BigDUSA

I may be interested in buying all of them. What are you asking for them?

Congratulations to Qantas and the training the pilots received. Well done!

Since an explosive engine failure nearly downed one of his prized A380 jetliners, Qantas Airways Ltd. Chief Executive Alan Joyce has been scrambling to clean up the damage. View Full Image Andrew Quilty for The Wall Street Journal. Chief Executive Alan Joyce says Qantas is looking at social-networking following incorrect reports after a November engine failure. .The failure minutes after the Sydney-bound flight left Singapore on Nov. 4 forced Qantas to ground its fleet of six A380s for safety checks on the planes' Rolls-Royce PLC engines. Today, most are back in service, but Qantas isn't yet back to full capacity. Mr. Joyce is waiting for Rolls-Royce to resolve technical issues before restoring Qantas's key Sydney-Los Angeles route. He's also seeking compensation from Rolls; Merrill Lynch estimates that the A380's grounding could cost the airline 207 million Australian dollars ($207.9 million) in lost revenue and direct repairs. The Irish-born Australian has worked his way up the ranks of Australia's aviation industry, moving to Qantas about a decade ago and becoming CEO in 2008. No stranger to crises, he's seen the industry endure the travel slump that followed the Sept. 11 attacks; an outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome that hammered airlines across Asia; and, this year, a volcanic eruption in Iceland. Mr. Joyce recently spoke with The Wall Street Journal at Qantas's Sydney city office. Excerpts: WSJ: How did you learn about the A380 incident? Mr. Joyce:I was at a business lunch here in the city. We had just done a presentation and had a lunch with investors and analysts. We were leaving in a car, and the investor relations people are telling me the share price is collapsing. The share price went down something crazy like 12-15 cents in the space of half an hour. We knew that we had an issue with an aircraft, which was circling. I get text messages any time there's operational issues. But there were rumors about a crash after parts of the aircraft had fallen in Indonesia. These tweets started appearing that a Qantas aircraft had crashed. Then one of the news agencies probably based a story inappropriately on the tweets and the share price collapsed. WSJ: What did you do? Mr. Joyce: Immediately we went to our emergency and crisis executive center. We confirmed the aircraft was still in the air, so we immediately got out there and said the aircraft's still flying and was due to land. It took two hours for the pilots to circle and burn fuel, but also to handle the error messages the computer says you need to sort out before landing. At this stage we had all of the crisis executives activated, we had a bank of TV screens, and we had all the live coverage taking place, with communications with the pilots and the operations staff at the airport at Singapore. When we knew the aircraft had landed safely we were able to put a statement out to say that was the case. WSJ:What did you learn about social media from that experience? Mr. Joyce: Since then we've hired a group of people just to look at the social network side of things. We were ready for traditional media and we had a press conference by 4 o'clock that afternoon, which I fronted. And we had our press statement out within half an hour of us knowing the issue. But we'd missed this whole [social media] end of communication. Since then we've had a couple of other rumors occurring and we've gotten on top of it with tweets and Facebook, and we've killed it before it's become a story. WSJ: You made a big bet on the A380. Has this engine problem made you think twice about that? Mr. Joyce: No, I think it's a fantastic aircraft. And it's going to be still the flagship of Qantas for some time. WSJ: Why did you decide to go with Rolls-Royce for the engine, and has the experience in any way changed your view of that company in the future? Mr. Joyce:Where you can have a choice we have a competition between the engine manufacturers. And Rolls put the best package together in terms of performance of the engine, the maintenance of the engine and the price overall. The one thing to say about Rolls is this type of failure is very rare for them. WSJ: How do you feel that the Qantas image has been affected by the problems you've had with the A380? Mr. Joyce:We're doing extensive brand research. If you look back, Qantas has had a couple of significant issues over the last decade and the brand in our minds has been very robust. With flight QF1 10 years ago, the aircraft ran off the runway in Bangkok, and then in 2008 we had the oxygen cylinders on a 747 explode and come through the aircraft. While in the short term our brand has taken, I think, a small hit, it's not as bad as in the previous occasions. People saw how we approached these incidents compared to the rest of the industry, and that's actually held our brand in good stead. QUOTE

Check out www.pattayarentaroom.com I stayed at the Yensabia Condo a few years ago. Large one bedroom with kitchenette. The place was clean and at the time well run. I stayed there a couple of times and liked it.

Because this topic is aimed at the NEWBIE to Thailand. I agree it's easy to open a bank account in Thailand but for the first time visitor who may never come back TC, ATM are the way to go.

This question came up in another topic and I thought I'd offer one man's opinion on the subject. I've stayed in two Pattaya hotel/guest house that offer in room safe. Both safes are the cheapest the owner could buy. They are OK to keep light fingered BG out of your stuff but they are fairly easy for someone to break into. IMHO it's CRAZY to keep large sums of cash money in them. If they are broken into you have almost zero chance of recovery. If you feel the need to bring a lot of cash to Pattaya use travelers checks. If they are stolen you will get your money back quickly from the TC company. There are plenty of ATM around for you to use. I've been to Pattaya many times and I've never had anything go missing from my room.

You might have missed it but this is an opinion forum. My opinion it's CRAZY to keep large sums of cash in a cheap ass hotel safe. Your opinion is somewhat different. OK by me. No need to engage in personal abuse. Lame on your part. BTW, I've well over 40 trips to Pattaya since 1999 and I've got the passport visa stamps to prove I've been in country.

I want to give a special shout out to the following US Taxpayers. Hub, brotherbuzz and btm1978. I couldn't do it without your support.

100,000 Baht=$3,310USD. I would call that a CRAZY amount of cash to keep in a cheap ass hotel safe.

Qantas closer to returning A380 to Los Angeles By Geoffrey Thomas | December 23, 2010 0 Share EmailPrintQantas is believed to be closer to restarting Airbus A380 service on the Los Angeles to Sydney and Melbourne routes after regulators eased engine inspection rules. According to The Australian, Qantas is in discussions with Rolls-Royce about how it can lift restrictions on Trent 900 engines that prevent the aircraft flying from the US with a full payload. EASA this week relaxed its requirement of a Trent 900 inspection every 20 flights, designed to detect oil leaks, to an inspection every 200 flights. EASA ordered the inspections after the Nov. 4 explosion of a Trent 972 engine on a Qantas A380 after take-off from Singapore. The problem has been traced to fatigue cracks in an incorrectly bored stub pipe that feeds oil into the High Pressure and Intermediate Pressure bearing structure (ATW Daily News, Dec. 3). Qantas said it will have five A380s flying by Christmas Day including its seventh, which was delivered last week. The airline will take delivery of a further two A380s next month. QUOTE

Boeing resuming 787 flight testing, to announce new delivery schedule in January By Aaron Karp | December 24, 2010 3 简体中文 Share EmailPrintBoeing planned to resume 787 flight testing late Thursday for the first time since a Nov. 9 inflight fire forced the grounding of the test fleet. The manufacturer determined that a power panel in 787 flight test aircraft ZA002's aft electronics bay suffered a "failure" during the Nov. 9 flight, leading "to a fire involving an insulation blanket" that caused main cabin smoke necessitating an emergency landing and the suspension of all flight testing (ATW Daily News, Nov. 15). Boeing said in a statement Thursday that it has "installed an interim version of updated power distribution system software and conducted a rigorous set of reviews to confirm the flight readiness of ZA004, the first of the six flight test airplanes that will return to flight." The disruption of the flight testing program has led to wide speculation that first delivery of the 787 to ANA, currently scheduled for the 2011 first quarter, will be delayed yet again (ATW Daily News, Nov. 22). Boeing VP and GM-787 Program Scott Fancher did not announce a new delivery schedule, explaining, "As we return to flight test and determine the pace of that activity, we remain focused on developing a new program schedule. We expect to complete our assessment of the program schedule in January." He noted that initial flight tests will focus on the resumption of "a series of Boeing tests that remain to be completed in the flight test program. That testing will be followed later by a resumption of certification testing." Boeing stated that it and Hamilton Sundstrand "completed testing of the interim software updates earlier this week. Verification of the system included laboratory testing of standalone components, integration testing with other systems, flight simulator testing and ground-based testing on a flight test airplane." It added that while the flight test fleet has been grounded, "the company continued ground testing as part of the certification program. Additional ground testing will be done by the company on the production version of the airplane to further verify performance of the changes being made." QUOTE

It's CRAZY to keep very large sums of cash money in a cheap ass hotel safe. CRAZY.

OMG tommie says their's no one in charge at Airbus commercial plane division. NO WONDER things are so fucked up at Airbus. The A380 program years, late, way over budget. Wings under spec. The fucked up wiring harness and let's not forget the exploding piece of crap from Rolls Royce. Hundred's of million dollar lawsuits against Rolls Royce and Airbus. I can just see the begging bowl from Airbus now. EU taxpayer Airbus.

So much negativity from tommie. What's the matter tommie couple of days till Christmas and all your finding is lumps of coal in your stocking.

If only what you post was true and it isn't. The USA federal taxpayer is not on the hook for funding the Boeing 787. Now according to the guy who heads Airbus commercial plane division. If it wasn't for the direct EU taxpayer subsidy we'd never be able to fund our R&D program. Airbus has been in business for years and has sold thousands of commercial aircraft and it still can't cut the mustard.

At least I wasn't a passenger on the Qantas "damn near the kiss of death exploding Rolls Royce engine flight". How close did all the passengers and crew come to a quick demise? Damn close.

NEW YORK – Boeing said Monday it's again increasing the production rate for its 777 aircraft due to strong customer demand. The Chicago company will boost output to 8.3 of the 777 planes a month in the first quarter of 2013. In March it announced plans to increase production to seven airplanes per month from five starting in the middle of next year. United Airlines first placed the 777 into service in 1995. There have been 907 deliveries of the aircraft, which comes in several different versions including a freighter. Several major commercial airlines use the long-range aircraft and FedEx uses the cargo version. Boeing said it has a backlog of more than 250 777s and that suppliers are prepared for its production increases. The news of increased production comes despite an announcement from the aerospace giant last week that customers canceled orders for three 777s and one of its 787s. The company declined to say who canceled the orders. The new 787 has been plagued by delays for more than two years. In the latest problem for the plane, Boeing said earlier this month it was in the middle of a three-week hold on assembling pieces of the 787. Flight tests stopped last month because of an electrical fire, and the first delivery officially slated for early next year is expected to be pushed back. Continental Airlines was scheduled to be the first U.S. carrier with a 787, and planned to begin flights between Houston and Auckland, New Zealand, in November 2011. Those are now being pushed into 2012. Continental will fly a planned route between Houston and Lagos, Nigeria, with a Boeing 777 instead of the 787. Those flights are set to begin in November 2011. QUOTE How sweet it is. .

I do know one thing about aviation. The Boeing 787 is way above the Airbus A380 in total orders.

Reminds me of the A380 wing not meeting specs or was it the wiring harness fiasco. Then again it could be the exploding Rolls Royce engine that damn near killed the passengers, crew.

So many confirmed orders for the Boeing 787 compared to the Airbus A380. Could it be the airlines know something the Airbus fanboys don't?

It's in a book. That's how you missed it.

Jet Age' recounts how Boeing beat the Brits EmailPrint.. AP – In this book cover image released by Avery, 'Jet Age: The Comet, the 707 and the Race to Shrink the World' … .By JERRY HARKAVY, For The Associated Press Jerry Harkavy, For The Associated Press – Wed Oct 13, 10:52 am ET "Jet Age: The Comet, the 707, and the Race to Shrink the World" (Avery, $27), by Sam Howe Verhovek: The years immediately following Britain's victory in World War II were unkind to the island nation. Rationing seemed as if it would never end; Britons suffered through the coldest winter in memory; and the empire on which the sun would never set was dissolving ever so quickly. Amid the gloom, there was one great source of pride: Britain's leadership in the development of a commercial jetliner that would usher in a new era in air travel. The de Havilland Comet, a sleek, bullet-shaped plane with its four engines tucked into its wings, made its debut in 1952 and was the odds-on favorite to be the first to fly passengers across the Atlantic. That was before three Comets blew apart in the sky in less than a year. As the aircraft maker scrambled to determine the cause of the mysterious explosions, Boeing entered the competition, in effect betting that a company that thrived on military contracts could reinvent itself by developing passenger jets. The race between the U.S., also represented by Douglas and Lockheed, and Britain is brought to life in Sam Howe Verhovek's fast-paced book, "Jet Age: The Comet, the 707, and the Race to Shrink the World." The book captures the zeitgeist of a decade in which all manner of advances, including globe-girdling flight, seemed possible. The leaders of the rival plane makers were Boeing President Bill Allen, a mild-mannered lawyer with scant background in aviation who oversaw the development of what became the 707, and Geoffrey de Havilland, a legendary aircraft designer whose loss of two sons in accidents aboard his company's planes could not quell his determination to see British jetliners dominate the skies. Other key figures include the colorful test pilots who helped market the aura of jet travel; the British aeronautics professor whose investigation uncovered the cause of the Comet explosions; and the airline chieftains, including Pan American's Juan Trippe and TWA's Howard Hughes, whose orders for planes would determine the outcome of the competition. Verhovek, a veteran newsman, sets the stage for his story by sharing the colorful history of the dawn of commercial flight. He describes the high death toll among pilots whose planes went down during the early years of air mail; the wretched passenger conditions such as wooden-slat seating in extreme heat and cold; and the earliest stewardesses, who were required to be registered nurses so they could deal calmly with medical emergencies. By contrast, the dawn of the jet age was a time of glamour, elegance and excitement, when passengers would don their finest clothes before boarding. Although today's flights are far cheaper in constant dollars, travelers of a certain age can look back wistfully to an era in which riding in a jetliner was something more than traveling in a flying bus. "Jet Age" is a quick read, one that can be completed in the time it takes to wait in a terminal, board a jet and cross an ocean. It's a book that is likely to prompt some readers to delve more deeply into this fascinating subject. Boeing's dominance is revealed by how its 707 Jet Stratoliner emerged as the first workhorse of the Jet Age. Indeed, there were barely one-tenth as many Comets built as there were 707s. Still, Britain got a morale boost when British Overseas Airways Corp. Comet flights between London and New York in October 1958 marked the inauguration of trans-Atlantic air service. Three weeks later, a Pan Am 707 flew from New York to Paris. By that time, Britain already was emerging from its postwar funk. The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and Roger Bannister's 4-minute mile had captured headlines, and it wouldn't be long before a new British export, the Beatles, made their mark. QUOTE It won't be long before we're reading how Boeing beat Airbus into the ground with the advanced Boeing 787. So many orders for the 787 from so many airlines.

Looks like a quality place to stay. Do they have elevator service?

Of course it's selective reading. I'm just pulling a tommie. He does it all time.

Once again Rolls Royce can't cut the mustard and produce a quality product. Damn shame.