The return flight was not nearly as nice as the outbound one. Firstly a woman had a seizure shortly before boarding, which clearly caused a delay in itself, as well as later on when her bags had to be located as she was no longer allowed to fly. This was not a problem in itself, but meant that we were stuck in the aircraft for a good hour and a half. This normally would not have concerned me greatly, but as Dan has already mentioned the aircraft was a brand new one, EI-DCY, which had the new seat pitch installed.

I am 6’3, and instantly after sitting in the seat I was uncomfortable, with my legs crushed more than they had ever been before. By the time the flight was over I was in considerable pain, and my legs were severaly cramped. Little opportunity was had for being able to walk around the cabin midlifght, but much longer in that seat and I would have had to get up and walk around, the pain really was quite noticeable.

The flights were only £17 return, which cannot be sniffed at. I can usually accept the surly service, the out of the way airports, paying for food and the scrum during boarding, but being subjected to physical pain is beyond my tolerance level, and I will be actively avoiding Ryanair now, alongside the routes that Easyjet use their 319s on. I just cannot be subjected to that torture no matter how cheap the fare.

Anyway, the next day Dan and I spent the morning at Stansted itself. Despite checking the arrival boards we managed to miss most things of interest :rolleyes:

Air Berlin Fokker 100

Cable & Wireless

Dreamliner – The only pic I managed to blur that morning :rolleyes:

FCA A321

NOR SHuttle 737

Iceland Express MD80

And one of the new Oxford Aviation Service/Houston Jet Services/Greggair Legacys

I had intended to go home via Luton and Heathrow, but ended up finding a shortcut to the M25 instead of Luton, and joined that instead. A blocked M1 put a stop to any hope of a LTN visit, so I just continued round to LHR where I got a few pics:

BA A321

JAL 777

Austrian A319

THY 737

I journeyed home rather exhausted via Farnborough, whereupon it started raining, with no movements whatsoever. Hardly disapointing after 4 very interesting and productive days!