Last night I booked three very last minute flights. Two with Air Wales and one with Air Southwest. 12 hours later I found myself at London City airport waiting to fly LCY – Cardiff (Air Wales), Cardiff – Plymouth (Air Wales) and Plymouth – Bristol (Air Southwest).
I booked these flights last night and set out from Oxford at 5.30AM this morning heading for London. I have never travelled through any of the airports I visited today so these flights offered a great day off from flight school to go and see some different aircraft and airports.
I’m not going to do a full trip report, however I took some photos, I apologies for the poor quality but they were taken with the camera on my phone. I also only had time to get photos from London City.
LCY – CWL
LCY only opened at 9AM today with it being a holiday, this caused an unexpected problem as my flight was due to leave at 0905, the departure time was put back to 0930 which could have caused some problems as I needed to check in for my next flight at Cardiff at 1030! Luckily I made it to Cardiff on time and managed to get on the flight.
The LCY-CWL was an Air Wales ATR 42, excellent service, very friendly, great leg room and a smooth flight. Flight attendent and I had a really nice chat, lovely girl 🙂 As I said this was my first flight through London City and I must say I’ve fallen in love with the place! It’s a great little airport with some very interesting aircraft. The flight was about 60% full.
On the CWL-PLH i was left with just 35 minutes between my arrival from LCY and my departure. The flight stops at Cardiff on it’s way to Plymouth from Newcastle. I was the only passenger to board at Cardiff. Once again the aircraft was an Air Wales ATR 42. Only 5 others on the flight, don’t know how many got off at CWL. Once again, very friendly service, the flight attendent on this flight put me in touch with the flight deck recruitment team and recommended me to the airline there and then! Fingers crossed on that one, they were very positive and said that they will come and see me at OAT!
Had a two hour stop over in PLH, and what a great little airport it is! It’s smaller than Oxford but is very comfortable and the services was excellent! PLH-BRS then flies on to MAN and was operated by a Dash 8-300 by Air Southwest. The flight was full to my suprise! Even better it was full of young female models! To top the day off I got to meet and chat with Air Southwest’s Chief Pilot who says that they are taking on one of my mates who he knows and that he’d be very interested to talk to me further (two job possiblities in one day!!!). The flight itself was very bumpy, First Officer performed the landing which wasn’t great, but the guy was only half way through his line training. Service very friendly once again.
I really would recommend both Air Wales and Air Southwest, both are great airlines and I really hope they continue to grow. My first ATR experience was fantastic, and fingers crossed, after today they might become very regular!
Here are the photos from LCY:
CityJet BAe 146-200 operated for Air france coming in from CDG
KLM Fokker 50 just arrived from AMS
OLT Saab 2000 just arrived from Leipzig
The Air Wales ATR 42 I was travelling on
Another one of the AW ATR 42
The new CityJet livery on a BAe 146-200
By: Airline owner - 14th April 2004 at 19:42
oops sorry i meant WOWB but you must have i was wondering because i need to see that one
By: martin_EGTK - 14th April 2004 at 19:40
Yep, the Plymouth-Bristol leg was on G-WOWA!
By: Airline owner - 14th April 2004 at 19:39
did you go on G-WOWA at all
By: martin_EGTK - 14th April 2004 at 19:31
Thanks for all the great comments guys! Sorry I didn’t reply sooner, I’ve been in france for a few days before my JAA exams that are coming up in the next three weeks.
Deano, I’m hoping to be coming by Bristol Airport again in May, and I’ll also be visiting a lot in my Seneca V for my IFR training in November through to February. I’d be delighted to meet up and have a good chinwag! You wouldn’t have the contact details for John Mahon (Astaeus Chief Pilot) would you? I’d very much like to have a quick chat with him. I spoke to a women who is an FO with them and she was telling me that they tend to take on younger pilots so I’d love to explore an opening there.
Ian, that is exactly the way I see things. There are far too many people at OAT and I’m sure at other FTOs that think that because the airlines logo is on the course brochure you’re definatley going to get a job with BA the day after you graduate. There are at least 60 guys who come to talks from airlines at OAT that ask ‘I sent my CV to you three months ago, why haven’t you contacted me?’. That attitude get’s me so angry. I’ve started trying to network as much as possible now so that I can ensure that I get any job what so ever within the six months after I graduate.
I spoke to the Senior First Officer on my KLM Cityhopper flight from Lyon to Amsterdam today, his attitude summed it up. Work for it and you’ll get there, sit back and you’ll get nothing. The latter is the sort of attitude I sense on PPRUNE.
Incidentally, if anyone knows any selectors or chief pilots, or if anyone wants to give me a job, give me a PM 😀
By: Bhoy - 12th April 2004 at 10:27
Ostfriesische Luft Transport, of course. (and no, I didn’t look it up…)
By: Airline owner - 11th April 2004 at 13:16
no…no…no i mean the Saab 2000 of OLT
By: brenmcc1 - 11th April 2004 at 13:04
Originally posted by Airline owner
great report and who the hell are OLT
If you mean OAT then it’s Oxford Aviation Training
By: Airline owner - 11th April 2004 at 09:28
great report and who the hell are OLT
By: Deano - 11th April 2004 at 01:50
Sounds like you had fun Martin, when you next pop into Bristol Intl again give me a shout, maybe we could have lunch in the terminal and I can show you around the Flying Centre we have there (no this isnt a chat up LOL :D)
and absolutely Ian
Theres too many people who think things will just fall into their laps, Im one who thinks like you in the fact that it is I who has to go to the work, the work wont come to me, and if that means I have to relocate 200/400 miles away then so be it, I went to the Stapleford and Astraeus seminar last Saturday and was determined to speak to the representative of Astraeus afterwards, (Chief training pilot and owner) he gave me and 3 others 25 minutes of his time which was really nice of him and we gained alot from this conversation etc, its definately worth getting to know these people in the right places.
Dean.
By: wysiwyg - 11th April 2004 at 01:37
Originally posted by martin_EGTK
Thanks for the compliments chaps, much appreciated! Kev, the whole thing cost me £116, not too bad for flights booked 12 hours prior to departure. I certainly consider this money well spent to get the names and direct numbers and addresses for the chief pilot and chief recruiting officer for the two airlines, this really should help no end!
Excellent. Too many people get their licenses and then sit back and think the job should come to them. This is exactly the sort of networking that I’m convinced WILL get you your break while others on your course won’t.
By: brenmcc1 - 10th April 2004 at 22:26
If you end up flying for Air Wales you better come visit me!
By: martin_EGTK - 10th April 2004 at 19:53
Thanks for the compliments chaps, much appreciated! Kev, the whole thing cost me £116, not too bad for flights booked 12 hours prior to departure. I certainly consider this money well spent to get the names and direct numbers and addresses for the chief pilot and chief recruiting officer for the two airlines, this really should help no end!
By: paul the wall - 10th April 2004 at 19:07
Very good report Martin, it was a pleasure to read.
By: kev35 - 10th April 2004 at 18:44
Very nice Martin. Would you mind telling us how much all that cost? Mind you whatever it cost might be worth it in the long run as you were looking for job opportunities. Good luck with it.
Even so, were you not to be successful I should imaginey you would be able to work as a journalist. Your reports are always very good.
Regards,
kev35
By: martin_EGTK - 10th April 2004 at 18:23
The runway is 1,319 metres by the way, not 1,100. We also use the hold point at the end of RWY 19 for T/O which brings the runway to about 1,500 metres.
By: martin_EGTK - 10th April 2004 at 18:20
No, the runway at Oxford is only a few metres shorter than that of the runway at LCY. We get Fokker 50s, 27s, Dornier 228s, and a tonne of bizjets coming in all the time including the occassional Embraer so I can’t see the runway being a problem at all.
By: Jeanske_SN - 10th April 2004 at 12:40
Hmm, isn’t the runway at oxford a bit short, a fokker 50 is even difficult with its 1100 meters?
By: Hand87_5 - 10th April 2004 at 12:04
Originally posted by brenmcc1
Bet you can tell I was good at French.
I can tell …. 😀
By: martin_EGTK - 10th April 2004 at 11:42
We don’ have any airlines flying into Oxford. We have one semi-regular service to Cambridge offered by Air Med and some regular cargo flights by Air Med cargo. OAT makes up the majority of the movements using our Senecas and Warriors, there’s some GA stuff and quite a bit of BizJet movements.
There are rumours of Hop starting some scheduled flights from Oxford from Summer this year, but we’ve heard nothing more. Don’t know how they’d operate though as we don’t have a terminal.
By: starjet - 10th April 2004 at 00:16
Speaking of Oxford, who flies there?
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April 9, 2004 at 7:24 pm