Monarch Airbus Parked Outside Bmi Hanger Lhr

[ukdean]

As the title says anyone have a clue.

Possible divert early in the week maybe?

[Spotter LBA]

I believe it is an A320 divert from LGW from a couple of days ago. Not sure what reg and I'm surprised its still there!

[Mr @ Spotty M]

We had a A321 & B757 divert in the other day.
They were trying to move them yesterday to LGW, but the problem has been LGW unable to accept them in the last few days.
One problem may be slots, need a take-off slot from LHR and a landing slot at LGW, reasonably close together.

[ab33t]

Cant move the plane due to priority being given to international flights

[Nicholas49]

Out of interest, if you fly an A319/B757 on a very short sector such as LHR-LGW (to re-position the aircraft back to its base), what flight level would you typically reach?

[Georgeablelovehowindia]

The Mayfield SIDs for positioning to Gatwick have a climb limit of 5,000 feet. I can't speak for the A320/321 but an empty Boeing 757 would reach that within a couple of miles, despite selecting climb thrust on landing gear retraction.

[BOAC]

Nicholas - it all depends on traffic and routing - it is not necessarily a 'short sector'! On a busy day you could be up to 14,000' and airborne for 30 minutes or more - I've been several times EGSS-EGKK in well over 40 minutes - and holding at TIMBA. I've also done EGHH-EGKK in both under 20 minutes and 1 hour.:)

[Mr @ Spotty M]

Well if it has not left already, they may well leave it until Tuesday, as they have a Special Charter to BCN on Tuesday out of LHR.:ok:

[spannerhead]

Both a 321 and a 757 are at the bmi hangar to use the warmth inside to melt the snow off the wings, tail and fuselage. There's such a shortage of deicing fluid at Heathrow at the moment that non Heathrow based airlines are last on the list of priorities to get use of this valuable fluid. Both of the aircraft would have left days ago if they could have cleared the Ice and snow.
(by the way ukdean, it's a hangar, not a hanger).

[Gulfstreamaviator]

Will the lack of airframe effect Spotties schedules..?

How quickly will LHR run out of fluid.?

Is this the wake up call for the IR / UV / solar (solor) powered de icing rigs.>

glf

[Nicholas49]

BOAC- thanks for the info. Yes, I can imagine that it's not necessarily a straightforward trip and that you would be 'restricted' by the complex departure and approach patterns at those busy airports.

PS I enjoyed looking up the four-letter codes to see which airports you were referring to!

[poker]

For those interested in further information...

The Monarch Airbus ia an A321, G-OZBG, and I was the First Officer operating when the aircraft diverted into Heathrow on Tuesday night.

We had operated ex-Malaga, with the intended destination being Gatwick. When Gatwick's runway closed due to the snow, and with very few other UK airfields open, we ended up at Heathrow, landing at 22:56.

Having always wanted to fly into Heathrow, it was a little disappointing to only get visual with runway 09L as we crossed over the M25!

[Avman]

and ukdean, it's hangar not hanger for God's sake!

[Gibair]

Stupid question to many on here I'm sure, but as Chris Tarrant says it's only easy if you know the answer. So I have to ask the audience, why is Monarch known as "Spotties?"

Thanks in anticipation!

[simonchowder]

Keep up avman, he has already been taken to task for this unforgivable and dreadfull error :bored:

[Georgeablelovehowindia]

poker, most of the fun at LHR is taxying round the place, not trying to make yourself look like some 'country bumpkin' getting lost! (Memories of BD sub-charters and before that Air Malta.) Did Luton Ops. burst into tears when you told them where you were diverting?

:E

For the answer to the 'Spotty M' thing, take a look at the fin.

[Hartington]

I reckon Heathrow isn't the only place where you can look like a bumpkin if you're not used to it. In the days before 2001 when I was staff and a jump seat was sometimes the only way of getting A to B I can remember several crews getting off a runway at a range of airports and then fumbling for ground charts as they tried to work out where to go.

And there was a rather memorable occasions when we were heading for a stand (call it 218 - it was somewhere along the line between T1 and T3 at LHR I can't remember the actual number) and as we began to turn the copilot said "Why's he waving at us?" and there was a batsman in 218B (which was where it turned out we were supposed to be). Even the locals can get it wrong occasionally!

[amanoffewwords]

this unforgivable and dreadfull error

ahem :eek:

re LHR and getting lost - I thought you had Lighting Operators to prevent that?

[JB007]

Not a good week - A300 stuck in GNB too!

[Georgeablelovehowindia]

Yes, following the greens (and stopping at the reds) is a great help, not only at LHR, of course. The taxi chart also looks a lot less cluttered since they did away with the block-numbering system.

:ok:

[Nicholas49]

I'm going to ask this question on this thread because although there are other similar ones around the site, this seems the most appropriate place to ask.

There have been plenty of diverted aircraft in the UK over the last few days. Is this not a complete nightmare for the operations department? What are you supposed to do when (say) Gatwick-based aircraft end up in (say) East Midlands overnight and that same aircraft is needed the following day for early departures? Surely it is a crewing nightmare too because the flight/cabin crew are now (a) in the wrong place (b) have no way of getting back to base and therefore home for the night; (c) cannot therefore operate the rest of their schedule; (d) there is no one to fly the aircraft back to where it needs to be because duty hours have expired. Multiply by however many flights/aircraft/crews a large airline has on a daily basis and the knock-on effect etc. Have I missed something and it is a lot easier than this?

[Mr @ Spotty M]

Now you know why the airlines are cancelling so many flights at the moment.
I think it would be more cost-effective if you just parked your a/c up for the time being and cancelled your flights.
The cost of operating must be more than parking at the moment.:{

[Cough]

Last time I positioned an aircraft (late night) from gatters to the big smoke, we were airborne for 9 mins and achieved no more than 3000'! Sid was altered to, when you turn, head north and maintain 3000', no speed! Fun!

[kaikohe76]

Okay folks, based on my experience, I'm fairly sure that Monarch as a whole will manage to sort out the various wx problems & continue to operate their flights as much as possible. Granted a lot of extra hassle & work for many sections of the Company I'm sure, but the end result will be, yellow & black (sorry purple?) aircraft continuing to get into the air.
Many moons ago when flying for HM the Q, while taxying at Copenhagen during the winter in the snow, we came nose to nose with a SAS DC8. We were right & he was wrong, good time to show off the MK1 Andover's three point turning ability. The Danes were quite impressed.
My local wx report, w/v 340/ 6 CAVOK OAT + 28

Take care folks & all the best for 2010

[Georgeablelovehowindia]

What was that, climbing out over Windsor Great Park at 14:19, into the low sun, as Mrs G. and I took our Sunday afternoon stroll amongst the bikers, prams, dogs, and horse poo? It certainly looked like a Monarch A321, but it went and hid behind a patch of cloud right overhead. Seemed to be on a Midhurst departure off the 27s.

[Mr @ Spotty M]

Should not have been, left Tuesday around 09:30 and returned around 18:00 on Friday and was due to depart again ASAP.

[Doug E Style]

Is G-OZBG one of the old heaps that Midland sold to Monarch a few years ago?

[DOOBIE]

No. GOZBG was new on delivery to Monarch. GOZBL, M, N and O are the ex BD a/c.

[Mr @ Spotty M]

Midland did not own any of the so called heaps, they only leased them as has MON, mostly if not all from Aercap.

[smudgethecat]

They may have been "heaps" when monarch aquired them but knowing the very high standards of monarch engineering they should be in fine fettle by now:ok:

[WindSheer]

Speaking of the short sectors, I was on duty at Cardiff about 5 years ago when one of our company 767's diverted in as it was trying to get into St Athan for maintenance (about 4 miles away). St Athan was misted up with only military nav aids for back up.

The crew got off, went into the airport, had some breakfast and waited for the mist to lift. They then took off VFR from 12 at Cardiff and made their way around the corner.

A 767-300, no flight plan, just a quick 'book out' call to atc. Priceless!!
:ok:

[student88]

A MON a/c on the golden runways! Who would have thought it. I bet TJ just loved that!

We've done STN-LTN in 14 mins, anyone got a better time? :}

[Monarch Man]

STN-LTN in G-MONB took us about 6-7 mins from memory a few years back, it was at 3am though:ok: