My Flight Review. LBA-PMI/ PMI-LBA

ITS A LONG ONE……

Flight Review

Departure: Leeds Bradford International Airport (LBA / EGNM)

Destination: Palma de Mallorca (PMI / LEPA)

Date: 23/07/02

Airline: My Travel Airways

Flight Number: MYT 357

Aircraft Type: Airbus Industie A320-200

Registration: G-RDVE

Flight Duration: 2 Hours 08 Minutes approx

Comments: This particular flight was part of a ‘w’ pattern where the aircraft apparently originated in Manchester that morning, arrived in Palma, then departed for Leeds Bradford and then flew back to Palma (with us onboard) and then back to Manchester from there. The aircraft was delayed inbound to Leeds and so departure was put back 40mins or so. A smile grew across my face as I watched the aircraft taxi to stand 10 at Leeds because it happened to be the same aircraft that was based at and that I’d worked on at Newcastle the summer before, during my time with FLS Aerospace.

We boarded and the cabin crew began their safety briefings as push and start clearance was given. We taxied via Taxiway Charlie, runway 09, Taxiway Delta and a backtrack up runway 32. It was an overcast day and we soon disappeared into the cloud after rotation from runway 32 at LBA. We headed south over Manchester and the midlands then apparently flying roughly overhead LHR. Then on over France passing through Bordeaux Control, then onto Barcelona and then the descent over the Mediterranean into Palma.

The flight was perfect, hardly any turbulence and a fantastic meal of Thai Curry. The crew were friendly and one cabin crew member who must have been very new to the job had a prank played on her by the rest of her team. She tried to read the ‘end-of-flight speech card’ where the captain’s name had been changed to Capt. Mackerel. The Passengers had a good chuckle considering his name was actually something like ‘Macken’.

The landing was fantastic and smooth as we touched down on Runway 24L at Palma on a very humid early evening. Some of the other aircraft visible on the ground from memory were a Monarch A321, TUI Happag-B737 with winglets, Condor B757-200, an Air 2000 aircraft and an LTU aircraft. Captain Mack…. Well yes, the captain taxied us to the gate to disembark and I reluctantly stepped off to enjoy my two weeks in the sun.

One extra thing I spotted on leaving the airport on the transfer coach was the private apron full of GA aircraft and 1 CRJ 7/900 jet still in the colours of Kendall airlines (Ansett)…I wonder why this was here…on hand-over to another airline??

END OF PART ONE

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PART TWO

Departure: Palma de Mallorca (PMI / LEPA)

Destination: Leeds Bradford International Airport (LBA / EGNM)

Date: 06/08/02

Airline: My Travel Airways

Flight Number: MYT 358

Aircraft Type: Airbus Industie A320-200

Registration: G-SUEE

Flight Duration: 2 Hours 30 Minutes approx

Comments: We all huddled at Gate B36 and waited for the call for our flight back to Leeds Bradford-Oh the glum faces!! From my position it was possible to see many interesting types of aircraft and many different interesting airlines. I saw for the first time in the flesh the new colours of Britannia, BMIbaby and Monarch. There were also 4 Air2000 aircraft lined up comprising 2 B757s, 1 A320 and 1 A321. B767s of Britannia and Air Europa, A330s of My Travel and Monarch, ATR 72s of Air Nostrum (part of Iberia), A320 of Iberia and many more.

We took our seats onboard ‘Echo Echo’ and said good-bye to the Iberian sun as the Captain closed the doors. The captain was Capt. Mike Newall who has previously flown me to Menorca around 8 years ago and he also flies GA with a very good friend of mine so…a personal connection!

The captain did his pre-flight speech whilst stood at the front of the cabin on the cabin crew tannoy. All the passengers loved it and it put a lot of nervous flyers at ease. Well-done that man! It was as we prepared for push-back (10 mins late) that I discovered a technical fault with the a/c that initially scared the pants off me. There was a large smudge on the window and I decided it was going to annoy me so I began to wipe it off, as you do. Then to my horror, the window fell out! and for a split second scenes of depressurisation and people being sucked out of the window flooded my head. Eventually, realistic thinking overpowered and as I slid the internal plastic sheet back in place and hammered the casing back I understood that the actual external window had to be missing for that to happen. Ok ok…it was a shock at the time! We giggled about it though and decided to hold onto our seats as we passed FL140!!

Departure was swift off runway 06R and it was possible to see the vast size of Palma airport as we climbed and banked left towards the coast. We followed virtually the same route back over Barcelona and mainland Spain but, then west over France and Brest. We crossed the English Channel over the Channel Islands and the English south coast peeped out at us from beneath a blanket of thick black cloud. Well we knew we were back in the UK then!

We flew up the western side over Bristol and the welsh border, beginning the descent and flying over Liverpool clearly seeing John Lennon airport stretching across the banks of the river Mersey. We turned east and began the approach into Leeds. A series of steep descents and turns brought us established and the gear was lowered. We made a heavy landing back onto runway 32 again at Leeds. The landing seemed to be very fast and with full reverse thrust and brakes the little airbus seemed to have trouble coming to a safe taxing speed before the end of the runway…well as I am here to tell you this tale, we obviously made it back to stand 10 to disembark.

Laws from Sep 11th are still strong. Even after everyone had left the aircraft I tried to have a word with the Captain about my connection with him, but the cabin crew appeared to make a human barrier across the Flight Deck door stating I was not allowed to see him because of the new laws. Oh well. Another thing was, and something I had totally forgotten about were the keys in my hand luggage. They had attached to them a key ring that folded out into a sharp penknife…I realised once through security and was stunned that they got through. The keys stayed safe with me though.

Thank you and goodnight.

END OF REVIEW