V-Flyer

Hello

I've been talking to some friends who have flown with other airlines and they've said that sometimes there are cameras on the front of the planes or underneath the planes so you can see the takeoff from below or the front of the plane on your seatback tv.

Do Virgin have these? If so, are they only on certain systems? V-Port? Or all of them?

Richard

There's this, I never used it myself but I think it's on all V-port aircraft.

Sean, I think that's a camera for crew access only. [?]

As far as I'm aware, VS do not have cameras available for passengers to use. BMI, and other carriers operating A330's do though...

The external cams on the A346 A/C are only available to the flight deck crew.

Sorry but no VS A/C have any form of external cameras available to PAX through the IFE.

Although VS should serioulsy consider it as it's been mentioned numerious times on here.

Regards

Originally posted by preiffer
Sean, I think that's a camera for crew access only. [?]

Ah I see, thanks for clearing that up[y].

Originally posted by sean modi

Originally posted by preiffer
Sean, I think that's a camera for crew access only. [?]

Ah I see, thanks for clearing that up[y].

If you like the thought of seeing where you are going whilst travelling you should try a cruise with Royal Caribbean as all of their ships have a 'Front of the Boat' channel.[8D]

Paul

Originally posted by mitchja
The external cams on the A346 A/C are only available to the flight deck crew.

Yep these cameras are used by the pilots when taxiing. They are not normally used once in the air

Emirates have them.

I usually set mine to front of plane on take off while hubby sets his to underneath the plane, so we get best of both worlds on take off and landing. I'm not sure of any other airline who has this option though.

I understand that Airbus offer the option to have the video feed linked to the IFE - for some reason VS did not take this option.

SAS have the video on their A321's - the front camera is located on the front wheel gear, and when this retracts after takeoff you have down view only.

the tail mounted camera looks fab on the 346 - shame we cant see it!

VS should pick up on this as:

a) they're not expensive
b) a lot of other airlines have them ..inc some charters!

Originally posted by Jonathan
VS should pick up on this as:

a) they're not expensive
b) a lot of other airlines have them ..inc some charters!

I agree, Gulf Air have the cameras and, they are great.

The problem with VS fitting them is that it takes so long for them to get the IFE fired up after take off, and the fact that they shut it down so long before landing would mean that we would miss the most interesting shots[:(]

Nick

Of course, if VS were to just route the pictures to the IFE screens during take of and landing, it wouldn't really be a problem. I remember seeing a picture on A.net of a SAA flight during taxiing where they had the forward camera view on the screen.

absolutely - it is not impossible to do.

If you examine V:Port before it is "switched on" there are two "blank" channels - which show the lava lamps/safety video. It would be easy to switch this to the live video feed (if it were connected), after all safety stuff is broadcast.

Full V:Port activation would not be necessary to achieve this.

VS-EWR, the SAA A346 picture is here!

Rich.

I guess the next question is..

If the feed was connected in this way would individuals be able to turn off their screens or would they be stuck with it the same way they are stuck with the lava lamp and safety video's.

I can think of a few people who would not really want to be watching it.

Phil (Buffy)

BMI have this issue Phil - I was on a flight last year, and we asked to have the front-camera left on for landing in the front of the plane. Apparently (although not sure how true it really was), that meant all of Y was forced to watch the landing, too.

Originally posted by preiffer
BMI have this issue Phil - I was on a flight last year, and we asked to have the front-camera left on for landing in the front of the plane. Apparently (although not sure how true it really was), that meant all of Y was forced to watch the landing, too.

Well, you know what I say? Tough Luck!

EDIT: But wait, if the SAA 346 tail cam is on a channel like the caption says (by the way, thanks for finding it Richard!), and the screen next to the photographer is black, then there must be a way to have it be optional. Or maybe that's just for taxiing?