The Best And Worst Aviation TV Programs of all time!

[Trislander]

Hey there!

Best:
Flightline - Discovery Wings
Flight Deck - 'Wings
Airline - ITV
Airport - BBC
And some program about pilot jobs which I can't remember the name of - 'Wings
Wings Sitcom - Paramount
Friends In High Places - 'Wings

Worst:
First Flights With Neil Armstrong - Discovery Wings

Trislander.

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[ 29 July 2001: Message edited by: Trislander ]

[Gary Halliday]

Obviously: Gary Halliday

Less Obviously: Moonstrike
The Aeronauts

Worst doesn`t matter cos I`ll still watch it.

GH

[swashplate]

Can't agree that 'airline/Airport' are good!

I'd put them in 'worst'category, with excepetion op 2 'Airport' episodes:

The one where the 757 crew were doing sim checks.

The one where they followed a Lufthansa A320 crew.

Most progs on TV about aviation are sensationalist pants IMHO.

Except v good doc on Kegworth aircrash a few years ago.

[Dave Incognito]

Worst:

-Airport
-Big Sky (so crap that it is actually enjoyable to watch)

Best:

-Black Box

[ 20 July 2001: Message edited by: Dave Incognito ]

[Genghis the Engineer]

Best:Test Pilot (ETPS documentary, mid 1980s)

Worst: The uninvited (aliens invade earth at an RAF base in Scotland)

G

[attackattackattack]

Best:

Blackadder IV - when they join the RFC.

[Loki]

Can`t agree about "Flight line" mostly because of the presenter.

Most of the other stuff on Discovery Wings is good except for the depressing number of repeats.

[Trislander]

Loki,

Do a search on Brendan O'Brien on the PPRUNE search facility- Everyone had a masive debate about him (the main presenter on Flightline) and it was quite funny.

Airport/Airline are interesting to me because it is behind the scenes of everything that happens outside the aircraft. After all, there would be no flights for us to fly if they weren't there!

Trislander.

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[DB6]

Best - Reaching for the Skies, 12 part (I think) series screened a few years ago which I bought on video as it was so good. Well worth the ackers.

[Loki]

Trislander (why not BN3?):

Yes, I witnessed the mega threads on the subject of Flightline and its presenter. I decided not to be too controversial with my post in order to prevent people going off thread.

I watched the programme the other day with the sound turned right down; much better.

[PaperTiger]

There was a Canadian-produced series called Flightpath a couple of years ago. Quite well done, if a bit 'populist' at times. I taped the episode about aerial firefighting.
I believe it was only shown on Canadian TV which means it was seen by me and oh, maybe 50 others.

[Trislander]

We can get Flightpath in the UK on Discovery Wings Channel. I agree, it is well-produced but sometimes not the most interesting.

(LOKI: You mean BN3 instead of BN2A Mk.III-2 Trislander? The answer is, I don't know!!!)

Tri

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[klik]

There was a three-part series following an Air Canada 767 from YYZ to FRA which first aired last year on Discovery (CA). It was very professionally done, and featured every aspect of the trip i.e. ATC, flight crew preparations, maintenance, etc.

As for Airport, as someone previously mentioned: some episodes are fantastic, whilst some new ones (Series VI) could take place in a shopping complex and no one would tell the difference.

Cheers,

klik (back after a while)

[Michael111]

I seem to remember a program years ago called "Diamonds in the Sky" It followed aircraft development from the early days to the present.

It was a good series but I have not seen it repeated. Anyone have more info on it?

[The Guvnor]

Michael111 - Diamonds in the Sky was presented by Julian Pettifer and first appeared in the late 1970s. It was repeated again a couple of times, but would be seriously dated now - Freddie Laker had a starring role in one of the episodes, as did Dick Ferris, the former CEO of United.

Surprised no one has mentioned Airline as one of their favourites ... nope, not the Orange crowd; the one wi' t' Yorkshire lads (headed by Jack Ruskin, played by Roy Marsden) and their DC3s!! Apparently, this was a semi-biographical thing about a combination of the Keegans and Laker.

Oh, and don't forget Buccaneer either, which was a very biographical series about Redcoat (cunningly disguised as Redair in the series) and their Britannias...

[Biggles Flies Undone]

Anyone remember 'Piece of Cake'?

Pretty dire Sunday night viewing (from the early nineties?) but the aerial shots were great. I think Stephen Grey and his Duxford collection were involved. Can clearly remember Spitfires taking off from a Country House lawn and alternately breaking left / right.

There was a drama series in the late 70's / early 80's about the RFC. Not bad as I remember, but I was only a kid then ;)

[FNG]

Piece of Cake: good flying footage, but plot, acting etc dire, so didn't get a single repeat. Also woefully innaccurate (Mk 1 Spits flying from French airfields during Battle of France and so on). The book (in which they fly Hurricanes) is OK but I think overrated. Not a patch on Deighton's masterly and truly horrifying Bomber, for which he justly won the Booker Prize in 1970. The BBC Radio adaptation of it from 1995 is also stunning: available on tape. Likely to induce tearfulness so take care if listening in the car.

The WW1 TV thang was called Wings, which as far as I recall was low budget sh*te with hardly any flying. Sort of Upstairs Downstairs with wizz bangs.

Somebody mentioned the Aeronauts: superb! Cheesy French 1970s Mirage jocks and bottom-slappers wear big shades, have gigantic sideies, shag 15 blondes, smoke 90 Gitanes, beat up 20 crooks, then shoot down terrorist bad guys in Magisters over Central Paris. Also coolest theme tune ever.

[TwinAisle]

I have to get this off my chest - who the hell does Neil Armstrong think he is!!!!???!?

I was watching Discovery Wings last night, and up pops NA with his First Flights, talking about the DC8 and the 707. Great. Then he emits the immortal line (which damns him for ever in my book) -

"Before the British Comet started falling to pieces.... the 707 was shrinking the world"

OK. Technically it is true that the good old Comet I had some undesirable tendencies. But to use this to try and forget the whole aircraft in favour of making the DC8 and 707 out to be the first jet airliners??

Yeuch.

Diamonds in the Sky has to be no 1 for me. Does anyone know if it is out on vid/DVD?

TA

[northern boy]

Just about anything on discovery wings at the moment esp the prog about the B1 at Mountain home AFB and the one about the B52.
Downside,that **** of a presenter on flightline.
The same trailers during every break.

Piece of cake was a great book, anyone read the sequel; "A Good Clean Fight"?.About the Western Desert in WW2.Like to see that adapted for TV.Likewise "Bomber" by Len Deighton which I have just finished for the nth time.

Slightly off message but the worst aviation type movie at the moment has got to be "Pearl Harbour".Utter bilge

[Trislander]

Twin Aisle: I watched the very same "First Flights" show as you did and remember thinking the exact same thing!!! I was appalled at the way he put the british designs down. He made out that the 707 and DC8 revolutionised air travel. How can something be revolutionised one year after the Passenger Jet Comet was introduced??? He also said, after the comet thing: "The British did invent the turboprop, though. BUT THE AMERICANS LED THE WORLD WITH THEIR PISTON-ENGINE TECHNOLOGY!" What a load of patriotic tripe! He really annoys me. As for the things he says, I now support the "Apollo 11 never landed on the moon" Theory.

Neil Armstrong was the first person on the moon. Was he? Oh.

A couple more programs I recommend on Discovery Wings @ the mo:
-A Plane Is Born (With Mark Evans)
-Friends In High Places (With Jennifer Murray & Co.)
Enjoy these programs a lot.

Cheers for now,

Tri

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[Loki]

Saw a great Discovery Wings docu the other night about the de Havilland (ah!) Beaver and its current uses around Vancouver and Seattle :lots of great scenery and shots of the immortal machine,lovely!

[The Guvnor]

Anyone remember the series Pathfinders from the early seventies?? Now that was good ... but I thought that most pathfinder squadrons used Mosquitoes rather than Lancasters?

Dug up the following on it from www.tvchronicles.com: (http://www.tvchronicles.com:)

THE PATHFINDERS

Thames / 13x60m-e / 1972-73

Producer: Gerry Brown

Wartime drama series. Stories of the Pathfinder Squadron of the RAF during the Second World War.

Wing Cmdr MacPhearson................... ROBERT URQUHART

Doc Saxon........................................ JACK WATLING

[ 30 July 2001: Message edited by: The Guvnor ]

[Trislander]

Anyone ever catch the Aviation sitcom "Wings" on Paramount Comedy a few years back? Was my favourite Sitcom of all time and the series was discontinued in the UK. The yanks can get still get re-runs. It was only broadcast here once and when I e-mailed Paramount Comedy they told me that they have no plans to bring back. Annoying. It was so good.

Two brothers owned a small airline called Sandpiper Air flying a Chieftain.

Tri

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[PPRuNe Pop]

There is NO way ANYONE is going to hi-jack this thread, or any other thread, for the purposes of abuse and attacks on others.

This thread is doing alright - and without the posts I have deleted.

If I see anymore don't expect me to be as nice as this again.


PPRuNe Pop
Moderator
[email protected]

[GROUNDHOG]

Guv you are quite right the original 'Airline' was a great programme, the aircraft was flown by Aces High ( not sure if they still exist) and was registered G-AGHY Just by coincidence happen to have this picture of the aircraft on my desk as I just love the old Dak and also the MGTF which is what Jack Ruskin drove! Said I would own both one day - well one out of two can't be bad and when the time is right...

Great series memories of them painting out the reg on the aircraft and flying into somewhere in Africa in the dark in one episode, I believe it was to deliver weapons and pick up illegal passengers- who remembers that?

Africa... now there's another story or a hundred.

[FNG]

Guvnor, can't remember the TV show you mention. Pathfinders used Lancasters as well as Mosquitos. The Mosquitos flew high and fast ahead of the main bomber stream to drop target markers, but the lead Squadrons of Lancasters were also Pathfinders. In Len Deighton's Bomber, very bad things happen when a Mosquito is shot down and jettisons its target indicators before reaching the intended target.

[Red_Devil]

Concur with Flightline as the worst.

Discovery Wings is a great channel but I do get tired of the endless repeats.

Does Thunderbirds count as a valid choice? for best programme? :D

[ 29 July 2001: Message edited by: Red_Devil ]

[Trislander]

I really like Discovery Wings especially when they have a few more of the one off episodes of certain aviation programmes. The only thing I can't stand is all the Discovery Wings Promos inbetween all the programs, like the one with the lift going up to 10,000 floor, that annoying poem one and the Average aircraft one. They really should change those more often. I like the animations before the programmes start though.

TRISLANDER

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[Gash Handlin]

One of the best aviation related progs I ever saw on terrestial TV was a 3 part documentary about 4 years ago on BBC2 about an american guy doing a home-build, it followed him from start to finish with one or two major cockups in the middle, I seem to remember a massive blunder with carbon fibre, All worked out in the end though.

A fictional series I vaguely remember was in the early eighties about a Hercules squadron flying stuff allover the world, and generally chucking it out the back. Anyone else remember this or is it in my mind??

[ 29 July 2001: Message edited by: Gash Handlin ]

[no_name_oz]

Thoroughly enjoyed "Black Box", if you want to go back to the 70's the "Collision Course" wasn't a bad analysis of everything that can go wrong on the ground causing a nasty event airborne.

Slightly off topic but well worth getting your hands on the book "Sled Driver" by Brian Schul if you ever wondered what it was like to fly the SR71. Not much technical stuff - already done to death, just reminisences about flying the fastest thing around from the pointy end.

[cudgy_funt]

Worst? Probably that thin about the pilot who shoots down an alien ship thereby starting an intergalactic war.

Anyone remember a one off thing about a tornado squadron filmed at RAF leeming a frew years ago? what was it called?

That thing on Discovery Wings about Cargo Lion and one of the planes flying into a provincial Russian Airfield probably my favourite.

[Trislander]

Has anyone seen that one episode of Banacek where a crippled airplane makes an emergency landing on a tiny desert airstrip only to vanish the next morning? Thought it was very good. a bit of a mystery/twist at the end.

V Good.

Tri

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[PaperTiger]

Ooo lovely, more nits ripe for picking... :)
The planes in the 'Wings' sitcom were Cessna 402s not Navajos. In 'Airline', G-AGHY was a fictitious registration (in reality G-DAKS, and the other one 'G-AGIV' was G-BHUB).

[dingducky]

who remembers that american sitcom about the flight attendants called the crew

there was another show about flight attendants can't remember what it was called but it had 2 guys and a girl i think her name was shona. the airline was called air scotia or something like that. and the captain never knew where he was going :p

did anyone else see the miniseries the langoliers about a plane that flew through some sort of timewarp.

what about pandora's clock, virus on a 747 had a strange ending.

i recently watched a documentry series called 21st century jet about the development of the 777

also seen a nice documentry about a connie that was restored and flown to australia.

then there are the designed to scare ones like
why planes go down
and the ones about dvt and pilots drinking :rolleyes:

[RW-1]

PBS 5 part program "21 Century Jet" which was the making of the 777 from beginning to first delivery.

Very well done and interesting to watch.

[Evanelpus]

Totally agree with RW-1, 21st Century Jet was an excellent series of progs.

I can also remember the Diamonds in the Sky series, thought that was brilliant and Skytrucker, all about CargoLion was another excellent programme.

The problem with programmes on Discovery Wings is that they are repeated an awful lot, I suppose that gives people ample opportunity to watch them, personally it drives me round the twist.

Come on Discovery, give us some new programmes!!

[boredcounter]

Tri
Early seventies...UK T.V. , series of kids TV about a Squadren (Fleet?) French Air Force interceptors..........? If my memory serves right, about the time of all the naf, badly dubbed continental stuff being on the screens.............Snowy white horses let me ride away. What the hell was it.........?


HELP, ItT HAS BUGGED ME FOR YEARS....

[Man-on-the-fence]

Boredcounter

I believe it was called The Aeronauts, but dont shoot me if I am wrong as I was only 5 at the time

[boredcounter]

Man
Cheers pal, I thought for all these years I had just imagined it. I had sneaky suspicions about the title you quote but could not be sure, like you still in short trousers at the time. Was it as bad as I can almost remember? My memories of TV at that age are limited to Giant Haystacks at luchtime on a Saturday on World of Sport......WWF eat ya heart out............

[The Guvnor]

I can even remember (snatches) of the theme song "Faster than fast boys, Thundering past, [something something] Aeronauts". All terribly cool - but I couldn't understand their preoccupation with pretty girls. :rolleyes: :eek: Get on with the flying, mes braves! :D :D :D

[FNG]

More theme song: "Faster than fast boys, higher than high, the do or die Aeronauts fly". I even had the annual. Sheesh.
Further details of this monument to cheese, or, rather, fromage, in my post on page 2 of this thread.

[dingducky]

did anyone else watch the series century of flight??? :)

[You want it when?]

Best of all has to be "The Pathfinders" or was it 617 Squadron? And of course (said before) but "The Aeronauts" (Do or die as the Aeronauts fly)

Howabout - UFO (being repeated on SciFi on Sundays at the moment) - great tight suits on the ladies and purple hair :D

Modern day - "A Plane is Born" - How do you get a job like that. I want one, first he builds a Cobra kit car nad now a plane. :D

[David Johnson]

BEST: Black Box

This has and probably always will be at the top of my list in terms of the best aviation related TV programme. I may be biased in a sense because I am highly interested in accidents and why they occur, but the main factor is that since that programme there have been many other programmes of a similar nature that have simply been very poor indeed. We have all seen the half an hour documentaries which do nothing but frighten the general public, especially when they are scheduled at the beginning of the major holiday season.

Black Box was different though, it had facts and looked deeply into why events occured as they did rather than a glimpse at several accidents with one common factor - they crashed.

This is one of the few aviation documentaries that is a "must see" in my opinion. In turn this leads me to what I consider to be the "worst programme." I have seen many programmes involved in aircraft safety and to be honest I can't really point a finger to say which one has been the worst, as I consider most as nothing but scaremongering to gain viewers at times when the TV compnaies know that people will be intrigued the most.

Regards

[Trislander]

Going back to programmes from childhood I seem to remember "Jimbo, The Jet Set" was quite a high quality aviation programme.

Skytruckers- Very good, liked that. Unfort. now CargoLion has gone bust.

Aviatrix - All about Pilots jobs. Perhaps my new favourite.

Current Worst:
--------------
First Flights with Neil Armstrong - Unbelievable patriotic american tripe.

Can't help the person who wanted to know the name of a particular programme in a recent post, haven't heard of it.

Cheers for now...

Tri

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[Squawk 8888]

I liked the episode of Junkyard Wars where the two teams were challenged to build manned gliders in a day, using materials scavenged from a scrapyard. They were then winched up and the one with the longest flight time was declared the winner. I'm curious, though- like the UK cable channels, the broadcaster here repeats every show dozens of times per year. I've seen them build racecars, diving tanks, submarines, cannons, you name it, all were aired several times- but the glider episode only aired once. Could the lawyers have nixed it for fear of being sued copycats who screw up? If so, why not any of the other episodes that depicted hazardous pursuits?

I liked that Discovery series about the YYZ-FRA flight- keep thinking I'd like to do something similar with light A/C as a training aid for the Air Cadet squadron I work with. Anyone in YYZ handy with a camera interested in a collaboration?

The worst I saw was on Fox a few years back- whatshername from X-Files hosted a show that was allegedly about how to survive a plane crash. Standard-issue scaremongering.

[Wycombe]

Yep, that prog with Gillian Anderson also screened in the UK a few years back (C5, I think)....can't remember the name, but awful!

Best: Black Box (factual, not sensationalist). The books are v. good aswell - one is just a catalogue of CVR transcripts, a bit gruesome, but fascinating
Reaching for the Skies - taped the whole series and have it stored away somewhere
Defence of the Realm - a BBC series from a couple of Years ago, with some v. good RAF and FAA stuff.

Incidentally, anyone know when the new "Airline", featuring Spotty M starts in the UK?

[ 10 August 2001: Message edited by: Wycombe ]

[Hwel]

What was the prog in the 80's about a flying boat in the far east. All very Indiana Jones, the hero had a monkey or something.

[You want it when?]

I think the plane was a Grummen Goose - I remember the dog though the running joke was two barks for yes or was it one"

[Gary Halliday]

Cutter`s Goose.

But more importantly the Aeronauts were Tonguy and his sidekick ( the fat one ) Lavadieu.

The plots were exactly as FNG described so well, but also seemed like retreads of an earlier Wars of Castille and Aragon, sword and cannon fest that used the same actors, theme composer, dubbing mixer and more --- now what was that called ?.

I found the most memorable Aeronaut episodes were in the second series where the lads were on exchange to an Amazonian military regime and helped out with their stuff in Beavers on floats. The producers obviously had max asssistance from the Armee de l`air and other government departments because a lot of the flying footage was very good.

Has anyone mentioned The Planemakers ?. Top cast -- are they all dead yet ?.

Moonstrike was tale of everyday resistance folk made with the Citroens left over from Maigret. It probably just pre-dated The Great Escape and was `Allo `Allo without the laughs. Notable for the cardboard Lysander and Halifax in each episode.

Sad but true. GH

[FNG]

Garry, I think that the prog you are referring to was called "The Flashng Blade", which was endlessly repeated at the same time as White Horses, Belle and Sebastian, the Singing Ringing Tree etc. It was set in Northern Italy, and (my history tutor told me years later)based on a real incident during Francis I's wars with Emperor Charles V during the early sixteenth century. All I can remember of it was that the plot was incomprehensible, and that there was a lot of galloping through forests. Sadly, I can also recall snatches of the theme tune. Why do we remember all this sh*te? In the Aeronauts annual they flew a Catalina around French Polynesia, but I don't recall them doing that in the TV version.

[Squawk 8888]

Because it's airing tonight I'm reminded of the absulute worst of all time- a made-for-TV movie called The Blackout Effect. Among the howlers:

1. Controllers stampeding up the stairs and fighting over payphones when a power failure cuts of all radio comms.

2. A pilot and controller arguing over an instruction for several minutes- controller sez one thing, pilot says TCAS shows conflict, repeated several times 'till mid-air collision takes place.

3. Investigators run computer simulation of collision involving 757, depicted on-screen with graphic of 747.

4. ILS on runway has a rotating dish antenna.

There are many others but I've forgotten most of them- guess it's true what they say about the mind blocking out traumatic experiences.

[Harry Wragg]

HWEL, in answer to your question the programme was called "Tales of the Gold Monkey". All very low cost Indiana Jones.

Harry

[RATBOY]

"Tales of the Gold Monkey" much better than "Wings", which was mostly a soap opera with a little flying, though all the flying parts well done. Was Gold Monkey using a Goose or a Widgeon?

Moldy oldies from U.S. are "Ripcord" about a skydiving school (okay, that's falling, not flying but great air to air shots and an intro that said everything you see is real, no tricks no illusions and don't do this at home boys and girls) and "Sky King" an old saturday am potboiler done on a low budget...seldom saw the airplane and when you did a lot was closeups of the "cockpit" being rocked around against a "sky" background, but what the heck I was only 5.

12 O'Clock High was a tv series too, with good acting and fairly good plots mostly. Lots of stock footage (the same ball turret, the same Bf109 ... oh well). Lots of combat footage over used and some footage of the unsinkable aircraft carrier they were operating from. What started me on wanting to go to a real pub.

"Ba Ba Blacksheep" modern series with F4Us and some other warbirds and lots of SNJs painted up like the bad guys etc. Not that great but not that bad from a airplanes point of view. Obviously not filmed on a south pacific island, can't go too far on the realism and technical details. Still shown on cable under another name, but is all reruns now.

Speedvision on cable gets some good airplane programming every so often. Made by different people and the quality is of course variable, but the good part with all that is to see footage that you don't see all the time from the big media houses.

edited to add "Hogan's Heroes" a situation comedy where the situation was Allied airmen in a German prison camp. Doesn't sound very good, I'll admit, but they managed to do a creditable job with comedy without really poor taste. Had to have seen Stalag 17 and Great Escape for it to be really funny though. Seldom has airplanes in it except the odd shadowy Lysander picking up someone from the resistance or shot down aircraew. (where best to hide shot down aircrew pending recovery than in a prison camp full or aircrew?)

[ 16 August 2001: Message edited by: RATBOY ]

[MightyGem]

Two of the worst: Blue Thunder and Airwolf

[bjm367-80]

dingducky!!!!

I have been trying in vain to find out anything I can about "Air Scotia(Scotcha)" for years. I was not even if it really existed or was merely a figment of my warped imagination.

It was definitely the WORST. I think it might have been by the same guys who made "Are You Being Served". It contained the same crap jokes. Jokes based on slutty stewardesses, gay stewards and drunk/lost pilots. It was topped of with the same stock footage of a Trident parked at the gate.

If anyone knows anything about the show or can confirm what I have said about it I would love to hear. My memory of the show is very faded. It has been bothering me for years!!

[Perky Penguin]

Discovery Wings is overall very good (IMHO) What really annoys me is the endless commercials inviting you to watch Dicovery Wings! I am already watching it for goodness sake! A bit of info about future programmes would be better than the mindless witterings and soft focus photography that features in their own "commercials" and the unspeakable geriatric skydiver - is it Baz Lurman? Words fail me!

[cadman]

BJM,
The programme was called `The High Life' and starred Siobhan(?) Redmond as Shona and Alan Cumming as one of the stewards. Can't remember whom the Captain or other male was.
And I agree it was rubbish!

[balaco]

Does anyone remember the name of a documentary about Russian pilots where in the end the guy cant renew his medical? That was pretty good documentary...

[Evanelpus]

Wycombe

The programme featuring MON satarts this Friday, not sure of the exact time, 8.30 rings a bell.

Will be watching with interest as I am flying with them to Papthos in mid September.

[bjm367-80]

caddy,

very glad you replied.....Thanks...

However, after a quick search, the program you are refering to was made in 1996 and is way to new to be the one in question. ding who mentioned something about a character called Shona, he must also thing of the same show as you. The fact that both shows were based around scotish people is strange. Thanks again for you help.

If anyone can add anything, please do.
(I need to solve this one)

[ 21 August 2001: Message edited by: bjm367-80 ]

[SPIT]

I think the BEST was called Airplaneski about a group of Russian Pilots all ex Aeroflot.
The WORST was the series called FLIGHTLINE with that PLONKER Brendan OBrien not being able to GET HIS FACTS RIGHT., ie since when has op HUNTERS been armed with a 6 barreled gatling type gun??? :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

[Trislander]

Hi

I am back again, taking a break from all that flying business to ask whether anyone caught that Monarch edition of Airline on ITV last week. Is this now a new weekly show? I only saw the end.
Better/worse/same entertainment factor as EZY Airline???

Cheers
Tri

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[Mycroft]

Trislander - you've just missed the second episode, and its just the same as the EZ one - highlights were trainee cabin crew trying to open emergency exits, a wedding in mexico and various people having passport problems (eaten by dog, plastic peeling off photo and various pax showing how bad their passport photos are)but not a sign of an a/c.

For the person who mentioned them flying a Catalina in the Aeronauts annual, it was privately owned by an air charter pilot (single a/c and pilot company) who had trained with the heroes

[telboy]

The BBC(?) doco Fighter Pilot, 20 years or so ago was one of my faves.
Little bit older than that Whirlybirds (?) american black & white about a couple of guys & float equipped Bell 47's , keeping a rot=tarty vein good old Skippy the Bush Kangaroo.

saved the day again

[Golden Monkey]

Airwolf was great. No matter what the problem, wherever it was, whoever was involved, the bad guy - be it a corrupt Mid West Sheriff or a Columbian drug baron - ALWAYS had a P51 or somesuch stashed away in an old barn which he would then pit against airwolf in the finale.