A few pics from tonight at EGCC taken on my phone

[Chock 17,769]

This one was on stand 53 whilst waiting for the bridge to come off so we could push it out for departure. As you can see, it's a KLM Boeing 737:

This one was whilst I was on the way out from work  walking across stand 5 toward the service yard exit. The control tower is the old one which is no longer used for that purpose but is kept operational as a back up should the newer control tower have some sort of a problem. To the right of the vehicles you can see stands 16, 17 and 18, which were uncharacteristically empty (this bit of the airport is normally really hectic with pushbacks and arrivals). Most of the time there are Flybe Dash 8 Q400s or Loganair ERJ-145s on these stands:

This view is when I reached the other side of that stand and turned around looking back to where I was when I took the previous pic. Stand 1 is immediately to my right and off in the distance on Stand 11 there is an EasyJet Airbus with another one behind it on Stand 15.

[philmurfin 73]

Hi Alan,

Thansk for the behind the scenes info and pics, I live near Bakewell and fly from Manchester on and off, it's interesting to see and read things from the other side.

Phil

[Chock 17,769]

54 minutes ago, philmurfin said:

I live near Bakewell

Lucky you (apart from when in the snow), Bakewell is in a very pretty part of the UK as you know, so I'll resist the temptation to make a tart joke. It's not too far from where I've flown gliders on occasion (Camphill) up near Tideswell. 

All of these pics and vids I'm taking at the moment is basically a bit of prep work for a video I'm making for my youtube channel which will hopefully be of interest to flight simmers and especially those who live 'ooop north'.

Incidentally, if anyone is curious about stuff on the airport or an airliner and wants me to take a pic, let me know and I'll see what I can do. Obviously there are some things I cannot photograph owing to security (i.e. the bag hall and the security gates cannot be photographed for obvious reasons), but most of the plane stuff and things on the ramp are fair game.

Edited February 27, 2020 by Chock

[philmurfin 73]

I'vealso  flown gliders from Camp Hill, Great Hucklow.

quite exciting via the winch!

Phil

[philmurfin 73]

Interesting pics again thanks.

Are you finding that there are still plenty of people flying despite all the virus scares?

[Chock 17,769]

3 hours ago, philmurfin said:

Interesting pics again thanks.

Are you finding that there are still plenty of people flying despite all the virus scares?

Not seen a noticeable drop in passenger numbers yet, although earlier this week I did see an ambulance and a paramedic vehicle, as well as a police van waiting to meet an inbound flight, with the crews of those vehicles in biohazard suits with face masks. At first I thought it was for the KLM 737 flight which I was about to meet and work on, so I went over to those crews and asked if they were there to meet the KLM. However, it turned out these vehicles were waiting for a BA Do 328 flight to arrive on a stand adjacent to us.

As far as I am aware, it was a case of someone on board ill-advisedly having made a joke about 'having the virus'. Of course the crew have to take such a comment seriously, since everyone on the aircraft would have been breathing in air circulated around the cabin, meaning if one person genuinely was infected, then the chances were good that everyone would be exposed to it. That probably accounts for the police being there. I guess that's a bit like when someone jokes about 'having a bomb in their bag' when going through airport security, not realising that next minute the border guards are going to be putting the latex gloves on and asking them to strip and bend over, at which point they realise that their joke isn't funny anymore lol. It doesn't get widely reported, but we do see police vehicles meeting aircraft reasonably often because someone on board, or attempting to board, is drunk, abusive, violent or has maybe said something stupid like the above.

I do know there is a team of doctors already in place, and has been for a while, at Manchester Airport as part of the response to the threat of the virus, but to be honest I suspect that this is akin to closing the stable door after the horse has bolted, because I recall seeing Hainan Airlines flight coming into Manchester several weeks ago with the crews wearing paper masks, and I can't imagine they would have been doing that if they didn't think it was a possibility that they would be exposed to the virus. It's worth bearing in mind that even if literally everyone on board those airliners were wearing masks, it would not necessarily prevent a spread of the virus, since they will clearly have picked up their suitcases to take them to the airport, and on a hard surface such as the handle of a suitcase, a virus can survive for somewhere around 24 hours, which means any security person, ramp agent, baggage handler, check in person, cab driver etc who handles that bag could then pick up the virus themselves.

There are already cases reported in the UK (some within about 30 miles of the airport, at Buxton). Since the virus has an incubation period of two weeks or so, the chances are pretty good that it made it here in fairly large numbers and will show itself to be here in a widespread fashion in the coming weeks, especially since in the weeks prior to and just after Jan 12 (i.e. Chinese New Year), there was as always, a considerable number of Chinese people flying out and then back into the UK, presumably to visit relatives for celebrations. I don't think you need to be an expert analyst of how pandemics get going to know that was pretty much a tailor-made situation for the virus to make it into the UK.

At the airport, we are all very well aware that we're probably among the first ones who are going to be exposed to it, and it's not a welcome prospect, but it is what it is and panicking about it won't change anything, so we're all just pretty much resigned to the fact that it's on the way to us. What has not helped, is that many people have been told to 'self isolate' if they were show signs of cold or flu, which was a preposterous thing to suggest, since at this time of year - and particularly this year, when we've had lots of rain, snow, hail, high winds cold temperatures - I'd say that probably half the population has at some point exhibited signs of a cold or flu, so for all I know, I and all my work colleagues, could already have that virus, because nobody is going to take two weeks off work because they have a cold, if everyone in the UK had done that, the country would have ground to a halt weeks ago. In an ideal world it would be good to do that, but's just not practical in the real world.

[188AHC 2,138]

I love the names of towns and areas in the UK. Here across the pond they aren't nearly as poetic. 

It's great when you fellows share. 

Since my ancestry is Scotch Irish for the most part and a but of Welsh thrown in for good measure my greatest dream is to visit the UK before my ticket gets punched. 

[HighBypass 2,339]

Also statutory sick pay over here in the UK - the govt. handout if you don't work for a big enough company which will pay you your actual wage when off sick - is a bit of a joke. It's less than minimum wage. There is no incentive to self-isolate if you're financially worse off when trying to be a "good citizen"... especially if you feel well enough to work.

£94 per week versus about 58 quid per day very roughly.. until the business shuts down because every employee has caught the virus..

There is a culture in the UK (pun intended!) where a person is made to feel guilty if they take time off work due to cold & flu, despite the fact that it can be quite debilitating.