Right Way Up, I am sorry I singled you out but actually I have followed this thread in some detail. So I'd got the impresssion rightly or wrongly that you'd already side-swiped the airport or small airports like it
three times on this page, not once.
I am annoyed with all those that dismiss these avoidable incidents as simply collateral damage in a busy airline business that is somehow limited in its sphere of influence when it decides to go somewhere a bit
avant-garde.
If an airline, decides to start taking Boeings into a small airport then the airline owes everyone a special duty of care in how they manoeuvre their kit in less than ideal spaces. That doesn't mean leave it to the pilots and/or men on the ground and woe betide the first to mess up. It means the airline needs to have a continuing meaningful relationship with the airport and ground handlers (if different) which includes conducting, updating and heeding proper risk assessments, and communicating some good ground rules to the otherwise hapless aircrews.
I mean how hard can it be for an airline's risk assessor to identify exactly how many ways their 737-800 can be safely driven on and driven off that apron in the presence of other aircraft and equipment? Shall I get my clipboard and consult Google Earth, or do I actually need to go there and talk to some people, do you think?
Trouble is, talking safety always costs new money, so I suppose there is a natural reluctance for any accountant to be pro-active in the peripheral aspects once the operation has started.
BTW, as an aside,
ssg (of the V1 / flex power debate) might note that CCF is
not one of those facilities with 100 miles of flat Iowa cornfields at the end of the runway, either. So we might guess that it's not just wingtips that get a battering at this one.
Whilst I remain pleased to have been 'plonked', on time, just 30 minutes from my upcoming lunch within the walls of the Cité, I'd already decided last summer that using CCF is a tad on the adventurous side of ideal at the best of times. But hey, that's just my take on it ...
Personally I'll be trying a different Ryanair venue this summer with what looks like an extra 4000 feet between the piano keys
and a spare 12500 footer next door
... but then I always was a bit of a tarmac jockey
.
F14
indeed...oh, he's popped
orf ...