Because my Girlfriend moved to Zurich I flew down there last weekend!

Wednesday 31th of July
LH3740 17:40-18:35
A320-200 D-AIPB "Heidelberg"
Seat 10A

I arrived at the Checkin counter at 16:38, so I was a bit in hurry,
Checkin was friendly and fast as usual in Fra during late afternoon.
So I proceeded to Gate B27, not sure but it was a gate position under the terrace, the flight was nearly full but only 6 rows Business class with about 15 people in it, a lot of Varig and ANA transit passengers. I think from the nearly 140 people on board there were 120 Asian people.
Boarding was delayed about 20 min and started at 17:35. WE Finally took off from RWY18 at 18:00, flight time was calculated with 30 min, that was the reason why we didn't get sandwiches in economy, the cabin crew apologized 3 times for that lack of service. Cabin crew was older than on my last LH flights, only a maybe 24year old blonde made my eyes turning to her.
Flight was very nice, I hoped for some thunderstorms but I only observed some huge CBs but all far away.
Weather turned really bad during Approach on ZRH, the F/O informed us that it could be that we would get some medium turbulence during approach.
In the final approach the Pilot made some very rude and strong corrections but he landed very smooth, I guess there were changing wind conditions during the approach. @ all it was a very short and ??nspectacluar flight, only the approach was really funny. In ZRH there was nothing special except 10 stored Swissair A320/A321 and a stored MD11! It was a sad sight to see the aircrafts standing there useless. Especially one A320 looked pretty bad, full of dirt.

4th august
LH 5479 20:00-21:05
D-AVRP RJ85
Seat16A/Jumpseat

I was especially interested in that flight, because as some of you may know I'll start flying the RJ85 for LH in December.
Checkin @18:40 there was a huge group of people waiting, because of 5 LH flights within 30 min and only 4 open economy counters for the whole star alliance.
Gate was C14 this time, the C terminal in ZRH is more a tent you see @ the Octoberfest in Munich, I was kind of disappointed about that. But the security check was the toughest I experienced since the 11th sep attacks!
Boarding started as scheduled at 19:40 there were only 16 passengers what was no surprise for me, because 30 min earlier a A320 nearly full departed to FRA. When I boarded I took a short look in the Cockpit, I hoped to know one of the crew personally but I had no luck.
So I asked a very friendly and good Lokking FA standing in the Back of the Aircraft. I introduced my self and asked whether she could ask if can get the Jumpseat as a future Company employee.
She asked immediately and came back to me. The Captain told her that I have to wait until cruising altitude but then I could join the Cockpit crew during descent and approach. I was really happy about that.
because of a bad Slot Take off was delayed to 20:30, calculated flight time was 35min. We took off from RWY28 @20:31.
Didn't except the RJ85 taking off so powerful. The Climb rate was fantastic, felt like in a MD83 or a B752 on a short haul flight. After a few minutes we reached cruising altitude, I got a well tasting Cheese sandwich and a Coke light. I finished both within 2 minutes. Then the nice FA came an I followed her to the Cockpit.
I introduced myself to the cpt and the FO, both were friendly but the Cpt was cooler and more relaxed. He only introduced himself with his first name what made me fell very comfortable. I got a headset and took my first look over my future work station. We just had started our descend from cruising Altitude FL240 to FL150. The approach has just started, some huge Thunderstormclouds ( CBs) stood in that area, some of them must reach up to FL300!
The weather @ Fra was not bad at that time, cloudy only 4kts wind from the south. We were cleared for the ILS approach 25R, Tower told us to expect a landing clearance in the short final because of the departing ANA B744 to Tokyo. When the B744 rotated we got our clearance, on the holding point for 25R there was a KRAS Air TU204 and what really surprised me was that the Kras air pilot used his registration as Callsign. His English was pretty bad but I listened to 2 of his calls and I am 100% sure that he used his reg. Nothing special @ FRA, only a VARIG Cargo DC10 and a Malaysian B742F.
The Cpt who was flying made and excellent landing, we taxied to our apron position. I remained in the Cockpit until all passengers had deboarded.
Really impressed by the last 25 min I left the Aircraft, saying good bye and see you soon I entered the Bus.
Now I can't wait anymore. I'll fly!

that's it!

regards Bjoern