Lovefly Blog - Engine Reliability

We are often asked, 'how reliable are the engines?'

This was pointed out to us - a press release a few months ago...

It is quite staggering how reliable these engines are. Also, it is a particularly good press release as some people still have an outdated 'dim view' of Aeroflot as an airline.  This is completely out of date with the modern and safe airline that they are.
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19 June 2019 Press Release

Rolls-Royce and Aeroflot are celebrating an incredible new record for an engine in service.

One of the airline’s Trent 700 engines has completed more than 50,000 engine flying hours without requiring an overhaul – a world record for a wide-body engine.

That’s the equivalent of:

• Travelling around the world more than 1,000 times
• The engine running non-stop for more than five years
• 2,000 services for a typical family car for the equivalent amount of miles
• Travelling to the moon and back 50 times

The engine first entered service in 2008 and is still going strong today, powering an Airbus A330 aircraft.  It is part of a Trent engine family of seven variants that has now completed more than 125 million engine flying hours since the very first engine, a Trent 700, went into service in 1995. The latest version, the Trent 7000, entered service last November.

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Hope that you found this press release helpful?

Take care
lovefly team

Lovefly blog - fear of flying rituals

People who are scared of flying sometimes perform rituals to make themselves feel safe.  (This is not sacrificing a goat or something extreme like that...)

Rituals are patterns of behaviour that we consciously or unconsciously do to keep us 'safe' when we fly.  Here are some examples (below) that we have come across over the years. You may recognise yourself or indeed, you might have your own versions?

• Only flying during the day (night is much more dangerous for aircraft!)
• Never sit by a window
• Sit over the wing (I Must)
• Checking the weather a lot before you fly
• Never sit in row 13 (if there is one - this is a UK thing)
• Never flying a low cost carrier 
• Not going to the toilet for a whole flight
• Wearing 'lucky' items or garments (rabbits foot, certain necklace, lucky trousers)
• Making sure 'all your affairs are in order' before you fly anywhere (just in case...)
• Watching the cabin crew doing their job for the whole flight - just in case they give away impending disaster signs on their faces
• 'Concentrating' during the whole flight to make sure the flight is safe.  Quite possibly, whilst your selfish partner snores next to you

None of the above are intended disrespectfully. These are real things that people have told us they do...

Psst, here is a secret...They don't make any difference to your safety whatsoever and your chances of landing or not...

Take care

loveflyteam

Lovefly blog - you don't need to fly

This is something that we have noticed a lot...

When a person has a strong fear of flying, they will find ways to not fly - and justify them.  

For example, people who don't like to fly will say something like, 'I prefer to drive everywhere because when you fly you don't really get to see the scenery...'  

This may of course be partly true but it can also be an excuse that they say to themselves to make it OK not to go near an aircraft!  

Saw this at a railway station and it reminded us of this idea:

The caption reads, 'You see more when you don't fly.'  Maybe it was written by a nervous flyer?!

Take care,

Lovefly Team

Lovefly Blog: This is your Captain Speaking

This is very dangerous to speak about - bear with us please, it will all come good in the end!

The picture is a female only Delta crew taking females out to generate interest in aviation and space travel.  

'This is your Captain speaking...'


The reason that we are blogging about this is that many people with a fear of flying have certain expectations from the voice that comes over the PA when flying.  In our experience, we have heard both men and woman say that the voice they want to hear come over the PA has to have most of the following characteristics: (not in any particular order)

• Posh or at least well spoken
• A little bit formal...some humour is okay but not too much!
• Be quite technical 'runway two seven...' (sounds authoritative)
• Not sound too young or too old
• If an accent, make it a slight accent, sexy is okay
• Male 
• This might be a little bit shocking to some of you?  For those of you with a fear of flying, you know what we mean though don't you?!  

To the nervous flyer, your imagination runs riot.  You need to feel safe and secure.  Certain voices conjure up better images.  Many people have told us what they like to hear from the pilot's voice.  Believe it or not, many women have told us that they prefer to hear a male voice say, 'Hi, this is your Captain speaking....'  

If you knew how many years, money, training, perseverance/tenacity it takes to get into the flight deck of any commercial aircraft....The checks pilots have to go through...being re-tested every few months on their ability to handle all the scary situations you can imagine...the medicals...the peer checking...the procedures...the back up systems for everything... If you knew all of that, you would not care how the voice sounds over the PA.

Take care,

Lovefly Team