Aviation Appreciation Station

[Acey]

Originally Posted by Spuds_Buckley

when the prevailing winds are West-East?

They aren't, really... it's just that westerly days often blow harder so you notice it more. North + south days together end up being pretty much double the east + west days since easterly winds are rare.

[Max Cow Disease]

Funny idea. The notion of flying an instrument approach on a dark and stormy night in a blistering crosswind to a curved runway seems rather harrowing. It's a pleasant luxury when you pop out of the clag at minimums that you don't then have to gently cork the airplane on to a Nascar track during such a critical phase and with minimal visual reference. Call me old-fashioned, but I'll take a good ol' straight slab of pavement any day of the week!

[Fuzz]

Boring!

[Bigtime]

WestJet's first 737MAX8 in assembly at Boeing. Am I the only one that think of Homer as Max Power every time I hear or see MAX in this new 737 name?

[MRCboicgy]

Have they decided how the official code for the max, so we can filter them out from the regular 737s? B7M8?

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by MRCboicgy

Have they decided how the official code for the max, so we can filter them out from the regular 737s? B7M8?

Hmm, some google searching makes it appear that they will not have a different 3 number/letter identifier from the current NG models. So a MAX 737-8 will still show up on Flightaware as a 738.

I like your suggestion of 7M7, 7M8, 7M9. Simple and easy for us avgeeks to identify.

[MRCboicgy]

I guess the same thing with the NEOs

[MRCboicgy]

Oh, found this on the Tweety

https://twitter.com/jonostrower/stat...17412782981122
Fun fact: 737 Max 8’s OAG code is 7M8.

https://twitter.com/Airlineroute/sta...75712697528320
Despite the official code for 737 MAX 8 is 7M8, but @aircanada is likely to use the code 73X

[KelVarnsen]

Aircraft codes can be weird. Airlines might use their own code for an aircraft, or a generic code etc.

The A320neo uses the same ICAO code as the A320 but has it's own IATA code. Though airlines seen to just use the same IATA code as the A320 for the A320neo.

The 737-8 Max is likely what MRC posted above, but probably same ICAO code as the 737-800.

[Acey]

You'll still be able to tell via registration on flightradar24.com and other ADS-B tackers. Won't be hard to find them.

[Bigtime]

Neat slide from Boeing showing takeoff noise profile changes from the 707 up to the 787:

[Barnes]

Question for those who may know...

Last week I was in Mexico for a wedding and we flew home and we had the absolute worst cabin crew I have ever experienced in 30+ years of travel. One of the numerous issues was the first drink service took just over 2 hours to complete. My question is, is it normal for the flight attendants at the rear of the plane to start at the last row and work forward? I don't normally sit in the rear half of the plane so maybe it's not something I've noticed but because they were so slow, they pinned in 3/4 of the plane in their seats for almost 3 hours as the two carts worked their way towards each other.

[Bigtime]

Flying to and from Orlando on WestJet a couple of weeks back drink service was a crew up front working from row 1 back and a crew starting at the back of the plane working forward.

[STeeLy]

I've seen service done a few ways. Some will do it so service starts at the front and the middle, some start service from front and rear.

[Fuzz]

Westjet did that on our flight. FYI Row 19 is the last to be served on a 737-800(yay me!). And they will run out of the food you want. The lady in front of us was NOT pleased.

It also takes way longer than it used to, with everyone having to pay. I'm not sure why they don't use tap cards on planes, would speed it up a lot.

[Barnes]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Westjet did that on our flight. FYI Row 19 is the last to be served on a 737-800(yay me!). And they will run out of the food you want. The lady in front of us was NOT pleased.

It also takes way longer than it used to, with everyone having to pay. I'm not sure why they don't use tap cards on planes, would speed it up a lot.

They refused to start tabs. I also got some serious shade for asking for a whole can of ginger ale. We were also told that we (the entire plane) were drinking too much water.

The plane was full of garbage when we got on and we ran out of water and toilet paper for the lavs 3 hours in. Food was gone early on but I had pre-ordered so me, my wife and son were ok but we ate and waited for more than an hour for a drink. Garbage wasn't collected until more than halfway through the flight. There was a literal pile of garbage at my feet.

Oh, Wifi and Connect was down and they ran out of tablets at around row 12.

#### happens, and I get that but the cabin crew were so slow, inattentive and rude with everyone on the plane. We had an awesome cabin crew going down and the local reps were super helpful.

We had a stressful transfer to the airport. Some locals blockaded our charter bus and the highway that was supposed to take us to the airport and the WJ rep had to get our group into local vans to get us through. A group of fisherman had engine trouble and were rescued by the coastguard. They went out the next day and broke down again. This time they were arrested until they could pay for their rescue so the families of the fisherman blockaded the road and were boarding buses and demanding money.

The airport was EXTREMELY hot and over crowded and one of our group members fainted in the immigration line and had to be taken to hospital and stayed overnight. We just wanted to get on the plane and get home. We were treated like garbage for being stressed out, hot, and thirsty.

I lit up the cabin crew on arrival and got names.

[sa226]

Originally Posted by Barnes

They refused to start tabs. I also got some serious shade for asking for a whole can of ginger ale. We were also told that we (the entire plane) were drinking too much water.

The plane was full of garbage when we got on and we ran out of water and toilet paper for the lavs 3 hours in. Food was gone early on but I had pre-ordered so me, my wife and son were ok but we ate and waited for more than an hour for a drink. Garbage wasn't collected until more than halfway through the flight. There was a literal pile of garbage at my feet.

Oh, Wifi and Connect was down and they ran out of tablets at around row 12.

#### happens, and I get that but the cabin crew were so slow, inattentive and rude with everyone on the plane. We had an awesome cabin crew going down and the local reps were super helpful.

We had a stressful transfer to the airport. Some locals blockaded our charter bus and the highway that was supposed to take us to the airport and the WJ rep had to get our group into local vans to get us through. A group of fisherman had engine trouble and were rescued by the coastguard. They went out the next day and broke down again. This time they were arrested until they could pay for their rescue so the families of the fisherman blockaded the road and were boarding buses and demanding money.

The airport was EXTREMELY hot and over crowded and one of our group members fainted in the immigration line and had to be taken to hospital and stayed overnight. We just wanted to get on the plane and get home. We were treated like garbage for being stressed out, hot, and thirsty.

I lit up the cabin crew on arrival and got names.

You do need to follow though with your complaint. Customer service like that is unacceptable and the company needs to hear about it.

Westjet is actually quite good at "hearing" complaints, they don't just read them and throw them in the garbage.

Water and food may be a systemic problem that needs to be addressed elsewhere, but regardless of what the crew's day was like if you felt you were treated like crap thats a problem that needs to be addressed.

[Ryan Coke]

Originally Posted by Barnes

I lit up the cabin crew on arrival and got names.

First of all, good. And please send in a complaint. I can assure you that most of the people we work with are great and care to do good work, but there is always a percentage of people that don't. And the rest of us want those 'others' held accountable.

Usually if it is only one bad one, the rest of the crew kind of controls the vibe. But occasionally you get 2 or 3 bad ones together, and then the bad attitude can really come out.

But please get the feedback in.

[Barnes]

Thanks everyone. I will be writing an email. I also need to tell Westjet how impressive their local representatives were.

[Bigtime]

Announcement on the WestJet blog this morning:

WestJet announces plans to launch a new ultra-low-cost carrier

https://blog.westjet.com/westjet-ann...-cost-carrier/

WestJet today announced very exciting news. By the end of 2017, WestJet plans to launch a new ultra-low-cost carrier (ULCC) subject to pilot agreement and regulatory approvals.

As the price-sensitive consumer seeks out alternatives to what is presently available, we believe there is no better airline suited to bring ULCCs to Canada than WestJet; after all WestJet pioneered low-cost travel in Canada in 1996.

There is much work to be done from now until we plan to launch at the end of 2017