Max Headroom Posted August 17, 2020 Share Posted August 17, 2020 Drove past here for the first time in decades this afternoon and was amazed to see a veritable graveyard of giants. Even Mrs H was impressed. So depressing to see so many fine aircraft looking nervously at the scrappy. We approached it on the A429 whilst driving to Malmesbury. It was literally a drive-by. I was driving and unfortunately the lay-by on our side on the road was full with people stopping at the butty wagon, so no joy for an extended peek. I’d forgotten completely that we would be passing it and the first hint was a 747 tail peeking on the hill top. I spotted two Saudi 747’s, with one possibly ex Royal Flight. Definitely not Saudia as it had a mocha-ish coloured upper. I spotted an exec 727. Originally thought it was UPS as the tail was the samish colour but on looking at the rest of it, it looked exec. I think I saw the front end of an MD-80 type. The saddest sight of all though was a BA 747 in the corner nearest the road. Engineless and with the rear starboard luggage hatch hanging open, it was already being reduced to produce. No pictures and no registrations. Cue a discussion as to ‘why doesn’t anybody want them any more?’ Sad...... Trevor 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu_davros Posted August 17, 2020 Share Posted August 17, 2020 There is a nice cafe on the trading estate that's worth a visit. Also the Bristol Britannia is parked a bit further around. Cheers, Stuart 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul821 Posted August 17, 2020 Share Posted August 17, 2020 This came up in this recent report on the BBC web-site (not @Max Headroom 's drive by) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53549457 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinback Posted August 17, 2020 Share Posted August 17, 2020 Hi Max Its all a bit sad - This shot was taken by my father recently Pinback 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Headroom Posted August 17, 2020 Author Share Posted August 17, 2020 Thanks @Pinback that clearly shows two, not one, of those Saudi 747’s that aren’t ex Saudia. Trevor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noelh Posted August 17, 2020 Share Posted August 17, 2020 When I was there in 2008. I was amazed to find several Hunters on the approach road, readily accessible. I wonder where they ended up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EwenS Posted August 18, 2020 Share Posted August 18, 2020 There has been a fly on the wall / reality TV series called Plane Reclaimers running on Quest over the last few months about the mob down at St Athan salvaging what they can before scrapping the rest. Business seems to be booming for them. Even A320 hitting the jaws of the bulldozer. I thought they entered service only yesterday! Must be getting old! What gets me is the non aviation market for bits and pieces both large and small for designers to turn into (sorry repurpose) as furniture etc for pubs and clubs or even your house. Check this lot out https://www.planeindustries.com I quite fancy the bomb drinks cabinet. Or the 146 chair. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Headroom Posted August 18, 2020 Author Share Posted August 18, 2020 George Clarke, the bloke who does Amazing Spaces on C4 featured a bloke who turned one of the engine pods of a VC-10 into a one person caravan. It was ingenious! Trevor 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Brown Posted August 18, 2020 Share Posted August 18, 2020 12 minutes ago, Max Headroom said: George Clarke, the bloke who does Amazing Spaces on C4 featured a bloke who turned one of the engine pods of a VC-10 into a one person caravan. It was ingenious! Trevor Bet you can still smell the skydrol and you'll never get it off your clothes! Rick. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Latinbear Posted August 18, 2020 Share Posted August 18, 2020 We know that cars and consumer electronics depreciate at a frightening rate but I wonder what the rate is on a commercial aircraft? If you paid $120,000,000 for your jumbo then do you write it off over the number of years or flying hours? And then figure in the servicing costs too. The cost of ownership must be horrendous! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EwenS Posted August 18, 2020 Share Posted August 18, 2020 (edited) Wish it was as simple as writing off a “plane” over a period of time. Different bits have different lives e.g. engines, airframe, in flight entertainment etc. Here is IATA’s accounting paper on the subject if you want to get to sleep tonight. https://www.iata.org/contentassets/4a4b100c43794398baf73dcea6b5ad42/airline-disclosure-guide-aircraft-acquisition.pdf Welcome to the modern world of accounting!!! Edited August 18, 2020 by EwenS 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Headroom Posted August 18, 2020 Author Share Posted August 18, 2020 2 hours ago, EwenS said: Wish it was as simple as writing off a “plane” over a period of time. Different bits have different lives e.g. engines, airframe, in flight entertainment etc. Here is IATA’s accounting paper on the subject if you want to get to sleep tonight. https://www.iata.org/contentassets/4a4b100c43794398baf73dcea6b5ad42/airline-disclosure-guide-aircraft-acquisition.pdf Welcome to the modern world of accounting!!! Can you point me to the funny bits please?! As for writing off (is that amortising?) the cost of a plane, some airlines lease them instead of owning them, so they don’t appear on the books. Singapore leased at least the first of their A380’s. At the end of the 10 year term they were returned to their lessor. Most didn’t find another operator and so were scrapped! Trevor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EwenS Posted August 18, 2020 Share Posted August 18, 2020 (edited) Writing off, amortising, depreciating - all the same thing. Whether or not a leased asset requires to be placed on the lessee company balance sheet depends on the terms of the lease and the accounting rules in force at the time. The rules changed at the start of 2019 and now a lot more leased assets than previously require to be treated as assets of the lessee company (with a corresponding creditor for the future lease liability) than previously. A quick look at BA’s accounts reveals that under both old and new rules BA was including leased assets on their balance sheet. I would therefore be surprised if the same was not true for most airlines. Edit:- Just found Singapore’s investor relations page and their published accounts and the position is as per BA under both sets of rules. For example in 2012 the tangible fixed assets included $617m of aircraft assets being used under what were then termed “finance leases” out of total aircraft assets carried on the books of $11 billion. There is not enough detail to identify individual aircraft types in that figure. AFAIK they only leased the first 5 A380s of the initial acquisition. Edited August 18, 2020 by EwenS 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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