June 14, 2009
EWR-GVA (CO 81)
Continental Airlines Boeing 767-400
N76062 (tail number 062)
Departure Time: 9:15AM (scheduled 9:15)
Arrival Time: 12:03 (scheduled 12:00)

Hi, everyone! Finally, here is part 2 of my Trip Report posted about 4 months ago, my return flight GVA-EWR on CO81. Part 1 can be found here:
EWR-GVA (CO80) On B764 With Lots Of Pics! (by ANITIX87 Aug 5 2009 in Trip Reports)

Before we get to the flight itself, how about some more images of my trip?

Lake Geneva as we climb the mountains over Montreux on the GoldenPass train.


Gstaad’s City Center


Some store fronts in Gstaad


Saas Fee’s Hotel Alpin


Another hotel in Saas Fee (a pedestrian-only village high in the alps). I love the location of this hotel right on the rocks!


The lake created by the Mattmark Dam.


My sister and I standing on the Mattmark.


Looking down at the valley. You can see the dam is built using only the weight of the large stones placed in a sort of barricade. Many years ago, the dam broke and the entire valley flooded. They re-built it. It’s the only dam in the world (I believe) to be built this way.


Now to the return flight!
We left the chalet in the Mayens-de-Chamoson in our rented Ford Kuga at 5:37AM. I had managed to get a few hours’ sleep but my sister had stayed out all night, so she fell asleep immediately. We stopped at my grandmother’s house in Chamoson to say goodbye. We then found the highway (Autoroute du Rhône) and made our way through the valley, around Lake Geneva, and to the airport.

My dad dropped my sister and I off at the terminal at 7:17 and then went to return the car. With Geneva’s new rental car system, we didn’t even get into the check-in line until around 8AM, and were finally all checked in at 8:05. We went and found the Diners’ Club Lounge upstairs, as we always do when leaving GVA, and stayed there for about half an hour before making our way through a very busy security screening, finally getting through at 8:40. This was far later than I would have liked (boarding was scheduled for 8:30) but my mom insisted on making the most of the lounge).

Boarding was started at 8:48, and I made my way down the hallway to get to our jetbridge. For anyone not familiar with GVA’s layout, the GVA-EWR flight (and UA (IAD) and LX (JFK)) leave from the “new” extension. You enter what used to be a wing of the terminal, go through the boarding gate, and then make your way along a hallway that runs the length of the new building before coming to your jetway. I took my chosen seat (25K) with my sister next to me in 25J. Pushback was exactly on time at 9:15AM. Here are some pictures during taxi, including an image of a United 767-300 ready to depart to IAD. At the time, this flight was less than a week old!








We taxied to runway 23 and performed a rolling take-off. This was the first time in my memory that I had taken off on Runway 23, though I’ve seen it used quite often while spotting. I guess I just always happen to leave Switzerland when the wind comes from the south! Here are some images of the takeoff.

Just lifted off. Note the amount of flaps. Is this usual for a 767-400?


Turning right (At PAS VOR) to head out towards England.


Lake Geneva with the city of Geneva on the left, and the airport just above the leading edge of the wing.


Turning back to the left on R152 towards DJL VOR. Between wispy cloud layers.


Completing our climb to FL320.


After leveling off at 32,000 feet, the first beverage service commenced. As I always comment on my CO trip reports, I am beyond thrilled with CO’s in-flight services. Frequent drink services, good food, and generally friendly crew. We were then served lunch. Since I had hated the low-fat options on the flight over, I had “forgotten” to ask for them again on this flight. However, I guess it carried over and it wasn’t long before we were brought low-fat meals. They consisted of chicken and rice, with carrots, a salad, bread, and some fruit. The chicken, rice, and carrots were ok at best, and the salad was awful. Warm, soft, and a bad dressing. The bread was delicious and the fruit was fresh and refreshing. After that meal, though, I was still hungry. I pulled aside one of the F/As (who was the same one as on the flight over and even remembered that my drink of choice was Ginger Ale) and asked if I could have a spare normal lunch. He brought it to me immediately and it was very, very good. It included a delicious chicken, mozzarella, and tomato sandwich, an apple, and orange juice.

A word about our routing on this flight. After leaving GVA, towards England and went North of London, over Liverpool, and between DUB and GLA as we crossed over Ireland. The headwinds we had were quite inconsistent, ranging from 10MPH to over 110MPH as the flight progressed. After we cleared Europe, we climbed to 34,000 feet for the oceanic crossing. We made landfall North of Gander and climbed to 36,000 feet. We passed south of Montreal, crossed over Albany, NY, and then came due South along the Hudson River, before zigzagging our way Southwest.

Here are some images from the flight, routing, and descent.









I dropped my camera just before this image, and it threw off something internally, which messed up the white balance, so all the following image are very blue…





We started descent at 11:11AM New York time and made turns to enter the pattern for 4R. This was the first time I ever remember landing on 4R coming from Europe. We touched down at 11:58 and rolled out almost to the very, very end of the runway. Here are some images of final approach, touchdown, and roll-out.




Here you can see how far we rolled out. I’m guessing this is due to CO’s terminal location in relation to the runways, but it was a little bit disconcerting to be slowing down as slowly as we were.



We made it to the gate at Terminal C at 12:03, just three minutes behind schedule. We were through passport control rather quickly (the majority of the time difference being attributed to the rather long walk) at 12:15. We had to wait just a little while for our bags, which got to us at 12:35. Customs was a little bit of a mess, as EWR filters all arriving international passengers through 2 lines, and CO has a lot of their TATL flights arrive together around noon. We cheated a bit and snuck into the middle of the line and were through with nothing to declare at 12:42.

The driver my dad had hired was waiting for us and we left EWR at 12:52. We arrived back home in Orangeburg at 1:35PM.

Our annual trip had come to an end. It was fantastic to be back in Switzerland and, as usual, I’ve spent my time since aching to go back. I’m now convinced more than ever that as soon as I finish my Masters, I will move there.

TOTAL GATE-TO-GATE TIME: 8hrs 48 minutes (scheduled 8 hours 45 minutes)
TOTAL FLIGHT TIME (wheels up to wheels down): 8 hrs 34 minutes
TOTAL TRAVEL TIME (door to door): 13 hrs 58 minutes.

I hope you enjoyed this report. Feedback is always appreciated!

TIS