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Date - Friday 13th February 2004
Aircraft - Airbus A320-214
Airline - British Airways
Registration - G-EUUK
Flight No. - BA1405 "Shuttle 3 Tango"
I know this is like two months late, but "better late than never" I suppose.
Being a friend of kaddyuk, he kindly invited me down to London for a weekend of spotting last month so obviously, I jumped at the chance!
After (what seemed like) a long day at school, I got home "booked it, packed it, ****** off!" to Manchester airport for the 6.40pm departure. I did feel a little nervous with the date being Friday the 13th and all my mates at school saying "I bet you crash", but I didn't let it get to me, plus I've never flown on my own before which made me think I'd get lost in the airport or something stupid like that
I managed to get passed the check in part pretty easily with BA's new check in scheme where you just put your ticket into a machine, which is really quick and simple. After check in, I still had 30 minutes or so left to waste so I went to Terminal 3 departures and had a coffee with my Mum, Dad and brother. My flight then got called to go to the departure lounge so it was time for the 'good bye thing' to my family. I then saw my aircraft pull up to the gate, G-EUUK.
[photoid=113814]
After about 20 minutes of waiting, we then boarded as, getting a nice welcome from the BA crew. I sat in seat 14A, 5 rows behind the emergency exit (I made sure it was a window seat for some shots), which were VERY comfy in navy blue leather.
[photoid=230865]
We waited for about 15 minutes 'till we got push back and taxied to 24L for departure (which seemed ages!
). We were then lined up on the runway and I could hear the engines slowly spooling up. My back was then pushed into my seat as she began to wind up down the runway (alot more powerful than I expected) then started a 15 degree climb to 19,000ft then made a left turn to the South.
Within 10 minutes, drinks were being served along with tuna and sweetcorn sandwiches, which I hate, but was that hungry that I scoffed the lot! The PTV's then came down with about two different pages. One showing us where we was on the map and the other was showing our airspeed, height, outside temperature and miles to go from Heathrow. 19,000ft soon appeared then within 5 minutes (literally!) we was starting our descent. We started to come down pretty quickly, I could just see the speedbrakes half deployed so that was probably why. My ears were popping like mad (as usual). We were then out of the clouds and on finals for 27L. I could feel the pilot correcting the approach by swaying from side to side now and again, as we got lower. Then we had this big jolt as the right hand side landing gear touched down, then with the left. We taxied in to Terminal 1, passing an A346 Virgin Atlantic too which was nice to see
After pulling upto the gate, I was the last one to get off the aircraft cos I wanted a cockpit shot. All of the crew were very kind and didn't have a problem with it. The F/O was great! He let me sit in his seat (with his hat on!) and took some pics of me
I was in the cockpit for about 10 minutes talking to the crew so passengers going to Edinburgh then started to board, so then the Captain escorted me to the gate, then went to arrivals.
[photoid=230870]
[photoid=230872]
Where I then met kaddyuk and went upto the top of the car park and took some long exposure shots of cars and aircraft.
I wanna say a big thanks to Kevin for letting me come down for the weekend and for letting me stay at his place, cheers Kev
Overall, I'd give British Airways -
Service - 9/10
Time keeping - 7/10
Crew - 10/10
Aircraft - Airbus A320-214
Airline - British Airways
Registration - G-EUUK
Flight No. - BA1405 "Shuttle 3 Tango"
I know this is like two months late, but "better late than never" I suppose.
Being a friend of kaddyuk, he kindly invited me down to London for a weekend of spotting last month so obviously, I jumped at the chance!
After (what seemed like) a long day at school, I got home "booked it, packed it, ****** off!" to Manchester airport for the 6.40pm departure. I did feel a little nervous with the date being Friday the 13th and all my mates at school saying "I bet you crash", but I didn't let it get to me, plus I've never flown on my own before which made me think I'd get lost in the airport or something stupid like that
I managed to get passed the check in part pretty easily with BA's new check in scheme where you just put your ticket into a machine, which is really quick and simple. After check in, I still had 30 minutes or so left to waste so I went to Terminal 3 departures and had a coffee with my Mum, Dad and brother. My flight then got called to go to the departure lounge so it was time for the 'good bye thing' to my family. I then saw my aircraft pull up to the gate, G-EUUK.
[photoid=113814]
After about 20 minutes of waiting, we then boarded as, getting a nice welcome from the BA crew. I sat in seat 14A, 5 rows behind the emergency exit (I made sure it was a window seat for some shots), which were VERY comfy in navy blue leather.
[photoid=230865]
We waited for about 15 minutes 'till we got push back and taxied to 24L for departure (which seemed ages!
). We were then lined up on the runway and I could hear the engines slowly spooling up. My back was then pushed into my seat as she began to wind up down the runway (alot more powerful than I expected) then started a 15 degree climb to 19,000ft then made a left turn to the South.Within 10 minutes, drinks were being served along with tuna and sweetcorn sandwiches, which I hate, but was that hungry that I scoffed the lot! The PTV's then came down with about two different pages. One showing us where we was on the map and the other was showing our airspeed, height, outside temperature and miles to go from Heathrow. 19,000ft soon appeared then within 5 minutes (literally!) we was starting our descent. We started to come down pretty quickly, I could just see the speedbrakes half deployed so that was probably why. My ears were popping like mad (as usual). We were then out of the clouds and on finals for 27L. I could feel the pilot correcting the approach by swaying from side to side now and again, as we got lower. Then we had this big jolt as the right hand side landing gear touched down, then with the left. We taxied in to Terminal 1, passing an A346 Virgin Atlantic too which was nice to see
After pulling upto the gate, I was the last one to get off the aircraft cos I wanted a cockpit shot. All of the crew were very kind and didn't have a problem with it. The F/O was great! He let me sit in his seat (with his hat on!) and took some pics of me
I was in the cockpit for about 10 minutes talking to the crew so passengers going to Edinburgh then started to board, so then the Captain escorted me to the gate, then went to arrivals.
[photoid=230870]
[photoid=230872]
Where I then met kaddyuk and went upto the top of the car park and took some long exposure shots of cars and aircraft.
I wanna say a big thanks to Kevin for letting me come down for the weekend and for letting me stay at his place, cheers Kev
Overall, I'd give British Airways -
Service - 9/10
Time keeping - 7/10
Crew - 10/10
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