Oooh errr! I wondered why my ears were burning.
Excuse me for having a life and not being on here to immediately answer your questions.
The article was written by Steve Cropley. Those of you who read Autocar magazine will recognise Steve from his weekly diary published there. Steve is a private pilot and I was as entertained by him as I hope he was by me when we did the interview. As for the photos, the B737 had only arrived the day before in its new colours after its proving flight for the CAA. Considering that the management team at Astraeus had only applied for the AOC less than three months earlier, that is a worthy story in itself. I won't even go into Ironbutts comments about a no-hoper/con man like Robertson. I was still on part paid leave from Air 2000 at the time and had borrowed someones jacket which was at least two sizes too small. Ah, but such is the complexity of a photographer models life!
1. How do you like the 737-700 vs. the 757?
I really like the 737 from a handling point of view but that flightdeck feels and is much more cramped. the -700 has a better main instrument panel with those fantastic, large six plat panel LCD displays. The rest of the flight deck though is not much different than the 737 classics. Ergonomics were not a pure science when the 737 was designed and the switches on the overhead panel are showing their age.
I miss the huge flight deck windows on the 757. You really felt you were riding high with the bottom edge side windows somewhere near your elbow. If you can imagine the difference between sitting in a Range Rover and Ford Ka. Whilst the 757 had so much spare power, with the 737-300 you have to plan your fuel much more carefully and with some destinations in mid summer it is impossible to carry all your pax, all their bags and all the required fuel. The -700 however is a different kettle of fish and will rarely be restricted by performance. It cruises faster and flies higher, just like the 757.
Slightly more complicated when configuring for landing. On the 757 we had a 'low drag' approach. Not so on the 737. Also, the FMCs are slightly different. On the 757 we could enter a second route which could be used to plan an alternate approach or as more often than not, used to enter the return route and save a few minutes during the heavy workload during the turnaround.
Otherwise it is the same.
2. Primary reasons for leaving Air 2000 for Astraeus? Was Air 2000 furloughing pilots?
I had been with Air 2000 for over four years and I had some of the best training and flying experience anyone in the industry can give. I started long haul on the 767 after only a year and flew all over the world. The people I worked with were excellent.
After 9/11 the company made a number of pilots redundant. I was nowhere near the bottom of the seniority list but the company asked for volunteers to take part paid leave and for every two who volunteered would mean one less redundancy. I took it and during that time I helped where I could with my friends in the start up of Astraeus.
Air 2000 had merged with Leisure International a few years earlier and the growth in the company together with the integration of the pilot workforce meant that the company had grown in size enormously. There were some morale problems amongst the pilots as is common when some companies grow in size rapidly and the Human Remains departments get new powers. I decided that I would rather take my chances with a new start-up operation that had one of the best management teams with a proven track record in the industry. I resigned from Air 2000 in March 2002 and am very grateful to them for the opportunity they gave me and the experiences I will always carry with me.
I had heard stories about how Air 2000 started and what I was like in the early days and the opportunity to join Astraeus would provide me with an opportunity to experience the excitement of working with a small group of people in getting an airline off the ground. Now, after our first season in business and having received our first business award I can state that it is still exciting and I am looking forward to a long career with Astraeus as it grows over the coming years. Having a seniority number in the top 20 could come in handy one day!
3. Differences in terms of destinations served? How far afield are the Astraeus 737-700s flown?
As has been mentioned above, Astraeus flies the -700 as far as Aswan and Banjul. I have flown it from Manchester to Taba and that is a long day. We have a Level 2 variation to the FTL's so the sarcastic comment by H@nest Frank s irrelevant. Astraeus is a serious player in the market and the CAA make no exceptions for us.
The Taba flight from Manchester for example is a very long day but it is a day flight and the Level 2 variation is not really required as the last two times I have operated it we would not even have had to complete a discretion report even without the Level 2. The flight departs 0930 local. Two sectors, max FDP for that time of day is 13:15. Block times have been 5:15 out and 6:00 back. The Egyptians have been exceptionally efficient with their turnarounds and we have been off blocks at Taba in less than 50 minutes. The company has sensibly applied Level 2 variation so that the crew is fully rested before and after such a long duty day and whilst there have been no delays so far, there is more of an opportunity to deal with an unforeseen one should it happen.
The rest of the destinations are more or less the same as those I flew on the 757 with Air 2000, mostly the Med holiday resorts in Spain, Corsica, Italy, Malta, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Tunisia and Morocco as well as the Canaries and the Egyptian Red Sea and Nile resorts. There are some ad-hoc charters to different destinations and throughout the winter there are a lot of interesting flights to European cities for day trips.
4. Will you also post 737-700 cockpit pictures in the PPrune gallery? I'd love to see some updated pictures to add to your 757 pictures...
Eventually I will. One of the buttons on my camera has gone tech and I just haven't got around to getting it fixed. Might just wait a bit and get a newer camera with more toys built in. Watch this space.