The snack on board consisted of a cherry tart with a carton of water. The tart was one of the pleasantest snacks I have had on SNBA.
The nice snack, rounded off with two Neuhaus chocolates!
We encountered some slight turbulence higher up, but nothing too bad. One thing which was noticed was the lack of magazine distribution on the flight.
Eventually we sighted England and began our descent.
Unknown river.
Approaching MAN. It was clear and sunny at this point of the flight.
At 15:13, the gear lowered, and at 15:15 we landed in Manchester after a very pleasant flight.
Touchdown in MAN and a BA Airbus.
The Airbus again.
A Lufthansa Regional CRJ.
Also, we saw our old friend from our other Belgain trips of 2005 as it was about to depart somewhere!
Little Tartan Tail (officially G-EMBK) about to leave. This is my favourite BA aircraft of them all.
I was sad to see the end of our Belgian flights for 2005. See you again in 2006 SNBA!
We flew towards the Atomium, and had some good views as we climbed away.
Shortly, we climbed into thicker cloud and out of sight of land.
Clouds along the way.
Our flight was to be operated by our old friend (?) OO-DJG, a BAe 146. This was my third flight in this aircraft, my least favourite of the lot.
OO-DJG is just visible at gate B29.
At 14:42 we were called to board. By this time it was raining. We entered the aircraft and were greeted by an unpleasant aroma resembling the inside of a used sick bag. It was disgusting! I have never been on an aircraft which smelled so bad.
We settled into our seats. There were two stewardesses on board (why, SNBA, don’t we have stewards on our flights any more?) Again I had my favoured back engine view, and this time we were able to put our coats into the overhead bins.
The engines.
Inside the airborne stink bomb.
There were several spare seats on the plane, so my Mum moved across to seat 10F and I stayed in my own seat. The bag of beers ended up being placed in seat 10C and secured with the seat belt.
The beers in their own seat.
At 15:02 we were pushed back and taxied to 25R. We were told that the flight time was expected to be one hour and 10 minutes. Two aircraft were taking off in front of us.
At 15:10, we took off and climbed through thin cloud.
Just after take off.
It was nice and clear when we took off, but as we climbed the cloud increased and thickened as we flew further from Manchester.
The cloud along the way.
Shortly into the flight, the food boxes were handed out. Mine contained an apple tart and a carton of water. The apple tart was quite pleasant, with large chunks of apple.
The snack. This was nicely complimented by the yellow and green label Neuhaus chocolates handed dout shortly after!
As we neared Belgium, the Captain announced that it was raining in Brussels, and the cloud was now very thick, as we were descending into more cloud.
As we finally descended below the cloud level, we caught our first glimpse of beloved Belgium.
The gear lowered at 12:31, and, at 12:33, we made a smooth touch down on runway 25L.
It was great to be back again, and we taxied to the A terminal (gate A47). As this was a GB flight, and GB is not a Schengen country, we were bussed to the B terminal for passport formalities and to collect our luggage (which appeared very quickly thanks to the efficient ground crews).
We had a meal in Brussels Cafe, and also our first drink of Vieux Temps beer.
I could get used to this! 😀
The flight had been very good, with a pleasant and professional crew.
Another first for me was the Sun Air Dornier 328 which operates the BA franchise service to Billund in Denmark.
The 328 of Sun Air. Not the best photo of this aircraft but I had to grab the opportunity while it was there.
We had a drink in Bar 08, which has a better range of food, and prices, than the overpriced and frankly crap Lancaster Brasserie where we had eaten the previous day. When we had eaten in the Lancaster back in June the food had been superb, but this time it was gross.
At 09:57, the moment we were waiting for arrived. Flight SN2173 from Brussels, operated by BAe 146 OO-DJH, arrived and taxied to gate 50.
Views of OO-DJH at the gate.
We waited impatiently for the boarding call, which came at 10:14. We made our way along the airbridge and into the aircraft, where we were greeted by the female purser, with another stewardess at the back (don’t SNBA have stewards on the RJs, I have only been on one RJ which had a steward on!)
We saw someone in our seat, and the air almost turned blue because there is no way I was going to lose my seat on a flight to BRU! I won’t repeat what I almost said, but the person moved and we got to our seat. There was not enough room in the overhead bin to even put a coat, so i had to keep my coat on for the duration of the flight on this very warm aircraft. All the underwing seats had this problem.
I had my favoured back engine view.
The view.
Alongside us was a Finnair aircraft being prepared for Helsinki.
The Finnair aircraft from OO-DJH.
We were pushed back at 10:26, and the stewardess handed out the inflight magazine.
tmurphy took a photo of our aircraft as it taxied for take off. To see his superb photo, click on the link and scroll down http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=50574
We taxied to the runway, and the pilot announced that we had immediate take off clearance as there was nothing waiting to land or take off in front of us! This was the first time this has happened since we flew from London City, and we taxied quickly to the end of the runway. As soon as we reached the runway end, the engines roared to life and we hurtled forwards. At 10:35 we became airborne, and flight SN2174, coded with British Airways and American Airlines, was given an expected flight time of 55 minutes.
Just after take off from MAN. Nice and clear and bright weather!
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