Departing Heathrow (OS452 LHR-VIE) 2017.06.22

Returning from England back home. First leg: to Vienna and a short stop..

22 June 2017
OS452 (0905-1225) LHR-VIE
OE-LBA Airbus A321

I arrive at the airport with a time margin to get through all the controls. A quick walk around the general area of T2 and I head to the security check. The queue moves quickly and in no time I am on the other side. I must admit I really like how T2 is constructed with the gates having a double entry for each "flight", with all the clear markings and information. Exact gate shown around 1h before departure (when the inbound flight arrives) so gate changes are rather rare. My plane arrives from Vienna slightly delayed, our first delay is shown to be 13 minutes. But 13 minutes past departure time boarding is still in progress... It is important to me as I have a 35 minute (scheduled time) change in Vienna, so every minute counts. After all we pushback with a delay of 35 minutes, so my entire stop just disappeared. The taxi process to the northern runway is long and involves many stops. Heavy traffic, what can you do. With some hopes still left at the back of my head I sit back, relax and enjoy the flight. The A321 inside doesn't differ form the A320, luckily the seat next to me is vacant giving me some more comfort on board. When we get closer to Vienna I start browsing the inflight magazine searching for rerouting options as I am nearly sure that I won't make my flight. During the approach the purser informs that some connections will unfortunately not make it, and says which. After all we get to our gate 7 minutes before my planned departure, when I get to the terminal the flight to Warsaw isn't even on the screens anymore. Bad luck. So I head to the transfer desk where after a couple of minutes I get a new boarding pass for the next flight to Warsaw (4 hours later), which after all ended up to be the fastest way anyway. After my asking I also get a 12€ worth of voucher for food and drinks and some of the restaurants.
Summing up the flight: the inflight experience was standard, same as the A320. The crew was friendly and Heathrow was Heathrow :D The Austrian ground staff in Vienna was very professional, for what I thank them. There is nothing I could say went bad in Vienna.

Swiss CS100 experience, 21/22.01.2017

On the quest to fly the Swiss Boeing 777 on one of its intra-european flighs. WAW-ZRH-HAJ-ZRH-WAW. Two flights, in and out of Warsaw on the CS100


21 January 2017
LX1343 (0945-1150) WAW-ZRH
HB-JBD Bombardier CS100

Swiss flights to Warsaw like to be delayed. So was this one, not much, 15 minutes more or less. That made my connection in Zurich even shorter, but as the next flight also caught a delay it wasn't a very big problem after all. The ground staff did their best to reduce the delay as much as possible and they've managed a little bit. We soon pushback and start our taxi to runway 29. And later up, towards Zurich. The flight goes on smoothly. The wing looks nice, clouds spread wide all over the ground. The closer we get to Zurich the denser the airspace, the more planes you can see nearby. Some fly really close :) On approach to Zurich, we hold a little bit and fly around. Sure, I'm in no rush :D let's wait. Smooth landing, rather quick taxi to the gate, and off I go for my next flight.
How would I rate the CS100 of Swiss? Good windows, nice panels, the seat (22A on this flight) has no moveable headrest (but at least it's soft) but apart of it it is rather ok, maybe slightly hard on the back. Elegant colors of the cabin. The CSeries made a good first impression on me and it won't be a plane that I would rather not fly.

Arriving at its gate in WAW from ZRH

Swiss Boeing 777 experience, 2017.01.22

On the quest to fly the Swiss Boeing 777 on one of its intra-european flighs. WAW-ZRH-HAJ-ZRH-WAW


22 January 2017
LX817 (1455-1610) HAJ-ZRH
HB-JNF Boeing 777-300ER

After arriving early at the airport I go for a walk around the general area. Check-in area, corridors, different sections etc. Having seen more or less all I wanted I pass the security control and wait for my plane to arrive from ZRH. HB-JNF is already on its way. In the meantime I get to photograph an arriving Aeroflot A320 and a taxiing for departure and de-icing Tuifly 737 painted in a RIU Hotels & Resorts scheme.
On this 777 there are two sections for economy class. Between doors 3-4 and 4-5. The second one is not available for reservation. All passengers are seated in the section between doors 3 and 4 which is on that day full. The seat offers a moveable headrest, a decent IFE system with a wide choice of movies, music and many many more. The ride is smooth and pleasant. The cabin has a brownish finish, like Swiss has on all of it's planes. Overall, I think I would not have too many problems on a longer flight on that machine and surely would not say it's bad if anyone asked me. After the flight I did have some reservations about part of the cabin crew, they could be more open towards the client.

Swiss Avro experience, 2017.01.21

On the quest to fly the Swiss Boeing 777 on one of its intra-european flighs. WAW-ZRH-HAJ-ZRH-WAW


21 January 2017
LX816 (1235-1350) ZRH-HAJ
HB-IYZ British Aerospace Avro RJ100

On my way to Hannover I was supposed to get the 777, it got swapped to a Avro plane. The flight was slightly delayed, what was a good thing as my inbound was also delayed so I made it with ease. A bus took us to the plane. After boarding we waited for de-icing to be finished, at our stand, and later proceeded to the runway. The flight was cold most of the way, the heating did not kick in sufficiently almost all the way to Hannover. The flight was full. Flying an Avro is always fun, the 2*3 seating gives sufficient space for all passengers. As Swiss slowly phases out all of their Jumbolinos I was happy to get it as an addition to my CS100 and 777 flights. The crew was kind and always with a smile on their faces. I have surely disembarked with a smile on my face.

EPWA 2016.09.21 Air China inauguration

Another foreign airline in Warsaw, what is more, from a country not so close. Air China started flights on the route from Beijing to Warsaw. Adding more capacity on that route to the current 3 weekly flights of LOT. In the winter two flights per week, more in the summer. A long layover with a early morning arrival. Here the first landing and departure.

B-6131

Prague spotting, day 2. 2016.05.11

The moment news about the Antonov 225 "Mriya" coming to Prague spread out I started planning and scheduling a visit in the Czech capital. Together with three other friends we made up a team and planned everything. It ended with three nights and two full spotting days, plus one short, just for the departure of the 225. Everything will be divided in three entries, link to other parts are available at the end of the entry. This was my first visit in Prague for spotting, and I must say, that the spotting locations are good! sometimes you need to walk a little, but hey, that's all in it!

We spent the second day almost entirely at the hill near the crossing of the runways. Early in the morning we caught the arrival of Hainan (and couple more) on runway 24.
That days spot gives us the opportunity to see both landings, taxiing and departures from runway 12 and 06 (which is not in use). Highlights of that day? Heavies, a couple special liveries and some nice light.

N431UP

B-8117

Prague spotting, Antonov 225 arrival LKPR/PRG 2016.05.10

The moment news about the Antonov 225 "Mriya" coming to Prague spread out I started planning and scheduling a visit in the Czech capital. Together with three other friends we made up a team and planned everything. It ended with three nights and two full spotting days, plus one short, just for the departure of the 225. Everything will be divided in three entries, link to other parts are available at the end of the entry. This was my first visit in Prague for spotting, and I must say, that the spotting locations are good! sometimes you need to walk a little, but hey, that's all in it!

The first day we had to choose a spot from where to catch the landing of the giant. We had to gamble a little. At first we decided to go to the "safest" place, which was beside the crossing of both runways. After deciding that the heat haze was very unsatisfactory for us, we returned to our car (quite a walk) and switched for the approach to runway 12. The entire operation of landing and later taxiing of the 225 was complicated. It could taxi only via the runways and had to park next to the threshold of runway 24. Winds were not favorable either. We risked, but had it worked out, the photos would be phenomenal. (it didn't). The Antonov landed on runway 24, made a u-turn and backtracked, despite the winds. Though luck. We had to get on with what we had.
My highlights for the day (excluding the 225): Delta 767, Emirates A380, CSA A330, Swiss 777, all the shots over the canola fields and the night panning training session was also fun. Especially the Czech A330 was something I wanted to catch. Take a look on day 1 at PRG:

UR-82060 taxiing to its stand seen with a crowd of people that wanted to see him

A6-EES approaching runway 12

Geneva spotting, LSGG/GVA 2015.05.29

After my flight on the Belavia Tupolev 154 from Minsk, I have decided, together with a friend of mine, to go spotting and catch the departure back to Minsk before we go to to city. And so we did. Using the spotterguide for Geneva we directed ourselves to spot #4 which was already had a couple of visitors. The departure itself got delayed by over two hours. All in all it was a good thing. Thanks to the delay we've manged to catch a couple of planes we would surely miss if the plane would have departed on time, like a Islamic Republic of Iran A321, or the 200th Easyjet Airbus. Between them there was a Swiss A319 performing a go-around, a United 767, a Swiss A333, a MEA and Royal Jordanian alliance liveries plus something I've been looking out for a little bit: the Etihad Regional Saab 2000.
Later that day I had to return to the airport to catch my next flight. This time it was to Copenhagen on a SAS CRJ900.

I-PBRA

HB-JXC

Swiss A330 experience

LX196 (1320LT-0515LT)
I have previously flew into Zürich from Warsaw on a Helvetic Airways Fokker 100 but ZRH was just a stopover in my trip. After exiting the plane I headed for the train that would take me to gates E section from where my next flight would depart. I must say that this section is very elegant. The mix of gray, black and brown composes very well. Because my previous flight was delayed 10 minutes the moment I got to my gate and changed some money at a shop the pre-boarding documents check has already begun. I'm not a fan of queuing so I relaxed a couple of minutes and made order in bag as after the flight the mess was unbelievable. Ready to go I stepped up and had my documents checked. Quick, easy, without a single problem. I returned to my seat when boarding begun. Ehh a queue again... After a unsuccessful attempt of logging into the wifi I got my ass up and moved up to to, now short, queue. The plane, HB-JHA (named Schwyz, first flight 23/03/2009, serial number: 1000, powered by two RR Trent 772B-60 engines) made a good first impression on me. Although signs of usage could be seen here and there overall I though it's going to be a good flight. I got to my seat, prepared for the flight and push-back started. We taxied to runway 16, and departed after just a couple of minutes.

Gates E section of Zürich Airport

Taxiing onto the runway

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