Kick Those Shoes Off and Relax. It's the Delta 2017 Tea Break

[John Elwin]

Originally Posted by VIVA GT

I can only assume that, due to his lack of contributions here, Baub must be on holiday? I bet he's gone to Eastbourne, I've heard it's good for rheumatism. (Lot's of people I know have been there and caught it!)

Viva! I'm surprised you haven't had some flak about your eyesight already from your old sparring partner - he's here, a few messages back.

He's probably just boiled & cracked his shell...

[Gerard C]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

When you consider that the estimated total number of potentially contaminated eggs only amount to about 2% of the UK's daily consumption of 34 million eggs, it puts it into some perspective.

Yes, BUT, your proportion gives 680 000 eggs more a large portion than a pro…portion!
Probably Bob caught a cold with his Bentley friends. Hope he's well.
John, did you experience what is called Parafe system here?

[gary396]

Posted this in the Donington-specific thread but just in case it's missed there - it appears that the MSV takeover (or whatever) of Donington has now been approved:

http://www.donington-park.co.uk/news...onington-park/

[John Elwin]

Originally Posted by Gerard C

Yes, BUT, your proportion gives 680 000 eggs more a large portion than a pro…portion!
Probably Bob caught a cold with his Bentley friends. Hope he's well.
John, did you experience what is called Parafe system here?

I'm sorry Gerard, I don't know what that is.

[Mike Bell]

Originally Posted by gary396

Posted this in the Donington-specific thread but just in case it's missed there - it appears that the MSV takeover (or whatever) of Donington has now been approved:

http://www.donington-park.co.uk/news...onington-park/

Thanks Gary. JP was always confident it was a done deal!

[Gerard C]

John, Parafe is the electronic system we can use now to go through the customs when a biometric passeport has been issued. Supposed to be faster but in case we have to go back to the carnet system we used with racing cars and stuff in the 70's, won't be helpful i'm afraid…
I remember being carefully checked by foreign services with a RSR, it was rather pain in the neck! Not the car itself but all the bits coming with.

[Mike Bell]

Viva mentioned a balloon flight a few posts ago (probably many with all the egg jokes...) and then this morning the Bristol Balloon Fiesta was on telly. The creativity that goes into their design fascinates me, and found this while looking to see who made the Minion figure at Bristol....

http://www.specialshapes.nu/specialshapenews2013.html

[John Elwin]

Originally Posted by Gerard C

John, Parafe is the electronic system we can use now to go through the customs when a biometric passeport has been issued. Supposed to be faster but in case we have to go back to the carnet system we used with racing cars and stuff in the 70's, won't be helpful i'm afraid…
I remember being carefully checked by foreign services with a RSR, it was rather pain in the neck! Not the car itself but all the bits coming with.

I remember being stuck on the Italian border at Mont Blanc, en route to Vallelunga, with some friends who were running a couple of F2 cars. The carnets for one of the Heidegger engines was out of date.

We had to go back down the French side of the mountain & park-up whilst one of the lads caught a bus or train into Geneva, where they were able to update the carnet. Meanwhile, the race cars got fettled in a service area. Said engine blew-up when the lead-footed Italian driver gave it about 10 million revs leaving the collection area. The team, based in Hingham, went on to rather greater things...

[morninggents]

Originally Posted by John Elwin

There's just been an item on the BBC News Manipulation programme about airport delays, citing examples from Gatwick. Apparently Easy Jet passengers "suffered" the worst with an average delay time of 24 minutes...

Would you even call that a delay?

Came back from Slovenia on Easyjet last Monday at 17-30 hours. It had been due out at 22-30 hours on Sunday so a 19 hour delay. They finally cancelled the flight at 01-30 hours before taking us to an hotel for the night.

[Gerard C]

Sad story John we have here. I remember Spa in '75 probably I was Jean Louis Chateau co-driver for the 1000 km. JL blew the engine during the last lap of qualy due to fuel starvation in the straight to Stavelot. We considered buying a short works engine from the race department ran by JB. When it came to the serial number we saw that theirs had none! Very wise…

[John Elwin]

Originally Posted by Gerard C

Sad story John we have here. I remember Spa in '75 probably I was Jean Louis Chateau co-driver for the 1000 km. JL blew the engine during the last lap of qualy due to fuel starvation in the straight to Stavelot. We considered buying a short works engine from the race department ran by JB. When it came to the serial number we saw that theirs had none! Very wise…

It so nearly became even sadder - poor old Max Heidegger had to go & hide in the toilets as the driver's family & friends were out to get him. Unlike the rest of us, they couldn't quite spot where the fault lay...

[Peter Mallett]

Originally Posted by morninggents

Came back from Slovenia on Easyjet last Monday at 17-30 hours. It had been due out at 22-30 hours on Sunday so a 19 hour delay. They finally cancelled the flight at 01-30 hours before taking us to an hotel for the night.

That is Easy jet. Was always thus. Nothing to do with supposed increased security. I refuse to fly them. Used to sit at Schipol on a Friday for hours waiting for their 6pm flight to arrive. Late.

[grantp]

Originally Posted by Peter Mallett

That is Easy jet. Was always thus. Nothing to do with supposed increased security. I refuse to fly them. Used to sit at Schipol on a Friday for hours waiting for their 6pm flight to arrive. Late.

I thought they all did that Peter.

Back in the days before Easy Jet when British Midland had a Schipol-East Midlands link it was always fun to arrive at Schipol and assess how much Duty Free Shopping time one was going to have to fill.

Alternatively to be stuck waiting for the first flight from wherever one was on a Friday evening hoping that the BM flight was also running late ...

[Mike Harte]

The above is very much like travelling by road; it is often very difficult to gauge exactly how long a journey over a fair distance will take. And this is something that has got worse over the years, despite all the improvements that have happened to planes and cars over time.

Casting my mind back to the Eighties, I spent between 6 to 8 months a year abroad, mixed between quick hops over to Europe with long distance flights to the Far East. And I cannot recall being held up on any flight, and that included possibly two trips a week to either Germany or Italy. Actually, as I type this, I do recall one trip out of Milan, there was a delay but that was due to fog at Malpensa, and my BA plane was sitting on the tarmac waiting there as BA planes were the only ones that could land in those conditions back then.

Pretty well all my long distance flights out of Europe were with KLM, which meant flying to Schiphol from Heathrow and connecting there to a flight to Singapore, stopping for refuelling enroute - some things have improved since then, and flight times (actually in the air) are shorter nowadays with more direct flights. And at least you save on the time it takes to land, refuel, change crews, take off and then climb to cruising height.

[bauble]

Miserable bunch of turfs you lot are, complain when I don't post and abuse me when I do

I can hardly wait for your sarcastic replies.

Remind me to tell you the old Shell joke tomorrow.

[Peter Mallett]

Originally Posted by grantp

I thought they all did that Peter.

Back in the days before Easy Jet when British Midland had a Schipol-East Midlands link it was always fun to arrive at Schipol and assess how much Duty Free Shopping time one was going to have to fill.

Alternatively to be stuck waiting for the first flight from wherever one was on a Friday evening hoping that the BM flight was also running late ...

Trouble was it was every week. They were so late on one occasion all the concessions had closed.

Yes they all have problems. I was late getting to Tirana in October last year because the plane BA allocated hadn't arrived from Ibiza.

Flying to Doha we had to wait 4 hours for a replacement to be made ready. Jumbos take a lot of prep time.

But as a matter of principle I won't fly on bucket shop airlines.

[Mike Bell]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

The above is very much like travelling by road; it is often very difficult to gauge exactly how long a journey over a fair distance will take. And this is something that has got worse over the years, despite all the improvements that have happened to planes and cars over time.

Certainly as far as the UK is concerned, a sad result of the huge increase in population and, as far as road transport is concerned, desire for independence! It has got to change in the next decade, or else large parts of the country will spend a lot of time at a standstill...... Life on a desert island is looking ever more appealing.

Was it trains or planes (or both) that when the target journey times were failing to be met, the operators just adjusted the target times to make the statistics look better?

[Peter Mallett]

Both I think. Every flight I've been on recently has landed earlier than predicted.

[bauble]

Where's me violin.

[Gerard C]

Originally Posted by bauble

Where's me violin.

Mon ami Robert, may be you can consider harmonica I've been told they are for free in the Shell UK gas stations for a complete gas tank… Only if you drive a red car of course!

[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by Mike Bell

Was it trains or planes (or both) that when the target journey times were failing to be met, the operators just adjusted the target times to make the statistics look better?

For UK train operators, it was far more to avoid having to pay penalties for late arrivals and compensation to passengers.

I cannot comment on other countries, but this is a British commercial past-time, altering figures to paint a better picture. Very common in the NHS, where waiting time figures are very often "massaged" so as to not upset their political masters. And if one list gets too long, just create a new list and the problem disappears into the ether.

[Peter Mallett]

Yes a classic line from an old tv programme (Biederbeck Affiar) comes to mind. We will get around to that shortly but at the moment we are still unreorganiaed.

[grantp]

Originally Posted by bauble

Where's me violin.

Still going round a baggage carousel at the wrong airport?

[grantp]

Originally Posted by Peter Mallett

Trouble was it was every week. They were so late on one occasion all the concessions had closed.

Yes they all have problems. I was late getting to Tirana in October last year because the plane BA allocated hadn't arrived from Ibiza.

Flying to Doha we had to wait 4 hours for a replacement to be made ready. Jumbos take a lot of prep time.

But as a matter of principle I won't fly on bucket shop airlines.

Yep, pretty much every week for me too back in the day.

The only time I recall getting any airline support was for over 3hrs delay (I think) one night at Schipol when British Midland gave everyone vouchers for about 5 guilders to be spent at the the only refreshment outlet that we still open. I think that got a coffee and a biscuit. Not good for those expecting their cooked supper on the flight home. The staff at the outlet had hardly any food left by that time and were about ready to close and go home so were not best pleased when 40 or 50 disgruntled traveller turned up and discovered how little their voucher would get them.

We had earlier all boarded the flight and started to push off when ground crew spotted a flat tyre. So back onto stand and disembark for an hour or so.

But it was about 8pm by then (late incoming flight) and although the plane was a Fokker F27 made in Holland it had non standard brakes fitted and so non-standard wheels. The spare wheel that BM held at Schipol was in a warehouse the other side of the airport and, reportedly, the warehouse staff could not locate it.

Eventually the pilot, by now somewhat annoyed apparently, went over to the warehouse himself, found the wheel and made sure it was brought over and fitted.

Back then Schipol had a cut off for flying at somewhere around 11 or 12pm iirc and we finally escaped with about 5 minutes to spare.

[Mike Harte]

Schiphol, one of the growing number of airports where, because a runway is so far from the terminal building, it can almost take as long to taxi to the take-off point as the length of the actual flight. Their newest runway, not used that frequently, can take nearly an hour to reach from some departure gates if you include the time taken to push back the aircraft and start the engines.

The joys of travelling!