[Mr Mercury]

Just spent an enjoyable few hours at Manchester Airport indulging in one of my little past times watching planes take off and land. The first cpl of hours were at the airport pub at the top of the North Runway with a meal then outside watching the incomings, then drove round to the South Runway and a short walk to the viewing area to watch the planes take off. Highlight of the day was seeing the majestic A380 arrive from Dubai then take off a cpl of hours later. Great few hours away from all the politics!
Highly recommended to any other boring gits out there!

This post has been edited by Mr Mercury: 11 June 2024 - 05:03 PM

[isleaiw1]

You should have said - we have a hotel overlooking the runway by T5 at heathrow, with an outside viewing area, bar, food, pool table!

I did A380 to Abu Dhabi when I went to Singapore, it was very smart!

[Mr Mercury]

isleaiw1, on 11 June 2024 - 05:18 PM, said:

You should have said - we have a hotel overlooking the runway by T5 at heathrow, with an outside viewing area, bar, food, pool table!

I did A380 to Abu Dhabi when I went to Singapore, it was very smart!

Cheers!
Keeping my eye out for news if the fleets get retired to have a trip on it first.
Done the 747, Dreamliner, and one of the early 737 max 8 flights when they returned to service after being grounded with the computer glitch that caused two catastrophic crashes.

This post has been edited by Mr Mercury: 11 June 2024 - 05:23 PM

[isleaiw1]

Mr Mercury, on 11 June 2024 - 05:22 PM, said:

Cheers!
Keeping my eye out for news if the fleets get retired to have a trip on it first.
Done the 747, Dreamliner, and one of the early 737 max 8 flights when they returned to service after being grounded with the computer glitch that caused two catastrophic crashes.

I'm still getting over that I never got to do Concorde! Much prefer airbus to Boeing these days - for obvious reasons...

[Paragon of Virtue]

Did the A380 coming back from Boston in the US with BA. It was fun getting to fly on one but the cabin was a bit tired and grotty.

[clarevoyant.]

Don't want to put people off of this fine beast, but for 10 years prior to retirement I was involved in inspection of components (mainly machined parts for the Trent engine) that went into manufacture/routine maintenance of said beast. Worrying!!!

[JonB]

Been on one a couple of times...once as the first leg of coming back from Sydney flying to Singapore in 2010 with Qantas when it seemed a nice enough plane apart from the fact my headrest was broke so kept falling off unless i pinned it back with my head! Even though that plane was going to Heathrow we had to get off and change to a 747 for the second leg and as we were late leaving Sydney we had 20mins to make the change! Saw about 500 yds of Singapore as we legged it two gates up to change planes. Miraculously our luggage made the swap as well!

Second time was back from San Francisco and ended up on a BA one. We had flown out with Thomas Cook which was an awful flight partly because our nearly 2yr old wouldnt settle then went to sleep just as we started to descend for landing but also because the service was awful. Completely unhelpful. They ended up going bust why we were out there so i had to call to arrange a replacement flight which was with BA or Virgin. Virgin didnt pick up the phone when i tried that first evening so following morning i tried BA who got us on a flight almost the same time we would have been flying. Service was great including when our daughter was sick including on me...now got a pair of BA 1st Class pyjamas at home they'd given me so i could change my top!

[fishini]

 clarevoyant., on 12 June 2024 - 06:55 AM, said:

Don't want to put people off of this fine beast, but for 10 years prior to retirement I was involved in inspection of components (mainly machined parts for the Trent engine) that went into manufacture/routine maintenance of said beast. Worrying!!!

I maintained the production machines that made many parts for airbus. The controls of production and traceability were outstanding. We even weighed parts before and after painting so you knew exactly how thick the paint hence the part was painted correctly. They knew exactly how much the planes weigh unladen to +/- 1KG. They could trace parts to the machine, what tools were used, date and time of the day, who made them,who inspected them etc

[RN Blue]

 fishini, on 12 June 2024 - 02:17 PM, said:

I maintained the production machines that made many parts for airbus. The controls of production and traceability were outstanding. We even weighed parts before and after painting so you knew exactly how thick the paint hence the part was painted correctly. They knew exactly how much the planes weigh unladen to +/- 1KG. They could trace parts to the machine, what tools were used, date and time of the day, who made them,who inspected them etc

Sounds similar to my practice of writing my name inside gate end boxes when I'd rebuilt it, almost!

[Mr Mercury]

 RN Blue, on 16 June 2024 - 03:18 PM, said:

Sounds similar to my practice of writing my name inside gate end boxes when I'd rebuilt it, almost!

Gate end boxes?

[oldgoat]

Ask a pit electrician , good for sleeping on

[fishini]

 oldgoat, on 17 June 2024 - 12:15 AM, said:

Ask a pit electrician , good for sleeping on

Wouldn't like to sleep on a gate end box far too uncomfortable, transformers far better and warmer as any pit sparky will tell you

[isleaiw1]

oldgoat, on 17 June 2024 - 12:15 AM, said:

Ask a pit electrician , good for sleeping on

While on shift, getting paid by the taxpayers coin... remind me again about nationalised industry efficiency!

[fishini]

 isleaiw1, on 17 June 2024 - 08:03 AM, said:

While on shift, getting paid by the taxpayers coin... remind me again about nationalised industry efficiency!

When did miners get paid by the taxpayers

[clarevoyant.]

isleaiw1, on 17 June 2024 - 08:03 AM, said:

While on shift, getting paid by the taxpayers coin... remind me again about nationalised industry efficiency!

Looking at that post for the 2nd time I then realised it wasn't cps.

[clarevoyant.]

fishini, on 12 June 2024 - 02:17 PM, said:

I maintained the production machines that made many parts for airbus. The controls of production and traceability were outstanding. We even weighed parts before and after painting so you knew exactly how thick the paint hence the part was painted correctly. They knew exactly how much the planes weigh unladen to +/- 1KG. They could trace parts to the machine, what tools were used, date and time of the day, who made them,who inspected them etc

Traceability was indeed outstanding and expensive in both the aerospace and nuclear industries going back to the original mill certs showing all component materials in manufacture of any specific product. Any future failings of a one off component then resulting in all batches of components on the related cert package being 'pulled' from either production or if in use. Costly in compo and or manufacture loss.

[It's bolted]

 isleaiw1, on 17 June 2024 - 08:03 AM, said:

While on shift, getting paid by the taxpayers coin... remind me again about nationalised industry efficiency!

you could say the same about working from home 🤔

[isleaiw1]

It, on 17 June 2024 - 11:30 AM, said:

you could say the same about working from home 🤔

well I'd argue I do much less work at work as people keep coming and asking me stupid questions, and there is a 3 hour ish commute and I therefore start later and finish earlier....

But I get the point, there are lots who dont as evidenced by the bank in America sacking people last week for using mouse shifting machines to make it look like they were working when they werent...

Besides what would we have done without the NCB wellies and donkey jackets growing up!

(although i do remember chatting to my neighbour back in the day who was a pit joiner and saying I couldnt work 7 days a week (like he was doing as he was out 7 days a week) and he said, nor could he!

[It's bolted]

Besides what would we have done without the NCB wellies and donkey jackets growing up .
And the coal that was produced.

[isleaiw1]

fishini, on 17 June 2024 - 09:16 AM, said:

When did miners get paid by the taxpayers

when it was nationalised and losing money...