mutley 4,487 Posted June 4, 2015 Report Share Posted June 4, 2015 Some of you may know I have been away on holiday in Florida visiting our co-admin and my close friend, John Allard. I flew back on the red-eye last night and have some pictures you may like, please bear with me I didn't get a wink of sleep on the flight! We were fortunate enough to fly in the Premier Club cabin, all the extras like fast check in, security fast track, priority boarding and de-boarding, private lounges etc. are well worth the extra. My ticket stub.On our way to the private lounge, it's probably about 86 degrees plus outside, one of the cooler days.We saw this Antonov AN 124 on our way in to the airport, John and I had seen this aircraft earlier in the week. The only way to get close was to go to the smokers area, the trouble was there was double netting floor to ceiling, I guess to stop the odd stray fag butt from getting flicked onto the apron. As you can see, he is off loading helos...So here we are on board and guess what, the cockpit door is open.Always one to seize an opportunity I get permission from the captain to visit once they had finished their initial checks. The cockpit is truly awesome!The Captain, (I forget his name now) was so interesting, he gave me a quick once over the avionics and seeing I had my Mutley's Hangar crew shirt on we talked about flight simulation for a while.Of course, I have hundreds of questions in my mind now to ask him that I forgot to then!A quick look to the right and I am back to my seat.Push back shows a cute Airbus.. A340? (Not my strong point) Hmm, that DHL cargo will never fit in that hangar! We're off, not climbing too fast at first One of dozens of smaller fields around, we are on our way out over Port Canaveral where we stayed a week.They love to show off the lighting, all colours of the rainbow are available, fortunately the lighting was far more subtle during the flight.Saying goodnight to Florida. (The dimming windows are huge btw)And welcoming this mornings sunrise..This picture really doesn't do it justice, there were many cloud layers and the light was incredible.FL180 over the Isle of Wight, I have drawn a square around Mutley Field (EGHI Southampton)I am pretty sure this is Dunsfold?Virtually no hold, it was straight in to RWY 08Another Dreamliner (How common!)Just the taxi to go, welcome back to Blighty!The flight stats can be viewed here, http://www.flightradar24.com/data/airplanes/g-tuig/#66dc447 Here is an overview. 6 Link to post Share on other sites
wain 879 Posted June 4, 2015 Report Share Posted June 4, 2015 Nice shots there Joe, thanks for letting us see.......hope you had a good time..... Wayne Link to post Share on other sites
Sabre 28 Posted June 4, 2015 Report Share Posted June 4, 2015 Wonderful pictures Joe, thanks for posting. Hope you had a great time. It's been a couple of years since we flew from Sanford but I can remember crossing that very road on the way to the car hire. Link to post Share on other sites
allardjd 1,853 Posted June 4, 2015 Report Share Posted June 4, 2015 Outstanding set of shots, Joe. Happy you got one of the Antonov and the copters. We didn't get the chance driving in. Looks like the flight back home was better than the one over, with a cockpit visit and no screaming kid. Sometimes things just work out. Will get all that .45 cal. brass re-loaded for your next trip over. John 1 Link to post Share on other sites
jaydor 345 Posted June 4, 2015 Report Share Posted June 4, 2015 Welcome home boss. Great picture's and what a scoop to get into the cockpit (female driver's prefer to call it the lunchbox). Hope you both had a great time and soon get over the jetlag. Link to post Share on other sites
hurricanemk1c 195 Posted June 4, 2015 Report Share Posted June 4, 2015 Excellent shots Joe - and that LAN is indeed an Airbus A340-300 Link to post Share on other sites
Captain Coffee 2,030 Posted June 4, 2015 Report Share Posted June 4, 2015 Great PIREP boss! Who knew Mutley's T's were a ticket into a guided cockpit tour? Where is the Mutley's Hangar clothing store btw? Nice shots of the AN disembarking the copters despite the netting...cool catch there! Link to post Share on other sites
brett 2,284 Posted June 4, 2015 Report Share Posted June 4, 2015 Is that ORBX scenery? :D 1 Link to post Share on other sites
hifly 925 Posted June 4, 2015 Report Share Posted June 4, 2015 Is that ORBX scenery? :D ^ Welcome home Guv. Link to post Share on other sites
needles 1,010 Posted June 4, 2015 Report Share Posted June 4, 2015 Wow! Nuff said Link to post Share on other sites
Bruce (a.k.a. brian747) 142 Posted June 4, 2015 Report Share Posted June 4, 2015 Welcome back! Great pics, too (you spoil us). Cheers, bruce a.k.a. .... er.... oh yeah brian747 Link to post Share on other sites
ddavid 149 Posted June 4, 2015 Report Share Posted June 4, 2015 Excellent holiday plus excellent photo's - thanks for sharing. Good to have you back, too! Cheers - Dai, Link to post Share on other sites
mike H 456 Posted June 4, 2015 Report Share Posted June 4, 2015 Welcome home Joe, great to see inside the cockpit nice one .How was the b787 did she live upto her name " Dreamliner " Nice set of pic's . I see those bigger windows make for taking much better outside pic's Thanks Joe hope you had a great holiday. Cheers Mike Link to post Share on other sites
Quickmarch 488 Posted June 5, 2015 Report Share Posted June 5, 2015 Thanks for sharing, Joe. Great cockpit (lunchbox) photos. Should be a big help to all the guys on MH who are building Dreamliner cockpits in the shed. Where do I get a MH T? Link to post Share on other sites
mutley 4,487 Posted June 5, 2015 Author Report Share Posted June 5, 2015 The Dreamliner certainly gets the from me. So much less noise (except from the pax) the larger windows and cleaner air conditioning (which comes from an electric source rather than bleed air) really makes the difference. @March, I will see what I can do regarding the T, if I can get enough interest to get a decent price for our members then I will look into it further. Link to post Share on other sites
allardjd 1,853 Posted June 5, 2015 Report Share Posted June 5, 2015 Here's the Antonov that was loading the helos in Sanford. Not sure if this was their ultimate destination or not. John EDIT: I think he's still there. The only departure record for him from EINN is on Wednesday, the day we saw him in Sanford. He flew to Sanford from Shannon earlier in the day on the day we saw him. If FlightAware's records are complete and accurate, he's still in Shannon. JDA Link to post Share on other sites
mutley 4,487 Posted June 5, 2015 Author Report Share Posted June 5, 2015 Cripes! it was (almost) following us! Link to post Share on other sites
Gunner 69 Posted June 5, 2015 Report Share Posted June 5, 2015 Thanks for the inside, great pictures! Some very generous displays in that cockpit.... Link to post Share on other sites
MyPC8MyBrain 273 Posted June 5, 2015 Report Share Posted June 5, 2015 had no idea you dropped in for a visit, great shoots! in two weeks i will be on a flight coming into LAX at 10pm; i will try to request a cockpit visit also, Link to post Share on other sites
SEATAC 400 Posted June 5, 2015 Report Share Posted June 5, 2015 Nice shots Joe. I can't believe how large those LCD screens are in the cockpit. Largest I have ever seen in a plane Link to post Share on other sites
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