Random The Hangar Plane/Aviation Thread

[Doss]

So I've been accused of being an aviation nerd (you bastard Beerfish), and while I do stridently resent the accusation...

Maybe I do find them a tad interesting. Not to the point where I'll sit at Greenvale for hours watching them take off and land or anything like that, but there is something interesting about them nonetheless. Those air crash investigation type shows always get me in; just maybe not before I'm about to fly!

So who else has at least a passing interest in the mechanical birds we send up into the skies every day?

I didn't actually fly until I was 15, but since then I've managed to fly to and within every continent besides Africa and Antarctica. I've managed to fly on all of:

A318/19/20/21
A330
A380
B717
B737
B747
B757
B767
B777
B787

The 707 and 727 left our skies too early for me to get anywhere near them, likewise the A300 and A310, and we simply don't have the A340 or A350 here and I've never struck them elsewhere.

I've also had turbo props a couple times; ATR72s I believe. Both of them on apparently smaller internal domestic routes elsewhere; Nha Trang to Da Nang in Vietnam, and surpisingly enough, Christchurch to Wellington just recently.

Never been on a true small plane though. Nor a helicopter for that matter.

787 is my favourite.

 

[Doss]

You'll keep Beerfish.

 

[Whispering_Jack]

I am an aviation nerd and I've spent many hours out at the viewing car park out at Tulla

I have flown around 10 hours myself when I was looking at getting my private pilots licence, but alas life got in the way and I ditched that for now due to the $$ involved. The smaller planes I've been in have been C152 and a few Piper Warriors.

I've only really flown domestic, Bali and most recently Vietnam.

The aircraft I've been on are:
A319/20/21
A330
A350
B737
B747
B767
B777
B787
Plus some sort of Turbo Prop when I went to Tom Price in like 2006.

I will be flying on a B752 in the States which is new for me.

By far the aircraft I've spent the most hours in is the A330 due to it being the main aircraft that Qantas runs from PER to MEL.

 

[Whispering_Jack]

Doss A350s fly from Hong Kong with Cathay Pacific

 

[Doss]

I will be flying on a B752 in the States which is new for me.

Not sure if you saw my post in the shits ya thread, but you'll notice how long loading and unloading takes on the 757. Other than that, not a bad plane at all. It's that weird in-between size that no other plane really is. Like a single aisled 767, which is what makes it so bloody slow to load and unload!

By far the aircraft I've spent the most hours in is the A330 due to it being the main aircraft that Qantas runs from PER to MEL.

Good reliable thing, the A330. Never been on one here; did get one from Abu Dhabi to Berlin though, on the now kaput Airberlin.

 

[Whispering_Jack]

Not sure if you saw my post in the shits ya thread, but you'll notice how long loading and unloading takes on the 757. Other than that, not a bad plane at all. It's that weird in-between size that no other plane really is. Like a single aisled 767, which is what makes so bloody slow to load and unload!

Good reliable thing, the A330. Never been on one here though; did get one from Abu Dhabi to Berlin though, on the now kaput Airberlin.

The 757 is from Vegas to NYC which gets in at around 9pm so I know I'll be super keen to get off! Ah well, I'll be on holidays and will have just landed in NYC, I'll just try to not stress!

 

[Doss]

The 757 is from Vegas to NYC which gets in at around 9pm so I know I'll be super keen to get off! Ah well, I'll be on holidays and will have just landed in NYC, I'll just try to not stress!

If you're near the back you might have a bit of a wait.

 

[Whispering_Jack]

If you're near the back you might have a bit of a wait.

I've chosen my seat around mid plane!

 

[Zephyr Spirally]

I’m a bit more of a pre jet military aviation fan. I love a Lancaster.

 

[Zephyr Spirally]

Doss, I suggest you do a sky dive. I’ve done two, both times from very small planes. The second plane had gaffer tape holding bits together. TBH I thought the parachute was the safer bet and I was quite happy to jump out.

 

[Doss]

Doss, I suggest you do a sky dive. I’ve done two, both times from very small planes. The second plane had gaffer tape holding bits together. TBH I thought the parachute was the safer bet and I was quite happy to jump out.

Sky dive is high on the list of things I will never do! Just not my cup of tea.

So has anyone here had a particularly harrowing or nasty air experience? Been in a near miss, a severe storm, emergency landing, anything like that?

 

[DapperDon]

Went for a spin in one f these a few years ago.

Didn't spew

 

[Whispering_Jack]

Sky dive is high on the list of things I will never do! Just not my cup of tea.

So has anyone here had a particularly harrowing or nasty air experience? Been in a near miss, a severe storm, emergency landing, anything like that?

Just the odd missed approach across the years. One coming into ADL that got particularly close to touching down before the pilot powers right back up and off we go again - was good fun. Knowing a bit about how flight works and having done a number of my own hours means I’m not at all a nervous flyer.

Re: skydiving - you couldn’t pay me to do it.

 

[Zephyr Spirally]

Interestingly both skydives were in my early 20s.
I was paid to do one, it was a promo thing in with my job in a tourist joint.
However, you couldnt pay me you do it now. No interest whatsoever. And too shitscared.

 

[Doss]

I’ve been pretty lucky over the years, I’ve only ever struck proper choppiness once.

That was flying from Santiago to Buenos Aires, with KLM in a 777. The flight involves crossing the Andes where they are almost 7,000 metres high, and when there are strong winds coming off the Pacific, they hit the mountains and then get redirected upwards. That’s what happened this day and for about ten minutes, oh boy was it bumpy.

A few people deposited into their sick bags.

All I can say is, lucky it was a beast like a 777 and not something you’d more typically find on a two hour flight like that - say a 737 or A320.

 

[eth-dog]

I never got the fear of flying, even though I have this massive fear of heights. Mostly because whenever I fly I generally sleep most of the way.

 

[Zephyr Spirally]

I’ve been in a glider twice. No near misses though. It was amazingly serene and quiet up there. We’d be on thermals and could see hawks on the wing just out the window.

 

[Howard Moon]

I was pretty much brought up in an aviation childhood, my dad worked from TAA/Australian Airlines/Qantas - along with 3 of his brothers. Every year we would have the xmas party at the airport jumping in and out of planes at the maintenance base, few times I worked at the Avalon air show selling qantas merch - we actually flew from Tulla to Avalon in an airbus which was an interesting little exercise! another year we got to share a helicopter with santa as we flew from Essendon to tulla. Back then on school holidays we could go to work with dad - id just walk around the hangar in awe watching all the places get overhauled and what not.

Outside of this my pa was a pilot and an insurance assessor for the civil aviation authority - he used to fly into plane crashes and assess the damage/file reports for the authority. On one famous occasion a plane had shot a runway and crashed into a paddock, when he went to investigate he did the exact same thing! I remember he came picked me up so I could help him clean all the dried cow pats that were flicked up all over the wings...

He won many air races across the southern hemisphere and I was quite proud at his funeral when a speaker mentioned he was amongst the most skilled short landing pilots in the country.

As a little kid he used to just rock up at our place and say lets go mate - next minute we would be at Essendon taking off in his Cessna or piper Cherokee flying off to who knows where! To me he was this swashbuckling hero. I remember one time he pointed to a cloud and said.. see that cloud?, im like yeh? he goes do you want a closer look? ...next minute he has banked at like a 45 degree and dived at it. I cried.

In his dying years he built a kitfox ultra light plane but it crashed on its maiden journey - he was adept enough to bring it down safely enough and didn't injure he or the co pilot too much.

Anyhow, upon his death the people at Essendon airport allowed us to scatter his ashes over the airport - we got special clearance to do a fly by. We put him inside a plastic container with a hose sticking out of it. Me and mum went up with his best mate flying, As we crossed over Matthews avenue mum opened the window and stuck the hose out, but old mate pa didn't want to leave! he blew straight back in shrouding the cabin in ash "HE DOESNT WANT TO LEAVE!" said his mate the pilot and we all laughed.

anyhow - I blame my passion for flight and travel on the above stories.

 

[hotkorma]

I never got the fear of flying, even though I have this massive fear of heights. Mostly because whenever I fly I generally sleep most of the way.

Me neither. Until one time I was flying home from a music festival. I had never had an issue with flying, but a 6 day bender and as soon as the plane started to take off I basically had a panic attack the entire flight.

The next couple of flights I was petrified of having a panic attack mid flight so I had some Valium prescribed. Apparently it was the fear of panicking rather than flying.

Anyway that sucked and it hasn’t happened since.

Moral of the story, don’t drink copious amounts of alcohol and party drugs and expect to fly well.

 

[Doss]

Moral of the story, don’t drink copious amounts of alcohol and party drugs and expect to fly well.

Probably was't planning on it anyway...

I never got the fear of flying, even though I have this massive fear of heights. Mostly because whenever I fly I generally sleep most of the way.

I basically can't sleep on planes at all. I didn't sleep a wink coming back from Santiago to Melbourne, which was a 15.5 hour direct flight.

Depending on time difference and if you are lucky enough to be arriving in the early to mid evening at your destination, it can almost perversely work to not sleep on those long flights though. You almost reset your body clock by stealth.

 

[Lore]

Probably was't planning on it anyway...

I basically can't sleep on planes at all. I didn't sleep a wink coming back from Santiago to Melbourne, which was a 15.5 hour direct flight.

Depending on time difference and if you are lucky enough to be arriving in the early to mid evening at your destination, it can almost perversely work to not sleep on those long flights though. You almost reset your body clock by stealth.

I'm the same. I flew Melbourne > KL > Dubai > Schiphol a few years ago, left Melbourne at 2am having been awake for a full day and the only time I slept on that trip was when we were about to land in KL and then our landing was delayed due to fog and we had to circle the runway for about 40 minutes. I fell asleep between the seatbelt sign coming on before we started circling and the bump when we actually landed. Awake the rest of the time. Arrived in Amsterdam at our hotel at about 10pm and ended up going to bed at a normal time, slept properly, woke up fine the next day, no jet lag whatsoever.

Coming back is an entirely different kettle of fish though. Flying east gave me a week or more of jetlag... although that might have something to do with the amount of time on a plane coming back haha. Coming back was Scotland > Schiphol (7 hour lay over between flights) > Dubai > Melbourne... something like 23 hours in transit.

 

[Whispering_Jack]

Probably was't planning on it anyway...

LOL

I basically can't sleep on planes at all. I didn't sleep a wink coming back from Santiago to Melbourne, which was a 15.5 hour direct flight.

Depending on time difference and if you are lucky enough to be arriving in the early to mid evening at your destination, it can almost perversely work to not sleep on those long flights though. You almost reset your body clock by stealth.

I can't sleep on planes generally either. I flew back business class, on a fully lie flat bed from Bali overnight once and didn't sleep a wink - even with an eye mask and ear plugs. Was so frustrating. Then again, I am a shocking sleeper at the best of times so ain't no chance of sleeping on a plane really.

 

[eth-dog]

Probably was't planning on it anyway...

I basically can't sleep on planes at all. I didn't sleep a wink coming back from Santiago to Melbourne, which was a 15.5 hour direct flight.

Depending on time difference and if you are lucky enough to be arriving in the early to mid evening at your destination, it can almost perversely work to not sleep on those long flights though. You almost reset your body clock by stealth.

I generally drink a beer to start, then fall asleep.

 

[Doss]

I generally drink a beer to start, then fall asleep.

Beer? Just need to slash later.

Spirits in the air, man.

 

[Lore]

Doss Was cleaning up some papers and found my flight itinerary for the Europe trip:

B777 Melbourne to Dubai via KL
B777 Dubai to Amsterdam return
A38 Dubai to Melbourne

A320 Schipol to Barcelona return

Embraer EM Amsterdam to Glasgow return

I don't even remember the Embraer though. It wasn't much different from an A320 from what I can remember