Spotting Heathrow Boeing 787-8's

A glimpse of the future today, near back to back Boeing 787's including the delivery of the second British Airways Boeing 787-8, G-ZBJA. A large crowd of spotters had gathered at Myrtle Ave, just to the south of the landing runway today 27L.

Enjoy a selection of the pictures I took today below, however more can be found by clicking on my website at: Plane Sight Images

VT-ANM Air India Boeing 787-8

G-ZBJA British Airways Boeing 787-8 landing - with a nice view of the wing!

Another view of G-ZBJA 

A late running Ethopian Boeing 787 was welcome at LHR operated by ET-AOS

Terror in the Skies - Channel 4, Episode 4

So, today's dose on sensationalized crap, shows a plane struck by lightning. "Stunned onlookers" Basically they had a lightning strike, it overpowered the Circuit Breakers. What I hate is that they just gloss over that the plane lands safely and they say "Everyone Survived". What is the point exactly, what are they trying to say??? They don't mention the fact that there are very few, if any, Lightning strike planes that have crashed, and none in the past 20 years alone!

The China Airlines crash had a lot more factors than the Wind shear alone, the Thomson plane landed safely, the BA plane shook for 10 minutes !!!! All very scary stuff, but surely not enough to draw a conclusion that Aviation and flying is a terrifying event?? Ash forecasting has improved a whole lot more since the BA 747-200 incident south of Indonesia. Yet no more detailed information on ASHTAMS is given. Basically if you want to watch shaky footage of aviation incidents, go on you tube. Its not a basis of a documentary where the title pre-conditions you to feel that 

So please Channel 4 - sod off with your sensationalist crap! Professor Brendon Walker, i'm embarrassed for you

An Austrian Airlines B777-200 cruising high above London - Today!

Watching planes in Toulouse

So a sunny day in Toulouse saw a number of interesting flights in and out, that included A380, A330's, ATR's, A320s with Sharklet's and even a flyby of the A350 XWB! Had a lot of fun driving my little Smart Car, on hire from AVIS to a spot on top of a hill that looks down over the main runway, in fact due to runway works - the only runway! Everything that moved had to taxi, fly or "roll past us!

To find the spot basically just come out the terminal and keep turning left. For walkers - its a good 45 minutes in hot sun, so cant recommend it. However contained in the hangers on the walk/rive include several highlights, A380 engine run bays, an ATR finishing plant - where two Jet Connect ATR 72's were hidden away. The original A300-B2, the Original Caravelle and Concorde!

Below a few highlights on the day, please feel free to contact me for more info on the "hill" as well as for any pictures required. To download/buy shots of these and many more planes log onto www.plane-sight-images.photoshelter.com

MSN 139 F-WWSB - Emirates next Airbus A380

The first A350-XWB registered F-WXWB

Nice to see the A340-600 doing some circuits F-WWCB

A Firefly ATR72 doing some test flying F-WWEF will become 9M-FIA

Spotting in Toulouse is almost restriction free viewing!

To Win.... Or Toulouse?

Tomorrow I'm off to Toulouse to find an A350 to take some pics of, so watch this space......

With a bit of luck, there will be some A380's, A330's and ATR's all being readied for delivery!

Will post pics of the trip on www.plane-sight-images.photoshelter.com - please stop by and have a look at the site. Everything is available for purchase on there in every conceivable way it can be printed!

An ATR72 built in Toulouse - seen at Farnborough Airshow 2010

Hopefully there will be a few of these coming and going through the day!

My Chariot to TLS - A British Airways A320

Terror in the Skies - Channel 4 "Documentary"

Has anyone one else been watching this so called documentary on Channel 4 (UK) Sunday nights? Staring a so called Aeronautical Engineers, Brendon Walker, we are whisked around the worst scenarios of the aviation world which have caused "Terror in the Skies". Sadly what it doesn't show is that in nearly all the reviewed incidents, hardly any actually came to disaster.

By Selling itself as a "documentary" it should have integrity and a question and answer basis - using facts. What the title suggests is prefixed and predestined to play up to myth and sensationalism, all in the name of Info-Tainment. What a load of shit. If your a documentary, you need an open ended question, which you then try to solve, E.G. How safe is your flight? Answer - Very! By calling it Terror in the Skies, there is no mystery to solve other than at what point will I become scared that the next time I fly i will likely to die.

Planes are machines, machines have issues. Man is involved so were always going to have that as a variable. But what the show doesn't demonstrate is how the two work together to solve the issues they create 9,999,999 times out of 10,000,000. For example, the Southwest B737 planes that had a fuselage fracture - didn't crash. They both landed safely. The issue they had was nothing to do with metal fatigue, which was investigated in depth, as even the show acknowledged with the genuine causes found to be a manufacturing fault and a misplaced antenna. So why show the metal fatigue? Well we know why. Have a look at the beautiful views afforded to me on my last Southwest B737-700 flight over Nevada! Thats what they should be showing!


If Channel four, or any other TV Network want to show a proper Aviation based show, be it documentary or just to showcase my interest of a machine that has revolutionized the world, then by all means have a look at the pictures below and on my site 
www.plane-sight-images.photoshelter.com 


Please tell channel 4 what you think of this awful excuse for a documentary. 
Thanks for stopping by - MP

Take off over Zurich in Winter 2013, a beautiful view from a Swiss A320 Airbus.

G-ISLG of Blue Islands turning onto Runway 09 at Bristol Airport with the Severn Estuary in the background.