More Charter Planes for LGAV

[James Taplin]

Hey guys.

A quick look at the roster confirms that I am the ONLY pilot HUBbed in Greece. Therefore, as de facto station manager (our offices at Eleftherios-Venezelos contain me, co-pilot, engineer, flight crew and cat ) I have a proposition to make.

A lot of us guys fancy the idea of adding a few older birds to the fleet, the kind any airline could pick up cheaper now (727, T-154, C-119, etc...) and while I agree that these planes are a little bit too outdated for the scheduled fleet I think I've come up with a fair compromise.

LGAV has barely any charter planes based there, so whenever I need to make charter flights or a series thereof in anything but the old Dasher I have to have a bird ferried from Germany or further afield, it's a massive pain. I would request that any older planes we add to our stable be based at LGAV as charter aircraft. That way I get some more heavies to charter, and other guys can put them to good use as and when. The management are right, there's not a lot of room for say a B727 in the regular fleet, but I can think of plently of North African airports that don't have noise abatement by-laws. :lol:

What do you think? For starters I would like to request the following aircraft purchased for LGAV charters: - One Boeing 727-200; one Boeing 737-400/500 series; one Tupolev T-154 and one Fairchild C-119. This means I can also checkride them and make sure they fly straight and true... on that note, I wouldn't mind being Air-Child's official test pilot. :rofl:

What do you think?

Paz.

 

[Peter Schindler]

What do you think?

:clap: Very nice and convincing speech, James! This alone is worth a YES

I spoke with Norbert yesterday, and we will include the Tu-154 (probably B and M) into the charter fleet, where we will create a special section for oldtimers (along with 727 and MD-80).
One problem with a rapidly growing fleet (especially with many different aircraft manufacturers) is that the fleet overview and the repaint overview will become rather confusing at some point. That's why we decided to gather these aircraft types in an "oldtimer" section. For the same reason we didn't want to mix smaller aircraft (business jets and props) with the regular passenger and cargo fleet.

I will also have to make some modifications to the scripts and databases, and maybe even in the fleet display, so I can't tell you when exactly the Tupolev will be ready to board.
I think it's a good idea putting a great part of these older aircraft to Athens, because this is the closest hub we have for destinations in Africa and Middle East where most places for special Unicef operations are.

Btw: we are also developping a new concept for these special ops. Will keep you all updated once we have the basic concept ready, which can then be discussed by all.

 

[James Taplin]

Very nice and convincing speech, James! This alone is worth a YES

:rofl: I'm an acclaimed speaker, how else do you think I managed to get free wi-fi AND airhockey in our LGAV office??

I spoke with Norbert yesterday, and we will include the Tu-154 (probably B and M) into the charter fleet, where we will create a special section for oldtimers (along with 727 and MD-80).

This is great news. Quite a lot of VAs operate a 'legacy' or 'old-timer' fleet which contains what we would call classic planes, from the 70s 60s and before. I think a more professional title suitable for us is the "Reserve Fleet". These are the planes that will be reaching the end of their lifetimes just before 2020 (unless they have an exceptionally low number of hours and cycles for their age), mostly built in the mid-60s through the the late 70s.

The idea behind the Reserve Fleet is that it would operate in the same manner as our regular charter service but not within Western Europe or other "first world" areas... I would surmise that the Reserve Fleet would operate best in places like Africa, Russia and the Middle East - areas that are less strict on noise and may well have fewer facilities available that will suit the kind of rugged, time tested airframes we'll be adding to our stable. Planes like the Yak-42 with it's impressive short-field performance, or the B727 we've mostly been harping on about which is nippy and easy to handle, even if it is a ear-bleed-inducing black-smoker!

we are also developping a new concept for these special ops

I've thought about this. All spec-ops, be it disaster relief, UN funded flights, aid drops in war zones, etc... These could easily fit under the purview of the Reserve Fleet, which would have the added benefit of separating out aid work from our regular passenger and cargo services. They reserve fleet can have it's own pool of smaller, older cargo haulers and we can transfer over L-100s as and when we need.

I think it's a good idea putting a great part of these older aircraft to Athens, because this is the closest hub we have for destinations in Africa and Middle East where most places for special Unicef operations are.

Seconded. I don't think it would be a bad idea to have most of these planes based in Athens. LGAV does operate less strict rules regarding older birds mostly because the airport traditionally has a lot of traffic from Africa and the Middle East, and the kind of planes we're asking for are the kind of planes airlines like Libya Air, for example, operate. I wouldn't mind having the extra airframes nearby, either.

Athens has been one of my favourite airports ever since I got into flight simming more seriously and you're right it's a great HUB for access to the Near East and Africa. I used to run a lot of flights from Athens to Jerusalem/Cyprus/Alexandria/Tunis/Cairo, etc etc... Haven't done that with Air-Child yet but we'll see how this pans out and I might submit some flight plans to see if they ever become scheduled services.

On a more immediate note, would it be possible to have A320-200 D-AZSG Zlatan Stipisic Gibonni transferred to LGAV in the short-term, just so I have a charter bird nearby.

Many thanks! Paz. :rofl:

 

[Peter Schindler]

I'm an acclaimed speaker, how else do you think I managed to get free wi-fi AND airhockey in our LGAV office??

Airhockey?!? And the company paid for it?? Wonder who authorized that again :?

:LOL:

I think a more professional title suitable for us is the "Reserve Fleet".

Thanks a lot for that! I already wondered but couldn't think of a good title.

Planes like the Yak-42 ...

Never flown that one (the sim version, that is), but I've only heard good things about it.

All spec-ops, be it disaster relief, UN funded flights, aid drops in war zones, etc... These could easily fit under the purview of the Reserve Fleet, which would have the added benefit of separating out aid work from our regular passenger and cargo services. They reserve fleet can have it's own pool of smaller, older cargo haulers and we can transfer over L-100s as and when we need.

Fully agreed. I see the idea is getting a shape
Additionally, with special ops we want to try to build a bridge between our simulated activity and the real activities of UNICEF. So one idea is, whenever we announce a special operation for a certain region, that it will be acompanied by a special web page, giving background information about that area (political, social, geographical info etc.) and the current UNICEF actions there. So there's not only more of a purpose to fly these ops, but also the option to learn more about what's going on in different parts of the world. It will be some work, collecting that information and assembling it on a web page, so any volunteers are more than welcome

Athens has been one of my favourite airports ever since I got into flight simming more seriously ...

Alright, James, should we ever setup independent management for the hubs (which may happen as soon as the number of pilots exceeds a critical mass), you're number one for LGAV!
Oh, well, I forgot ..... you are the only one there, anyway :rofl:

On a more immediate note, would it be possible to have A320-200 D-AZSG Zlatan Stipisic Gibonni transferred to LGAV in the short-term, just so I have a charter bird nearby.

Should be no problem, but I leave this to be answered by Norbert (may take until Friday or Saturday).

Thanks for all the input, mate! :clap:

 

[James Taplin]

Whoa, that's awesome! Cheers! :rofl:

And before you get too concerned I had a friend of a friend from Marathon bus the airhockey table up to Athens, at no cost to ourselves.

Good choice on picking the Tu-154 as the first member of the reserve fleet by the way... Congratulations on purchasing the "World's Most Complicated Aircraft"[tm]. :lol:

In all seriousness, whilst I love the Tups I would strongly recommend only getting the 154M, and avoiding the 154-B2. The M series is still being made as of 2009 and underwent a process of modernisation in the late 80s. It's still finicky to fly (or as we challenge-heads like to say, "rewarding" to fly) but it does run somewhat simpler than the B2. Stick a new guy in the cockpit of that and you might as well be asking him to fly this Cold War beast...

:idea: Why not get two Tu-154M, that will sort us out for pax/light freight work, then get two older cargo birds so that we have a well rounded selection to start with. :?:

If you do want to stick with passenger liners go for the 727 or the Yak-42 (which, if you've never flown it, I urge you to download ASAP from SamDim and prepare for the flight of your life!!), but please... please; don't make me fly the B2 anymore! :'( OK, so they're really not that different, maybe it's a mental thing but I really get on better with the Tu-154M... :yes:

Heh, we might as well rename the Reserve Fleet the "Trijet Briagde"...

Cheers again Peter, paz.

 

[James Taplin]

OK guys, I just got D-AZSG back safe and sound. I'll take good care of her, thanks for giving her a new home.

Paz.

 

[Torben Andersen]

I will be more than happy in trying to help on finding background information on these "emergency event", Peter.

The briefing could consist of several items such as:

• Geography
  Demographic
  Government
  History
  Aim of flight - why, contents of cargo (tents, water purification equipment etc),...,...
  Route(s)
  Scenery
  ...
  ...

Just glancing www.unicef.org brings this up: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/yemen_51089.html

I'm sure it would be possible to come up with a relief package in our organization - Air-Child :yes:
--

Nice to hear the Tu-154 is coming, think I really need to brush up my Russian :x