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

Quick hop to WRO LO3847 & LO3860

After the trip to Frankfurt time came to realize the last segment of my ticket, the short hop to Wrocław. Why? For the fun and for the M&M segment. So the day after the return from Frankfurt I hop on the evening flight to Wrocław, fly, wait 3,5 hours for the last flight of the day/read/take a couple of photos and return to Warsaw. Both flight: a quite usual Dash commute from A to B. Not much to say about them. One thing was that I got to fly on the last "untouched" Q400 in the fleet (EQE) so now I did sit on board each Q400 flying for LOT (and previously Eurolot).

22 May 2017
LO3847 (1640-1725) WAW-WRO
SP-EQI Bombardier Q400

22 May 2017
LO3860 (2105-2200) WRO-WAW
SP-EQE Bombardier Q400

Wrocław downtown during approach

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

EPWA 2016.01.21

A couple of shots from the tarmac with some snow in the background giving for a nice, cold, winter light. Also my first SU95 on photo.

OY-KFA

HB-JVP

SAS CRJ900

After the one way flight to Geneva I had to get back home somehow. LOT flies nonstop but the OW price was high for my date. After all the best combination was with SAS via Copenhagen. Both flights on the CRJ900 operated by Cimber. First flight in the evening of the same day that I've flown on to GVA and spotted later on at the airport. SK618. Scheduled departure time at 20:10 and a two hour flight time. Second flight the next day in the morning at 08:30 and a 1h20min flight time. Why the sleepover? Well, if all would go according to schedule I should make it for the last flight to WAW that departs at 22:55 from CPH but I needed a backup in case of a delay because the flights were on separate tickets. Luckily for, I ended out being right, my flight to CPH was delayed by over an hour on departure thus I would have no chance to make it for me second flight. But now, back to the flight experience. Overall the CRJ is a small plane with not much space for the passenger. The toilet is cramped, the overhead baggage compartments also are small (in my opinion this is a feature of all Bombardier made airplanes). What makes up for those problems is the friendliness of Cimber crews. As in every plane with tail mounted engines, the more to the front, the quieter. Unluckily the CRJ doesn't give you the opportunity to look into the engine (what is possible on the Fokker or the T134/T154/IL62). More details about the the flight experience, the seat and the interior itself in a video at the end of the entry. What I did like about the two flights is the check-in at Copenhagen where you firstly print your boarding pass (if needed) at a kiosk together with the baggage sticker and later you drop your bag on to the belt by yourself. That was cool! And fast.

OY-KFI