Tim Byatt
@Tim_the_Pilot
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British civil aviation from a heritage angle. Privileged to fly the B777 & previously the B737, B747 Classic & -400, B757, B767 & TriStar. Clearly more B than A
Joined July 2012
Our latest internal Flt Ops newsletter has a small but significant piece recording the retirement of our last Hamble trained pilot from BA. Known formally as the College of Air Training (CAT), it was the main pilot training facility for BOAC/BEA/BA in the 60/70s. End of an era.
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“A quick Paris and back”, that was the plan….to help with the Eurostar disruption. It was clear from the sky (and the wx forecast) that the approaching storms were going to be severe, and when it hit CDG it was intense ! The lightning was something else, as we sat it out ⚡️
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Some new toys 😁 .Assuming the combining of the B777 and B787 fleets proceeds, once the early B777s have retired, this is going to be a huge joint fleet….
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Some, for once, helpful cloud, just at the local eclipse maximum point here (11:04z) enabled this rather spooky photo of the partial solar eclipse from the UK. #Eclipse
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I can’t wait to welcome everyone aboard our non-stop flight, BA2167, from London LGW to Giant Flamingo Home, now it’s official 🤭. Much fun to be had with this. When is the TPA code changing to GFH ?. Just need a large lake, like Lake Nakuru, to set down on, flying boat style. 🦩.
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Cessna 150 passing Heathrow….!. I love it that light aircraft are being allowed into the Heathrow control zone today. What an unusual opportunity and good on @NATS for accommodating them. 👏👍
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It’s interesting to read SpaceX’s summary of Starship 7’s failure. There are parts of it, namely “to address flammability potential in the attic section on Starship, additional vents and a new purge system utilizing gaseous nitrogen are being added….”, which so resemble TWA800.
The seventh flight test of Starship ended before reaching its ambitious goals. Lessons learned are being applied to future vehicles to make them more reliable. A technical summary of the investigation can be found here →
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In 2 days one of our legacy IT systems is being decommissioned. We’ve a last chance to download our training record going back decades. Apparently this system stored 288,264 courses for 7982 pilots since it began !!.I thought I’d save some of my more valiant efforts in the sim 😆
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Set your watches folks…. 15:45 UK time tomorrow (Tuesday). I think they’ll be quite a few people in Waterside, BA’s London HQ, myself included, watching this, as the development aircraft for the next generation of supersonic passenger flight breaks Mach 1.0 for the first time.
It’s almost time. We’re targeting Jan. 28 for XB-1 to break the sound barrier. Beginning at 7:45am PST/10:45am EST/3:45pm GMT, watch the @Starlink livestream on hosted by former Chief Concorde Pilot for British Airways Mike Bannister, and XB-1 experts
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Quite a day for future heavy launch spaceflight capability. Blue Origin successfully launches the maiden New Glenn into orbit, but loses the reusable booster. Then SpaceX launch Starship mission 7 and have a successful booster catch, but lose Ship 33 after boost separation.
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And once more with feeling…. 😍. Look at her go !! No doubt a full thrust take-off from her pair of Rolls-Royce E4’s. I’ve departed Manchester on a #B757 more than a few times over the years, but always as a “Shuttle”. Many happy hours, sectors and memories on the 757.
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Well there’s no denying Icelandair ‘does what it says on the tin’….Ice land air !.
An Icelandair 757 is returning from Union Glacier Camp in Antarctica to Punta Arenas in Chile.
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The operational significance of the runway extension at Nuuk, Greenland can’t be underestimated. It provides a new key emergency diversion option between Iceland and Newfoundland/Labrador, Canada. Not only is the runway long, it has a straight in Cat 1 ILS on each end.
Nuuk. #Greenland 🇬🇱.Historic day for Greenland. Air Greenland Airbus A330neo landing for the first time in Nuuk. November 28, 2024. 🎥: Pilunnguaq Korneliussen
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Amazing to think this was now 27 years ago. It’s the only major incident I’ve witnessed first hand and what isn’t captured here is that it was a grotty, gusty, low cloudbase afternoon at Heathrow. The prior low flypast of the tower to verify the unsafe gear was a superb decision.
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I spy a comet on the North Atlantic !. Not a de Havilland Comet, but Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS (C/2023 A3), shortly after sunset, at FL410, around 37°N 64°W last night. #CometC2023A3 #CometATLAS #Comet
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If you have 15 mins to spare, and access to BBC Sounds, this is a wonderful short story read by Stephen Fry, with an aviation thread running through it. Enjoy 😄 💻
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