23rd May
PIS-STN
FR8475
ETD: 1810
Actual: 1815
ETA: 1835
Actual: 1845
B738- EI-DAZ
Checked-in online the night before (having been given sequence numbers 2-5) so arrived at the airport about 1630. Poitiers airport looked fairly new, although it was still very small.
The terminal extends furthur to the right of this photo which is the check-in area etc.
As there are only 2 scheduled flights at Poitiers, Lyon and STN, security wasn’t actually opened till about 1700, if not a bit after. Passed through the security point and made my way to the ‘gate’, but between security and the ‘gate’ there was a manned desk, not sure what it was for so just went to walk past it but was stopped, the guy on it took my boarding pass and took the bit he needed and handed my back the on-line check-in equivalent of the stub you normally keep. I was used to this being done when we were boarding, not before I had entered the ‘gate’ area, so now I had effectively boarded the aircraft, if it was not for the fact the aircraft hadn’t even arrived yet….
The ‘gate’ was basically a holding pen, and the size of the average school classroom at that. So gradually this room filled up, meanwhile the ATR that operates the Lyon service arrived, followed about 10 or 15mins later by our B738 at about 1735-1740. I already knew that because we weren’t going to have to show our boarding passes again to board the aircraft that this was going to be one hell of a stampede even by FR’s standards. Sure enough, boarding started and everyone who needed extra time just about managed to make it out the doors through the surge of people. Sequence numbers were irrelevant, this was just a free for all, it was like a textbook scene of when school finishes and all the kids come rushing out of the doors, a stampede was the only way to describe, the dispatchers managed to stop the flow of people eventually so that everyone who had already made a dash for the aircraft could get on board as there was a fair queue developing. Typically, I was the first person who was stopped so had to wait 5mins or so until I could make my way to the aircraft and took a seat in 20F, on the right hand side in a second attempt to get some views of London.
Flight looked about 75% full by the time everyone was onboard, and we were ready to go by about 1805, however due to London airspace being busy we couldn’t get an earlier slot so had to sit and wait until just after 1810 when we taxied out for a runway 21 departure.
FR’s B738 take offs never feel particularly powerful, this one was much the same, a right hand turn to take us North followed shortly after.
The cloud started getting thicker as we headed North which made me think I was going to miss out on views of London again!
(apologies for the horizon 😉 )
This was interesting, if only you could have seen how fast that arrow was moving. 😉
As luck would have it, it cleared up a bit over the channel, unfortunately there was a lot of condensation/ice on the window which my camera decided it would prefer to focus on over what I wanted it to focus on. :rolleyes:
I love the fact you can see the shadow of our contrail in this pic.
Soon the English coast was in view, not far from Southampton. Then all of a sudden we turned 180 degrees so that we were facing South! Very very odd I thought, however as soon as we did it again I realised we must be stuck in a holding pattern. Sure enough, after we had left the holding pattern we were told by the pilot that we had been holding over Southampton due to the airspace over being very busy, I thought this was great of course! 😉 This was also when he said that those of us sitting on the right would soon be able to see London, just as I had hoped! I’ve never really spent much time in holding patterns that I can recall so I was hoping on seeing some other aircraft, no such luck that time though…
In the hold close to Southampton
As we closed in on London the skies were pretty much clear and I could see LGW in the distance, I tried to get a shot but annoyingly my camera refused to focus on anything other than the ice on the window! 😡
As we were promised though, London soon came into the view, and what a great view it was! We had the centre of London on sight, other aircraft flying all around us, most of which were too fast for me to catch unfortunately, although one was definitely an Iberia A320.
Some pics as we flew over the centre of London:
Not the best quality, but all the sights are there! 😉
Traffic! Who knows what though!
Well that was enough excitement for one flight (lol), but it didn’t end there because the next thing I know STN is outside my window:
Couldn’t be long until landing I thought, but infact we were then put in another hold for about 10mins due to traffic at STN. I was more hopeful of seeing some other traffic this time round, and sure enough, as we were coming round to do our 2nd lap of the hold this EZY B737 came from nowhere and I couldn’t quite believe how damn close this thing was (I’m not used to holding patterns you see 😉 ). I lost sight of it shortly after though as we completed our turn so he disappeared behind us, so I put my camera away… Well that must have been the cue for the EZY B737 to move alongside us and virtually sit on our wing!! By the time I’d scrambled the camera out again he had moved furthur away and the damn thing wouldn’t focus! Ah well, I hope for more of the same on BCN-LHR this summer, and hopefully with more interesting stuff than an EZY B737! 😉
We then exited the hold and continued our approach into STN where we were number 4 on the approach.
Not a bad touchdown on runway 23 from which we exited and taxied in towards FR’s pier past a Maxjet B762 at the SR Technics hanger- that’s a livery that looks better in the flesh- and a Fedex MD11 on their cargo ramp. Not much more of interest on the ground at that time. We disembarked from gate 43 I think it was and hiked back to the terminal from FR’s pier to be greeted by long queues at passport control, they were moving fairly quickly though so not a huge problem, we still had about 2.5hrs till our EDI flight anyway.
As soon as we had cleared passport control it was straight to check-in for the EDI flight, we could have checked-in online for the EZY flights as well but I refuse while they insist on dumping you in boarding group D!
By: RIPConcorde - 2nd June 2006 at 22:38
This photographer seems to be at Poitiers almost about everyday just for the FR flight judging by his uploads to jp.
http://www.jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=5741057
Luckily, he was there to catch my flight too!
By: andrewm - 29th May 2006 at 15:33
LOL I would have thought the GPS thing would have been obvious! Alot of GA pilots do it i hear…
By: RIPConcorde - 27th May 2006 at 20:19
Thanks for all comments, makes it much more worthwhile! 🙂
Another excellent report :).
What’s the ‘Driving North’ Thing?
lol It’s a little portable GPS sat nav device that normally belongs in the car, it was fun to begin with but the novelty soon wore off as clearly the info given isn’t really that detailed. 😉
Coincidently EI-DAZ is the one I flew Hahn-Prestwick on and had the same bother with the window for taking pics !!
20A, where I was sat, was one of the seats that was positioned inbetween 2 windows, so I did actually have 2 windows to look out of, but both were as bad as each other! :rolleyes:
By: Flex 35 - 27th May 2006 at 18:29
Good report again. Wilco about the Ryanair takeoff’s, its because they go for the minmum possible takeoff thrust setting to benefit engine ware. Therefore sluggish takeoff!
Flex 35
By: murph - 27th May 2006 at 15:51
Someone’s been taking their sat nav system on aircraft for a giggle? 😉
By: bmi-star - 27th May 2006 at 14:29
Great report, but that is a question I am also interested in the answer to!
Hehe indeed!
Is this the remains of the IFE trial?
By: Mark L - 27th May 2006 at 14:17
What’s the ‘Driving North’ Thing?
Great report, but that is a question I am also interested in the answer to!
By: A330-300 - 27th May 2006 at 13:42
G-IGOR, lol. That’ll make the RAWKites happy.
Good report once again!:)
By: Robert Pittuck - 27th May 2006 at 13:37
Coincidently EI-DAZ is the one I flew Hahn-Prestwick on and had the same bother with the window for taking pics !!
By: LBARULES - 27th May 2006 at 11:16
Another excellent report :).
What’s the ‘Driving North’ Thing?
By: philgatwick05 - 27th May 2006 at 11:05
Wonderful report, a pleasure to read.
By: tomfellows - 27th May 2006 at 10:23
A very good report. I really enjoyed it.
By: G-CDFF - 27th May 2006 at 10:22
Great report and pics! 😀
By: Future Pilot - 27th May 2006 at 01:13
Another interesting report Stuart, accompanied with more nice pics. Great too see the comparisons between FR and EZY too :).
By: RIPConcorde - 27th May 2006 at 00:40
23rd May
STN-EDI
EZY245
ETD:2120
Actual: Around 2135
ETA: 2240
Actual: 2240 roughly.
B733- G-IGOR. Another double, just like DUB last week! Ah well, it had to be either IGOR or IGOM.
The desks allocated at check-in were for “All UK Flights”. For the next 10mins all 3 queues were slow to say the least! We eventually got checked-in and I had sequence number 57.
Headed straight through security (small queue) and got something to eat at ‘Pret A Manger’. Checked the screens to see what gate we had been assigned (84), and that was when I noticed the 1800 EDI flight hadn’t left yet, the time was now 2030. I was slightly concerned we were going to face a knock on delay thinking that the aircraft doing the delayed 1800 flight would have to return to STN before it would then do our flight. Thankfully I was wrong, an A319 turned up to operate the 1800 flight at about 2045, G-EZIP, and I knew we were on one of the trusty old B733s….
Sure enough, G-IGOR arrived at about 2110 and parked alongside the 1800 EDI flight which seemed to be taking a long time to board. It then looked like a couple of trailers of bags that belonged to pax on the 1800 flight were put on our flight! :confused:
It was only 10mins or so until boarding commenced and I got a seat in 20A, there were only a few empty seats so again another busy flight, I had discovered earlier that the delayed 1800 flight was full.
The delayed 1800 EDI flight, sorry about quality, quickly taken on phone.
We pushed back about 2135- a couple of mins after the 1800 flight, notice the difference in turnaround times between B733 and A319 there! The A319 had started boarding before our aircraft had even arrived- and taxied out to runway 23 where we were number 5 for take off behind 2 Air Berlin B737s, another EZY B733 (to GLA) and the delayed 1800 EDI flight.
We took off as soon as possible after the A319 to EDI and climbed to FL330. An uneventful flight followed, although it was quite interesting watching the sky get lighter as the time got later as we flew North!
After an hour or so in flight we were on approach to r/w 24 at EDI, right behind none other than the delayed A319, good views of the city all lit up. It was a pretty smooth landing, with CSA from PRG arriving immediately after us. We parked next to G-IGOM who has now been banished to LTN, replaced by a shiny new A319, G-EZAS at EDI.
This was a good trip for comparing EZY and FR. With regards to punctuality that is definitely FR’s strong point, EZY weren’t quite as good although in fairness it was the some of the last flights of the day we were on with EZY.
Boarding is just a complete scrum as is to be expected, although FR at STN is a bit more organised, all other occasions were just the usual scrum.
EZY’s pilots seemed to be a lot more informative than their FR equivalents. Whereas EZY’s crew would give us info on routing, weather, cruise altitude etc, we’d be lucky if we heard anything from FR’s flightdeck, a quick weather update was about all that would be said.
In a direct comparison I prefer EZY, however I can’t have any complaints with FR they’ve not done anything wrong so far when I’ve flown with them and they do offer great value for money with their cheapest fares. Although the sooner they both introduce pre-assigned seating the better!
Apologies for the quality of the pics, ice on the window combined with the fact that I currently don’t have use of photoshop means the pics aren’t the best.
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May 27, 2006 at 12:39 am