Back on Monday I flew from LHR to MAN on the very short 30 minute shuttle with BA. I arrived at LHR with about 2 hours to spare, and saw a SWISS ERJ depart, before boarding my A320 G-EUUD. The plane was only about 2 thirds full and so we departed on time, taxiing out to 27R, passed the parked Concorde on runway 23 (G-BOAB), before departing towards the north. After the very short flight we were into our descent, before touching down on MANs runway 24R, and taxiing up to T3.
Here I disembarked and met up with some friends, before realising that all my tickets were still on the plane :rolleyes:
After going through all the procedures the plane had gone back to LHR, and so I was forced to pay £25 for BA to reissue my tickets. After a short while I was back into T3 and bording G-MANP (A BA Citiexpress ATP) towards the Isle of Man. The flight was 100% full and took a large amount of runway to get airborne.
Similar to the shuttle flight the crew were up and serving all the pax with food and drink the entire flight, before the descent started, and very soon we were down on rwy 26.
From here we parked in between 2 Emerald HS748s (16th Feb lunchtime, any reg help would be appreciated EGNM as I admit I thought they were in sotrage they looked so dodgy, so I never took any regs off them!) and another BA ATP STILL in the old Landor colours!
After overnighting in Douglas we were back at Ronaldsway early to watch the movements, which consisted of Euromanx, FlyBe, BA, and a lot of Eastern Airways, with a smattering of VFR. Sadly we had MANP for our flight home, and after powering back from our stand (Using the reverse thrust instead of a tug) we rolled off the stand, down the taxiway, and onto the runway and into the air without stopping, all the way to MANs 06L. Here we rolled straight onto the stand at T3. Gate to gate without any cessation of movement! Very impressive! We managed to get a little look in the cockpit, which looked more like a Vickers Viscount than its supposed competitor the Dash 8!
Later on after meeting up with some more friends at MAN we were boarding G-BPEC, our 757-200 in Waves and Cranes tail back to LHR. I got a window seat on the right, and saw a Saudi Arabian C130 landing whilst we waited for about 20 extra minutes for some late passengers. The 757 was absolutely packed, and it definitly felt crowded, even just for 30 minutes! We taxiied up to 06L to depart, and were soon on our way towards LHRs 09L to land, where I got to see PIAs new 777, and an East African 767. We all hung around til the end, and managed to get a sneaky peek in the cockpit, which seemed a lot more cramped thatn that of the 767 I was in a few years ago (although I have grown since then!)
This morning sadly overslept AND the trains were late, which lead to me arriving at LGW at the time that our FR flight was pushing back for DUB. The people at FR were more than happy to offer us tickets on the next flight – for £40! £10 more thatn we had paid in the 1st place! We politely declined, and I promised to invest in a decent alarm clock!
:rolleyes:
By: mongu - 28th February 2004 at 10:25
About a mile after that EGNM. My fiancee is a teacher at a school in Ramsey and I was giving her a lift in.
By: EGNM - 27th February 2004 at 16:29
If any of you go over to the IOM again plse let me know and i will try and meet you up there. Went last summer for camping and walking, and keep going back and forth with work.
Hope you are ok mongu, i think i know the road you mean if its the one which crosses the tram tracks that lead to the summet of Snaefell and on into Ramsey?
By: bmi-star - 27th February 2004 at 09:13
Well no i don’t see the operating from LCY some how!:D But using BA equipment to train:mad: NO NO NO!!:D
By: andrewm - 27th February 2004 at 09:11
Hehe well i can safely saw not london city mind you BHD as ordered a set of new 737 steps as they current ones are used on A320’s!
Cabin Crew Training is starting very soon or has already started also told. They are using BA facilities i think @ LGW for the training.
By: bmi-star - 27th February 2004 at 09:05
BE having 733’s!! WOW that’s news just in! From where will they be operating?? Got to say, i like the BAe tho:(
By: andrewm - 27th February 2004 at 09:01
I know a Cabin Crew member from flybe and the BHD->IOM->LCY->JER and back is one of their favourite routes as they do it return journey and thats their day done! She likes the Das 8 Q400 best as the whole cabin crew hate Bae146’s and cant wait until the ex easyJet 733s arrive. Yes thats right flybe are taking one or two for their new Spanish etc routes 😀 Good news eh!
By: bmi-star - 27th February 2004 at 08:57
My god mongu, are you ok??? The roads we went on didn’t seem able to take the double-decker we had both ways. But i really wanted to go to Laxey to see the wheel, but we had no time:(
By: mongu - 26th February 2004 at 22:50
Manx Airlines used to have a IOM-JER service, which BA pulled as soon as they took over.
By: Mark L - 26th February 2004 at 22:11
We experienced a few of the fun roads on the route to Douglas, but obviously not as exciting as your one. Hope your alright mate, sounded pretty bad 🙁
As for the flights they all seemed pretty full to me, and as for the link up with the channel islands its pretty essential given the identical nature of business thats conducted in the two locations.
By: mongu - 26th February 2004 at 22:05
IOM is a nice airport but under exploited.
A 4x daily 737 service to LGW would do well. A 2x daily J41 service to JER would also do well. The LCY flights do well, but suffer from some odd pricing from Flybe. Some tix are good value and some are extortionate, with nothing in between. Sort out the pricing Flybe, and you’ll fill a few daily 146’s on the LCY run.
Also…a must….connections to Guernsey! As BA have pulled out and Aurigny are the most unadventorus airline ever, I think Flybe could do well flying BHD-IOM-LCY-GCI with the Dash.
My colleagues in the Guernsey office have a bad time commuting to IOM these days.
To the two visitors – I agree (so no offence) but put it this way, you aint seen the worst of the Isle of Man. I nearly died on Wed 18th Feb – I spun off the “mountain road” on ice and rolled my car, which has now been written off. When I was standing dazed at the roadside talking to the police officer, a gritter came by and sprayed me! It just sums up the “shut the stable door after the horse has bolted” attitude of the authorities here.
By: Mark L - 26th February 2004 at 21:49
Yes it wasn’t particularly exciting, but the main focus was on the ATP for some strange reason.
To be honest I went through security at Ronaldsway the quickest I have ever done, as there were 3 guards there for just me!
Airport was very good for a regional one of its size, however like Elgan, was very surprised with the number of movements.
By: bmi-star - 26th February 2004 at 21:47
Hope this causes no offence, but Douglas was a bit of a dump on the Monday we went, due to the weather being bad, but on the Tuesday, the weather was better, and Douglas look nicer. Ronaldsway Airport was nice, and busier than i expected!
By: mongu - 26th February 2004 at 21:42
I used to live a 5 minute walk from there!
Douglas is not a very exciting place this time of year, although it’s a bit better when the bikers are over for the TT’s.
By: bmi-star - 26th February 2004 at 21:39
I’ll answer that mongu, Me and Mark stayed in the Adelphi on Broadway, ok i guess, for one night. Dunno wot Mark thought of it. Thought we had a good brekkie!
And IOM-MAN is going x5 daily,with the Dash based @ MAN instead of IOM
By: mongu - 26th February 2004 at 21:36
Where did you stay in Douglas, Mark?
What do you think of the new arrangements for scanning baggage at IOM? Very tiresome in my opinion, I don’t like checking my bags in then having them given back to me.
“Jemima” is a pig of an aircraft from a passengers’ perspective. The interior by the way, is still in the old Manx Airlines colours.
IOM-MAN will be upgraded to a Dash 8-300 within the next month I believe.
By: bmi-star - 26th February 2004 at 19:05
O what great pictures! Yes OK i’m flattering my self, those were taken by me, and i had a fab time with Mark L. ATP’s were great!
By: Mark L - 26th February 2004 at 18:49
Full credit to my travel companion Elgan for these as I didn’t bring my camera.
By: Mark L - 26th February 2004 at 18:49
And Mongus much loved 146 Jemima (G-MIMA)
By: Mark L - 26th February 2004 at 18:48
again, with EGNMs HS748s in the background (Not the series 1 though)
By: Mark L - 26th February 2004 at 18:47
G-MANP
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February 18, 2004 at 10:55 pm