Paperlad

Safety is not only about deaths and crashes...... https://www.tripsavvy.com/ryanair-safety-record-1644049

Yer pays yer money, yer makes yer choice.

A couple of days ago I promised to write something about Ryan, it's difficult to know where to begin but here goes.... The current difficulties that O'Liary (deliberate spelling error) and Ryan are suffering are entirely self inflicted and I have no sympathy for them, nor do I have much sympathy for the paying public, who paid 'two Bob' for a ticket and are now baying for blood and compensation. O'Leary and his senior management are driven by a single motive at the expense of everything else and the motive is maximum profit. Given that some requirements are fixed everything else must be kept to the absolute, and I emphasise absolute, minimum. Have you ever wondered why Ryan's aircraft don't have window blinds, or reclining seats, or seat-back pockets, no padding on the headrestraints of the seat in front of you, minimum washrooms, minimum cabin crew, minimum seat pitch, cabin crew doing the cabin tidying (you can't call it cleaning) after landing....it's all about reducing costs. Does anyone recall Ryan's 99p seat sale or the suggestions of paying to use the wash room, or standing room only with a pull out stool for take off and landing - and possibly the daftest one of all - only having a single pilot and using cabin crew to fly in an emergency! Many will say that these were simply PR stunts in order to get headline news but if they'd been approved by the regulator, for sure, that's what we'd now have. Ryan bought a bunch of new 737's soon after 9/11, when prices were depressed, and then made profit on them through some convoluted buy back and lease arrangement. Some airports will even pay Ryanair to bring passengers to them. The current problems that they have, despite what O'Leary spouts, is due to a lack of pilots. Ryan make about €30000 profit from each cadet pilot they train who have payed for the 737 type rating out of their own pocket. These are cadets that have come straight out of flying school, already saddled with huge training debt, and have about 200 hrs total flying time. In the past, unless the pilot was ex military or sponsored by an airline, the only way to get to a shiny new jet was to build experience flying lots of other, smaller stuff but this experience takes time and commitment. Ryan decided to exploit this and offered the carrot of going from flying school straight onto a medium jet - but - the pilot payed for it and payed for everything including uniform, medicals, hotac costs, transport, (including cost of flights if your training was out of base) and doubtless many other things. All approved by the regulator and the only thing required was an ability to pay. So, you ask, why am I waffling on about all this? In pretty much all of the previous post the overriding topic has been the cost of a seat on a Ryanair 'plane, to my knowledge no one has mentioned safety. Perhaps safety is implied by buying a ticket on a western airline or, maybe everyone thinks modern aircraft don't go wrong or maybe they just don't care? Now picture yourself on that same flight that you paid 'two bob for. Up front you have an inexperienced, 200hr wonder kid, possibly still under training, and very probably, an equally inexperienced Captain who may have got his/her upgrade with Ryan, in the minimum time and knows nothing outside Ryanair. And then something goes wrong with the aircraft (there are countless possibilities), throw in a bit of bad weather, a bit of fatigue due the the Ryanair schedule, you're on min fuel (Ryan policy), maybe a disruptive, drunk pax or two and minimum cabin crew trying to sell you a fake charity scratch card....whilst O'Leary and his cohorts are sat in their padded, leather chair counting the pennies! You can probs now see where I'm coming from. Safety should be number one, it's easy to say and very difficult to maintain once standards start to be eroded. This guy says it much better than I ever could.... http://www.dublinlive.ie/news/dublin-news/ryanair-cancellations-michael-oleary-13668109?ICID=FB_DublinLive_Main

Today in Boston

Landing....and we're talking big stuff here, not puddle jumpers, although the same basic principles apply: The landing begins way up there in the cruise when briefing and planing the arrival, often 30 mins or more before touchdown. A good touchdown is positive, in the correct place on the runway and at the correct speed...and generally, everything else is secondary. Holding off for the 'greaser' will very often result in the 'plane floating way down the runway with the resulting concerns about will it stop in time! Touchdown technique on a wet or contaminated runway is to always plant the 'plane firmly to break through the water surface tension, avoiding aqua planing. PL Edit for extra content..when I have a spare hour or so I'll write up my thoughts on O'Leary and Ryanair....it won't be pretty:)

I would suggest that it's a Heinkel HE111. Mid-waist gun position.

Here's a painting of it too. It was painted for me three years ago by a retired RAF engineer

It sure is. Also here in Aberdeen.....in proper colours Edit to remove photo, sorry.

Hello Ian, I'm glad you liked the pics. Cardiff is planned for the 787 so, unfortunately, I won't be involved, however, things do change (very rapidly) in QR. Also I'm planning to take early retirement around March '18 and as the route doesn't begin until May, it's even less likely that I'll be involved. Never say never tho! As an add on, I did do 18 months based at Cardiff back in the early '90's with Manx/BRAL, flying the J41...very happy days. PL.

QTR001 approaching 27R at Heathrow, Sept 2nd 2017, flown by...you guessed it...me! Airbus A350-900, A7-ALG. 'Plane pitch about right, wings level(ish), gear down and flaps at landing config...you'd almost think that I know what I'm doing. Photos credited to Matt Smit, photobomb by lamp post

I'd say that, looking at the track, the skipper started on the rum a bit early.

Well I think it looks great, I'm happy to have ordered one and I'm very much looking forward to taking delivery.

Yepo, I elected to pay in full.....however, I still wasn't expecting my card to be charged until delivery. Is this a crowd funded model? PL

I bought a Canton DM55 two weeks ago and I'm very impressed with it. Here's a link to a review of it. https://www.whathifi.com/canton/dm-55/review Although I do not have hearing difficulties, the voice clarity is much better than the TV speakers. If you go to the manufacturers web site and check the technical spec. there are a number of pre sets to use for voice enhancement, there's also some, built in, electronic wizardry that increases speech clarity. Not cheap tho at £330. I also considered the Sonos Playbase but they are almost £700!. PL.

As an add-on to the above post, my credit card has already been charged the full amount for this model even though no delivery date is specified. If I'm honest, that was a surprise, as i would have expected to be charged only when the model was released for delivery. Obviously, I didn't read the T&C's properly! PL

I just ordered a DCC sound version. I'm sure the little niggles will be ironed out, even if they're not, it'll still be a striking model. PL

I've got about 100 hrs on G-MANF when when I worked for Manx/BRAL, using the famous 'Speedbird' callsign (best callsign in the business) but there was nothing speedy about the ATP...and nothing 'advanced' either These pictures are great and they bring back bittersweet memories, a lot of great airlines, some I aspired to work for, and now, most consigned to history. PL.

The Engineers station at the rear of the flightdeck....complete with cup holders lol.

Yepo, been on it since Jan. I can't give you much of an insight from an engineers perspective but from a pilot view it's ok. There are way too many computers (all monitoring each other) and it's fast, quiet and stable with a very good range. It's easy enough to operate, once you get used to where stuff is 'hidden' in the operating system. The 350 is clearly still under development by Airbus as there are regular software updates and lots of niggles to contend with on a daily basis. Our engineers are kept busy with it, after every flight there are multiple dispatch items (affecting the next departure) that are entered in the tech log and need rectifying before the next flight, but as with all things Airbus a simple reset often works! It even has an engineers station, on the flightdeck, with its own computer and screen for systems analysis....similar to the old days of having a flight engineer. I particularly dislike the Brake to Vacate function (BTV) as its way too aggressive, although it saves on brake wear and keeps the brake temperatures manageable...very important out here in the desert. I've previously flown the 320 and 330 and now 350, I rekon the 330 is the better one although not as fast or with the range of 350, just nicer to fly. Where are you doing the course? If you're BA Engineering it could be out here in Doha. All this talk of range and speed and I'm off to Dubai in a bit.......50 mins each way

A bit of night flying. A350.

Thank you for posting, very good indeed.

Thanks all for your info. It seems that the general consensus is that having a solid roof is a positive improvement. Although we've no idea, at this stage, what the cost will be, I think our choice would be to have a 'tiled' replacement roof with one or more skylights. It's not a big conservatory (about 4m square) and we're guessing at £5-6k but we'll get some quotes. PL.

Our house in the UK currently has a conservatory with a polycarbonate roof and it suffers from the usual too hot in summer and too cold in winter...despite having fans, opening windows and a heater for winter. Additionally it's ruddy noisy when it rains. We are considering having a replacement, solid roof fitted and I wondered it anyone has any experience of them, either good or bad.

My PPRUNE name (oh dear, given it away now) and that comes from flying newspapers to the I.O.M.

I'm not sure that the engine is from a Walrus, looks like a Derwent gas turbine, or similar. Walrus had a Pegasus piston radial but the painting on the bottom right is definitely a Walrus. I know, there's always a smartarse! The Phantom from the earlier bunch of pictures is a fabulous thing.