We actually intended to do an Internet check-in for this flight since the lady checking us in at SIN had already input our KrisFlyer membership numbers into the reservation records. However, a computer terminal was hard to get and we did not have much free time around while we were in Bali so we decided to try our luck at the check-in desks at Denpasar Airport.
We reached the airport from Hard Rock Hotel at 10.45 in the morning. Our tour guide then bid us farewell and we were on our own. All bags once again had to be X-rayed at the entrance into the check-in area and the screen showed that check-in desks for SQ143 was from 49-57 and our departure gate was number 6. We then proceeded quickly to the check-in desks, which were quite a walk away from where we were. Another lady from part of a larger tour group tried to cut in front of us. However as she did not have her tickets with her, the check-in agent waved her away and called us in. He was a very polite man and acceded to our request of a window seat. I was assigned to seat 36A and fortunately we did not get another row behind cuz row 37's wall panel does not have a window (which I did not realise until I was seated inside the aircraft). The check-in was done fairly quickly and the printing machine at the airport seems to have alignment problems. Our names were printed on the golden strip at the top of the boarding card and the alignment of the other details were off as well. Here they were still using the old style Singapore Airlines boarding cards. Anyway after checking in, we took an escalator to the second level, where the first counter was payment of departure tax from Denpasar. It costs about Rp100,000 per person, which was around S$20. The lady then stapled the receipt to our boarding cards. She was also very sweet and always smiling at us. We then proceeded to pass immigration, which was done snappily. My parents then went to do some shopping at the duty free shops while me and my sis sat outside watching TV. There was still no status of our flight yet according to the flight information screens and so we waited patiently.
At around 11.30, we went to have a small bite at McDonald's at the departure area. The concept of this Mc is very cute. There is only a cashier and a drinks' station at that counter. The lady will then make a phone call to the main outlet in the public area and someone will bring in the orders. That saves having to duplicate the outlet both in the public and the departure area. At around 11.45, we saw our plane come in as SQ142 and it was 20 minutes ahead of schedule. We also saw a couple of light planes and a Mandala 737-200 land. We were still enjoying our food when at noon time, they called passengers from SQ143 for boarding at gate 6. I was quite surprised as it was still very early. Anyway we went to the gate where the queue for security was never-ending but it passed quite quickly. Our carry-on bags had to be put through an X-ray machine once again and I was not frisked by any agent this time cuz I passed through the metal detector without any problems. I tried to catch the registration of our plane underneath the wing and it did seem like 9V-SQE or 9V-SQI for a moment but when I went closer, it was 9V-SQD. Since 'D' stood for 'Denpasar', as someone told me, this plane comes to Denpasar quite often. We had to wait for quite a bit since they boarded sequentially from the back to the front. The television screens were showing some advertisements of some of Bali's attractions as well as CNBC news.
Half past twelve, a Garuda Indonesia B747-400 came in (PK-GSH) to park at gate 5. At the same time, another Garuda Indonesia DC10 took off for Jakarta. Then boarding for SQ143 was called. They boarded First and Raffles Class passengers first. Shortly after, they called for families with infants and small children to proceed for boarding and you could see that the queue for boarding got longer and longer. It seemed like even passengers without young children were boarding! I think they shouldn't allow these people to board first. They then boarded passengers seated from rows 50-57 and rows 40-57 before finally it was our turn:
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"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for waiting. Singapore Airlines is calling all remaining passengers on SQ143 to Singapore for boarding. On behalf of Singapore Airlines, we wish you a pleasant flight."
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We then walked towards the queue, which had shortened quite considerably. We were also stuck because the passengers from the Garuda 747 were coming out. However, they were stopped by airport police while we boarded so there would be no congestion. We then walked down the long jetway into our B777. There was a carpet at the main door, which I had not noticed before. I took a couple of newspapers including "Today" and "The Straits' Times". As I walked down the Raffles Class cabin, I noticed that these seats did not have the Ultimo seat covers unlike the ones in the A310. I think they should standardize on the seat covers to prevent confusion as it doesn't look very nice to have different designs for different aircraft. Anyhow, we walked towards our seats at row 36 and was I glad to see a cheery stewardess greeting us at our seating area. I immediately turned on my PTV and saw that our flight path was a direct path via Airway A576 to Singapore. My PTV did not have particularly good contrast as it was right beside the window. I looked out and saw that the aerobridge was still attached although nobody else seemed to be boarding. The cargo doors were then closed with a big bang (I think SIA needs to change their cargo doors every few months with the abuse it undergoes both at home and away from home!). The hot towels came around and so did the headsets, which were the new style ones with a clip to your ear lobe to prevent them from falling off. Then an automated announcement came on:
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"For safety reasons, please put your hand luggage in the overhead compartments or underneath the seat in front of you. Please also note that mobile phones are prohibited at all times while onboard the aircraft. Thank you."
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There were no announcements at all, which I found to be quite weird considering it was quite close to departure time. Then the captain came on with his cabin announcement:
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"Ladies and gentlemen, a very good afternoon to you. My name is Gauthier S and I would like to welcome you onboard this flight to Singapore. In case you have forgotten, our flight number is 143. We will be departing shortly after getting our clearance from air traffic control. I'll update you on the details once we get to our cruising altitude. I'd like to thank you for choosing Singapore Airlines and we hope you have a pleasant flight."
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Shortly after his announcement, the leading stewardess then came on with her announcement that there will be a bar service before the meal is served. At 13.00 we were pushed back from the gate very slowly and our nose turned to face west, parallel to the terminal building. Immediately after we were stopped on the taxiway, the flaps were brought down to 15-degrees and the spoilers, ailerons and spoileron checks were carried out. 3 minutes later, after the tow was disconnected, the pilot released the brakes and we were on our way. Since we were very light (only 220 people onboard and at a weight of 193.2kg), no power up of the engine was required and we were rolling. We taxied along taxiway E to runway 09. Then the safety video was played.
Just before we turned into runway 09, a call was made for the cabin crew to take up their takeoff positions. However, the strobes were not activated. I saw that the strobe bulbs on the left wing were burnt and so did not light. Anyway we stopped on the runway for about 3 minutes before we started our takeoff roll on derated TO1 thrust setting. The takeoff on a B777 as always sounds unusual. You get this middle-pitch whine for about 5 - 10 seconds before the very low pitch rumble sets in and off we were. In about 30 seconds, we ascended into the air and the gear was selected up at 137kts. Flaps were brought up almost immediately meaning our acceleration was very quick. We then intercepted the SIPOT 1A departure SID and made our climb to Flight Level 390 with NIL restrictions. The surface wind was 110/10kts. Above 6000ft, we turned onto Airway A576, which would bring us directly back to Singapore.
Immediately, the bar service began with the stewardesses bringing out two rounds of drinks, which included Orange Juice, Apple Juice, Beer or Wine. I began to scour the options in the KrisWorld entertainment system. However, my sister complained that her remote control would not lock into position and we consulted a stewardess to see if she could solve the problem. She appeared to be nonchalant and even suggested that it was like that until I tugged hard at my seat's control to show her it wasn't! She finally relented and just unhappily told us to get another seat behind. I wasn't too impressed but anyway I switched seats with her. I tuned into Audio Channel 6 for HotShots hosted by Jean Danker. At the same time I switched my PTV to Channel 22 for the airshow, which showed us flying at a groundspeed of 750km/h and still climbing. Our estimated arrival time in Singapore was 15.12 in the afternoon. After the seatbelt sign was switched off, I went off to the lavatory. The B777 lavatory, as always was very big and it was well stocked with all sorts of amenities and even had a perfume sprayed over it for fragrance purposes. The toilet was also vacuum flush, unlike the blue liquid system used on the A310. I did my business and left quickly back to my seat.
About 20 minutes after takeoff, we were established at 11,389m cruising towards Singapore with a ground speed of 890km/h and a headwind varying from 7 to 22km/h. Now our estimated arrival time changed to 15.19 since we were flying slower than planned cruising at speed of M.842. I had just finished my first drink at that time which was Orange Juice, served by the very pleasant stewardess. I then tuned to the different channels in KrisWorld and found that they were showing Lord of the Rings on two separate channels (as the show was too long). Our cruise N1 was 84.7 and engine EPR was around 1.162 with a fuel flow of 3000 to each engine. That is roughly about 6.6t/hour.
The leading stewardess then announced that KrisWorld was being presented on our seatback TV sets and that we might not be able to complete the movies because of the short flight duration. However, it didn't really matter as most people were really either reading or just sleeping. The second bar service then commenced with the same choice of drinks. I then went off to the back galley to ask the cheery stewardess for a favour to pass up a note with an information sheet I had to the captain. She said ok and I thanked her. She was so lovely and sweet, she actually said it was her pleasure. I gave her my best smile and off I went back to my seat.
About 45 minutes into the flight, cruising at the same level but at a groundspeed of 932km/h since the headwind became a tailwind of 20km/h, the meal service swung into action. We were thankfully served, not by the bitchy attendant, but the lovely and cheery stewardess in our aisle. That unimpressive attendant actually stared angrily at me when I visited the lavatory earlier and I wondered whatever is she staring at me for. Today's main course choices were chicken with rice or sweet and sour fish with potatoes, an exact opposite of what was served on the flight there.We took the chicken. I'll try to describe the meal to you people. Basically, they have added another smaller rubber tray on top of the plastic ones they usually use. This is to prevent the stuff on the tray from slipping. This meal consists of a pineapple salad as appetizer, a seeded bun with butter. The main course was spicy chicken with carrots, leafy vegetables and rice. We then had vanilla pudding with chocolate topping and a chocolate waffle. Soft drinks, packed water and coffee/tea were also on offer.
To be honest, the main course looked a little bland initially but it really tasted great. I think it was a good idea to get rid of the International Culinary Panel. Anyway, I hurriedly finished the main course and ate my bun as I looked forward to trying out the vanilla pudding. The vanilla pudding tasted really nice and was comparable to one which I ate at some high class restaurant some time ago. As I tucked into my meal, the check captain came out to shake my hand and introduce himself. His name was Captain Ang and he was checking on the other two pilots' flying. He asked me some questions and asked me where I had gotten those stuff on the information sheet from. I basically told him it was all compiled by us from all the little bits of information we get from books and the Internet. He shook my mum and dad's hands also and said that actually he came out to check on who was the one who sent the note since they did not divulge much of what they do inside the flight deck anymore after 911. The great thing was his terrific friendliness and the fact that actually, he filled in pretty much everything on my paper although he said he might not be able to fill in everything. He then left and told us to enjoy our afternoon tea (hahaha).
Another 45 minutes passed very quickly and soon the stewardesses were back to collect the trays and top up our drinks for us. My mum accidentally activated the stewardess call bell and apologised very frantically to the unimpressive stewardess who came. However, the stewardess gave her a dirty look which I was very angry about. The cheery stewardess then came over to top up all of our tea cups with hot tea. As we were about to commence our descent, the chief stewardess came to my seat and passed back the paper which I had sent up to the captain. She was sooooo lovely!!! Her smile was so sincere and although she did look a little bit old, she was really a very nice lady! She said I was more than welcome when I thanked her very much for bringing back the paper. She then left after that!
I had a look at the information sheet. Our optimum cruise altitude was actually FL404, so we were a bit lower than we should be. I also saw that we were supposed to land at runway 20R at SIN, which meant a round-about turn before we could land. The captain also answered some questions I had put for him quite thoroughly, so I was pretty happy about it. I watched the ending part of Waterboys on Channel 15 before they came around to collect the headsets and guess who came to collect ours...thank goodness she did not make much of a fuss but she literally grabbed the bag off our hands (which she didn't have to!) when she took it off other people's hands nicely.
Strangely, the pilots came on to tell us we were commencing our descent this minute and we actually started descending. This descent was very smooth if not for the occasional turbulent clouds which we encountered. The weather on our descent did not look very good and I thought it was raining in Singapore. We were then held at 6,000ft in clouds in clean configuration and flew for a long while because of heavy traffic into Singapore. According to Alvin (Mr.BA) we were recleared to 20L but SQ325 flew ahead of us and so we had to settle for runway 20R instead. It was already 15.15 but we were still stuck at 6,000ft flying to intercept the Tango India 4B STAR arrival for runway 20R. About 5 minutes before we actually touched down, the flaps were brought to flaps 1 initially. However, we then started descending and turning 180-degree to intercept the localiser for runway 20R and the flaps were set to flaps-15 and then quickly to flaps-30. The autobrakes were set to 2 and we were landing with idle reverse. Our landing weight was estimated at 177.3kg. The engines seemed to be blasting possibly due to strong headwind with a approach speed of 132kts and a touchdown speed of 127kts. Once we were below the clouds, I could see the masts of the ships sailing in the Straits of Johor. The landing gear then came down, very interestingly with a whining sound (of the gear door mechanism opening the door) and then the loud thump sound of the gear coming down. This time the swishing sound of the rushing air was very obvious. I then wondered if Mr.BA would be able to witness our landing.
At about 15.24, we passed over the first sign of Singapore soil and I saw the SIA Superhub 2 building. The approach was very stable with winds 150/6kts which was a slight crosswind from our right. About a minute later, I heard a strange boom boom boom boom knocking sound coming from below and I thought something had detached itself from the aircraft but before I could think anymore, we all heard a loud crash sound and I thought "oh god! what is happening?". However, before we could have any other doubts, the main wheels kissed the ground smoothly. Since idle reverse was used, the wheel braking was very evident and could be felt. We then vacated at the E6 intersection and then went onto taxiway WA. After us, a Garuda B737-400 landed on the same runway. The flaps were then brought back up and the spoilers returned to their non-deployed position and we taxied quite quickly back to our initial arrival gate of F56. As we went across North Cross, I saw 9V-SRB (a B777-212), 9V-SMA (a B747-412), a LionAir A310-300 and a Minerba DC10 all parked at their respective remote bays. SRB was having some engine repair work done and SMA was just sitting there doing nothing. We then taxied onto EP but suddenly braked hard and turned into gate E8. According to Mr.BA, there was a very last minute gate change and we docked right on time at gate E8 at 15.35.
It was quite a while before we could exit the aircraft and as I exited I saw that stewardess who brought back my papers to me. I waved goodbye to her and she waved back. As we exited the aerobridge and walked towards the main finger pier, I saw 9V-SRF taxy in from Nagoya to gate E12 for parking. Quickly we walked to the immigration counters. On the way I saw that SQ2 was departing from E3 and SQ30 from E4. What a coincidence for the two of them to be side by side! We passed through immigration quickly and the very nice immigration officer actually said "Welcome home!". We then collected our bags from Belt 33 and left the airport in a taxi.
That's it! I hoped you enjoyed both my trip reports!
Singapore 777 From Singapore, joined May 1999, 980 posts, RR: 9 Reply 1, posted (7 years 6 months 1 day 23 hours ago) and read 990 times:
Sorry I think I left out the final announcement:
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"Ladies and gentlemen, we have just landed at Singapore Changi Airport. The local time is 3.25pm in the afternoon. The temperature is 28 degrees Celsius, 75 degrees Farenheit. We will be parking at our gate shortly. For passengers with connecting flights and require assistance, please proceed to the transit counters for help after you have disembarked. Should you require any assistance at the airport, please approach a staff member of our ground handling agent, SATS. We hope you had an enjoyable flight this afternoon and hope to see you again in the near future. Thank you for flying Singapore Airlines, a member of Star Alliance."
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It was quite weird that she tried to differentiate SATS from SIA. I guess they are two separate entities now!
Singapore_Air From United Kingdom, joined Nov 2000, 13606 posts, RR: 25 Reply 4, posted (7 years 6 months 1 day 20 hours ago) and read 959 times:
"Since 'D' stood for 'Denpasar', as someone told me, this plane comes to Denpasar quite often." LOL
"toilet was also vacuum flush, unlike the blue liquid system used on the A310." Hooray for vacuum flush! I disliked the A310 because there was water in it.
"We passed through immigration quickly and the very nice immigration officer actually said "Welcome home"" Well it certainly makes a change from listening to two immigration officers gossiping about how horrible their jobs are and how they really want a new job!
Hmm. Those two stewardesses are not impressive. You should have noted their names and told SIA so they get what's coming to them.
Otherwise, two brilliant trip reports
01 OCTOBER 2009: This user has retired from aviation to the status of lurker. Thanks Airliners.net for some great times
9V-SVA From Singapore, joined Aug 2001, 1846 posts, RR: 18 Reply 5, posted (7 years 6 months 1 day 20 hours ago) and read 955 times:
You see la Tsentsan, I forgot to ask for the form from you because on my flights the pilots came out of the cockpit to go to the lav, behind the J class cabin.
I don't think you will get this level of service in J class.
Singapore 777 From Singapore, joined May 1999, 980 posts, RR: 9 Reply 7, posted (7 years 6 months 1 day 13 hours ago) and read 900 times:
9VSVA, not every pilot will fill it for you. On my A310 flight the pilots just said it was confidential and did not fill in much details. And on my B777 flight they were a little hesitant and the pilots came out to check who sent that form up. But other than that everything was alright. Just say you are an airplane enthusiast and they'd be more than happy.
When I will fly the B777-200ER ah? Maybe never hehehe...who knows!
Singapore 777 From Singapore, joined May 1999, 980 posts, RR: 9 Reply 8, posted (7 years 6 months 1 day 13 hours ago) and read 900 times:
I forgot to mention that the hydraulics mechanism on 9V-SQD were all in order. I went to check all the economy class lavatories and none of the toilet seats slammed. And the overhead compartments definitely only need a slight push to close even at full load.
Mr.BA From Singapore, joined Sep 2000, 3423 posts, RR: 29 Reply 10, posted (7 years 6 months 1 day 13 hours ago) and read 897 times:
Hey Singapore777!
Excellent report from you. Enjoyed every single part of it, it's a pleasure to read! Thanks for including Mr.BA all the time
I believed you vacated W4 or W5 then a left parallel turn onto WP. WA is the taxiway along gates C1, C 2, C22.. etc.
9V-SVA... not everyone could actually use that form. My own opinions. You must really know what they are for and what it means and not a tool to get you into the cockpit!
Singapore 777 From Singapore, joined May 1999, 980 posts, RR: 9 Reply 11, posted (7 years 6 months 1 day 12 hours ago) and read 888 times:
Tsentsan, I did send a note together with that form. On that note I introduced myself, explained that this was nothing more than for leisure purposes and that I meant the aircraft no harm at all. I just wanted to know a bit more about our flight and so on. I also mentioned that I was very interested in commercial aviation and included a couple of questions on the Boeing 777. The captain did answer these questions and he was actually very friendly and not at all intimidating! He filled in all the details inside the information sheet.
Anyone who is banking on this sheet to get you into the cockpit might as well forget it! It is no longer possible on SIA to get into the cockpit with just this note alone. The captain stated quite clearly that they do not divulge the going-ons behind the cockpit anymore and neither do they allow anybody other than crew to enter the cockpit. This is after-911 and I don't think many pilots would oblige to let a stranger in and break company policy unless they really know you (there are exceptions to the case though).
Tsentsan From Singapore, joined Jan 2002, 2008 posts, RR: 13 Reply 12, posted (7 years 6 months 1 day 11 hours ago) and read 882 times:
Singapore 777 -
Agreed Even if they really know you, I still cant get in. :-(
But its pretty much a possibility after landing, most of the time I get the okay for it.
Alvin .. I think we should stop circulating that form around. I dont want everybody and anybody to use it, thinking they can get in the deck with that.
Ex_SQer From United States, joined Apr 2002, 1418 posts, RR: 7 Reply 14, posted (7 years 6 months 1 day 1 hour ago) and read 850 times:
The immigration officer at SIN said "Welcome Home"?!? Highly unusual. In my experience SIN immigration officers are the rudest people in the country....
Singapore 777 From Singapore, joined May 1999, 980 posts, RR: 9 Reply 19, posted (7 years 5 months 2 weeks 4 days 14 hours ago) and read 725 times:
Don't they? Hahaha I'm not so sure anyway, it was a 737 from Bangkok. How strange! I thought they flew A330s to Bangkok. They came in like right after us very quickly. While we were turning off, they touched down. I don't know why the separation was so minimal.
Ryanair!!! From Singapore, joined Mar 2002, 4296 posts, RR: 28 Reply 20, posted (7 years 5 months 2 weeks 3 days 15 hours ago) and read 692 times:
If I am not wrong, Garuda only flies the 737-300. During the Asian Economic Crisis, they rationalised their widely varied fleet by getting rid of the A300, F28, DC9, MD11 and 747-200 (some of them). In fact, they actually reduced their fleet by half which helped them to counter the losses. You'd be surprised that GA was one of the few carriers that posted a profit post-Asian Crisis and 911.
GA's 737 fleet is widely used on their regional runs after they got rid of their A300s. The A330-300s and DC10s help supplement the hardworking 737s on regional runs (BKK, TPE, SIN, HKG... while catering to some Australian routes as well).
The DC10s would soon be replaced by 777-200s, provided there isn't another monetary crisis to hit Indonesia again!
Welcome to my starry one world alliance, a team in the sky!
Singapore 777 From Singapore, joined May 1999, 980 posts, RR: 9 Reply 21, posted (7 years 5 months 2 weeks 3 days 14 hours ago) and read 683 times:
Well I guess I made a mistake then! Haha. I couldn't see very clearly if it had one or two emergency overwing exits because of the poor lighting and the quick disappearance of the 737 from view.
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