LPL – RIX – LPL Ryanair

Airline: Ryanair
Aircraft: Boeing 737-8AS
Regerstration: EI-DLY (Winglets)
Flight Number: FR9606
Route: Liverpool (LPL) – Riga (RIX)
ETD: 06:05am local
ATD: 06:25am
ETA: 10:50am local
ATA: 10:35am

Me my mum and her partner booked this trip in September just to do something different. Anyway we woke up at 0240am for out 0605am departure to Riga. We left the house at 0330am for an hour journey from my house in Manchester to Liverpool. At 0440am we arrived at the airport, we parked the car up and headed to the check-in desks. When we arrived at the check-in desk’s there was around 50 people in front of us, this took nearly an hour to check us all in! We checked-in without a problem and headed for security. Again, that wasn’t a problem and we checked-in without a problem – After we had gone through everything we headed to catch our flight, which was EI-DLY, only one month old!

We boarded the flight and was greeted by the Ryanair staff that looked very tired, which I suppose can be expected at 0540am! We picked out seats as you do on all Ryanair flights and waited for pushback. The Captain came over the tannoy announcing that we would be pushing back in 5 minutes… 5 minutes past and the crew were still counting the numbers. Finally the final passengers boarded and the doors were closed. We pushed back at 0615am and taxied to runway 27. For some reason we back-tracked which I thought was abit unusual considering there’s a taxiway down to the bottom. Final preparations were completed and we started rolling down runway 27. The takeoff seemed very powerful, possibly a full power departure! We swiftly climbed out of Liverpool where we then made a right turn, giving us some nice sight’s of Liverpool at night.

We made a few step climbs before we reached our cruising altitude. About one hour into the flight the F/A came round with snacks. They started at the front, middle and rear. I ordered a hot chocolate and some pringles for my breakfast. When you ask for hot chocolate you usually assume it’s chocolate powder, not in this case! It was just a lump of chocolate in a hot cup of water lol. I drank it anyway! The flight whent smoothly from here and as the sun started rising I started to take a few shots.

We soon started our decsent and the coast of Latvia became visable through the smog. The weather wasn’t fantastic as we decsended to join the ILS for runway 18.

We finally became full established and it became even clearer that Latvia is a very poor country. There was many houses that were in a wreck as we carried on our approach. We touched smoothly, 15 minutes ahead of schedule. Ryanair welcomed us to Latvia and we taxied to gate B2 where we were quickly de-boarded and proceded.

I’d give Ryanair a 6/10 for LPL-RIX. Reason being is that there was no crew announcements telling us our course, cruising altitude etc.

Airline: Ryanair
Aircraft: Boeing 737-8AS
Regerstration: EI-DLY (Winglets)
Flight Number: FR9607
Route: Riga (RIX) – Liverpool (LPL)
ETD: 12:10pm local
ATD: 12:10pm
ETA: 13:00pm local
ATA: 13:00pm

So it was time to go home. I know this is going a little off topic but some may find it intresting. We ordered our taxi to take us to the airport for 0910am so I could have a look around the airport. Not knowing that is was the ‘NATO Summit’ we put out bags into the taxi and off we whent. The taxi driver said he could only take us to the bus station so we was a little confused. We arrived at the bus station, and there was a lot of Army and Police. We got onto out bus and waited about 10 minutes – In this time we had seen many Army vehicles go past escorting blacked out ‘posh’ cars, which were alot being escorted by Police Cars. The bus finally started moving (finally!) and we were escorted to the Airport by Police cars. We was all told to disembark the bus and go into the temporary security centre which was made specially for the ‘NATO summit’. We gave the Passport to the women and flight details, she checked them and then told us to follow the red stickers, which led us to the X-Ray machines. I put my camera bag through and they stopped the belt! There was a small commotion and a few people walked over who looked like Russian spys! They kindly asked me to open my bag, which I did and they started fiddling about with my camera and lenses. Fortunately they didn’t take it off me and off we whent to board the bus (again!) to the airport. Finally we had made it and we proceded to check-in.

Check-in was fairly quick – I am still on my mum’s passport so they started asking about that. This took 10 minutes. We were then told our luggage was 1kg over-weight, which was out fault so off we whent to pay £8. Off we whent to Departures and I whent to see what was in… So, the weather is bad, security is tight and guess what turns up…. USAF 737 C40B with George W. Bush on-board! I decided to risk it and go for a shot, which I managed to get! Here it is –

I did abit of spotting and unfortuenlty DLY turned up again to operate out flight. A few Air Baltic’s whent past then it was off to board our flight. We walked onto the plane and was greeted by a fairly good looking lady 😉 The flight was full but one of the F/A’s had saved us a row of seats which was kind of her. Unfortuently, behind us was one of the biggest morons i’ve ever heard on a plane. Anyway, anoth of that, here are some more shots –

The battle of the winglets!

Under some tight security… Also note the Helicopter securing the area

I would write more about the flight but I was asleep for most of it. We started our decsent and the the usual ‘S’ approach into Liverpool for runway 27.

We landed bang on time after another smooth landing and off we whent for out bags. I was going to ask to go in the cockpit but the crew had a quick 25 minute turn-around so I left it.

I’d give Ryanair a 8/10 for RIX-LPL.

Sorry for the spelling and puntuation. It’s been a long time with no sleep!

Thanks for viewing,
Sam