Early Risers.

[Ian Abel]

There's plenty of long transcontinental flights served by 737s.

 

Sitting in the back of a United 737 from Newark to the west coast is unpleasant. Their daily EWR-PDX runs are scheduled for 6 hours and 3 minutes.  Flight time of course is less but given boarding times and ground delays the actual backside in seat time can be considerably longer.

Indeed, and I'll never EVER book one!!

If I'm doing anything over 4+ hours I'll search out something with a two aisle cabin

[Ozexpatriate]

If I'm doing anything over 4+ hours I'll search out something with a two aisle cabin

Regrettably, beggars can't be choosers when flying out of Portland. You could route through somewhere like SFO, LAX or SEA but it would end up taking twice as long.

[The Stationmaster]

Me too Mike.

I often hear of youngsters these days having a "gap" year between leaving school and going to university or between leaving uni and going to work. How times have changed.

 

I had a gap weekend! 

 

I wonder what sort of 'gap' seven weeks working in a brewery counts as?  Definitely not an alcohol gap as it was, literally, free beer for the workers and even those who knew what went into it drank it.  Basically each firkin was started by using the end of any racking off of draught beers - but not the ullage of course - and was then topped up with the end of whatever was being run off the bottling line.  It could therefore start as Mild, or Bitter, or Best Bitter to which would then be added anything between Pale Ale and Brown Ale or even Oatmeal Stout (although the local brew of that was a rarity by then).  Remarkably it didn't usually taste too bad but it helped to mix in a bit of lemonade although plenty of old hands drank it as it came - and in vast quantities in some cases although the official allowance was three pints, as halves, per day.

[AndyID]

There's plenty of long transcontinental flights served by 737s.

 

Sitting in the back of a United 737 from Newark to the west coast is unpleasant. Their daily EWR-PDX runs are scheduled for 6 hours and 3 minutes.  Flight time of course is less but given boarding times and ground delays the actual backside in seat time can be considerably longer.

Oh how I miss flying coast to coast, NOT!

 

SNA to BOS, what a PITA that was - literally.

[PhilJ W]

I wonder what sort of 'gap' seven weeks working in a brewery counts as?  Definitely not an alcohol gap as it was, literally, free beer for the workers and even those who knew what went into it drank it.  Basically each firkin was started by using the end of any racking off of draught beers - but not the ullage of course - and was then topped up with the end of whatever was being run off the bottling line.  It could therefore start as Mild, or Bitter, or Best Bitter to which would then be added anything between Pale Ale and Brown Ale or even Oatmeal Stout (although the local brew of that was a rarity by then).  Remarkably it didn't usually taste too bad but it helped to mix in a bit of lemonade although plenty of old hands drank it as it came - and in vast quantities in some cases although the official allowance was three pints, as halves, per day.

That reminds me of this incident.

http://www.boakandbailey.com/2015/08/the-strange-death-of-ronny-fincham/

[Ian Abel]

Regrettably, beggars can't be choosers when flying out of Portland. You could route through somewhere like SFO, LAX or SEA but it would end up taking twice as long.

True, then again if you flew PDX to SEA you might find yourself in the capable hands of Jemma

Doesn't fly that leg often but has occasionally...

[AndyID]

True, then again if you flew PDX to SEA you might find yourself in the capable hands of Jemma

Doesn't fly that leg often but has occasionally...

Schtum! Schtum!

 

You better reword that before Mick O'Yellowtrains reads it.

[New Haven Neil]

After having flown to Kiwi three times, I'd be happy never to fly long haul again!  To be fair to maximise time out there they were flights with no stop-overs, which if/when we go again we will have, but boy did the jet lag kill us coming back. NEVER doing that again! 36 hours door to door, and no Jemma either.

[Ozexpatriate]

To be fair to maximise time out there they were flights with no stop-overs, which if/when we go again we will have, but boy did the jet lag kill us coming back. NEVER doing that again! 36 hours door to door ...

There are no short cuts crossing the equator.

 

I assume that you had stops - but they were layovers rather than breaking your journey overnight? I'm sure adding some stops to sleep in a real bed would help with the fatigue but unless you stop for several days jet lag is still going to be a factor.

 

I find flying east to be the most difficult.

[roundhouse]

I would use WestJet again as they fly out of Gatwick which saves us a few hours getting to Heathrow and the flight to St Johns was fine in the 737. Any further than I would want to go in one of their 767s which are one of our favourite planes (despite they are getting old) as they have just two seats next to the window so you also get an aisle when there are two of you.

 

We may be using Norwegian to Seattle in their Dreamliner although they are 3+3+3 seating but it’s affordable as airfares across the pond are now silly prices when we have been looking at travelling.

Edited September 27, 2017 by roundhouse

[New Haven Neil]

There are no short cuts crossing the equator.

 

I assume that you had stops - but they were layovers rather than breaking your journey overnight? I'm sure adding some stops to sleep in a real bed would help with the fatigue but unless you stop for several days jet lag is still going to be a factor.

 

I find flying east to be the most difficult.

 

One stop - LA.  Air NZ 001.

 

 Gatwick - LA 12 hours, 3 hrs ish in transit, LA - to Auckland, 13 hours, then internal Auckland to Christchurch, Christchurch to Nelson.  Shattered! NEVER again, when we first went we were younger, in our 30's, now in our late 50's it isn't an option.  Maybe Singapore or somewhere like that for a stop over, going the 'other' way around!  You can't go any further away than NZ, you start coming back again.....

[Ozexpatriate]

One stop - LA.  Air NZ 001.

31 years ago the LAX - AKL route on Air New Zealand was:

 

LAX - HNL (Honolulu)

HNL - NAN (Nadi - pre-dawn refuel)

NAN - AKL

 

To get home I then flew AKL-SYD, SYD-BNE.

 

These were the days before the 747-400. Fortunately I was much younger then.

 

Even though I can do LAX-BNE in one hop these days, it really takes a long time to cross the pacific from the NE to the SW. Thankfully not as long as it did though.

[jamie92208]

There are no short cuts crossing the equator.

 

I assume that you had stops - but they were layovers rather than breaking your journey overnight? I'm sure adding some stops to sleep in a real bed would help with the fatigue but unless you stop for several days jet lag is still going to be a factor.

 

I find flying east to be the most difficult.

 

We were told that jet lag is the same as the effects of changing shifts.  Apparently the body clock adjusts more easily in one direction than the other.  Thus it is easier to fly west  than east. Our Dr at work told us that the body clock can only reset at the rate of 4 hours in every 24 so it takes you 2 days to adjust properly when coming back from the western USA.  The last shift pattern that I worked was based on this research and was one of the least disruptive.  We only worked 2 night shifts at a time so that the clock never fully reset.  However since I left that has all been abandoned by caring management who don't work shifts.

 

Jamie

[AndyB]

Neil, how about leaving from So'ton. 

Tickets are around £10?

And a guarantee of no "jet"lag. 

 

Edited September 27, 2017 by AndyB

[AndyID]

We flew from Los Angeles to Tahiti a few years back. That was bad enough, but the plane was full of poor souls who had started in Paris

[AndyID]

We were told that jet lag is the same as the effects of changing shifts.  Apparently the body clock adjusts more easily in one direction than the other.  Thus it is easier to fly west  than east. Our Dr at work told us that the body clock can only reset at the rate of 4 hours in every 24 so it takes you 2 days to adjust properly when coming back from the western USA.  The last shift pattern that I worked was based on this research and was one of the least disruptive.  We only worked 2 night shifts at a time so that the clock never fully reset.  However since I left that has all been abandoned by caring management who don't work shifts.

 

Jamie

 

I've heard that it's more like one hour per day to adjust completely, and that seems to line-up with my experience. If I flew from the US (west coast) to Europe for a two day trip I had no problem adjusting back to US time. A one week stay was much worse because I had finally adjusted to local time just when I had to return. It's a bit easier when you are on holiday, but business trips can be really horrible.

[New Haven Neil]

Neil, how about leaving from So'ton. 

Tickets are around £10?

And a guarantee of no "jet"lag. 

 

 

 

I used to get paid to travel so far, at 17 knots.....but 4 months before I got home!

[Tony_S]

Ian (Abel). Yes, as mentioned elsewhere Matthew's flight was Dublin to St John's. Took off 30 minutes late arrived earlier than predicted so about 4 hours. On landing he went to an atm to get some cash. UK (NatWest) and Dutch debit cards rejected but his Irish one was ok. I rang up Natwest and they said it wasnt blocked this end, it was the atm seemingly generating a code for credit cards when a debit card was inserted or something similar.

He has booked an Airbnb room for his stay. He has decided backpackers hostels are fine for holidays but for study or work related things he will use AirBnB in future.

Tony

[Smiffy2]

It never rains...

 

Yesterday was a bad day in the family - the couple went to mediation, and it seems he's unhinged. He's off visiting his new woman in hospital, she comes first now. His demands and expectations are unreal.

 

Yesterday I learned that the Head of the school I'm a governor at lost her brother last week - he was only in his thirties.

 

Then today I learned that one of my closest colleagues at school died suddenly over the weekend. He was a great craftsman and teacher, and younger than me.

 

I'm having a bit of trouble sleeping, and I've several jobs to do that I just can't motivate myself to do. I think I may run away...

[tetsudofan]

Evening all, spent the afternoon sprucing up a Routemaster owned by one of my friends:

 

 

The sun was shining on the bus at the time the picture was taken and does not do the bus any justice. Our task today was to try to remove as much as possible of the scruffing down the side of the bus caused by contact with overhanging trees which Kent County Council don't trim properly. Our weapons were a tube of scratch removal cream, some dusters and elbow grease. My friend applied the cream and I did the polishing as can be seen here:

 

 

Don't worry, when were actually doing the work one of us was on the ladder and the other was standing on the bottom of the ladder keeping it stable!!

 

What amazed me was the effectiveness of the cream as can be seen in this close-up showing was has been cleaned and what has not been cleaned. I was quite surprised.....

 

 

The bus is due to attend the Amersham & High Wycombe Running Day next Sunday, October 1st and will be operating Feeder Service 711 from Swanley to High Wycombe on which I may be acting as the Conductor but that won't be confirmed until later this week. 

 

Keith

 

 

[Tony_S]

Back in the mid 1960s Aditi and her (younger) sister went on what would have been the cheapest flight to India to go to their Aunt's wedding. The plane stopped lots of times. So at places like Rome, Beirut and Tehran they were wandering about the airport with vouchers for cola.

The next time they went the family had more money and flew BOAC whuch meant they, as unaccompanied minors had an assigned stewardess to escort them right up until they were met by family.

[BSW01]

Evening all

 

Today's weather has been pretty much the same as yesterday, started of sunny but turned a little cloudy by mid morning. Both gate posts are now cemented in and have both had wooden fillets fitted to enable screws for the gate hinges, locks etc to be more easier fitted, they have also both been painted the same colour as the fencing. I had to lift several paving slabs so that I could get at the bases of the gate posts, so my next task is to relay those. I'd only been inside about 20-30 minutes when it started to rain, so I think I timed that rather nicely! It's not stopped raining since and has been quite heavy at times!

 

Tomorrow I have the day off, so I will be spending it in the kitchen making a carrot cake for the grandchildren's school coffee morning, as well as some spicy apple and parsnip soup and some apple crumble! We have been given a lot of apples from one of Sheila Zumba colleagues who has an allotment!

 

No degree for me either, like a few others I went straight into an apprenticeship when I left school, however I did go on to get a HND in electrical and electronic engineering. I didn't have a gap year, but I did have a gap summer, working part time in a local butchers. I officially finished school in July, although I didn't go back after taking my last exam, but didn't start work until September, after school had gone back!

 

Dick. Thoughts with you during these hard times.

 

Goodnight all.

[Barry O]

Dick, if you need a place to rest please PM me.

Now then, as an engineer if it hasn't got 4 engines no long journeys across the sea...especially Boeing bricks which have the aerodynamics of....a brick (A380s are a flyingwing, and Airbus wings are just in the next League compared to Boeing carp)

 

Always had problems with jet lag flying back to the UK from the far east...despite 14 hours of sleep on flights.

 

Outwitted the "Essexgirls" and Germans tonight and snaffled free wine and a great table for our evening meal.

 

Sleep well

 

Baz

[Barry O]

My gap weeks included emptying dustbins...all politicians should be made to do this, cleaning toilets (ditto), preparing chipped potatoes (ditto), running a car park (ditto), beings bingo checker and cleaning floors... I thoroughly enjoyed the education

 

Baz

Edited September 27, 2017 by Barry O

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.