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

Gdynia Aerobaltic 2017, day 1. 2017.08.11

First edition of the night show in Gdynia. My first night show as well. I've been totally stunned! Absolutely phenomenal sights! A special area has been set out on the beach for the general public, free admittance, apart what was happening in the sky there were laser shows and performances. There has also been an area for accredited spotters and media with the possibility to rent camera bodies and lenses. First, still with the sun up, some usual performances, later, when the sun was gone for the night the magic staretd to happen. Main stars, for me definitely Aerosparx, Fireflies and the swedish Piper Cub. It isn't easy for words to describe everything, not even the photos will give a full insight. Surely a test for the photographer as well. The 2018 edition is noted in my calendar, will try to come for at least one day.
May the photos from the first day speak for themselves:

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 ;)

Kaunas Airport. 2017.07.22-23

Kaunas Airport was the place that most of the airlines redirected their flights from Vilnius during the runway maintenance over there. As the terminal is too small to accomodate the rise in traffic they have created temporary, provisional terminal halls. It's easy to get to the city center from the airport by bus which stops in front of the terminal. I must say that everything was well organised and easy to find. People with information about getting to Kaunas/Vilnius/other cities, or about which airline from which section were widely available, visible and easy to find. As LOT now openes a scheduled flight from WAW to KUN, I might be on my way to Kaunas to see the main terminal work some time in 2018.

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.