Continuing my occasional look at building a BA super jumbo, here is a great YouTube video I found of the first BA A380 landing in Europe.
It looks “undressed” as they have only painted the tailplane and engines into BA colours – the rest of the plane is curiously “naked“.
The video is 5 minutes long but the landing happens within the first 30 seconds and that’s what is worth watching.
I still think that this is an ugly aircraft – even more so when it is in the “buff“. But you cannot avoid being amazed by how such a huge lump of metal can stay in the air.
I just watched a TV programme on C4 called Plane Crash. I’d seen the trailers and it looked fascinating. They were going to crash a real Boeing 727and watch the effects on the dummies inside.
Tweet But the show ended up driving me mad. It was on for two hours with an ad break every 10 minutes. Before every break they summarised where we had got to. After the ad break they summarised where we had got to again.
Do the producers of shows like this think that we all have the memory spans of goldfish?
Actually that is unfair on goldfish. People believe that goldfish can only remember things for three seconds. so don’t worry about putting them in small bowls because by the time they’ve swum round they have forgotten where they started from. Of course scientists have proven that goldfish do in fact have quite good memories and tests show that they can learn what time of day they .
Hence why my mother’s goldfish congregate at 4pm every day in the left corner of the tank – wide eyes and gaping mouths silently saying, “Come on then”.
But there seems to be a goldfish trend emerging in documentary TV shows. The next time you watch one just look at the narrative flow.
Take a clothes make over show. The intro will go something along these lines. “This week we meet Jane. She has no self-confidence. Over the next hour we are going to completely change her life. First thing we are going to do is give her a make over.
Then 10 minutes later as we approach the first ad break they’ll say, “So now Jane has had a full make over and although she started out the programme with no self-confidence she is well on her way to completely changing her life. Join us after the break when we move into stage two and revamp her wardrobe.
After nipping off to make a cup of tea during the adverts you return to the sofa to the reminder, “Before the break we met Jane who has no self-confidence but we have made a great start in completely changing her life by giving her a complete make over. Now it is time to have a look at her wardrobe.
And so it goes on. Even the BBC with no ad breaks to fit this structure round are increasingly guilty of such recaps and “coming up” spots every ten minutes or so.
I have always been an advocate of the “Tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you have told them” approach. But do the TV programmes take it too far? They tell you what they are going to tell you then tell you a bit of it. Next they remind you of what they are going to tell you and the bit they’ve already told you, and so on.
Cut out all this summarising and recapping and the show would be half as long.
So rather than thrilling me, Plane Crash just made me want to go and do something relaxing like swimming round and round in a pool.
Over to you: Do you agree with me about plane crash TV and the goldfish effect? If so do me a favour and tweet this article. Tweet
British Airways have used Boeing 747 “Jumbo” jets on long haul routes since the 1970s. They still have 57 of these beasts in the fleet. Even today I think that this iconic jet looks beautiful in flight. And if you can afford seats up front (FIRST) or upstairs (Club Class) – or know how to use air-miles to get them – it offers a luxurious way to travel.
But BA has decided that the future of long haul “big” jets lies with the Airbus A380 which differs from the jumbo in that it features a double deck across its whole length. Here is a picture of the first British Airways Airbus A380 coming out of the construction hangar recently.
BA’s reasons for choosing it are that it’s more fuel efficient, quieter, more spacious and can carry more passengers than the jumbo that was designed in the 1960s.
This may be so and I must admit I look forward to trying out the A380. But I have one problem with this double decked leviathan. Compared to the beautiful graceful sweeping lines of the 747, this modern people carrier looks just bloody ugly.
Over to you: Do you prefer the 747 or the A380. I’d love to hear what your experiences of both are. We were promised gyms are cinemas when I imagine economy is still quite cramped. What is the experience like in each travel class?
When I started flying regularly from London to Edinburgh there was lots of free food on board. Massive breakfasts, three course hot evening meals, and lovely afternoon teas with warm scones and sandwiches.
In fact BA and BMI’s caterers were falling over each other trying to out do the other with the amount of their grub.
And this was in economy not business or first class.
On an hour-long flight you would get a drink before dinner, a hot meal with dessert, wine, and coffee or tea afterwards. Breakfast would include cereal, full English, warms rolls and big glass pots of marmalade or jam.
The downside? Fares were high.
Then Easy Jet,Ryan Air and Go came along. They were no frills airlines and they were about cheap fares. They gave no free food away.
If you wanted a coffee you had to buy one – you still do. If you were hungry you could buy a sandwich. You still can.
From then on BA and BMI’s started to cut the free stuff. Hot evening meals became smaller cold salads. Huge breakfast trays became smaller ones with tiny sausages, a couple of mushrooms, and a wafer thin slice of bacon.
At all other times the service is simply a free drink and a packet of nibbles (or birdseed as it is affectionately known by travellers on domestic routes), a tiny drink from the bar or a thimble full of coffee.
By continuing to offer a token free drink BA claims it’s a “full service” airline. But this is stretching it a bit isn’t it?
If I can’t eat before an evening flight home I go hungry on BA but I could buy a meal on Easy Jet.
So is it better to have a buy on board service or pretend to offer a full service which challenges the word “full”?
I think I am now in the place where I think BA should stop pretending with their economy product and consider a move to buy on board food.
Over to you: Do you prefer to buy on board food? Or perhaps you take a picnic? Do you need serving anything at all? Please leave a comment and let me know what you think.
