MAN-FUE-MAN on TCX

I’ve just got back from a week long holiday in Fuerteventura, which was one of my best holidays ever.

TCX056K – 26/5/07
Aircraft – G-JMCE
Scheduled Time of Departure – 16:30
Pushback – 16:59
Take off – 17:12
Scheduled Time of Arrival – 20:50
Touched down – 21:08
Arrival on stand – 21:13
Estimated Flight Time – 03:55
Actual Flight Time – 03:55

As our flight to Fuerteventura was an afternoon/evening flight, there was no need for the usual early wake up and rushed packing before heading off to the airport. We took our time about the packing, before setting off for Manchester Airport just after 13:00. We got to FSS car park around 13:45 where there was a bus ready to take us and our baggage to Terminal 1, along with some other people heading off on holiday. We got on the bus as my parents handed in the car keys and the luggage was put in the back of the bus. We soon headed off on the short journey to terminal 1 where TCX have their own dedicated check in desks. We took a short detour passed The Airport Hotel before heading down to Terminal 1 departures. We got off the bus and went down to the lifts where one was waiting for us. This lift journey was comical, as we went up to level 7, then 9, then 11, then 13 and then back down to level 5 which is departures. We entered terminal 1 departures which had changed since April in that there are massive screens over each desk indicating the airline checking in at that desk, and the TCX desks were at the far end of the terminal. We checked in quickly, but with split seats, so we had seats 1D, 6E, 6F and 10D, and despite me being the tallest in my family, my dad got the seat in row 1, and I ended up initially with 6F, and then after take off, 10D. We headed through to join the huge queue for security, with there being a huge queue filtering system, separating us into two queues for security. The queues moved quickly enough, with families with small children being directed through to the UK and Ireland line of security. We were soon through the boarding pass check, and then they opened the UK and Ireland line for all passengers to ease congestion on the other security machines, so we ended up going through the UK and Ireland one in a matter of minutes, rather than facing an hour wait for the normal security machines. We got through into the packed terminal where there were no seats available, so we just sat on the floor by WH Smith, with a small glimpse of the apron, from where I could see the afternoon EK flight departing. I kept an eye out for our flight arriving, in the knowledge that it was a 752 I was looking out for. I was initially excited when I saw a TCX 757 arrive, but it was a 753 (JMAB) but our plane soon landed from Palma and taxied round to park between the CY 320 and the TCX 753 which was off to Rhodes. I was particularly happy to see JMCE as I’d only ever seen that one once before as it’s hardly ever based at MAN, and it is one of their newest 752s. We decided to head to our gate to find a seat, but it seemed everyone else had decided to go to our gate (gate 6) at the same time, so we ended up standing again, with passengers for the Ibiza Jet2 flight, and the TCX Rhodes flight passing through us. The crew for our flight arrived shortly, waiting until the rest of the cabin crew left, but then we had to wait for ages, as 5 passengers on the 753 who didn’t need wheelchairs were taken through to arrivals on wheelchairs, and someone who needed a wheelchair on our plane didn’t get one, so we had to wait about 25 minutes for someone to arrive with a wheelchair for the passenger. Once that had been done, they had to put a disabled lady in an electric wheelchair onto the plane, and because of the size of the monstrous wheelchair she had, this took up another 10 minutes, before they started boarding by rows 1-5 and 31-40, so my dad boarded, but we had to wait until the call for all remaining passengers to board. I got to 6F and sat down with my sister next to me and I looked out the window to see a Dragonair Cargo 744 taxiing in, which I hadn’t seen before, and a TCY 743 heading out. It took a while for everyone to board, as it was everyone heading off on their half term holiday, but eventually, everyone was onboard. I was somewhat puzzled to still see the 753 parked next to us despite the fact they had finished boarding before we started boarding. The crew shut the doors and the captain spoke to us about our route down to Fuerteventura ith the safety vuideo then being shown, and then we pushed back, with the TCX 753 still there, as was the MYT 763 heading down to FUE also. We headed out in front of a FCA 752 and a TOM 763 before holding to allow another FCA 752 to depart. Then the FCA 752 that was behind us departed in front of us, as did the TOM 763, before a BD Embraer was allowed to leave. By this time, the 753 was now behind us and we taxied onto the runway and held whilst waiting for the Embraer to clear. We eventually departed, lifting off about 3/4 of the way down the runway and we headed out over the Cheshire countryside before making the usual right turn to avoid Knutsford. We were soon cruising at our cruising altitude of 37,000 feet, as the drinks serice started. By this time, I had swapped with my mum to sit in 10D, but this was bad news as I was now sat next to someone who had clearly had a bit to drink, as he stunk, was rather clumsy and was shouting out expletives every couple of minutes. My mum arranged for the purser of the flight, Shaun, to deliver my requests as she paid for it, instead of me having to pay for my own drinks and snacks, so I got a bottle of water and the regular pouch of Maltesers, which is the combination I always have when flying. I set about doing some revision for my Law A level coming up after half term and managed to get quite a bit done before the meal came round, which was chicken in a creamy cheese sauce, which was disgusting, as my sauce did not taste cheesy at all. The pudding which was a chocolate and vanilla yoghurt type thing was better, identical to the one I had coming home from Spain with FCA back in 2005. The crew soon came round collecting the meals in their weird bag-type things they came in, and the scratchcard service came round, but I didn’t get one. Duty free came round, but I was listening to my iPod at the time, so I didn’t get the chance to get anything. Another drinks service came round before we commenced our descent into Fuerteventura. By this time, it was getting dark, so the wing lights were visible, and soon the cabin lights were dimmed for our arrival, as we turned inland, and came up the east coast, passing over our hotel on our way into Fuerteventura airport, touching down with a bump and with reverse thrust applied, before we taxied in past a couple of Islas Airways and Binter Canarias ATRs before parking up between a JKK 320 and the MYT 763 from MAN that had beaten us (G-SJMC). The engines were turned off and the seatbelt signs were turned off, cue chaos as everyone jostled to get their bags from the overhead lockers, though my dad’s bag (my school bag) was stuck in a locker that refused to open. I got off the aircraft and waited for my parents by a window which enabled me to see that there were a number of UK flights on the ground, 3 of which were from MAN (us, MYT and XLA). My parents soon got off and we headd through security to find our bags were already going round the luggage carousel, and our 2 cases were soon off, and we headed out to catch a taxi to our hotel, the Broncemar Beach Aparthotel, where we would spend our holiday.

Our holiday:
The resort was fantastic, and as it was owned by Thomas Cook, the guests were almost entirely British, which made it easier to communicate qwith other guests. The entertainment staff at the resort were fantastic, and made our holiday an exciting one. I became rather good at bingo, winning €278 over the weeks (including winning the record amount for any bingo night at the hotel – €198), and we also won 5 certificates and 3 Superstar T-Shirts. On the last night, all the entertainment reps came and sat at our table, as it was our last night and we had taken part in everything on offer at the hotel, so we had become quite close to the entertainment people. It was a great night, with my sister singing duets on karaoke with two of the reps. For me, the entertainment staff was the joint best thing about the hotel, along with the fact we were situated right underneath the flight path for the airport, and as we were only 10 mins away by road, the aircraft were at low level when passing our hotel, so I was able to identify pretty much every single aircraft that passed over the hotel, with Islas Airways and Binter Canarias definate regulars. Our rounders match on the Tuesday had to wait until a LTU 330 passed by, and French Boules on Wednesday had to wait until a FCA 752 had passed.

TCX056L
G-FCLJ (I couldn’t see the full reg, but the last letter on the nose wheel looked close to being a ‘J’)
Scheduled Time of Departure – 21:50
Pushback – 22:54
Take off – 23:04
Scheduled Time of Arrival – 01:55
Touched down – 02:50
Arrival on stand – 03:00
Estimated Flight Time – 03:55
Actual Flight Time – 03:56

Sadly, all holidays have to come to an end, and so we had to head back home to the UK from sunny Fuerteventura. We said our farewells to the entertainment guys (Abbe, Jen, Catherine, Scott and Johnny), and ordered a taxi to take us to the airport. As there was a taxi rank very close to the hotel, it was there within 2 minutes, and we all got into the taxi and headed off on the short journey to the airport. As we approached the airport, I saw a Condor 753 (with TCX tail) stood there waiting to depart, and it was VERY close by. We got there at 18:45, just as the Condor was departing, before my mum realised we had in fact got the flight time wrong and we were due to leave at 21:50 rather than 21:30. We found a TCX rep who told us our flight was running late by 1 hour, as were 2 of the other 3 MAN flights that evening. She pointed us out to the check in desk where TCX had a dedicated check-in desk, so we checked in early and headed through to departures, through security and found a nice, spacious terminal buildings, with open terraces at each end of the building, and there were great views out over the tarmac onto the airfield, where you could see every movement. It was very much German flights at that stage, with 2 AB flights, 2 DE flights and a TuiFly flight to Hannover which was running over 45 minutes early. We found some excellent seats where we could see all the movements on the airfield. I sat there as my parents and sister went off to explore the shops. They got back as the first of 10 British flights arrived, a FCA 321 from LGW. Soon followed a steady procession of movements with another DE flight arriving, another AB and another Tuifly flight arriving, as well as 2 more FCA flights and a TCX flight to LGW. All the Germans went as the XLA fluight arrived from MAN, the only one to not be affected. The MAN FCA flight arrived almost an hour late. Soon, it was dark and the UK flights started leaving until the MYT Bristol flight, which was also delayed was the only one left, with a FQ 320 stood at the far end of the apron awaiting pasengers for Brussels. By this time, the only 2 flights left to arrive for the night were our flight and the MYT flight to MAN. The MYT 763 arrived first, and I could immediately tell it was G-DAJC, given the unfinished paintwork. Our flight eventually arrived at 21:46 as the MYT began to board. The FQ left leaving our plane and the MYT flight as the ohly 2 aircraft on the apron. We were soon called to board at gate 2, which I hate as you can’t get a clear look at the registration of the aircraft , though I could tell it was a G-FCL* aircraft. A small gap in the bridge allowed me to peak out for a second and look at the nosewheel and see the letters on the wheel, but I could hardly see, but it looked somewhere close to ‘LJ’, though I was under the impression this was used for flights to Canada. We joined the long queue on the airbridge as we waited to board, and this time we were together, having been given 20A, B, C and D. We were soon onboard and heading down to row 20 where I took the window seat, which gave me a nice view of the wing and engine. I could see the MYT flight pushing back as we were still boarding. Once we were all onboard, our captain welcomed us onboard the ‘Black Pearl’, which I thought was funny, and he explained that problems with the conveyor belts at both MAN and FUE had failed, and this caused delays to most MAN flights. We pushed back, and unlike the outbound flight, the safety demonstration was done manually, which I prefer for some reason. We were soon taxiing out along the southerly runway (according to the captain) to the end where we turned onto the northerly runway where we commenced a rolling take off. We climbed gradually to our cruising height of 35,000 feet. The drinks service came along first, but I had already bought a bottle of water in the airport, so I didn’t get anything. The charity donations service came after a short video presented by Jonathan Ross showing where the money goes. The meal came next, and this was shambolic. The first 15 rowas got their meal, and ros 21 and backwards got their meals, but rows 16 to 20 didn’t get any, until my dad caught the attention of David, the stweard in our section of the aircraft who promptly went and got the meals, which was Sausage and Mash, which was nicer than the outbound flight. That was soon collected away and the customer survey questionnaire came round, which we filled in together, paying particular attention to giving as much praise to the entertainment staff at Broncemar Beach as possible. These were collected just as we commenced our descent into MAN. We were soon able to see a mass of orange lights which told us we were close, and we used airbrakes to slow us down and help our descent. The flaps and undercarriage soon came down as we got lower and lower, passing over the road connecting MAN with the local village of Wythenshawe, before touching down on 24R smoothly, and no reverse thrust applied (due to time of day) which disappointed me. We turned off by Concorde and proceeded to head back towards the terminal past Concorde and the Trident, passed the engine testing bay when the captain came back on the speaker. He told us we were dodging the roadworks of Manchester Airport which he had been dodging for the past 14 years! We soon were parked up at gate 26 between a 732 formerly of EAL, and an A321 of Lufthansa. The engines were shut down and the seat belt signs turned off, and we soon were disembarking the aircraft and heading towards immigration, which we cleared easily. We entered an empty baggage hall, which confused me as I thought the MYT flight had arrived and the passengers on that flight would be getting their bags. But a quick check of the screen told me they hadn’t arrived yet, so a complete role reversal of the previous week. The bags were through quickly and we were off to get our car from FSS and we were soon off home. By the time we got home at 04:30, it was already light, which freaked me out.