MF8119 FOC-PEK 2017.01.01

Time to return home. Again via Fuzhou and Beijing (a night stop at PEK) with Xiamen Airlines.

01 January 2017
MF8119 (1600-1850) FOC-PEK
B-2992 Boeing 737-700

Transfer at Fuzhou. Easy, or not? At first, pick up your bag, enter China, get a stamp on your visa (one of the few airports that you need a visa to transfer at), pass customs, go to the check-in area, check your bag in, go through security, find something to do as no place accepts Visa cards. So I walked around, took some photos and waited for my flight. Unfortunately a swap occurred. They changed the planned 787 for a 737-700. Bad but could be worse, could be another 737-800 flight :P This is going to be a full flight, very few vacant seats. I get a family next to me. Lucky to have my earphones and the window so I can fly in relative peace. The food is the same, the views differ a bit as the sun hides and we land in dark Beijing. After arriving all I need to do is get to my hotel where I'll rest before taking my last flight the next morning.

Xiamen Boeing 757 experience MF8166, 2016.12.26

Christmas came and with the New Year ahead it was time to fly out somewhere. Destination: Taiwan, via China. First stop: Beijing, the second one: Fuzhou.

26 December 2016
MF8166 (1325-1620) PEK-FOC
B-2869 Boeing 757-200

My stopover in Beijing isn't the shortest which gives me the possibility for some spotting from the terminal area. Time slowly passes by but finally boarding started. We are taken by bus to the aircraft. Not many passengers on the flight today, no problem in choosing a seat on board. The crew makes no problems so I sit at 45A. You can feel the power of the 757, especially that the plane is rather empty today. En route we do experience slight turbulence. Most of the time we cruise over the clouds. The meal is served, noodles today, no choice, no tray, quite greasy and apart the parts that are toughened due to heat, the meal is edible. The crews english is sufficient for me to get what I'd like, we kinda get on ;)  After around two and a half hours we land in sunny Fuzhou and deboard to the bus which will take us to the terminal where I have another 2h stop before my final flight of the day to Taipei.

LO91 WAW-PEK 2016.12.25

Christmas came and with the New Year ahead it was time to fly out somewhere. Destination: Taiwan, via China. First stop: Beijing

25 December 2016
LO91 (1455-0635+1) WAW-PEK
SP-LRC Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner

Christmas Day, late breakfast with the family and off to the airport. Quick and problem free baggage drop off, security and passport control. Boarding started more or less on time. Seated down in 7A with more than sufficient legroom I buckle up and wait for the pushback and takeoff. After we depart and head east it quickly gets dark and will stay that way all the way to Beijing. Some time into the flight the meals are served, one portion wasn't enough so later on I had to ask for a second one. With my stomach satisfied I could get on to the In Flight Entertainment system and watch some videos. The flight was rather smooth and passed by quickly. Oh, I would have forgotten about a small nap before arrival. Well needed at that time of the day. Surely a good start of the trip!

Taxiing to the runway

Beijing Capital Airport spotting; ZBAA/PEK 21.09.2014

Both before departing to North Korea and after arriving back to China I have had a couple of opportunities to spot a bit at Beijing Capital Airport. I can divide them into 4 parts where part 1: before departure from PEK for FNJ; part 2: after landing in PEK from FNJ; part 3: the main spotting part; part 4: before departure from PEK to VIE. Part 1 and 4 feature photos mainly made from the terminal area while part 3 is the more standard "beside the fence" spotting.
During my stay winds were mostly southernly thus runway 36L, 36R and 01 in use. Unfortunately I would not say that the weather was great. I'd rather say it was more of a typical Beijing aura with smog around.
For some detailed information about spotting locations in Beijing visit spotterguide

An Air China A330 landing at 36R (B-6079)

Queue from both sides to depart from 36R

Air Koryo Tupolev 204

This entry will be a two part one (divided in itself). The first part is getting to North Korea and the second one leaving it. Both of the flights I've done on the Tupolev 204-100 operated by Air Koryo. The -300 is just a bit shorter and apart of that doesn't differ much inside.

JS152
13.09.2014 PEK-FNJ
1255-1600
I got to the airport around 10am by the train that rides between the center and both terminal areas at the airport. There I met up with part of the group and later we passed through security prior to getting to our check-in area. Some unusually sized luggage could be seen checked-in. After getting my boarding pass with what looked like a good seat (10F) I proceeded on the yet another security check and the immigration counters. Airside, after localizing our departure gate I moved on to looking for a place to spot at, windows gave a couple good shots at aircraft that have been docked and one, in the "corner" had an overview on the main taxiway and one of the three runways at PEK. There many of my trip mates gathered. We spent the hour prior to boarding here taking pictures, notes and laughing together. We had to bond at least a bit, a full week with the company of us and only us was ahead.
It was boarding time, still before entering the jetway most of us made a slight detour for a photo of the 204. On board we were greeted by the friendly crew of todays flight. Just after a couple of minutes push-back commenced, engines have been fired up and taxiing started. A long one, with some stops due to traffic. Finally we were in the air.
In flight service was rather poor. The "Kim Burger" we got was rather a 1/10 than something you would like to eat. Fortunately the soft drink was kinda good!
Maybe it was just me, or it was the airplane or the way the pilots flew but I could feel practically every turn, something that usually doesn't happen in the "western world". One strange situation also happened. A slight bank right turned into a steep one, than the pilot suddenly over-banked left, tried to level it off and again banked right before finally leveling off. Someone even screamed at the back.
Finally after 1h 22min we touchdowned at Pyongyang Sunan airport, deboarded the plane and boarded a bus and traveled towards the terminal for our customs and immigration control. All of it did take some time and finally after around 8-9 hours we've arrived at our hotel.

In the tunnel from the train to the terminal

Landside in the T2, pre customs check