It’s taken a while to get round to this, I’ve been waiting for my photos to come back (It was a bit of a disaster all round, that, actually, but more of that in a moment…)
20th May
I was booked on BA1691 from Zurich to Glasgow, via Manchester, and with a 10:35am departure from Zurich, coupled with working the Champions League Final shift at the Pub the previous night, and having to pick my ticket up at the desk in ZRH (The flight was booked online, but BA would only send the ticket to an address in the country of departure. Unfortunately, I live half a mile over the Border in France) meant yet another shortish night before a trip for me (although longer than before heading to Barcelona). Nevertheless, I was really looking forward to the trip, my first with BA for 17 Months, and the first time I’d been home [Glasgow] in that time, too.
We got a Taxi to Basel Railway Station at 7, but unfortunately, as my Parents were off to Rome for the weekend, I didn’t have the digicam (they pulled rank on me), although I had an SLR with me, and was rather hopeful of putting it to good use. The 7:46 train to Zurich Airport left on time, and so I was at Zurich Airport for 8:57 (this train incidentally operates with the flight number LX7403 from ZDH (Basel Railway Station) to ZRH for passengers departing Basel with onward connections at ZRH).
After collecting my ticket at the BA ticket desk, and checking in, I had a quick look about Landside, but as it was Ascension and for some reason this normally non-religious country having a bank holiday, there wasn’t much to do, so I went on through Passport control to the Airside area.
At this point, I tried to take my first pictures, as the View from the Lounge was there for the taking, but I couldn’t get the camera to work. Damn. I instead went to a Kiosk, and bought a disposable camera, so I apologise in advance for the picture quality.
Just when I was about to take a picture of the tail lineup outside Terminal A, a BA A319 arrived from Heathrow and parked right in front of me. Well, still a tail lineup, but not quite as exotic as it could have been…
From front to Back,
BA A319 G-EUOA
LX A321
LX A320
AY A320
AA 762
?
DL 762
LX A330
LX MD11
With various LX Avro RJ’s in the background on remote stands.
By: Arabella-Cox - 20th July 2004 at 14:23
A excellent, well descriptive report Bhoy, well done!!
By: Ren Frew - 20th July 2004 at 13:42
You should get yourself a nice little digi snapper in one of the many duty free shops you must have passed through following Celtic.(lol) 😀
Top report, glad you saw Hampden Park on a sunny day too.
By: Bhoy - 19th July 2004 at 18:02
And finally, round the trip off, at LHR I boarded BA6743, operated by Swiss (aka LX365), flown on the day by A320 HB-IJN. 66 minutes was all it took for the flight back to Basel, and after my obligatory 30’000 feet G&T I was ready to head off back to work for the Champions League final that evening.
In summary, I enjoyed all my flights, and I’m already looking forward to my next one (and hopefully I should be able to get the digicam for it), which will be next month, while I tour with Basel Rugby Club. The rest of the Party is doing the trip by Bus, but I will be flying back down as I have a prior engagement (although I’ll be on the Bus outbound). It’ll be my first flight with easyJet, yes, we’re going to Berlin.
Looking forward to bringing you the report already.
By: Bhoy - 19th July 2004 at 17:55
Sunday I spent mostly recuperating, and Monday I went along to EDI for the meet with Ren Frew, bemused, Matthew Murray and Martin EGTK.
Unfortunately, I managed to ruin two films on the SLR which I’d got working again, I do have 1 roll of film from the meet, but I haven’t gotten round to having it developed yet (yes, I know it was 2 months ago). Tuesday night was the Henrik Testimonial at Paradise, and Wednesday found me back on a mainline BA plane for the first time in, well, ages (the ERJ and Dash8 being BACX operated).
BA A319 G-EUPJ was my transport for this shuttle flight down to LHR, and after taking a photo of her out the gate window, as well as pics of the departing US Airways/Continental and American 767’s (a -200, -400 and -300 respectively), I boarded Papa Juliett, and started to wind the Film on to change it. Well, those of you who were at Edinburgh can guess what happened next…
Yes, yet another film in the bin. At that point, I gave up with the Photos for the trip, and just concentrated on enjoying Airshow, the first time I’d been on a BA flight where they left the Map on for the flight. It was a 57 minute flight to LHR, and a miracle happened…
There was an edible All Day Deli! *knocks self down with Feather* Yes, a nice slice of Apple Pie was the catering on board BA1483 on the 26th of May. I think I may have to get the Boarding pass framed…
By: Bhoy - 19th July 2004 at 17:36
Friday, I did a bit of a Pubcrawl along Sauchiehall Street (sorry, no pics), and Saturday was Cup Final Day.
Man of the Match, who else but Ghod himself?
(tell you what, it’s difficult to hold a camera steady when you’re sticking your arms up as the cup is raised…)
By: LBARULES - 19th July 2004 at 17:33
Fantastic report and pictures Bhoy 🙂
By: RIPConcorde - 19th July 2004 at 17:24
Excellent report. The pics are great quality considering they were taken on a disposable.
By: Bhoy - 19th July 2004 at 17:21
Which just left to disembark, and finally offered me a chance to photograph more than just the inside engine of her…
By: Bhoy - 19th July 2004 at 17:14
Just after touchdown, I spotted the Emirates A330 taxiing out towards 23, so I quickly got a shot of it while I had a chance (prepare to use your microscopes to spot it on the pic, though), before we turned in towards the Terminal.
By: green320 - 19th July 2004 at 17:10
Awesome so far Bhoy!!
By: Bhoy - 19th July 2004 at 17:05
56 minutes after leaving MAN, we touched down in GLA, but not before having flown over the City, and having our photograph taken by Ren (there was a thread at the time)
By: Bhoy - 19th July 2004 at 17:01
We seemed to take off from the same runway as I’d just landed on (not sure about the runways at MAN, but the older one. at least, we never crossed one to reach it on arrival or departure), and we were soon passing over the Solway Firth and approaching Scotland.
By: Bhoy - 19th July 2004 at 16:38
Total flight time was 96 minutes, so we had made some time up on the scheduled flight time of 2 hours, but after the ridiculous delay at Zurich, it was getting a bit tight for time…
1 Rushed disembarkation, passing through Security and asking the way to the Gate later, I stopped off at WH Smith for a copy of Airliner World and a bag of Fruit Pastilles, and almost before I’d had a chance to pay for them, I was being paged to go to the gate Immediately. Yes, it was that short a transfer.
For this flight, I was on Dash8-300 G-BRYZ for the flight upto Glasgow, and after reaching my seat, it was almost time to Startup, for this, my first non LX Saab prop flight, which I was quite looking forward to.
By: Bhoy - 19th July 2004 at 16:26
Ah well, we taxiied past the AVP after landing, which almost made up for it…
By: Bhoy - 19th July 2004 at 16:24
As always, the flight is over much too soon, here we are descending over the Cheshire countryside towards MAN. I’d kind of been hoping to ask to visit the flight deck when we arrived, but as we came in, there was an announcement that passengers connecting to Cork and those travelling onward to Glasgow should disembark first, as both were being held up already (in fact, the Cork flight allegedly returned to MAN having taken off already to collect the pax?)
By: Bhoy - 19th July 2004 at 16:18
The Sky really was a nice colour that day, particularly as we approached the Channel, and then, looking down, I caught my first glimpse of British Soil for 17 months.
I’d been talking to a guy who works as an engineer for Swiss here at Basel on the Embraer fleet, and he had said that whenever he flew home to Manchester, he went via LHR [on the Airbus], as the Motion of the ERJ made him seasick. I did pay attention to this, and could detect a slight rocking motion, but I’m not sure if I’d have noticed it if I hadn’t been paying attention.
By: Bhoy - 19th July 2004 at 16:03
17 Months later, and my pet hate, the All day Deli, hasn’t got any better. In fact, it looks to have shrunk to me, as you don’t even get a doggy bag anymore.
By: Bhoy - 19th July 2004 at 15:58
And looking backwards, south, towards the city (well, dump) of Zurich, along with Lake Zurich and what the locals like to call the Gold Coast (although as we all know the Gold is several feet under Bahnhofsstrasse in huge Bank Vaults), with the Alps beyond that. Curse the glare when looking south towards midday 🙁 .
By: Bhoy - 19th July 2004 at 15:55
We climbed making a 180 degee turn, this was the view of the ‘Airfield’, looking along 28.
By: Bhoy - 19th July 2004 at 15:49
What amused me was that throughout his announcements over the Tannoy about the delays, the Captain referred to ZRH as ‘the Airfield’, seemed as if he wasn’t totally sure about the size of the place [for all it’s failings :rolleyes:], which this picture hints at. It shows Dock B (nr. 1 in that overhead map) with a Thai 744 and SAA 343 the obvious eyecatchers there (unfortunately, it wasn’t Royal Barge, as it had been when I’d seen it whilst going to BCN), and, behind them, Dock A, where the Tail lineup shot was taken (the Magenta blob behind it being the Helvetic Fokker I’d been observing whilst on stand)
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July 19, 2004 at 2:52 pm