How long is a piece of string?
 

I don't think length really comes into it. If you're going to write a long TR, then you have to split it up into bite-size chunks, either by day or flight (like I do), or by place or some other criteria that makes it easy for people to take piece by piece. I often haven't got time to sit down for 30 mins and churn through 15,000 words. But if I can take it bit-by-bit and keep coming back to it, then I am more interested. Good photos also make a good report - I've almost given up on non-photo TR's (they don't have to be of flights, I'm more interested in photos of places etc.)

A trip report could never to long - at least the most. There are some reports with a description of nearly everything and some focused on the flight. I prefer the more detailled reports, especially with pictures and some helpful links. I prefer to print them and read them during the way to my work or in the evening.

My first report had 6478 word, the second 8467 words and the third 12609 words. If this was to long - ask the readers, but from the feedback I got, I think the most people thought it were okay.

I was inspired by PhilH's and Steady-EDI's travelogue websites to start kind of a blog/site covering our own RTW, now in early stages. I post a fair amount on Fodors as well as FT, so wanted to include both the flying and non-flying POVs, which I didn't feel was right for either site, so built my own. Comments welcome.

Gardyloo, that looks great! ^ :)

Hope you have a wonderful time on the rest of your RTW!

PS: Especially looking forward to a report on SYD-JNB - I don't think I've seen/read any TR's about this flight, so if I can put a little request for detail in early .... ;)

PPS: Congratulations on 1,000 posts, by the way!!! :-:

Phil,

Just to temporarily slake your thirst, here's a mini-TR for this flight:

got on plane.
sat for fifteen hours somewhere right down the back.
sweet-talked the purser into giving us a double-handful of Tim-Tams as we were clearly looking both hungry (correct) and poor (also correct).
got off plane.

sadly, that was in Y - hopefully gardyloo's experience in J will be more pleasant... :D

Thanks StewieMac :D

I think I find these flights particularly interesting (SCL-AKL is the other one) due to their remoteness. Once you get down to near Antartica on the Great Circle route, you are hours and hours flight away from anything....

I am writing a report on my trip to Italy. It is already about 9,000 words (just short of 15 pages in Word)(and still have 4 more days to write about) and was wondering if I should just make it available in a PDF instead of cutting and pasteing into the forum?

Why not both?

Then I shall do both.....heck maybe ill throw some pictures into it now that I think of it.

My trip report is well over 100,000 words. MUCH more than the average novel.

I just read some of it, but decided enough was enough when I read, " In the toilet, I only produced watery excrement and hence on this flight, there was no solid excrement test to be had."

Besides, the poster kept referring to certain woman as those who would "make a good wife".

Very very odd indeed.
R.

To bring it firmly back on topic, Trip Reports are an ever evolving passion for many of us here.

We all start out reading others TR's (I was a voracious reader of others such as Seat 2A, Carfield, Kiwi Flyer, GoldFlyer, steady-EDI etc) in order to learn what others put into their reports.

Then we start compiling the information as we travel and then when we return home (or as some do, on the actual trip) we report our experiences. Learn about what suits you in your reporting - some like minute detail, other like broad brush - each have their own merits and will form a following. Most of all, enjoy the process of puting information into a readable format to allow others to be there with you as the trip unlfolds.

I have a couple to come, and I put hours and hours into putting them into a format that I know some FT'ers love to read (from the number of views that I get :D)...

For those who haven't caught up with some of mine (you'll see them get better as you read from the bottom up)...in ascending order

Mrs QF WP's birthday trip (BNE/PER/MGV/PER/ADL/SYD/BNE)
QF WP to some Aussie Capitals: QF BNE/ADL/BNE/SYD/MEL/BNE
QF WP's head for the City of Sails: QF BNE/AKL/SYD/BNE
Across Australia with QF (WP): BNE/ADL/PER/MEL/BNE
QF WP's Mileage Run across Australia
New Years in America using QF/AA/AS (even UA!!)
QF/BA WT+ BNE/MEL/SIN/LHR/DU/LHR/SIN/BNE, Hotels B&B's Car Hire (Long)
QF BNE/PER/ADL/MEL/BNE

It's not about how many words you string together but how it comes together. Write it as you like, and if it bombs then who cares, you wrote, you published, you were damned! :)

Be honest, write it as it seems and drink plenty of alcohol :)

This would make a great email signature caption.

You're most welcome to it sonofzeus, but I've no need to add further to my image here on FT. :D

Worrying indeed. I think if I wasn't forewarned of how off the wall and comical this was the disclaimer would have put me off!

My trip Concorde report.
 

fbgdavidson

Thanks for your support, i'm glad you can see how much i loved Concorde :)

:)

Concorde was my 2nd ever flight on plane, the first flight had been 7 days earlier on a Ryan Air 737.

The trip report took me i guess around 15-16 months to write and on average i spent around 10-12 hours a day almost every single day on it, it was a snap shot of my life at that point in time.

People on Concordesst website got me the dream flight so the trip report was intended for them as without their help i would have never got the chance to fly on Concorde because i couldnt afford to fly on her and in Sep - Oct 2003 Concorde tickets where rarer than gold dust, so at the time i was extremely lucky to get my flight..........

In Oct 2003 i was famous i had the world's press chasing me i had to put all this in, i also had to put in accurate maps of my flight, real time tracking data of my flight, the actual ATC transcripts from my Concorde pilots and the airports to name a few things, i put this all my self inc drawing or modifying maps accurately to reflect my flight.

On the very first page of the report i said
:-

****** Start of quote ********

This trip report is a very personal account of
:-
· Summer of 2003.

· How I got my ticket.

· The world wide press and media attention I got.

· How I felt on the day I flew on Concorde and finally “ lived “ the dream

· How I felt after came back to the UK and tried to get back to “ normal “ life.

This trip report not intended to be a “ short “ read as I’ve written how I really and honestly felt to remind me in countless years time of the day I flew at mach 2 (1,320 mph) and what happened to me a year after my flight.

I’ve also written about how my close friends and family felt about my flight and how others reacted towards me when they found out I got my ticket. I’ve poured my heart in to this trip report and written some very personal things which where in some way all connected to my flight. I don’t want people reading this report to laugh or make fun of my personal life or my friends, I don’t want things I’ve written in here to be used against me but I can’t lie about what happened and wrote how I honestly felt at the time.

In time memories fade and get clouded but the written word never fades. The report has also been written to allow people who helped me live the dream experience what I experienced and to allow people who never flew on Concorde to some how see what my eyes saw, to some how experience what I felt and experienced. I hope you enjoy reading this report.

**** end of quote ****

In Oct 2003 because so many things had happened to me it was very hard to write them down all in one go, it took time to piece every thing together for it make any sence and for others to see what I had gone through…….

I used software such as Magix Audio Cleaning lab and Magix Video Delux 2.0 Plus software to digitally “clean“ the raw ATC and videos about my flight, then I started the very long process of transcripiting all this in to my trip report……. This took forever as I had to transcript every single word and every single pause which happened in real life on my flight, then I had to work out in real time when these conversations happened on my flight and where was I when my pilots and ATC said this or that to each other this took a long time to accurately work out ……….

Even with the ATC and video’s digitally cleaned some of it was still very hard to understand it as there was still a lot of static and muffled talk which I couldn’t digitally get rid of, this made some of the things very difficult to hear or understand so I had to digitally slow down or loud the cleaned sound and video further so I could understand what my pilots etc said ……….

I put down how i honestly felt, what it was like to break the sound barrier, fly at twice the speed of sound and chase the sun. what sensations i felt on Concorde flying so high and so so fast..........As now Concorde isnt flying people who never flew on her dont know what " it was like " to fly on Concorde.

I also put down how i got my ticket and what heathrow was like in Oct 2003.

The whole aim was to make the trip report as true to real life as I possibly could with the aim of people looking through my eyes and feeling what I felt and experienced………. as it wasnt just about my flight, it was about the whole " Concorde " experience.

I felt i succeeded :)

The feed back from many people who read it and who never met me was that they all loved my trip report :) :)

Apud

I can see your point of view as 670 A4 pages is huge, but LOL 5,000 words i think thats = 5 A4 pages, the actual ATC transcripts alone where more than that LOL :)

Before my flight I did read some 5000 word trip reports but they where boring and to short as they didnt tell me " what was it like " to fly on Concorde, how did you feel ?

All they basically said was
:-
I flew on Concorde, it was great and fantastic, wow what a plane, i got drunk, food was great, it was the best experience of my life...........

But I wanted to know
:-
Why was Concorde so special ?
Where you pushed back in to your chair with G-force or didnt you feel a thing ?
How painful was the G-force on your body.
At mach 2 what did you feel both physically and mentally ?

What was it like when you landed (as Concorde landings with reverse thrust where the best in the world).

All these things and more where things which i wanted to know and which i wanted to include in my trip report.

But saying that a month after my flight i did write a 3 A4 page version but it was considered to be way to short as people wanted to know how i felt so i wrote the huge trip report :)

Every one has the opinions and they are entitled to it :)

Some people dont like Harry Potter, others love it.

LOL the way it was written is how i speak and think, i aint a writer, i never have been and i never will be, i wrote how i felt.......... :)

Be grateful that i dont think and talk like Ali-G or the trip report would have reflected that LOL :)

LOL = Laughs Out Loud.

Jet, good to see you checking back in ^

To say your trip report was comprehensive would be an understatement! To me flying isn't routine but I skip some of the "assumed detail" which you thought was important because Concorde was your second trip and due to your fascination with the aircraft.
Every trip report is different and written differently because they are written in different styles by different authors. It doesn't detract from it I just think authors write trip reports in a style they'd like to read themself...

Regards
Fraser

Scott, I saw this in an airliners.net trip report and thought of you :)

'BA913
Frankfurt Main (FRA/EDDF) - London Heathrow (LHR/EGLL)
Airbus A319-131 G-EUPS
Monday April 11th 2005
Scheduled departure: 2025 Actual departure: 2042
Scheduled arrival: 2105 Actual arrival: 2106
Seat 16A, Economy

General information
Captain and FO based @ LHR
Sorry, unable to name flight crew for security etc
Aircraft type: A319-131 Registration: G-EUPS
Passengers: 68 LHR stand: D8 FRA stand: 143 Cost index: 20
Departure runway: 18 Arrival runway: 27R
Nautical mileage: 403 nm Trip wind component: +4 kts
Cruise flight level: FL320 Cruise Mach: M0.77
Alternate airfields: Primary alternate EGKK [rwy 26L] (Gatwick)
Other alternates: EGGW [rwy 26] (Luton), EGSS [rwy 23] (Stansted), EGBB [rwy 33] (Birmingham)

Times
Estimated flight time: 1 hr 6 mins Actual flight time: 1 hr 24 mins
Estimated LHR arrival: 1946Z
FRA blocks off: 1823Z FRA airborne: 1842Z
LHR actual arrival: 2006Z LHR blocks on: 2013Z

Departure information
Departure taxiways: N Runway holding point: N1
Forecast wind: 030°/12kts (nasty!) Takeoff flaps: 1 + F
Takeoff power: FLEX 79 (° C)
MAC (Mean Aerodynamic Chord, just for the techies ) = 32.5%
V1: 124 kts VR: 126 kts V2: 130 kts
Acceleration altitude: 1330ft SID: SOBRA1L QNH: 1026mb

Arrival information
Forecast wind: 290°/5 kts Landing flaps: FULL
MDA: 280ft Clean speed: 188 kts
Flap 3 VAPP = 129 kts
Flap 3 VLS = 124 kts
Flap FULL VAPP = 121 kts
Flap FULL VLS = 116 kts
Approach: ILS CAT I Landing: Manual
STAR: LAM3A (>BIG1E) QNH: 1028mb
Arrival taxiways: A,K

Aircraft and fuel weights
FRA gate gross weight: 54 500 kg Takeoff weight: 54 200 kg
ZFW: 49 300 kg Dry operating weight: 43 026 kg
Landing weight: 51 400 kg Max landing weight: 61 000 kg
Total fuel: 5 200 kg Alternate fuel (to EGKK): 653 kg
Reserve fuel: 1 007 kg Taxi fuel: 300 kg Fuel on takeoff: 4 900 kg

And another ATS routing!
-A319/M-SRWY/C
-EDDF1825
-N0431F320 SOBRA 1E SOBRA Y180 BITBU Y181 MAKIK UY181 DEMUL UA24 BUB UL608 LOGAN LAM3A
-EGLL0056 EGKK
-EET/EDUU0009 EBUR 0017 EHAA0034 EBUR035 EHAA0036 EGTT0042 REG/GEUPS SEL/EQCG OPR/BAW DOF/050411 RVR/200 RMK/TCAS


:cool: ..... :eek: ........ ;)

LOL, where did that guy get all that info LOL.

It just sounds a like a lot of meaningless technical chat which only pilots or hardend plane spotters can only understand LOL.

That's just sad!!
Why on earth would anybody be interested in knowing all that?!?
I can't believe where he/she got all that information from, like the routing, the SID and STAR (standard departure and arrival routings), did the person interview the pilot after landing???
And also, what a sad person to actually count each and every passenger onboard, all those 68 souls in the cabin.

I'm not really a big fan of the trip reports at Airliners.net.
While some of them are perfectly fine, many of them cover an extremely eventful 45 minute flight on Ryanair or any other LCC. "The captain retracted the flaps, then we heard a noise...".
I don't think I've ever bothered about the registration number of an aircraft either, and even if it happened to appear on a photo I certainly wouldn't bother mentioning it in a report. Seriously who cares?

My favourite snippet is the Mean Aerodynamic Chord! :D What is that?

Haven't got a clue!

I think my favourite line is:
"Sorry, unable to name flight crew for security"

At least what I can understand from all of that is that they had a LAM3A arrival.
LAM is short for Lambourne, the more or less compulsory holding pattern north-east of London when flying into Heathrow.

I hope you won't mind the 7000 words I am about to post. For me the trip reports are a good way to remember my past travels and what I experienced. Kind of like a diary.

Go for it PappaG!!!
Is it about the trip to the US? Love to read it...

I posted a 7500 word trip report here a month ago and it was very well received and got quite a few views.
As long as it's well written, contains interesting information/experiences/reflections, and is divided into appropriate chapters or sections, I don't see a problem with a trip report being too long.
The most important thing is to focus on quality, not quantity.

My trip report wasnt based on " quantity " way of thinking (but i admit it is big LOL), its aim was to show how i got my Concorde ticket (as the people who helped me get my ticket deserve a huge huge huge amount of praise and thanks for all the hard work and time they put in to this)

I also wanted to make it as realistic and as true to life as possible to show people who never flew on Concorde "what it was like" to fly on Concorde including actual ATC and the most common question of all "what it was like" to break the sound barrier and chase the sun at twice the speed of sound at 58,000 ft.

Now that Concorde isnt flying any more people who've never flown on her will never get the chance to experience what i experienced.

So i felt i had to write all this in the trip report, i have seen trip reports by many others one person noted down things like height, speed, time etc every 10 mins but i dont think any one has written anything as detailed as i have about a Concorde flight as i wrote it from a " human " point of view and not like a computer
i.e.
what height we flew at, how fast, time to cover such and such point etc.

Try THIS TRIP REPORT out for size... :)

ROTFLMAO!

For those of you who missed it, here's a great CO trip report:

http://www.mikeskaggs.com/COComplaint/COcomplaint.html

Seat 2A

Thats a nice report :)

But on mine i had the actual ATC recordings (taken by my friends) between my pilots and Heathrow ATC + my pilots and JFK ATC. (taken by my friends).

Flying on a 737 is ok (as i've flown on them 2-3 times) but flying on Concorde was a once in a life time experience so i had to write down every thing i could about the flight..............

737s are ten a penny but Concorde was a special as Apollo-Saturn moon rockets :)

Thats very very funny LOL :D

Not to derail this thread, but in a similar vain to how long a TR should be, I'm curious as to how people would prefer to view pics with a TR.

I'm going to post an Australia TR (which is currently about 9,000 words) in a couple days, and took a bunch of travel-related pics which I'd like to share. Seems that the easiest 2 ways would be:
1. Place hotlinks throughout the text to each relevant picture
2. Place a master link to a photo sharing page where all pictures would be placed together with captions.

Thoughts?

You can also embed them into the post itself, something unique to trip report forums. Bear in mind some folks still live in the dark ages (dial-up :eek: ) and if the photos are large size and there are a large number then they will take an age to load.

Now the option is available I tend to post thumbnails of the images on here. See my trip report here http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=508004
I can highly recommend www.imageshack.us for hotlinking images as it is free, with unlimited bandwidth and is quite user friendly ^