tinek6 HD aviation: Prague spotting, day 3 An225 departure 2016.05.12

Saturday, October 22, 2016

Prague spotting, day 3 An225 departure 2016.05.12

The moment news about the Antonov 225 "Mriya" coming to Prague spread out I started planning and scheduling a visit in the Czech capital. Together with three other friends we made up a team and planned everything. It ended with three nights and two full spotting days, plus one short, just for the departure of the 225. Everything will be divided in three entries, link to other parts are available at the end of the entry. This was my first visit in Prague for spotting, and I must say, that the spotting locations are good! sometimes you need to walk a little, but hey, that's all in it!

This day we woke up early. I had to give up the previous days night spotting in order to get a rather good sleep before returning to Warsaw today. Another gambling day, weather to go to the hill near runway 24 or one near 12. In case of departing from 12 there was no sensible place to catch the rotation. We decided that the second option will be better. It will give us the possibility to both get the rotation from 24 (a little backlight if it goes too late) and taxiing to runway 12. And so it was. I hoped greatly for a 24 departure, that would have been spectacular from that spot. Anyway, the departure got delayed, so the sun was already on the wrong side of the runway axis, not much but anyway. It was chilly, the sun slowly rising gave a little heat on the faces, but a hat and scarf was necessary.
As usual, the giant needed a couple of minutes standing on the runway to heat-up the engines. That sound was spectacular!
Another thing that was unusual is that on of the wheels didn't hide after take-off (it can be slightly seen on my photos). There are photos showing it en-route with the wheels out. Crazy!