Hi,

It has been a while already since I posted my last report. This one is quite a few weeks ago now, without any flying in between actually. I had a cancelled trip to IST in April, caused by the volcanic ashes over European airspaces. I was able to rebook until later this summer, so I still will have the opportunity to go at another date.
The report featured here is another Italy bound run, catching 4 flights on 1 day, including a new airline for me. And a good amount of miles on the card again.

Booking was done quite some months in advance and secured a good fare. Less then 50 Euro per leg, not bad at all.

This time I preferred not to leave on the first flight that day, so opted to book the second LH-MUC bound flight, operated by CRJ-900 nowadays. It just changed from Embraer 195 with the start of the summer schedule. Online seatselection was odd again, being the first to check-in, but no seats available in the forward rows. I had to take a seat near the engines instead. For sure that would be more noisy for me, but it does the trick with my pair of noise-cancelling earplugs and some good music.

Amsterdam Airport (yes, it was very quiet at that moment)

Arrived at the airport 50 minutes before my flight and quickly went through the security check, using my homeprinted boarding pass. Assigned gate B17, almost usual for these flights. A good amount of people at the gate area, resulting in about 80% load on this service.

AMS departure lounge 1

AMS departure lounge 1

AMS departure lounge 1

My aircraft arriving from MUC at gate B17

AMS-CPH
Flight No.: LH 4691 Date: 30MAR’10
STD: 0850 ATD: 0850
STA: 1015 ATA: 1010
A/C: Bombardier CRJ-900 Reg No.: D-ACKI
Seat: 23F


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Photo © Dejan Milinkovic


Boarding was smooth, and I found a selection of some newspapers at the entrance of the plane. The crew greeted friendly and evernybody was seated quickly. Good for me was that the seat next to me remained empty. We left on time and a few minutes taxiing to runway 24 for takeoff. The departure offered some nice views outside, since the weather was very good that day.

Taxiing to runway 24

Lining up runway 24

Airborne. On the right the cargo apron and runway 18C/36C visible

City of Hoofddorp

Service was standard LH during cruise, I was offered a sandwich, one coffee and an orange juice. Not bad at all, for a flight of this duration. For the rest this was another not so spectacular flight, but a smooth ride and enjoyable views outside.

Isn’t it beautiful up there?

Cabin view on the CRJ-900 during my flight

A view outside the large window

Approaching MUC

Landing was ontime on runway 08L, so taxi-time was quite short to reach the commuter-apron at MUC. One large bus was already standby for the nice ride to the terminal. For some reason this always works fluently at MUC, no delays etc. This airport is my favourite in Europe, since everything is or seems to be very organised. The German way I would say!

A little of an hour now to get on my onward connection. Gate G61, a busgate again. It’s near the little Allianz-Arena. Free coffee/tea facilities, and I like these new machines. Also Latte Machiato, hot chocolate, cappuccino etc. is now available. Plus, a wide selection of newspapers and magazines. I always like to read a bit in Bild Magazine. By far the most enjoyable German journalism included, with always interesting type of ‘news’.

MUC terminal / busgate area

MUC terminal / busgate area

But where is that mentioned German ‘pünktlichkeit’ now?! No gate agent assigned, and the departure time is coming closer.
Luckily another gate agent noticed this we were rushed into a bus at just 15 minutes before our departure time. Information at the drivers place tells me a load of 64 passengers, and our remote position 310 on the apron again. A quick drive brought us at another new entry for me; a beautiful Italian Embrear 195 of Air Dolomiti!

MUC-BLQ
Flight No.: LH 3984 Date: 30MAR’10
STD: 1105 ATD: 1113
STA: 1215 ATA: 1220
A/C: Embraer 195 Reg No.: I-ADJN
Seat: 28F


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Photo © Mario Aurich - AirTeamImages


Delivered new to this airline in March 2009. My second ride on an Emb-195.

Boarding I-ADJN

Boarding I-ADJN. Great colours with the sunny weather!

Boarding completed soon, via forward and rear entrances. Last 3 rows were not in use due weight and balance reasons. When boarding completed, 1 female passenger behaved strange, confused talking, and having trouble with 3 pieces of handluggage. Then the flight attendant started discussion and re-seated her to the row in front of me. She still didn’t put her luggage in the overhead bin, so another male passenger did without asking. It was a funny observation. When it got more calm, this passenger went to the lavatory, until the flight attendant had to knock on the door to get her out, since we started taxiing.

Seats on Air Dolomiti’s Embraer 195

Safety demo on this flight was done manual, and I must say that the crew behaved very professionally doing their checks. During taxiing some interesting other visitors on the ground, including quite some British charters for a football match, a Yemenia Government Boeing 747-SP and the first Air Berlin > Corendon Airlines B738 (still D-registered at that time). Takeoff followed from runway 08R.

Block-Out. More Air Dolomiti on the right (ATR aircraft)

Something nice from Yemen.

Airborne! Something military below us on the right. It’s Erding Airbase

Leaving MUC behind us…

Just after takeoff the lady in front of me went hysterical again, now she wanted to change to the left to make a picture of a church. The male passenger on the left got her camera and had to make pictures for her, she said. It was a strange lady, I can just conclude. For the rest of the flight she behaved mostly calm, but sometimes talked ‘with herself’.

Views on the Alps were not particularly good this time, mostly cloudy. Also weather in Northern Italy was not really ‘Italian’ to be honest. Service on the flight was a carton snackbox, containing a sandwich, a cookie and water. An additional drink was served also.

Enroute…

And a snackbox for ‘lunch’

Cabin view enroute with Air Dolomiti

Approaching Bologna

Landing at BLQ

Landing at BLQ was at runway 12, and deboarding the plane onto the apron. A bus was for the last leg to the arrivals hall.

Goodbye I-ADJN (taken from the bus)


My stay at BLQ lasted a few hours, and since I ‘ve been to the city before during a holiday in Italy a few years ago, I didn’t bother to take the bus downtown. I rather stayed in the upstairs bar area, with a good pasta meal, and a window seat. I did some spotting during these hours, and when there was no traffic, I enjoyed reading by ebook. Staff in the restaurant was friendly and let me stay all the time, even watched my camera when I got to the bar again to grab a cappuccino. Photography is fine also, but windows tend to be a bit dirty here. Still it works out fine if you pay some attention.

My aircraft arriving at BLQ. It will take me back to MUC. Time to leave the observation area…

The flight back was announced on time. Security at BLQ takes a minute only and staff is friendly also. It seems not to strict over here. Gate 11 was assigned for the flight, and my travels at BLQ tell me that the LH flights always have gate 11 at this airport. It’s in the left corner of the small departure lounge, far away from the FR flights (they are in the righthand side after security). Only limited shops, very limited to say at least, and 1 place to buy some last minute snacks or grab an Espresso.

Departure lounge at BLQ (secure area)

The gate area seemed busy. Lots of Asian travellers, continuing to China and Japan I suppose. I guess this would be a good feed for the new NH route to/from MUC. Boarding started at 16:45L, almost 30 minutes to go. Everybody in one bus. Completely full, like sardines in a can.

Boarding another Embraer 195

Lucky me! Another new entry for the log. Another Embraer 195, third flight on type for me. This aircraft was delivered factory fresh to Air Dolomiti in February 2009.

BLQ-MUC
Flight No.: LH 3987 Date: 30MAR’10
STD: 1710 ATD: 1721
STA: 1820 ATA: 1820
A/C: Embraer 195 Reg No.: I-ADJL
Seat: 28F


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Photo © Konstantin Von Wedelstaedt


I took the same seat again as my inbound flight, and next to me remained empty again. Load was nearly 95%, not bad at all. We left a bit late, since it took a while till everybody was seated. Taxiing was short at the little airport, taking off from runway 12 again. Good views on the city and a surrounding areas.

Off we go! Bologna city on the right

Some clouds passing by

And something to eat…

During the flight I was served a bag of ‘Crusketti’ snackbites and a cookie, plus a drink. The flight was calm, and over Austria it got interesting when I noticed the airport of Innsbruck below. Also the sky was clearing up, giving very interesting views and shadows with the clouds.

Crossing the Alps once again

Famous Innsbruck Airport visible below

Impressive shadow of the cloud

Short finals at MUC

Landing was on runway 26R, parking on the remote apron again in between all the other commuter aircraft. We arrived just on time, and I was bussed to the terminal once again here. Ready to make a short connection for my last leg to AMS.

Goodbye I-ADJL

The gate for the last flight was G32. It was packed when I got there, and I requested a seat change more to the front (the selfservice kiosk were not allowing seat changes anymore so close before departure). But the lady told this flight was overbooked and all seats were taken. I told her to volunteer to offload in case it was needed, and she made a note at my name. In the end this was not needed apparently, and we all went on the bus.
The infoscreen at the driver told me the parking position was 327W on the remote apron again. And, I noticed on that screen the registration of my plane, being another new entry for the log.

MUC-AMS
Flight No.: LH 4702 Date: 30MAR’10
STD: 1905 ATD: 1915
STA: 2035 ATA: 2046
A/C: Bombardier CRJ-900 Reg No.: D-ACKC
Seat: 21A


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Photo © Christoph Illmer


My third flight on the –900 series, but done numerous more when the –700 is included. It’s a pleasant aircraft, especially at the front. But on todays flight, it was packed. With all seats taken, no chance to store my camerabag above me. I started reading my ebook already before block-out. This got attention by my female seatmate, a American/Dutch lady. She thought I was having the new iPad. But I didn’t (it’s not even for sale in Holland yet), but this was the start of an endless conversation which lasted until we left the plane in AMS. We talked about so many things, hobbies, photography (we share that hobby) and work (we have similar management and company culture, always point of discussions).

All I noticed is we took off from runway 26R and during the calm flight we got a drink and sandwich. It was with some creamcheese. Not bad actually.

Taking off from MUC

Reaching high altitudes, an impressive CB cloud

During approach we enjoyed special views on a very dark cloudline moving over the airport area with quite some rain also. This was the only rain over the Netherlands at that time. Quite a sight, when we approached for runway 18R, yes, the far-away ‘Polderbaan’. Taxiing was speeded up a bit, and took 11 minutes until we reached the stand.

Dark clouds and gusty conditions on approach to runway 18R

Dark clouds and gusty conditions on approach to runway 18R

Overall, another successful flights on LH and partner Air Dolomiti. I really like this Italian airline. The interior is very nice on the Embraers, nice cabin colours and very friendly crews. And the Embraer itself is a great aircraft to fly on. I am surprised myself how many flight I had on this type in the last few months.

Thanks for reading and your replies. It’s always appreciated to hear from you. And stay tuned, volcanic ashclouds permitting, next flights are 1 day away from now.

Regards,
Eric

Photo Equipment Used:

Nikon D300 with Nikkor 10.5 f/2.8G Fisheye and 18-70mm
Canon Ixus 980IS