RaTa, got it in one. Pretty easy when the next comment after his 'doh' was 'Virgin XXX, line up' and when the acknowledgment came back from the
VB a/c the voices were identical to the 'doh' maker. Claka, I've been on PPRUNE for a while now. Those regulars here would know that whilst I tend to wear my heart on my sleeve when it comes to my company, I'm not one to make up a story or post info about an occurence unless I'm pretty confident about the accuracy of it.
Hugh, perhaps you're lack of relative speed also means that you're in the airspace where this happens a lot longer than I am
. Seriously though, point taken.
Yes it happens (and not just 767 drivers and something I've never denied), yes I've cringed when the boss has asked me to make what I would consider to be a 'dumb' request/ comment but again I'd say that the proportions are probably equal as far as number of aircraft in the air from each company are concerned. I will grant that I'm one of the trees in the forest and so the view may be a little different from where I am however I don't tar any airline just because of the half dozen or so prats who frequent the airways on a continual basis.
Hat, gotta say that I love talking to crews from different airlines. Anything that I can learn about the way they operate could be useful to me at some stage in the future. I'm not too humble to admit that the majority of lessons in aviation have equal application across the range of carriers and I never know when I can pick up some gen from the 'other side'. But thats just me. Can't say that I've ever come across Virgin drivers face to face though. I certainly won't judge them by the comments of two of their drivers though!
Anyway, who am I to stand in the middle of a QF bashing thread. Have at it lads. It's been a while. Was getting kind of boring with people bashing
VB and Gnadenburg always leaping to their defence!
Jarse, forgot the landing lights bit. SOP for us is nose gear taxi light and runway turn off lights. Should be a total of three all up. The 200s and GE 300s have seperate nose wheel taxi and take off lights, the Rollers have a 'combined' nose light.
I try and remember that your height is right at our light level.
Even when I've asked the boss to turn them off to avoid blinding whoever I very occaisionally get some bloke who believes that we're compromising safety by not having ourselves lit up like a Christmas tree. Funnily enough, my standard response of 'I don't know how safe it'll be when he taxis into us because he can't see a damn thing' doesn't normally engender a change of heart from them.
Catch you round.