8 hours ago, james42 said:

A lot of people i know are more than happy to take the drive up to Bristol to grab an Easyjet flight. 

thats was the whole point of easyJet expanding at Bristol because its was in a good location to take pax away from cardiff, exeter,newquay and BHX. 

Not too mention it being H24 with no curfew or noise issues and its in quite an affluent area of the UK.   perfect for bucket and spade routes.

Edited March 9, 20206 yr by fluffyflops

On 3/5/2020 at 2:46 PM, F737NG said:

Aurigny, Blue Islands, Stobart, just to name a few others will be very interested.

 

 

Well, I got back home on a Blue Islands rescue flight for free. And Blue Islands have just announced a serivce from Jersey to Birmingham and Exeter.

Aurigny  have announced a service from Guernsy to Birmingham and Exeter.

So you are right, not just interested, they have been quick of the mark to introduce the routes.

ATR 72 500 I came back on, which will be the aircraft on the Aurigny Guernsey to Birmingham route. Nicer aircraft than the Dash. Quieter, more room.

1 hour ago, martin-w said:

ATR 72 500 I came back on, which will be the aircraft on the Aurigny Guernsey to Birmingham route. Nicer aircraft than the Dash. Quieter, more room.

Not only that, it appears Aurigny actually clean their aircraft exteriors. You should see how embarrassing it is to be in stand 7 at EGCC servicing a filthy Aer Lingus ATR when there's a gleaming Aurigny one on stand 5 adjacent to us. The Aurigny ones are a bit fancier equipment-wise too, with a super-duper pod on the nose to assist in landing in bad weather, which the Aer Lingus ones don't have.

I must admit though, the Aer Lingus pilots are amongst the friendliest we deal with. They are always good for a laugh on the headset and chatty when they do a walkaround and stuff. It does make a difference to your working day when people are like that.

when aer lingus operated the airbus for virgin little red in heatrow,  the a/c was a bag of nails and constantly had mels with only one radio stack working etc etc etc

23 hours ago, Chock said:

Not only that, it appears Aurigny actually clean their aircraft exteriors. You should see how embarrassing it is to be in stand 7 at EGCC servicing a filthy Aer Lingus ATR when there's a gleaming Aurigny one on stand 5 adjacent to us. The Aurigny ones are a bit fancier equipment-wise too, with a super-duper pod on the nose to assist in landing in bad weather, which the Aer Lingus ones don't have.

I must admit though, the Aer Lingus pilots are amongst the friendliest we deal with. They are always good for a laugh on the headset and chatty when they do a walkaround and stuff. It does make a difference to your working day when people are like that.

 

"Nose pod". What's that all about then Chock? Tech wise.

It was actually a flybe ATR, but being flown by Blue Islands crew, I came back on. Must admit it was clean inside and out. Looked quite new. Guess when Blue Islands got it they must have given it a bath. 😀

Edited March 10, 20206 yr by martin-w

40 minutes ago, martin-w said:

 

"Nose pod". What's that all about then Chock? Tech wise.

It's the enlarged fairing on the upper part of the nose of the ATR which houses the ClearVision Enhanced Vision System long wave IR cameras and the associated avionics package. Basically, the system overlays a collimated enhanced VR version of what is ahead of the aeroplane onto a helmet-mounted visor to allow the pilot wearing that to make a 'visual' approach in poor visibility conditions. It looks a bit like the helmet overlay visor eyepiece in things such as the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter, most Russian fighter jets, and things such as modern main battle tanks. It's not actually that new in terms of technology, although it is more reliable and advanced these days, obviously. Believe it or not, German Panther tanks in WW2 had a similar capability.

Here's some info on the ClearVision EVS:

https://uasc.com/home/shop/avionics/clearvision

Edited March 10, 20206 yr by Chock

1 hour ago, Chock said:

It's the enlarged fairing on the upper part of the nose of the ATR which houses the ClearVision Enhanced Vision System long wave IR cameras and the associated avionics package. Basically, the system overlays a collimated enhanced VR version of what is ahead of the aeroplane onto a helmet-mounted visor to allow the pilot wearing that to make a 'visual' approach in poor visibility conditions. It looks a bit like the helmet overlay visor eyepiece in things such as the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter, most Russian fighter jets, and things such as modern main battle tanks. It's not actually that new in terms of technology, although it is more reliable and advanced these days, obviously. Believe it or not, German Panther tanks in WW2 had a similar capability.

Here's some info on the ClearVision EVS:

https://uasc.com/home/shop/avionics/clearvision

 

 

Huh, well I never. Had no idea such tech was being used by Aurigny. I'm behind the times. I gather from Google it's the 600 that's so equipped, not the 500.

Last night, one of the FlyBe aeroplanes, which like the others, was parked up on a stand awaiting dealing with by the receivers, was caught by high winds and blown around 180 degrees on stand 47, fortunately it didn't hit anything! This is because with us no longer servicing FlyBe aeroplanes, ordinarily we would have storm chocked it, but of course nobody did that, so around it went!

Yesterday, I had the sad duty of helping to prepare one of the ex Thomas Cook A330s for its final departure in that livery. I think it was going to Copenhagen. I took a pic of it when I sorted out some steps for it so it could run some engine tests. I snapped the other ones too, and on the way back from stand 84 where that TC A330 was, I had to stop for a Virgin Boeing 747 which was being pushed out for departure, so I snapped that too. So here's some pics, and yes, it is sometimes sunny in Manchester, in spite of the gloomy mood there at the moment!

I got some footage of it taking off too later that day, and I'll probably stick that in one of my youtube channel videos. I shall miss seeing the lovely bright Thomas Cook livery.

Out on the end of Runway 23R, you have a bunch of forlorn TUI 737 MAXs, in the Cul De Sac and on remote you have a bunch of Flybe Dashs and E170s, and then you've got the Thomas Cook ones over on the 80s. It's quite depressing to see all those at EGCC. Quite an appropriate reg on that Virgin 747 - G-VAST - because it is a huge aeroplane, just compare the size of the guy stopping traffic on the road ahead of me.

Edited March 12, 20206 yr by Chock

I wonder if that Thomas Cook A330 was one of the ones that took me to and from from Cuba in 2008. The one going had leather seats which is a terrible idea in economy. I had the sun beaming on me the entire flight there which was seemingly endless thanks to headwinds and frankly, it was a dreadfully sweaty and uncomfortable affair that's best avoided. Even though I was sat on an exit seat it was one of the most uncomfortable flights of my life.

And, as I was writing this I also remembered that there was something wrong with the in-flight entertainment system on that flight which meant the only film available to watch was Mamma Mia! which is a horror film as far as I'm concerned. God, I loathe musicals. I chose to lick the window and sleep for 10 hours rather than endure that particular video nasty although the lady and her husband sat next to me were probably not that impressed with my dribbling whilst sleeping. They pretended not to notice when I woke, we are British after all but as I wiped my face I just knew we would all be trying not to laugh and me for the rest of the flight. I could put Mamma Mia on and pretend to laugh at that but they would never have bought that.

I suppose every flight I have been on has its little story when I think about it. I wonder how many stories that A330 could tell? Seems a bit of a shame Thomas Cook is no more. They have taken me to all parts of the world over the years in one way or another. FlyBe only ever took me to Ireland 😐

Edited March 12, 20206 yr by Jazz

I had a contrary experience with Thomas Cook two years ago, from Manchester to and from the Flight Simulation conference in Las Vegas. Having said that, it was in their 'club class' equivalent; not business class, but for the price it was superb value for money.

I share your pain, though, regarding 'Mamma Mia'. I watched it at home with my wife. At some point I quite naturally fell asleep. When I woke up several minutes or hours later it still seemed to be at the same place in the story, with what sounded like the same song droning on.

Edited March 13, 20206 yr by Petraeus

Our 747s From Man to Mco are quite busy.

sorry to bump this one...

EGTE, EXT had visitor last night   https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/g-clxc#26d918ce

word on the street is they are planning to start again in May,   Flybe 2.0 could be a thing.

(FPL-GCLXC-IG
-DH8D/M-SDFGIRY/S
-LDZA2155
-N0363F240 KOTOR DCT ROTAR/N0364F230 M167 CHI M859 BOA/N0362F240 Y504 OSBUL L995 PEPAG N851 ELMUR UL613 KOTUN UQ220 KESAX UT421 KUNAV Y8 SAM L620 GIBSO DCT
-EGTE0322 EGBB
-PBN/B2 DOF/210217 REG/GCLXC EET/LIMM0032 LSAS0112 LFEE0134 LFFF0153 EGTT0230 OPR/ELITE AERO IRELAND ORGN/EKBICPUF TALT/LDPL)

 

OPR/ELITE AERO IRELAND   ?? 

https://sixwestservices.com/terms-and-conditions/

 

 

 

Yep. A former shareholder bought them out of administration apparently, Could start up again this year. Will be good to see them here again in Guernsey. 

22 minutes ago, martin-w said:

Yep. A former shareholder bought them out of administration apparently, Could start up again this year. Will be good to see them here again in Guernsey. 

yes theres been whispers they might be looking for staff. i know a couple of people who have had an "unoffiical phone call" 

Didn't a lot of their Q400's get sold, some of them to Canada for rire fighting.

I recall some of them on the Guernsey to UK route were pretty old and dodgy, past their sell by date.