Good news thread..

[stuie]

On 1/14/2024 at 10:48 AM, sedra said:

Good news - was rung on Thursday by hospital to say they had a slot for my 2nd hip replacement surgery this Weds!! Manic couple of days sorting out work and care arrangements. Have been moved onto the nhs private contract at the local Nuffield in Bournemouth but keep the same consultant. Wasn’t lucky in main sale this year but will still try in resale/volunteering in the hope I am fit enough. The other hip was done end March last year so 2 new hips in 10 months is a miracle! Fingers crossed all goes well again. Wish me luck 😀

 

On 1/15/2024 at 8:32 AM, BlueDaze said:

I am booked in for knee replacement on Feb 12th…

similarly without tickets but certainly a recovery target if the resale gods are kind…

Good to hear that Rishi is getting through those waiting lists! And not just by deleting people off the list like he did with the asylum backlog!

Good luck to you both 😀

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

1 hour ago, Ayrshire Chris said:

will be pleased to know his hat has gone global😉😊

His hat has gone further than that.

It's cosmic. 

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

[sedra]

On 1/14/2024 at 10:48 AM, sedra said:

Good news - was rung on Thursday by hospital to say they had a slot for my 2nd hip replacement surgery this Weds!! Manic couple of days sorting out work and care arrangements. Have been moved onto the nhs private contract at the local Nuffield in Bournemouth but keep the same consultant. Wasn’t lucky in main sale this year but will still try in resale/volunteering in the hope I am fit enough. The other hip was done end March last year so 2 new hips in 10 months is a miracle! Fingers crossed all goes well again. Wish me luck 😀

All went smoothly and was back home within 48hours of op! Recovering with painkillers and support from family and the cats 😊 Fingers crossed I can get back to fitness soon. Just waiting to hear now if my application for voluntary redundancy with early retirement has been accepted and 2024 will be perfect! 

[deepkittycaz]

I finally got safely back home to Bristol at 10am after an 18 hour journey from Lapland, courtesy of storm Isha!

Delayed flight, then aborted landing at Gatwick leading to a redirect to Stansted!

[Alvoram]

3 hours ago, deepkittycaz said:

I finally got safely back home to Bristol at 10am after an 18 hour journey from Lapland, courtesy of storm Isha!

Delayed flight, then aborted landing at Gatwick leading to a redirect to Stansted!

I'm a boring sod, so was watching flight radar yesterday. Lots were diverting to stansted, even from Manchester, I think because they have the runway orientation to allow aircraft to land directly into yesterday's SW wind, or in other words, land with a head wind...

My understanding, purely from my pandemic obsession with flying an A320 and B737 on MS flight sim, is that there's fairly restrictive limits for landing, (a 737-800 for example,) in a cross wind (30-33kts,) an even lower limit for a tail wind (10-15kts) but generally no limit, or at least a very high limit, for a head wind! (Specifically for the head wind itself that is, other limits like taxiing, doors, or airfield restrictions etc etc may still come into play though!)  

Edit: I've just realised that I have gone completely off topic there, and for no reason really... Sorry... So GOOD NEWS... had a quick look around earlier, looks to be no damage from yesterday's storm.. 

Edited January 22 by Alvoram

[Ayrshire Chris]

22 minutes ago, Alvoram said:

I'm a boring sod, so was watching flight radar yesterday. Lots were diverting to stansted, even from Manchester, I think because they have the runway orientation to allow aircraft to land directly into yesterday's SW wind, or in other words, land with a head wind...

My understanding, purely from my pandemic obsession with flying an A320 and B737 on MS flight sim, is that there's fairly restrictive limits for landing, (a 737-800 for example,) in a cross wind (30-33kts,) an even lower limit for a tail wind (10-15kts) but generally no limit, or at least a very high limit, for a head wind! (Specifically for the head wind itself that is, other limits like taxiing, doors, or airfield restrictions etc etc may still come into play though!)  

Edit: I've just realised that I have gone completely off topic there, and for no reason really... Sorry... So GOOD NEWS... had a quick look around earlier, looks to be no damage from yesterday's storm.. 

flying back fro New Zealand last week was the first time I’d ever heard the announcement from the captain, just as we left San Francisco, is there a doctor or a trained medic on board and if so could they make them known to one of the crew?  Seems one of the flight crew had been injured. The turbulence was pretty scary.  Good news was that she seemed not too bad when arrived at Heathrow and taken off the plane by ambulance crew. 

Edited January 22 by Ayrshire Chris

[deepkittycaz]

2 hours ago, Alvoram said:

I'm a boring sod, so was watching flight radar yesterday. Lots were diverting to stansted, even from Manchester, I think because they have the runway orientation to allow aircraft to land directly into yesterday's SW wind, or in other words, land with a head wind...

My understanding, purely from my pandemic obsession with flying an A320 and B737 on MS flight sim, is that there's fairly restrictive limits for landing, (a 737-800 for example,) in a cross wind (30-33kts,) an even lower limit for a tail wind (10-15kts) but generally no limit, or at least a very high limit, for a head wind! (Specifically for the head wind itself that is, other limits like taxiing, doors, or airfield restrictions etc etc may still come into play though!)  

Edit: I've just realised that I have gone completely off topic there, and for no reason really... Sorry... So GOOD NEWS... had a quick look around earlier, looks to be no damage from yesterday's storm.. 

I was on a 737-800 yesterday, which may explain our problems. Pilot binned off the landing from Gatwick about 1000 ft up! We were bouncing around horrendously.

[Alvoram]

9 minutes ago, deepkittycaz said:

I was on a 737-800 yesterday, which may explain our problems. Pilot binned off the landing from Gatwick about 1000 ft up! We were bouncing around horrendously.

That is terrifying, had it once going into Turkey, bouncing around, sudden drops of what felt like 100s of feet, then a go around to boot, scary as hell. I should note this is the only time I've ever seen cabin crew hurry back to their seats and buckle up, I'm not sure if they even fully finished landing prep, that in itself was a sign. 

Had a go around in Tenerife once too, everything was fine, felt smooth, felt like we touched down, then we took off again. Announcement said it was due to windshear, but we felt absolutely nothing. 

Did you go around or divert? 

2 hours ago, Ayrshire Chris said:

flying back fro New Zealand last week was the first time I’d ever heard the announcement from the captain, just as we left San Francisco, is there a doctor or a trained medic on board and if so could they make them known to one of the crew?  Seems one of the flight crew had been injured. The turbulence was pretty scary.  Good news was that she seemed not too bad when arrived at Heathrow and taken off the plane by ambulance crew. 

And this is why I have absolutely no problem putting my belt on when I'm told to! Being ejected from your seat in serious turbulence can cause life changing injuries. Glad they were ok. 

Edited January 22 by Alvoram

[deepkittycaz]

2 minutes ago, Alvoram said:

That is terrifying, had it once going into Turkey, bouncing around, sudden drops of what felt like 100s of feet, then a go around to boot, scary as hell.

Had a go around in Tenerife once too, everything was fine, felt smooth, felt like we touched down, then we took off again. Announcement said it was due to windshear, but we felt absolutely nothing. 

Did you go around or divert? 

And this is why I have absolutely no problem putting my belt on when I'm told to! Being ejected from your seat in serious turbulence can cause life changing injuries. Glad they were ok. 

We got diverted to Stansted, then had to taxi back to Gatwick - got back there 5 hours after landing!

[Alvoram]

6 minutes ago, deepkittycaz said:

We got diverted to Stansted, then had to taxi back to Gatwick - got back there 5 hours after landing!

Sorry I didn't word that very well, my fault... so zero go around attempts at all, just "nah sod this, we're diverting?"

[deepkittycaz]

3 minutes ago, Alvoram said:

Sorry I didn't word that very well, my fault... so zero go around attempts at all, just "nah sod this, we're diverting?"

Yep, basically!

[Alvoram]

3 minutes ago, deepkittycaz said:

Yep, basically!

Good airmanship that, dunno if you've ever heard of this...

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/get-there-itis

Hope they got a good round of applause when they got you down (in spite of the inconvenience.) 

[deepkittycaz]

Nah, flight crew were great, shame I can't say the same thing about the (non-existent) ground side support!

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

2 hours ago, Alvoram said:

Good airmanship that, dunno if you've ever heard of this...

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/get-there-itis

Hope they got a good round of applause when they got you down (in spite of the inconvenience.) 

get-there-itis - If you haven't read it (or heard the radio documentary on it), I suggest that you may want to look into - All Four Engines Have Failed: True and Triumphant Story of Flight BA 009 and the Jakarta Incident by Betty Tootell 

[parsonjack]

14 hours ago, Ayrshire Chris said:

flying back fro New Zealand last week was the first time I’d ever heard the announcement from the captain, just as we left San Francisco, is there a doctor or a trained medic on board and if so could they make them known to one of the crew?  Seems one of the flight crew had been injured. The turbulence was pretty scary.  Good news was that she seemed not too bad when arrived at Heathrow and taken off the plane by ambulance crew. 

Flying back from Bangkok with BA in 2017 and 4 hours from LHR.  Time to arrival suddenly changes to 24 minutes and we start dumping fuel from the wing.  Pilot alerts cabin to emergency landing in Moscow and we head down like a stone.  On the ground from 34000 feet in less than 15 minutes.  Woman near rear of cabin is stretchered off with suspected stroke 😥

[Alvoram]

9 hours ago, Yoghurt on a Stick said:

get-there-itis - If you haven't read it (or heard the radio documentary on it), I suggest that you may want to look into - All Four Engines Have Failed: True and Triumphant Story of Flight BA 009 and the Jakarta Incident by Betty Tootell 

I know the Galunggung glider incident very well, another example of brilliant airmanship. Some other great examples of using a Jet as a glider are the Gimli glider, and my favourite TACA flight 110, where the pilot safely glided and landed a 737 on a grass levee on the side of a canal. Obviously there's the hudson river landing too, but at this point I think everybody knows of Cpt Sully. 

For those that don't know, and don't want to read the wiki entry, get-there-itis is a casual term used in the aviation industry for a form of plan continuation bias that can be experienced by a pilot. It usually refers to incidents where the pilots really should have turned back, gone around on landing, or diverted, but because of the natural desire to deliver their passengers / goods on time, to the correct place, chose not to. It's one of those situations where trying to do something that in your mind is positive, i.e get there, can actually lead to horrendous suffering and / or loss of life. 

It's worth knowing about this, because as a normal car driver, this can come into play in our minds without us realising it too... Especially when working to deadlines and not leaving enough time to travel. If we 'feel' like we have to be somewhere by a particular time, it can, subconsciously / without us realising it, make us drive faster and more recklessly.

It's certainly something I've caught myself doing, so much so that I avoid giving people an estimated arrival time for long journeys now. Instead I say for example "I'll be there some time AFTER 4" and if it's a 2 hour journey, I'll plan to leave around 1:30, giving me an extra 30 minutes... Since doing this religiously, I've found driving long distances a lot more relaxing. 

Editing to add: For those that don't know, the Galunggung glider incident is the reason we have groundings and cancellations when those Icelandic volcanos start having fun... Worth looking into, you'll never complain about the groundings and cancellations again when you do. 😉 

Edited January 23 by Alvoram

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

2 hours ago, Alvoram said:

I know the Galunggung glider incident very well, another example of brilliant airmanship. Some other great examples of using a Jet as a glider are the Gimli glider, and my favourite TACA flight 110, where the pilot safely glided and landed a 737 on a grass levee on the side of a canal. Obviously there's the hudson river landing too, but at this point I think everybody knows of Cpt Sully. 

For those that don't know, and don't want to read the wiki entry, get-there-itis is a casual term used in the aviation industry for a form of plan continuation bias that can be experienced by a pilot. It usually refers to incidents where the pilots really should have turned back, gone around on landing, or diverted, but because of the natural desire to deliver their passengers / goods on time, to the correct place, chose not to. It's one of those situations where trying to do something that in your mind is positive, i.e get there, can actually lead to horrendous suffering and / or loss of life. 

It's worth knowing about this, because as a normal car driver, this can come into play in our minds without us realising it too... Especially when working to deadlines and not leaving enough time to travel. If we 'feel' like we have to be somewhere by a particular time, it can, subconsciously / without us realising it, make us drive faster and more recklessly.

It's certainly something I've caught myself doing, so much so that I avoid giving people an estimated arrival time for long journeys now. Instead I say for example "I'll be there some time AFTER 4" and if it's a 2 hour journey, I'll plan to leave around 1:30, giving me an extra 30 minutes... Since doing this religiously, I've found driving long distances a lot more relaxing. 

Editing to add: For those that don't know, the Galunggung glider incident is the reason we have groundings and cancellations when those Icelandic volcanos start having fun... Worth looking into, you'll never complain about the groundings and cancellations again when you do. 😉 

I suspect you know all the aviation stories, but if you haven't, the story of John Wildey is worth a read. He was an OAP who managed to land a plane after the pilot had died, having had no flying experience. 

Forgive the source (the Daily Mail), but it's the first one that I came across. I actually heard about it on the radio;

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2451546/Grandad-John-Wildey-landed-plane-pilot-collapsed-Hero-I-just-held-joystick.html

 

[Alvoram]

8 hours ago, Yoghurt on a Stick said:

I suspect you know all the aviation stories, but if you haven't, the story of John Wildey is worth a read. He was an OAP who managed to land a plane after the pilot had died, having had no flying experience. 

Forgive the source (the Daily Mail), but it's the first one that I came across. I actually heard about it on the radio;

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2451546/Grandad-John-Wildey-landed-plane-pilot-collapsed-Hero-I-just-held-joystick.html

 

Actually I remember it happening at the time, as it was on the news, but I've seen no details since, so thanks for that, worth looking into further. 🙂 

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

36 minutes ago, Alvoram said:

Actually I remember it happening at the time, as it was on the news, but I've seen no details since, so thanks for that, worth looking into further. 🙂 

I once went to Birmingham airport for someone's surprise 60th. She was a the airport, but had no idea that she had tickets to fly away to a sunny place (the place's name eludes me now). Anyway, there was a gang of us. This included the person who had taken their (she was married to a nice bloke) suitcases, so they had some clobber to wear on the holiday. 

It was a very 'messy' holiday. It was great fun though.

Not sure what that has to do with 'flying aircraft'.

I've just remembered another passenger experience. I once put in a $20 note within my passport nd asked the clerk to upgrade me and my wife. He did. 

And then there's the times that I have smuggle................................................. through airports. 

[Guest]

19 minutes ago, Yoghurt on a Stick said:

And then there's the times that I have smuggle................................................. through airports. 

How?😁

[Guest]

On 1/15/2024 at 8:32 AM, BlueDaze said:

I am booked in for knee replacement on Feb 12th…

similarly without tickets but certainly a recovery target if the resale gods are kind…

All the best with the tickets and the operation. I've been told I need a knee replacement but not looking forward to it at all.

[Alvoram]

46 minutes ago, Yoghurt on a Stick said:

I once went to Birmingham airport for someone's surprise 60th. She was a the airport, but had no idea that she had tickets to fly away to a sunny place (the place's name eludes me now). Anyway, there was a gang of us. This included the person who had taken their (she was married to a nice bloke) suitcases, so they had some clobber to wear on the holiday. 

It was a very 'messy' holiday. It was great fun though.

Not sure what that has to do with 'flying aircraft'.

I've just remembered another passenger experience. I once put in a $20 note within my passport nd asked the clerk to upgrade me and my wife. He did. 

And then there's the times that I have smuggle................................................. through airports. 

Morocco - Spain / Gibraltar ferries are interesting, as a foot passenger, according to the missus 😉 (Her family were travellers who settled in La Linea with their horse truck conversion in the 90s.)

[BlueDaze]

7 hours ago, Ommadawn said:

All the best with the tickets and the operation. I've been told I need a knee replacement but not looking forward to it at all.

Well the op itself doesn’t sound like a bundle of laughs but the outcome (with hard work) has the potential to be pretty life changing..

without it, Reg in 2023 would definitely have been the last Glastonbury set I attended 

embrace it…. And good luck!

[Ayrshire Chris]

On 1/15/2024 at 8:32 AM, BlueDaze said:

I am booked in for knee replacement on Feb 12th…

similarly without tickets but certainly a recovery target if the resale gods are kind…

I’ve relatives who have had the op. It is indeed life changing both physically and mentally.  All the best.