The red barron 41 Posted April 9, 2012 Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 Hello and welcome to yet another one of my ramblings of a trip report and yes I went back to Amsterdam so yeah I lied in the last one about me going elsewhere but I really don’t care because I still got on a plane and took pictures, of which I will now share with you. The last report can be found here:http://forum.mutleys...orange-or-blue/ I recommend that you read the other report first otherwise sections of this report might not make sense in places. Once again I felt like getting on a plane again and after some pricing up on Easyjet’s site AMS was still the cheapest route so it would be more plane spotting for me, woop woop! We were booked to fly at 09:25 on Wednesday the 4th April. Despite my last piece of advice on not getting up at 05:30 I hadn’t taken note of this and was once again finding myself getting up at 05:30. We left the house at about 06:20 and arrived at Luton about an hour later, this time with everyone remembering how to drive in the road works. The first two pictures of the day, taken from the car park whilst waiting for the car park bus to arrive. RyanAir 737 on stand, it is acctually parked on the stand that I would arrive back on to. A Business jet taxies in after landing. Eventually the bus arrived as there was only one in service and it took about 15 minutes from when we arrived to actually getting on the bus. When we arrived at Luton there was total chaos and I knew something had gone wrong somewhere as they weren’t letting you through security until 2 hours prior to departure. Something had in fact gone wrong and I later discovered that French ATC had gone on strike again the day before and there was a knock on affect. We had no luggage as it was only a day trip and we had already printed our boarding passes so check in was not needed. Now security was an absolute shamble, first off we met Mr Job lover who told my mum that her clear ziplock bag for liquids was too big and that we needed to pay a pound to purchase a new clear bag; ooops we forgot and joined the twenty minuet queue to get to the x-ray instead. Now I went through without a hitch except my carry on which got looked at oddly because my camera was inside. However my mum got beeped, patted down and then her coat went for further inspection; how I tried not to laugh, oops I failed to do this, Oh well never mind. Finally we were through and I have got pictures so bear with me on this; once through we went in search of some food and had a cheese, ham and mustard Panini. (it was lovely thanks for asking even if you didn’t) we only waited 25 minutes before our gate was announced so to stop free seating getting the better of use we briskly made our way down to gate 23 where there was a lack of an aircraft but a quick 180 spin solved the mystery of where the aircraft was, it was in fact stuck on out on the taxiway (I could be a detective you know, I solved the mystery of the missing plane) now here are some ramp shots (I told I had pictures somewhere) Another EasyJet A319 taxies out An A318 Business Jet A DHL A300 taxies out This would be my chariot for our 50 minute flight to AMS, it was once again another A319. My chariot Now while we waited the gate behind us (gate 22) had a flight going to Larnaca, and a family who were not on time for their flight and the poor gate agent was saying over the PA system that they needed to contact that gate as soon as possible if they still wished to travel. They obviously didn’t wish to travel as they never showed up and I watched their flight push and start. As we went through the gate we greeted the gate agent who obviously didn’t have any customer service training and had obviously forgotten how to talk to people as he didn’t make eye contact, smile or open his mouth. Not impressed and he was the worst staff member I met all day. Any who this is my view for today, I originally sat in row 19 but didn’t like the view so I played musical rows and sat in row 18 and punted the stuff in the overhead locker forward one row. My view for today's flight We taxied out and had a little delay. Apparently we were waiting for clearance from London control before Luton could clear us for takeoff. Taxing out As we waited this aircraft took off, and then we were cleared for takeoff. We departed off of runway 26 and then did a 180 left hand turn and flew parallel to the runway, but a cloud got in the way and stopped me from getting a shot. Here is an in flight shot. Mid flight The decent was very bumpy and after dropping a few thousand feet we descended down into thick cloud and popped out at about 800 feet and made a fairly reasonable touchdown on runway 36C and arrived on time. Here are some of the descent shots: Startiing our descent On approch, with flaps 2 On final approch with Flaps 4, just after I took this the ground finaly emerged And we're down Unfortunately the weather decided to stay put and the cloud decided to close in throughout the day. To add insult to injury it was about 4 degrees and there was a light breeze, which got rather unpleasant after about 40 minutes of being on the panorama terrace. Below is a selection of shots I took while taxing in. Singapore 777 taxing out KLM 747 taxies out for departure Augsburg Embraer E190 Once we arrived on stand we disembarked through the front door and I got a quick peep in the flight deck but I couldn’t get any images. We arrived at a deserted customs and I had my first experience of this trip with the spotless toilets at Amsterdam. Once through we went up to the viewing terrace and at first I thought that we were the only people up there, until I spotted the hardcore spotters, some of which looked like Eskimos. We then went in search of some lunch and ended up in the same restaurant as before. After lunch I decided to go out and brave the cold, after all I didn’t get up at 05:30 for nothing! So here are a few images that I took. Air France A321 on stand Iceland Air 757 on stand Delta 767-300ER KLM A330 getting loaded Which then started to taxi out a few moments later Obviously this A330 loves Amsterdam One day I will go to an airport that does not have any building work going on! After a while I went back inside to warm up and on my way back from the toilets (again spotless so I clearly wasn’t in the UK) I decided to go in search of a Flight Information Screen, to look for our flight. Now by this point it was about 14:20 and our flight was due to depart at 18:10 so I was planning to go through passport control at 17:00. Anyway I found the flight and even though it was in Dutch I could tell it said Delayed until 19:10. Oh joy I thought, more time to watch the planes but I still had to break the bad news about the delay. Now the reason for the delay was that there was still the knock on effect of the French ATC striking the day before and our crew were playing catch up. After declaring that our stay to AMS was going to be extended we once again went and explored the strange Airport, train station, shopping centre combo that is Schipol airport. We were having fun exploring until my hip had other ideas and decided to cramp with extreme speed and pain and I ended up being ‘grounded’ on a bench until it back off. Once I’d given my hip a good seeing to we set off back up to the restaurant that I was using a base camp, (it’s right next to the door out to the terrace) and I went back out to the arctic, I mean the viewing terrace and took more images, as demonstrated below: A 737 gets re-loaded KLM MD-11, I recently read on Airliners.net that KLM are starting to phase these out, shame. Cyprus A320 Arke Fly 767 Poor Arke Fly 737 gets swamped by these two heavies KLM Fokker 100 Another MD-11 pushes back I then retired back inside to thaw out (again) and my mum got me a drink and a kinder egg, this model took me some five minutes to construct (excluding time it took to eat the egg) The model. You blow into the sail and off it goes! it kept me entertained for a few moments, until I decided to go back outside. Now just outside the restaurant was two arcade games called airliner pilot (you can see where this is going) it is basically FS 2002 with three screens, a yoke, set of rudder pedals, and a set of throttles and for 1Euro I fed it some cash and spent half an hour on it and attracted a large crowed because I could actually fly it. Trust me, two adults that I watched prior to me going on it could not takeoff, they kept stalling. Even when they did get it in the air, they then didn’t know what to do and ended up crashing. They even then managed to get it into landing mode; well let’s just say somehow even Ryanair does a better job, than these guys did. After I had taken my moment of fame and had been applauded by the people viewing I went out and braved the cold for the last time as the weather was pretty bad when we arrived and by this point it was appalling, but here are the last few shots that I took: BA A319 on push and start Lufthansa A320 taxies through the fog Centurion cargo MD11 A smokey start for this A330 A KLM 747 taxies out Before disappearing into the cloud. You can see just how bad the visability was, it didn't improve either. An Air France Embraer ERJ 135 taxies out. By this point I was getting quite tired having been up for over 11hrs and being rather energetic in rushing across a terminal roof and taking pictures, so as a result we started to take a slow stroll towards check in and passport control; a quick look at the FIDS determined that our flight was still delayed by an hour, oh well nothing I can do about it. Due to the delay we were in no hurry to get to passport control as we still had just shy of 2 hours, so we walked between terminals 2 and 3 and went through passport control near the check in desk we could have used, but again because we had no baggage and our boarding passes we could go straight through. As we went through I was given a booklet of special offers but I couldn’t find any offers that gave me 100% off so there were no special offers that interested me. Therefore I recycled the booklet (saving the earth I am.) After being environmentally friendly we took a gentle stroll up the terminal. AMS has gates ranging from A-H as well as transfer gates; you can only get to the B gates before having to go through another passport control, we walked from gates H to B and then had to stop so we sat down for ten minutes where I resumed soothing my now annoying hip. We then took a leisurely stroll back to the H gates and plonked our selves down in the same seats as last time and I took some pictures despite having a limited view; by this time it was about 17:20 and the flight was still displaying as departing at 19:10 so we waited and I watched some traffic go pass and a fellow passenger on KLM drown his worries before he set off for his gate. I did however get some ramp shots so here they are: 747 being loaded The 747 next it pushes back, this one had a horse loaded on to it. And the replacement 747 taxied in about 10 minutes later Now on stand. It got to 18:40 and I saw an EasyJet taxi pass so putting two and two together I logically thought it was our aircraft so I visited the spotless toilets for the last time, (you could seriously eat your dinner off the floor they were that clean, the UK could learn a lot) But I got my hopes up for nothing as this wasn’t our plane, it was in fact going to Bristol. By now it was 19:05 and our gate had only just been displayed (H4) so we almost jogged to the gate via security to beat the rush, but somehow everyone else must have teleported as security was for the second time today packed. Once again my Mum got beeped again and I failed at not laughing. Again. It was now 19:25 so Easyjet had lied about the timing of the flight, but unlike the passengers on the TV program Airline, everyone was calm and realised that nothing could be done. Eventually we boarded at 19:45 and pushed back a few minutes later. Unfortunately the camera had died and I couldn’t use the other camera because I wasn’t at the window and it was quite dark so I wouldn’t have got anything anyway. (Sorry) However I can describe the flight so I will; we departed on 18L and did a 180 again to the left and enjoyed a 50 minute flight at 24,000 feet; before descending through thick cloud and again popped out at about 1,500 feet and had a smooth landing on runway 08, the taxi in was quick and the crew were very apologetic about the delay but explained that they had been playing catch up for most of the day thanks to the strike action by the French. We were through immigration in a few moments, and experienced the UK toilets (which were revolting even by UK standards let alone Dutch standards). We then waited about 20 minutes for the car park bus as there was still only one in service, but the car park unlike last time let us out straight away. We arrived back home at about 21:20 and had some food before hitting the hay. Again it was a long day that was enjoyed very much, despite the weather; but next time I will try to go elsewhere (honest!). Again price was about £130 for us both. If you made it this far then well done for not falling asleep and smacking your head through your keyboard. Comments are as always welcome. Edward My other trip reports are here: Delta to Orlando:http://forum.mutleys...orida-and-back/ My previous AMS trip:http://forum.mutleys...orange-or-blue/ Link to post Share on other sites
ddavid 149 Posted April 9, 2012 Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 A toilet odyssey - well done, Ed. And Thanks for sharing the pics, Mate! BTW, are you going to be a journalist when... And Top Marks to your Mum for staying the course. Cheers - Dai. P.S. Did I say "Welcome Back"? Link to post Share on other sites
hurricanemk1c 195 Posted April 9, 2012 Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 Great shots Edward - although that Delta 767 is in fact a -300ER. All the -400ER's are N8XXMH (from 828 to 845 from memory) Link to post Share on other sites
TSR 2 1 Posted April 9, 2012 Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 Yes we did again! Things we do for our kids Yes I was shattered with it all being delayed it was a long day but worth it just to see my boys face light up. No he still wants to be a pilot. Been to open day at CTC Wings so he really knows what is expected. Cant beleive he is starting his A levels soon Anyway fab day although weather was not nice and visability was awful. Hope to do something in October not sure where next or if we could fly multi flight in the day. Link to post Share on other sites
The red barron 41 Posted April 9, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 Thanks for the comments guys! Great shots Edward - although that Delta 767 is in fact a -300ER. All the -400ER's are N8XXMH (from 828 to 845 from memory) @ Kieran, good spot and have now changed it too! I also believe that their 400's are also speced with the winglet's too. (Or at least the two I've flown on did) Link to post Share on other sites
mutley 4,495 Posted April 9, 2012 Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 Hi Edward (And Julia!) A superb account of the day I enjoyed it very much, it's been a long time since I have been to a busy commercial airport and these will keep me going for a while. The photos were very good quality too, can't fault it! Cheers, Joe PS, are you coming to the FS show Weston Super Mare in May? It would be good to meet you again. Link to post Share on other sites
The red barron 41 Posted April 9, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 Thanks Joe. @ FS show, I have absolutly no idea if I can make it this year (again) I have exams in May so probably not, what are the dates for it this year and I'll see. EDIT: Google is a fantastic resource, I should be able to make it this year, but I'll have to see. Link to post Share on other sites
mutley 4,495 Posted April 9, 2012 Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 Don't mess with your exams but you need a day off once in a while! Link to post Share on other sites
TSR 2 1 Posted April 9, 2012 Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 Edward has mentioned about the Weston weekend, will have to talk to my hubby and see what else is planned if not we will probably come. Link to post Share on other sites
mutley 4,495 Posted April 9, 2012 Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 Thanks Julia, the more the merrier, it's looking to be a great day out for all the family. Regards, Joe Link to post Share on other sites
The red barron 41 Posted April 9, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 Hopefuly we can make it. Not paying for the diesel though! Link to post Share on other sites
mutley 4,495 Posted April 9, 2012 Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 Ha ha! I know what you mean, sorry I can't help, the costs are mounting up already for us, Link to post Share on other sites
TSR 2 1 Posted April 10, 2012 Report Share Posted April 10, 2012 Just how cold! Edward braving the arctic weather Link to post Share on other sites
TSR 2 1 Posted April 10, 2012 Report Share Posted April 10, 2012 Spoke to hubby we are hoping to attend the convention Link to post Share on other sites
mutley 4,495 Posted April 10, 2012 Report Share Posted April 10, 2012 Ha ha! a dedicated spotter, nice photo! Great news about Weston we will have a stand so pop in and say hello. Cheers, Joe Link to post Share on other sites
PanzerFodder 0 Posted April 13, 2012 Report Share Posted April 13, 2012 Superb set of photos. I just got the McPhat livery for Augsburg Embraer E195 in the Easter sales . Cheer's...Graham... Link to post Share on other sites
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