial is expected to have around £15billion of debt along with BAA’s £7billion of debt which they will take over……so £22billion of debt?…My guess is BAA’s foreign owned airports will be sold first (budapest etc etc) followed closely by gatwick which is valued around £2.5-£3Billion.

Ableit…i bet Gordon Brown isn’t too chuffed, especially when European Court ordered that the Govt’s 35% stake in BAA was illegal……so if it had kept the shares…thats a few billion into HM’s Coffers…..Would of Kept Pauline Prescott in hairspray for a few years at least!

Ferrovial, on Friday tried to make a dawn raid for BAA shares, hoping to get the 15% needed (not sure..but if u own 15% of a company you get a seat on the board?) but only walked away with 3% as shareholders are holding fast for more cash

Built for Ansett and United i believe, Unions didnt like the idea of a two man crew, so Boeing added an engineers station.

also the original 737-100’s had an engineers station too

a few years ago, i was talking to somebody that owned a haulage company…due to various circumstances (the company he did 90% of his business with went bankrupt) his business went bankrupt….The administraitors called in sold his fleet of lorrys and he said the prices were stupid, for the price of a new lorry and trailor, you could of bought 3 of his trucks that the administraitors sold…

I don’t want to get into an shootout here. But I think you may be wrong as regards to climb performance. It does matter.
It is well known that the sooner an aircraft gets to its cruising alt, the less fuel it will burn overall. And requiring extra time to complete SID departures adds more fuel burn.

I’m not saying the A340 is bad, and I have already said I’m not knocking it.

But we digress! let get back onto the A380 topic. There are good arguments for and against BA ordering them. Personaly I beleive they’re doing the right thing by sitting on the fence and watching and letting the pies cool before dipping their fingers in to taste which is best.

Which is why a 747/777 has to burn off fuel before being able to reach its optimum cruising altitude,whereas an A340 can climb (ableit slowly) to its optimum altitude without the need to “stepclimb” up?