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By: - 14th July 2006 at 14:42 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Fantastic report Elgan, very enjoyable and accompanied with some great pictures and the videos especially. Appeared to be a rather nice touchdown :D.
By: - 14th July 2006 at 15:52 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Brilliant start Elgan, the bmi A330's really do look like fantastic machines to fly on!
By: - 14th July 2006 at 16:12 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
The Greenland pic is great - I love barren, untouched landscapes like that!
Good review so far!
By: - 14th July 2006 at 16:14 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Cheers you three!
They are indeed fantastic machines Tom, my fave aircraft and airline partnership, if you get my drift!
Sorry room is spinning, so other reports tomorrow! :p I hate time zones!
By: - 14th July 2006 at 16:16 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Family Guy brilliant!!
Awesome shots mate love the shots over Greenland.
By: - 14th July 2006 at 16:22 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Excellent report, photos and videos. Looking forward to the rest! ;)
By: - 14th July 2006 at 18:32 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
And just to add, i was on that aircraft, on that day hehe!
By: - 14th July 2006 at 18:57 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Great trip report, bmi's long haul products looks very good, the cabin looks very relaxing and comfortable. whats the legroom like?
By: - 14th July 2006 at 19:14 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
whats the legroom like?
Legroom is 32 inch, average in Economy on a number of airlines, but i found it sufficient for my rest last night, tho i didn't sleep :o
By: - 15th July 2006 at 08:00 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Excellent report lad......i like the take off and landing videos
By: - 15th July 2006 at 09:17 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Lovely videos and pictures. Seems to be quite a good passenger number on-board from what I can see from the cabin shot.
By: - 15th July 2006 at 19:37 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Great report! :D
By: - 15th July 2006 at 20:01 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Cheers guys!
Yep, it was full in Econ, Premium has 3 spare seats, and Biz class has 2 spare! Not bad to think the school holidays hasn't started!
I think there is still hope that ORD will stay on for a few years yet on a A330, if not then bmi have made one massive mistake!
By: - 17th July 2006 at 20:13 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Great report, great photos. I'm all too familiar with flying into ORD, although I've never actually stayed in Chicago. How did you managae to score tickets to the White Sox/Cubs game at Wrigley you lucky devil! :dev2:
By: - 17th July 2006 at 21:26 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Ah, my Dad works on a house here in N.Wales, who is owned by a Chicagolian living in London, who has a very tidy buisness :)
Sadly he suffered a brain seziure 4 weeks ago, and he was supposed to go over to Chicago for his monthly break, so he kindly offered the tickets to us!
I'd much rather head down to Toyota Park in Bridgeview to see Chicago Fire play in the MLS, Baseball not really my strong point, but the atmosphere was incredible!
By: - 17th July 2006 at 23:04 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Fantastic read, with some brilliant photos to go with it. That food does look very tasty indeed.
By: - 14th August 2006 at 17:15 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Outstanding report. How do you know about Pullman? Did you bring maps, get something from the pilots or did you hear it on Ch 9 on any of your later flights?
By: - 14th August 2006 at 19:17 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Cheers mate! I knew about Pullman thanks to a friend who visited it a few years ago :)
By: - 14th August 2006 at 20:27 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Cheers mate! I knew about Pullman thanks to a friend who visited it a few years ago :)
Very cool. Direct Pullman then direct O'hare is the normal landing pattern for 27R. Unfortunately, the taxi back to T5 is long. Here's a picture I took out of the window of a UA777 of the same BMI flight you were on. He had just landed and just turned off to taxi to T5 (the 777 I was on went tech, note the open P&W engine covers...)
By: - 15th August 2006 at 12:28 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Ah yeah, thats either G-WWBB or G-WWBM, i flew on G-WWBD to ord, and 'WWBB back :)
Posts: 4,255
By: bmi-star - 14th July 2006 at 14:05
Well at long last, 12 months later than planned, my USA trip was here!
After a 5am start from my house, and a 2hr drive to the airport, we got into Terminal 3 at about 7am. Following bmi's move to T3, my worst fear was that there was going to be a long queue for check-in, at desks 23-28. With 2 A330's leaving within 70 mins of each other, i knew it could be a long wait, so to get to MAN earlier than usual was the best thing to do!
We checked in just before a family of no more than 25 British based Antiguans, who wanted to go to Antigua, thank god i sighed! With T3 catering and shopping poor, we popped to T1 for brekfast, which as per usual, was dear, and not the best standard, but hey who cares, it filled me up. After brekfast, I popped up to Level 13 to pass the time. There i witnessed a RYR 738 doing 2 aborted takeoff runs on 24L, before leaving on the 3rd, with a queue behind it!
Time passed quickly, so we headed back over to T3, and my fears were confirmed. As we neared desks 23-28, we could see a snaking queue, which spilled over to the bmi domestic and TLS check-in, and it was not a pretty sight!
Security was a brezee, unlike their US counterparts (more later), and before i knew it, we were in a PACKED T3 departure lounge! There were 4 cross the pond flights, a number of BACON deps, and the likes of Finnair and bmi regional about, and it made T3 to look out of its depth, with passengers sturggling to find any seats!
We grabbed a few, overlooking 24R, and in that time, i went along T3 to view the AA 767, also heading for ORD, and the Antigua flight, using WWBB which i was to have today on the way back! That meant that we were to have WWBD, so my mission of flying on all 3 bmi A330's was now complete :p
We were to board at Gate 44, somewhere i'd never used before, and i have to say it was very smart, comfortable seating, a pleasant ambience, with good views of all traffic landing and departing!
G-WWBD, for our Midland 706 flight
At 1045, boarding commenced, with the back rows 1st, then our row was called, and we were assingned seats 32 A,C and D
With boarding complete just after the hour, we pushed back at 1115, a tad late, but nothing serious!
With pushback complete, we taxied to 24L, waiting for a Condor 767 to land, and then we crossed
With no departures ahead, we lined up on 24L, with a short pause, then with the nosewheel camera on, we powered down 24L, with that beautiful whine of the Trent as it spooled up!
Take off video
We departed on the Pole Hill 1Y departure, which meant we were going up over Scotland, and out towards the Atlantic!
Drinks started about 20 mins in the cruise, i took an orange juice, then the meals came round, and with a choice of 3, i took the Pasta, with spinach, which as usual on bmi long-haul, was very nice!
The Voyager IFE was started just before the meals, and i watched King Kong, which was in 2 parts.
Just as part 1 ended, we saw the incredible sight of Greenland. This was my 4th flight which went over Greenland, and this was the clearest sight i'd seen!
I then went up to the back of the cabin, for a shot, to show the comfortable Economy class section.
As Final Destination 3 smashed onwards on the IFE, we came into sight after some long cloud cover to Lake Heuron, followed by Michigan state, and then the unmistakeable sight of Lake Michigan.
Decent on the Pullman 5 arrival was swift, and before my eyes, downtown Chicago was to be seen, this was my 5th visit to ORD, and the sight of the Sears Tower, Hancock Building, Shedd Aquarium, and Adler Planetarium, always makes me want to live there!
A baseball fan's dream, below us, the passionate Chicago Derby, between the Cubs and White Sox was going on at Wrigley Field, i was lucky enough to see Sunday's encounter between these two!
Then the suburbs of Chicago came in sight, the likes of Bryn Mawr, and Evanston, places i'm very familiar with
Then moments later, Midland 705 touched down on 27R, 10 mins ahead of schedule
Chicago Landing
Taxi to Terminal 5 was slow, with us having to give way to too many bleeding RJ's and MD's, but we were on stand at 1310, and we were thru immigration within an incredible 20 mins!
Our 3 day stay in Chicago had just started!
Domestic trip reports coming soon!