LO3886 KTW-WAW 2017.08.15

15 August 2017
LO3886 (1825-1920) KTW-WAW
SP-LDH Embraer 170

The return segment of a kinda mileage run. There and back, the plane has not changed, the crew is the same. So after a quick walk out and back in to the terminal I get on board and am not the last one on it! :) Nice light makes for a cool lighting conditions during the flight. After departure a great overview of the airport in Pyrzowice, both runways (old and new) easily visible. Landed on time. Nothing to complain about on this short journey.

LO3885 WAW-KTW 2017.08.15

15 August 2017
LO3885 (1640-1730) WAW-KTW
SP-LDH Embraer 170

The first segment of a kinda mileage run. There and back to Katowice. A low load factor, a small delay (around 35 minutes) on departure (making my turnaround in KTW shorter but still easily doable). Boarding through the jetway and soon after we are waiting to line up on the runway. Up, straight, and down, a couple of turns and we have arrived at Pyrzowice airport. Very quick hop, I'd be one of the first out if we wouldn't be taking a bus, as it makes no difference in that case. Absolutely nothing to complain about the flight.

Ready on stand 1

LO3832 GDN-WAW 2017.08.13

Returning home after some great shows in Gdynia (day 1, day 2). This post is slightly out of chronology, but I should get back in order soon.

13 August 2018
LO3832 (0850-0950) GDN-WAW
SP-EQL Bombardier Q400

Returning home in the best possible way, by air. Morning wake-up, short walk for the train to the airport. Quiet ride and I'm at the airport. Passing security with a small queue and the only thing left is to wait. QL arrives from Warsaw, passengers disembark, and we get to hop into the jetway soon. The flight itself takes around 60 minutes block to block due to traffic in Warsaw. All is on time. The dash, like the dash, nothing special, up, down, to the front, fast, loudsish (always better than an ATR still). A simple "bus ride" to Warsaw, nothing extraordinary. But, my first Q400 jetway boarding :)

@flylot Bombardier Q400 at the gate at @airportgdansk waiting for passengers to Warsaw. #gdn #Q400 #dash #dashliner #jetway #airport #lot #flyalot #flylot #aviation #aviationgeek #avgeek #plane #sky #clouds #ramp #bombardier

A post shared by K (@flightfeel) on Sep 16, 2017 at 2:47am PDT

LO776 KUN-WAW 2017.07.23

Usually a flight from Vilnius, but this time (and on the span of almost a month) from Kaunas instead.

23 July 2017
LO776 (1900-1910) KUN-WAW
SP-LDF Embraer 170

Arriving early at the airport and having plenty of time I stand by the fence and take some pictures of the traffic moving in and out. I even get to wittness the departure of the earlier flight to Warsaw. After some time, I go for a walk around the terminals and later to the restricted area of the temporary terminal (used by LOT during this short time operating from KUN instead of VNO) where I'll wait for my plane. SP-LDF arrives on time and we board walking to the plane. On board, when everybody is seated and doors are closed we are being informed that due to bad weather in Warsaw we have to wait on the ground. After 30 minutes (new METAR) the situation isn't better enough so we sit 30 more.An hour has passed since the planned departure time and we are still on the ground. The thunderstorm is slowly moving east and we may slowly get going. Quick departure, right turn, up and of to Warsaw. The flight itself was quick and not as turbulent as I'd suspect. We did encounter the Cbs on our way, thunder wasn't hard to spot, putting safety first is always a good option. The runway in Warsaw is wet, we get to our gate in Warsaw, some passengers have missed their connection, others are taken quickly directly to the gates, and others have to try to make it. Lucky as I was, Warsaw being my final destination I slowly proceeded to take a bus back home.
Fun experience at Kaunas, quite happy LOT opens a scheduled direct flight to KUN in S18, maybe there will be some time this summer to test the normal terminal ;)

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

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.

Austrian Embraer 195 experience (OS626 VIE-WAW) 2017.06.20

On my way to England. Heathrow via Vienna. Leg 1: a short hop to Austria.

20 June 2017
OS626 (1030-1155) WAW-VIE
OE-LWK Embraer 195

Seated in row 23, a small load factor on that flight, less than 50%, plenty of free seats in the rear giving freedom to move around, photograph and film. That was my first flight on the OS E-Jet, the seats didn't make a good impression on me, desk-like with minimal material around it. Small recline but legroom was sufficient. More seats compared to the E95 of LOT thus windows aren't perfectly aligned with the seats. Nevertheless it makes it job and gets you from A to B quickly, but I wouldn't choose the OS E95 for longer journeys.
I arrive at the airport a little early thus I get some time to take a couple of pictures before boarding. The flight is on time giving me a decent 1 hour in Vienna (slightly more than planned as the next flight to LHR got delayed).

LOT Boeing 737-800 experience (LO381 WAW-FRA) 2017.05.20

20 May 2017
LO381 (0745-0945) WAW-FRA
SP-LWA Boeing 737-800

On a trip to Frankfurt on board the newest addition to the LOT fleet. The Boeing 737-800. The load on that flight wasn't great thus I was able to walk freely and sit both in the front and at the back. The seats on the plane are exactly the same like on the 734 after their retrofit. The seats are quite comfy, but unfortunately don't have an adjustable headrest, which is a minus. Only the front rows have power sockets (the 734 has them in all rows). With a Y186 configuration it is pretty dense, but you don't get a cramped feeling. Service is basic. Overall I'd say a pretty good product as for the times. LOT did a nice job with choosing the seats (I must also add that the backrest is adjustable). A next change in quality is said to come with the MAX, soon. Can't wait to see what it will be. I must say that LOT did do its homework well and can compete on an equal level with others.

Taxiing

EPWA 2017.05.17 RNAF DC10

A rare visit of the Royal Netherlands Air Force DC10 Tanker in Warsaw. A type rarely seen lately in Europe. Luckily it did give Warsaw and opportunity to listen and see it one more time.

T-235

EPWA 2017.05.05 Qatari

A delegation from Qatar visited Warsaw. They came on three planes, an A310, an A340, and A319CJ a 747-8. During their departure also the usual scheduled Qatar A330 departed for Doha. The first plan was to catch the 747 departing from runway 33 and then quickly shift for the rest of departures from 29. That's the reason for the shots of the 787s. Unluckily they decided to taxi at once, both the A310 and 748. A quick decision and I move for the A310 departure so I can only watch the 748 taxiing away. The sun did play some nice tones later during the day. In fact not the shots I wanted to get but I did take the risk being fully aware of what can go wrong.

A7-AFE

EPWA 2017.04.27

Just some simple shots with the hope of getting some water spraying action. But the heat haze won with me.

TC-JRL

Double Jumbo (LY, AI) 2017.04.26

Two Jumbos almost one after the other. Not a daily sight in Warsaw. An El Al Israel and a Air India plane arrive in Warsaw.

4X-ELC

EPWA 2017.04.25

A little spotting in the morning (~9-10am) and some from the evening wave (~5pm)

4X-EKH

EPWA 2017.04.24

The weather was nice, plenty of free time so I decided to get out for some spotting of the afternoon departure wave. Mostly LOT 787s, some shots of the Nordica CRJ900. All departures from runway 29 due to the closure of runway 33 (usually used for departures of the 787s)

SP-LLG

ES-ACC

Low cost day, Lublin by Wizz Air 2017.03.26

One day I decided that I wanted to fly to and from Lublin airport. That flying from and to is different. Plus I didn’t want to have to get back from Lublin by bus or get to Lublin by bus. Wizzair has one plane based at Lublin so the flights are schematic. After some research the final routing was chosen, mostly based on the price factor. The day was to be a sad day for my back anyway, so at least my wallet wouldn’t suffer that much. It ended to be a WAW-LTN-LUZ-NYO-GDN-WAW routing with Wizz and the last segment with Ryanair. 6 am departure from Warsaw and back in Warsaw after 8 pm. Sounds like a plan. I checked-in for my flights rather late, with hope that maybe some “better” seats could be allocated, I got 3 times an aisle, one middle and one window seat, at least at the start. As I didn’t plan on too much photography (no camera) as I was traveling very light that wasn’t too big of a problem. Of course the window seat was on the flight after which I had the shortest connection. When buying the tickets I had 25 minutes in Gdańsk. Later Ryanair changed their schedule giving me only 10 scheduled minutes to change planes... But step by step:

Boarding a @wizzaircom plane at Lublin Airport #wizzair #luz #lublin #airplane #a320 #airbus @airbus #wing #avgeek #aviationgeek #aviation #plane #flying @lotniskolublin

Post udostępniony przez Konstanty Dobrzyński (@tinek6_hd_aviation) 5 Maj, 2017 o 1:10 PDT

(IEG) Zielona Góra by LOT, LO3983 & LO3984

17 March 2017
LO3983 (2235-2335) WAW-IEG
SP-EQL Bombardier Q400

18 March 2017
LO3984 (0545-0650) IEG-WAW
SP-EQL Bombardier Q400

For a long time I wanted to fly to the small airport in Babimost in western Poland. Flight to and from Zielona Góra – Babimost have been long operated by Sprint Air on the Saab 340 but the schedule didn’t make it possible to get a one day trip from Warsaw. After their contract ended, LOT scooped up the new contract for the flights and now flies 5xweekly on the Q400. The flights still don’t allow to get a one day trip from Warsaw but they do allow for a short night stay during the weekend. The flights leave late from Warsaw and leaves early from Zielona Góra. So after LOT announced the flights I got tickets for one of the rotations. Straight from work and then straight to work. Not many passengers during this time of the year (23 for WAW-IEG and 16 for IEG-WAW). Now, during the summer, the loads are better. At IEG, they have a separate arrival terminal to which you are taken by a bus. The departure hall is small, has no classic gate, boarding is performed by hand by the staff and you walk to the plane. My entire experience was very positive, because of (its grotesqueness) the small details that I found new, and hard to believe. The ‘gate’ area would be crowded if the Q400 was full, I don’t want to think what would be happening there if a full plane of the size of a B737 or A320 would arrive or depart. At the speed that the security check was performed, two hours would surely not be enough to check everyone, the space behind the security check would be full and overcrowded for sure. Lucky for them that they don’t have such situations although they probably would love to have more flights and more passengers.

LO409 WAW-DUS 2017.02.25

25 February 2017
LO409 (0735-0930) WAW-DUS
SP-LDK Embraer 170

A weekend excursion to Düsseldorf in some nice company. Luckily the morning departure wave of LOT flights from Warsaw starts after 7 am which is rather ok for a morning departure. Much better than a 6 am flight. Most passengers have already passed through security, thus, around 7 o’clock there merely is a queue to the security control. With around 40 minutes until departure we arrive at the airport, check a bag in for a hassle free flight and head to the gates. A brief stop at the duty free and for a coffee. Just in time at the gate. Today’s ride, SP-LDK, the only plane painted in Star Alliance colors in the fleet. We leave the gate on time, taxi briefly and head up and west, towards DUS. Not too many people, not exactly a business hour to fly, Saturday morning, the atmosphere on board is sleepy and the flight passes quickly, without greater problems. Just enough time to get a small breakfast on board. At our destination airport we park at a remote position, hop on a bus and are quickly transported to the terminal where we pick up our bag and head on to the city.

Overall, I still hold up the impression that LOTs jungle jets are one of the best for short travels around Europe. Really hard to beat them in my opinion.

Leaving snowy Warsaw behind

Emirates A380 in Warsaw 2017.02.10

For the fourth anniversary of launching flights between Dubai and Warsaw Emirates decided to send an Airbus A380 to Warsaw. Winter weather was almost at it's best. Unluckily the heat haze was active thus some of the photos didn't work out as good as they could. Both the departure and landing had to be on runway 15 on that day due to the size of the aircraft. Also, taxiing space is limited for the A380 at Warsaw Chopin airport. Both flights were on time, more or less. In addition some shots of other movements, the Air Transat A330 flying for Travel Service, LOT Boeing 787s and other smaller machines.