TheFiend

Happy birthday Adam!!!

Lufthansa A340-600's were built with toilets below the main deck. Airbus offered it as an option.

LOL with regard to licensing taxis and private hire vehicles...... The garage where I get my MOT tests done is responsible for doing "TaxI" tests and lately they have been doing tests on "private hire" vehicles licensed in my area but are actually being based and used 140 miles away down in the Manchester area after my local council relaxed the rule of only issuing licenses for businesses based within my area.

Qatar fly from BHX and they have free seat selection and 30Kg of checked in luggage. Unfortunately they use the 787 Nightmareliner with it's cramped cattle class seating between BHX and DOH....

In 2008 I acquired a bar on New Plaza, redecorated it and 3 months later sold it on for a profit. It can be done.

Angelwitch in Nana Plaza was one of the first GGBs I visited..... loved the music and attire of the vixens doing the chrome pole shuffle.... It's a pity Angelwitch Pattaya is now history.

Visited Wat Po on my first trip to Thailand.... Yep..... I admit.it - I'm addicted to visiting Temples!!!

I used to be an Emirates fan but over the last 3 years I've stuck with Qatar and even though they are now more expensive than Emirates from Manchester I intend sticking with Qatar As they still offer a 30Kg allowance on the "cheap" tickets......I need it due to having Mrs Fiend travelling with me.

Thai's A330's are 2-4-2.... Thai have gone against the norm and stuck with 3-3-3 with their 777's and should be applauded for it.... It also looks as though they have finally been given the go ahead to order some new aircraft, so they could be getting rid of their 747-400 and 777-200 and 777-300 which are getting on a bit.

Now looks like other airlines are having the "MAX" moniker removed from their aircraft that have been built and put into storage whilst the wait for the grounding to be lifted

How long has it taken so far on the R-Con sewer project.....Coming up to 6 months? If you think that's bad where I work in the UK they've been installing a 200 metre long pipe trench for an effluent line and so far it's taken them 2.5 years and they're only just now welding the stainless steel effluent pipe.... Another fairly simple project of replacing one air compressor with 2 has been going on for 18 months....

Definitely worthy of the "Funnies" section!!!

The drystone wall and street-lights in the background point to it not being in Thailand....

When we check in with TG at CNX, even though we are on separate PNR's TG wil check us in for the QR flights and issue our boarding passes all the way though to MAN.... With regards to the flight into BKK we clear immigration, pick up checked baggage and then clear customs before checking in for the domestic flight up to CNX. I don't know if Qatar will interline with TG/PG on separate PNR's. Theoretically we could clear immigration and customs at CNX since it's an international airport. Clearing customs and immigration at BKK give us the opportunity to get our AIS mobile data package sorted, currency exchanged down in the basement level FX booths and Mrs Fiend to have some som tam in the Magic Food Court... I've just done a dummy booking MAN - CNX with QR and it came back with connecting flights at BKK onto TG and PG.... but the cost booking all the way through adds quite a lot onto the MAN - BKK price. It works out a lot more expensive that doing it on separate bookings.

Not for our homeward journey we check in our bags with Thai at CNX and they interline with Qatar so bags are checked in all the way to MAN.

So you don't think Boeing Sales department pushes the economics of upseating.... more bums on seat means more money

Just booked another Thailand trip flying into BKK and then flying up to Chiang Mai.... Whilst checking out the Thai Airways flight times and fares it now appears as though 20Kg is the default allowance in economy on domestic flights, but 30Kg allowance is available on Flexi and Saver Values tickets..... Saver Value tickets are only available Monday to Thursday. And Flexi tickets are the most expensive Economy class tickets...... We arrive on a Saturday, so no Saver Value tickets available.... and wasn't keen on paying for extra baggage allowance due to there being only Flexi @ 2360 baht (30 Kg) and Saver Flexi @ 1980 (20Kg) available on the flight time we wanted..... Started looking at other options and we've gone with Bangkok Airways @ 1490 baht with 20 + 5Kg frequent flyer members allowance. We start our journey back on a Monday, and this allowed us to get a Thai Airways Saver Value ticket with 30Kg and the price for that is 165 baht cheaper than a Flexi Saver ticket with 20Kg.... So its BKK to CNX with Bangkok Airways and CNX to BKK with Thai

Yes, but Boeing actively encourage upseating. I'm glad TG have stuck with 3+3+3 on their 777's, much more comfortable than being crammed in a 3+4+3.

But Boeing seems to actively push higher density seating...... 10 abreast on 777's and 9 abreast on 787's..... How many Airbus customers opt for 9 across on the A330,, 10 across in A350 and 11 across in the A380??? With Airbus high density configs are the exception rather than the rule.

In my industry even the slightest change in coding has to go through several authorisations before it can be modified, an even then it has to be done on an off-line system (simulator) which is then tested for positive and negative paths to ensure the mod has no negative impact to the process. Only then can it be loaded on to the online system and then gets tested again.

MCAS...... it's turning out to be a real clusterfuck for Boeing..... Software outsourced so it could be written on the cheap .... most probably written badly and with the code not optimised for the hardware. MCAS hardware was specified on the cheap, so struggling to run the rewritten MCAS software....... No training on MCAS provided because the biggest MAX customer, Southwest Airlines didn't want to have to train it's pilots on the MAX MCAS system..... Boeing have put profit and share price before safety...... And things aren't getting any better for Boeing.... it's also come out that falsified QA records had been found after an Air Canada 787 was found to have a leak on the fuel system back in 2015. The leak was discovered 10 months after entering service but the cause of the leak was traced back to when the aircraft was built. The Federal prosecutors are investigating that as well now..

There are still some people that like dealing direct rather than through websites like booking.com and agoda, so website listed rates are helpful for those people. Recently I've been booking accommodation in Pattaya by clicking through a cashback site to expedia.com

Outward bound from Chiang Mai tonight.... Biometrics taken... ☹️

When we went through there was a couple of desks open just to the side of the automated stations...

I arrived on 17/5, went through the Thai channel with Mrs Fiend and no fingerprints were taken. First time I've heard of fingerprints being taken at immigration.