Friday 3 October 2014

This blog has now moved

Thank you to everyone who has visited this page on a regular basis over the past few years, however; I have now decided to leave this page behind, and start a new and improved website.

You can find this at

planemadnews.weebly.com

You can also follow me on Twitter for more regular updates

twitter.com/planemadblog

Thank You

Sunday 3 November 2013

My first experience with Thomson

On the 25th October 2013, I embarked on my first flight since 2006 and also my first flight with Thomson. My flight would be the TOM2538 Manchester to Ibiza departing at 06:50 on the Friday morning. At check in I was allocated seats 10 D, E, F (as there was 3 of us travelling) I took up the window seat (10F) and had an amazing view of the engine and wing!

At gate 210 was our aircraft B737-800 G-FDZB. Our flight, (TOM2538) was probably one of its last flights with Thomson this year before doing to SunWing as C-FPZB for the winter season.

As boarding began, they called up rows 32-24 to board first, then was rather annoyingly 32-11 (1 row before us!) but very soon they announced boarding for the rest of the passengers. It was raining, typical English weather! Parked on a stand next to us (208) was one of the Thomson B787 Dreamliners (G-TUIA)

The Captain came over the PA System and informed us that we would be cruising at 36,000ft and the flight time would be around 2 hours 40mins.

We were given the saftey demonstration by the crew just before pushback a few minutes early.

The taxi out to the runway (05L) at Manchester was quite quick due to the fact there was not many other movements about. I also have to say, the taxiways at Manchester were very bumpy, and I am not sure why.....

Anyway, the Concorde hangar at the Aviation Viewing Park was lit up nicely so which was nice to see at 7:00am in the morning.

As we lined up to 05L at Manchester, I was expecting to takeoff straight away, but in fact, we sat on the runway for about 10 seconds before the engines were powered up, we sped our way down the runway and out of Manchester.

As we got above the clouds, light was starting to appear and we could see what was beneath us! Nothing exciting, clouds. However, the horizon did look spectacular, seeing this was amazing!

There wasn't really much to look at on the plane as G-FDZB was fitted with the older interior which meant it did not have any screens above the seats! However, the window provided me with my entertainment.

In flight service from the very friendly Thomson Cabin Crew began almost immediately after takeoff from Manchester, coming through to take hot food orders for later on in the flight.

As we cruised over the Pyranees we were provided with this sight for about 15 minutes! Was amazing to see!

We arrived in Ibiza a little ahead of schedule! What an amazing flight with Thomson! Well done to them!!

Please Watch the Full Flight Video here! http://youtu.be/sMxeOJ6yM50

Mark Harkin's photos

Every so often I run competitons on Twitter to get some of your most favourite videos or pictures of aircraft on the Blog. Last Competition, Mraviationguy and Mark Harkin won.

Here are the pictures that Mark Harkin has chosen for this post!

See more of Mark Harkin's photos here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/markyharky/

Follow him on Twitter
https://twitter.com/harky2402

Saturday 13 July 2013

Mraviationguy's videos

Every so often I run competitons on Twitter to get some of your most favourite videos or pictures of aircraft on the Blog. Last Competition, Mraviationguy and Mark Harkin won.

Here are the videos that Mraviationguy selected to be put into his post!

Hope you enjoy them!

London Heathrow Airport Timelapse || Various Angles 747, A380, 777

Fuel Leak! KLM 737-900 Skyteam Takeoff from Schiphol!

Qatar 787 Dreamliner A7-BCA Land, London Heathrow with Condensation. LHR/EGLL, Includes ATC.

LOT 787 First Visit to London Heathrow - LHR/EGLL | Condensation Landing, with ATC.

KLM Heavies: 777, A330, 747, MD11 Close Up Landings @ Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS/EHAM).

ATC OF MEDICAL INCEDENT/EMERGENCY AT AMSTERDAM SCHIPHOL (AMS/EHAM) | EZY75BT

HD - Amsterdam Schipol Airport - Aviation At Its Best @ AMS/EHAM Kenya, Qatar, Eva Air

Saudi Arabian Hawks Display highlights at Yeovilton Air Day 2012 | 23.6.12

RARE: Antonov An-124 Air Display @ Yeovilton Air Day 2012 | 23.6.12

PIA 777-240ER Landing @ Birmingham Airport with ATC | Pakistan International Airlines | EGBB/BHX

See More of Mraviationguy's videos here

http://www.youtube.com/user/Mraviationguy?feature=watch

Follow him on Twitter

https://twitter.com/Mraviationguy

Wednesday 5 June 2013

Thomson's B787's

Thomson's first Boeing B787 arrived in the United Kingdom for the first time on the 31st May 2013.
This aircraft is registered G-TUIA and has been named 'Living the Dream'
Here are some pictures of it at Manchester.

The day after, G-TUIA was in Newquay for training. Here is a picture and a video of the aircraft arriving in Newquay after a flight from Manchester.

http://www.youtube.com/user/bristolcardifairport

Also on the 1st June, Thomson's second B787 G-TUIB named 'Alfie' arrived at Manchester for the first time. Here are a few pictures of it at Manchester.

To see some other great photos, visit Nik French's blog post via the links below.
MAN 31st May 2013 - Thomson Airways takes delivery of their first 787!
MAN 1st June 2013 - Thomson's second "Dreamliner" arrives on delivery.
MAN 1st June 2013 - Thomson "Dreamliner" pair spend their first night together in Manchester!

Also, check out these two posts for pictures of the LOT B787 at Manchester for windscreen repairs!

MAN 2nd June 2013 - LOT "Dreamliner" SP-LRA arrives for Maintenance.
MAN 3rd June 2013 - LOT "Dreamliner SP-LRA departs! Look at this post for an amazing picture of 3 B787's parked up next to each-other at Manchester!

Friday 5 April 2013

Infinite Flight

Infinite Flight is a Flight Simulator App for iPod/iPhone/iPad

On the Apple Store it is being sold at £2.99.

The app is an absolutely fantastic simulator which is amazing for the price! With the initial purchase it comes with a selection of Airbus, Boeing and other aircraft. There are some in-app purchases for more aircraft which range from £0.69 (Airbus A330-200F) and £2.99 (Boeing B767-300) (They range in price due to the amount of liveries that aircraft has)

There are also more areas which you can buy to enable you to fly in different areas rather than the same two or three all the time.

You also get many different views when you are flying an aircraft. There are two ways to change a view. One by clicking the arrows and another by clicking the name of the view (All will become clear when you get the app if you do) by clicking the arrow it changes the area that you view from e.g. Follow Normal to Tail or Tail to Airport etc.........
However, clicking the name of the view may change the position in that area you are viewing from (some areas do not have another view) e.g. Tail to Bottom, Bottom to Left Wing, Left Wing to Right Wing and Right Wing to Tail (Some may include an Elevator view)

I hope that this post has helped you to get a better understanding of the app and helped you to make a decision if you are going to buy it or not.

If you have any further questions either:-
Leave a comment on this post.
Contact the Infinite Fight Team here http://flyingdevstudio.blogspot.co.uk/p/contact.html

Here are just a few screen shots from the game.

Friday 29 March 2013

BMI regional from Birmingham

BMI regional have announced that they will be operating three new routed from Birmingham starting from May 2013. They will operate 6 flights weekly to Gothenburg, Lyon and Toulouse using Embraer ERJ 145's

Wednesday 30 January 2013

Airliner World 2013 release dates

Airliner World have announced their release dates for their Monthly editions of the magazine for 2013. Currently they are being sold at £4.50 per edition but this could change! The release dates are as follows.

Wednesday 9th January:- February 2013 Edition
Wednesday 13th February:- March 2013 Edition
Wednesday 13 March:- April 2013 Edition
Wednesday 10th April:- May 2013 Edition
Wednesday 8th May:- June 2013 Edition
Wednesday 12th June:- July 2013 Edition
Wednesday 10th July:- August 2013 Edition
Wednesday 14th August:- September 2013 Edition
Wednesday 11th September:- October 2013 Edition
Wednesday 9th October:- November 2013 Edition
Wednesday 13th November:- December 2013 Edition
Wednesday 11th December:- January 2014 Edition

Friday 18 January 2013

Airbus and Boeing deliveries for October 2012

In the Month of October 2012 Airbus and Boeing delivered around 50 aircraft each. The deliveries are as follows:-

Airbus:- Total Deliveries 57

A319:- 4
A320:- 32
A321:- 7
A330-200:- 1
A300-200F:- 1
A330-300:- 7
A380-800:- 5

Boeing:- Total Deliveries 50

B737-800:- 28
B737-800A:- 1
B737-900ER:- 3
B747-8:- 1
B747-8F:- 1
B767-300ER:- 1
B767-300F:- 1
B777-300ER:- 4
B777F:- 3
B787-8:- 7

Monday 14 January 2013

Special Olympic Livery Models

I recently purchased 2 British Airways Special Olympic Livery Models.
One was the British Airways Dove Livery (G-EUOH) and the other was the famous British Airways FireFly (G-EUPC) (G-EUPC has now been repainted back into the normal British Airways Livery which is a massive disappointment to a lot of people)

The models which I bought are on the scale 1:400 (quite small) but they are of get good quality. You can find them on eBay from a seller in Hong Kong, however, I bought them from Aviation Megastore for about £20 each.

The models have great detail and are great quality. They are metal models and only come in the 1:400 scale at the moment.

Here are the links that I got these models from. They may have sold out!

G-EUPC

G-EUOH

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