London Gatwick-Larnaca Intl - BY077A

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20 years 5 months

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At around half 1 in the afternoon on August 21st I arrived and Gatwicks' South terminal for my quater to five departure to Larnaca, Cyprus. We got check-in sorted out very quickly after getting our tickets on arrival. We were one of the first to check-in :) which meant last to get our luggage :p . As I was very eager to to just get on my plane and go, I was trying to rush my parents about...which made a change I guess :D

After a well deserved McDonalds I found a good bar/cafe to do some viewing. Well its good if you are watching the 26L arrivals and departures. We waited here for a couple of hours where I made my first Ryanair 737-800 :o (EI-DCH)Transavia (PH-HZE) and my first Karthago 737-400 (TS-IED). We saw our flight was boarding from Gate 14 so we went down to meet our aircraft.

When boarding, there is always some people who just don't listen...when they asked for people in the first 15 rows, everybody just charged towards the plane and due to their stupid-ness and much to my annoyance, we missed our departure slot :( . Eventually we boarded our Boeing 757-208ER (G-BYAF) which from the gate looked great in the afternoon sun. On board, we headed to the back of the plane in seats 31A-31D. Last bags were on and last people were on and we were waiting to go...now we'd missed our departure slot..

We were due to depart at 16:45 but as most people were'nt even on the plane then. Our flight was pushed back at 17:00 and we got to the threshold of Runway 26L for departure. One thing I hadn't noticed was the amount of power there was in the engines of a 757. :eek: :eek: Certainly took me by surprise.

About 25-30 seconds in to the take off, we were up, up and away and climbing towards 37,000ft/FL370. Mind you, it didn't take long to get there. Once at our cruising altitude the pilot announced we were doing a ground speed of 550mph and flight time was to be just under 4 hours. Not much to see out of the window as cloud covered the entire continent...or of what I could see!! So I took the time to see what had changed since Britannia's re-branding. Well The seats were very comfortable Recaro seats. The staff uniforms were nice and the staff were pleasant and well presented. The aircraft inside was very clean.

The in flight entertainment was very good, showing the film: Miss Congeneality 2, wich was very funny :) :) . Only fools and horses, The Office, My Family and other Comedy shows. About an hour and a half into the flight, something caught my eye in what was left of the eveing Sun over the Germany area. It was those Huge puffy clouds, which then got lit up by lightning strikes. At one time I saw 12-13 separate lightning strikes go off simultaneously...Quite a breath-taking sight. :eek: :cool:

For the last hour of the flight I got some shut eye and was woken up when the plane started to descend for landing. I saw Larnaca airport from the air as we prepared to land and on the apron I saw a plane with a lot of 'emergency' attention (ambulances and stuff). Looked quite busy on the ground even from up at around 3-4 thousand feet. Four or five minutes later we turned on to finals and I briefly saw the PAPI lights signalling we were on a perfect glide-slope and landing. Wheels dropped and flaps extended, I felt the plane slow right down in the air.

Our 757 glided lovely on to the Cypriot tarmacand the spoilers were deployed and the reversers kicked in which upset my little sister as it was her first time flying...but I love that part. Whilst back-tracking down the taxi-way, we passed several aircraft: Air Greenland 757(OY-GRL), Aegan Air 737-400 that plane with all the attention was Cyprus Airwasy A320 (5B-DAV). We parked as far from the terminal as probably possible.

We were ready to depart the plane when the pilot said: "ladies and Gentleman the time is 23:55 local time and the air temperature is 28oC" :eek: :eek: This waqs at night, I was not looking forward to find out how hot it got during the day. We passed through an old shabby Immigration place with officers who had faces like slapped ar$es, and sure enough my passport photo gave them a smile :D :D .

The rest of the terminal was old and urgently needed a re-furbishment as four flights worth of luggage were going on one baggage belt.

The return leg will come later and I hope you enjoyed the report.
The End

Original post

Member for

20 years 1 month

Posts: 1,098

Very enjoyable report. I'm looking forward to reading the report for the return trip.

Member for

20 years 5 months

Posts: 5,019

cheers Alex

Member for

20 years 8 months

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A very enjoyable read! :D

I saw that Air Greenland 757 at BHX two days ago operating a MYT flight :)

Member for

20 years 5 months

Posts: 5,019

Thats probably why then Tom as at Gatwick the flight to Larnaca about 8 hours before had just got off the ground...and it was supposed to be a MYT flight...probably went tech'

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 6,503

Excellent report. I love reading the longer ones! :)

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 4,213

Good report very enjoyable!

Member for

21 years

Posts: 4,209

Nice report. I havent arrived into LCA only departed from there (we arrived to PFO) but I know exactly what you mean about the immigration officials!!!

Member for

20 years 11 months

Posts: 12,842

with officers who had faces like slapped ar$es

What a great great description and report

Member for

20 years 5 months

Posts: 5,019

cheers Steve and everyone

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 920

Great report.

Always enjoy reading about Larnaca, one of my favourite destinations. :)

Member for

20 years 1 month

Posts: 1,670

Great report!

Member for

20 years 5 months

Posts: 5,019

cheers Bigjet

Member for

20 years 10 months

Posts: 9,401

Excellent report AO, I missed this one somehow, am I right in thinking row 31 is the one before the rear toilets? I was sat in 30F on BYAY yesterday, long time since ive been that far forward in a 757, normally right at the back with not paying for meals, was in 38A on the outbound.

We got Miss Congenality on the outbound as well, followed by some right old crap not in the magazine, the guy seemed to spend forever fiddling with the video machine, we were sat opposite. I expect you got 'Madagascar' on the return? We got Only Fools and Little Britain on the return as well, love that episode of Only Fools and Horses, where they drop the Chandalier :D.

Member for

20 years 5 months

Posts: 5,019

Tom, we got the same Only Fools and Horses and we had Little Britain. We had the film 'millions' on the inbound and row 31 is two rows before the toilets I think.

Thanks anyhow.