Straight & level: 30 May 2006

Budgie Cyber Blues

So you think the recent landing of the Airbrush A318 “mini-me” bus at London City was impressive? Just take a glance at its max altitude capability in a certain on-line directory. According to this, the spritely minibus can zoom along at the edge of space at a very impressive 39,800m (139,000ft)! Something has to pay for this, however, so you’ll not be surprised to see its range with max payload drops off rather alarmingly to 3,629m. According to eagle-eyed nephew Chris Kjelgaard: “Wasn’t the A380 doing its first landing at London City Airport this week as well? Or was it the A318 at Heathrow? I can’t quite remember... but I can’t wait to see the 747-8 doing its first landing at Popham.”

Vive les waypoints

Nephew Jean-Louis Alligier reminds me that “should you decide to extend the search to other languages, then the resources would become nearly infinite. Take AWY UN870 from Madrid to Barcelona : you fly from KARES to BISES [Kiss] that come, almost logically, after PINAR [french slang for Wine].”
Merci Jean-Louis!

Aircraft eats tractor

Maybe not quite the “man bites dog” story, but a fascinating tale none the less from nephew Jock Boehm who recalls this incident from January 1996 at Dubai airport.
(Operator identity withheld to protect the…er… innocent)
“Around noon DXB: A310 refuelling/tech stop…engine start up. Still attached to towing tractor and ground communications. Aircraft starts moving. Ground marshaller with headphones throws away his headgear and runs. Towing tractor, still attached, gets pushed, driver abandons and runs. Cockpit crew unaware, meets power resistance starboard, remember the tractor? Adds more power starboard, pushes tractor and engine eats it partially, driver at distance, watching and shaking. Crew realises and stops engines. Then also realises had no engine start up or any other clearance from airport or ATC.
Guess the aircraft and crew just wanted to go home fast. No harm to passengers. All off board, aircraft grounded, damage to engine and frame. Total ground time for repair approximately four weeks. Next morning at an airport hotel for breakfast, me at next table, an executive and an engineering team from XXXXXXXX in a huddle.”

Many Happy aaaaaaaahhhhhh de Havillands!

chipmunkW445