Gatwick closed by drones

[fatboy18]

Dr Interceptor said:

Biker 1 said:

What happened? Did your flight get cancelled?

Yup... Twice.

I was booked onto the 06:30 flight with Easyjet to Faro on the 20th Dec - Easyjet cancelled the flight at 3am. At around 3.30am Gatwick actually re-opened the runway, thinking it was all fixed I booked onto the 8am flight to Faro with BA.

We got as far as boarding the BA flight at around 9.30am, only to sit on the plane for 3 hours until they eventually cancelled the flight at around 12.30pm.

We then went back through passport control, and baggage reclaim, then left the airport.

I ended up booking an overnight ferry for that night across to Le Harve from Portsmouth, and drove the Mustang down to Portugal, arriving late lunch on Saturday 22nd.

Bet that was an Awesome drive

[pingu393]

fatboy18 said:

Dr Interceptor said:

Biker 1 said:

What happened? Did your flight get cancelled?

Yup... Twice.

I was booked onto the 06:30 flight with Easyjet to Faro on the 20th Dec - Easyjet cancelled the flight at 3am. At around 3.30am Gatwick actually re-opened the runway, thinking it was all fixed I booked onto the 8am flight to Faro with BA.

We got as far as boarding the BA flight at around 9.30am, only to sit on the plane for 3 hours until they eventually cancelled the flight at around 12.30pm.

We then went back through passport control, and baggage reclaim, then left the airport.

I ended up booking an overnight ferry for that night across to Le Harve from Portsmouth, and drove the Mustang down to Portugal, arriving late lunch on Saturday 22nd.

Bet that was an Awesome drive

Because this wasn't Plan A, you should hand in your PH membership card

[fatboy18]

[Dr Interceptor]

pingu393 said:

fatboy18 said:

Dr Interceptor said:

Biker 1 said:

What happened? Did your flight get cancelled?

Yup... Twice.

I was booked onto the 06:30 flight with Easyjet to Faro on the 20th Dec - Easyjet cancelled the flight at 3am. At around 3.30am Gatwick actually re-opened the runway, thinking it was all fixed I booked onto the 8am flight to Faro with BA.

We got as far as boarding the BA flight at around 9.30am, only to sit on the plane for 3 hours until they eventually cancelled the flight at around 12.30pm.

We then went back through passport control, and baggage reclaim, then left the airport.

I ended up booking an overnight ferry for that night across to Le Harve from Portsmouth, and drove the Mustang down to Portugal, arriving late lunch on Saturday 22nd.

Bet that was an Awesome drive

Because this wasn't Plan A, you should hand in your PH membership card

It kind of was... I had originally planned to take the Mustang down, I was going for a few weeks so made sense, and I love a road trip. Then a couple of friends were joining me, and it made more sense to fly as they're not the road tripping sort. When all the flights went tits up, I couldn't have been happier

The Friday driving down through France wasn't great - terrible weather, standing water and spray hampering visibility. Plus we were late leaving the port of Le Harve due to over zealous customs, and had an hours traffic getting around the Bordeaux ring road. We made it over the border into Spain, and stopped just outside San Sebastian.

The next day (Saturday 22nd) presented its own challenges. There were two of us in the Mustang, and with Gatwick then back to normal, our third mate was on his originally booked flight that afternoon, so we had to get to the Algarve in time to pick him up from Faro.

1195km from the hotel stop to the villa. We were up and hit the road at 6am, and pulled up outside the villa at 2.45pm. The roads through Spain and Portugal were fantastic, clear of traffic and the weather was perfect. I can confirm that 3000 rpm in the Mustang in 6th gear has it sitting bang on 115mph.

It was 1281.6 miles from Le Harve to the villa, and we did that in 17 hours 13 minutes of driving, an average of 74 mph.

[eltawater]

That looks epic, top man

[fatboy18]

Superb Sir, Have to admit, I hate flying now, Last year all my trips to Europe were by car rather than flight. Apart from a November trip to Miami for NASCAR racing

[Vipers]

Tabloids today. Idiot flying his radio controlled plane within 500 metres of the perimiter of Heathrow on Christmas eve was fined £2000 and his plane destroyed.

[RJG46]

fatboy18 said:

Superb Sir, Have to admit, I hate flying now, Last year all my trips to Europe were by car rather than flight. Apart from a November trip to Miami for NASCAR racing

It's a shame you can't get a ferry to America and take your car with you. I assume that isn't possible.

[Saleen836]

Seems to be spreading...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-46968419

[pingu393]

Dr Interceptor said:

It kind of was... I had originally planned to take the Mustang down, I was going for a few weeks so made sense, and I love a road trip. Then a couple of friends were joining me, and it made more sense to fly as they're not the road tripping sort. When all the flights went tits up, I couldn't have been happier

The Friday driving down through France wasn't great - terrible weather, standing water and spray hampering visibility. Plus we were late leaving the port of Le Harve due to over zealous customs, and had an hours traffic getting around the Bordeaux ring road. We made it over the border into Spain, and stopped just outside San Sebastian.

The next day (Saturday 22nd) presented its own challenges. There were two of us in the Mustang, and with Gatwick then back to normal, our third mate was on his originally booked flight that afternoon, so we had to get to the Algarve in time to pick him up from Faro.

1195km from the hotel stop to the villa. We were up and hit the road at 6am, and pulled up outside the villa at 2.45pm. The roads through Spain and Portugal were fantastic, clear of traffic and the weather was perfect. I can confirm that 3000 rpm in the Mustang in 6th gear has it sitting bang on 115mph.

It was 1281.6 miles from Le Harve to the villa, and we did that in 17 hours 13 minutes of driving, an average of 74 mph.

Full membership has been duly reinstated

I love it when you can turn adversity into triumph

[pingu393]

RJG46 said:

fatboy18 said:

Superb Sir, Have to admit, I hate flying now, Last year all my trips to Europe were by car rather than flight. Apart from a November trip to Miami for NASCAR racing

It's a shame you can't get a ferry to America and take your car with you. I assume that isn't possible.

When I first went to Spain (late 60s / early 70s) there were a lot of US holidaymakers with their US registered cars in Marbella.

I never found out how they got there. There were drive-on aircraft, but I don't know whether they were actually used commercially.

[HoHoHo]

RJG46 said:

fatboy18 said:

Superb Sir, Have to admit, I hate flying now, Last year all my trips to Europe were by car rather than flight. Apart from a November trip to Miami for NASCAR racing

It's a shame you can't get a ferry to America and take your car with you. I assume that isn't possible.

Anything is possible depending in how much money and time you have.

A container ship will gladly take your money and delivery your car to NY for example or if you would like a slightly quicker service how about the belly of a Jumbo jet freighter?

We took delivery today of two items for a Gaming stand we are building next week that weren’t far short in size of a small car sent from the US and they arrived and were thorough customs in about a week.

[aeropilot]

pingu393 said:

RJG46 said:

fatboy18 said:

Superb Sir, Have to admit, I hate flying now, Last year all my trips to Europe were by car rather than flight. Apart from a November trip to Miami for NASCAR racing

It's a shame you can't get a ferry to America and take your car with you. I assume that isn't possible.

When I first went to Spain (late 60s / early 70s) there were a lot of US holidaymakers with their US registered cars in Marbella.

I never found out how they got there.

Almost certainly US service personnel and families from nearby NAVSTA Rota, a large joint US services base near Cadiz.
The US military in those were quite happy to ship personal transport around the globe when sending service personnel on 2-3 year overseas detachments.
Hence the numbers of US cars seen around East Anglian in those days, plus in Germany, Japan & Korea etc.

[pingu393]

aeropilot said:

pingu393 said:

RJG46 said:

fatboy18 said:

Superb Sir, Have to admit, I hate flying now, Last year all my trips to Europe were by car rather than flight. Apart from a November trip to Miami for NASCAR racing

It's a shame you can't get a ferry to America and take your car with you. I assume that isn't possible.

When I first went to Spain (late 60s / early 70s) there were a lot of US holidaymakers with their US registered cars in Marbella.

I never found out how they got there.

Almost certainly US service personnel and families from nearby NAVSTA Rota, a large joint US services base near Cadiz.
The US military in those were quite happy to ship personal transport around the globe when sending service personnel on 2-3 year overseas detachments.
Hence the numbers of US cars seen around East Anglian in those days, plus in Germany, Japan & Korea etc.

The tourists were of retirement age. I suppose they may have got their kids to get the cars over.

I was thinking that it may have been a bigger version of this...

[TheRainMaker]

RJG46 said:

It's a shame you can't get a ferry to America and take your car with you. I assume that isn't possible.

You could, roll on roll off for the car and jump on a cruise ship for the humans.

[Otispunkmeyer]

TheRainMaker said:

RJG46 said:

It's a shame you can't get a ferry to America and take your car with you. I assume that isn't possible.

You could, roll on roll off for the car and jump on a cruise ship for the humans.

It may well be possible. I forget the term for it but you can actually cruise all over the world by cargo ship as many will have a small selection of rooms/bunks you can hire out. It's not luxury of course but you can do it and it's relatively cheap. Just find a boat that takes cars and goes where you want!

[aeropilot]

pingu393 said:

I was thinking that it may have been a bigger version of this...

No such thing existed for civilian use.


US Mil personnel had access to these things though.

C-124 Globemaster


C-141 Starlifter

[Dr Interceptor]

Otispunkmeyer said:

TheRainMaker said:

RJG46 said:

It's a shame you can't get a ferry to America and take your car with you. I assume that isn't possible.

You could, roll on roll off for the car and jump on a cruise ship for the humans.

It may well be possible. I forget the term for it but you can actually cruise all over the world by cargo ship as many will have a small selection of rooms/bunks you can hire out. It's not luxury of course but you can do it and it's relatively cheap. Just find a boat that takes cars and goes where you want!

There was a car in the cargo hold on board the Titanic - because Rose and Jack shagged in it.

[citizensm1th]

aeropilot said:

No such thing existed for civilian use.

yes it did

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_ferry

not a james bond fan i take it?

[Smokehead]

citizensm1th said:

aeropilot said:

No such thing existed for civilian use.

yes it did

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_ferry

not a james bond fan i take it?

My father used to use British United Air Ferries to fly his new Mercedes over from Stuttgart to the UK, then have them shipped out to KL. He always thought the german built Mercs were better than the locally built ones.