TTT is back

Pro Member Chief Captain
tomthetank Chief Captain

TTT is back 😀

We flew from Bristol Airport,and boy has that place changed
New terminal building(well its new to me Embarassed )
Great views of the apron from the departure lounge(bar Embarassed )
5 Easyjet 737s,1 Airlingus A320,1 Flybe,and 2 Firstchoice A321s
Oh, and a Ryanair 737 that came in and was turned around in about 45 mins(gate to being back in the air)

Seeing a 737 parked next to a A321 lets you note just how much bigger the Airbus is 😳

Anyway we were shoe horned Twisted Evil into the Firstchoice A321,but I had a window and a good view of the rear of the left wing and I grabbed this before start up

After pushback and start up,the captain extened the flaps before taxing to the runway
After a short wait we lined up and applied takeoff power and were in the air very quickly 😛
The captain had said before takeoff that we would be flying for about 4 miles before turning back on ourselves so that we could join a Europe bound airlane and turn again(we were nearly over Cardiff when we turned back Doh! )

After that we climbed to 35000ft and flew a very familier flight path for me,having flown to Portugal many,many times

From Bristol towards Exeter and then across the English channel to just clip the Breast Peninsular and along the French coast.Then its out across the Bay of Biscay to pick up Spain and then fly down the centre of Portugal

While over biscay I spotted another aircraft

Once we are level with Lisbon,we turn and start our desent and head for Faro

Now as I had the wing view I was looking forward to watching the flaps being extended(note I said I was looking forward)

The captain readied the cabincrew for landing and gave us a quick weather update clear skies but with a wind gustting to 25

From the left hand side of the aircraft its hard to judge your hight over water,but I see the detail of the waves,then the mud flats and salt beds.........STILL NO FLAPS Fear

Then flaps out two notch's(the same as takeoff)
Now we had a nose up attitude and I can now make out individual people on the ground,
and that was it,we were down with a bit of a bump,up popped the spoilers and autobrakes were set to perhaps 3 Dont Know as we all strained forward in our seats. No reverse thrust was applied

The return into Bristol felt the same(I could not see the wing as I was in row 1) only we braked a lot,lot harder (and it was the same captain)

So a question.

Is this minimal flap setting something to do with cutting down noise,or something else,or just the preference of my captian? because for a few moments going into Faro Fear

PS the weather was 👍 most days were cloudless so unfortunatly I had to stay cool with a beer Oops!

Answers 18 Answers

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Pro Member First Officer
twistedsucker First Officer

Wow, you must've had a great time in your trip. Good to know that everything went well. I wish I could actually get into a plane and see a person fly it, it definitely will improve my overal knowledge 😀

Pro Member Chief Captain
tomthetank Chief Captain

😀 thanks
As for seeing someone fly have you had a look here ➡

http://www.atcbox.com

You will need to register(its free 😀 )and in the download section there are 100s of videos all relating to flight
some very good cockpit videos,where you can see the captain at and working the controls 👍

Pro Member First Officer
twistedsucker First Officer

Thanks for the link! Exactly what I needed 🙂

Pro Member Chief Captain
Jonathan (99jolegg) Chief Captain

tomthetank wrote:

So a question.

Is this minimal flap setting something to do with cutting down noise,or something else,or just the preference of my captian? because for a few moments going into Faro Fear

Welcome back ! Group Wave
I was wondering the same thing, when I went to Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt in an A300 I didn't see any flaps at all. I was very surprised, as the A300 isn't the smallest of planes. The landing wasn't particularly hard but the air was very dense as it was very humid and cloudy so maybe that gave it more lift....or am I just talking poop 😉

Pro Member Chief Captain
RadarMan Chief Captain

Welcome back, good to hear that you enjoyed your trip.
I think you enjoy the flying now more than the vacation.

Radar

Pro Member First Officer
Greg (FL050) First Officer

Woot TTT is back!

I even made my first video but you were gone to see it 😞

Pro Member Captain
Zach (ranald) Captain

Welcome back TTT I hope your holiday was good.I bet you are having horrible holiday-blues 😞 I'm going to be flying on a 737-300 aer lingus in 2 weeks and on my own becouse the airline does not offer any help with unattended miners (i'm 13) its going to be fun (I hope Unsure )

Pro Member First Officer
twistedsucker First Officer

Is it me, or did a thirteen year old (Same age as me) just say that hey will be flying a boeing 737 in real life on his own!!!!!!!! Am I hallucinating 😳 ? Can you please explain if this is in a virtual airline or real, I bet its virtual 😳 , sorry for my stupidity Embarassed

Pro Member Trainee
mickwill Trainee

/{DE-LURK}

Hello Folks,

Well it's time for the geek to make a contribution.

First off I'll give you some background. I *used* to work for First Choice/Air 2000/First Choice and I left cos I got sick of it. Yes I loved working for an Airline (go one admit it, it's a bit sexy), but after ten years of "AIMS (Aircraft Management Information System) is down and your the only one who can fix it" phone calls at 03:00 does get you after a number of years. So I quit. I have a nice QUIET job running the IT systems of a chemical production plant in North West england.

Now onto TTT's question. I used to talk to the "performance manager" a lot and the pilots and have done several familirisation flights on different aircraft. Our pilots call the Airbuses - SCAIRBUSES. Most of them did not like the fly by wire approach, particularly afte the AB went down at the Paris Airshow. So the AB is entirley computer controlled and the pilots are much more in a montoring role. You CANNOT override the five onboard computers. if they think the pilot is trying something stupid, they will take over from him!!!! So the computer system will keep the aircraft within the envolope.

Now there are three reasons from coming in "low flaps". The first is that your need to get down fast -medical emergency, distress etc. The second is that (and this is no word of a lie!) FUEL IS MORE EXPENSIVE THAN BREAK SHOES!!! This is the typical First Choice apporoach to running an airline, cost above all else, except if your gonna get your flying license revoked. The third is suspected turbulance and windshear - fly fast and cut through it. I suspect that since First Choice has been re-absorbed Air 2000 that option two is what the pilots on this flight were executing. Save money.

So thats my two penneth worth out the way.

If TTT want's to complain ring the Manchester office and ask for Gelnda Lamont (Customer Services Director) and tell her what you think!

I've set-up and approach withthe weather on this one and coming in a 5 deg flaps and autobreak three was "interesting" to say the least.

SO there you have the IT geek has made himself known!

Best Regards

Mick

(PS you should see my other hobbies!)

Pro Member First Officer
SoCalRick First Officer

Welcome home, TTT! 👏

Pro Member Chief Captain
Jonathan (99jolegg) Chief Captain

Very interesting Mickwill 👍

Pro Member First Officer
Barge First Officer

twistedsucker wrote:

Is it me, or did a thirteen year old (Same age as me) just say that hey will be flying a boeing 737 in real life on his own!!!!!!!! Am I hallucinating 😳 ? Can you please explain if this is in a virtual airline or real, I bet its virtual 😳 , sorry for my stupidity Embarassed

He said he would be flying ON a 737 on his own as in no parents....
Not that he'd actually be flying it!!! Poke in Eye

Pro Member Chief Captain
Jonathan (99jolegg) Chief Captain

ROFL

Pro Member First Officer
twistedsucker First Officer

Barge wrote:

twistedsucker wrote:

Is it me, or did a thirteen year old (Same age as me) just say that hey will be flying a boeing 737 in real life on his own!!!!!!!! Am I hallucinating 😳 ? Can you please explain if this is in a virtual airline or real, I bet its virtual 😳 , sorry for my stupidity Embarassed

He said he would be flying ON a 737 on his own as in no parents....
Not that he'd actually be flying it!!! Poke in Eye

oh ok lol sorry for my stupidity

Guest

Here is my opinion...although there were only two flap changes it could well have been a flap 3 landing but selection of flaps up to flap 2 was done "as one" then flap 3 selected. Due to the wind full flap was not selected this would mean extra speed is carried possibly leading to a little float landing long and selection of manual braking when the trees were quickly approaching! Autobrake is a smoother action than manual....you can usually tell by the nose dipping that manual is being applied!

Pro Member Captain
Zach (ranald) Captain

He He I wish twistedsucker that would be a dream 😂 Welcome aboard mickwill 😎 and very interesting point.Mickwell do you still fly?

Pro Member First Officer
Barge First Officer

twistedsucker wrote:

oh ok lol sorry for my stupidity

Thats ok. Everyone makes silly mistakes sometimes.

Anyway it brightens up the forums...its good to have a laugh every now and again!

👏

Pro Member Chief Captain
tomthetank Chief Captain

😀 Thanks mickwill for the inside info
I had thought of it being a fuel saving,but dissmissed it Embarassed (I used to work in transport and we would say use your brakes and not the gearbox to slow down.(brakes being cheaper/quicker to replace than clutch/g/boxes)

We did not desend all that quickly,and I thought we started just after the Lisbon turn,which has been the norm in the past

As I said,it was a bit unnerving when you are expecting to see a whole load of flaps for landing and only see a little

I also tried the flight and had bit of a bounce on t/down(still only counts as one landing though 😉 )

Very interesting indeed 😳

Thanks again

Im off again in Sept so Ill make sure I can see the wing and flaps

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