First Choice Airways, Mahon - Manchester

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Member for

18 years 6 months

Posts: 459

Hi!

Make sure you have read my outbound flight!

well some of you may remember that i did my trip report for Manchester to Mahon, so heres the return

Airline- First Choice Airways
Flight Number- FCA 2345
To- Manchester International / EGCC / (MAN) / England
From- Mahon Airport / Menorca / LEMH / (MAH) / Spain
Sched Dep-22:10
Actual Dep-22:35
Sched Arr-23:55
Actual Arr-23:44
Aircraft- Boeing 757-236
Reg- G-CPEV
Seat- 21A
Food- Sausage & Mashed Potatoe in a onion gravy.
Rating Out Of 10- 10

G-CPEV Picture 1

G-CPEV Picture 2

Well after a week in the Menorcan 30* heat, it was time to go home, unfortunatly we have night time flight, which i reallly hate,

We got to the airport at 20:10 and there was a massive que for check-in, As the flight to Gatwick check-in was closing ours were opening, we got served and got allocated seats 21 A, B & C, W was allocated gate 10, we was then sat in the very very very small airport for about1 hour , ow wait no we was in the pub for half an hour then we went duty free shopping, as you do, then we went to our gate, it turned 21:45 and we should into boarding now, there was noone there,

at about 22:00 there some kind of civilation where we then boarded, the announcements were very weird, they were automatic so they sounded really weird, (In a deep voice) ''This is for the departure of (Very high pitched voice) First Choice Airways (Girls Voice?!?) Flight 2345 (Deep Voice) To Manchester go to gte10 immediatly'' so we just got up and started boarding, at first evryone on the coach were saying how they have given us the wrong part of the boarding cards, which they had, so we had to all go back to the departure lounge and get it sorted, although she came running onto the coach shouting in spanish like there was a bomb scare!, then she finally spoke in english, like anyone on a flight to Manchester would speak spanish?!?, so that added another knock-on affect.....

We was finnaly given the right part, so we got to the plane and looked at the reg. G-CPEV, so we got on, at about 22:30 everyone was on, so we got the door shut, altough we found a lighter in our seat pocket, and the women across the way in 21 D was a bit uneasy flying, so as soon as we pulled out that lighter she went as white as a sheep, dont know why?,

as we just about to depart i noticed that my window was loose, which really did frighten me!, so uneasy i decied to look out of my window noticing that a GB Airways was getting loaded for its flight to Gatwick, Then we got airbourne, i fell asleep after dinner with my pillow & blankett courtesy of First Choice, so we flew a another thunderstorm, (if you read my outbound journey you would no i flew over & threw the storm which flooded most of europe) so we was flying over Sheffield the storm really hit, forcing us to lose at least about 500ft, so we got back up, then we turned onto the heading of 237* for the runway 24R at Manchester, so as we were the captain put down the gear, then after a minute toook it back up, as he realised we was losing altitude, then we finally landed 10 minutes ahead of scheduale and was taxiing to our gate which was gate 202, so we passed a very very nice lite up Concorde, so we landed and the temp was about 9 celcius, so it fogged up the windows, then the dredded bit, Waiting for baggage!, at quater past midnight it was a joke it turned quarter to 1 and people were screaming and fuming!!! it ws really funny, half of them were drunk thats how lively the flight were! there were enough bags from other aircraft, one of the bags had LGW on it, which is London Gawick, which belonged to a passenger who lives in London probably, and the bag has ended up in Manchester, then 1 hour after we arrived they came through!!! yerr!

Thanks for an bumpy and relaxing fight First Choice

Hope you enjoyed my report,

Thanks Jon

Original post

Member for

19 years 8 months

Posts: 679

Nice report. Hmm... putting the gear down then back up again, sounds a bit far fetched. You must have heard something else extending, maybe the flaps or just some spoiler to bleed the speed off. They can make quite a bang on the B757.

Flex 35

Member for

19 years

Posts: 1,995

good report mate

G-CPEV isn't that bad , but it isn't the oldest in the fleet by a long way. G-CPEP, G-OOOG, G-OOOK, G-OOOX, G-OOOY, G-OOOZ, G-OOBI, G-OOBJ, G-CPEU & G-OOBG were all built before it. G-CPEV was from 1999 and FCA got it from British Airways.

Member for

18 years 6 months

Posts: 459

erm ok i stand corrected on the reg. on the gear down twice i can definatly vouce it was the gear and nothin else the reason being is that the flaps wernt going down at the time and i had a wing view and no flap were deployed, the reason i no at quarter to midnight is he has the landing lights on so i could see the movement of the wing and vibrations came from the floor.

Member for

19 years 8 months

Posts: 679

erm ok i stand corrected on the reg. on the gear down twice i can definatly vouce it was the gear and nothin else the reason being is that the flaps wernt going down at the time and i had a wing view and no flap were deployed, the reason i no at quarter to midnight is he has the landing lights on so i could see the movement of the wing and vibrations came from the floor.

Righty. On the 757 and almost every aircraft on the planet with a retractable landing gear, the crew will not even begin to consider of lowering the landing gear with no flaps selected. Doing this will damage the airframe.

Let me try to illustrate this with the following two images.

http://www.757.org.uk/sops/images/app3.jpg

http://www.757.org.uk/sops/images/app2.jpg

Flex 35

Member for

18 years 6 months

Posts: 41

what was the weather like mate? when i went in october it wasnt really that warm, and it rained a lot :(

Member for

18 years 6 months

Posts: 1,289

Nice report! I flew G-CPEV back in April, and there was nothing wrong with it! It was well presented, and most importantly the crew were friendly and First Choice are a great airline!

Member for

18 years 6 months

Posts: 459

the weather was great in the last week of august, you really shouldnt go in October, beautiful weather mid-20s and above all week!, on 31st October they shut Menorca for tourists and no tourists can go in, i was told my First Choice Rep. they dont have good winters so it rains from like mid-october through to Feb (according to my FCA rep)

Also you probably had to be in the aircraft for yourself to confirm anything.

the weather at Manchester was a thunderstorm whilst approaching and landing at Manchester.

Jon.

Member for

19 years 8 months

Posts: 679

Also you probably had to be in the aircraft for yourself to confirm anything.

No I don't need to be in the aircraft because clearly you don't know what your on about.

First of by saying G-CPEV is the oldest aircraft in the First Choice fleet when infact its the newest doesn't stand you in good stead really. Then saying that the gear went down with no flaps and then you seemed to think the pilots thought that they were loosing altitude so they brought it back up?! Never heard anything like it. ;)

BTW do they teach spelling and grammar in School's anymore?

Flex 35

Member for

20 years 10 months

Posts: 9,401

G-CPEV may not be the oldest 757 in the FCA fleet, but its certianly not the newest! Ive just looked the age of G-OOBA, and that is a newer a/c than CPEV, so would imagine OOBC,OOBD etc were also newer.

Member for

18 years 5 months

Posts: 128

Hey whats all the fuss about the age of G-CPEV ?? I dont care if its 20 years old, so long as its well maintained and flying for a good airline, its not a problem.

An older plane is just as safe as a new one.......what about the old Viscounts British Air Ferries operated ???? These were 1958 vintage but were still going strong in 1996 until retirement, bet they were as safe as G-CPEV and I bet G-CPEV is as safe as
G-BOAC sat at Manchester !!!

Never fear an older plane !!

Member for

18 years 6 months

Posts: 459

All the fuss over the reg if you have been bothered to read one of my replies it did say i stand corrected on the reg. but i am so certain about the gear non of you dont have to belive me but i was there and i heard what i heard thats the end of that and you can obviously feel when you lose altitude the sensation in your stomach.

Jon