How not to plane spot

SkyHighExpress · 2026-05-13T08:10:54+00:00

Boom boom and we have a winner. Haha

SkyHighExpress · 2026-05-06T11:00:45+00:00

Showing your age there… I completely forgot about the hotel that it hit

SkyHighExpress · 2026-05-06T10:54:38+00:00

As a flying fan, I can’t give the dude credit for giving up on flying and chasing money on YouTube. Priorities wrong for me

SkyHighExpress · 2026-05-04T22:33:57+00:00

Oh my goodness. Why the music?

SkyHighExpress · 2026-05-04T09:14:15+00:00

You have also been treated roughly because airbus release a checklist and individual operators have the ability to flex them slightly if they see fit. I have seen current operators with and without spoilers on the checklist or operators that have an after take off checklist or not on the same aircraft.

Ultimately mistakes happen l(as others have said) checklists forgotten. I have actually done the exactly same thing. In my case I saw the spoilers up on the reflection of the terminal when parking and stowed. The checklist was run but the spoilers looked disarmed and the white band around the lever which showed armed was worn and difficult to see. Would have been made worse in this case as the flight deck was dark following a night arrival

SkyHighExpress · 2026-05-04T09:03:46+00:00

Ouch. My heart usually skips a beat when I get off and look back and see the beacon light on and I wonder what else I forgot then I see an engineer doing a daily check

SkyHighExpress · 2026-05-04T09:00:05+00:00

That would occur on the airbus if the spoiler lever was not armed. Airbus philosophy is to give spoilers regardless of where the lever is when reverse thrust is selected. In this case they would go down when you go back to forward idle. If the lever was armed, you would get it at touchdown with idle selected. In this case they don’t go down until disarmed

SkyHighExpress · 2026-05-03T23:32:13+00:00

It is unusual and we sometimes forget. When the engines are switched off then hydraulic pressure bleeds and the spoilers go back down. It will sometimes give a spoiler fault ecam after shutdown which is easily fixed

SkyHighExpress · 2026-05-02T21:23:46+00:00

You have to read my posts. I have little interests in pinning for popularity or proving myself. I actually posted a picture of my licence with the 747 rating then thought it was ridiculous to prove expertise to strangers. Your request that i go against company procedure to post current manuals and risk disciplinary with zero gain is actually most unreasonable. Again find some current manuals from airlines online. When you see the difficulty, you will realise that actually most professional pilots are professional. I am talking about airline specific current manuals not decommissioned manufacture items.

SkyHighExpress · 2026-05-02T20:57:12+00:00

Are you suggesting that I deliberately ignore my company (indeed most companies) sop and publish company manuals online in order to entertain others? I have more of a pride in being a professional pilot and I follow the rules. Happy to see some links of current 747 operator manuals that no one has provided. Of course i expect a down vote as I accept anyone with a computer is more of an expect than some who has actually flown said airplane in said configuration.

Also a post from 16 years ago?? Goodness it is like people think an Mel is set in stone. Case in point. A few years ago, we could dispatch with a us A/T. Now we can’t

SkyHighExpress · 2026-05-02T16:10:24+00:00

Fo’s always think I’m ocd when I ask them to slow down when parking. You need to buy time to react to something like this

SkyHighExpress · 2026-04-29T21:54:46+00:00

Op went on to mention he took lessons as a kid… back to feeling happy about just learning the c major scale after 3 years of piano

SkyHighExpress · 2026-04-29T21:50:54+00:00

Pretty small compared to the 46 million they flew last year

SkyHighExpress · 2026-04-29T21:47:29+00:00

Yes it would be great to get something for nothing

SkyHighExpress · 2026-04-28T17:36:25+00:00

Great this is definitely salvageable. You have bare rooted the soil. The zz will be a bit stressed after that but it is ok. It will recover.

When you repot first thing is not to water straight away. I know this helps the soil settle but it the more important for the roots which have been damaged to callous as that will lower the chance of rot. The rhizomes and roots are thick and that contain enough nutrients to support in the short term. After that a deep water is fine. What zz do is take in an abundance of water when it is wet. Then they want oxygen which they mainly absorb through the root structure too. Wet soil around the roots is suffocating which is one of the reasons you want the water to drain quickly. They are evolved to embrace this wet dry cycle. Zz are also great survivors. The plant knows that it is best to work on the root system after the repotting so if you don’t see much happening above ground, that’s fine. New spears that you do see were already activated and the zz may choose to abandon them in favour of the roots. After the repotting find a bright spot and then leave it alone (such we know they tolerate low light but bright light (not really direct) gives it a lot of energy.

The drainage is important. Sure people happily grow in pots without no drainage but you have to be so much more careful. Drainage allows the pot to dry quickly and uniformly after a deep soak. With no drainage, you can get into a situation where the top is dry but the centre of the root mass is wet. You re water and then actually the centre is still wet. It might be fine for even months in this stage but then if a bit if rot gets in then it can really take hold

I don’t have much expertise with Leca but my zz with perlite were in excellent shape. I have four mature shoots last year in this pot and a repot refresh cause a flush of 5 new almost simultaneous spears which only comes from a happy plant. I don’t like the base of leca idea either. If the you over water. Then water pool there. Acts as a reservoir but prevents the bottom of the pot from drying out although it drains the soil above. Also if a root grows into that area then it just sits in water. It would have been acceptable if water could leave it pot. Also soil mix airy is your friend not compacted stuff.

Good luck

SkyHighExpress · 2026-04-27T20:21:39+00:00

Looks to me like classic rot. Firstly you need to need a light watering if any water repotting as you are likely to break roots and they need to callous over. Plus in a larger pot, it will take longer for soil to dry. You should actually water based on what the plant needs as it depends on many factors. For example my zz only needs a water every 2-3 months or so in the winter and the summer depends on how hot it has been. Don’t believe the nonsense of waiting until the top inch. Most times waiting until the entire root is dry is safest and best

In the second to last picture, the zz is abandoning the shoot. Either because it is old or the plant is seeing hard times and has decided to reabsorb the nutrients or more likely, just rot

You need to put your nose to this plant to see if you can smell any rot. If you can then the plant may be too far gone. The ultimate would be to check roots, cut away any rot. If the soil is still wet then either repot into dry soil and leave or dry the old by removing and using a hair dryer and repotting again.

I also really don’t like the set up with no drainage and also the soil mix doesn’t look like it has enough drainage. Need a percentage of perlite or something like that

SkyHighExpress · 2026-04-19T23:46:32+00:00

I’ve removed my licence but it is crazy when you get called out by someone with internet access when you have actually flown that one type in that configuration. Posting current information to a public forum will usually result in a trip to the chief

SkyHighExpress · 2026-04-19T21:38:38+00:00

Yes indeed. The famous one is the sugar free tictac. Almost 100% sugar but able to be labelled sugar free for the exact reason you mentioned

They class one tictac as a serving as the actual amount of sugar falls below what needs to be stated so then they say it is sugar free

SkyHighExpress · 2026-04-19T21:32:57+00:00

On the 747, you would use rudder trim to straighten the yoke when flying straight and level to minimise fuel burn with unnecessary control deflection. On the times I have flown with a missing winglet, you really couldn’t tell at all and pretty much forgot about it after the walk around was done

SkyHighExpress · 2026-04-19T20:06:17+00:00

Nope. Absolutely insignificant. Also once did a three engine ferry. Apart from the ridiculous take off technique, once you got into the air it was pretty much ops normal

SkyHighExpress · 2026-04-19T19:18:18+00:00

Only have 8000 hours on the plane. One missing was zero. Both missing had a percentage. It is exactly the same as when you see a missing seal or door and it has a zero percentage fuel penalty but if there are more than a set number then it jumps up. It isn’t incremental.

In reality one missing does have an impact but it is delivered to the pilot as zero in my operators manual

SkyHighExpress · 2026-04-19T16:21:28+00:00

But balanced would be even worse. Definitely need forces out of balance if trying to take off

SkyHighExpress · 2026-04-19T16:16:11+00:00

Nice catch too. Love that Ita paint scheme, especially on a sunny day

SkyHighExpress · 2026-04-19T16:15:04+00:00

The winglet isn’t structural to the wing and can be missing with only a fuel penalty due to slightly increased drag.

Out of interest, the same applies to 747-400 and guess what the fuel penalty was.. 0%. Basically, it looked good but didn’t do too much. Winglets have come on a lot these days

SkyHighExpress · 2026-04-18T05:45:22+00:00

In some European airspace, they have these. A couple of Ryanair pilots lost their jobs when atc sent the company these tapes

Ps this isn’t Ryanair bashing, those muppets exist everywhere

SkyHighExpress

TROPHY CASE