Read the forum code of contact
By: - 7th July 2006 at 18:29 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
After an interesting weekend in Denver we headed to the airport late Monday evening, and after having checked in online headed through to a very quiet terminal building. We were the last flight of the day and as such all the retail had shut apart from one shop selling muffins and icecream, and a McDonalds.
Soon though we were boarding, and we took our seats towards the rear of the United 319. I fell asleep pretty quickly, which I was slightly irritated about as I wanted to try Channel 9, but after waking up Andy told me they had run out of headsets anyway! The landing was quite interesting as the runway only appears at about 50ft! Again, we were one of the only aircraft moving at that time of the morning, and so parked up and dismebarked pretty quickly.
After a short landside bus transfer we were passing through Terminal B, where security took a deep interest in our sim parts, requiring a very detailed search. At all times they were very amiable however, and let us get on our way with no further hassle. Despite the fact we were both certain we had a reservation on the 10am departure to La Guardia, our boarding cards said 8am, although we both missed this fact! We were therefore quite surprised to get a call asking us to come to the gate at 8am!
The aircraft was a right state inside, with bits falling apart here and there, but there were only 9 of us in the main cabin, so we at least got to spread about. There was some famous sports star in the First cabin, as the crew got their photographs taken with him, and they were talking about games and things, but I have no idea who he was!
Interestingly we taxiied out on just one engine, starting the other one a few minutes before departure. The flight to La Guardia was very non eventful, taking just 40 minutes at 16,000ft. LGA was deathly quiet as well, and we were out landside with our bags in no more than 5 minutes!
Our US Airways 319 parked in front of the impressive Boston skyline:
A sister Beech 1900, framed by a new colours 319 and a FedEx A300:
By: - 7th July 2006 at 18:34 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Nice report and shots there:) .
James
By: - 7th July 2006 at 18:38 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Finally it was our last leg of the trip back to London. It started off incredibly well, when the Hotel managed to get us a Limo instead of a taxi for the airport transfer! Driving through New York City in the back of a big white stretched Lincoln is something I would certainly reccomend!
We got to JFK with sensible time to spare, the standard 2 hours, which meant that after clearing security we were on the aircraft pretty quickly. We had booked this service specifically as it is the only BA 777 service to operate the JFK-LHR route.
The 777 to me was practically exactly the same as the 744 inside, and I settled down for a relatively uncomfrtable snooze for the 6 hour flight. Waking up properly for the breakfast service somewhere over Ireland, I managed to get a few photographs as we descended in over Manchester and Birmingham, with a few holds over Bovingdon, before landing on 27L, and parking on a remote stand.
Climbing out of New York:
Descending towards Bovingdon:
Just about to turn onto the ILS:
By: - 7th July 2006 at 18:42 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
IRIS
As an aside, if anyone is considering registering for the new Home Office Immigration service, IRIS, dont bother.
It took me a good 25 attempts to capture the image of my Iris at the registration stage, and despite Andrew succeeding the first time at registration, at Heathrow this morning neither of us could get through the machine, and had to get our passports checked manually.
By: - 7th July 2006 at 19:21 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Great report and pics! :D
By: - 7th July 2006 at 21:41 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Mark you forgot to mention about the disco! The US Airways A319 had so many problems, including all the lights flashing randomly. The noise airbus cargo doors make closing was constant when on the ground.
By: - 8th July 2006 at 03:26 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Nice report and great shots
By: - 8th July 2006 at 09:13 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
A most enjoyable read with super photos.
By: - 9th July 2006 at 22:50 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
No was constant after landing with both engines running. Actually seemed louder on the taxi in!
By: - 10th July 2006 at 09:26 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Very interesting read Mark accompanied with great shots :).
By: - 12th July 2006 at 09:46 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Brilliant read! And fantastic photos!
By: - 12th July 2006 at 11:58 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Great report and photos. The wing of that British Airways 777 looks a little bit mucky. :o
By: - 12th July 2006 at 19:01 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Yeah they were rather, BA aircraft seem to be on pretty tight turnarounds these days, so I guess they get less of a chance to clean them. Things certainly seem to have gone a little downhill in recent years.
By: - 13th July 2006 at 19:20 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Nice report,
By: - 13th July 2006 at 19:22 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Nice report, I agree with T5 about the triple 7's wings tho'
By: - 14th July 2006 at 11:36 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Fantastic report Mark, just got home from my long trip to read this, and i should be unpacking!!
By: - 14th July 2006 at 13:35 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Finally it was our last leg of the trip back to London. It started off incredibly well, when the Hotel managed to get us a Limo instead of a taxi for the airport transfer!
That sounds very familiar :D
That happened to us yesturday morning too!!! :p
Posts: 4,209
By: Mark L - 7th July 2006 at 18:10
OK well I was going to do these separatley, but decided I really didnt have that much to write.
A week ago today we arrived at Toronto to find the longest airport queue I had ever seen. After a bit of exploring I managed to get us in a significantly shorter queue for the self service machines. Despite all 4 people in front of us have their checkin rejected, the first leg of our trip worked, and we were assigned seats on the Air Canada Jazz CRJ100. After a bit of juggling around with the AC people they were unable to check us in for the second leg of our trip out of St Louis to Denver, however the bags were still through-checked.
We went through immigration pretty quickly, getting an entry stamp to the USA with a Toronto mark! We got the bus through to the outfield terminal, and after half an hour or so boarded the CRJ. This was my first time on a Canadair, and I was very surprised at how tiny the windows were. Nevertheless it was comfortable enough, and we got into St Louis uneventfully, but about half an hour late.
Our connection time was reduced to less than 30 minutes, however our CRJ700 was parked up at the gate right next to ud. Entering the terminal building we chatted to the gate agent, who told us the flight was overbook. As I always do now in the US, our seats were volunteered, and we looked forward to a 2 hour wait for the next flight, and free tickets on United.
However right at the last minute we were called forward, and were allocated seats 2B and 2C. Grinning at AndrewM, we both realised we had been upgraded to First Class.
Although First on a CRJ doesnt sound like much, it was the exact same seats as you see on the domestic 757s and 737s, with a 1+2 config, and 37' seat pitch. Again the flight was very uneventful, and passed pretty quickly. During the flight we were told that GoJet were the only airline in North America with a First cabin on an RJ, so I guess we were pretty lucky! However the luck didnt hold out, as our bags never made the connection, and werent delivered until the following morning!
Our AC CR1:
And the winglet of our GoJet CR7: