ITVV 747 videos - Virgin Atlantic and Cathay Pacific

[markadeane 272]

Hi All,I recently got hold of the ITVV Virgin Atlantic 747-400 DVD and have found it to be brilliant. I'm considering getting the ITVV Cathay Pacific 747-400 DVD also but was wondering first if anyone here had both. Is it worth getting the Cathay one as well? Or is there a lot of overlap between the two?I wonder if PMDG refered to either of these DVDs in the development of the Queen?Cheers,Mark

[CapnOz 109]

Mark, I have the Cathay Pacfic.Its pretty cool. Certainly worth watching I think.Think of it like this...Its a "cheap" education.Capn' Oz

[Guest Callmecapt]

The Cathay has takeoff and landing at beginning and end respectively. All the stuff in the middle is in a simulator.Interesting but it's only 1 hour. Goran

[Guest BAW843]

Captain Don Grange (Cathy Captain) does a grand job on explaining the aircraft systems of the 747-400 and covers it in detail.As per post above the takeoff is from London Heathrow and the Landing into Kai Tak. The middle part of the film is in the Cathy sim in Hong Kongbut neverless still superb.I have to be honest here and confess I have not seen the Virgin ITVV video but I have seen great reviews around the net, if you can afford both then definitely go ahead and purchase both!!Hope that helpsRegardsPHIL

[Guest ahmedem]

I own both and I have to say I find the Virgin one more complete and more informative.The Cathay one is still very good, the departure out of LHR is great to watch you even get the best footage ever of the old checkerboard arrival at HKG so its still definately worth watching but note its not as informative as the Virgin one so don't expect as much.

[Guest MiguelSantos]

Hi Mark,Like Ahmed, I have both too. I must say I had the Cathay before, and as others said, in flight it only shows the begining and the ending!! However it is worth! The pre-flight preparations at Heathrow are good, in taxi you can see a Concorde preparing for take-off, and the details until transition level are good. The image quality is as good as any other ITTV product. Top noch! For me it's no problem or a major set back the cockpit tutorial be given by the captain at HongKong simulator. What I missed in this video, was the full detail and preparation and filming the arrival at the incredible Kai Tak airport. There is one shot on the final turn that is incredible and line up to runway, and makes worth all the video!!But for me, the Virgin video is absolutly complete! You get a FULL pre-flight briefing at Virgin office desk with the captain with weather, fuel calculations, notams to be aware of, and so on. During flight, everything on the airplane are described tecnically with plain language, and by the 3 crew members in diferente stages of the flight. And the final part of the flight, you get almost the whole descent. One of the things I like most is that you can listen the ATC conversation with the crew. Loud and clear. And is 2h40m video. So it is pretty much complete. As for sure you know.In my opinion, if you could afford buying both, you should do it! The take-off at Heathrow and landing at Kai Tak are worth of the second buy! But, tecnically, it doesn't bring almost anything new comparing with the Virgin video, unless the testing of the power of the engines recovering from an almost stall situation. That's impressive despite being done on a simulator.Hope it helped.CheersMiguel

[jon b 2,041]

Hi all,Further to my post about the virgin video and the crew,I can also say I know Capt Don Grange as well!He left his training position in Cathay a few years ago and came ironically to ...........Virgin Atlantic to fly as a first officer on the 744.From there he went to A320 with Virgin sun when that was running.He left virgin a few years ago and went to Easyjet? I think.Don was a really nice funny guy to work with.when I flew with him I was planning to take two shirts to work and go into the crew rest for my break wearing a long sleeve shirts and come out 3 hours later wearing a short sleeved shirt with the words"the eagle eyed amongst you will notice I`ve changed my shirt"-a quote from his video,those who`ve seen it will know what I mean:-)regardsJon