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Trip Report NCL-LHR-IAD-SEA-IAD-LHR-NCL (long)



 
 
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  #1  
Old September 19th, 2003, 11:05 AM
Mark Hewitt
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Trip Report NCL-LHR-IAD-SEA-IAD-LHR-NCL (long)

* Newcastle - London (British Airways) 21st June

Arrived at the airport 2 hours before the flight. I'm led to believe 10
minutes is sufficient if you don't have any baggage.
I wanted to give plenty time as I had 2 bags when my ticket said I was only
allowed to take one. However the checkin supervisor asked me if I was going
onto any other flights, I said yes, that I was flying to Washington on
Monday, and would she like to see the ticket for that, to which she replied
that she wouldn't. She checked in my bags without any further questions.

The situation was that, although my tickets to Washington and Seattle all
had an allocation of 2 bags, my domestic flight in the UK only had a 1 bag
allocation, as it had been booked on a seperate ticket to save money. I had
called BA to ask about this and they said I would be charged excess baggage,
charge of £5, assuming the flight wasn't full, in such case my bags may well
be off loaded! However this all came to nought.

Aircraft was an Airbus A320, typical BA domestic flight, leather seats, no
TV or phone or anything like that.

Flight boarded approx 30 minutes before departure. It was sheduled to leave
at 12.10, and we pushed back at 12.20. This was my first flight for this
trip and I was very anxious to get underway, I hate the pre-flight stuff at
the best of times, as it just seems you are sitting around doing nothing for
no apparent reason! We were airborne around 5 minutes after pushback.

The route of the flight was rather interesting. I had expected to pretty
much follow the East coast down to London, so I was rather suprised when I
looked out of the window to see the coastline! (I was sat on the right side
of the plane). I could make out Colwin Bay in the distance, and to my
suprise as I looked down I saw the viaduct on the Settle to Carlise railway
line.. the one they aways show on news stories.

The pilot came over the tannoy a few mintues later and said we had just
passed over Manchester and would be now heading south. We eventually flew
past what looked like the Bristol Channel and headed off towards London. I
was looking to see if I could spot Aylesbury the whole way there, as a very
good friend of mine lives there, but missed it, although I'm sure we flew
very near.

Food on the flight consisted of a Turkey and salad sandwhich and a choice of
drink (the usual BA tiny cans).

We got close to Heathrow and I saw a place circling outside the window, and
the pilot said the ATC had told us to circle before entering the airport for
a little while (I think we were early), we did one circle and then headed
into the airport. Touched down exactly on time at Terminal 1. Bags arrived
in a speedy manner, and I was quickly in my taxi and off to the Holiday Inn,
which is very close to the airport.

* Holiday Inn (2 nights)

I was very impressed by the Holiday Inn, especially for the £41.50 per night
amount I was paying, it was as nice as anywhere which charges well over £100
per night and certainly nicer than Heathrow Travelodge which charges nearly
twice as much! My room was overlooking the main runways, although you could
hear the planes on take off and landing, it wasn't really noticable unless
you were listening out for it, and it seemed to cease around 11pm and then
start at around 6am. I am thinking Heathrow has some sort of cerfew to allow
people to get some sleep!

* Hire car (1 day) (National)

I hired a car the next day from National Car Hire who are on the North
Perimter road. I later discovered it's quite easy, if a little time
consuming, to actually walk to their offices from the Holiday Inn, however
in this case it was raining, so I look the H4 shuttle bus into terminal 1
(cost £3.00) and got the National Courtesy Shuttle out to the office.
Renting the car was actually a good experience compared with at home, which
is usually a frought process of trying to avoid being given poor quality
cars, as in Newcastle they have very little choice, and often no choice at
all! In this case I was told to get a car from the 'B' group, which is what
I had booked, I could choose from several Corsas, Skoda Fabia, but I opted
for a Fiesta, which was very nice indeed. I only had it for a day and
dropped it off again about 8pm at night. Maybe I took a wrong turn but I
ended up having to go all the way into the Terminal area (through the
tunnel) and then find my way back out again in order to get to the rental
car drop off point! I then walked back to my hotel.

* London - Washington DC (British Airways) 23rd June

Taxi into Terminal 4 the next morning at 7.30 (flight for 11.50), went past
the BA service area, saw a total of 3 Concordes on my way in, impressive.
Also realised just how huge Heathrow is! Not long to wait to check in,
queued for about 5 minutes, and gave my documents to the checkin agent, she
fiddled around with her computer for a long time and then set off some sort
of beeping buzzer thing, whilst continuing to tap furiously at her computer
console. I thought had been flagged as a security risk, or was going to be
held there and forced to pay the excess baggage they didn't charge me at
Newcastle!. Eventually her phone rang, she listed for a second and then said
"ok". She then told me that I now had a seat on the plane, but it's a good
job as I was there so early, as if I was any later then it would have been
seriously unlikely I would have actually gotten on the plane "summer
transatlatic flights are always SO overbooked" was the reason given.
Apparently I'd be mad to be there any less than 3 hours before the flight.
(I'm thinking I will arrive 24 hours before on the way back!!). She had
given me an isle seat, which is good because thats what I would have asked
for.

Went straight through security without issues and up to the gate which was
on the Terminal 4 extension, so took around 15 minutes to walk the entire
distance, there were walkways for some of the way, but around 50% were not
functioning. Then sat and waited for 90 minutes.

Started boarding the flight around 50 minutes before departure, got on, and
took my seat. (Which was 3 from the back, not 3 from the front, I think the
checkin agent was confused). To my suprise, since the flight was overbooked,
the two seats to the left of me were empty, and remained empty even after
everyone had got on the plane, I thought "result!, a row to myself!".
However someone, from the row in front which was full decided to move back
to get a free seat beside him, which was a sensible move on his part, and no
problem for me as I still had a spare seat to my left, and did so for the
rest of the flight. (The flight attentant did make a note that he had moved
seats).

Pushed back on time and then took about 15 minutes to wait in the queue for
the runway. Took off, and we were on our way.

Films weren't much of a selection, but enough to keep me occupied. After the
news I watched "How to lose a guy in 10 days" and "Maid in Manhattan", tried
to watch "Catch me if you can" but it was flickering and unwatchable. The
rest of the time I was tuned into the "Hits 55 Compilation" they had on
Channel 6. Food was a chicken corma, with also with some salad, a chocloate
covered bread type thing , bread, and usual choice of mini-cans. They served
a sandwhich in the latter 3/4 of the flight. As well as coming around fairly
regularly with drinks.

I noticed the pitch on the BA seats is quite good but can cause a problem
for people behind when someone reclines, the person in front of me was a
rather big person (not fat, just big) and he reclied all the way, and when
he moved around he pushed the chair so far back I thought it would break,
and was about 2 inches from my nose. I had to recline my seat to give myself
room. Although I did inform him of the problem and he agreed not to recline
so much.

On the way in we flew via New York and could see Manhattan out of the
window, which was a highlight. We eventually touched down at Dulles 30
mintues early.

We waited around a long time at Dulles which the mobile buses positioned
themselves at both doors of the aircraft, so we could all get on and be
taken to the arrivals area, in all, the process on them docking, us getting
on, and being taken to the terminal ate up our 30 minute advantage and more!
But I wasn't in a particular hurry.

Got to arrivals to be greeted with with what must have been a queue of more
than 100 people waiting for immigration control. I very boring hour of
queueing (sorry, waiting in line!) followed before I got the desk, handed in
my form, they stamped my passport, answered the questions, and I was on my
way.

By that time of course my bag had already been off the airport and was on
the floor waiting for me. I then dragged my bags through customs who asked
me the same questions immigration did, and took the form off me. I took my
bags around the corner and put them on the conveyor, and off they went to
Seattle.

* Washington DC - Seattle (United) 23rd June

Apart from not having to drag my bags over to the checkin desk, being
checked through for each of my flights didn't present me with any particular
advantage. As I didn't get a boarding pass for my flight at Heathrow (I
guess because United is in a different alliance from BA) I had to go and
checkin at the United desk in Dulles, the same as I would if I had started
my journey from there. Still, the queue wasn't very long and only had to
wait around 10 minutes in order to get my boarding pass. The attendant
didn't ask me what seat I wanted, but I ended up with a window seat, which
turned out to be fine.

Next I had to go through security again, my first experience of the infamous
TSA! The only thing different from UK security is that I had to remove my
laptop from my bag and put it through the scanner seperately, whereas in the
UK they were happy for it to remain inside its bag. Apart from that there
were no issues and I went and caught the shuttle bus to terminal D. I had
about 90 minutes to kill so basically walked from one end of the terminal
from another, bought some pop, and a packet of sweets (and in the process
nearly fainted from the price, $2.99 for a small packet of jelly beans,
insane!).

Boarded the flight and took my seat beside the window. I'd known from posts
in newsgroups that United provide ATC radio on the in-flight audio channels,
so I tuned into that immediately. I have to say that this is an awesome (as
they say out here) feature. It made my flight 100% more interesting than
usual. One of the most annoying things about flying for me is the delays
that seem to happen for no reason at all, but in this case I could hear the
instructions being given to the aircraft and knew exactly when we were ready
to go and when we were climing or decending I knew exactly why and to what
height! Throught the majority of the flight it was mostly just ours and
various planes reporting into a specific controller, flying through their
segment and then being given another frequency upon exiting the segment.
Landing was even more interesting than take off. On one occasion the
aircraft quickly increased power and climbed, when we had previously been
decending, apparently this was because of an automatic mid-air collision
detection system kicking in, but it was ok, I could see the aircraft we were
avoiding, we were nowhere near.

In flight entertainment consisted of a film being shown on the screens which
where down the main isle, the main feature for the flight "How to lose a guy
in 10 days", which I had seen just a few hours earlier on the British
Airways flight! I stayed tuned to the pilot radio channel. Food consisted of
a beef and gravey with mashed potato. Perfectly fine, except the portion was
very small. However unlike BA , when you ask for a Pepsi you get a full size
can, not a mini size can! (plus it's an American size can, they are bigger
than the European ones)

Landed at Seattle airport and got the underground automatic train to the
main terminal building and collected my bags. They seemed to have signs for
everywhere except where they have the taxi's. I had to go outside and ask
someone, also they don't seem to have any trolleys for bags. My bags are
extremely heavy which resulted in me having to walk about 100 metres and
then stop for a while to recover. I eventually found the taxi's hiding on an
level of the multi-storey car park, never would have found them if I hadn't
asked.

I also noticed that my bags had "TSA Inspected" stickers on them, so they
presumably had been opened, but I didn't find anything out of place. Which
is a result considering how much trouble I had closing them in London!

Taxi took me to the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Seattle, where my conference
is located. I eventually collapsed into bed about 8.30pm Seattle time
(4.30am UK time) and caught up on some much needed sleep!

Did some touristy stuff the next day, walking around Seattle center, the
monorail, Space Needle, etc.

* Seattle - Washington DC (United) 28th June

Got up early Saturday morning, I think it was about 5am, to get to the
airport for my flight departing at 9.30am. Good job I did because the queue
at the United checkin desk was the longest I have ever seen! It streched
around the usual place where they have barriers which people queue around
and then went down the back of the building and around the corner and
continued seemingly forever! However it seems at least they recognised the
problem and had plenty of people on the checkin desks and people telling pax
where to stand etc. Got to the checkin an about an hour. Ususually after I
got my boarding pass and tagging my baggage, instead of taking the bags off
me they asked me to take them myself and put it in the big pile where they
were doing the security screening, which I did and my bags arrived, so no
problem.

My fears that the flight might be delayed were unfounded and I was
pleasantly suprised to find myself in the Economy Plus area of the aircraft,
no difference to the rest of it, except there was more legroom. I must
confess that this didn't really make much difference to me as I find the
economy seats on United to have sufficient room as it is. The only
difference was the table was a bit further away! Shanghai Knights played as
the film, hadn't seen it before so that was ok. I was bitterly disappointed
that there was no channel which let you listen to the radio communication
from the cockpit, I enjoyed this on the outward flight and was looking
forward to listening in again on the return, but they didn't have it
switched on, they stressed in the literature that it was optional at the
descretion of the pilot, but disapointing all the same.

Arrived in Dulles and it took an hour for my bags to appear. I feared it had
got lost in the big pile in Seattle!

Had a great week in Washington DC, staying with friends, seeing all the
sights, hired a car and drove out to Shenandoah national park, saw black
bears! I also drove to New York and spent a night there before returning to
DC.


* Washington DC - London (British Airways) 6th June

Dulles is deceptively far from DC! You think you are there but you've just
got onto the access road and theres ages to go yet! Checking in took about
the same time as Seattle despite the queue being about 2% of the size, but
no particular issues to report. Again I was worried that they would insist
on making me collect my bags at Heathrow due to me having two seperate
tickets which are not connected in any way. But not a bit of it! My bags
were checked through all the way to Newcastle and I was given two boarding
passes, one for the London and one for the Newcastle flight, all I had to
worry about was transferring from Terminal 4 to 1. And I had a 2 hour window
for this.

Take off was at 8.30 arriving into London about 10am the next morning.

We boarded but were told about 10 minutes after we were due to take off that
there was going to be a delay. There warning lights illuminated in the
cockpit apparently. The pilot informed us that he was 100% confident there
was nothing wrong with the aircraft, but even so, they could take off with
an active warning light, so were working with London to get the matter
resolved before we could take off. There was a feeling in the plane after an
hour that we wouldn't be taking off tonight and I was starting to think
about what could be done with staying in hotels overnight etc. Eventually
after a 90 minute delay we took off from Dulles, in the rain.

Flight was a night flight so most people wanted to sleep, I tried for about
an hour and found I couldn't! So ended up watching the films, Toy Story 2
being the only one of note.
We eventually arrived into LHR at 11.15 with the flight to Newcastle
departing at 12.00. On getting off the aircraft we were greeted by a BA
staff member who was getting all the people off the flight who had short
transfers to Terminal 1 (this was me!). We were put onto a coach and taken
straight over to the connections centre (very good service I might add, they
could have just left us to transfer the normal way and had us miss the
flight!). We were told to run and we did! Thankfully there was nobody at
secuirty and nobody at immigration, so straight through there, and ran down
to where the flight was departing from. Only to be told there was a 15
minute delay, no problem I needed the rest!

* London - Newcastle (British Airways) 7th June

Totally exhausted when I got to the gate, and very very tired, since I
hadn't been alseep since the previous morning and it was now mid-day! Got on
the plane and closed my eyes, I didn't sleep but I don't really remember
much of the flight until we were coming into land at Newcastle, good views
from the plane I have to say!

Upon getting to Newcastle I got off the plane and waited for my baggage,
until there was an announcement of various people, including myself, should
report to the baggage services desk, as I suspected might happen my baggage
didn't make the LHR-NCL flight in time, I was told it would be on the flight
that evening. I filled in the form to have it delivered to my home. I wasn't
concerned, I was too tired to care!

The baggage was actually delivered the next morning.

All in all a great trip the only problem being the delayed baggage on the
return flight but since I was home anyway it didn't matter.


  #2  
Old September 19th, 2003, 02:33 PM
Gernot Egger
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Trip Report NCL-LHR-IAD-SEA-IAD-LHR-NCL (long)


"Mark Hewitt" schrieb im
Newsbeitrag ...
* Newcastle - London (British Airways) 21st June

[snip]
The route of the flight was rather interesting. I had expected to pretty
much follow the East coast down to London, so I was rather suprised when I
looked out of the window to see the coastline! (I was sat on the right

side
of the plane). I could make out Colwin Bay in the distance, and to my
suprise as I looked down I saw the viaduct on the Settle to Carlise

railway
line.. the one they aways show on news stories.


Seems to quite normal! I flew between LHR/BHX and EDI several times and the
route was allways over the Irish Sea.

lg Gernot


  #3  
Old September 22nd, 2003, 10:00 AM
Miss L. Toe
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Trip Report NCL-LHR-IAD-SEA-IAD-LHR-NCL (long)


* Holiday Inn (2 nights)

I was very impressed by the Holiday Inn, especially for the £41.50 per

night
amount I was paying,


And you can earn airline miles if you join their club.

* London - Washington DC (British Airways) 23rd June

Taxi into Terminal 4 the next morning at 7.30 (flight for 11.50),


4 hours ??? or am I missing something ? ( I know they have long checkin
queues at times, but not that long...)

went past
the BA service area, saw a total of 3 Concordes on my way in, impressive.
Also realised just how huge Heathrow is! Not long to wait to check in,
queued for about 5 minutes, and gave my documents to the checkin agent,

she
fiddled around with her computer for a long time and then set off some

sort
of beeping buzzer thing, whilst continuing to tap furiously at her

computer
console. I thought had been flagged as a security risk, or was going to be
held there and forced to pay the excess baggage they didn't charge me at
Newcastle!. Eventually her phone rang, she listed for a second and then

said
"ok". She then told me that I now had a seat on the plane, but it's a good
job as I was there so early, as if I was any later then it would have been
seriously unlikely I would have actually gotten on the plane "summer
transatlatic flights are always SO overbooked" was the reason given.
Apparently I'd be mad to be there any less than 3 hours before the flight.
(I'm thinking I will arrive 24 hours before on the way back!!). She had
given me an isle seat, which is good because thats what I would have asked
for.



A questions (probably for highflyer) - if you do the interent checkin thing
24 hours before departure are you in any way protected from (or less likely
to) being bumped ??


Films weren't much of a selection, but enough to keep me occupied. After

the
news I watched "How to lose a guy in 10 days" and "Maid in Manhattan",

tried
to watch "Catch me if you can" but it was flickering and unwatchable. The
rest of the time I was tuned into the "Hits 55 Compilation" they had on
Channel 6. Food was a chicken corma, with also with some salad, a

chocloate
covered bread type thing , bread, and usual choice of mini-cans. They

served
a sandwhich in the latter 3/4 of the flight. As well as coming around

fairly
regularly with drinks.


Did you get a menu card ?, or anything to wipe your hands with ?


I noticed the pitch on the BA seats is quite good but can cause a problem
for people behind when someone reclines, the person in front of me was a
rather big person (not fat, just big) and he reclied all the way, and when
he moved around he pushed the chair so far back I thought it would break,
and was about 2 inches from my nose. I had to recline my seat to give

myself
room. Although I did inform him of the problem and he agreed not to

recline
so much.


and also on many airlines you cant see your own TV screen properly if the
person in front reclines.


Got to arrivals to be greeted with with what must have been a queue of

more
than 100 people waiting for immigration control. I very boring hour of
queueing (sorry, waiting in line!) followed before I got the desk, handed

in
my form, they stamped my passport, answered the questions, and I was on my
way.


Has anyone here tried that ipass thing ? (I've propably got the name wrong)


Next I had to go through security again, my first experience of the

infamous
TSA! The only thing different from UK security is that I had to remove my
laptop from my bag and put it through the scanner seperately, whereas in

the
UK they were happy for it to remain inside its bag.


They also seem to strongly suggest you remove your shoes and belt at most
airports in the US.


Boarded the flight and took my seat beside the window. I'd known from

posts
in newsgroups that United provide ATC radio on the in-flight audio

channels,
so I tuned into that immediately. I have to say that this is an awesome

(as
they say out here) feature. It made my flight 100% more interesting than
usual.


Definately agree with that - but can be 'interesting' when they loose
contact with the plane in front of yours for (what seems like) 10 minutes on
the approach to land when you are both in cloud.

However unlike BA , when you ask for a Pepsi you get a full size
can, not a mini size can! (plus it's an American size can, they are bigger
than the European ones)


Good job you didnt go Delta - they pour your drink from a can into your
glass which is already full of ice, so you end up with about a quater of a
can.
We boarded but were told about 10 minutes after we were due to take off

that
there was going to be a delay. There warning lights illuminated in the
cockpit apparently. The pilot informed us that he was 100% confident there
was nothing wrong with the aircraft,


Does that mean he doesnt believe his own warning lights ?



  #4  
Old September 22nd, 2003, 02:19 PM
Christopher
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Trip Report NCL-LHR-IAD-SEA-IAD-LHR-NCL (long)


"Miss L. Toe" wrote in message
...

* Holiday Inn (2 nights)

I was very impressed by the Holiday Inn, especially for the £41.50 per

night
amount I was paying,


And you can earn airline miles if you join their club.

* London - Washington DC (British Airways) 23rd June

Taxi into Terminal 4 the next morning at 7.30 (flight for 11.50),


4 hours ??? or am I missing something ? ( I know they have long checkin
queues at times, but not that long...)

went past
the BA service area, saw a total of 3 Concordes on my way in,

impressive.
Also realised just how huge Heathrow is! Not long to wait to check in,
queued for about 5 minutes, and gave my documents to the checkin agent,

she
fiddled around with her computer for a long time and then set off some

sort
of beeping buzzer thing, whilst continuing to tap furiously at her

computer
console. I thought had been flagged as a security risk, or was going to

be
held there and forced to pay the excess baggage they didn't charge me at
Newcastle!. Eventually her phone rang, she listed for a second and then

said
"ok". She then told me that I now had a seat on the plane, but it's a

good
job as I was there so early, as if I was any later then it would have

been
seriously unlikely I would have actually gotten on the plane "summer
transatlatic flights are always SO overbooked" was the reason given.
Apparently I'd be mad to be there any less than 3 hours before the

flight.
(I'm thinking I will arrive 24 hours before on the way back!!). She had
given me an isle seat, which is good because thats what I would have

asked
for.



A questions (probably for highflyer) - if you do the interent checkin

thing
24 hours before departure are you in any way protected from (or less

likely
to) being bumped ??



YES!




Films weren't much of a selection, but enough to keep me occupied. After

the
news I watched "How to lose a guy in 10 days" and "Maid in Manhattan",

tried
to watch "Catch me if you can" but it was flickering and unwatchable.

The
rest of the time I was tuned into the "Hits 55 Compilation" they had on
Channel 6. Food was a chicken corma, with also with some salad, a

chocloate
covered bread type thing , bread, and usual choice of mini-cans. They

served
a sandwhich in the latter 3/4 of the flight. As well as coming around

fairly
regularly with drinks.


Did you get a menu card ?, or anything to wipe your hands with ?


I noticed the pitch on the BA seats is quite good but can cause a

problem
for people behind when someone reclines, the person in front of me was a
rather big person (not fat, just big) and he reclied all the way, and

when
he moved around he pushed the chair so far back I thought it would

break,
and was about 2 inches from my nose. I had to recline my seat to give

myself
room. Although I did inform him of the problem and he agreed not to

recline
so much.


and also on many airlines you cant see your own TV screen properly if the
person in front reclines.



99% of the screens will put out from underneath to keep the sceen vertical.




Got to arrivals to be greeted with with what must have been a queue of

more
than 100 people waiting for immigration control. I very boring hour of
queueing (sorry, waiting in line!) followed before I got the desk,

handed
in
my form, they stamped my passport, answered the questions, and I was on

my
way.


Has anyone here tried that ipass thing ? (I've propably got the name

wrong)


Next I had to go through security again, my first experience of the

infamous
TSA! The only thing different from UK security is that I had to remove

my
laptop from my bag and put it through the scanner seperately, whereas in

the
UK they were happy for it to remain inside its bag.


They also seem to strongly suggest you remove your shoes and belt at most
airports in the US.


Boarded the flight and took my seat beside the window. I'd known from

posts
in newsgroups that United provide ATC radio on the in-flight audio

channels,
so I tuned into that immediately. I have to say that this is an awesome

(as
they say out here) feature. It made my flight 100% more interesting than
usual.


Definately agree with that - but can be 'interesting' when they loose
contact with the plane in front of yours for (what seems like) 10 minutes

on
the approach to land when you are both in cloud.

However unlike BA , when you ask for a Pepsi you get a full size
can, not a mini size can! (plus it's an American size can, they are

bigger
than the European ones)


Good job you didnt go Delta - they pour your drink from a can into your
glass which is already full of ice, so you end up with about a quater of a
can.
We boarded but were told about 10 minutes after we were due to take off

that
there was going to be a delay. There warning lights illuminated in the
cockpit apparently. The pilot informed us that he was 100% confident

there
was nothing wrong with the aircraft,


Does that mean he doesnt believe his own warning lights ?





  #5  
Old September 22nd, 2003, 03:42 PM
Miss L. Toe
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Trip Report NCL-LHR-IAD-SEA-IAD-LHR-NCL (long)


and also on many airlines you cant see your own TV screen properly if

the
person in front reclines.



99% of the screens will put out from underneath to keep the sceen

vertical.


But not usually far enough, if you are tall.


  #6  
Old September 22nd, 2003, 09:12 PM
Malcolm Weir
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Trip Report NCL-LHR-IAD-SEA-IAD-LHR-NCL (long)

On Mon, 22 Sep 2003 10:00:00 +0100, "Miss L. Toe"
wrote:

[ Snip ]

Got to arrivals to be greeted with with what must have been a queue of
more
than 100 people waiting for immigration control. I very boring hour of
queueing (sorry, waiting in line!) followed before I got the desk, handed
in
my form, they stamped my passport, answered the questions, and I was on my
way.


Has anyone here tried that ipass thing ? (I've propably got the name wrong)


INSPASS. I have one; It's expired (although you wouldn't know it to
look at it) and it has the wrong passport on it.

It worked fine, but only saved a few minutes.

Next I had to go through security again, my first experience of the

infamous
TSA! The only thing different from UK security is that I had to remove my
laptop from my bag and put it through the scanner seperately, whereas in

the
UK they were happy for it to remain inside its bag.


They also seem to strongly suggest you remove your shoes and belt at most
airports in the US.


http://www.tsa.gov/public/display?theme=1&content=583

It strongly suggests that you will be subject to secondary screening
*if* you alert (gosh! what a concept!) but also *if* your footware is
"suspicious" -- which as far as I can tell means that you refrained
from removing it!

[ Snip ]

Good job you didnt go Delta - they pour your drink from a can into your
glass which is already full of ice, so you end up with about a quater of a
can.


And the problem with that is...?

We boarded but were told about 10 minutes after we were due to take off
that
there was going to be a delay. There warning lights illuminated in the
cockpit apparently. The pilot informed us that he was 100% confident there
was nothing wrong with the aircraft,


Does that mean he doesnt believe his own warning lights ?


How *do* you come up with this stuff?

Warning lights are just that, warnings. You want the warning system
to fail safe, so if a sensor fails you get a warning, rather than a
lack of warning when whatever the sensor is for triggers.

Pilots, being not very stupid, know which sensors are most likely to
fail (thus triggering the warning light), even when there's nothing
wrong... and moreover (again, being not very stupid) they know how to
read the rest of the instruments to see if the warning looks
plausible.

So if the pilot stated he was 100% confident, the instruments were
saying everything is OK, but the warning light was saying something
was out of range. Conclusion: the warning sensor is faulty.

Malc.
  #7  
Old September 23rd, 2003, 09:58 AM
Miss L. Toe
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Posts: n/a
Default Trip Report NCL-LHR-IAD-SEA-IAD-LHR-NCL (long)


"Malcolm Weir" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 22 Sep 2003 10:00:00 +0100, "Miss L. Toe"
wrote:

[ Snip ]

Got to arrivals to be greeted with with what must have been a queue of
more
than 100 people waiting for immigration control. I very boring hour of
queueing (sorry, waiting in line!) followed before I got the desk,

handed
in
my form, they stamped my passport, answered the questions, and I was on

my
way.


Has anyone here tried that ipass thing ? (I've propably got the name

wrong)

INSPASS. I have one; It's expired (although you wouldn't know it to
look at it) and it has the wrong passport on it.

It worked fine, but only saved a few minutes.


So do you still have to wait in the main line (queue) until you get to a
desk, I got the impression that you can bypass the whole queue (which
obviously varies in length/time).

Good job you didnt go Delta - they pour your drink from a can into your
glass which is already full of ice, so you end up with about a quater of

a
can.


And the problem with that is...?


I refer the right honorable gentleman to the answer given earlier (by Pam).


We boarded but were told about 10 minutes after we were due to take off
that
there was going to be a delay. There warning lights illuminated in the
cockpit apparently. The pilot informed us that he was 100% confident

there
was nothing wrong with the aircraft,


Does that mean he doesnt believe his own warning lights ?


How *do* you come up with this stuff?

Warning lights are just that, warnings. You want the warning system
to fail safe, so if a sensor fails you get a warning, rather than a
lack of warning when whatever the sensor is for triggers.

Pilots, being not very stupid, know which sensors are most likely to
fail (thus triggering the warning light), even when there's nothing
wrong... and moreover (again, being not very stupid) they know how to
read the rest of the instruments to see if the warning looks
plausible.

So if the pilot stated he was 100% confident, the instruments were
saying everything is OK, but the warning light was saying something
was out of range. Conclusion: the warning sensor is faulty.

Malc.


I might agree with your comments had the pilot said he was 99% confident
there was nothing wrong with the aircraft.


  #8  
Old September 23rd, 2003, 09:15 PM
Malcolm Weir
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Posts: n/a
Default Trip Report NCL-LHR-IAD-SEA-IAD-LHR-NCL (long)

On Tue, 23 Sep 2003 09:58:22 +0100, "Miss L. Toe"
wrote:

[ Snip ]

INSPASS. I have one; It's expired (although you wouldn't know it to
look at it) and it has the wrong passport on it.

It worked fine, but only saved a few minutes.


So do you still have to wait in the main line (queue) until you get to a
desk, I got the impression that you can bypass the whole queue (which
obviously varies in length/time).


Sure, you got to go to the machines for the immigration inspection,
but sometimes it would decide you needed to talk to a real inspector
(either because the machine wouldn't recognize your hand, or just as a
random check).

[ Snip ]

Does that mean he doesnt believe his own warning lights ?


How *do* you come up with this stuff?

Warning lights are just that, warnings. You want the warning system
to fail safe, so if a sensor fails you get a warning, rather than a
lack of warning when whatever the sensor is for triggers.

Pilots, being not very stupid, know which sensors are most likely to
fail (thus triggering the warning light), even when there's nothing
wrong... and moreover (again, being not very stupid) they know how to
read the rest of the instruments to see if the warning looks
plausible.

So if the pilot stated he was 100% confident, the instruments were
saying everything is OK, but the warning light was saying something
was out of range. Conclusion: the warning sensor is faulty.


I might agree with your comments had the pilot said he was 99% confident
there was nothing wrong with the aircraft.


Your arrogance at presuming you know better than an experienced pilot
is, umm, interesting.

The *fact* is that there are some warning lights whose validity you
can determine by other means. For example, consider the "ice!"
warnings that are built into some cars. Now, if you see an "Ice!"
warning light at noon in Death Valley during August, you can
*honestly* state that you are 100% certain that there's no problem.

And there are sensors on aircraft that you can double check by other
means; take a temperature sensor: if you get an "overtemp" warning and
the guage says the temperature is (a) fine and (b) moves when you
increase and decrease the throttle, you can authoritively state that
there's nothing wrong with the aircraft.

That's the facts. Your dumb attempts to second guess someone
notwithstanding.

Malc.
 




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