I've just discovered that some of my posts in 2000 are still on this forum, although the threads are long since locked. I was 'justapax' then, I had to choose a new username as I couldn't remember what email address I had 24 years ago. There were comments back then along the lines of 'do we really need to encourage Pax & SLF in the *professional* pilots rumour network?' from professional pilots. 24 years later - plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose.

I was hoping back then to be able to fly in a Connie, the first aircraft I ever flew in (boy was it *noisy*). At that time there were no airworthy Connies and I hoped to buy one, they were going for scrap value. Then I discovered their thirst for fuel. Well, in 2024, you can actually fly in a Connie, you just have to go to Australia to do so. I'm saving up my pennies for the airfare. I'll never get the chance to fly in the other aircraft I flew in as a child, such as the Caravelle, Vickers Viscount, Vickers Vanguard, Comet 4B and VC10, as AFAIK there are no airworthy examples left of any of these. But the Connie flies on.

I spent most of the intervening 24 years having cancer, and having various bits of me cut out, followed by chemotherapy, repeat and resume. Does anyone else have as long a pause between their last post on pprune.org and resuming?

Hello Justa... and welcome back. That is a long gap but great that you found your way back (and were able to). We are fortunate that the archive has survived the change of ownership and - yes - some topics do come round the loop. Some of us then sit back and watch the newcomers views and see if they have changed.

Indeed - look a the "Future Aircraft Carrier " thread started by WE Branch Fanatic on 10th Apr 2006 and he still manages at least a page a week on the benefits of carrieraviation :ok:

Yes A56. You could say that 'WE' is known to the Mods ...

The Independent
After the UK voted to leave the European Union in 2016, negotiators in Brussels acquiesced to our insistence that we should be “third-country nationals”. Brexit means British travellers face much higher hurdles for any trip to the EU and wider Schengen Area.

On arrival at a Schengen frontier, each British passport must be examined and stamped. Officials need to ensure the traveller has not spent too much time in the EU recently (a maximum of 90 days in any 180 days).

They must also be satisfied that the traveller has sufficient financial resources and will return to the UK (or continue to a non-EU country) after a short visit.

Each European Union nation can choose its own subsistence criteria for admitting British travellers – and also impose requirements on accommodation. Spain requires anyone staying with friends or family to obtain a Carta de Invitación (Letter of Invitation). The process can take weeks, and the official document costs over £70. But without it you may be turned away at the border.

My very first flight was on a Caravelle, in the late 1960s. Sat in the last row at the back which was windowless and very loud, presumably because the Rolls Royce engine was bolted on where the window should have been.

Same with the VC10. I remember being in the toilets at the back. You could have murdered a dozen people with a hatchet and no one would have heard.

If you had a dozen people in the toilets of a VC10, there wouldn't have been room to swing a hatchet.

Even though the engines were at the back, I remember VC10s as being quite loud, and they seemed to have lower pressurisation than other aircraft of the era.

Has anyone flown in the Ilyushin Il-62, which was so similar that there have been mutterings of 'stolen blueprints'? Air Koryo still has one flying.

Flew in Il-62s often in the 70s and early 80s. All I recall is curtained windows and unpleasant hostesses.

I flew in IL-62 in 1977. I was down back area. Most vivid memory was how cold it was in rear of cabin, and how hot in front area.
Cabin crew not seen after takeoff.
Also noted an anti CofG tipping extra leg/prop extended at rear of aircraft as we disembarked.

When I was a kid, we went to Spain on holiday aboard one of my all time favourites, Trident. Dad always chose the seats that were facing each other cos he said it was easier to keep an eye on myself and my sisters. Mother was always terrified of flying so sat in one of the rear facing seats as she thought it would be better not to see where she was going. On the way home we had the same sort of seating with souvenir donkeys and sombreros on the spare seats.

I don't think any other aircraft had the facing seat setup, but probably wrong on that.

As I recall, there was an experiment to see pax reaction to aft facing seats. The reason being that - in an impact, people are better protected because the head will be thrown up and into the headrest. With forward facing, you have to prevent that by gripping knees etc.

In December 1975 I was on a Trident LHR-HAM (an ex BEA unit, of course) and they had a number of rear facing seats at the front of the cabin. I was asked if I would sit in one and fill in a questionnaire at the end of the flight. I did and said it was fine, which it was.

As I further recall, pax rejected the rear-facing seat for various reasons. Despite the fact that, on busses you might sight sideways to direction of travel and on trains you might be in a rearward facing seat!!

In all RAF transport aircraft set for troop carrying they ONLY have rear facing seats for safety.

BinnieLass
The Comet had a similar set of seats.

Cheers
Mr Mac

‘Kiss and fly’ airport charges continue to increase as drivers pay £7 to stop for a minute
The RAC, which carried out the study, said it is ‘bordering on the ridiculous’

The Independent

This should be no surprise. People want to imagine they are getting a low priced flight, irrespective of carrier.

I went on a British Eagle Britannia fitted throughout with rear facing seats. I believe it was a requirement of the MoD at the time for trooping contracts.

I have this recollection that Southwest had a row of rear facing seats in their very early 737-200s.

Dan Air1-11 definitely did - we had them on my first ever IT charter flight - MAN-MAH July 1986

Some may have alrerady experienced this as reported in The Independent. Start date is slightly confusing.

Thought it had never gone away!! Still packing little liquids into the right-sized sealable clear plastic bag!!!

Why is Japan cracking down on rideable motorised suitcases?
My emphasis in red
aljazeera

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....dbc04eaf60.jpg

An article in an upmarket travel magazine talks about three towns introducing Tourist taxes, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole. They draw a parallel with Venice, lake Como, Brussels and parts of Japan.

I distinctly recall hotels charging a City Tax in France and USA more than 40 years ago. Given that was charged to all and any night stop, it was a city tax and not tourist tax. But was it not also taking advantage of tourists? NYC must have raked in millions.

Travellers to Abu Dhabi's Zayed International Airport may soon be able to use facial recognition to check in for flights.

Reported via Yahoo News

In rear facing the seat backs have to take the weight of the passenger under acceleration, meaning the hinges and seat back frames have to be far stronger. That's where the weight comes from. In forward crashes the seat backs are essentially on their own and could just as well be cardboard.

Tourists shouid be taken advantage of (by legitimate means, obviously!) - otherwise they're just a nuisance! 😆

Budapest has had a tourist tax for years. Interestingly, staying up the road recently we, although Budapest residents, also had to pay the tax. Peanuts though so not bothered!

The meedja do like to report 'new news'. The fact that it is only new to them is irrelevant.

Paxboy, here are two unpleasant facts about Helsinki: the weather can be quite gloomy with long, dark winters, and the cost of living is notoriously high. The picture really captures the situation accurately!

Hello David_Stock and welcome to the Cabin of PPRuNe. Thank you for bringing a direct and honest approach in your first post. :ok:

Slaying the myths about tougher post-Brexit red tape for UK travellers to Europe
Good article in The Independent

However the natives overcome this with a vast amount of (expensive) alcohol. I worked there on and off for several years - we always commented on the fact that most Scandinavians, like the Brits, head to the bar and start flinging it down as fast as possible.

The Finns sit there and drink slowly. But they never stop...................................

My (limited experience of drinking in Finland is summarised by this ancient joke. Stop reading if you've heard it before...

Two Finns go into a bar. They order vodkas, down them, and sit in silence.
Then two more. Then two more. After the seventh, the second Finn says to the first Finn 'I don't feel so well'.
The first Finn replies 'I thought we came out to drink, not to talk'.

I once flew to Helsinki on the Friday evening Finnair service from LHR to Helsinki. I swear the Drinks cart came out as we were passing Windsor Castle and did not get put away again until we were 30 miles out from Helsinki ;)

Cheers
Mr Mac

Swissair used to go one better than that. During the Iran-Iraq war Iran Air used to fly the Iranian airspace sector from Tehran to Bandar Abbas, where Swissair took over for a short flight across the Gulf; for reasons which will become obvious I don't remember where the flight landed.

As soon as the plane left Iranian airspace the FAs used to come around each pulling one drinks trolley behind them and pushing another in front. They often had to go back to the galley to refill their trollies before they reached the back of the plane, and then they didn't so much deboard us as pour us out of the plane. Two weeks of Tehrani heat on soft drinks gives you a tremendous thirst!

"y (limited experience of drinking in Finland is summarised by this ancient joke. Stop reading if you've heard it before..."

The version I heard was after 5 hours drinking "how's Mum?" " I thought we were here to drink..................

There used to be a Business Class only flight first thing on weekdays from Helsinki to Oslo. Helsinki Apt was full of well dressed business folk of all sexes downing (English) cider and booze at 06:30

The Norwegians referred to it as the Cognac Express - seeing someone get through a few miniatures at 08:00 was an interesting experience - perhaps only beaten by a Glaswegian on the 07:00 Mallaig train who ordered a can of Newcastle Brown Ale with his cornflakes - for a dreadful moment I though he was going to pour it over them.......................

It used to be (maybe still is) that the first Aer Lingus flight LHR-DUB had a bar serving pints of Guinness as soon as you entered the boarding gate, two of those down the throat, then if you were sitting up front there was a miniature version of a Full Irish breakfast with buck's fizz: if you asked nicely the FA wouldn't pour them into the same glass, and ask you 'would like another of the little bottles of champagne?' then out of the plane, into a taxi and directly into technical meetings about Fresnel zones and wind loadings. Are things still that relaxed travelling to the Emerald Isle?:)

Back in the day when drinks used to cost and Ms RevMan2 was a FA on LH, they dreaded any Scandinavian/Baltic flight for the sheer post-flight work in accounting for multi-hundred drinks. All cash. In a variety of currencies...

I read that Czech Airlines are dropping out from SkyTeam later this year. They will then use the QS code of their owner Smartwings. My guess is that, belonging to one of the big groups must be expensive.