where are they going to park all the planes?

[Yertis]

Cupramax said:

The other A340 just coming in now, I’m 6 miles out on the flight path so am sitting in the garden with a beer watching them come in....

If the wind is in the east, you must live pretty close to where I grew up

[MarkwG]

Cupramax said:

Virgin Atlantic A340 just arrived at Bournemouth, don’t usually see any big birds down here as it’s mostly Ryanair and Tui 737’s. Also just noticed a BA 320 circling on its way down.

There's a couple of A340's been based here for a while; they're former Etihad aircraft, European Aviation bought 10 from them. They also service them for Virgin, so it's a natural fit to bring them down here.

[anonymous-user]

TCEvo said:

Might be a stupid (but genuine) question... are they all locked?

How do you get into a parked plane - do they have "keys" or some other means of access?

typically just wheel steps up to the aircraft, some have access hatches in various places ie 747 has access through the nose gear bay

[Cupramax]

Yertis said:

If the wind is in the east, you must live pretty close to where I grew up

If it begins with a B... They tend to come in to land this way most of the time, only coming in over the forest if it’s blowing a strong westerly.

[hutchst]

Munter said:

I think traditionally they call them "Care Homes". Lots of them.

That didn't get enough of these

... ...

[Cupramax]

Seen at least another three BA A320’s come in this morning.

[48k]

J4CKO said:

I was told airlines typically want the planes flying regularly, even now to keep them in readiness and also the pilots need to keep their hours up, does that sound accurate ?

Sounds rubbish to me. Engineering will look after the aircraft and crews will use simulators.

[surveyor]

Had a rush of five Wizz A320/A321's today into Doncaster. Also seeing a lot of cargo traffic now. Getting bored with 747's.

[MarkwG]

48k said:

J4CKO said:

I was told airlines typically want the planes flying regularly, even now to keep them in readiness and also the pilots need to keep their hours up, does that sound accurate ?

Sounds rubbish to me. Engineering will look after the aircraft and crews will use simulators.

Not necessarily: some airlines are looking at running a basic exercise programme, for exactly those reasons. There's only so much simulator capacity, some training needs to be done in the air, the aircraft need basic maintenance even if they don't fly, & storage takes time to prep both in & out, so there is a logic to it.

[NMNeil]

XJSJohn said:

so - if we are grounding most flights, where are they going to park them all???

Arizona
https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-airlin...

[Cupramax]

Well i ended up going for a ride past earlier, there must be going on for 20 BA A320's and all 4 Virgin A340's mentioned earlier. Doubt Bournemouth airport have ever seen anything like it even at the air shows. Pretty sad seeing such great looking aircraft like the A340s retired.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udJsML9mvO0 (not my video)

[M4cruiser]

When we had the "millennium bug" there was talk of grounding all the planes worldwide across the midnight tickover, but then someone said there aren't enough airports to land all planes at once. Must be even worse now. I think they meant the regular stands; I suppose if you fill up all the taxiways then that gets a few more in.

[towser44]

surveyor said:

Had a rush of five Wizz A320/A321's today into Doncaster. Also seeing a lot of cargo traffic now. Getting bored with 747's.

Seen loads of Air Atlanta Icelandic 747s coming into Doncaster, what are they carrying, are you allowed to say? Is it CV related or just coincidence? Also seen at least 4 Beluga's going into Hawarden/Broughton today, so surprised to see that manufacturing at Airbus is still going on apace.

[surveyor]

towser44 said:

surveyor said:

Had a rush of five Wizz A320/A321's today into Doncaster. Also seeing a lot of cargo traffic now. Getting bored with 747's.

Seen loads of Air Atlanta Icelandic 747s coming into Doncaster, what are they carrying, are you allowed to say? Is it CV related or just coincidence? Also seen at least 4 Beluga's going into Hawarden/Broughton today, so surprised to see that manufacturing at Airbus is still going on apace.

No idea. I live under the flight path and take an interest is all.

I know that we have a regular fruit delivery twice a week. Also F1 teams flown in today. I think Cargo is picking up slack from lack of belly space in passenger planes.

[towser44]

surveyor said:

towser44 said:

surveyor said:

Had a rush of five Wizz A320/A321's today into Doncaster. Also seeing a lot of cargo traffic now. Getting bored with 747's.

Seen loads of Air Atlanta Icelandic 747s coming into Doncaster, what are they carrying, are you allowed to say? Is it CV related or just coincidence? Also seen at least 4 Beluga's going into Hawarden/Broughton today, so surprised to see that manufacturing at Airbus is still going on apace.

No idea. I live under the flight path and take an interest is all.

I know that we have a regular fruit delivery twice a week. Also F1 teams flown in today. I think Cargo is picking up slack from lack of belly space in passenger planes.

Ah, sorry I had assumed you worked there, whoops! Interesting the F1 Teams flew in, they've always used East Midlands previously. Been watching on FR24 all the cargo into Doncaster the last couple of days and cargo in general. I'm always on FR24 'dot spotting' and there has been a noticeable increase in cargo coming over Cheshire airspace for the USA these last few days.

[MarkwG]

Cupramax said:

Well i ended up going for a ride past earlier, there must be going on for 20 BA A320's and all 4 Virgin A340's mentioned earlier. Doubt Bournemouth airport have ever seen anything like it even at the air shows.

There were the odd days in the '80s when the London airports fogged out, but that was generally a day or two at most, & a flow in & out, rather than all on the ground for weeks.

Cupramax said:

Pretty sad seeing such great looking aircraft like the A340s retired.

Don't get too carried away, these are hopefully short term storage - A340's are getting broken up, as they time expire, but I don't think that's the plan for these yet.

[Blippy]

48k said:

J4CKO said:

I was told airlines typically want the planes flying regularly, even now to keep them in readiness and also the pilots need to keep their hours up, does that sound accurate ?

Sounds rubbish to me. Engineering will look after the aircraft and crews will use simulators.

Not rubbish at all; depends on the airframe but some of them will have to be looked after differently ("storage maintenance" as mentioned above) within as little as 7 days sitting un-flown.

Some operators will be flying circuits fairly soon.

[Jezzerh]

towser44 said:

Seen loads of Air Atlanta Icelandic 747s coming into Doncaster, what are they carrying, are you allowed to say? Is it CV related or just coincidence? Also seen at least 4 Beluga's going into Hawarden/Broughton today, so surprised to see that manufacturing at Airbus is still going on apace.

They bring fruit & veg. Occasionally it comes on a Western Global MD-11 which is awesome.

There’s a Ruby Star 747 in right now, I assume that’s leaving tomorrow.

[HoHoHo]

Blippy said:

48k said:

J4CKO said:

I was told airlines typically want the planes flying regularly, even now to keep them in readiness and also the pilots need to keep their hours up, does that sound accurate ?

Sounds rubbish to me. Engineering will look after the aircraft and crews will use simulators.

Not rubbish at all; depends on the airframe but some of them will have to be looked after differently ("storage maintenance" as mentioned above) within as little as 7 days sitting un-flown.

Some operators will be flying circuits fairly soon.

I know three easyJet pilots (one an examiner and instructor) and they are all under the impression there’s no flying until end of June or thereabouts currently.

I asked about the sim and that’s also shut.

The examiner expects about a weeks notice for flying, everyone gets a quick go/refresher in the sim and away we go.

I’m sure he said rules are currently being relaxed slightly about licensing hours etc.

My BA pilot friends are currently moving different aircraft around to park them up. A320’s for example down to Bournemouth, 25 down there currently and there will be 42 down there in total shortly.

[MarkwG]

HoHoHo said:

I know three easyJet pilots (one an examiner and instructor) and they are all under the impression there’s no flying until end of June or thereabouts currently.

I asked about the sim and that’s also shut.

The examiner expects about a weeks notice for flying, everyone gets a quick go/refresher in the sim and away we go.

I’m sure he said rules are currently being relaxed slightly about licensing hours etc.

My BA pilot friends are currently moving different aircraft around to park them up. A320’s for example down to Bournemouth, 25 down there currently and there will be 42 down there in total shortly.

Me too, that may be Easyjets plan, but as above, not the same for everyone. Recency & currency rules may be temporarily amended, certainly, but if the aircraft needs to fly anyway, that'll reduce the affect on crewing.