BBC "Airport Live" TV show

[Skyring]

The BBC has put out a four-part series on Heathrow called Airport Live. This goes way beyond anything I've seen before, with synchronised cameras recording significant activities. For example, we saw a Qantas A380 being towed to a terminal from the control tower, and then crossed live to the coughpit where a BBC presenter was chatting to a "brake rider".

Lots of inside, "access all areas", footage, interviews with key people such as the control tower head, BA chief pilot, BA and VA changeover crews. Historic glimpses of the old Heathrow.

It seems that the hoped-for coughpit footage of JB747 landing his A380, intercut with views from ground level and control tower didn't quite work out - according to his comments in the "Ask the Pilot" thread - but there's still hope for maybe a bit in the as yet unaired fourth episode.

Excellent production. The passengers are rarely seen, but we get good time with the big - and little - people who keep Heathrow running. Which is no mean feat. It must be an incredibly complex task. I'm enjoying the show immensely, but I'm the sort of systems geek who likes to know how processes work under the hood.

Not being screened here. Yet. But of course available through other channels.

 

[Welsh-Kiwi]

Hopefully it will be shown in New Zealand soon.

 

[Skyring]

I've just had a quick flip through the final ep and there's no JB747 aboard. A simulated landing from one of the presenters on BA's A380 simulator - along with the thing rocking and rolling cheerfully about - but not the real deal. *sigh*

Top notch series otherwise.

 

[Grooba]

There's been an FT thread going on for a while. Certainly looks like an interesting series.
Airport Live : 4 nights at LHR ATC & behind the scenes - starts 8pm BBC2, 17 Jun - FlyerTalk Forums

 

[Cynicor]

Saw this in realtime from LHR T5 Hilton last night. Thought ep3 was better, but quite a good show.

Enjoy.

 

[scaredeycat]

unblock.us. It is a service which costs about $100 per year and allows you to hide that you're in Australia - which then allows you to watch the Beeb's iPlayer as if you were in the UK. All 4 episodes of "Airport Live" are currently available.
You can also sometimes see sport which would usually only be available on Foxtel (eg the British Open golf). Not bad value.

 

[Mal]

I've (legally) downloaded a few of the episodes... Haven't watched it yet but looking forward to it.

 

[Hvr]

I've (legally) downloaded a few of the episodes... Haven't watched it yet but looking forward to it.

You've got some good viewing ahead of you.

 

[Batesy]

I've (legally) downloaded a few of the episodes... Haven't watched it yet but looking forward to it.

How have you downloaded them?

 

[Mal]

How have you downloaded them?

Being in the UK I can use the BBC IPlayer. Some of the episodes are downloadable in windows media format( viewable for 30 days due to DRM restrictions), others can be downloaded into the BBC iPlayer application. Or can be watched online.

 

[scaredeycat]

I'm not aware of unblock.us being illegal...

 

[Welsh-Kiwi]

I'm in New Zealand. I've watched the episodes on the BBC You Tube channel. Great show.

 

[tuapekastar]

I'm in New Zealand. I've watched the episodes on the BBC You Tube channel. Great show.

Cheers for that info - watching it now.

 

[Formal Hall]

Great programme, nice to see something other than the frustrated passenger type documentary. However it is obvious that the 'access all areas' given to the BBC is all part the PR campaign for a third runway; lots of mentions of 'at 99% capacity'.

 

[stewiejp]

Is it illegal to download a programme which is not available in your country for either sale or viewing?
I exchanged a few emails a year/18 months or so ago with Channel 9 on this very topic when they falsely advertised the starting date three times of "Survivor" and ended up showing the first episode at the same time as the US showed the final. In this day and age of social media, online entertainment sites etc, it would have been hard to not know who won the series, so I downloaded it through "other means", and advised Channel 9 - they seemed to have no problem with it.

 

[Mal]

If a company who owns content puts that content on YouTube then it can't be illegal to watch that.
If you use torrent sites this is generally illegal.
Using a different IP address to watch shows (and pretend you are in a different country) is probably against the terms of use, but not something that can be easily challenged legally.

I m not a lawyer....

 

[Skyring]

The ATC segments were fascinating. High pressure, cool thinking, great dress sense. That's the sort of job that would reduce me to a gibbering wreck in no time flat.

"Too late!" I hear my loved ones cry.

But it set me wondering. When they don't have an immediate slot for an incoming plane, they put it into one of four "stacks", where the plane enters the top of the stack and gradually descends until it has a clear shot at getting in.

At times of congestion, even more stacks are opened up further away and planes are shuffled from stack to stack. One got the impression that sometimes the skies over southern England are full of gently circling airliners full of calmly churning stomachs.

I wonder what happens when one moves from one stack to another. You are at the bottom of a distant stack and finally - joy of joys! - the call comes to move to the top of a nearer stack.

Does the pilot, faced with an uphill climb of three kilometres in ten, reef back on the yoke, firewall the throttles and struggle up to the top of the next stack? Are there enough sick bags aboard to handle the strain?

 

[scaredeycat]

On a clear day I quite enjoy doing circuits around the south of England. Lovely scenery.

 

[iRobbo]

I haven't worked over there but imagine the same principle applies as here- the further the stack or holding pattern is out from the aerodrome, the higher the altitude you hold at. As you leave the bottom of the further out one, you then progress at that same altitude (or lower) to the top of the next one until eventually you end up at the bottom of the one closest to the field.

 

[ncm]

I think the most circuits I've ever done is three and I've landed at LHR ~50 times. Its very rare that they let you spin around for too long. You're more likely to sit on the tarmac at a departing airport whilst waiting for a slot to open up in 2-3 hours time for when you need to land. That seems to also happen quite often when flying to LGW actually.

A fascinating little series for the frequent flyer/avgeek though. Very enjoyable and another reason to love British TV. Nice of the QF A380 to get a starring role first up. And a decent PR opportunity missed by BA I think considering their new bird was only across the channel at the time.

scaredycat - more often than not the view is of dense grey cloud out of the window (rather than green fields, London etc.) when flying over the UK. Plenty to see when its available of course.