Flight: MYT112
Aircraft: McDonnell-Douglas DC10-10
Registration: G-DPSP
After two glorious weeks in Fuerteventura, staying in Caleta de Fuste, the time had come to head off back home. And how is was sad to be leaving the beautiful island of Fuerteventura, it was exciting to know the flight home would be on a DC10.
We arrived at the busy departures lounge to see our flight displayed as DELAYED.It was only natural that I assumed that the aircraft was G-TAOS and it had broken down again. The aircraft broke down after flying me out to Fuerteventura two weeks earlier and had got stuck in Fuerteventura for 43-hours. I even saw it on the Monday when we drove past the airport and saw G-TAOS still sat on the ramp at Fuerteventura.
After a moderately slow check-in we proceeded through to the departures lounge. At Fuerteventura the departures lounge is very nice and modern, and offers great views of aircraft on stands. Runway activity can also be seen. As the brilliant review of the Excel flight from FUE-MAN says. When I was on this holiday I didnt have a proper camera, I just had a disposable one, and so I caught a (not so good) picture of Aero Lloyd’s A321 in TRIGEMA colours:
http://myaviation.net/?pid=00261929
Our delay was only 30mins, and after watching several Air Berlin 737-800s, Binter ATRs and Condor 753 and 763 I caught a glimpse of our aircraft on approach to FUE. I watched her gracefully land and realise it wasn’t G-TAOS, but G-DPSP! Excitement took hold of me and I took lots of photos of it, however with little photography knowledge at that time, I didnt realise that my photos would come out black with flashbacks 😮
Boarding commenced, and we were soon queing inside gate 7, once inside the plane I looked up to see some sort of mist coming from the air vents. I took my seat (10K), which was a window seat, naturally mine. And tried to keep the excitement in, which was no easy task.
We were soon pushed back and proceded to taxi to runway 01. Once at the holding point we turned right onto 01 and before we had properly lined up the pilot applied full throttle and the DC10 blasted down the runway. A smooth take-off and steep climb was a fantastic feeling as we took to the skies once again.
Once we reached altitude the crew began their duties serving drinks. And soon the main meal was brought around. I really liked the seatback tables on the DC10 as they came down and you had one little table and you could fold it over to make a full-size normal table. I’m a fussy eater and didnt eat my meal, instead I took the crackers and bread rolls that other family members didnt want, and ate them instead. A drink of tea hit the spot nicely and I relaxed and enjoyed the flight, trying to work out where we were. Which was no easy task when its pitch black outside 😀
Then came the decent, which was quicker than on other aircraft, and I tried to see where we were, which wasnt easy. As we decended my ears were killing me and the pressure was much more intense than on other flights I had been on. Then we turned onto finals and I saw out the Stockport Pyramid and I knew we were moments away from 24R. Over fields and houses we continued. Then we passed over Ringway Road and I caught a glimpse of the Airport Pub all in darkness and another nice landing and we were back in Manchester. We exited 24R just after the AVP and as we taxied past I saw a 737 take-off (I think it was a Eurocypria). We taxied round Pier C and were parked on Gate 22. And my flight on the DC10 came to an end…
Thanks for reading!
LeeMan8
By: T5 - 30th July 2006 at 14:46
T5
What where jmcAIR’s DC-10s like?
The air-conditioning and seats were clearly faulty (as mentioned above) and the inflight entertainment system had faults, too. Here is the report I wrote just after the trip:
I flew on both their DC-10 aircraft to Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic from Gatwick (UK) and back again in August 2000.
The first problem was the delay. We checked in at some ridiculous time… 05:00(ish) for an early flight to find it was actually going to be delayed by at least 3 hours – so, okay, it’s not the end of the world! We find that JMC have been kind enough to give every passenger a free £5 food voucher for the inconvenience caused. If you spend more than £5k on a holiday and 3 hours is wasted, this works out to approximately £44. We were given £20 in food vouchers. Delays are every day things but this was a charter flight. We didn’t have to only fly with the company, but also to spend 14 nights with an over-enthusiastic holiday rep!
Once the aircraft was eventually ready, I did my pre-flight checks, only to find my headphone socket in my arm-rest did not work and was too loud and it would not turn down. The brain dead stewardess suggested I plugged my socket into my mother’s armrest as she was not intending on using it! 9 hours on a flight and I can’t even take advantage of the entertainment because my headphones don’t work!
It turns out that broken headphones were not such a problem after all, the entertainment was rubbish – I thought airlines showed all the latest film releases on long-haul flights, but it would seem I was wrong. We had to endure “Yellow Subamrine” – The Beatles cartoon made decades ago! It was hell and I had no never been so annoyed on a flight as I was on JMC5120 to Puerto Plata. God only knows what their short haul flights are like!!
Go easy on me. I was only 15 when I wrote that. 😮
By: steve rowell - 29th July 2006 at 06:51
Well done that man!!
By: Suddy - 27th July 2006 at 11:19
Great report mate! …Wish i had the chance to travel on a dc-10, always wanted to travel on a tri-jet.
Once again great report and great to see more people enjoying FUE airport
Suddy 😀
By: LeeMan8 - 27th July 2006 at 00:47
G-DPSP was used in ultimate force by the way.
I made sure I didnt miss the episode. Was nice to see G-DPSP again. Riding the DC10 felt like an Ultimate Force. The sheer power is incredible.
I hearby do delcare that BA and my travel!! should bring back the DC-10 show them girl’y airbuses how its done!!
I agree! DC10s are the real deal, noisy, bulky and pure metal. And make aviation much more exciting. Long live the DC10.
By: lukeylad - 26th July 2006 at 23:40
Right thats it i hearby do delcare that BA and my travel!! should bring back the DC-10 show them girl’y airbuses how its done!!
G-DPSP was used in ultimate force by the way.
By: MyTravel UK - 26th July 2006 at 23:04
Hey,
Nice report, just returned from FUE with MyTravel on the A321 with the comfy new leather seats. Great flights and service.
T5
What where jmcAIR’s DC-10s like?
MyTravel UK
By: T5 - 26th July 2006 at 19:13
Great report.
I obviously didn’t enjoy my last DC-10 flights as much as you did yours. However, mine were 6 years ago and to/from Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic. The outbound flight was on G-LYON and was 3 hours late in departing. The return flight was on G-GKOT and was on-time. However, the interior of the aircraft was terrible. The air conditioning units on both aircraft were leaking copious amounts of water, a fair few seats were stuck in the recline position (resulting in my family being split up for takeoff and for landing) and the entertainment was appalling! I’m a fan of the more modern stuff, personally. 🙂
And I think it was when my self and Andy returned from Glasgow a couple of years ago that the pressure on a bmi A321 was too much to bear. I’m not sure what was going on, but my ears were very painful and my sinuses were killing, too. After about 3 or 4 minutes of agony, I could finally carry on enjoying the descent over London.
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July 26, 2006 at 3:39 pm