Straight & level: 15 May 2007

Rolling in the aisles?

Rollo Freelunch had just landed when he heard our old friend Cynthia Strap-In make the following announcement: "Ladies and gents, welcome to Seattle airport. Your luggage will be ready for collection on carousel four in 10-15 days - I mean minutes!" Not a good day, the flight before Rollo heard her say "and the strap should be low and fit tightly across your neck - just testing!" The flight before that it was "and of course each seat is provided with its own flotation device which is your bottom - er, that is, the bottom of your seat!"

Eclipsing others' achievements?

The makers of a British-designed single turboprop now apparently due to be built elsewhere (what's new?) thought it was "interesting to note Eclipse's recent fanfare about taking an Eclipse outside the continental USA for the first time last month. How many thousands of flight hours does the Eclipse have now?? We ferried our single-engined aircraft over the Arctic with a little more than 50h on it! Puts things into perspective..." (spotted by nephew Phil Nasskau)

Weight watchers?

It's not only the Megaplanes 787 Snoozeliner that is going on a diet, but also the company's chairman and the boss of at least one of its customers, Virgin Atlantic. According to the UK's Daily Mail, a little-noticed clause in the recently signed $8 billion contract between Megaplanes and Virgin for up to 43 787s stipulated that both Jim McNerney and Sir Richard Branson would each lose a stone (6.3kg or 14lb) "within the next four years in order to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by over 36lb on the delivery flight". Sadly perhaps, the green campaigners - including the anti-flying group Plane Stupid - couldn't see the funny side and accused the pair of taking these weighty matters too lightly (That's enough puns...Ed).

and talking of which, nephew Tim Elson spotted a minor Budgie (Global) Blues on this very matter when it reported: "Virgin Atlantic has so far only operated four-engined long-haul aircraft, including the Airbus A340, A380 and Boeing 747." Is it me or have Virgin got in VERY early by operating the A380? he asks.

 Read Flight from 1956 or read Uncle Roger's web log.