Tuesday 21 February

Second day of the show and a very long day too !
Left the hotel at 7 in the morning to avoid traffic and arrive on time at the air show. Visits started at 9 a.m. Lots of visitors between 9 and 12, at least 100 people including officials, the Pakistan Minister of Defense, the Spanish Ambassador, IATA President, Air Canada President…Then demo flight.

Today demo flight’s conditions were more difficult than yesterday with a cross wind of around 20 knots. Plus we were a little rushed as the time of the flight was put forward at the last minute.

Then we took six Singapore Airlines’ pilots for demo flights and flew for four hours, performing six touch and go. Very heavy traffic on the Changi airport so we had to wait around each time for our touch and go.

I am really pleased because two of the pilots had never touched an Airbus aircraft and four of them are currently qualified on Airbus. It was really easy for all of them to fly the A380, even those who had never flown an Airbus or touched a side stick.

The pilots who are currently flying the A340 noticed how similar it was to fly the A380 and felt immediately at ease in the cockpit. I am really happy and very proud of the aircraft. It shows how good the flight controls and handling qualities are, even pilots not used to Airbus could take off and land the A380 after a few minutes and they all liked it.

Fantastic but I am tired out. Back to the hotel for a quiet night for me and the crew.