Pulaski

I'm sure he'll have some time soon after he arrives - about 14 days of time.

robin1234

Not sure about having time. My wife keeps sending me pictures of neglected aspects of the back yard, that she won’t touch because they are my jobs. The Japanese knotweed patch, for instance.

Oh, and the taxes are due about three weeks after I get back ... I begged her not to send them in till I’d gone over them as she randomly selects about half our income not to report.

lansbury

There you go Puaski, he will have plenty to fill his 14 days up.

steveq

On a generally happier aviation related note.

zzrmark

Needs a back story.

scrubbedexpat091

Canadian stats but still interesting.

robin1234

Seeking more info from you kind people!

Flying from Heathrow T5 next Thursday, I just wanted some up to date info about conditions there. Much of what I see online is pre-Covid boilerplate, happy-talk about all the shops, restaurants and other facilities.

As for discussion forums about airports & airlines, the one I looked at, the most recent review of Heathrow was 2015. Is there a lively, busy place where people share recent experiences?

I just don’t want to bother to bring food/drink from home if there are at least a couple of places there, either before or after security. And I assume water fountains are closed down? I guess I wouldn’t use one now, anyway.

(I should add I’ve never been to T5 since I usually fly Air Canada, T2.)

ddsrph

congratulations on solo flight.

steveq

I just added up my logbook, I hit enough hours to do the test, if I'd nailed solo earlier. I changed CFI and that made a huge difference.

Olly_

Maybe the British Airways forum on Flyertalk? https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...tive-club-446/

This thread looks useful... https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...athrow-t5.html

T5 is exclusively BA/Iberia and maybe AA at the moment.

Hope you have a safe journey back to the US

ddsrph

I found in my training the best way is train over the shortest time possible to keep skills up. But either time or money makes that difficult. A friend of mine in the Navy went from zero to soloing his first student in less than a year.

scrubbedexpat091

I worked with a guy on the ramp back in the late 90's/early 00's who worked 16-20 hours a day just to save enough to go to a flight school who did that, basically when done had everything you needed to get hired by a regional airline, I think it took about 16 months start to finish, and he went on to work for a regional for 5 years and then was hired by Southwest ans has been there ever since.

I was working with a few here in Canada who had to pay as they go when they can and they seem to struggle more because they can go weeks or month or 2 between flights especially in winter when the weather is bad for weeks on end and flying isn't possible.

I have 5 hours in my log book, but I knew by the 2nd hour it wasn't for me, but turns out it was a blessing, because a few years later, as I would never have been able to get a commercial medical, probably can't even get a private now, but back then I could have probably still gotten a medical for private, but if you can't afford to fly as a hobby, not much point in learning.

Steerpike

Are they serving food on the flight? I understand that in the US/domestic, they no longer serve anything so you bring your own snacks, water, etc. But international / long haul ... that might be different?

Are you comfortable with prepared food from an airport restaurant/cafe? In the past 12 weeks, I've done maybe 3 take-outs, and I'm only partially comfortable with the idea. I've avoided salads, for example. Even when I've picked up hot food, I've brought it home and carefully handled the packaging, transferring to plates, etc. I'm still washing apples, oranges, etc from the store. With the surges in numbers around where I am, I'm actually more concerned now about 'community transmission' than I was 12 weeks ago! If I were in New Zealand I'd feel totally different!

How much was the flight with only 10 (?) days notice? Did they give you the right to cancel? Good luck on the flight!

Giantaxe

A couple of weeks ago I read a traveller report that said the only store they found open at Heathrow was Boots. Obviously I have no idea if that's still the case.

I've done a handful of takeouts since this started, in an effort to support local restaurants. I also would pass on salad and am very careful about transferring from containers and reheating.

robin1234

Pricing is odd. Every day up till the end of June, the flight was between £360 and £410, one way. (Even if you were booking for the next day.) Then from July 1, it jumped to £1,200. Seems a bit radical..

However, out of an abundance of caution, I decided to book business class - £1,900. I’m normally a skinflint, but my rationale is, under lockdown, I’m probably saving at least £100 a week on cream teas, lunches, pub visits, museum visits etc. that I didn’t consume. And assume I would have taken a couple of side trips but didn’t (London, Suffolk, Sussex, wherever - another (say) £1,000 not spent there. So I splashed out..

My ticket, and, actually, I think all tickets are fully changeable (no fee) or cancellable (reasonable fee) under the current unusual conditions.

They just give you a pre-made, sealed, cold meal. No “special meal” choices. Just either veg or carnivore, I believe. No alcohol, just a small selection of bottled water or soft drinks. AND the BA lounge, or whatever it’s called, at T5 is closed - making the £££ for the business class an even worse deal!! But I just didn’t want to be crowded in for obvious reasons..

There is a very nice, small, car service operating out of the small town I’m at in Norfolk. Just one old guy now, his two or three colleagues are on hiatus. It’s a big vehicle, we agreed to drive to LHR with windows open etc! In Boston my daughter will pick me up and whisk me up to northern NY. So, hopefully, as painless as possible!

I’ll post a post-mortem (so to speak), as lizzyq thoughtfully did, because it’s new territory for everyone ...