2017 - summary

As usual, being delayed with publishing posts from the year, the year itself came to an end. Luckily not much is left to catch up with.

Firstly, my personal TOP5 photos from the year. No specific order. Tried to show a diversified range of shots. Not necessarily top quality, but all of them represent something that might be special to me (like let's say a memory) about it. Choosing just 5 wasn't easy, so I decided that I'll end up with 7 :P Sometimes I had to go with the one that has a bigger story behind it. Many great photos couldn't make it, and it was a real battle.

1. That one is for all the spotting in Warsaw and the experiences connected with WAW. Entry source.

2. That one for all the spotting trips done that year, for the diversity, for all involved and for more to come! For the MD-11, soon to be a rare sight in Europe. Entry source.

3. Here there will be two, for the shows during this year. A couple first times for me, first time a night show, my first time at SIAF in Sliac and some more. Surely both of these made a big impression on me. The photo from SIAF shows a very low pass by Zoltan Veres while the night shot shows one of the Aerosparx in action. Entries to be published soon.

4. These two are for all the flights, plenty of them this year. All the ones with a greater cause and all those just for fun, just for the flight. The long and the short, the bigger and smaller planes. Entry source (photo 1); entry source (photo 2)

5. This one for the trips, not the flights, the trips. The places and people invloved, the views and expeirences throughtout the entire year. Entry source.

Nordica (LOT) CRJ900 experience (LO779 WAW-KUN) 2017.07.22

LOT took over some stakes in Regional Jet and that way came into partnership with Estonian Nordica. EE flights on LOTs AOC and does some LO flights for LO (mainly TLL/ARN/CPH/VNO/ODS/GOT at the moment). Taking advantage of some reconstruction works at VNO at flights being redirected to KUN I hopped on one of their CRJs and flew to KUN.

22 July 2017
LO779 (1315-1520) WAW-KUN
ES-ACG Bombardier CRJ900

The midday flight to Kaunas, usually to Vilnius. We are taken to the aircraft by bus with a slight delay. The delay is insignificant as afterall we land in Kaunas on time. On board we get the Nordica service, their inflight magazine. menu etc. The seats on the CRJ are rather thick and soft, legspace is enough and the comfort of the ride is, overall, good. The cabin has the same mancaments as any other CRJ or Q400 has, limited space in the overhead compartments resulting in "Delivery at Aircraft" tags, the side walls near the windows are slightly cut (due to the small tube of the cabin) taking away some legspace. I like the dragonfly elements in the livery, in the outfits and in the on board magazine. The CRJ is a quiet plane up front, slightly louder at the rear, not a surprise when you consider where the engines are mounted. The Estonian flag looks nice on the winglets. My overall experience waws rather positive, the flight wasn't long enough to soak in more, rather a quick jump from A to B. After landing in Kaunas we taxi by two Let-410s and two Air Force planes, deboard to the bus and are later taken to the temporary terminal (which is going to be shown here).

Off from Warsaw with the downtown easily visible

LO800 PLQ-WAW and Palanga Airport 2017.07.19

19 July 2017
LO800 (0605-0625) PLQ-WAW
SP-EQH Bombardier Q400

This short story begins a little earlier than before the flight to Warsaw. First I had to get to Palanga, but as not many views are provided the only souvenir is the arrivals area of the airport.
This morning, seasonal flight to Warsaw departs minutes after 6 am, and lands after an hour and twenty minutes in Warsaw. We are on time, the weather is on our side, the sun is shining nicely both in Lithuania and in Poland. I take my seat in row 7 (not my favorite one if I'd be asked). The flight itself is very similar to others, but we can't buy sandwiches as they are from the day before and the crew cannot sell them to us. A slight minus for LOT. But the crew makes it up with their smiles and very positive attitude despite the time and the short sleep they had.

Katowice round-trip, LO3881 LO3884, 2017.07.16

The day before I've been to Munich and Lublin. On that day I had 3 flights planned, a mileage run to Katowice and later on in the evening an escapade to Palanga.

16 July 2017
LO3881 (1100-1150) WAW-KTW
SP-LDG Embraer 170

This flight has been recently added to the schedule. The load is rather small, very small I would say. Good for me, more space. The flight itself took around 40 minutes from block to block (the full video without cuts is available beneath) and was a pleasant one. Hard to have a poor experience on the E-Jet of LOT.

16 July 2017
LO3884 (1500-1550) KTW-WAW
SP-EQK Bombardier Q400

After disembarking from the previous flight I have plenty of time before my return. I wanted to get some knowledge of how the airport looks before my same plane mileage run the next month. Thus I wander around, in and outside. I've been already at KTW, but never as a passenger, did some spotting and picking up here. The airport is divided into three terminals, two for departures and one for arrivals. No transfer available. After having enough, what would be around 2,5h prior to departure I head to the security and later walk a little around the airside.Quite crampy I would say. But they have an awesome view on the apron and runway. I take a seat with a view and indulge in a book. When boarding comes I slowly get on the plane, take my seat in row 12 and want to enjoy the flight as is. Mainly because of the dirty window that I can do nothing about. The flight was quick and on time, the LF around 70%.

Boarding from the bus

BMI regional Embraer 145 experience (BM1771 MUC-LUZ) 2017.07.15

BMI opened a route from Munich to Lublin operated by the E135, usually. After getting to Munich from Warsaw, I head back to Poland, unluckily on the E145

15 July 2017
BM1771 (1110-1250) MUC-LUZ
G-RJXC Embraer 145


There were mixed signals from the start, some sources claimed that the 135 is to fly, others that the 145. Unluckily the gate confirmed that it was going to be the 145. The only 145 flight on that route in the span of a month. After wandering around the airport for some time, finally the time to board has come. I get on the bus, We are taken to the plane and board the aircraft. I take my seat in row 18, not as happy as I thought I'd be, I can see the 135 next to us. Well, it happens. We depart more or less on time, slightly behind schedule, but no problem as we arrived on time after all. The sound of the RRs spooling up and working is magnificent! The small jet is crampy, not much space for cabin luggage, so leaving yours as a Delivery at Aircraft is a good idea, for your own comfort. At the front it's rather quiet, at the back you have the possibility to listen to the engine sounds - a big yes! The service is basic, passengers are served drinks and a small snack. My experience with BMI regional was OK-, the major problems being the plane swap (happens...) and the poor information and attitude of the gate agent, who showed up at the gate, after the printed boarding time, and seemed like she had a problem with everyone and everything. Will have to try and catch the 135 some time...

Boarding our little jet

Munich transfer, airside and spotting 2017.07.15

After arriving earlier on LO351 and having some time before my next flight to Lublin (BM1771) I walked here and there at the terminal, tried to take some pictures of aircraft but the dirty glass wasn't exactly helpful.

LO351 WAW-MUC 2017.07.15

BMI opened a route from Munich to Lublin operated by the E135, usually. but first one has to get to Munich.

15 July 2017
LO351 (0720-0900) WAW-MUC
SP-LIN Embraer 175

One of the first flights in the morning departure wave. We are taken to the plane by bus. As we wait for a couple transferring passengers we depart a couple of minutes later than schedule. After taking off from runway 29 we turn left and head for Wrocław. The flight passes quickly and soon we begin our descend for Munich. Most of the time we fly over some clouds, first Cu's start to form despite the early hour. On the approach itself we encounter a little turbulence. A smooth landing and all that is left is the taxi process to the gate. We dock at the satellite terminal after a couple of minutes of waiting for our gate to get free. A LH A321 had to be pushed back (you can see it at the last photo). In block - on time! So after yet another pleasant flight with LOT I disembark and head for some terminal airside sightseeing in MUC before my next flight.

Austrian Fokker 100 experience (OS631 VIE-WAW) 2017.06.22

Returning back home from England: the final leg, slightly later than planned.

22 June 2017
OS631 (1745-1905) VIE-WAW
OE-LVE Fokker 100

After missing my connection after the flight from London was delayed I've been rebooked for the next direct flight (unfortunately the fastest connection available). The good thing was that it was going to be operated by the Fokker 100. Always nice to fly the F100. After some time-killing, eating etc its time to board. We are taken to the aircraft by bus and the flight today is full so I must cope with my seat in row 21, well, it could be worse :D An on-time departure gets us on time to Warsaw where we land at runway 29 due to a incident that happened on runway 33 (see photos and flight video) that blocked the runway. The sounds on the Fokker jets are always solid! Love 'em. This wasn't my first Austrian Fokker 100 flight. I did some flights a couple years back (that is where the review video comes from) but nothing has changed on board. Today, they have recently been phased out of service, unluckily I did not manage to get the F70 neither with AUA nor KLM, well, will have to search for it somewhere farther.

Departing Heathrow (OS452 LHR-VIE) 2017.06.22

Returning from England back home. First leg: to Vienna and a short stop..

22 June 2017
OS452 (0905-1225) LHR-VIE
OE-LBA Airbus A321

I arrive at the airport with a time margin to get through all the controls. A quick walk around the general area of T2 and I head to the security check. The queue moves quickly and in no time I am on the other side. I must admit I really like how T2 is constructed with the gates having a double entry for each "flight", with all the clear markings and information. Exact gate shown around 1h before departure (when the inbound flight arrives) so gate changes are rather rare. My plane arrives from Vienna slightly delayed, our first delay is shown to be 13 minutes. But 13 minutes past departure time boarding is still in progress... It is important to me as I have a 35 minute (scheduled time) change in Vienna, so every minute counts. After all we pushback with a delay of 35 minutes, so my entire stop just disappeared. The taxi process to the northern runway is long and involves many stops. Heavy traffic, what can you do. With some hopes still left at the back of my head I sit back, relax and enjoy the flight. The A321 inside doesn't differ form the A320, luckily the seat next to me is vacant giving me some more comfort on board. When we get closer to Vienna I start browsing the inflight magazine searching for rerouting options as I am nearly sure that I won't make my flight. During the approach the purser informs that some connections will unfortunately not make it, and says which. After all we get to our gate 7 minutes before my planned departure, when I get to the terminal the flight to Warsaw isn't even on the screens anymore. Bad luck. So I head to the transfer desk where after a couple of minutes I get a new boarding pass for the next flight to Warsaw (4 hours later), which after all ended up to be the fastest way anyway. After my asking I also get a 12€ worth of voucher for food and drinks and some of the restaurants.
Summing up the flight: the inflight experience was standard, same as the A320. The crew was friendly and Heathrow was Heathrow :D The Austrian ground staff in Vienna was very professional, for what I thank them. There is nothing I could say went bad in Vienna.