Nice report Tom, sounds like you flew out via the Inveruie lane, probably the quickest route up North. It can get very turbulent in the local area when the wind gets above 15kts, especially towards the hills. Used to be a pain in the backside as often lessons were cancelled due to the wind – despite it being an otherwise glorious day.

I used to take lessons out of Aberdeen about 5 years ago – highly recommended. Had a great time both socially and learning to fly – just a pity I couldn’t finish my training. The only unfortunate thing, is both of my instructors are no longer there, one flies for the same airline I work for and the other now flies for Easyjet.

Looks like the strike season has started in earnest.

French security companies were due to go out on strike today, but very little if any impact on our schedules. French ATC are threatening to go on strike from Sunday night until Tues morning.

Seems that every May someone goes out on strike…

Is this the same FAA that allowed a certain 747 operator to ferry one of their aircraft, with only 3 engines physically attached to the wing, due to cracks being found on the engine mounts?

Rumour is that aircraft suffered an engine surge ‘shortly’ after take-off and the crew subsequently secured the engine. No doubt the AAIB report will make interesting reading.

We kept a single 146 for a short period to act as a backup aircraft, but it was eventually used to enable bmi to release the F70s to KLM, hence the 146 operated out of EMA for a week or two (circa April 2002).

We operated upto 5 BAe146s on various routes, out of BHX, MAN and STN on behalf of LH after Debonair went bust.

The contract was not renewed and we stopped operating for LH around the beginning of 2002.

Why would they cancel the flights on the day after easter? No other airline cancels flights just because its easter or a bank holiday? :S

They most certainly do as most operators cancel flights on bank holidays due to the lack of business traffic.

We have cancelled a number of flights today, likewise for Good Friday, but flights over the weekend were operated as normal.

Embraer have been pushing out aircraft since 1969 with several of their designs being popular, especially in the North American market, such as the EMB110, EMB120 and of course the Regional Jets.

They basically designed and produced aircraft that met the needs of the commuter/corporate market and were relatively inexpensive to purchase/operate.