gregjohnstone

Hi Gents, I was lucky enough to attend last year's airshow and thoroughly enjoyed it, enough that I have already booked (I live in Perth) to go next year. I'd be very keen to catch up with any fellow flight simmers over a beer or two during the event. My highlights from last year was the Super Hornet, I was about 50m from it as it rotated on the Friday night and the Super Connie as it took off in the darkness. My one regret of the trip was going to make a phone call to the old ball and chain and missing the B-1B take off on the Friday night as on the Sunday it departed from the south, so I am hoping to see it again next year. On a side note, I spoke to a woman promoting the event at the Pearce Airshow in May and she said they were hoping to have a handling display of the Raptor next year (the big disappointment of last year) and perhaps a F-35, though she said this was a big maybe. I'm also wanting to see the new Singaporean F-15S do a syncro display with the F-16 like some of the youtube videos that are around. One other thing, can anyone confirm a rumour I've heard about the Russian Su-27 doing a high speed flyby at 15 - 20 feet above the runway in the late 90's? That is something I'd like to see if true! Cheers, Greg Johnstone

For too long, QANTAS has neglected their product. The ceo and board fat cats, content in the knowledge that they were the only major, fulll service airline that operated both domestically and internationally would be able to rely on aussies being nationalistic and only flying on the national carrier, regardless of price, convenience andthe quality of their product. Once industry leaders, they have been reactionary to other airlines innovations and wanted their customers believe that they know what's best for them. QANTAS has missed the boat in so many ways over the past 20 years. Quality IFE is still hit and miss, personal space on board is minimal and they only introduced premium economy, on select aircraft, in the last few years. They have major industrial relations issues and the current CEO seems to be hell bent on off shoring most aspects of the airline. It's a pity really. If the A380 engine failure happened to many other airlines, we could very well have been reading about the shocking number deaths on the first crash of the A380. For many in australia QANTAS is still their first choice, especially domestically. The delays of the b787 have hit them hard but is still really no excuse to offer a sub par product. No matter what aircraft an airline flies, and the b777 is probably one of the best, ultimately it comes down to having a quality product for a reasonable price. QANTAS is failing massively in this at the moment and I fear it will be not too long before the Flying Kangaroo logo can only be seen inside Australia. Thank you for listening to my rant. Cheers, Greg Johnstone

Hi Everyone, I believe that QANTAS made a huge mistake in not buying the B772LR when it became available. Historically, QANTAS has always been a long haul airline flying some of the longest sectors / routes in the world. The LR would have fit perfectly into their fleet for this role. The problem is QANTAS has become too Sydney centric. Where I live in Perth, I can fly to either SIngapore or Hong Kong with QANTAS. If I want to get to America or Europe I need to go to either Singapore or Sydney, change planes and fly to one of the the destinations they deem to be most desirable. I married into a Dutch family and while I enjoyed my visit to London, don't want to fly to Singapore (change plane), Heathrow then (change plane) fly back to Amsterdam. Emirates for example flies one stop direct to most detinations and has a more desirable time of departure or arrival. Smaller, longer ranges aircraft like the B772LR would allow them offer a greater number of non stop destinations from Perth, Adelaide, Darwin and Brisbane. Perhaps then their International arm of the operation wouldn't be in such dire straight. My 2 cents, Cheers, Greg Johnstone

Although I was looking forward to PMDG delivering the triple 7, I hadn't given it too much thought. That was up until this morning. I was out at my home international airport, YPPH and saw the 6am Emirates flight to Dubai depart. It is currently being flown by the B777-200LR.I have to say I was mighty impressed with it, those two GE-90 engines are just massive. They almost look out of proportion to the rest of the aircraft. After doing a bit of research, I saw only about 50 had been ordered/delivered. What a pity as it's my new favourite aircraft. (Sorry B744!) I am sure nothing I say will change the process that is in place with the order the PMDG versions will come out, but I have to say I'd love the 200LR and 300ER to be the first to come out. Besides, you can never have too much range when you live in Perth, Western Australia!As far as my first routes when I finally get my hands on it; 1.) delivery flight to Dubai in Emirates colours, 2.) Dubai to Perth, 3.) Perth to Dubai.Cheers,Greg Johnstone

Hi Guys,I've really enjoyed this particular thread, I always enjoyed the precision you needed to apply when doing short field operations. A few years back, a small airline called OZjet (I think) went bust here in Western Australia and one of the TAFE colleges acquired one of their B732's as a training platform for their LAME students. That meant that it had to fly a short hop from Perth International (YPPH) to Jandakot (YPJT) which is 20nm south and is our primary GA airfield in W.A. Jandakot's main runway is 1392m (4566ft total length but with displaced thresholds at either end) and apparently it was quite a spectacular landing, athough I didn't get to see it.Just one question about short field take-off in jets, why wouldn't the pilot stay on the brakes until the engines had reached full power before beginning to roll? In the video, you can hear the engine spooling up as he is completing the turn around to line up. What would be standard procedures?Cheers,Greg Johnstone

Hi Guys,Up until Ryan told us what he'd actually been up to, I was going to say he'd been forced into "crew rest" for violating the 100 hours in a month / 1000 hours in a year virtaul flying time. You all know how the fed's deal with rule breakers!Cheers,Greg

Hi Guys,Don't normally reply to posts but couldn't pass this one up. I've seen some good jokes today, everything from the Loch Ness Monster being seen in Sydny Harbour, to politicians promising to lower taxes (saw through that one immediately!) What's the bet we get a "We are in Beta" message tomorrow. Looking forward to getting my hands on this one, the hangar has been very incomplete since I upgraded to FSX.Cheers, GregP.S. Any though been given to an Orbx style pre purchase option? I've used this a few times and like how I can come home to a nice email that says your purchase is ready for downloading. I believe they offer this about six weeks before they release (no guarantees however) and then you get 24 hours or so to download before it goes on general sale. Just a thought for what it's worth

Hi Folks,I'm not an expert like many of you but I had heard that some B744's flying long haul on such as the Kangaroo route (about 14.5 hrs SIN to LON) seem to allowed to have a reducing reserve amount that means they carry less fuel than if they had to plan 45 min res plus 10% plus alternate fuel. As I understand it, as they passed an enroute diversion point, they effectively refiled their flight plan to take into account their current position which altered their fuel requirements. This I believe caused some problems with a major Asian airline as they had a couple of B744's almost run out of fuel taxiing to the arrival gate. Something similar to the above allowed QANTAS to do L.A. to Melbourne in their B744's before they got their B744ER's as they actually flight planned to go to Sydney, then if the winds and fuel allowed they "diverted" to Melbourne. This was actually a schedulled flight where they operated like this for a long time.To me it seems like the airlines can do sort of what they like .... until it goes wrong!CheersGreg

Hi all,Unfortunately, due to a motherboard failure I have had to reinstall FS2004 and all the freeware / payware I own, however I have lost the files I had for the B772LR Air New Zealand livery. I have googled and researched on this forum but haven't found it.Hoping someone may be able to help me out with the files.Thanks in advance.Greg J