Random Stuff!
- Thread starter Ray Finkle
- Start date
- Tagged users None
GliderPilot
Well-Known Member
Is anybody attending the Midlands Air Festival this weekend?
With the excitement of tomorrow nights Eurovision Song Contest held this year in Tel Aviv, I still remember 1998 as if it was yesterday and it still puts a smile on my face. 1998 was a great year for our city, one that we can be proud. Love it or loathe it Eurovision is massive all over the world and Birmingham can rightly be proud that when it had the chance it put on a massive show 
Cut short and missed Wogan's quip which I think was "it is great to be in Birmingham...i bet you dont get to hear that often" or am I thinking of someone else who said that?With the excitement of tomorrow nights Eurovision Song Contest held this year in Tel Aviv, I still remember 1998 as if it was yesterday and it still puts a smile on my face. 1998 was a great year for our city, one that we can be proud. Love it or loathe it Eurovision is massive all over the world and Birmingham can rightly be proud that when it had the chance it put on a massive show
Brum looked nice and the stage looked like Selfridges.
TheLocalYokel
Honorary Member Of Forums4airports
- Jan 14, 2009
- 15,711
- 343
- IMPORTANT!! To reduce spam, we request that you make a post soon after completing your registration. We request you keep your account active by posting regularly. Inactive accounts risk being deleted.
- Yes
- Admin
- #2,726
It's that time of year again is it?
I haven't watched the show since the French song Tom Pillibi won the contest in London when I were but a lad. I remember the British entry was a rather stirring almost march-like number called Looking High High High sung by somone called Bryan Johnson - not the late cricket commentator, different spelling.
I haven't watched the show since the French song Tom Pillibi won the contest in London when I were but a lad. I remember the British entry was a rather stirring almost march-like number called Looking High High High sung by somone called Bryan Johnson - not the late cricket commentator, different spelling.
58terminus
Well-Known Member
nancledre
Active Member
Mostly a silent lurker, but feel I must offer my sympathies to British Steel workers - grey bull strikes again
- Thread starter
- Moderator
- #2,733
Matt995
Well-Known Member
I just love the voting, Greece always gives Cyprus 12 points, and Cyprus always gives Greece 12 points every year!!! hilarious
- Thread starter
- Moderator
- #2,736
58terminus
Well-Known Member
At least they both have one friend.I just love the voting, Greece always gives Cyprus 12 points, and Cyprus always gives Greece 12 points every year!!! hilarious
- Thread starter
- Moderator
- #2,738
To all of those going to Birmingham Pride this weekend have a fabulous time. I hope that this glorious weather holds out just a little longer.
Loving what Legoland Birmingham have done
Images courtesy of Visit Birmingham Twitter.
Loving what Legoland Birmingham have done
Images courtesy of Visit Birmingham Twitter.
Thanks Ray, I am really looking forward to tomorrow and watching the parade through the city streets. Birmingham Pride has become one of the cities biggest festivals if not the biggest.
Time to Party
View attachment 13287
Time to Party
View attachment 13287
Matt995
Well-Known Member
Boeing is paying $2,000 a month to park each grounded jet
While regulators contemplate whether Boeing Co.’s 737 Max can safely return to the skies, workers in a California airplane-storage yard keep a careful vigil against earthier concerns.
Crews have sealed 34 Southwest Airlines Co. jets against the Mojave Desert’s sun, wind and sand, as well as insects and birds that can creep into wheel wells and engine air inlets. Southwest declined to discuss the expense, but one industry veteran said such sojourns run about $2,000 a month for each plane -- a small but critical cost amid Boeing’s many looming financial penalties.
The attention lavished now on the planes will help determine how fast the Max get back in the air once a worldwide grounding is lifted. Designed to ferry throngs of travelers, the young jets’ only daily visitors these days are technicians who draw fuel samples to scout for bacterial contamination. Once a week, Southwest mechanics spool up the big turbofans, boot up flight computers, and extend and retract flight-control surfaces such as wing flaps.
“Planes are meant to be flying and being used,’’ said Tim Zemanovic, who used to own an Arizona storage park and estimated monthly storage costs, which include labor and materials. “You’ve got to keep them that way even when they’re in storage.’’
The constant care extends to almost 500 grounded Max planes around the world, a total that includes about 100 factory-fresh jets that can’t be delivered to customers because of the flying ban, which began in March after the second deadly crash in five months. Managing aircraft upkeep on such a scale is unprecedented, as Boeing grapples with a crisis that has already lopped $41.5 billion off its market value.
Boeing Penalties
The maintenance costs are just the start of Boeing’s financial exposure. The Chicago-based planemaker also faces an estimated $1.4 billion bill for airlines’ canceled flights and lost operating profit if the Max fleet is still grounded by the end of September, said Bloomberg Intelligence analyst George Ferguson.
Boeing’s inventory could balloon by nearly $12 billion by the end of September if regulators don’t act and 737 production continues at the current pace, Ferguson said.
“They can’t keep building and parking planes indefinitely,” he said. “We don’t think it will get to that, but it’s going to take a lot of cash to park those in the desert.”
As Boeing finalizes paperwork to certify a redesign of flight-control software linked to the two disasters, executives are laying detailed plans for the Max’s eventual return to commercial flight. The team huddles daily and includes officials from the 737 program, corporate headquarters and the commercial and global-services divisions.
60-Day Mark
The Max grounding has long since passed the 60-day mark when aircraft are typically placed in long-term storage. Bringing them back to life will now involve a rigorous review that can last weeks as compared to days for planes that are parked for less than two months.
As the global fleet starts to come back online, Boeing plans to set up a round-the-clock operations center to support customers. Teams of mechanics, technicians and field-service representatives will fan out to assist airlines as their jets make the “transition from storage and preservation activities to operational flight,” said Doug Alder, a Boeing spokesman.
Southwest, the largest Max operator, is already planning for the plane’s return even though it’s not clear if that is weeks or months away. “It will be a staggered-type return to service,” said Gary Bjarke, director of contract services for the Dallas-based carrier.
Desert Plain
Until then, Bjarke leads the team overseeing the upkeep of Southwest’s Max fleet parked on a desert plain in Victorville, California, east of Los Angeles. Southwest ferried all its Max planes to the storage yard in the days after U.S. regulators halted commercial flights.
Crews spent about 80 man-hours preparing each jet for storage, and he estimates it will take about 120 hours of work to get each single-aisle plane back into flying condition. In all, he said, the maintenance checks could take about 30 days before the last of the airline’s parked 737s rejoin daily operations.
The tempo of care is largely set by detailed checklists provided by Boeing. Instructions for “prolonged parking” run more than 100 pages in a manual for a previous generation of 737s. There are separate procedures to prepare planes depending on whether they will be parked a week, a month, two months and a year. Basic service tasks are spelled out in similar increments.
Keeping Jets Clean
Even a simple requirement to wash an airplane is complicated by its sheer size. If a maintenance provider doesn’t have a concrete pad wash area with a drain for waste water, there’s another option: wipe the plane down by hand.
“Basically, use cleaning wipes,” said Zemanovic, the former owner of the Arizona storage park.
The manual occasionally spells out risks in colorful detail, like the bacteria or fungi that can turn jet kerosene into the consistency of “mayonnaise,” clogging the fuel system if water hasn’t been thoroughly drained. There are separate lists that step-by-step make the plane serviceable once its desert stay comes to an end.
“They just don’t park them and walk away and come back six months later,” said Zemanovic, who now serves as president of Fillmore Aviation, a Minneapolis-based company that specializes in end-of-life aircraft care. “Someone’s looking at them every day.”
While regulators contemplate whether Boeing Co.’s 737 Max can safely return to the skies, workers in a California airplane-storage yard keep a careful vigil against earthier concerns.
Crews have sealed 34 Southwest Airlines Co. jets against the Mojave Desert’s sun, wind and sand, as well as insects and birds that can creep into wheel wells and engine air inlets. Southwest declined to discuss the expense, but one industry veteran said such sojourns run about $2,000 a month for each plane -- a small but critical cost amid Boeing’s many looming financial penalties.
The attention lavished now on the planes will help determine how fast the Max get back in the air once a worldwide grounding is lifted. Designed to ferry throngs of travelers, the young jets’ only daily visitors these days are technicians who draw fuel samples to scout for bacterial contamination. Once a week, Southwest mechanics spool up the big turbofans, boot up flight computers, and extend and retract flight-control surfaces such as wing flaps.
“Planes are meant to be flying and being used,’’ said Tim Zemanovic, who used to own an Arizona storage park and estimated monthly storage costs, which include labor and materials. “You’ve got to keep them that way even when they’re in storage.’’
The constant care extends to almost 500 grounded Max planes around the world, a total that includes about 100 factory-fresh jets that can’t be delivered to customers because of the flying ban, which began in March after the second deadly crash in five months. Managing aircraft upkeep on such a scale is unprecedented, as Boeing grapples with a crisis that has already lopped $41.5 billion off its market value.
Boeing Penalties
The maintenance costs are just the start of Boeing’s financial exposure. The Chicago-based planemaker also faces an estimated $1.4 billion bill for airlines’ canceled flights and lost operating profit if the Max fleet is still grounded by the end of September, said Bloomberg Intelligence analyst George Ferguson.
Boeing’s inventory could balloon by nearly $12 billion by the end of September if regulators don’t act and 737 production continues at the current pace, Ferguson said.
“They can’t keep building and parking planes indefinitely,” he said. “We don’t think it will get to that, but it’s going to take a lot of cash to park those in the desert.”
As Boeing finalizes paperwork to certify a redesign of flight-control software linked to the two disasters, executives are laying detailed plans for the Max’s eventual return to commercial flight. The team huddles daily and includes officials from the 737 program, corporate headquarters and the commercial and global-services divisions.
60-Day Mark
The Max grounding has long since passed the 60-day mark when aircraft are typically placed in long-term storage. Bringing them back to life will now involve a rigorous review that can last weeks as compared to days for planes that are parked for less than two months.
As the global fleet starts to come back online, Boeing plans to set up a round-the-clock operations center to support customers. Teams of mechanics, technicians and field-service representatives will fan out to assist airlines as their jets make the “transition from storage and preservation activities to operational flight,” said Doug Alder, a Boeing spokesman.
Southwest, the largest Max operator, is already planning for the plane’s return even though it’s not clear if that is weeks or months away. “It will be a staggered-type return to service,” said Gary Bjarke, director of contract services for the Dallas-based carrier.
Desert Plain
Until then, Bjarke leads the team overseeing the upkeep of Southwest’s Max fleet parked on a desert plain in Victorville, California, east of Los Angeles. Southwest ferried all its Max planes to the storage yard in the days after U.S. regulators halted commercial flights.
Crews spent about 80 man-hours preparing each jet for storage, and he estimates it will take about 120 hours of work to get each single-aisle plane back into flying condition. In all, he said, the maintenance checks could take about 30 days before the last of the airline’s parked 737s rejoin daily operations.
The tempo of care is largely set by detailed checklists provided by Boeing. Instructions for “prolonged parking” run more than 100 pages in a manual for a previous generation of 737s. There are separate procedures to prepare planes depending on whether they will be parked a week, a month, two months and a year. Basic service tasks are spelled out in similar increments.
Keeping Jets Clean
Even a simple requirement to wash an airplane is complicated by its sheer size. If a maintenance provider doesn’t have a concrete pad wash area with a drain for waste water, there’s another option: wipe the plane down by hand.
“Basically, use cleaning wipes,” said Zemanovic, the former owner of the Arizona storage park.
The manual occasionally spells out risks in colorful detail, like the bacteria or fungi that can turn jet kerosene into the consistency of “mayonnaise,” clogging the fuel system if water hasn’t been thoroughly drained. There are separate lists that step-by-step make the plane serviceable once its desert stay comes to an end.
“They just don’t park them and walk away and come back six months later,” said Zemanovic, who now serves as president of Fillmore Aviation, a Minneapolis-based company that specializes in end-of-life aircraft care. “Someone’s looking at them every day.”
Remove Advertisements
Subscribe to help support your favourite forum and in return we'll remove all our advertisements. Your contribution will help to pay for things like site maintenance, domain name renewals and annual server charges.
NEW - Profile Posts
If anyone would like to share their local airport news right here in our news area let me know so I can give you the correct permissions to do so. It only takes a couple of minutes to upload a news story with an accompanying image. The news items can then be shared on the site homepage by you. #TakePart #Forums4airports Bring the news to one place!
Well it looks like I'm off to Australia and New Zealand next year! Booked with BA from Manchester via Heathrow with a stop in Singapore and returning with Air New Zealand and BA via LAX to Heathrow. Will circumnavigate the globe and be my first trans-Pacific flight. First long haul flight with BA as well and of course Air NZ.
Trending Hashtags
-
#liverpoolairportWeight: 3
-
#LiverpoolJohnLennonWeight: 2
-
#RYANAIRWeight: 2
-
#EasyJetWeight: 2
-
#LHRWeight: 1
-
#ManchesterAirportWeight: 1