I've become a part time plane spotter

manimanc said:
Finally Jet2 are retiring their 757s.
Such a shame as they are an iconic aircraft.
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Still look fantastic and they are coming up for 40 years old.

And still incredibly powerful , incredible take off performance!
 
Keeper! said:
Still look fantastic and they are coming up for 40 years old.

And still incredibly powerful , incredible take off performance!
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Yeah they are quite an amazing aircraft.
Flown on them lots with Jet2, never had a problem with them breaking down or anything.
Such a shame time has caught up on them.

 
manimanc said:
Yeah they are quite an amazing aircraft.
Flown on them lots with Jet2, never had a problem with them breaking down or anything.
Such a shame time has caught up on them.

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Flew on the 757 many times, some with Bruce Dickinson as the pilot. One of the few aircraft that can physically reverse using the reverse thrust from its engines.
 
meeesh said:
Yea St Athan in South Wales to the graveyard
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St.Athan is most definitely a graveyard.
Had the misfortune of working there with the R.A.F in the 80's.
Hated it that much that I volunteered for Northern Ireland so got out quick.
Though these will go to the civilian side.. B.A used to do a lot of maintenance there i think.
 
RadcliffeRick said:
Flew on the 757 many times, some with Bruce Dickinson as the pilot. One of the few aircraft that can physically reverse using the reverse thrust from its engines.
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I think if I saw an aircraft going into reverse I would want to..................Run to the Hills :-)
 
cpa said:
St.Athan is most definitely a graveyard.
Had the misfortune of working there with the R.A.F in the 80's.
Hated it that much that I volunteered for Northern Ireland so got out quick.
Though these will go to the civilian side.. B.A used to do a lot of maintenance there i think.
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Yes I believe they still do bits of maintenance on BA planes there, including refurbs, there’s a lot of planes gone to there to be stored in recent weeks and the last three Jet2 757’s are heading there early Jan, then that’s the end of that era
 
@Vic wrote: With that experience I wonder if you can explain why Jet2 (and TUI to a lesser etxent) think it's worth avoiding UK airspace charges by flying to the Canaries from Manchester via Dublin? I've seen one flight (on flightradar) from BirminghamWith to Tenerife fly over Liverpool then cross the Irish Sea before turning south south west.

It's a good question. All of the airlines will have their own criteria for flying a particular route. The things their flight planning system will take into account are the likes of: forecast winds, type of aircraft, pilot qualifications eg. are they licenced to fly on an "oceanic" route, fuel burn, density of traffic and chance of delays on a particular route amnogst others, and, crucially en-route ATC charges. The UK has some of the highest route charges in Europe and the amount an airline pays depends on aircraft weight and distance flown in UK airspace. Ultimately, all of the information is fed into the computer and it generates a cost to fly the route. Some airlines will always go for the absolute cheapest option and that may involve them ultimately flying further and therefore burning more fuel but that is outweighed by savings in other areas of the operation. I think the en-route savings would be worth it out of Manchester that way but marginal taking that route out of Birmingham or East Midlands(although I did see that one out of EMA did just that this morning). It is possible that going out via DUB enables them to get a more fuel efficient flight level for what is a 4 hour flight. Unfortunately my contact at J2 is no longer there so I can't get a more detailed answer.

I hope this helps and give you a jist of what factors are taken into account.
 
hampshireblue said:
@Vic wrote: With that experience I wonder if you can explain why Jet2 (and TUI to a lesser etxent) think it's worth avoiding UK airspace charges by flying to the Canaries from Manchester via Dublin? I've seen one flight (on flightradar) from BirminghamWith to Tenerife fly over Liverpool then cross the Irish Sea before turning south south west.

It's a good question. All of the airlines will have their own criteria for flying a particular route. The things their flight planning system will take into account are the likes of: forecast winds, type of aircraft, pilot qualifications eg. are they licenced to fly on an "oceanic" route, fuel burn, density of traffic and chance of delays on a particular route amnogst others, and, crucially en-route ATC charges. The UK has some of the highest route charges in Europe and the amount an airline pays depends on aircraft weight and distance flown in UK airspace. Ultimately, all of the information is fed into the computer and it generates a cost to fly the route. Some airlines will always go for the absolute cheapest option and that may involve them ultimately flying further and therefore burning more fuel but that is outweighed by savings in other areas of the operation. I think the en-route savings would be worth it out of Manchester that way but marginal taking that route out of Birmingham or East Midlands(although I did see that one out of EMA did just that this morning). It is possible that going out via DUB enables them to get a more fuel efficient flight level for what is a 4 hour flight. Unfortunately my contact at J2 is no longer there so I can't get a more detailed answer.

I hope this helps and give you a jist of what factors are taken into account.
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Thanks. Cheaper but not necessarily good for the airlines' environmental credentials.
 
Vic said:
Thanks. Cheaper but not necessarily good for the airlines' environmental credentials.
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Correct. It was frustrating getting the controllers to think in a different way and realise how important it was to the airlines to reduce fuel burn as much as possible and then have to try to rationalise to them that the very same airlines would then act in a different manner. One thing that did change was that the airlines adjusted their speeds quite a lot to save fuel. Ryanair were a big exponent of this adjusting their descent speeds to 245kts rather than say, 270-300kts. The pilots clearly got frustrated hearing other traffic being put in a head of them. I remember there was a trail of 8 x RYR all chomping at the bit to do 300kts but putting one other airline ahead of them at 300kts meant that the 8 x RYR could then all do the most economical descent speed of 245. Oh the fun we had!!
 
manimanc said:
Finally Jet2 are retiring their 757s.
Such a shame as they are an iconic aircraft
Click to expand...
Eight or so years ago I had to take a Jet2 pilot from Manchester to Glasgow airport. I worked at Manchester airport for a transport company, so trips around the UK weren't unusual.

Anyway, he said he was flying a 757 back to Leeds/ Bradford airport. The 757 made up the bulk of their fleet at that time, but they were getting old and unreliable, in his words, to the extent the airline had been hit with £20m in compensation payments due to delays.

To mitigate their losses, they had flight and cabin crew on permanent standby at Leeds/ Bradford, and he was flying the plane back from Glasgow after it had gone over to somewhere in Spain, I don't recall where, so they could avoid paying the compensation that would have resulted from a long delay.

He added the airline had just placed an order with Boeing to replace their ageing planes with a fleet of brand new 737's, which he was looking forward to flying.

I'm surprised it's taken so long.
 
Just watched a live stream from Nuuk in Greenland, of 2xC130's land, unload people and vehicles, and head off again, attracted a large audience at the airport, and online.

Both C130's flew from Camp Springs Washington, seems to be in advamce of a visit from Vance's wife on a cultural trip this week.

What a scruffy bunch the USAF ground and aircrew looked, hardly any wearing the same uniform, some only partial uniform.

One of the passengers got a bollocking from the airport ground crew for throwing a coffee cup onto the apron. Many of the watching civilians openly wearing Canadian badges haha.
 
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