AF 019... finally!

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Member for

18 years 4 months

Posts: 157

Right... after immense pressure at school and very hard work, I've finally found some spare time to do my last report from my trip to America! :D

Route: EWR-CDG
Airline: Air France
Aircraft: Airbus A430-300
Date: 9th August, 2006
ETD: 07:20pm (Actual 7:40pm)
ETA: 07:05am (Actual 6:55am)
Seat: 38A (If I remember correctly)
Gate: 46A

After passing through Terminal C on arrival from BSM, we passed through a few shops and hopped onto the Metro train for the short ride over to Terminal B. On arrival, due to our increasing state of hunger, we went to the Italian restaurant and bought a HUGE pizza to satisfy our needs. $15 but well worth it! We then parked ourselves on a couple of seats overlooking the terminal, and watched many arrivals and departures pass by during our 7 and a half hour wait. (Pics to follow at the bottom).

The wait seemed to last forever, and, luckily enough, we wern't alerted about the possible threat of terror with it being the day it all kicked off, or I would have been very anxious indeed!

We made our way through security and headed down towards our gate about 1h30m before departure. I tried to ring my mum on numerous occasions to tell her I was safely in Newark and about to board, but there was no answer which was unfortunate at the time, but thinking about it now, I would have rather not talked to her to find out the news about terrorism! A nice looking Singapore A345 taxiid in before we boarded, and soon enough, it was our turn to board. We embarked the aircraft, which was in reasonable condition and were politely greeted by the French cabin crew. We took our seats in economy and made ourself comfertable. Soon after, pushback commenced and we sneaked into the queue for takeoff behind some 20 other planes with it being rush hour. :( We eased our way up the taxiway one place at a time, watching many many long-haulers depart for Europe and the West Coast.

Finally, we arrived at the threshold after a good half an hour wait, and waited for the departing Air Midwest to Milwaukee to clear the pattern. The huge plane then turned onto the runway, lined up and powered up the 4 huge engines. Due to heavy load, most of the runway was used and we gently eased into the air at a very slow rate of climb. The left-right departure pattern was carried out, which was very impressive in this beast due to the sheer size and power. It was good watching the on-screen details of the plane, watching the altitude increase ever so slightly and the speed notch up every couple of seconds. All around us there were other jets departing to their destinations, presumably from LGA,JFK and EWR.

After a powerful climb and a lovely sunset on the horizon, we reached cruising altitude at 37,000ft and headed out over Boston. It got darker and darker by the minute and it was rather turbulent heading out over the ocean towards St.Johns. Out to our left, there was a plane on the same heading which looked VERY close indeed, but probably due to the fact my eyes were playing up on me as it was pitch black outside.

For the first time on my trip, the service was terrible and after the meal was handed out (1 hour into the flight) there was no service for the rest of the time as cabin crew concentrated on First Class and went to sleep. Very disappointing as I was in desperate need of a drink and a snack! :mad:

After another smooth but uncomfortable 4 hours, it began to get light towards the east, and the sun was visible rising over the horizon... very weird after seeing it set 5 hours ago! We headed over Clifdon and South Wales, then down over LGW/LHR which were visible below. We began our initial decent over the English channel through the crisp air where no clouds lingered. After turning many times during the decent, we levelled out at 5,000ft and started a long and windy approach into CDG. We finally established at around 2,000ft and began the final approach. In no time at all, we were over the piano keys then eased down onto the runway gently, with an AF 744 taking off on the parallel runway. The spoliers were deployed and we rolled out to the end of the runway, before turning off at the last taxiway. We taxiid over to the remote stands belonging to Terminal C, and after a short wait disembarked the plane. There was a coach waiting so we boarded and headed over to the main Terminal C building. I must say, CDG airport isn't very convenient at all and the lay-out is quite confusing.

Overall, smooth flight but the service was terrible and the people sat in front reclined the chairs to the maximum squashing my knees.. but I coped! :p Definately won't be choosing AF over another airline in the near future.

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Original post

Member for

18 years 6 months

Posts: 459

Great Report! And i like the shots you got of the wingview there!

Jon!

Member for

18 years 2 months

Posts: 2,017

Great report! The pics are really good as well.

Member for

20 years 1 month

Posts: 4,255

Nice job there Sam!

Great to see a KL A330 there, i'll be on one of them in March :D

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 4,887

What a small world it is! I was at EWR that day as well, spotting planes. I flew back home next day (NWA DC9 EWR-DTW NWA 332 DTW-AMS).

I got a similar pic to your SQ A345, we might have even seen each other! Was you plane F-GZLH?

Member for

18 years 4 months

Posts: 157

My plane was indeed GLZH! Hehe! Small world isn't it :D

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 4,887

If you are interestedin the originals, let me know. These are edited samples though. The 2nd photo in particular has been brightened a lot!

http://img333.imageshack.us/img333/9959/2006080902101od4.jpg

http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/3452/2006080902102ul1.jpg

Member for

18 years 4 months

Posts: 157

Fantastic! It wouldn't surprise me if I saw you actually.. were you sat at some seats in front of a big window close to a Coffee place?

Member for

20 years 8 months

Posts: 3,394

Great report Sam, got there in the end eh mate :D.

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 4,887

Fantastic! It wouldn't surprise me if I saw you actually.. were you sat at some seats in front of a big window close to a Coffee place?

That would be me alright. Next to the Italian restaurant. If you can E-mail/PM me your E-mail adress the pics will be on your way.

p.s. don't eat at said Italian restaurant. Suffice to say, I tried and the food came out from the wrong end.

Member for

18 years 6 months

Posts: 1,289

Great report and pics! :D