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[Nick W]

Exactly. 

I have a rough policy, If where I'm going is within 1,000km of Calais, then I drive. French budget hotels are good and cheap, break the journey and stop over. Plus, having the car mean you can load up with wine and other stuff 

I just hate the whole flying process, all designed to make life a misery and to part you from as much cash as possible.

I'm off to France in a fortnight's time. Three of us are going, so I'm driving. But if I were going on my own, I wouldn't even consider doing that. It takes less than half a day(including get to, and waiting at Stansted), is easier and cheaper to fly, and then rent a car when I get there.


I've driven to Aix in a day on a couple of occasions, and wouldn't do it again. We're coming back from Mont-de-Marsan in one go, a similar 700mile trip.


But this is in Europe, if you go anywhere else driving simply isn't an option. When I have a destination, I want to use the most efficient, cost effective way of getting there: I've done enough travelling to know that it's always a chore.


I don't use the tunnel, as the small time saving isn't worth paying twice as much as the ferry. Calais is a shithole, but so is Dover. They're ports, places to travel through/past not visit for a nice time.

[Doctor Gollum]

St Malo is nice... Nice port is not

Guessing you're flying Spud u like if Stansted

[Nick W]

St Malo is nice... Nice port is not

Guessing you're flying Spud u like if Stansted

Stansted is an airport. I don't go there for the cosmopolitan atmosphere. The only reason I've spent so much time at Gatwick is that I worked there for 7 years.

[Doctor Gollum]

Spudulike is one of the politer things I call Bryanair...

Only flown through Stansted once... can't say that it made a lasting impression

[Nick W]

Spudulike is one of the politer things I call Bryanair...

Only flown through Stansted once... can't say that it made a lasting impression

That's good, you arrived, mortgaged your soul again for a beer in the departure lounge, and left.
In the same way I intend to arrive at Dover just before 08:00 on 6th March, check in, drive across the quayside and onto the boat.

[Doctor Gollum]

 

Spudulike is one of the politer things I call Bryanair...

Only flown through Stansted once... can't say that it made a lasting impression

That's good, you arrived, mortgaged your soul again for a beer in the departure lounge, and left.
In the same way I intend to arrive at Dover just before 08:00 on 6th March, check in, drive across the quayside and onto the boat.

I was fourteen at the time... I would have remembered the beer

Ironically, I should have been on the ferry with my mum and bro rather than escorting my grandfather to another aunts house after my uncle in Guernsey threw him out... sadly it was the last time I saw that uncle as he died six weeks later

Not the best of summers

[steve6367]

Spudulike is one of the politer things I call Bryanair...

Only flown through Stansted once... can't say that it made a lasting impression

Always worked well for me, cheap and if you play by their rules effective. I think it all depends where you going, a short hop in Europe I don't need anything onboard.

[Shackeng]

Or not actually trying

A380 cruise speed is 907 km/h, B787 is 913 km/h...

On the off chance it was one of the B767s out for a walk, they cruise at 851 km/h... But ignoring the winglets on the B75/767, the basic wing design is 40 years old

New cruise techniques? We always cruised by Mach number.

[Doctor Gollum]

Spudulike is one of the politer things I call Bryanair...

Only flown through Stansted once... can't say that it made a lasting impression

Always worked well for me, cheap and if you play by their rules effective. I think it all depends where you going, a short hop in Europe I don't need anything onboard.

I will never fly with them. Ever. This is partly down to the way they operate and partly down to the way they are(n't) regulated. Equally I don't intend to fly with Norwegian until their fleet is on the UK registry.

[steve6367]

Spudulike is one of the politer things I call Bryanair...

Only flown through Stansted once... can't say that it made a lasting impression

Always worked well for me, cheap and if you play by their rules effective. I think it all depends where you going, a short hop in Europe I don't need anything onboard.

I will never fly with them. Ever. This is partly down to the way they operate and partly down to the way they are(n't) regulated. Equally I don't intend to fly with Norwegian until their fleet is on the UK registry.

I guess they will be ok for a few years until the fleet starts to age?

[2boxerdogs]

Have flown with most airlines over the last 45 years or so never bothered about who I go with been cheap & been expensive, still here and enjoyed my travels , my attitude is if your time is up then that's that whether you've paid 30 quid or 3,000 quid for your seat. Love flying & if I had my time again & didn't mess about so much in my youth would have loved to have been a pilot.

[Doctor Gollum]

It isn't the fleet age that concerns me...

But agree with Tilbo. Would have jumped at the chance, but was told very early on that my eyesight was nowhere near good enough, so never bothered Thirty something years later and alot of pilots wear glasses/contacts...

Time and money permitting it would be nice to at least obtain my PPL

[Kevin Wood]

New cruise techniques? We always cruised by Mach number.

Not surprisingly, as that's the parameter that the wing cares about.

[omega2018]

.. I've always struggled with the logic of conspiracists.

I'm not sure why you are calling me a conspiracist, or what the conspiracy you're referring to is.  perhaps you can explain

So if we live in days/hours/minutes, are you suggesting 4hrs in a car (and forget mileage) is safer statistically than 4hrs in a plane?

i didn't say that i said the using deaths per mile is a misleading figure.  deaths per billion passenger miles for
flying is 0.07,
urban rail 0.24,
cars 7.28

but planes fly approx 20 times the speed of cars or urban rail so cover 20 times the mileage in 4 hours.  So, roughly, the comparable safety figures for 4 hours in each is
rail 0.43
flying 1.4
car 7.28

despite what per miles figures say spending 4 hours on a plane is 3 times more dangerous than 4 hours in a train (but both a lot safer than in a car). 

if you are looking at CO2 output you should also look at it per hour as if you go by plane and get there a lot faster you will still be outputting CO2 and other global warming gasses in the time you have saved, either by hiring a car or farting in your hotel bath.

[Doctor Gollum]

Was using Top Trumps numbers to suit the purility of that particular argument...

For the purists...

A388 0.85.
B744 0.855
B788 0.85
B75/76 0.80

B727 0.92 have seen one of these do LGW-AGP-LGW in well under 4 hours, much further and it would have needed a fuel stop