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.

LO3837/LO3838 WAW-GDN-WAW Carpatair F100 experience 2016.10.29

During the late summer of 2016 LOT leased one Fokker 100 from Carpatair for it to fly on the WAW-AMS-WAW-GDN-WAW-AMS-WAW rotation. At first it was supposed to be a short term lease but later it got extended to a total of couple of months. Here aa short roundtrip to Gdansk and back.

#1
29 October 2016
LO3837 (1330-1425) WAW-GDN
YR-FKA Fokker 100

The flight to Gdańsk departed delayed, around 20 minutes. Seated in the emergency exit (row 14). Despite the cloudy weather the flight was smooth. Almost zero turbulence. You can feel the age inside.

EPWA 2016.08.27 Summer morning

I wanted to take advantage of the clear skies and sunny weather and take some morning arrivals shots. A plan is always good up to the moment when it stops being plausible. After two arrivals as planned on runway 11, one of the departures reported a heavy tailwind and all was switched. Back to the rather usual 29 ops. I planned to stay only around 1 hour but ended up almost 4. Nevertheless I'm happy about the outcome. Oh, and the MD11 which usually doesn't fly on Saturdays but because its flight got cancelled the day before it did on that day.

SP-LNB

Amsterdam spotting, day 2. 2016.05.15

After being unable to catch the Martinair MD11 on the first day we returned to the airport on Sunday with the sole goal of getting it! The runway usage was rather unfavorable. We made our bets on the one that it would have a shorter taxi to. It didn't use it. It taxied all the way to 36L for departure so we drove after it, racing with time. On the route a police car got behind us so we couldn't drive to fast.. And we just saw the MD getting closer and closer to the runway. The last stretch, it's slowly lining up, it's rolling, we are nearly at the spot... We desperately stop, get out, take the shots that we are able to. All in all, not the worst, especially after that drive. Well, as we are already at the airport we stay there for a short time. Get some pictures of the "morning" departure wave from 36L. The sun is a little nicer than the day before. A couple nice heavies depart pleasuring us. After that we return home again and set for a well earned rest. The next day I have the morning flight back to Warsaw to catch.

PH-MCP

N772LA

EPWA 2016.01.08 Snowfall!

Sudden snowfalls are never fun for ground staff at the airport and often are a signal of many delays. But for a photographer? On the contrary! This gives an opportunity to get some new compositions.

HA-LYL

HB-JVG

Iran Air Maintenance Facility

After flying to and from Mashhad in the morning and before my flight to Kuala Lumpur in the evening we visited the Iran Air maintenance facility where we had the chance to get inside a F100, A320 and an 742 on maintenance. Additionally we get a chance to meet some of the people that work there, chat with them about the machines, work and their hopes for the future. We spend there a couple of hours.

Airbus A320 engine

Tehran Mehrabad spotting OIII/THR 2015.10.02

During my stay in Tehran, we had a opportunity to spend some time at the end of one of the runways. The sun was going slowly to sleep giving us some nice conditions for photography. All didn't last long so just a couple of pictures:

EP-SUS

EPWA 2015.09.16 B77F Etihad Cargo & Trade Air F100

Last year we had a Etihad cargo triple seven visiting WAW, this year the story repeated. Twice even, with some horses this time. Coincidentally the day of the Etihad departure a Trade Air Fokker 100 operated a charter to Warsaw. Both arr and dep.

9A-BTD Trade Air F100 departure

A6-DDC departing

Flying the Helvetic Airways Fokker 100

LX1343 (0935LT-1140LT)
Helvetic Airways operates on behalf of Swiss International Airlines on some routes. One of them is Zürich - Warsaw. Helvetic (2L OAW) has 6 Fokker 100 planes and 1 Airbus A319. Warsaw gets the F100, sometimes Swiss sends its own metal, an Avro or an Airbus. Luckily the plane on my flight did not change and I got to fly on HB-JVG (serial number 11478; first flight 29/09/1993; powered by two RR Tay 650-15 engines). Unfortunately the 'best' seats have been reserved by PZPN (Polish female U17 team going for a couple of friendlies in Switzerland) thus having a view into the engine was impossible and seat 10A had to do. Just in front of the leading edge of the wing. Some might say it's only 8 rows away and the sound will be similar but the truth is that it is very different, much quieter. The more up front you're seated the quieter it gets.
A short session before the flight:

SE-LRA, Saab 2000 on Apron 10 - taken before arriving at the terminal

SP-LND arriving at its gate