dodgy-alan

Heckle

To commemorate 100 years of British Airways heritage, including it's predecessors, some aircraft are being given retro paint schemes. The first of these is a Boeing 744 in the fabulous BOAC markings. Initial response across various forums has been very positive and BA have said that other liveries are to follow including the BEA "Speedjack" scheme presumably on an Airbus. The B744 has already been released as an FS2004/FSX aircraft and is a welcome addition to the hangar. I've also included some photos of the real thing for comparison as she only arrived yesterday from the paintshop! https://

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47267901

FlyBMI. A regional airline that was a spin off from BMI international announced today that it had ceased trading with immediate effect. The thing is they were still taking bookings and customers money as late as last wednesday! But today have told customers that their flights are cancelled, they will not be issuing refunds not arranging flights with other carriers. Customers stranded abroad have been told to make alternative arrangements to get home at their own expense and then claim the money back from their card issuers! To me that is just plain dishonest and poor customer service. ht

Crackin' shots, The Hawk is a real success story and is still evolving even now.

Good to have you back young padawan! The Force must be strong in you!

Implacable

Just a few of the many hundreds of photos I've taken since the 1970s, some are taken on 35m, some on a C126 cartridge film and others are digital from later cameras. A few were taken from my parents back garden in Cranford, others from Hatton Cross, Myrtle Avenue, another set from the Eastern perimeter road crossing point(before it was closed off) and others from the central car parks. A few more were taken airside when I worked as a coach driver. Now of course the security at LHR has had a major upgrade since the spectre of terrorism has arrived and as a result many of our old haunts are ina

1969, I was 9 years old. Then when the first one came into Heathrow in January 1970 the whole area came to a standstill. I was at Cranford Junior School and our classroom was on the end of the building. Now that particular school is literally just over the fence from BOAC's, (Now BAs) maintenance area and aircraft coming in flew very low right over our playing fields. All the lads in the school were aircraft mad at the time so you can imagine the stir the 747 caused. The very first time I saw one I was sat in class listening to our Headmaster giving us a lesson as the regular teacher was else

The thing is Sala was offered a commercial flight which would have been a lot safer but apparently he turned it down and arranged this flight privately! He then sent a tweet saying that he was in a rattly old aircraft! He could quite easily have declined to take the trip if he felt uneasy. It's all rather odd.

Now they have recovered the body of Sala, the next thing that seems to be happening is the press's character assassination of the pilot Dave Ibbotson. His body has still to be recovered, however question marks are arising over the airworthiness of the aircraft and indeed his own competence on the type! He was recorded as saying to a friend on social media that he was "A Bit Rusty" on certain procedures! However until the wreckage is brought up its hard to know what happened. Did he have an altimeter malfunction, poss caused by a frozen pitot tube, why did he descend from 5,000 ft to 2,300? W

Tribulation

Very nice, always love flying the P40.

Such a shame, the Morris Minor is an iconic car. A real British success story. https://www.mmoc.org.uk/

Good capture of a classic aircraft. I have to admit though, I'm not a fan of the "letterbox" format. I would have preferred a more normal type of presentation. That's just me though.

Very nicely done.

Great set of captures.

Superb, the Falcon is a good looking biz jet.

Hipsters

Would be good, I always enjoy taking part.

Dwarves.

Well done James.

That's a shame, this happened before, and you were offering prizes back then as well. I wonder why there's such a general apathy ?

Interesting angle, love the Connie, I used to see them regularly at Heathrow when I lived next to the airport in the early 60s. The sound of the big piston aircraft is something very special indeed. We got the lot, Connies, Stratocruisers, DC3s,4s,6s and 7s, Breguets , Curtiss Commandos etc. However they were soon mostly replaced by jets and turboprops. Happy times.

Nicely done, certainly some dramatic landscapes on that run, I've done Inverness-Liverpool a few times and it's a great flight, especially if you keep fairly low.