Hey all,

I am leaving for London, England in a week and got our flight information today. Looks as though we will be traversing the Atlantic in an Airbus A330-300. I've never flown on one of these before. Can anyone here comment on the spaciousness/comfort/noise level of this particular jet?

Unfortunately, since I let someone else handle the tickets, we are going by US Airways rather than Delta.

When US Airways was still US Air a number of years back, I had a God-awful flight (it really was quite terrifying) with them. Oh well, too late now! We are flying into London Gatwick Airport which, as I am told, is better than Heathrow.

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Regards,
Aaron

If you're in coach, it will be similar to a 767 - 2-4-2 configuration, with a bit more general space, iirc. Comfort, etc. is comparable, noise is..well, it's a plane. I fly with earplugs.

If you were flying Delta, you'd also fly into Gatwick (though you might be flying a 777, which is sweeeeet). If you're going into central London, just get your bags, schlep over to the train station (follow the signs, take the monorail), and then take the Gatwick Express to Victoria Station, which is extremely central. It's around a 30-35 minute ride, 10 pounds or so each way. It's great.

The last time I was to fly in one of those, the starter broke. They tried to "borrow" one from another airline, but they wouldn't match. I did manage to take that plane on the return trip...it was acceptable. Often, if you get a seat by an emergency exit, you get a little more legroom, but you also get a good view of the top of the wing too, rather than the vista.

Have fun!

-Larry

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09 Jetta TDI
1985 300D

I fly over 100,000 miles / year, and I find that the average Airbus is a better airplane than the average Boeing. In car terms, they have less noise, harshness, and vibration.

There are some exceptions, though. The Boeing 777 is a fantastic airplane, as well as the 747-400, which is the best airplane to fly in. If you ever get to fly in first class, you get your own living space.

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Paul S.

2001 E430, Bourdeaux Red, Oyster interior.
79,200 miles.

1973 280SE 4.5, 170,000 miles. 568 Signal Red, Black MB Tex. "The Red Baron".

i once flew in an AirBus where i could see the inscription "Recaro" on the seats. Maybe they were OEM.

I've been told that passengers love Airbus planes...and that pilots hate 'em. Except mayeb the A300 (first model, from the '70's), all Airbus planes are flyby-wire; in fact, they pioneered it in airliners...personally, I'm not a big fan of fly-by-wire; if you lose electrical power for any reason, you lose your control surfaces. It's unfortunately true that most new airliners these days have fly-by-wire controls, but I've heard that Boeing at least tried to make the controls feel "normal", while Airbus jets use a joystick thing.

I think that's due more to the fact that many Boeing planes that are flying are older than many Airbus planes, than anything else. Regarding their structural integrity...see the picture below. Granted, this is an old bomber, but IMHO this is a huge attribute to Boeing's ability to build robust airplanes. The picture was taken after a BF-109 collided with the B-17, and the plane landed safely (the tail broke all the way off shortly after landing).

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2001 VW Jetta TDI, 5 speed, daily driver
1991 Ford F-350, work in progress
1984 Ford F-250 4x4, 6.9l turbo diesel, 5 speed manual
Previous oilburners: 1980 IH Scout, 1984 E-350, 1985 M-B 300D, 1979 M-B 300SD, 1983 M-B 300D
Spark-free since 1999

Actually I happened upon a gentleman who stopped by my house while cruising thru my neighborhood. He was admiring my MBs (he had a W126, so I was in good company).

Anyway, We talked jobs and he told me he worked for Recaro, and supplied seats for airliners. So in fact, bobbyv, you are correct!

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2009 ML350 (106K) - Family vehicle
2001 CLK430 Cabriolet (80K) - Wife's car
2005 BMW 645CI (138K) - My daily driver
2016 Mustang (32K) - Daughter's car

Never flown an A330, but the 777 is one nice aircraft.

There are safeguards built in. All commercial airliners fly with triple-redundancies for the flight control functions, which extends to fly-by-wire controls (i.e. three independent flight computers). Even if all three systems fail, my understanding is that both the 777 and the A330/340 have limited mechanical backups to certain control surfaces, allowing basic directional control of the aircraft.

Also, regarding the loss of electrical power, even if all main engines are lost, both aircraft have auxiliary power units in the tail, and even if that is lost, both aircraft have battery backups, and even if THAT runs out, both aircraft can deploy ram air turbines (windmills, basically) to power both the electrical and hydraulic side of the flight control systems.

Of course, it's also not as if fully mechanical systems don't fail either (cable snags/snaps, hydraulic leak, etc.)..

-anthony

Hehe, aren't they German made?

AAron.

The Airbus is a comfortable aircraft to fly in, but it's not so different to the average Boeing that you would notice straight away. Generally, because they tend to be newer, they are slightly more civilised.

Gatwick is a nice airport (I know because I live halfway between Gatwick and Heathrow). It's in far nicer surroundings, more countrified, but it doesn't take any longer to get to central London.

Have a nice trip! (We've got great weather here at the moment, but in a week...........well.......we might even have snow)

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Paul Gibbons
'93 320CE
'73 Jensen Interceptor (Resting)
Giant Full Sus Mountain Bike

If you're talking about the Airbus plane... I thought they were French. But I don't think its entirely French... possibly built with other countries like the Concorde. So it could be English/French and possibly German?

I love the A-330. I flew across the Atlantic in it couple of times with USAirways. It was 2 years ago, and the first thing they did was a glass of champaign before take off. I was in Business class so I am not sure people in the "back seats" got the same treatment. For dinner we were served filet mignon and jumbo shrimp cocktail as appetitzer. Back then USAirways had the best selection of wine, so you can imagine what I was doing the whole trip.

A-330 is a wide body plane and it is very comfortable. I must say the Airbus is my favourate plane to fly in, and I have logged over a million miles. My second favourate is the 747-400, but they are seldom used for domestic flights. Not very impress with 767 and 777, but that is just my opinion.

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95 R129
04 Infiniti G35.5 BS
10 X204

It's a big group effort. I think that final assembly takes place in France, but I'm not sure. The major partners are (or at least were) France, Breat Britain, Germany, and Spain.

Here's something else impressive. Below is the plane that Airbus uses (or used; I heard they were building a jet-powered replacement) to transfer large assembly pieces (fueselage cross-sections, etc) to the final assembly area. It was originally built for NASA off an old Boeing 377 Startocruiser frame to haul pieces of the Apollo rockets from place to place. Appropiately, it's named the Super Guppy.

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Don't feel so bad not flying Delta. I recently flew to europe and back on Delta.

Drinks cost you $4.00 apiece now-- on an international flight!!

In house movie sucked and I couldn't see the screen it was so far away. Plus the Amazon woman with the high-hair in front of me didn't help!

Well I'm glad to hear the good comments on the A330. I've pretty much always flown on either Boeing, McD or Lockheed planes. All are noisy, the McD being the worst by far. The DC-10s are awful.

Well anyhow now all I need to do is get enough books to keep me occupied on the flight over and I'll be all set!

We're just flying coach class, I never felt that the large sums of extra money spent on business or first class were worth it. I'd rather spend the money on shop equipment.

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Regards,
Aaron