B-HKV Cathay Pacific 747-412
 

B-HKV Cathay Pacific 747-412 Made her last flight from Manchester to Bruntingthorpe Leics today as CPA3337 if anyone saw her down at low level this morning . She routed in over Melton turning SW over Oakham at just above 4000 ft and then across toward Lutterworth landing at Brunty where believed she will be dismantled Got me going when she passed overhead at Oakham and she seemed to be heading terrain bound and way off course for BHX or EMA. Even thought FLR24 was playing tricks when she vanished at 0944 UTC till spoke to mate at Brunty to find she was safely down there:uhoh:

SAD:sad::{

B-HUB is there now or on her way for parting out too....

TW

CX3337
 

The final take-off from Manchester is also on YouTube:

All I can say is that it makes me feel old seeing B747-400s heading for the scrapyard :(

Yes, makes me feel old too. I liked the 747-400 (as business class passenger on upper deck, never flew economy in one).

Cathay are retiring their 747s – AFAIR they were a launch customer, so these aircraft must be among the oldest -400s – in favour of 777s and A350s.

So these models are around 1988 vintage ? BA got their first 2 in the summer of 89 and I believe that United had a few before then.

I'd be more interested to see a video of them landing at Bruntingthorpe than leaving MAN. I wonder if Cathay pilots flew them on the last hop, or were they already someone else's property at that point and freelancers at the helm ? Always sad to see good condition aircraft meeting the scrappers, but reality states that the parts and scrap worth of the aircraft, minus expensive upcoming maintenance checks are the prudent course of action.



SHJ

The final flight was designated as CX3337.
Does this not mean it was flown by Cathay?
Perhaps someone from CX could comment?

HKE and HUB already there, next to go is HUF in Sept and 1 more after that as well. HKV still owned by CX, all flown by CX crew. There's 3 more scrapped at Kemble as well.

Northwest was the launch customer for the 747-400 - with PW4000 engines. Lufthansa was launch for -400/GE, and Cathay for the -400 with Rolls engines. EIS (Pratt) was early 1989.


B-HKV was not delivered until 1995 (to Singapore) and is relatively young - 87,000 hours and 12,000 cycles as of the end of June. By contrast, there are a lot of -400s out there with over 110,000 hours that are still flying (B-HOP, which was the first -400 with Rolls, delivered to Cathay in 1989, still shows as "active" with almost 117,000 hrs. and over 19,000 cycles).


A surprisingly high number - 200 of the 280 - 747-400s delivered more than 20 years ago still show as "active" (55 "out of service" and 25 "active/parked"), although the database is usually a few months out of date.


But I agree, we're going to see those early -400s retired in large numbers pretty soon.

A lots depends on if the a/c is owned or leased and if it is nearing a major check or not, waste of money, unfortunately the 777 has pretty much made the 744 redundant due better fuel economy and emissions.

As posted above, yes flown by CX crew.
I can vouch for that as I was the F/O!
Out of MAN we flew the SID, and as we were heading S, radar gave us vectors towards Leicester, and pretty much put us on a long final for 24 at Bruntingthorpe.
She flew beautifully, as always, and it's truly sad to see her go.
Pretty much the first thing done after the tug parked us, was drill off the registration plate at L1.
The engines are heading back to HK (as on the previous 3 a/c). This was a Pratt engined ex-SQ a/c, built in 1994, as previously mentioned.

Thanks blue_side_up and spannersatcx.
It's so good to hear from folks at CX away from the topics of the Fragrant Harbour forum. :ugh:

Mr blue side up, did the crew have to bid for the flight, or are such things randomly chosen by crewing etc ? Was it just a few hours duty and then car service back to MAN or LHR, or were the crew responsible for the preliminary handover/dismantling ?


SHJ

Certain things are done by the engineers before dismantling, dummy software in some systems, owner/registration plates and various other items removed, before dismantling starts. Some are sent back to CX the rest goes through an agency to sell.

the crew get transport to wherever they are going.

The Capt's for these trips will all be very senior. It's a non-standard operation, with a purely visual approach, and no proper runway markings, etc. So in other words the Capt's are hand picked. As for the F/O's, I requested this trip, but for the most part, the F/O's are assigned off the standby list, or it will just have appeared on their roster. As it turned out, it was a great experience, just sad to see such a great a/c scrapped.
We operated heavy crew to MAN the day before, then just 2 of us MAN-Bruntingthorpe the next day. Transport provided to LHR, then back to HKG a day later.
As spanners mentioned, Engineering does some basic prep and item removal from the a/c before the dismantlers take over, but as for us crew, we just shut it down and set the park brake and that's it.

By the look of it, overfly RWY 24, with one hand flown left hand circuit before the final approach. Must have been a poignant moment.

Thanks for the replies, curious mind has been satiated.


SHJ

Thanks for all the replies especially flight crew, glad I started this thread


What started out as a rather panicky log onto FL24 after she overflew Oakham at low level opened a fascinating insight into EOL procedures for the big birds.

Ditto that, enjoyed reading this thread having seen a couple of the ex-Cathay 747s up at Brunty in the past.

747 at Manchester
 

B-HKV departing Manchester


https://plus.google.com/photos/11175...LrY6eSo8bnT4wE


hope link works

B-HKV
 

I was at Manchester and managed to capture her on the ground departing for the last time
i be happy to post someone some of the pics
drop me a line as dont know how to paste on this message
cheers guys

I was at Moses Lake (aka Grant County Airport or MWH) today for a flight test. There is another Cathay (or ex Cathay) 747-400 (passenger version) parked there and looking decidedly derelict. We didn't get close enough for me to make out a tail number - and the engines were missing so I couldn't even tell engine type.


Is Cathay having some of the old -400s scrapped at Moses Lake as well?

Yes, at least 5 Cathay B744s have been parted out at Moses Lake.

Another one landed on Monday and caused a stir over South Leicester on approach :ok:


Low-flying plane causes a stir in Narborough and Cosby | Leicester Mercury


People took to Twitter and Facebook to express amazement after a low-flying Boeing 747 rumbled over the roofs of villages including Narborough and Cosby.

Read more: Low-flying plane causes a stir in Narborough and Cosby | Leicester Mercury
Follow us: @Leicester_Merc on Twitter | leicestermercury on Facebook

It was B-HUE going for the chop! I think there are 2 more planned for later this year.

Yeh Thanks spannersatcx seen some pics of her on the tug at Brunty. Wonder if they will slot a fast taxi in with the Lightnings and Bucaneers at the next Cold war jet day LOL:ok:

Not even 20 years old airframe... Sad :(

B-HKV Cathay Pacific Boeing 747-412 - cn 26552 / ln 1056 - Planespotters.net Just Aviation

I trust it was steered away at the last moment from the infant school, cat sanctuary etc :)

Levity aside I must say that this one of of those gems of a thread which we get here every so often. To hear from one of the participants was icing.

And another (significant) arrival today!

https://flic.kr/p/PiZydR

I'm curious about the navigation involved with clag at around 1500-2000 ft - would East Midlands give vectors and "cloud-break" on a filthy day like today?

Sorry - I'm unacquainted with anything other than "steam and clockwork". Would Brunty be in the FMC?

It is signicant because it is the last Cathay passenger B747 and arrived from Manchester where it had night stopped

Midland331 I expect E Mids gave some assistance but if the a/c still had all its avionics intact it could find its own way.

Thanks. My in-laws' farm is just north of the centre-line for their westerly runway at around six miles, and these arrivals tend to give them a surprise!

200-odd tonnes descending out of the murk with lots of noise even more so.

Further to the entry to service date....

Don't know exactly but what I do know is I flew in a Cathay 747-400 from Paris CDG to Manchester 23 March 1987, so pretty early.

Don't recall noting at the time it must have been a brand new aeroplane. Sadly I didn't manage to get the reg.

First Cathay 747-400 was delivered 26 September 1988. I suspect that you were on a 747-300, which also had the extended upper deck. The main guide between a 300 and a 400 is winglets on the latter.

In order to land at Bruntingthorpe they had to be visual at 1500' with the runway, as no navaids there, no see no land!

East Mids was giving broken at 1500 for part of the day, hence my original question!

Cheers for that WHBM, always happy to be corrected. Log book duly amended!

It was coming in on the red-eye so probably still dark oclock, not even sure I got a look outside on that flight. All I remember is walking in on lots of slumbering Chinese folks!

It is however an interesting illustration of the regulation of the airline industry that at that time, it was the best deal across the Channel (£62 Sterling as I recall). A one-way to Scotland at that time (my final destination) was in excess of 300 quid! In 1987!!!

The good old days weren't always that great!

Yes East Midlands helped out, they were happy with their own Navigation, but spent a while waiting for conditions to improve enough to get below cloud and find the field visually - do not often give a radar service to a B747 at that level in the open FIR, crew seemed to appreciate it!