Stansted to Newcastle (and back!) with easyJet

Well, yesterday I took a day off studying for my ATPL with the intention of letting my brain go blank and just enjoying my flights from Stansted to Newcastle and back! How wrong could I be!

I arrived at Stansted two hours before departure at 0950 and checked in with easyJet before going straight through to departures to take a look round the shops and then go and watch some movements. The airport was covered in fog and barely anything was coming or going, furthermore there was hardly anything on the ground so I just ended up reading Airliner World.

I later made my way to gate 85 in the domestic pier. The aircraft was a 737-700, suprisingly enough the I’ve never flown on a 700 before! We had a very friendly welcome onboard but this is where my plan began to fall to pieces. All around me were things that kept on making me think about different aspects of my training, “Is that arrow really 19mm thick”, “Is the LED on those torches flashing every seven seconds” and then even worse “The N2 compressor will be running around 60% now I suppose!”. This was just the start or it, my mind continually flicked between my Systems book and my Powerplants book, continually thinking about compressor speeds, the thickness and size of markings on the aircraft, our V speeds, TODAs, TORAs and ASDAs….aaaahhhhhhhh!!!

Anyway, enough of the mental torment of flying! We pushed back on time and began our short taxi to RWY 23. In front of us was G-ODUS, still in go colours and a Ryanair 738. We lined up behind the Ryanair 738 and begain our take off run. We didn’t accelerate too fast and Vr came about 40 seconds after we’d began our run. We quickly burst through the low cloud and made a right turn towards Newcastle. The captain kept us well informed throughout and very shortly we began our descent from FL270 into Newcastle. At this point yet more ATPL thinking!! Was the cabin pressure really dropping at only 300ft per minute? Did we have to add any factors to our landing distance due to a wet runway? Urgh, I used to enjoy flying!!!! 😀

We landed very smoothly on 25 and quickly left the runway and parked next to a BA A319 and EasyJet 733. We then disembarked and I went to try and find somewhere to sit and watch the aircraft for the afternoon. Sadly I found no where although I was able to see two Eastern Airways J41s, a flybe 146 and Dash 8-200 and an Air France ERJ 145.

I decided that staying at the airport was a dead loss and so instead I got on the Metro to Monument and spent some time taking a look around the city.

I decided to head back to the airport four hours before my flight back to try and find somewhere that I might have over looked to try and watch some movements, yet this was to no avail. Newcastle Airport is a bit of a mess at the moment with a lot of buidling work going on, so instead I decided to go and get a coffee and sit and watch Love Actually on my new portable DVD player (posser alert!!).

I later proceeded to check in for my flight home and then made my way through departures. Once airside I took a look at the very limited shops. Once again there is building work going on airside. To my delight the food village had a massive window looking over the apron. However I was very disappointed with a major lack of movements. Despite this being my first visit I’m very sure the airport isn’t usually this lacking in activity. Stands 10, 11 and 12 were all closed off for some reason.

In the two hours I was watching a flybe Dash 8-200 arrived, as did a flybe 146, a BA A319 and two easyJet 733s. Departure wise a couple of easyJet 733s, a BA 734 and a flybe 146. Newcastle airport will no doubt be fantastic when the building work is finished but the current gates area was very dull and reminded me of Glasgow Prestwick.

I was hoping someone might be able to tell me why, despite all the traffic departing and arriving on rwy 25, two easyJet aircraft were allowed to depart from 07?

I finally boarded my flight back to Stansted at 1900, another easyJet flight was about to board for Belfast as was a BA A319 heading for Heathrow. The aircraft this time was a 733. We pushed back on time and taxied to rwy 25, not stopping to hold short and we went for an immediate take off. The take off run was very quick with only 99 people onboard we were at FL330 at no time.

I read through the inflight magazine to pass some time and to avoid anymore ATPL directed thinking. The sunset at 330 was as amazing as ever! We began our descent back into Stansted and without being put in a holding pattern we came straight down onto 23. The landing was nothing special. We vacated to the left and made our way back to the domestic pier and the same gate that I had departed from eight hours earlier. Unlike on our departure we disembarked via the inbuilt airstair. To my suprise earlier on in the day we had boarded via a walkway at Stansted!

All in all easyJet were just as I had expected, nothing particularly special but good enough for the £28 I had paid for the fare. The flight deck crew were very informative on both flights. The outbound cabin crew were friendlier than the inbound. Newcastle Airport was a bit of a disappointment, but I think this was due to several factors such as the building work, the fact it was a Saturday and possibly even because of the closure of three stands and the bad weather down south in the morning.

Anyway I hope you’ve enjoyed this stupidly long report!