01/09/05 MAN-ZRH-HKG

01/09/05
LX395 Manchester-Zurich
A/C :- RJ100/HB-IXQ
Flight Time:- 1 hours 55 mins

Well after booking it in March, my Hong Kong trip was finally upon me! I did weeks of preparation for this trip, as I only had 3 days to do what I wanted. So I got up at 6am, to be at Manchester by 10am, as my brother was going to EDI with bmi for the day at 12:00pm.

I got to MAN with a good 4 hours to waste. I went with my brother to T3, so I could show him how to use the self-service machine, then I went to see weather my desk back in T1 was open, and it was! I checked in, behind a couple who were also coming with me to Hong Kong, and later I met up with them in Zurich, more about that later!

After watching my brother board and depart on G-RJXB, I went through to departures. I went around the duty-free foe a bit, bought a neck-pillow for £3.50, so I could catch some sleep on the HKG flight, and had a go on the Sony PSP, deffo not worth £180! Before I knew it, it was time to go to gate 4 on pier B. My RJ100 had not appeared yet, and with about 20 mins to go till departure, HB-IXQ turned into the stand. I watched the people disembark, and for some reason, the plane just stood there for a good 30 mins before I we got on. In the time being an annoying man was opening has heart too me, and I was praying he was not sitting next to me, and to my relief, once we got on, he took seat 8A, with myself in 11A. I felt sorry for the woman who sat next to him. To my surprise, those Chinese couple sat behind me, and we still hadn’t said anything to each other, until I took out the Hong Kong book, then they clicked, and I had a good chat with them.

We pushed back 10 mins behind schedule, and taxied to 24R. A swift take-off followed with a quick left turn, and we were on our way to Zurich. I sat right under those flaps, which turned a few heads I can tell you! We flew over Birmingham, Southampton, then towards Paris and Basle. The in-flight service, was a complimentary sandwich, I took Turkey, with a drink. They came round again, 10 mins alter, offering another sandwich and a drink, so I took the same option. Decent was rounded off with a famous Swiss Chocolate bar! Approach took us over Basle, and down over the gleaming Swiss countryside. The noisy flaps were extended, and we touched down on runway 16 on time at 1650 local time. We taxied to the remote stands in front of runway 28/10, and bussed to the terminal. As I had 5 hours in the airport, I popped by train into Zurich, and spend a good 2 hours there, which was nice!

Then I went back to ZRH with 2 ½ hours to spare, plenty of time to see the changed ZRH, it is totally different to what it was when I was there last year!

01/09/05
LX138 Zurich-Hong Kong
A/C Airbus A340-300/HB-JMI
Flight time:- 11 hours 40 mins

So after the brief MAN leg, I was about to smash my longest flight ever by 3 hours!
I took the new Skytrain to Zurich’s newest pier, Pier E where all the intercontinental flights leave. It was very quiet at about 8pm. My aircraft sat on Stand 25, whilst 3 other Swiss A343’s were next door. I met up with the Chinese couple again, and we were called forward to board at 9:55pm. I was on seat 26A, so I was one of the last on. It was heartbreaking to walk thru biz class to get to economy, with the eyes saying “look at those poor souls”

My 1st impression of the A343 was good! It was airy, light, and comfortable. The flight attendants made me feel welcome aboard which was a big help. We were delayed for a bit as other inbound connections were late, which we totally understood. We were only late by about 10 mins, when we pushed back at 10:40pm. We were in a queue of 4 Swiss A343’s by then. Us in the front, with JNB, SIN/BKK and GRU behind us!

We lined up runway 34, and thought power was set, I wasn’t pushed into my seat like the RJ100! I was flying on 4 hair dryers! We took quite a bit of runway up, as I saw the end of the runway appear by the lights on the side turning from white to yellow!
Then the nose pitched up, and we seem to just hang there. Though it was only a second, it felt like an hour! Now I understand the A343 had a ridiculous rate of climb, but this climb was worse than an ATP lol! It took a good 15 mins for the flaps to be fully retracted, and by then we were well over Swiss Airspace. The in-flight service began about 25 mins after take-off, with a selection of Bavarian Sausages, and Spaghetti. I took the sausages, which were actually very nice, and spicy! The IFE was launched moments later, and I decided to watch the FA Cup 2005 highlights. Oh It was nice to see Man Utd loose again in the final hehe. Then, I had one glance of the moving map, we were over Ukraine by then. I donned my eye shades on, blew up the neck pillow, put my seat back, and fell into a semi-sleep, i.e I could hear the goings on but couldn’t open my eyes!

Then about 4 hours in, we were over Russia by now. The seatbelt signs went on. I could hear some excitement in the cabin, but I just regarded it as just a tiny bit of turbulence. I was so wrong! We smashed into the top end of a thunderstorm. This deffo ranked as my worse turbulence ever. The plane shook like hell. You could feel the winds pushing us about….i opened the window blind, and could see the lightning flashing below us, the wing bending like hell, and us just being thrown about by mother nature! 20 mins later, it was back to normality. I went back into semi-sleep, and that’s all I could remember!

Next thing I opened my eyes, looked outside, the sun was shining and we were 3 hours ETA from HKG!! So to pass the time I watched the “Wedding Date” on the back seat screen, which was a cheesy film, but it passed a good 1 ½ hours! Breakfast came round in the middle of the film. We were served a warm Croissant, a warm roll, a yogurt and cheese, with tea, coffee and juice. It filled a hole quite nicely. I looked again on the map, which this time showed us our whole route. We flew over the old Soviet states, and the top end of the Himalayas and outer Mongolia.

Now we were approaching Guangzhou, and 40 mins out. We started our nice approach around the south of Hong Kong its self. It was too hazy to see anything. My 1st sight of the place was on finals, when I could see Kowloon, where I was staying, and the Longest bridge in the world near Tsing Yi. Full flaps were applies, as we glided down the glide slope. I could see the Airport Express train buzzing to the city, and could see Lantau Island, somewhere I was going to visit on Monday.

We touched down on 25R, and the reversers and spoilers were used. We exited the runway very swiftly, to let a China Eastern A300 and MD90 to land. Then a UAL 744 touched down from ORD. We taxied to stand 21, and disembarked into a gleaming Chep Lak Kok! What and airport. Clean, easy to use, efficient! I went thru immigration no problem, and got yet another nice stamp in my passport!

I collected my bags said goodbye to the chinese couple who had been with me all the way since Machester, bought a 3 day transport, and took the amazing Airport Express train, to spend 3 wonderful days in the vibrant Hong Kong!

Return report tomorrow!