Roland Perry wrote:
In message
, at 15:41:04 on Mon, 17 Jun 2013, Recliner remarked:
I wonder how much warning Kate Humble had that she'd be standing in for Dan
Snow? I don't think she's an aviation geek, so must have had to bone up
quite a bit.

About the only aviation thing she did was identify a 747, which isn't
that difficult. As for her overall tenor, "over-excited" doesn't even begin to describe it.

Isn't that her normal style?


I found the swapping between live and recorded segments poorly managed,
with often only a change of clothes revealing which was which.

I thought that part was fine, but found the turning round of Virgin and BA
flights slightly confusing, as the two were mixed together. It might have
been clearer if they'd just done one, and showed it in more detail. I
suppose they filmed both, and felt obliged to use both so as not to annoy
the other -- it might have taken quite a lot of negotiations to get access,
and it might have looked odd if they then didn't use the footage.


Most surprising revelation, that BA's chief Pilot had never been up
that[1] control tower before. I'd expect that someone in his position
would make more of an effort to build bonds between the various professions at work.

[1] He said he'd been up the one it replaces.

Yes, that surprised me too. I assume that few outsiders go up the tower
itself, as visitors can hardly socialise with the working controllers. One
hopes that senior pilots do meet their ATC counterparts somewhere where
they can actually discuss things (I don't suppose controllers take jump
seat rides, either). He may also have been to Swanwick, where many more
controllers work.