British Airways LGW trip

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Member for

20 years

Posts: 598

NCL – LGW
British Airways 8074
Boeing 737-505
G-GFFB

Scheduled departure time: 0950
Actual departure time: 0948

After setting of from Hadrian Park on a very nice morning me (concordesst) and Jon (Speedbird 12T) set off for an 0800 check-in. After checking in for both the outbound leg and the inbound leg we headed straight for the departure lounge, to await the arrival of my first ever British Airways aircraft. G-GFFB pulled onto stand 3, looking very well indeed, until we seen that shot out rudder, rust and general wear and tear had gotten to this aircraft, which the Captain later confirmed by telling us the lease was about to expire. At 0945 we started heading for D1 at Runway 25, without holding we entered the runway and immediately went to full thrust. The take off took about 18 seconds and then we climbed straight ahead for about another minute, then we went straight into a (very steep) left turn.

The journey was very relaxing and calm, no turbulence, and only one other aircraft which came into close proximity, a company Boeing 757 which passed above us heading towards the east. We were at FL270. The pilot then informed us that it was a very nice day in LGW and that the sun would not be disappearing anytime soon, which was the case. We must mention The British Airways crew, in both our opinions they were the best. The breakfast was served piping hot, and with a nice smile which made the flight all the better.

Descending towards London Gatwick we were informed that we were 10 minutes ahead of schedule, we seemed to do a full 360 left turn before entering the glide slope, which we were later informed was standard procedure to allow LHR more ‘leeway.’ We entered the slope with flaps at 5 degrees, and gear out and as we approached a Virgin Atlantic 747’s tail begun to emerge from behind the South terminal. Touchdown was at 1054 which was 11 minutes ahead of schedule, we vacated the runway and taxied on to stand 53 passing both a 737 and a 777, both BA. When the seat belt signs were taken off Jon turned to me and said:
“Ben, ask the Captain, did we land or were we shot down?” Obviously a joke as it was one of the best and softest landings we have ever experienced. The next highlight of the morning was entering the flight deck of G-GFFB, Jon took it upon himself to sit in the jump seat, which I still am very jealous of. We talked about the route and fuel amounts, cost index’s etc, then we were interrupted by the purser informing us that the doors needed to be closed so we had to get off. So we disembarked and headed for the perimeter road underneath Runway 26L.

Scheduled arrival time: 1105
Actual arrival time: 1054

For pictures visit http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=40910

The next part will be posted soon.

Original post

Member for

20 years 2 months

Posts: 2,495

Excellent forst ector and the pics are great aswell. I think what seperates a good airlines from a great airline is somthing you mentioned in your report. You said the flight was calm. LCC short flights are so annoying when you have the crew running up and down trying to get everything done. They need to take a leaf out of the BA book and relax.
My last flight with Iberia was one of the calmest Ive ever had and it was very enjoyable.

Member for

20 years

Posts: 598

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

Member for

20 years 1 month

Posts: 929

Great report there mate

Member for

19 years 5 months

Posts: 1,887

Great reports there