I had the origianl Shrek on my MYT flight NAP-BRS in 2002 on G-DJAR, A320.

Good photos!!

glad to hear you were lucky with the car crash

Thanks very much!!!!!!!!

I’m now 15 at last!!

Great pics!

I think I might go on a TCX A330 next year to Calgary fom MAN or LGW as Air Transat aren’t doing any winter flights!

OK! Well if you don’t mind then I’m sure they won’t. I wasn’t aware that you were just mod for the commercial section!

Great report Matt! Well done!

Nice to hear that the pax clapped the pilot for a good landing. From what I’ve heard it’s quite rare nowerdays…

Damn slugs ate them.

Usual story. I put vinegar on one once and sorted it out I tell ya!! Don’t tell anyone though I might done by the RSPCA for that!

I remember my first flight really well, unfortunatly it was not in the golden era of the 70/80’s charter airlines but more recently in August 2001. I was 11 at the time and it was a truly amazing experience for me and also my mother and brothers who had never flown before!

I had been packing my suitcase for weeks before. It was far too early really but I was so excited! We finally left our house in my village of Yatton, N Somerset and at around 08:30 after a brief breakfast and a lot of effort squashing the suitcases into the boot of the car we headed for Bristol to join my cousins, Aunt and Uncle who live there and were coming with us. We went past what was to be my new secondary school in the village of Backwell on the way, I remember it really well feeling slightly nervous about going there the week after I returned from my holiday. I thought well it doesn’t matter! I’m going on hoilday now. You seem to think that all does not matter as you’re going on holiday and you’ll be there for what seems ages beforehand, two weeks.

We arrived at my cousin’s house in Henleaze, Bristol at around 09:00 and shortly after we made the start of our long journey to London Gatwick. We joined the M32 in Bristol and after several hours of driving up the motorway we started to near London. At last!! My first taste of aviaton was watching all the planes in the sky taking off and landing at Heathrow. It got us in the mood for our flight! I was much younger at the time and didn’t have any interest in aviaion whatsoever (completetly opposite to now, it was the flight that gave the interest!) I was quite dumb in thinking that we were there and we were flying from Heathrow. Much to my dissapointment I was told it would be a bit longer as we were going from Gatwick. We continued round the M25 until we reached Crawley, West Sussex.

We were visiting some family of my Uncle first who lived in Crawley and they were due to be looking after our cars for the two weeks. He is an engineer for BA maintenece and works at Gatwick and sometimes Heathrow. He owns two concorde seats and has them displyed in the sitting room! They looked a bit out of place as you can imagine but I loved them! Apparantly they were the seats that the Queen and Tony Blair sat on. After some time with the family we left in his Car to go to the airport. He had to do it in two go’s as there were eight of us plus all our suitcases. I went first with my Dad and cousins. I can still remember the smell of his brand new car with leather seats! He’s quite rich and naturally receives free BA flights. After a short time on the motorway we arrived at Gatwick South Terminal right outside it. I stepped outside the car and it was a lovely warm hot day in the Summer of 2001.

I could now smell all the aviation fuel in the air. A smell I’ve learnt to love ever since! Then suddenly a very very loud roar!!! I turn around and see an a/c taking off. I can remember it as being an Air 2000 757. I helped with the luggage and got a trolly. All the luggage was carefully loaded on to the one trolly, looking as if it’s about to fall off any minute. We then we waited outside for the rest to arrive. Quite a long time after they do arrive, we were getting very worried as it was taking so long! It turned out the car had overheted and they had to return to put water into the engine before it completely packed up. We all proceeded into the South terminal and walked down the long long corridor. I was pushing the trolly so didn’t get to go on them, bit I remember being fascinated by the flat esculators runnung along the floor. I had never seen them before! We checked in at the Britannia desk, I remember it being opposite to the Virgin desks.

The check-in agent was really friendly and asked us all the relevent questions and also some frindly stuff about our holoday and if it was our first flight. We handed over our Lunn Poly tickets and after a while he gave us our Britannia boarding cardes. I remember being told “Don’t loose it, if you do you wont be able to fly!” I was really worried after that and I kept on checking my pocket all the time to check it was stil there! The airport was amazing for me! So many people everywhere with suitcases, all the buzz of it and announcemnts all the time for flights. Soon after checking in we went through security. I remeber having to put all my stuff in a black box and walking through the archway. The dreaded beep went off would you believe it! I was asked to stand aside and this women asked me to lift up my arms so I could be searched. I stood there with my arms wide open and I remember I didn’t really like the sensation of her hands against me at all. If she was nice looking then it might have been different but she was butt ugly…. After being cleared I walked away and waited for the rest of my family to come through. When everyone was through we went into the airside section. I was amazed a the size of it!! It had so many shops it was unbelievable! like a whole shopping cente. My Mum and Auntie went and dissapered off into the duty free shops. I remember my uncle complaining that we would miss the flight if they wasted all their time in pointless “wendy shops” as he calles them. You know the type I meam, pointless shops with crap in them. Nothing of any interest or use, just pure crap.

We had planty of time and so we were there for about an hour and a half. My cousins and I were hyper! We just couldn’t wait. We went up to the viewing area upstairs and I remember seeing lots of Virgin 747’s, JMC 757’s Airtours A320’s and a few Britannia 757s/767’s. I would have seen the tail of our a/c but I didn’t realise which one it was then. We returned to our sitting area and checked the tv monitors “BY120A > Vencie > Procceed to gate ** ” andso we started walking to our gate. On the way I remember seeing plenty of JMC 757’s, American Airline’s 777, Britannia 757’s and other a/c. Everytime I saw a Britannia a/c I thought it was ours but then when I looked at the tv at the front of the lounge it said somewhere else like Palma, Malaga, Alicante and not Venice. Sudden;y I caught a glimpse of this big Britannia a/c, It was a lot bigger than the other Britannia a/c (757s) I really hoped we were going on it as it was a lot bigger than all the others! As we approached the lounge it said BY120A VENICE on the tv moniter! I was very very excited at this point! We handed in our boarding cards and passports and then they returned the small bit of the boarding card to me. I headed straight for the window with my cousins!! There was a massive pot plant in the way so we climbed over it to get a better view of the a/c. There it was, pruodly sitting there. I couldn’t get over the sheer size of it! it was massive!! I looked at the huge blue tail with britannia proudly sitting there against the blue sky and the heat waves passing by dominating the surriundings. I remember seeing a man walking around the plane. He looked tiny compared to it and it gave me an idea of how big the plane really was. It was Britannia’s G-BRIF, a 767-200. I watched the tiny looking suitcases being loaded onto the plane on a ramp at the back. All the tiny little lables blowing around in the wind. I put my hand against the glass and felt it vibrating everso slightly. Our aircraft was parked next to a Peach Air tristar and a Delta 767. The Peach Air was getting ready to leave. I liked watching all the little vans and cars driving arond with the flashing lights. An announcement was made “Ladies and gentlemen we are pleased to announce that Briannia flight BY120A to Venice is now ready for boarding. Please make your way to door 1 and follow the airbridge to the aircraft enterence. Passangers who need assitance will need to consult us and we will be more than happy to help you. We wish you a pleasent flight with Britannia” We walked over to the set of doors and walked down through the airbridge.

I remember the loud noise coming from the engines and then seeing the crew. I thought their cloths were rather odd and the petite hats looking silly. They welcomed us aboard and directed us towars our seats. I was sat by the window in the middle of the a/c right over the wing! the configeration was 2-4-2. It was a while before everyone was on. I just couldn’t wait to get in the air and fly!!! the wait was killing me!! Eventually I herad the “cabin crew doors to manual” announcement made by the Captain. I herd the door slam shut and the aircraft moving a little. The aircraft started moving backwards and then the engines started up. I remember clearly the high pitched whining noise on the plane and watching the cabin crew come down the aisle closing all the overhead lockers. The captian came on the p/a on told us some info about the flight. He sounded quite old and well spoken. Then came the safet demonstation after the welcome speech by the head cabin crew ” Ladies and gentlemen we ask for your full attention whilst we take you through the emergency procedure in the unlickely event of an emergency…etc emergency exits on 767 are loacted here, here and here. Please make a note of your nearest exit. The yellow stips on the floor will guide you to the exit if the aircraft suffers from a loss of power. If the aircaft lands on water life jackets will be found underneath your seat and additional life jackekes for babies and young children will be distibuted by the crew. Please concentrare on putting your own life jacket on before helping others. If you hear the crew shouting brace then you will need to adopt the brace position which is displyed in the onboard safety booklet found in the in the seatback pockets. Please take the time to read this booklet..etc”

The crew came around with some little sweets on a tray and the thomson safety abroad video was shown. After that the crew sat down in their seats the a/c taxiied to the runway. I watched the flaps extend on the wing and airbrakes go up and down a few times. We had wait a while and but we started moving forward and did a right turn onto the runway. We stopped there for a few seconds and then…… the noise just got mega loud and the force in the back of you seat was really strong. The engines got louder and louder and force increased so much I could move at all!! It was really bumpy and loud and then after a short time we lifter up of the ground and into the air!!! I had finally done it!! I couldn’t believe I was in the air. All the cars and houses looked minute and we climbed and climbed. Slowly the aircraft began to level out and after 25 minutes or so we were flying level. The Britannia 360 service video was shown and it told us what would be shown on the flight. A pair of headphones was left in the back of each seat with 360 by Britannia written on them. Every now and then the tv displyed some flight info like speed, cruising altitude, time left etc. The Skystore mag left in each seat was quite good. I could begin to smell the food coming from the galley. It smealt delicious!

Eventually the crew came on to say what today’s meal choice was and that vegeterian and diabetic options were available. They came around with the food, I was starving by this point. I unfolded my table and she passed it along to me. I chose the Chicken dish which had chicken breast in a creamy sauce, new potatoes, carrots and green beans. It also came with a small bread roll with some flora butter, two jacobs cream crackers and a small tub of soft cheese, a chocolate mousse and a continer of orange juice (you could have water instead) and the plastic cup for the tea servie after the meal. The salt, pepper, serviette and knofe and fork came wrapped in a bit of platic. I can’t remember if the cutlery was metal or plastic. Afterwards they came around with the tea service which aslo had coffee, hot chocolae, water or ribina/orange squash. The small container of UHT milk and biscuit was provided with the meal.

Just as the tea service was being done the captain came on and said that they would be expecting some turbulence in a few minutes and all passangers had to return to their seats and put the seatbelts one. The crew quickly gave out the tea and returned to their seat. The turbulence remained almost for the rest of the flight and by the time it had gone we were in a fast descent for Venice anyway so we had to remain seated. The cabin crew quickly collected all the rubbish and did a seatbelt check. The captain said about 10 mins before landing “canbin crew prepare for landing” and they returned to their seats at the front and rear of the a/c. About 5 mins mins before landing I felt the gear being lowered and the Captain said that if we looked to our right we would get a good view of Venice. He was right and it was an amazing site! We had a firm landing at VCE and the crew welcomed us to Italy and gave the tempreature info. I cant remeber exactly what it was but it was hot! after a short taxi the a/c came to a halt and the doors were opened. Some sets of stairs arrived for us and we left our seats and joined the slow moving queue to get out.

As we reached the exit the crew said goodbye and thanked us for flying Britannia. As I stepped off the aircraft the het really hit me!! It was boiling! I could see all the heatwaves coming off if the tarmac and engine.. The fans were slowing down inside the engine coming to a gentle stop. We waited a short while for a bus to arrive and we were in Venice!! My first time to Italy and the Med! My first ever flight had just been completed. I was so happy. We were met my our Thomson rep who told us which coach to get on after collecting our bags and suitcases. We arived at out fantastic hotel in Lido de Jesolo quite near to Venice and had one of the best tow weeks in my life!