Leeds Bradford - General Thread

[ryan]

Sorry, I was exaggerating there. 3ft. The main reason for the prolonged DSA closure was the fact the snow was falling faster than they could clear it. On the other end of the spectrum, I'm sure everyone would be complaining if they rushed the clearing process, opened early, and caused an accident to happen...

Anyway, I digress from the topic...

 

[whoshotjimmi]

The snow was an exceptional event that did indeed affect everyone and, it has to be said, the performance of LBA in these circumstances was admirable. In the event of something exceptional such as the snow, I don't think there is much we can complain about. Unfortunately, LBA suffers very badly with high winds and fog, as this week has proved, and far too often at that. I remember being on a Britannia A320 on a flight to Dalaman about 10 years ago that had to refuel in Vienna due to high winds at LBA preventing us taking off with enough. That incident (in the middle of August), among others, illustrates that weather events at LBA happen at any time and are certainly not confined to snow in winter.

My feelings are that airlines certainly consider it before sending in their aircraft, especially larger aircraft on longer routes and, to enable future growth, especially with long haul in mind, LBA will have to find something to deal better with these regular but unpatterned weather incidents (I appreciate there is no way around high winds and refer mainly to fog).

I mentioned Ryanair in the same breath as they have been able to pull routes and aircraft at other airports for many different reasons, a lot of which are absolutely ludicrous, and will use anything they can as a bargaining tool in negotiations. Enough diversions and cancellations and I'm sure Martin O'Leary will be on the phone, cap in hand.

With regards to Gatwick also having lost the LBA flight, that plane will be found another, more cost effective, route from Gatwick so I don't think their loss of 50kppa will be causing as much concern or conversation in the South East. In fact, a higher loading route would increase that number at LGW. Had FlyBe pulled out of Gatwick altogether at protest of new landing fees then maybe people down there might have noticed. But they didn't, and won't.

Just to clarify, I think consolidation of passenger numbers would be an excellent result for LBA this year - Growth would be phenomenal - but I think that, rather than being one of the fastest growing in 2011, it will sit somewhere in the middle.

 

[lbaspotter]

Hi

The full Leeds/Bradford Airport summer 2011 timetable which is produced for fee by myself is now viewable online on my website. It is produced using Microsoft Word so please feel free to print or download your own free copy.
All I do ask is that is not copied or reproduced anywhere else and is only used for your own personnel use. Thank you

http://www.lbaspotters.net/WEBPROTECT-summer2011timetable.htm

PS. If you haven’t already registered on mysite you need to sign up to be able to log in and view it. Its a simple process and only takes a few minutes to become a member.

 

[jason1-11]

Watching the Easyjet 319 land on the photo thread shows just how much of the runway is un-useable when 14 is in use.

Were plans not muted about moving the displaced thresholds back, especially on 32?

 

[pilot_737]

to be fair that easyjet did land very late. It looked to land on the 2000ft markers which is a full 1000ft away from the ideal landing point!

 

[Moo2009]

info required, i was asked by the father in law, last night friday 15th april about 10pm he said he seen at least 6 aircraft flying over leeds, he said very slow moving and seemed very high up heading from a north west direction to a south easterly direction with as he quoted `headlights on` any ideas

 

[Galaxy]

Sorry for having to ask again, but can someone please repost the LBA radio frequencies.

 

[The Pole]

Approach: 125.575
ATIS: 118.025
Delivery: 121.8
Fire: 121.6
Radar: 133.125
Tower: 120.3

 

[TheLocalYokel]

The waybackmachine website is a fascinating tool as it enables access to websites as they were in yesteryear.

I've selected the LBA website of 2 August 2001 which is viewable at the below link.

Once into the LBA site you can navigate around it in the normal way. A look at the arrivals page is fascinating.

There are a number of dates during the past eleven years when the LBA website can be seen as it was at the time.

It's not just LBA. Many websites, including other airports, can be accessed in this way.

http://replay.waybackmachine.org/200107 ... ort.co.uk/

 

[a300boy]

Approach has now changed to 135.125 and referred to as radar if my memory serves me correctly due to interference on the frequency 125.575.

 

[a300boy]

sorry for my incorrect post !! Radar is on 133.125 as Aviador reported and they dont seem to use 125.575 anymore due to interference casing problems.

 

[Galaxy]

Thanks so much everyone : )

 

[White Heather]

Thanks for that local yokel - that is really interesting. Takes me back a bit!! Jersey European to Belfast City - ah memoriesi!

 

[oldendays]

A300 boy,

With regard to the Approach frequency, I'm not sure it was interference causing problems on 125.575. From where I live, reception was very poor compared to all other LBA frequencies. I suspected a problem with the antenna installation or the coaxial cable feed from the antenna to the TX box. A few weeks ago a new folded dipole antenna appeared on the tower roof at the same time the reception quality improved enormously on 125.575. Then a few days later it got canned again and now 133.125 is being used until at least July, if I've read the NOTAM correctly.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Thanks for that local yokel - that is really interesting. Takes me back a bit!! Jersey European to Belfast City - ah memoriesi!

Heather,

It's fascinating, isn't it?

Shows how far a lot of regional airports have come since then, and it was only ten years ago.

 

[The Pole]

Anyone know what the Merlin Helicopter was doing over Leeds at lunchtime, flew over Horsforth along the A65 and did a few circles over Leeds?

 

[jason1-11]

Has anyone else noticed the change in arrivals over the last few years?

I remember no more than 5 years ago when the busiest period in the morning was between 09:00 - 10:00 when all the based aircraft were returning from their predominantly domestic destinations and there was little or nothing between 08:00 - 09:00. Tomorrow we have 9 arrivals between 07:55 - 08:55 and only 1 between 08:56 and 09:55.

 

[a300boy]

Yes I had !!!
but as we have very few based aircraft doing domestic flights since Eastern and Bmi moved out and now no based Flybe either,they all have to arrive to depart which makes our little airfield less reliable in the winter if you want to get anywhere.

 

[michael]

Anyone know why the webcam has a changed direction at the moment, it appears to be pointing towards north west, nice view but no aircraft to be seen!

 

[michael]

ok, replying to myself just seen a Flybe Dash 8 on the webcam........I knew if I waited long enough...........