BA8113 Wednesday 17th October MAN - LHR. Thank you!
 

Thank you to the BA cockpit and cabin crew on this flight.

I was the sole passenger on this flight and I was given the royal treatment. Most enjoyable!

BA8113 Wednesday 17th October MAN - LHR. Thank you!
 

If it was on a 50seater Embraer thank BMI Regional!!!

Nope - almost brand new A319. Had the choice of 144 seats.

*** Pictures please!

I can't imagine this being a particularly cost-effective flight for the airline, but it sounds fun! :) Did you still get the generic safety demonstration, or did they give you a more personalised one?

there were only 16 of us on the same flight on monday night - very civilised !

Wow ... would of loved it :D

Lucky you for getting the Royal treatment. I was on a flight (EI not RYR) from Gatwick to Shannon in June last year and was the sole passenger. The crew closed the doors and as I was seated in ~ row 14 I got up prior to push back and asked could I sit in row 1 since there was nobody else on board. Unfortunately I was promptly advised for "safety" reasons that I must stay in my allocated seat for takeoff and landing. Not wantpmg to antagonise the crew member and risk an unwarranted delay to the flight etc I dare not mention why the reason for the "safety" i.e. is it in the event of a crash so they could identify the body. In my own head I was thinking, shur if we do crash, there are ~6 crew and one passenger so not hard to identify.

The thing that got me was that I never saw a crew member for the whole flight and used my call bell to summon them (fasten seat belt sign remained on for the whole flight) to try and pay for a cup of coffee & a full Irish.

Are you quite serious? Is this what you genuinely believe?

I can remember being one of 16 passengers (including about 6 kids) on a Qantas 747 trans-tasman in the 80's

We all moved (including the only first class passenger) into Business and had a whale of trip..................

IIRC there was a guy who was the only passenger on a very early Pan-Am 747 transatlantic flight in the early 70's - they were positioning it to Paris or somewhere from NY and stuck it down as a scheduled flight but didn't try & sell tickets - he was late for the standard 707 and so they stuck him on the jumbo

Tight Slot, to be honest I don't know for sure but on a previous personal experience with the same carrier flying from JFK to SNN I was in the last row of business class trying to sleep but the crew positioned directly behind me with gossip in full flow. After a half hour I asked very politely could they be a little quieter or move somewhere else. I was practically reprimanded and told that for the rest of the flight I would not be given any alcohol due to my aggressive behaviour and if I were to persist the Captain would be informed and a possible restraint would ensue. I was gob smacked and didn't even respond. I never ever have alcohol before, after or during a flight.*
The carrier up to 10-12 years ago was brilliant but has definitely changed for some reason. I can remember being on transatlantic crossings with music, song and dance in full flow in economy and encouraged by the crew. Today you cannot look sideways at them.*

So back to my previous post and your bemused question relating to same. Why else would they not permit me to move from the mid section of the aircraft when there were no other passengers on board. At the time I felt that maybe they will use any excuse to cancel the flight because the return leg would probably have an abysmal load also. Granted if they did want to cancel they could have easily said that the aircraft had gone "tech" but at the time that did not cross my mind.*

For safety as in the safety of the aircraft and to keep it in trim for take off. Moving 14 rows to row 1, especially as the sole passenger in the cabin would affect the centre of gravity of the aircraft for take off. This would effectively put it out of trim as the trim calculations would have been finalised based on your seat in row 14. It always comes across as the crew just being difficult but that's the reason.

One person moving forwards 14 rows putting the a/c out of trim???

:ugh:I don't think so!!! :ugh:

So, as OP and in response to various questions: -

My allocated seat was 2A (no business class on that plane) but I was permitted to sit anywhere (I chose 1A).

I had a safety briefing, but I told them what they were going to say before they said it, so we had fun.

On boarding, my bags were taken from me and was told to go and 'chat with the flight deck crew' - and they were very welcoming.

After take off, the four CC and I talked for the whole flight whilst I guzzled some very nice BA freebie food and drink. I was even offered some bottles to take away with me.

The most bizzare thing was walking off a plane on my own and through deserted domestic terminal at Heathrow.

I could get used to it.

The reason was that the plane had to be in London for the next morning, so was positioning down and they put it on the schedule for sale to see if anyone actually paid them. I did and got lucky.

Agentx. I weighed 80kg not 8000!

If the trim was at the very forward limit with one passenger in row 14 then, yes, I think so!!! :ugh:

If the trim was at the fwd limit with 1 pax in row 14, I'd be having a close look at the weight & balance charts!

Well maybe somebody did just that in this case.

And everyone knowing that trim issues are complete rubbish as 'they' only weigh 80Kgs, not 800kg, know exactly what the weight and distribution of the cargo in the cargo holds and the trim of the fuel tanks are of course.

Weight and balance sheets are produced for the seats the passengers are booked into. My personal approach is that I require passengers to occupy assigned seats for take off and landing UNLESS I consider there to be enough flexibility in the trim to permit movement.

I would assume the Captain on your 'one man' flight would be the same. Light loads with cargo and fuel can produce trims very close to the limits. Many carriers stock the holds up with cargo when the passenger load is light. Just because there is no-one in the cabin doesn't necessarily mean the flight is 'empty'.

Sorry folks but a single passenger being moved from row 14 to row one on an A320 putting it out of trim :bored:


If you really want some fun look at the effect of a single pax moving from row 1 to the toilet in a shorts 330 :E

From a performance point of view the numbers moving are irrelevant. The problem comes when operating close to the trim limits (most commercial aircraft are balanced toward a medium passenger load). So a light passenger load can put you close to the trim limits as much as a heavy one.

The real kicker plays if you lose an engine on take-off, that's where you really feel an aircraft that's out of trim.

Move where you want for the flight just be in your seat for take off and landing please. I really don't care how much you moan. :E

I suspect that the passenger who was required to stay in his seat would have moaned less, if the cabin service was better than non existent.

Spot on Espada. All I wanted was to pay for a coffee.

That's a shift in the argument though. The conversation so far has been about the effect of seating restrictions on aircraft trim - a conversation that began when bannercounty suggested that the rules were in place purely to assist with corpse identification. People who are knowledgeable about aircraft trim and deal with it on a daily basis have taken the time to post on this thread about why that is not the case.

You might consider thanking them bannercounty, or even, God help us, a small degree of humility.

It turned into an interesting post alright and the answers were informative so thanks to one and all.

Once got a jump seat ride on a 737 (those were the days) and watched the trim wheel moving as the cabin crew pushed a drinks cart from one end of the plane to the other. So 80 kg moving about the cabin does make a difference.

Have also been re-assigned seats at the gate (shock, horror: from business class to economy) for take off on a lightly loaded 767. There were very few of us, so even large planes have the same issue.

Question - if the weight sheet is done based on people sitting in assigned seats, how do airlines with free boarding cope? (I guess the slightly cynical answer would be 'they don't fly unless they are full, so the problem doesn't arise'.)

SLF3,

I think, that in the case of very light loads they block the few front and last rows so they maintain the trim settings within limits.

Rwy in Sight

Normally, light loads can be trim adjusted using the bags. Shifting bags from one hold to the other (fwd to aft and vice versa) will help.

Alot of the LoCo's don't carry much cargo thus giving them the oppotunity to do just that.

Also it depends upon whether or not the airline used containerised cargo systems. Hoofing a few bags from front to back isn't going to delay your flight too much, having to off load cargo containers and shift bags between takes a fair bit more time.

Light loads, short flights are generally the worse!

A badly trimmed 737 with an engine failure on takeoff and a drift back below V2 toward Vmca is a dangerous place to be!

Yes. On EasyJet (A319) it happens at below 80 passengers or so (i.e., about half full) - I forget the actual number but I've been on a few flights where this happened.

Easyjet doesn't block rows off. Individual crew members may block certain rows off to achieve an even spread through out and below a certain pax figure (considerably higher than 80 pax) a zonal headcount is completed.

Is that before or after they've had a dump?:ouch:

Can i ask , Were you in the over wing emergency exit row at row 14 ? Normally if passengers onboard at least 1 person must be sitting in these rows to operate the exit if needed. It sounds strange they wouldn't let you sit at row 1 though if you were the only passenger next to the two main crewed exits !

I wasn't seated in an emergency exit now.

Well, I for one have learnt something ! Thanks for an informative thread.

Corpse ifentification? Really? So do airlines without assigned seating provide dog tags? Or maybe you need to provide dental records when you book online, just incase the worst should happen. You'll be telling me the brace position is designed to kill passengers instantly so the airlines can pay less compensation!

1 passenger on the plane? And Virgin think they can make money on this route??? :ugh:

This flight took place during the run down of BMI. That flight number was a BMI flight that had been taken over by BA.

Since 1st Nov, 8 flts/day have been cut. So yes you are absolutely right. There are enough flights to LHR from MAN, but no competition.