Hello lovely VIPs! Hope you are all keeping well. March is here, and with it, some sunshine and lighter evenings. I read somewhere recently that it won't get dark until 6pm again now until October time. Happy days! Oh, and don't forget to set some time aside over summer to spend an evening down at the RVP for some 'golden hour' photography and chilling. Those Wednesday evening streams are Martin's favourite.
But for now, take care, and see you all soon.
TAS Aviation Memorabilia Fair - Winter 2024 Reviewed
Martin
It's that time of the year again, where our community comes together for great chat, meeting new faces and catching up with old friends. Every fair we are always blown away by the way the community makes it such an awesome event.
But this February was special. Firstly, Loopy. This guy has been massively involved in the channel and we felt like we knew him so well, however we had never met in person. But this event, he was able to make the trip up and spend the weekend with us. Thanks so much mate - it was great to finaly shake your hand and meet you in person.
Mod Loopy with Martin
Also, Henry. He made the huge trip over to us from Vancouver Canada - stopping at the Amsterdam trade fair on the way. Which meant he was joined by good friend of the channel Neils. Although we have been fortunate to meet Henry before, the community got to get pictures with him, have a chat and meet our Vancouver host. And of course, he had his signiture high vis vest on!
Henry was joined by Neils who came over from Amsterdam to enjoy the fair with us and he had a great time hanging out with everyone and making some video content with Henry exploring everything the RVP had to offer.
Neils and Henry enjoying a Nimrod Tour at the RVP
Sam also had a great stall next to us full of incredible aviation antiques and one certain Spitfire guage. A very cool piece which I am sure got snapped up very quickly. No, not by me on the walk around livestream - you didn't see a thing!
We were also joined by a huge amount of our moderators and community members which made the event really special. This year we wanted to put aside some space for the community to hang out and for those who needed it, to take the weight off their feet. Although it was a small idea designed to help people, yet again, our community made it into something special. Our seating area was alive with conversation and laughs all day and we received some great feedback about it. Something we will certainly do at future events.
A very special thank you goes out to those individuals who pulled us to one side to let us know how much the channel has helped them personally through some tough times. We were not expecting that and it goes without saying that the community is a better place with you guys involved. Thank you.
The weather gods looked after us too, with blue skies and sunshine so that we could enjoy some fresh air and a chat with our team on the small breaks we took away from the table.
There were some awesome exhibitors at the fair and they had some great memorabilia on sale. I think best purchase award has to go to Seb this year! Purchasing part of a 737 wing!! Needless to say - I borrowed this, to send Mrs Airliners Live a message to see her reaction!
Unfortunately Jen was unable to join us this year due to some commitments and she was massively missed. Not only for her management and checkout support but plenty of community members were genuinely disappointed to miss her which is really kind - thanks all! I'm sure she will be with us at future events.
We met so many awesome viewers and caught up with our fantastic mod team - but the weekend didn't stop there.
We rested our voices on Sunday morning and all met up in the afternoon at Airliners Live HQ to film a video for the lounge channel. This has been in the works for a while but its been really hard to get everyone together at the same time!
But finally, we were able to test, Can a passenger land a plane?
It turns out.. they.... well. You will have to watch the video to find out!
Henry, Sunny and Matt all gave it a go with the expert support of Captain Mark. We had great fun filming this one and it was a huge team effort. Thanks again to everyone who gave up their time to help out.
Whilst Henry was waiting for his turn he spent some time with my Dad who came down to speak to him about watches! If you didn't know, Henry is a huge watch fan and collector and my Dad has grown a keen interest in this in recent years.
All in all, another awesome day spent with the team and the final product was something we were all really proud of. Make sure you go and give it a watch!
Adventure to The "Worst Rated Airport in the UK"
Andy
February was off to an interesting start, as I embarked on an airport review journey down to the South of England!
I'd heard a bit about London Luton Airport, apparently it's good for plane spotting, and with the airport seeing lots of corporate jet action, it can be exciting for an aviation enthusiast.
I was especially captivated by the overwhelming amount of negative visitor reviews the airport had, setting it as the lowest rated airport in the whole of the UK for passenger reviews, with over 800 one-star reviews on Trustpilot. Since we recently did a review of the UK's best rated Airport (Liverpool), I felt we had to find the polar opposite!
The day started by getting the Avanti West Coast train down from Warrington to London, the first time getting a long distance train like that for me, and WOW does that thing go fast, apparently going around 120mph, the train shot down to London in around 1hr 45min, mental!
I brought my laptop, and ended up editing videos and doing various boring office jobs on the train, thanks to the help of on-board Wi-Fi and in seat AC power.
Anyway, enough of trains, on to the planes!
After all morning jumping across various locomotives, I finally set foot in London Luton Airport. I wont bore you with the review here, but I'd strongly recommend checking out the video on the Airliners Lounge as it was pretty shocking!
After the rollercoaster of emotions traversing through the stressful situations and tens of thousands of steps required to complete the airport review video, it was time to board my Ryanair flight!
My first time flying on a Ryanair 737-800 with the retrofitted Split Scimitar winglets, and I can tell you, there's no difference in regards to the flight comfort. In fact, I don't know why I'm letting you know of that, I really don't know why I expected any different!
Overall the flight to Dublin was smooth, and then on to Manchester on a separate 737 just a few hours after.
The experience at Dublin Airport was extremely smooth, through security in just a few minutes, and very friendly staff all around, you really appreciate these niceties after traversing the worst rated airport in the UK!
The whole day was pretty tiring, with over 20,000 steps and just shy of a 18 hour round-trip, it was worth it for the entertainment of that video!
In fact, most of the video was actually edited while sat at Dublin Airport (After getting the obligatory pint of Guinness down me).
Anyway, check that video out if you haven't already, and let us know if you enjoyed!
"From Zero to Commercial Pilot License: A Journey of Dedication and Perseverance"
Niels Dam
Since the age of 3, aviation has been my passion, inspired by my parents' careers in the industry. Regular visits to Schiphol airport with my flight attendant mother fueled my dream of becoming a pilot.
Despite not initially pursuing math and physics in high school, a pivotal moment came in 2017 after experiencing flights with KLM Cityhopper's Fokker 70.
Determined to follow my dream, I obtained my diplomas in math and physics through evening classes, leading me to apply to a flight school in Slovenia in 2018. Enrolling in Adria Airways Flight Career Centre in early 2019 marked the beginning of my journey. However, the bankruptcy of Adria Airways six months into my studies forced me to return to the Netherlands.
Undeterred, I continued my training at FlightLevel, earning my Private Pilot's License just before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. After completing my flight training for my PPL with FlightLevel, I transitioned to Wings over Holland at Lelystad airport to continue my commercial and instrument training stages. This move proved instrumental in further enriching my experience and skills in aviation.
Despite lockdowns across Europe, I persevered, accruing flying hours and commencing ATPL theory studies in 2021. The following year, I underwent Advanced Upset Prevention Recovery training and completed a 300+ nautical mile cross-country flight, prerequisites for my commercial license. By autumn 2022, I acquired my Night Qualification and passed my ATPL exams, delving into instrument flying. Navigating through simulated and actual instrument flying, I honed my skills, culminating in passing my checkride.
Transitioning to CPL/ME and ME-IR training, I navigated the complexities of multi-engine flying, mastering the Diamond DA42 "Twinstar" and earning my commercial license in September 2023. Completing the Instrument part of multi-engine training in February 2024, I finalized my journey with the APS MCC course in Berlin, immersing myself in Boeing 737NG operations. Equipped with the necessary qualifications, I am now eagerly pursuing opportunities with airlines. Despite challenges, my journey from zero to obtaining a commercial pilot license was a fulfilling adventure, reinforcing the importance of motivation and perseverance.
Flightlines
Captain Mark
You will see quite a bit on the show the lads talking about crosswind landings.
So what is a crosswind landing?
In aviation, a crosswind landing is a landing maneuver in which a significant component of the prevailing wind is perpendicular to the runway center line.
Whuttt??
Let’s try that again....
In other words the wind is not blowing down the runway but across it to some degree.
The more across it is then the harder it becomes.
If you line up with the runway and there is a wind across it you will be blown off the centreline of the runway and we don’t want that!!
So you have to point into wind to offset the wind. But now the nose is not aligned with the runway to land.
So there’s two techniques to sort this out:
The sideslip
And
The crab
The sideslip is flying with one wing down and enough rudder to keep you straight.
I used to love this technique in light aircraft as you’re always pointing straight down the runway.
But for most commercial aircraft having big engines under the wings this isn’t really a good idea as the wing that is down will reduce ground clearance and you may dig the engine in.
The 747 is quite prone to this. You’d
only need around 7 degrees air bank before you’d hit the engine on the ground under normal landing conditions but can be as low as 6 (5 if Rolls Royce) as shown in this table:
So we use the crab method. You come in facing into wind. Sometimes you can be quite sideways and the picture out of the window looks very wrong.
You know it’s a strong crosswind when the passengers can see the runway as you can see in this pic during storm Isha at Leeds.
As you flare (raise the nose to reduce the rate of descent to land smoothly) you will smoothly apply rudder to straighten the aircraft with the runway. You can put a bit of wing down to help maintain the centreline but you must be careful.
Sounds easy but it can be quite challenging especially if the wind is gusty and you’re being bumped about a lot. Remember you’re in an aircraft that’s travelling at around 160mph, descending at 700’per minute, youhave a strong gusty wind blowing you all over the place, the runway is only 45m wide and you must land in the touch down zone at the beginning of the runway!!
This is an excerpt from the Airbus flight crew
techniques manual:
As you can see, the A320 series may be landed with a crab angle of 5 degrees but it’s far better to get it completely straight as it will put less strain on the landing gear.
On a Boeing you’d put full aileron into wind on landing to stop that wing from being lifted by the wind. The airbus doesn’t need you to do that.
Here’s a simple diagram of what I’ve just been rambling about.
Hope that’s all made sense and been of some help. Don’t forget to message if there’s a subject you’d like me to explain and I’ll see you on the next newsletter.
