Back from holiday.

Hi all,

Just arrived back from christmas holiday over in spain, and despite the rater sobering cold hitting me back in the UK now. I should have certainly prepared myself from the 19 degrees in the morning to arriving in back in the uk to temperatures of just 1 degree and heavy snow fall yesterday evening. :shock:

Nevertheless i was pleased to have a look at the flightdeck on my return. Upon request, the captain allowed me to enter the flightdeck after parking at the gate and have a chat. Although there is a wealth of images of the interior all over it's always great to have a look inside the real airworthy plane once in a while. The aircraft i travelled on was the 737-800 (NG) which was only a few months old so in tip top condition. It was a night flight so whilst systems inside the cockpit were still running the captain demonstrated a few things including the 'christmas tree test' also known as the light test which lights everything up in the cockpit which was great. I also had a sit in the captains seat whilst at the gate and lightly moved the control column and throttles. This allowed me to compare to my poldragonet USB throttle. The resistance on the real thing is considerably more than the USB type. I do not know if this has been addressed by any other TQ vendors. As i see the obvious problem is if there is resistance, the gears for the a/t are going to burn out or struggle to work/overhloaded for our sim TQ's. It's an interesting dilemma. :o

The captain was very pleasant and welcoming; i just wanted to pass on such a fantastic experience to all of you. It was great to see a functional airliner as obviously the 737-800 is, on the whole, still in service.

Sometimes the best things in life don't cost anything. Remember that. :)

He also said he used to fly the B757, 767 but these are fizzling out in terms of use. I suppose this is down to all the new technology such as the A380 and the dreamliner 787.

A happy new year to all of you, and hope you all had a lovelly christmas.

Glad you enjoyed the trip Gez, reminds me of my flightdeck visit on an Airbus A320 when I flew to Palma (obviously when stationed + engines off). Easyjet crew were top and always happy to speak to cockpit enthusiasts!

No pics?

Nice to have you back....and in the freezing cold!

Glad you had a good holiday, where in Spain where you.

I see another -800 left the runway today, at Dortmund I think, bound for the Canaries. No casualties, other than front undercarriage it seems.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Geremy Britton

Hi all,

Just arrived back from christmas holiday over in spain, and despite the rater sobering cold hitting me back in the UK now. I should have certainly prepared myself from the 19 degrees in the morning to arriving in back in the uk to temperatures of just 1 degree and heavy snow fall yesterday evening. :shock:

Nevertheless i was pleased to have a look at the flightdeck on my return. Upon request, the captain allowed me to enter the flightdeck after parking at the gate and have a chat. Although there is a wealth of images of the interior all over it's always great to have a look inside the real airworthy plane once in a while. The aircraft i travelled on was the 737-800 (NG) which was only a few months old so in tip top condition. It was a night flight so whilst systems inside the cockpit were still running the captain demonstrated a few things including the 'christmas tree test' also known as the light test which lights everything up in the cockpit which was great. I also had a sit in the captains seat whilst at the gate and lightly moved the control column and throttles. This allowed me to compare to my poldragonet USB throttle. The resistance on the real thing is considerably more than the USB type. I do not know if this has been addressed by any other TQ vendors. As i see the obvious problem is if there is resistance, the gears for the a/t are going to burn out or struggle to work/overhloaded for our sim TQ's. It's an interesting dilemma. :o

The captain was very pleasant and welcoming; i just wanted to pass on such a fantastic experience to all of you. It was great to see a functional airliner as obviously the 737-800 is, on the whole, still in service.

Sometimes the best things in life don't cost anything. Remember that. :)

He also said he used to fly the B757, 767 but these are fizzling out in terms of use. I suppose this is down to all the new technology such as the A380 and the dreamliner 787.

A happy new year to all of you, and hope you all had a lovelly christmas.

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Posted via Mobile Device

Wow sounds great Gez,


Some years ago, 1998 to be precise, I was lucky enough to get a work experience placement with Britannia Airways at my local, Bristol International.

As well as spending a day with the fire service getting to see up close and personal the training rigs and equipment I was able to spend a day with ATC and radar amongst other exciting activities.


But the best came on the last day when I was asked if I would like to fly jump seat from Bristol to Malaga (spain) on a Boeing 757.

Of course I said no would not like to... I would love too!!

It was great to see all the prep that goes on by the crew beforehand right through to the post flight tasks. Oh and the small matter of a fantastic veiw flying into sunny spain was amazing!

After a guided walk around on the ground we filled up with passengers and headed back, as night fell the cockpit became an even more wonderous place to be!

I can safely say that was the day I wanted to spend my time in a cockpit, although at this point I did not expect it to be at an altitude of 35ft in my attic!

With increased security these days I doubt many others got that opportunity after me.

I have some cool pictures somewhere along with my jumpseat lanyard, will try and dig them out to post.

Jon

Welcome back from your holiday, Geremy,

hopefully you had a recreational vacancy. Surely, a visit to the F/D at the end of a vacation is top of the cream!
Your (and the Capts.) remarks about the 738 are interesting, since this type of a/c is not soooo old. I believe, the 738 will continue to operate for european charter carriers for many years to come, given it´s superb range/capacity ratio.
Unfortunately, the 738 has recently had a bad press (AA runway excursion at Kingston and today´s incident of Air Berlin at Dortmund). Well, seems this aircraft is not only physically long, it also has a loooooong time to stop it.

Cheers
Chris

PS: Did you have a chance to take some pics during your visit to the flightdeck?;)

Welcome back Geremy. It must be nice 19 degrees :mrgreen:

As Everyone is enquiring,did you take any snapshots?