Airlines losing money, How could they not???

[767Jockey]

Originally Posted by Jamo

I miss the old John Wayne.

You mean Orange County ???!!!!!!
Now you REALLY hit a nerve with that one. If those plastic bosomed debt ridden superficial idiots down there had any idea what we have to do to get in and out of there to keep it "quiet" for them, they'd all piss their pants.

What a bunch of fools - it's all nice and quiet until one day a Boeing comes crashing through your roof. It's not a question of if, it's when! They have us flying so close to the ragged edge to make the noise restrictions that there is literally NO margin for error. Immediately after takeoff, max climb profile, and just as your airspeed and energy start to bleed off - REDUCE POWER!!!! Now, I bet even those of you who aren't pilots know how ridiculous that sounds. This is the only airport in the WORLD that I've been forced to do this at, and it's done every day, 365 days a year, by every single jet that goes in and out of there. One would be tempted to say that nothing has happened so it must be safe. Actually nothing has happened due to the skill and diligence of those of us who are forced to do such a stupid thing. But hey, it's quieter, and apparently that's all that counts. Almost every airport out there has noise abatement procedures, but nothing even remotely approaching this madness.

By the way, they had the chance to move out to a real airport by closing Orange County and moving it to the abandoned El Toro Marine base, which is a MUCH more suitable airfield. Of course, the local geniuses turned it down. How bad is Orange County? Top it off with this - it remains today, after all my years of flying, the shortest runway I have EVER landed a Boeing on. El Toro is almost twice as long. The madness continues.