Thanks guys! 🙂

Unfortunately, I’d need a little while to save up for a DSLR and so, at the moment, I’m using a new-ish Fuji FinePix S5100. I bought it a few months back for just £195. It was a real bargain considering it has 10x optical zoom and 4.0megapixels. And surprisingly, the video is taken using the same camera.

I couldn’t quite master it in such murky conditions and so, most of my photos from the day are quite blurred.

Excellent report. I really love the longer posts. 🙂

I flew on G-MIDM last Summer from Heathrow to Glasgow.

Excellent shots, Andy 🙂

Unfortunately, was a terrible few hours for me! Of the 80 or so photos that I took, only 13 are worth showing to you all. Even most of these are very grainy. I don’t think my slightly better spec, new digital camera likes the wet weather or the clouds too much!

I’ve put them on my online gallery at http://www.web-wings.co.uk/gallery/

Well, eventually I took delivery of two EVA Air 747-400s by Hogan Wings today and am very disappointed. Both models are solid plastic and on a 1/200 scale, so they’re quite big.

I ordered these models almost four weeks ago now and its taken this long for them to get to me.

The company concerned is TAS Models Direct (http://www.aviationstore.co.uk/) and not a company that I would recommend. I don’t know how others rate them, if any of you have used them before?

I used the website to order my products and submitted by card details and it confirmed my order on the screen. I thought it was a little odd when I checked my email the next day to find that I hadn’t had a confirmation email, but thought nothing more of it.

2 and a half weeks after ordering, I thought I would ring up to track my order and to find out where abouts it had got to. “We haven’t received any order” said the guy on the phone. He searched through various books and on theior computer whilst I waited on the line and said, “Ah… yes. Your order didn’t reach us complete”. I was slightly baffled and afer asking what was incomplete about it, it turns out that their system couldn’t handle my order of a whopping two items so gave up processing it and didn’t send the order to the shop. I was assured that I hadn’t been charged and was asked if I wanted to order them again, so I did.

It was Wednesday by now and the guy said that they would be sent by Royal Mail Recorded Delivery,so there was a slim chance it’d be with me the following day. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting it to come the next day. But he also said that if it didn’t come by the following day, it would be with me by Saturday. It didn’t arrive.

Anyhow, come last Tuesday, I rang the shop many times and kept getting an answer machine, so eventually left a message saying I wasn’t happy with the service and that they could cancel my order and give me a refund, and asked that someone call me back. Nobody called me back.

So I rang the following day (again) and spoke to the guy who had promised my parcel the week before. He denied saying what he had said and explained that there were a fault with their phones so the message might not have been received. First a fault with the website, then a fault with their phones… I had to suggest that they get someone to look at their various faults.

I wasn’t convinced the items had been sent but he assured me that they had, so a refund was not possible until they had reached me and then been sent back with a letter requesting a refund. Absolutely ridiculous.

They arrived this morning and I was really looking forward to seeing them, but when I ripped open the bin liner they were wrapped in, I was immediately disappointed. The boxes were in a terrible state. Although you don’t really need to worry about the boxes, I had spent £50 altogether and these supposedly brand new items looked like I had bought them second hand at a car boot sale!

I tried to assemble one model and the wheels just will not stay on. They constantly fall off of the aircraft. When put on the stand, the aircraft is slightly bent and will not sit straight. The other model was removed from the box and put straight back in again. I will be sending it back to them for a refund or an exchange because it is in a terrible condition. It is marked all over with dust and dirt and where the muck has gathered, you can see that the wings and tail etc have been fitted and been on it for a long time, so I’m guessing I’ve been sent a display model, which I’m not having.

Anyone wanting to purchase models on the Internet, avoid TAS Models Direct. Their customer service is poor, their online shopping is unreliable and the quality of the goods is far from perfect.

Nice shots 🙂

Is Malev regularly using the Fokker 70 into Stansted or is it normally 737s? I was quite surprised to see that.

So if i take first row of economy say in seat A that would give good views over the engine? If runway 27 is in use which is best side to sit on and likewise for 09?

Thanks for help btw 🙂

Like someone else said, if you’re landing on 9L (no chance of it being 9R, this never happens) then the views are pathetic. You might see my house from 10,000 feet but other than that, nothing to see. Personally, I’d go for an F-seat. Landing on 9L, you’ll see Windsor Castle (if you’re into that sort of thing) – Something you won’t see from an A-seat. If its the 27s, you’ll get a superb view of the City Centre.

As for the views of the engines, you tend to look back at the engine, you’re not ‘over it’. But if you’re getting a business class-configured seat for your money, you can surely accept a view like this. You’re still going to see the engine open up upon landing.

Have a good trip.