And LGW-NCL
LGW-NCL
British Airways 8077
Boeing 737-436
G-DOCE
Scheduled departure time: 1750
Actual departure time: 1820
At 1530 we headed back into the south terminal from our spot underneath runway 26L, we boarded the train, which took us back to the North, this trip give us brilliant views of the large aircraft which were on stands, Virgin 747’s, USAir A330s etc. Without needing to check-in we proceeded to the security point, where a very polite woman stamped our boarding cards, and took our photographs. This was surprise for me, as I didn’t realise this was in use for domestic flights. We started looking around duty free for a while and spotting from the terminal restaurants where we caught some very good shots, two aircraft pushing back at exactly the same time was a highlight, there is a photo of this on the other thread, the signs around this area indicated that a walk to gate 55D (our gate) would take around 10 minutes, 3 minutes later we were there. The security was more complex than NCL (obviously because LGW is much bigger) the same woman who photographed me, scanned my bar coded boarding card, which then brought up my photograph on the system. I actually didn’t realise how good that system was until afterwards.
We waited at the gate for about 15 minutes, collecting as many free papers as possible, leaving LGW with the FT, the Mail, The Telegraph etc, I think my bag exceeded 5 KG when I was done. The aircraft was a world tail aircraft ‘Sweden’ G-DOCE, and we were seated in row 13 seats D, E, and F, giving us great wing views. It was very clean when we boarded and the staff were very friendly, an all male crew. I wasn’t sure why but a crew of 6 excel air stewardesses were hitching a lift back to NCL?
We entered R26L and the brakes squeaked while we readied for a few seconds. The acceleration was very powerful, leading to a very quick t/o, we made a right turn and then 4-5 minutes after t/o LGW disappeared. We climbed to FL240 making good time back to NCL, we were in the clouds most of the time but did manage to catch sight of some traffic below us, and it looked like an Air Wales or some other sort of wide bodied prop. WE approach NCL over the coast passing the links golf course on Whitley bay and getting great views of the Blyth wind farms, the last turn was to the left, approach the field for runway 25. Now, the touchdown was more than great, we both would go as far to say as we did not actual feel the plane touchdown, in our opinion the speed brakes told us when, after a powerful reverse we vacated the runway on the bravo taxiway and held for a minute or two, the first officer informed us that an easyJet was moving off stand 6 blocking our route to stand 3. We only waited 2 minutes then the Easy emerged on the right giving us a clear path. On stand we could see that there was actually quite a queue behind us with an Air Wales vacating, and easy taxiing round to stands on the north side, and a 757 still reversing down to A1. This fabulous trip was all topped of with another flight deck visit, thanks to the crews of both G-GFFB and G-DOCE on the 5th April 2005.
Scheduled arrival time: 1900
Estimated arrival time: 1927 (because of delay)
Actual arrival time: 1907
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