Scott Bateman MBE
@scottiebateman • 106,168 subscribers
Man Slave to Millie the Dog | Times Best Selling Author | TV Producer | Talker of Aviation Nonsense | Sometimes Fly Big Jets | Veteran | Personal Acct & Views
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Back to Hong Kong tonight. These trips are starting to feel a little different now. I’ll soon be stepping away from flying for a while, so I’m quietly savouring these last few eastbound crossings, especially this one, because my son Ethan’s out there travelling the Far East and I get to catch up with him for a short while. This route has become my favourite and I’ll miss it. Long before flight plans and great circle tracks, the Silk Road connected Europe and Asia across deserts and mountains, carrying trade, ideas and stories between worlds. Today we do it overnight in an A350, although modern politics now bends the route around conflict and closed airspace in ways the old traders could never have imagined. Different era. Same human instinct to connect. And at the far end sits Hong Kong, one of my favourite cities anywhere. Not a bad excuse for one more trip east… I may be able to squeeze in one other… let’s see. Hong Kong by morning 🇭🇰✈️
Scott Bateman MBE60,856 görüntüleme • 7 gün önce
Well….I’m not sure if this angle makes it better or worse. 🫣🤷🏼♂️
Scott Bateman MBE7,596,275 görüntüleme • 3 yıl önce
An exceptionally well handled abnormal by this pilot with a safe outcome. The shock and startle of it was short and then followed by immediate action to slow and recover the aircraft. Cannot have been comfortable though. I can now understand why some would wear a helmet for this kind of flying. Good job. #WePilots #avgeek #flying
Scott Bateman MBE3,967,638 görüntüleme • 1 yıl önce
This video has been doing the rounds today. Many saying the landing was scary and the pilot would be getting a coffee-less chat with their Chief Pilot. None of these people know what they’re talking about!! High winged aircraft use a different crosswind landing technique when compared to other airliners. They fly using a ‘wing down’ technique and not one where the aircraft flies nose into wind. This technique means that often the upwind wing is lower than downwind, and the upwind main gear often touches down first. In my view, and I’ve done a few of these, this is a text book wing down landing. Good job. #aviation #pilotlife #pilot #FactsNotClickbait
Scott Bateman MBE370,927 görüntüleme • 2 ay önce
A350 to Nashville today, a new route, and the long quiet stretch over the ocean. Out there, radar fades away and the world gets very still. No voices stepping on each other, no busy frequencies, just distance. We go back to fundamentals. HF radio — long-range voice, bouncing signals off the ionosphere when we need to speak. But we rarely do!! ADS-C — the aircraft quietly reporting its own position via satellite, no pilot input required. CPDLC — clearances and requests sent as text, precise, deliberate, no ambiguity. WhatsApp for air traffic control. It’s aviation at its most elegant. A network you can’t see, holding aircraft exactly where they should be, separated not by sight, but by time, fixed speeds, and discipline. From the ground, it looks like empty sky. Up here, it’s anything but.
Scott Bateman MBE140,980 görüntüleme • 1 ay önce
This is a video of an aircraft that is evacuating due to a fire incident. YES AN EVACUATION down slides. This decision is never taken lightly by colleagues and I am aghast at the potentially illegal behaviours here disregarding crew instructions. Jeepers!
Scott Bateman MBE2,489,938 görüntüleme • 1 yıl önce
Cruising at FL390 in the A350 over the Iceland–Greenland gap when I spotted something wild… Two massive icebergs out in the middle of the North Atlantic—each one trailing its own little cloud on the downwind side. Had to grab the iPhone 16 Pro and catch it on video. Shot it handheld at 500+ mph… not bad for a phone! This part of the world is always a bit special. No radar, middle of nowhere, but a key stretch of the North Atlantic tracks. You’re flying between Iceland and Greenland, halfway between continents, and then nature drops this kind of scene on you. So, what’s actually happening here? The icebergs are so big, they’re messing with the air. Moist marine air hits them, cools rapidly, and condenses into clouds—on the leeward side. It’s called orographic lift—same idea as clouds forming over mountains, just… floating ones. A few fun facts: •Most of an iceberg is underwater (~90%) •Some rise over 150 ft above the surface •These likely calved off a Greenland glacier Oh, and yes— my new iPhone 16 Pro held its own at FL390. 📱+✈️ = 🤓 #A350 #FlightDeckViews #PilotLife #IcelandGreenlandGap #AvGeekStuff #Icebergs #CloudNerds #OrographicClouds #FlyingTheBus #AviationScience #iPhone16Pro #FL390 #NorthAtlanticTracks
Scott Bateman MBE844,121 görüntüleme • 9 ay önce
They call it a red-eye for obvious reasons, a night flight that steals sleep, compresses time zones, and leaves passengers stepping into morning with bodies still convinced it’s the middle of the night. For crews, though, there’s something strangely beautiful about it. Apart from staring at the sun obviously! Departure in darkness. Cabin lights dimmed. The continent slowly falling away behind us as the aircraft settles into the long eastbound crossing home. And tonight, like most west-to-east Atlantic flights, we won’t take the shortest route. We’ll drift further south to meet one of aviation’s greatest allies… the jet stream. High above the ocean, fast-moving rivers of air circle the planet from west to east, sometimes exceeding 200 knots. By shaping the route to intercept those tailwinds, we let the atmosphere do part of the work, reducing flight time, saving fuel, and hopefully smoothing the crossing. Eastbound flights chase the wind. Westbound flights avoid it. Hence the more northerly route outbound. It’s a reminder that even modern aviation still depends on something ancient… learning to work with nature, not against it. Somewhere over the Atlantic tonight, while most of the cabin sleeps, we’ll quietly surf an invisible river of air toward dawn and home. 😊 Nashville you were awesome, but there’s no place like home.
Scott Bateman MBE86,405 görüntüleme • 28 gün önce
I have just watched this video of an engine failure in a 172? from Australia. I found myself thinking “go on…go on” as the shadow of the aircraft gets bigger on the buildings below….stretching that glide. It seems that the last second decision to go for the taxiway was the right one…resulting in a safe outcome. What’s your thoughts on this approach and what would you have done differently? I have some thoughts but let’s see what you think.
Scott Bateman MBE1,394,583 görüntüleme • 2 yıl önce
Before dawn over Armenia, the sky starts to look almost alive. This timelapse was captured westbound as we crossed one of the busiest, and most geopolitically sensitive pieces of airspace on Earth. To the south lies Iran. To the north, Russia. Between them, a narrow corridor through the Caucasus carrying hundreds of aircraft linking Europe, the Gulf, and Asia. Every light you see here is another aircraft, another crew, another story moving through the night. What makes it remarkable is the precision. At closing speeds approaching 1,000 mph, aircraft pass each other separated not by miles, but by carefully managed vertical layers of airspace. Invisible highways in the sky, built on GPS accuracy, disciplined procedures, satellite surveillance, and trust. And yet these routes are never static. Politics shapes them. Conflict bends them. Closed airspace redraws them almost overnight. What was once a straightforward great-circle route can quickly become a carefully threaded path between terrain, and diplomacy. From the cockpit, though, there’s a strange beauty to it all. Tiny lights crossing ancient landscapes. Modern aircraft moving through corridors shaped by geography and history alike. Controlled. Precise. Fleeting. A reminder that aviation is never just about the aircraft. It’s about learning how to move safely through an increasingly complicated world.
Scott Bateman MBE43,106 görüntüleme • 19 gün önce
London to Hong Kong once took a week. Tonight we’ll do it while most people sleep. This evening I’ll push the A350 away from Heathrow and point it toward Hong Kong one last time for a while before my flying turns westward next month. It’s easy now to forget just how extraordinary this route really is. Tonight we’ll cross half the planet in a single sweep: Europe, Central Asia, and on toward the South China Sea. Even with modern geopolitics bending our track around closed airspace and conflict zones, the journey is still measured in hours. But when this route first opened in the 1930s, London to Hong Kong wasn’t a flight. It was an expedition. The old Imperial Airways flying boats crept east in stages, London to the Mediterranean, on through the Middle East, across India, then down through Southeast Asia. Passengers slept in hotels between sectors while aircraft were refuelled and prepared for the next leg. What we now fly overnight once took a week or more. The geography hasn’t changed, deserts, mountains and oceans still lie between Europe and Asia, but the scale of human possibility has. What once required patience and persistence now requires only a long night and the quiet reliability of a modern aircraft. One more crossing of this remarkable corridor before my compass swings west for a while. Different destinations ahead. Same sky above.
Scott Bateman MBE146,102 görüntüleme • 2 ay önce
I love departing Heathrow Airport as a passenger. Terminal 5 feels spacious and. not really WW2 feeling as described by the Emirates CEO earlier. As a passenger the most beautiful and serene airport that I’ve departed from is Fagerness Airport in Norway. What’s your favourite? #Airports #paxex #aviation
Scott Bateman MBE1,100,062 görüntüleme • 2 yıl önce
Heathrow to Delhi and already thinking about butter chicken. Long-haul flying has its moments of intensity, weather, fuel, time zones, constant decision-making … but it also comes with something we don’t talk about enough: the reset. A good layover. Delhi delivers on that. Butter chicken, or murgh makhani, was born not far from where I’ll be later, in the kitchens of Moti Mahal in Delhi in the 1950s. A dish created almost by accident, turning leftover tandoori chicken into something rich, restorative, and iconic. Comfort food, perfected. And after a long sector, that’s exactly what a layover can be. A chance to slow things down. Good food. A quiet room. Maybe a spa. A few hours where the tempo drops and the body catches up with the clock. Because even in a job that looks like constant movement, recovery matters. Good judgement, sharp thinking, and safe flying all depend on being properly rested, physically and mentally. So yes, Delhi today is about flying the aircraft well. But it’s also about switching off properly once we’re on the ground. A reminder that even pilots need to recharge. Right… let’s go earn that butter chicken. #PilotLife #A350 #DelhiBound #LongHaul #AvGeek #LayoverLife #Wellbeing #TravelWell #ButterChicken #FoodAndTravel #AirlineLife #AboveTheClouds
Scott Bateman MBE116,761 görüntüleme • 2 ay önce
Whilst at security with Mark Smith Heathrow Airport yesterday, we met a lovely crew that were off to JFK in their lovely little 777. Little did we know that our paths would cross again over #Canada as we whizzed past them. The A350 cruises at Mach 0.85 (85% of the local speed of sound), the 777 is normally nearer M0.83…hence the overtake. I love seeing aircraft like this…it reminds me just how beautiful and complex flying machines really are…whilst looking so graceful. #aviation #aviationdaily #aviationlovers #pilot #pilotlife #avgeek #avgeeks #Boeing #Airbus #flying
Scott Bateman MBE698,025 görüntüleme • 2 yıl önce
Well that’s the end of an era. Giant 747 the last 747 has departed the building. #Boeing747 #Boeing #WePilots
Scott Bateman MBE693,464 görüntüleme • 3 yıl önce
Earlier this week I was in Hong Kong and saw this helicopter arriving like a bat out of hell at the waterfront helipad. Can anyone identify the make of helicopter? The reason for the expedited arrival was an aeromedical evacuation. A long video but something cool to see. Hope that the patient was ok. #HongKong #avgeek #China #aviationnews
Scott Bateman MBE87,811 görüntüleme • 4 ay önce
On 9 February 1969, the Boeing 747 flew for the first time. A behemoth with four engines, and an ambition that bordered on arrogance. Many doubted it would even fly. Some doubted it should exist at all. But it did. And it changed everything. The Boeing Airplanes 747 shrank the world. It made long-haul travel routine, affordable, and democratic. It moved people, cultures, aid, commerce, presidents, astronauts, and ideas, often all at once. Bill Gates later called it the first world-wide web, for the way it interconnected our world. 1,574 were built. As per Joe Sutter’s engineering vision, each one over-engineered. Each one designed with a belief that scale could be elegant. And despite newer technology and quieter engines, many will still be flying well into the 2050s, hauling cargo, supporting science, and proving that good design outlasts fashion. For me, the affection is personal. The 747 isn’t just an aeroplane, it’s a presence. The way it sits on the ramp. The way it absorbs weather. The way it carries speed without drama and weight without complaint. Flying it never felt like operating a machine; it felt like working with one. A weird symbiotic relationship, that I’m unable to explain. There are aircraft that are clever. There are aircraft that are efficient. And then there is the 747. Bold enough to be both, and generous enough to bring the world along with it. JUMBO, released 19 February, tells the full story, the engineering, the compromises, the near-misses, the tragedies, and the moments of brilliance that allowed one aeroplane to change how the world moves. If you’ve ever looked up at a 747 and felt something stir, this book is for you. Happy birthday to the Queen of the Skies. Still flying. Still relevant. Still magnificent. #Boeing747 #QueenOfTheSkies #AviationHistory #AvGeek #FirstFlight #AviationLegend #LongHaul #AircraftDesign #JUMBOBook
Scott Bateman MBE71,575 görüntüleme • 3 ay önce