ITVV Flightdeck 5 Airbus A330-200
By Jonathan Ho (24 April 2000)
Airtours International was first formed in 1991 owning just 5
aircraft. Now they have a total of 27 in their fleet consisting of
B757, B767, DC-10, A330, A320 and A321, all flying to worldwide
holiday resorts. Airtours is the first airline to have in its A330
"downstairs toilet" which would leave a lot more space and comfort
for passengers. Because the A330 is designed for long haul flights it
is mainly used for destinations such as to Florida or The
Caribbean.
Once reaching our takeoff position on runway 24R we are cleared for
take off. A special feature used here is that the take off is filmed
with 5 cameras, one on the Captain, one on the First officer, one
from the side of the runway, one on the throttle and one on the
cockpit window.
Once airborne Captain Bond gives a brief explanation on each device in the cockpit and a look at the routing. Then because during a cruise at FL370 there is hardly much to do for the pilots Captain Bond tells us that he got into flying by joining the armed forces and then moving to airliners. Afterwards we start our descent to Orlando Sanford and then our landing is filmed in the same way as the take off with 5 cameras.
Jonathan Ho
Visit ITVV
Oldham UK
Email: jonathanpilotho@cs.com