Gatwick tower visit.
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Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Brighton. UK. (Via Liverpool).
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A good day was had by all i hope. It started off badly for me, seemed like the world and his dog wanted me to be late arriving there. I eventually set off at the time Saab Dastard was meant to be picking me up from Gatwick. Fortunatly, he called me just as i was leaving and headed off strait there. I picked up Paulo on the way and got to the old tower meeting point about 10 late. (BR thing you see, late everywhere.) Met up then with our sponsor, Muppet and the rest of the group, AerBabe Evo7 Sennadog and flyingforfun .
After the security procedures (Special mention to the unidentified pruner who drove us around for a while, nice lass.) we headed off in one of the NATS vans. We drove onto the airfield and headed off around the actual taxiways towards the north terminal, along towards the south one then over to the tower itself. Muppet wouldn't take us near to the spotters balcony to gloat though.
We went up and split into two groups. Each group spent about 30 mins looking around the serious bit, loads of displays to look at and a million questions asked on the way. The displays are fantastic, from the radar display to the display that shows what lights are lit up on the ground, every one fascinating to see. Our host was brilliant, so relaxed and made us feel comfortable up there and kept us entertained throughout. Top bloke. Whilst one group was in the serious bit, the other was watching the airport in action from the observation windows. Huge they are, cracking view of the entire airport. Everywhere you looked there was something happening, amazing place really. Big thanks to to the watch that were on at that time for putting up with us and to the manager for not booting us out when one of the group placed his hand a bit too close to the 'crash-phone' for his liking.
Off then, after saying goodbye to to Muppet we headed of to Astraeus. We were met there by Crashdive who is a pilot and their IT bloke. He gave us a great rundown all about how the company was set up, incredible how quick they got up and running, a credit to the aviation industry for showing good things can happen after 9/11. Lots of hard work put in by all involved and it shows. The Guvnor take note here, this is how its done.
After the intro, we set off around the building to have a look behind the scenes of a charter airline and fascinating it was too. We started in the training room and spent a good while chatting around a mock 737 flight-deck that was in the room itself. After that, we headed off to the crew room then to see the ops room. Met some nice peole there who took time out to explain what they did. One of them tracked 2 of the planes on the pc terminal on his desk. One was over Wales heading towards Manchester and the other was in the east somewhere over Europe.
Upstairs then to the IT room (too many wires and things in cabinets for my liking) and then around the rest of the top floor. The finance and engineering bit was good, again, people taking time out to say what they did here. Thanks chaps/s. Met one of the big bosses up there too who said hello before heading back to his office. then we went back downstairs and chatted for ages before biding farewell to Astraeus. Great tour, many thanks John.
Off then to a 'local' pub for some refreshment. After loosing FFF and AerBabe on the way and lots of frantic mobile calls, we eventually got together for a pint and a chat before heading off our seperate ways.
We were very luck that day. We got to see behind the scenes of some big cogs in a very big wheel, we saw something that not many of the general public will ever get to see except say, on the telly. That will be a day hard to beat.
Huge thanks once again go to Muppet and the team at Astraeus . Thanks Hamrah and Crashdive
After the security procedures (Special mention to the unidentified pruner who drove us around for a while, nice lass.) we headed off in one of the NATS vans. We drove onto the airfield and headed off around the actual taxiways towards the north terminal, along towards the south one then over to the tower itself. Muppet wouldn't take us near to the spotters balcony to gloat though.
We went up and split into two groups. Each group spent about 30 mins looking around the serious bit, loads of displays to look at and a million questions asked on the way. The displays are fantastic, from the radar display to the display that shows what lights are lit up on the ground, every one fascinating to see. Our host was brilliant, so relaxed and made us feel comfortable up there and kept us entertained throughout. Top bloke. Whilst one group was in the serious bit, the other was watching the airport in action from the observation windows. Huge they are, cracking view of the entire airport. Everywhere you looked there was something happening, amazing place really. Big thanks to to the watch that were on at that time for putting up with us and to the manager for not booting us out when one of the group placed his hand a bit too close to the 'crash-phone' for his liking.
Off then, after saying goodbye to to Muppet we headed of to Astraeus. We were met there by Crashdive who is a pilot and their IT bloke. He gave us a great rundown all about how the company was set up, incredible how quick they got up and running, a credit to the aviation industry for showing good things can happen after 9/11. Lots of hard work put in by all involved and it shows. The Guvnor take note here, this is how its done.
After the intro, we set off around the building to have a look behind the scenes of a charter airline and fascinating it was too. We started in the training room and spent a good while chatting around a mock 737 flight-deck that was in the room itself. After that, we headed off to the crew room then to see the ops room. Met some nice peole there who took time out to explain what they did. One of them tracked 2 of the planes on the pc terminal on his desk. One was over Wales heading towards Manchester and the other was in the east somewhere over Europe.
Upstairs then to the IT room (too many wires and things in cabinets for my liking) and then around the rest of the top floor. The finance and engineering bit was good, again, people taking time out to say what they did here. Thanks chaps/s. Met one of the big bosses up there too who said hello before heading back to his office. then we went back downstairs and chatted for ages before biding farewell to Astraeus. Great tour, many thanks John.
Off then to a 'local' pub for some refreshment. After loosing FFF and AerBabe on the way and lots of frantic mobile calls, we eventually got together for a pint and a chat before heading off our seperate ways.
We were very luck that day. We got to see behind the scenes of some big cogs in a very big wheel, we saw something that not many of the general public will ever get to see except say, on the telly. That will be a day hard to beat.
Huge thanks once again go to Muppet and the team at Astraeus . Thanks Hamrah and Crashdive
Last edited by BRL; 5th Oct 2002 at 18:57.
Join Date: Nov 2001
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Cheers Guys,
Glad you all enjoyed yourselves. Your enthusiasm, questions and cooperation reminded me just how enjoyable my work is.
I've sent BRL a souvenir, so he may be in touch.
Muppit
Glad you all enjoyed yourselves. Your enthusiasm, questions and cooperation reminded me just how enjoyable my work is.
I've sent BRL a souvenir, so he may be in touch.
Muppit
Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: London
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A superb day.
I didn't think anything would match the Tower visit (thanks muppit), but crashdive managed to equal it with a fascinating insight into the basic building blocks of an airline. All spiced up with an eyewitness account of starting from scratch - a few hungry people with lots of experience, ideas, and a need for some seed cash, who got it all financed and up an running in a remarkably short space of time.
After all that, I have to admit I did spend about 30 mins of the afternoon thinking about changing my mind about not doing it for a career... maybe if I win the lottery I will do my ATPLs after all
The one thing that continually impresses me about the aviation business is the community spirit of it - there's many good people who are happy to give you their time regardless of the gap between your experience and theirs.
I didn't think anything would match the Tower visit (thanks muppit), but crashdive managed to equal it with a fascinating insight into the basic building blocks of an airline. All spiced up with an eyewitness account of starting from scratch - a few hungry people with lots of experience, ideas, and a need for some seed cash, who got it all financed and up an running in a remarkably short space of time.
After all that, I have to admit I did spend about 30 mins of the afternoon thinking about changing my mind about not doing it for a career... maybe if I win the lottery I will do my ATPLs after all
The one thing that continually impresses me about the aviation business is the community spirit of it - there's many good people who are happy to give you their time regardless of the gap between your experience and theirs.
Why do it if it's not fun?
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Bournemouth
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Thanks to BRL and Muppit and everyone who was involved in organising this one - superb day out.
And a special thanks to CrashDive. It will be a couple of years before I'm looking for jobs, but the hints you gave me have definitely been taken on board and filed away for later use. And, apart from the free lesson in sim-ride techniques and CV-writing, the whole Astraeus visit was fascinating.
AerBabe and I managed to see a little more of the countryside around Crawley than planned, but that didn't ruin an excellent day!
FFF
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And a special thanks to CrashDive. It will be a couple of years before I'm looking for jobs, but the hints you gave me have definitely been taken on board and filed away for later use. And, apart from the free lesson in sim-ride techniques and CV-writing, the whole Astraeus visit was fascinating.
AerBabe and I managed to see a little more of the countryside around Crawley than planned, but that didn't ruin an excellent day!
FFF
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