Bateleur1

Since the start of the Ukrainian conflict there has been alot more activity in the air by us as well. Although the closest Air base is 100 or 200 km away, we have a US Military base not too far away. So many exercises are conducted here and fighter jets do low fly -by often here. So we see the Airbus A400M, Eurofighters, Tornados, every now and then also F16 zipping by.

https://www.defenceweb.co.za/aerospace/aerospace-aerospace/saaf-gripen-fighters-soar-over-cape-town-ahead-of-2024-sona/

SAAF Birthday?

It is almost end of the year for the budget so the Air Force might have a few litres of jet fuel to burn NATO is currently busy with one massive exercise somewhere. That means increased traffic of military aircraft and fighters where I stay. They are normally pretty fast and I don't always get to see them before they are gone. But have a had a few F16's giving it stick and then quite often Eurofighters and Tornado's showing off.

I remember in 2015 we flew from Joburg to Munich via Zurich. We were the first plane to land on Zurich that morning and it snowed during the night. It was a lovely approach in the dark. The plane we got in to fly from Zurich to Munich was still fully covered with snow when we boarded and obviously got sprayed just before take off. 24 000 liters is quite a bit. My pool that I had in SA held about 30 000 liters. What does the de icing cost nowadays per liter?

@Spokey if you ever stop over for a day or two in Munich, drop me a message and we can meet up for a drink or something. Love your pics.

They did declare an emergency as the landing gear could not retract after takeoff. So the fire trucks were waiting on stand by. That boogy knocked quite a dent into the fuselage.

The aircraft you saw was the BAE Hawk, a british airplane. The were part of the big weapons upgrade in the infamous Arms Deal. The aircraft you know that was sold to the US is the Atlas Cheetah. In this article under operators you will see that they were sold in 2017 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_Cheetah

If memory serves me right, we sold our Cheetahs to the Americans, not the Hawks

I am of the opinion that the Lightning is one of the fugliest jet fighters ever built

Spokey, in my mind, most causes of losing all AC power would most propably be complete engine failure. Should one or more of the engines still be running the plane should still be flyable and not gliding. Or could there be many other scenarios where you could have all AC power loss but still have running engines?

I actually don't mind sitting close to the galley on the long haul. Since I can't sleep in anyway I move to the back often and streth the legs there when the crew is not busy serving the passangers and they are actually taking it ease. On my return flight now on Swiss, I was standing at the back when a lady another lady was also standing there that could not sleep. We ended up chatting with the crew while they made us coffee 3 o'clock in the morning.

Bonus, I had a slightly different experience with the check in with Lufthansa now in August on our flight to Joburg. Because our flight from Munich to Frankfurt was in actual fact a high speed train, we had to check in online 24 hours prior and print our boarding passes as that is our train ticket as well. So fo the return flight I wanted to have specific seats and when you check online, there was still many options available. So I had not had the problem that our family was split up and we could sort out our seats without paying extra. What I can say is that the seats on the Lufthansa 747-8 is not much to write home about. Man it was small. Our return flight was on Swiss (which is also part of the Lufthansa Group) and it is chalk and cheese I am telling you. The old A340 were newly refurbished two years ago and that cabin and seats is 10x better than the 747.

Did the Red Arrows perform? Their shows are always spectacular!

Well if all goes according to plan, I will realise one of my dreams ... to fly in the 747-8. Flying with Lufthansa from Frankfurt to Johannesburg. I am as excited as a kid on Christmas