New Carrier for Benbecula

[St.Paddy]

Hi Gals n' Guys

Thought you might be interested in this...

http://www.flybe.com/news/0801/14.htm

Q: Are they going to flog off the S340's and give us Dash 8's?

Tim

[TSR2]

No Dash 8's, Its still Loganair, so they will continue to opperate their own fleet.

[markw]

A friend (rather unkindly) said when he heard about the "franchise" agreement that flyBE should transfer all the remaining ex BA-Con ERJ145s to Loganair so they can land them on the beach at Barra...and leave them there.

I don't think he likes Brazilian flying pencils.

[TSR2]

They are horrible little aircraft. I'm inclined to agree with him, spend more time tech than they do it the air.

[Garry Russell]

I really don't see why Britain couldn't have moved into that class of aircraft instead of winding everything down :@

Garry

[ianhind]

OFFTOPIC

I don't think he likes Brazilian flying pencils.

Always avoided flying on them after a similarly-built ;-) colleague said space inside was at a premium. So rather then BMI ERJ145 from EMA to Frankfurt, I used to prefer to drive to Birmingham and get the BA A319 (they were new on the route at the time).

I have since flown on a Swiss one, but fortunately had my petite wife next to me.

[Motormouse]

[rant mode]
a lot of the so-called ERJ 'tech' problems are because 'Flybe' p**** off all the existing ex Manx/Bral/BA Connect
experienced engineers, many of whom were made redundant (including humble scribe) or resigned and got better paid jobs elsewhere rather than take an enforced £3000 pay cut.[/rant mode]

Hmm....Loganair a Flybe franchisee, with BA holding a 25% stake in Flybe, all sounds rather familiar to the Manx/BRal
situation back in 1994.....

ttfn

Pete

[TSR2]

Hi Pete,

I didn't know that about flybe, but the tech problems I was refering to came from a bmi crew some 5 years ago, and a BA Connect Senior first officer 2 years ago, they all thought the aircraft was crap.

[Chris Trott]

And as a fueler I think the ERJs were/are crap. Poor location of the fueling point, poor location of the panel, extremely difficult to fuel if the auto system isn't working, slow fueling (slower than the Airbus A32x series which is quite a feat in and of itself), no good way to park near the airplane meaning you have to drag 30-40 feet of very heavy 2 1/2" fueling hose and 30-40 feet of EXTREMELY heavy 4" hydrant connect hose. Oh, did I mention the fueling connect point is crappy? It leaks, it sprays, it's hard to get a good angle on, it's the worst out there. Worse than the toilet connection on the Do-328 or any of the Douglas connections (which always drop about a pint of fuel when you disconnect).

Oh, and then there's the issue of either climbing or going fast. You can climb at a good rate at 250 knots, or you can climb at 500FPM at 280 knots. Your choice.