ETD by looking out window
Discussion
I'm sitting here at my departure gate at Ninoy Aquino International Airport, which I must say has a great view of the runway.
As it's 1750 and my scheduled departure time is 1755 and the inbound aircraft is not parked at the gate yet, I already worked out this flight will be late.
So why did this departure lounge let out a collective groan with an announcement that the flight will depart 50 mins late at 1845? Considering the aircraft isn't even visible at the moment, a 50 min delay is the best that could happen.
As it's 1750 and my scheduled departure time is 1755 and the inbound aircraft is not parked at the gate yet, I already worked out this flight will be late.
So why did this departure lounge let out a collective groan with an announcement that the flight will depart 50 mins late at 1845? Considering the aircraft isn't even visible at the moment, a 50 min delay is the best that could happen.
I did a touch and go at Kefalonia airport a few years ago, the pilot had come in on the approach and was most of the way down and lost contact with the tower so went up again and went around.
The couple in the seats next to me said "oh, I wonder if we are landing soon" and " well, we went down a lot then but we are still flying".
Its was a wheels on tarmac-hard pull back-full throttle lets get back up again-point of no return rollercoaster, how the hell they missed that something was not quite right I will never know.
The reason for the Touch and go was that the Greek ATC guy had popped out for a fag. Seriously, halfway through landing an inbound flight. We circled for a half hour while the pilot probably gave Spiros f
k !
The couple in the seats next to me said "oh, I wonder if we are landing soon" and " well, we went down a lot then but we are still flying".
Its was a wheels on tarmac-hard pull back-full throttle lets get back up again-point of no return rollercoaster, how the hell they missed that something was not quite right I will never know.
The reason for the Touch and go was that the Greek ATC guy had popped out for a fag. Seriously, halfway through landing an inbound flight. We circled for a half hour while the pilot probably gave Spiros f
k !Getragdogleg said:
Its was a wheels on tarmac-hard pull back-full throttle lets get back up again-point of no return rollercoaster... The reason for the Touch and go was that the Greek ATC guy had popped out for a fag.
If the wheels were on the tarmac did it matter that the ATC guy had popped out? The hard bit was done surely, better to have it on the ground than back in the air?hidetheelephants said:
vournikas said:
Getragdogleg said:
I did a touch and go at Kefalonia airport a few years ago
At Kef?!?! 
That's a very short runway for a touch 'n go
My Sister in law used to work on Kef for one of the travel firms, she was based in the airport and knew pretty much everyone there. It was her who told me the ATC had popped out and could not be found, she saw our AC come in, touch and take off and sussed out that the pilot must have had a problem, it was not common knowledge but insider info, I suspect the ATC was given a hard time over it.
In fact, every single problem I have ever had while flying has been into or out of Kef, we had one really long delay when an incoming flight landed VERY heavily and damaged the landing gear, we were supposed to be going out on that same AC. A replacement AC was sent in the end and we got home almost a day late.
Creampuff, have they fixed the effing Air Con at NAIA yet?.
We left there last month (luckily for an early morning flight) and in the International "lounge" it was already pretty uncomfortable. One of the girls told me it gets crazy from 10 am onwards.
Same thing happens on domestic flights. We were sat at Legazpi airport waiting our departing flight which in fact departed as we sat in the lounge, albeit for the previous scheduled time. We had to wait for it to return from MNL so we could then get on for our scheduled flight...2 hours late.
We left there last month (luckily for an early morning flight) and in the International "lounge" it was already pretty uncomfortable. One of the girls told me it gets crazy from 10 am onwards.
Same thing happens on domestic flights. We were sat at Legazpi airport waiting our departing flight which in fact departed as we sat in the lounge, albeit for the previous scheduled time. We had to wait for it to return from MNL so we could then get on for our scheduled flight...2 hours late.
texaxile said:
Creampuff, have they fixed the effing Air Con at NAIA yet?.
The air-con is a bit warm, but no ridiculously so. I would definitely rate NAIA nowhere near the "worst airport in the world" which it has won in the past.
The low cost terminal in another story, that is pretty bad. It really need to (a) be 5x larger (b) have 5x more powerful aircon (c) have a ceiling, not just a roof.
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