I was very lucky several years ago to get a jumpseat flight on the now defunct Gill Airways night cargo run out of Newcastle. My Girlfriend is related to the then chairman of Gill, Malcom Hart (now CEO of expanding airline Aurigny based in the Channel islands) Gill airways had quick change ATR-42'S which would fly business passengers by day on European and domestic routes and mail and newspapers in the emptied cabins by night. I forget the Capt and F/O's names but they were very informative and friendly throughout the trip.
I checked into the Gill Airways crew centre at around 7 pm to see all the ATR, SD-360 and F-100 (operated under franchise for AF) crews checking out for the night. We arrived at the aircraft for the Capt to perform a walk-around and the FO to set up the instruments, our route into STN was entered into the GPS. We took off (empty of seats and cargo-quite a quick climbout!) shortly after the arrival of a BA 757 from LHR and flew along the Eastern seaboard of the UK before joining an airway direct to STN we were vectored onto final approach as nightfall began, after landing we parked up next to a TNT A300 bound for Bremen and took on newspapers and mail bound for Scotland. Again the captain flew the segment to EDI and we passed Leeds, East Manchester, Northumberland and the Borders before descending into EDI from FL220 I remember the Capt flew much of the route manually, relying on the flight director to guide his control inputs. As we descended through cloud the anti-ice system was deployed, which on the ATR and many other turbo-props consists of inflateable bags along the wing which expand to literally 'break off' build-ups of ice. At EDI (around 2.30 am) the apron was alive with night-cargo aircraft, an intersesting plane we saw was a LET-401 (?) bound for Bristol and an Air Atlantique Electra bound for Coventry. The last leg (empty) into NCL was flown by the 20-year old Brunei F/O who was closely supervised by the more experienced captain. As the only aircraft in the vicinity of NCL at the time we were cleared straight to the field from just south of EDI and performed a very steep (-1200 f/min) visual, final descent to the rwy. All in all this was one of my best aviation experiences ever and my thanks go to the crew and chairman Malcom Hart for the experience! This is my first trip report and if my writing style is well recieved I will post a rep. about my jumpseat flight on a CX 747-200 from Bali to HKG (Kai Tak) including the infamous IGS approach!