Turfed off flight

[Slarti]

Happily they sent a functioning aircraft to pick us up and (successfully) return us to Blighty.

Bet it wasn't a Boeing, though, unless it wasn't their own plane?

Slarti

[csearle]

Bet it wasn't a Boeing, though, unless it wasn't their own plane?

It was an Airbus A320-214.

[Slarti]

Bet it wasn't a Boeing, though, unless it wasn't their own plane?

It was an Airbus A320-214.

I only commented because you mentioned a 737 in your OP and, from another thread, I now know that Easyjet only do Airbus

Slarti

[bungeejumper]

2) Two overnight enforced layovers in hotels due to snow (Newark, JFK).

3) Various same day delays of between 2 and 12 hours due to maintenance issues, weather or ATC mandates

4) Two diversions. One because of low fuel due to headwinds (Bangor, Maine). The other due to fog (in Dubai, of all places, diverted to Abu Dhabi).

I wouldn't have mentioned this yesterday, for reasons of good taste, but I don't think I'll ever forget my second-ever plane journey, which was to West Berlin Tegel airport in 1972, 11 years after the Wall had gone up. The landing pretty well inoculated me against any flying fears I might otherwise have had - or, indeed, later developed. I daresay there are scarier landings in Africa or the Himalayas, but this one was right up there with the best of them.

The old West Berlin was only about 15 miles across, and Tegel was about four miles from the Wall. The reason this distance is significant is that civilian aircraft were required to stay at 10,000 feet (on pain of becoming target practice for Russian MIGs) until they'd crossed the barbed wire. That meant, quite literally, that the pilots had four miles in which to scrub off nearly two miles of altitude!

So the pilot came on the tannoy, informing us that we were about to cross the wire into the free world, and that we should fasten our belts for a rather bumpy one-in-two descent path. Onto lying snow on the runway...….. At midnight...…..

Whereupon he threw the engines into full reverse thrust and we rattled down through a thick cloud, some of us with our in-flight meals in flight (ewwww), and we made a perfect soft landing onto several inches of snow, with more snow arriving every minute. We didn't even see the city lights coming up at us until we were down below 500 feet. The Americans in the seats next to me were all screaming or praying, some of them both at once. But this pilot had presumably done it hundreds of times before. Naaah, easy.

Impressive, certainly. But the kicker is that this wasn't just any old aircraft we were travelling in. Most air travellers will never actually have heard a jet engine in reverse thrust, because it doesn't happen any more except on military aircraft. Indeed, it can't be done at all.

This plane, however, was an ancient de Havilland Comet, where it could. The most crash-prone aircraft of all time. Student life never stopped being exciting.

BJ

[Spet0789]

2) Two overnight enforced layovers in hotels due to snow (Newark, JFK).

3) Various same day delays of between 2 and 12 hours due to maintenance issues, weather or ATC mandates

4) Two diversions. One because of low fuel due to headwinds (Bangor, Maine). The other due to fog (in Dubai, of all places, diverted to Abu Dhabi).

I wouldn't have mentioned this yesterday, for reasons of good taste, but I don't think I'll ever forget my second-ever plane journey, which was to West Berlin Tegel airport in 1972, 11 years after the Wall had gone up. The landing pretty well inoculated me against any flying fears I might otherwise have had - or, indeed, later developed. I daresay there are scarier landings in Africa or the Himalayas, but this one was right up there with the best of them.

The old West Berlin was only about 15 miles across, and Tegel was about four miles from the Wall. The reason this distance is significant is that civilian aircraft were required to stay at 10,000 feet (on pain of becoming target practice for Russian MIGs) until they'd crossed the barbed wire. That meant, quite literally, that the pilots had four miles in which to scrub off nearly two miles of altitude!

So the pilot came on the tannoy, informing us that we were about to cross the wire into the free world, and that we should fasten our belts for a rather bumpy one-in-two descent path. Onto lying snow on the runway...….. At midnight...…..

Whereupon he threw the engines into full reverse thrust and we rattled down through a thick cloud, some of us with our in-flight meals in flight (ewwww), and we made a perfect soft landing onto several inches of snow, with more snow arriving every minute. We didn't even see the city lights coming up at us until we were down below 500 feet. The Americans in the seats next to me were all screaming or praying, some of them both at once. But this pilot had presumably done it hundreds of times before. Naaah, easy.

Impressive, certainly. But the kicker is that this wasn't just any old aircraft we were travelling in. Most air travellers will never actually have heard a jet engine in reverse thrust, because it doesn't happen any more except on military aircraft. Indeed, it can't be done at all.

This plane, however, was an ancient de Havilland Comet, where it could. The most crash-prone aircraft of all time. Student life never stopped being exciting.

BJ

Most modern jet airliners do use reverse thrust, but only on the ground to shorten the landing roll.

As you correctly recall, the ability to select reverse thrust in flight was a de Havilland trademark. It was meant to be an emergency only feature but apparently pilots loved it so much that they used it far more than they should!

[csearle]

I only commented because you mentioned a 737 in your OP and, from another thread, I now know that Easyjet only do Airbus

Yeah I made a mistake. Oh well. Nothing new there. C.

[csearle]

There is an old aviation saying: It's better to be down here wishing you were up there than up there wishing you were down here.

I agree. This is a saying that has passed my lips a few times too!

[tjh290633]

I've had two overnight delays.

The first was in Detroit, where BA's 707 arrived with a wingtip light U/S, all right for a day flight, but not for going back overnight. We were loaded onto the aircraft,but from my seat I could see mechanics at the wingtip. The pilot announced that they had borrowed a replacement from United, but it would take time to thread the wire through and so we would have the meal now. Eventually they conceded defeat and we went to an airport hotel, coming home the following morning.

The second was at Gatwick, from whence I was to fly to Buenos Aires with British Caledonian. Unfortunately our aircraft was diverted to Manchester because of fog, which persisted the following day. We were despatched to Russ Hill Hotel for dinner, overnight stay, breakfast and lunch. Our aircraft got in about 4pm and we set off almost a day late. We had an extra stop in Madeira for a crew change and were just about 24 hours late in BA. This was 1979, the winter of discontent, and I spent more days out of the country than in it. Back then you got tax relief for that.

Another interesting experience was flying from Detroit to Milwaukee, in a Northwest DC9. the pilot cut the engines at about 25,000 feet over Lake Michigan and made a perfect glide approach and landing in Milwaukee. Not a touch of the throttle all the way down.

TJH

[XFool]

Another interesting experience was flying from Detroit to Milwaukee, in a Northwest DC9. the pilot cut the engines at about 25,000 feet over Lake Michigan and made a perfect glide approach and landing in Milwaukee. Not a touch of the throttle all the way down.

Um... Was he thinking of applying for a job as a space shuttle pilot, or had they simply run out of fuel?

[tjh290633]

Another interesting experience was flying from Detroit to Milwaukee, in a Northwest DC9. the pilot cut the engines at about 25,000 feet over Lake Michigan and made a perfect glide approach and landing in Milwaukee. Not a touch of the throttle all the way down.

Um... Was he thinking of applying for a job as a space shuttle pilot, or had they simply run out of fuel?

No, they used reverse thrust as normal and taxied in as usual. I think it was just an exercise to keep in practice. We had competition to simulate a forced landing without power at AFTS, and I just had to apply a trickle of power to avoid touching down in a sterile area of the runway. Everyone thought I had cracked it until I took the small amount of power off to flare out. Not many got near the runway, most overshooting by a lot. The Oxford was a nice aircraft to fly.

TJH

[bungeejumper]

I had a near-neighbour who was a test pilot for British Airways. Every time BA took delivery of a new 747, his job was to take it out into the Atlantic and put it through its paces. Which included shutting off three of its four engines and checking that it could still fly.

It could, he said, but only at low altitude. (You could land it too.) Indeed, one of BA's 747s had to manage with no engines at all, after dust from a volcanic eruption in Indonesia shut them all down. They managed to get one engine restarted at 12,000 feet, but they couldn't gain any height until a second engine came back on song.

Heroes, all of them.

BJ

[brightncheerful]

It would be nice to think so but my live updates on the Easyjet app are only a few minutes old. Estimated departure 1930

EasyTime Machine?