Smooth cruise – The WizzAir experience
On 17/06/2010, in The lighter side, by heading370
Editor’s note: This article dates from 2007. We are now an economic crisis later but the essence of the story is still the same. What is more, WizzAir, operating 30 aircraft, is still with us and hopefully will remain for a long time to come.
WizzAir, the largest low fare – low cost airline in Central and Eastern Europe launched operations in May 2004. They concentrate primarily on the lucrative markets of the newest EU member states where air travel is going through some really dynamic expansion. This policy has lead to the opening of routes to Eindhoven for example. The company operates these flights from Budapest, Hungary and Katowice in Poland. The author, who is an Air Traffic Controller at the Maastricht Upper Area Control Center (MUAC) was happy to join the crew of the Eindhoven-Budapest-Eindhoven flights at the end of March.
On the ramp at EHEH
Eindhoven is still a relatively quiet airport where the atmosphere is quite relaxed and hassle-free. It is shared by civil and military users the biggest operator – apart from the Koninklijke Luchtmacht (The Royal Air Force of the Netherlands) – is Ryanair. Also Transavia and a few Turkish charter companies fly there regularly and on a typical day the airport handles about 20 arrivals.
After some really helpful co-ordination with the company’s operations control, crew rostering section and the Head of Training, Captain Gabor Lezsovits, I was ready to board HA-LPD, (c/s number 1902) an Airbus A320-200 that operated as WZZ228B.
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Never leave your lunch in the plane – but if you do, take duct tape with you!
On 17/03/2010, in The lighter side, by royalbird
During a private “fly-in” fishing excursion in the Alaskan wilderness, the chartered pilot and fishermen left a cooler and bait in the plane. And a bear smelled it. This is what he did to the plane….
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kulula… what?
On 01/02/2010, in The lighter side, by royalbird
kulula.com is a low fare airline in South Africa. They are apparently bent on making type certification as easy as possible. Gentle reminders of all important items are available for the crew at all times except in flight. No cheating! Want to see more? It is worth it…
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I was a passenger on the A380
On 14/01/2010, in The lighter side, by andrase
Although Singapore Airlines is expecting to welcome its one millionth A380 customer in February (just 15 months after the inaugural flight), it is still not every day that you get to meet someone who has enjoyed this new travel experience. Our contributor Andrase is such a person and he sent us this report.
Let me share my experience of A380 travel by Singapore Airlines. SIA was the first airline scheduling daily service between London and Singapore using the 380.
At the beginning of November I travelled between that city pair and was lucky enough to be booked on the gigantic, biggest ever passenger airplane, the A380.
I was so excited when I walked through the checking gate and got my boarding pass. When I made the online booking earlier, I selected the upper deck. I was placed in the last section, just in front of the galley and the staircase, right behind the emergency exit to gain extra legroom. And extra legroom there was! Even if I had 2 meter or 3 meter long legs, I would have had no problem stretching them out straight ahead…
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Italian holiday
On 20/11/2009, in The lighter side, by steve
I hope that after the last three Fridays when I dished up a poem in “The lighter side” have not made you decide not to read the blog on Fridays… I really hope so because it is once again Friday and I have yet another poem for you… As befits its category, these poems are only remotely connected with air traffic management but they were all born in an aviation context. Waiting in a departure hall, sleepless high over the Atlantic Ocean or just seeing a 747 soar into the air… Anyway, hearing the name of the Italian airline Alitalia, you cannot fail to notice the inherent melody in it. You almost hear a gondolier in Venice singing the latest ad for the Italian carrier. Here is something then, inspired by an Alitalia flight.
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Flying with the Seagulls – Formation flying at EHHO
On 17/11/2009, in The lighter side, by heading370
In expectation of our arrival
Earlier this year I received an invitation to join Jimmy De Koning – an Air Traffic Controller at the Maastricht Upper Area Control Center – to visit his flying club, Seagull Formation and see what makes it so unique.
Seagull Formation, based at Hoogeveen airport in the northeast of the Netherlands, was founded in 1986 by former military pilots. At the beginning they flew Cessna 172-s, Morane Rallys and the Slingsby. In 1989 they received their first Focke-Wulf Piaggio 149D and throughout the years the number of the type increased to five. Following the old military tradition and classic training module of formation flying using this classic aircraft the founders of Seagull Formation created a display team which participates every year at several national and international air shows. The team demonstrates a number of training and combat maneuvers of the past to give an impression of how this aircraft was used by air force training personnel in the 50-s and 60-s.
The PFW 149D has its roots in post-war Italy and was produced by the same company that had great success with the Vespa motorbikes. Based on the earlier P148 (a 2-seater) designed by Giovanni P. Casiraghi the P149 – a 4-seater which first flew in June 1953- competed with other training aircraft like the Saab Safir and the Beech Mentor.
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In-seat telephones – more than you think
On 13/11/2009, in The lighter side, by steve
Friday again! Time passes fast… This time in “The lighter side” I would like to recount something that came to me on along flight with plenty of time to get bored with the on-demand movies and games. The only thing left was the in-seat telephone. Contemplating the little hand-set with its shimmering, welcoming lights so homely in the darkened cabin, it suddenly occurred to me…
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Night in the cockpit – Shooting star
On 06/11/2009, in The lighter side, by steve
It is Friday again and as usual, we bring you something from the lighter side. Have you ever had the opportunity to sit in a darkened cockpit in the middle of the night, over the ocean with clear skies? The view is nothing short of breath-taking. There are stars above you, in front of you and BELOW you all the way to the horizon… The aircraft is suspended in the middle of a velvet sphere, with billions of stars spread out all over it, motionless yet rushing towards the future. Then all of a sudden you see a shooting star…
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Impressions – time-warp in the departure hall
On 30/10/2009, in The lighter side, by steve
Those who travel a lot, and most of us aviation types do, know the feeling. Waiting in the departure hall for you connection, for your delayed flight, for zillions of other reasons. You can of course work, eat, buy presents but whatever you do, time always seems to slow to a crawl. Time is relative… Einstein was a genius for figuring this out all on his own, without an airport.
But if you look around you, at the bustling mass of humanity, you can play with thoughts like where are they going? Why are some happy and the others tearful? What are they all hauling in their bags which are all different yet also the same as dictated by the cabin baggage rules? Why are some flying with this airline and others with that? Who is that girl with the long black hair, perfect figure and enchanting eyes?
Time is starting to speed up already. As we know from Einstein, when time speeds up, strange things can happen. Close your eyes and listen to your thoughts…
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Help for computer dummies…
On 16/10/2009, in The lighter side, by steve
I got this cartoon from the ATC training folks back when computers still had floppy disks. Some parts shown are obsolate, some are missing… where would the USB connector fit here? But the general idea is still sound…
Precision Approach Path Indicator – PAPI
On 16/10/2009, in The lighter side, by steve
PAPI is no big news these days but when it was new, it moved someone to create this cartoon…
Visiting an office with a view
On 06/10/2009, in The lighter side, by heading370
Familiarization flight with Transavia
One of the countless drawbacks of 9/11, a few of you may have realized, is that even for air traffic controllers it has become increasingly difficult to visit a cockpit of an airliner, indeed most of the airlines adopted a closed cockpit door policy. I used to take every opportunity to at least say hello to the crew and was always happy to take the jumpseat for an interesting landing. But those times are over I’m afraid, probably forever and I don’t even ask the cabin crew anymore as I know the answer will be a polite: Sorry it’s not possible…
A happy crew
In the past Maastricht Upper Area Control Centre (MUAC) had agreements with various airlines which offered us ATCO-s the chance for fam. flights to see the place where all that actions happen. One of my most memorable experiences goes back to 1996 when I flew in the cockpit of a Swissair MD-11 between Zurich and Montreal Mirabel. So I was particularly happy when we learned about the great new initiative: Transavia Airlines (commercially rebranded as transavia.com after the basiqair period) was willing to renew the nice tradition of familiarization flights for air traffic controllers, offering us Maastricht controllers a quota of 50 flights a year.
Needless to say I was amongst the first ones to apply and received a confirmation email the previous day that I will fly on the 8th of March with TRA5143 from Amsterdam to Alicante and back on the same day.
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Dream factories…
On 07/09/2009, in The lighter side, by steve
If someone said to you: Airports are dream factories. Would you believe it? If your reply is “yes”, you are like me, deeply in love with aviation and you do not need to read on. But if you respond with an unimaginative NO, read further and let me prove you wrong.
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Ferry flight fun
On 12/08/2009, in The lighter side, by heading370
Pilots and controllers come in all shapes and sizes. I have seen quite a few of them who started as controllers than became pilots and many of those who started their carrier as pilots but for some reason ended up in a tower or in front of the radar scope. But you hardly see people who can combine both professions: work as an air traffic controller while flying as a commercial pilot.
Flight preparations
I know one of those guys, and I was happy to accept the invitation to join him, my colleague from the Maastricht Upper Area Control Centre (MUAC) for a short ferry flight.
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Built-in obsolescence
On 29/07/2009, in The lighter side, by steve
I have often wondered what it must feel like to buy yourself an aircraft. Not a small propeller bird but something bigger, like a Gulfstream or a Boeing Business Jet. While thinking big, why not a 747? One of the attractive aspects of buying a big aircraft is the fact that they stay current for such a long time!
Buy a car and six months later its shape is an embarrassment. Buy the cutest cell phone and four weeks later your kids will laugh you out.
Our office in Brussels sees new technology pass through it like water in a stream. Some times a project needs new equipment, at others we see something that we are sure will be useful for something some time… More often than not these latter succumb to built in obsolescence and end up in our museum of must-have-gadgets.
Cell phones are no exception. 
Our director of multimedia operations consumes the damn things at an enormous rate and each time he buys a new one, he is able to come with bullet-proof arguments in support for the change.
I tended to take a more laid back attitude towards cell phones. Having been there at their birth, I went through the various phases of evolution, none of which really caught my fancy.
My first cell phone was a bulky Motorola which I used until it literally fell to pieces. The world around me in the meantime watched cell phones shrink to the point where magnifying glasses were needed to make a call and human evolution was being pushed in the direction of spider leg thin fingers to work the minuscule buttons.
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