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

RO416 Tarom Airbus A310 MAD-OTP 2016.10.22

One of the goals for October was to fly the Tarom A310 before they retire it at the end of the month. In fact I wanted to fly it already back in August but due to work duties I had to cancel my flights (then it was WAW-VIE-OTP-VIE-WAW). So, after the final flight date was set I started to look for flight combinations that would fit me. Already in September the first of two A310s stopped flying, making the risk of a equipment change even greater. After all, I booked a one-way flight from Madrid to Bucharest. As I was time restricted there wasn't too many flight options. I ended up in flying the evening before with Ryanair on WMI-MAD, getting the night at the terminal, some spotting before the flight and a quick, little risky 70 minutes scheduled stop in Bucharest before flying back to Warsaw with LOT.

22 October 2016
RO416 (1215-1650) MAD-OTP
YR-LCA Airbus A310

Managed to get the seat I wanted during on-line check-in, confirmed prior to boarding that the seat next to mine is vacant. Luckily it was. Over 3 hours of flight ahead of me with an empty seat next to mine. Awesome. We push and start a little after our scheduled time, quickly taxi to 36R and off we go, bound for Bucharest. The flight itself was smooth and fast. The food was decent, edible, wide selection of beverages and the crew with a smile. Somewhere around Italy I decided to go for a walk to the back of the plane. The ride was smooth and pleasant. The weather both in Madrid and Bucharest was rather gray. Luckily we arrived on time, which gave me more than enough time to transit for my next flight. I even had time to browse the duty-free! 7 minutes from leaving the plane to getting to the gate area.
All in all, I'm glad I had the pleasure to experience the Romanian A310. Something a little different than the usual that one can find around in Europe.

Looking out the window while boarding

MAD pre-flight spotting 2016.10.22

The next goal of October was to fly the Tarom A310. The story of all the troubles and adventures that I had before flying it at last will be in a different post. Here, to make it short, I'll just say that I've managed to take it on the MAD-OTP sector. I flew into Madrid with Ryanair and had around 12 hours to my flight to Bucharest which I decided to spend at the terminal. Terminal 4, used by Tarom, is quite nice for spotting both during the day and the night.

N780AV

EPWA 2016.07.09 NATO departures

After the middle of the night arrival of the Air Force one, I hoped for a daylight departure. Couple more minutes and that wouldn't happen. Quite nice weather gave the opportunity for some decent photos of most departing delegations. Various planes, various liveries, all of them not a daily sight.

T.22-2

82-8000

EPWA 2016.07.08 Canadian Polaris

Sunrise arrival of the Canadian delegation for the NATO Summit in Warsaw.

15001

Paris CDG spotting LFPG/CDG 2015.06.22

Monday came quickly. Three nights in Paris have passed since my arrival. During that time I've been at Le Bourget for the Air Show and at Orly airport for some spotting. This was supposed to be my last day in Paris, after the night I had to catch the flight back home. So we decided, together with my friend, to go for a little spotting at CDG - which is the main airport in the Paris metro area. After planning nearly everything out before arriving to France we knew that the distances were huge and without a car it would be nearly impossible to get some decent results. We did rent a car the day before (it was needed at ORY) and had a schedule of what arrives or departs when so that we could have a chance of catching everything (or at least most of the things) we came here for, which was: Air Tahiti Nui A340, LaCompagnie 757, the Air France 747s and A340s, UA/AA 757s and other plane+livery connections that are usually unavailable in Warsaw. To the "cooler" things we got I could add: FedEx 777s, UIA 767, TK A330, SAS retro jet, Egyptair 777, Air Transat A310 and more! Well, I can't say I am disappointed with the results. Although the weather was from the poor kind, in the morning full overcast, and later during the day rain came so we started spending more and more time in the car :P (of course lets add the trips for food to nearby villages).
Overall, Roissy offers a wide range of pretty good spotting locations, but to get to them easily you need a car transport. There are, more or less, a couple of parking spots in the area of mosts of the spots. If you are interested in a decent guide check this spotterguide out. It did help me out with a couple of problems. And remember about the permit, we did encounter a check during our stay.
Have a look what came out of my camera:

F-HPJD

F-HBLA

25 years of freedom

June 4th, 1989. First partially free elections in Poland. The transformation begins. From communism to democracy. Solidarność pushed Poland to freedom, later other countries followed, Germany, USSR.
This year we have been celebrating 25 years of freedom. On the 3rd of June delegations from around the world arrived in Warsaw to fest the jubilee. Lithuania, Germany, Hungary, USA and more. Heads of state from around 50 countries from around the world visited Warsaw and attended the ceremony.
That'd be about the things in the city, the official side. Now to the aviation part. What could we, spotters, see? VC-25, C-32s, C-17s, Dassault Falcons, Private Cessnas and Bombardiers, CC-130 Polaris, A310 and a United 764. Most of it arrived on Tuesday and later departed the next day. Some delagations had their planes return home and later fly back for them. Some arrived in the morning some in the afternoon. Fog came in for most of the morning arrivals, the entire day was also accompanied by low visibility. The next day was way better, at times :) half past eleven the first C-32 departed, two hours later traffic has been held up and the VC-25 made its way to Brussels, followed by the second C-32 and 3 C-17 later during the day (photos underneath will be in a chronological order beginning with the first). Between VIP and military departures civilian planes did operate normally.
All that traffic was a great reason to go for a longer spotting at EPWA than usually (as for a long time now I usually made short and rare visits just to see one particular plane, but that's a story for a different post). I wasn't able to go for spotting on Tuesday and I can't say I'm disappointed or sad about it. As the weather got better the next day I arrived around eleven o'clock at the airport and the process begun. Plane by plane departed, time passed by, in a team like the one there time makes no difference :) Unfortunately I had a meeting during the day and thus wasn't able to catch the departure of the 764 and the Slovakian Yak40. Rain thundered down exactly for those departures, me being in a building in the meantime I can't say I'm mad. The rain though was a great thing for later photos. All things ended around 1900 after the departure of Czech Yak40. In the conditions that arised it was hard not to photograph standard Warsaw traffic :)
Photos in chronological order without grouping. 

99-0003 departing WAW