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By: - 31st December 2004 at 16:05 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
14 flights, none THAT exiting, probably my 1st landing @ LHR, flying the BA ATP for the 1st and last time,flying in an ERJ for the 1st time (felt we were never going to get airbourne) and approach over EDI which was nice.
Next year will be better and more interesting, with a number of US airports to be visited, flying in "New Economy" with bmi, on my own, and flying with Ted in the US.
Happy New Year guys!
By: - 31st December 2004 at 16:08 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
For me, flying into FRA for my first ever time, flying on G-JMAA to complete my flights on UK registered 753s, flying into MXP for first time and also MLA for first time and flying the A319, a new aircraft for me. Pretty boring year, with nothing exciting about my trips on board the XLA 752. However, in March, I will get my second ever A300, this time of MON to Egypt.
By: - 31st December 2004 at 17:10 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
I would for the record like to confirm that there was no incident involving a hoover and two forum members body parts during Group Flight. If there had been a situation involving a hoover it would have been nothing to do with said forum members, but obviosuly this didnt happen as the hover incident didnt happen.
By: - 31st December 2004 at 17:48 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Have flown to:
Belfast with Jet2 from LBA
Dublin with Ryanair from LBA
Zakynthos with First Choice from MAN
How boring!
Really enjoyed my holiday in Zante with the planes coming over the beach, also have had some great spotting days out at MAN especially at the beginning of August with boiling hot weather.
Really looking forward to next year with my 1st flying lesson :)
By: - 31st December 2004 at 18:41 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
1. Flying to the Isle of Man with BMI Star in February, interesting experience on the ATP, and nice meeting some people at MAN at the same time.
2. A definitly bad, but somehow still interesting experience, the cancellation of my Air Southwest flight, and being put in a taxi for 5 hours :rolleyes:
3. Like several others on here, my first and last B732 trip from LTN to DUB.
4. Like Green320 my trip to FRA in May, which will hopefully be repeated this coming March.
5. The Farnborough airshow. Much better than the last one, and lots of interesting stuff there, and some good flying too.
6. Groupflight. Hoover, what hoover :diablo:
7. My interesting trip to Brittanny involving 2 ATRs and a Trislander. G-RLON was undoubtadley the favourite aircraft of the year!
8. Following directly on from Dinard, 4 days in Amsterdam courtesy of BA was one hell of a lot of spotting :D
9. The Manchester/Birmingham trip with AndrewM and Dan. Room Key? What do we need one of those for?
And heres to things getting even better next year :D
By: - 31st December 2004 at 18:51 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
9. The Manchester/Birmingham trip with AndrewM and Dan. Room Key? What do we need one of those for?
Ahhh yes, forgot about that! It's amazing what goes wrong when a certain person can't handle 1 pint of Stella! :rolleyes:
By: - 31st December 2004 at 19:03 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
2004 was quite a good year for me, i flew easyJet for the first time, and i went to ibiza with Britannia and was pleased when i arrived to see an old colours Boeing 757 waiting at the gate.
And my best photograph of the year:
By: - 31st December 2004 at 19:33 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
The year started off well with my first domestic flights, first flights on easyJet, first flights on the B737 and first flights to and from EDI and STN all in on trip when I flew EDI-STN-EDI in February.
EDI-LTN in April was my first flight on a B73G, first time in LTN too.
Then their was my first turboprop flight in June on a Flybe Q400, EDI-BHX-EDI, made more memorable when ATC went down that morning. ;)
Most recent was my first flights on the infamous Ryanair. ;)
All in all, a lot 'firsts' in aviation for me this year. :)
By: - 31st December 2004 at 19:52 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
All my flights in 2004 were to do with Sport, so I'm quite happy to reminisce...
In March, I took my first flight in 16 months, and it lasted all of 15 minutes, as I took the shuttle from Basel down to Zurich, where I used the new Mid-field dock for the first time, transferring on to Barcelona, and my first ever visit to a Spanish Airport (Last time I'd been in Spain, was in the eighties, and we'd driven), quickly followed that night by a certain UEFA Cup gae at El Camp Nou. muy buen. fantastico. ethethetheth. scorchio. Several small alcohol free (*ahem* ;)) beverages later, I was on a direct flight back to Basel the following day, savouring the whole trip, which had seen my first Embraer flight (BSL-ZRH), my first taste of the fullblown Swiss lo-co fare (319 ZRH-BCN) and an enjoyable flight on the Saab 2000 (BCN-BSL).
Barely two months later, and I was headed to Britain for the first time in 18 months, which incorporated my first flights first with BACX (Embraer ZRH-MAN) then on a non-Saab turboprop, with a Dash 8 from MAN-GLA, also with BACX. In the five days I spent at home, I made it to the Cup Final at Hampden, as well as a testimonial for some bloke or other, with the artistic name of Ghod. Some more non-alcoholic drinks at the bottom end of Sauchiehall Street were possibly imbibed, to. I also made it along to Embra for a quick meetup with Ren, Matthew Murray, Bemused and Future Pilot. Then it was back to Basel via Heathrow, first on a BA 319, then a Swiss 320.
In August, Basel Rugby Club went on tour to Berlin, the highlight of which had to be the Barman's face asking for 35 shots of [non-alcoholic, obviously...] Jagermeister. While the most of the rest of the boys drove back down in the Bus I'd come up with them on, I flew back with easyJet, as it was my dad's 50th, and I was eager to arrive back some time before the small hours of the following day. I'd like to point out the travelling squad was 20 strong, so don't ask me how many non-alcoholic shots we had each.
In October I went down to Milan in an aircraft-interior style Train (what do you mean I'm scraping the bottom of the Barrel with that tenuous link?), where a visit to a Champions League game at the San Siro ended in bitter dissapointment contemplating what might have been with only two minutes left. Several non-alcoholic beverages later, and I was feeling better, anyway.
Then, last month, I got up at a ridiculous time of the Morning to catch a Train to Geneva Airport, whence I again headed off to Barcelona, with easyJet this time, and, again, one visit to El Camp Nou and several non-alcoholic shots of Sambucca (it's vile, whose idea was it to get the damn stuff? I swore blind I wouldn't touch it again after that night in the Irish Pub the previous week) it was a very happy me who boarded my easyJet flight back to Geneva the following day, still whistling that timeless classic "there's only one Johnnie Hartson, there's only one Johnnie Hartson, he's got no hair, but we don't care, walking in a Hartson wonderland". Undoubedtly the best bit of that trip was walking into work at the Pub in Basel on my return still attired as I had been in Spain, and the whole Pub turning round and booing. yes, well hope youse all got it right up yese at Swinecastle on Sunday. That was a nice quiet shift, anyway. And it's not often half the bar is chanting 'Weegie, weegie, give us a wave' at you whilst you're trying to call last orders... ;)
Certainly not a bad year, 2004.
By: - 31st December 2004 at 19:52 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Great photos Wannabe.
p.s-check your PM box in about 5-10 mins.
By: - 31st December 2004 at 20:13 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
In my defence i have DEEP pockets and Lenny Henry wouldnt have let all 4 of us in i bet!
Dont blame me twas Peters fault!
1) Group Flight
2) Birmingham/Manchester Trip
3) PPL First Lesson
4) Malaga tomorrow :D (darn thats 1st Jan 2005)
5) London with Ryanair from Dublin
6) Planned and paid for trips to NCL, EDI and LTN (£75) but couldnt go :( (bad point)
Heres to 2005 where I should have a good few more trips than this year, infact i know i will! For Dan and Mark - heres to another GF (minus the hoovers) and Blackpool!!!!
By: - 1st January 2005 at 16:52 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Going abroad for the 1st time
Going on my 1st B757-200 - http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=30463
Landing at Tenerife (Nearly made me sick but still enjoyable) :D
Finally getting a picture of a Titan airways aircraft!
By: - 1st January 2005 at 16:57 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Finally getting a picture of a Titan airways aircraft!
Always with the Titan Airways! :D
By: - 1st January 2005 at 17:07 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
In terms of 'firsts', I managed to make these in 2004:
Airlines
BA
Bmi
Qantas
Australian Airlines
Malaysia Airlines
MyTravel (had previously flown with Airtours though)
Airports
Heathrow (Not first time visited, but first time flown to/from)
Manchester
Genova
Kota Kinabalu
Sandakan
Dublin
Belfast Aldergrove
Aircraft
A319
747-400 (Have flown 742 in past)
Fokker 50
A321
737-200
By: - 1st January 2005 at 17:12 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
When you look at it like that:
first time at these Airports:
London Heathrow (spotting wise, been on hols from there though)
first time Airlines:
Air Berlin
Air Zimbabwe
Alitalia
Etihad Airways
Lauda Air Austria
QANTAS
Qatar Airways
Sri Lankan
New aircraft to me:
A340-500
BBJ
By: - 1st January 2005 at 17:18 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
New aircraft to me:A340-500
BBJ
How did you get to fly in a BBJ?!
And you say you flew Air Zimbabwe. How did they compare to what we expect usually from our 'normal' scheduled carriers, such as BA and Qantas?
By: - 1st January 2005 at 17:20 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
No, sorry I did'nt make it clear, I saw those planes and saw those airlines.
By: - 1st January 2005 at 17:23 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Ah right ok. The ones I listed were either airlines or aircraft I'd flown on, or airports I'd flown in/out of. Not just ones that I had seen or been spotting at.
By: - 1st January 2005 at 17:31 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
I haven't actually been on hols this year except for a small French village called Quiberon. That was a 7 hr ferry and a 4hr car journey.
Sometime in the coming year I should be jetting off to the Maldives for my Parents 10th Anniversary.
By: - 1st January 2005 at 18:00 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
1) A two day trip down to Manchester.
2) Going on Concorde.
3) Flight to/from Palma.
4) A vist of a B-52 to the Sunderland Airshow.
5) ..... along with the Red's.
Posts: 3,539
By: wannabe pilot - 31st December 2004 at 15:59 - Edited 2nd October 2019 at 11:40
What were the best parts about 2004 (aviation wise) for you, and what stood out?
I'll start with my Borneo trip back in May. 8 flights in 12 days, 4 new airlines and 5 new airports. All a spotter/photographer could dream for! Getting to fly on one of my favourite liveries (Australian Airlines) was excellent, as was Qantas' long-haul product on our 747 flights to/from FRA. The best bits had to be our domestic flights in Borneo though, on Malaysia Airlines. Both flights were less than an hour each way, but the scenery and experience as a whole was absolutely superb, particularly flying the Fokker 50.
In June I was able to do my work experience in the STN control tower, a fantastic experience.
Then came Belfast in July, taking part in the Group Flight round-the-world charity event was certainly an experience, as were the other strange things that seemed to happen in Andrewm's house during that time! *cough* hoover *ahem* . Also getting to meet Jeremy Spake!
4 days later was Lanzarote, and although it was my 8th trip to the island it was still as wonderful as ever, and spotting from the beach is one of my best spotting experience's in Europe.
I then got to visit MAN in November, somewhere I'd been waiting to get to for ages. Shame about the weather, but it was just as good as I had always imagined it to be.
Then finally was the DUB trip, where I finally got to fly on a 732. The main purpose of my trip had been to fly on one, and so you can imagine how pleased I was when the Vodafone jet (EI-CNT) turned up at th egate :D
A few pictures from each of my experiences:
1. Borneo. A view of Mt Kinabalu seen from our Malaysia Airlines 737, flying domestically across the island.
2. Up in the STN control tower.
3. Group Flight in Belfast. Jeremy Spake and the rest of the 'pilots'.
3. Spotting down on the beaches of Lanzarote.
4. Up close in Manchester.
5. Finally getting to see the 'buckets' in action on our 732, arriving in DUB.