Checked in at 0835 for flight LH9943, the check in area at LCY was very busy this Saturday morning, however there were no queues at the desk I needed, and the friendly agent checked me in quickly and gave me seat 6A.

Today was to be my first flight on a Dash 8 and I was quite excited about this.

I made my way up to the security channel, passed through this - again without queuing, and after a brief stop at the duty free and bookshop to buy a paper I made my way towards Gate 9.

The Gates are accessed by a long narrow corridor and gate 9 being one of the furthest. london City was very busy this morning with all of the parking stands occupied. Finally getting to Gate 9 there was absolute chaos and congestion as they were trying to board three flights at once from a gate area measuring about 10 metres square. As well as my flight they were trying to process a Swiss Saab 2000 and A Scot Airways Dornier 328.

At about 10 minutes prior to the scheduled departure time of 0915, our flight was ready for boarding and I made the short walk towards our DHC-8-300 (D-BHAM) operated by Augsburg Airways and in Team Lufthansa colours. I was first up the steps, and greeted by one of the two flight attendants carried on this 50 seater. A word of warning if you are tall - mind you do not turn and bang your head on the overhead locker as I did when you board this type of aircraft. The seats are arranged in pairs - either side of the aisle.

I took my seat - which was very comfortable with lots of legroom, it was just aft of the engine/propellor - noticed the engine had lots of oil marks and the paintwork was very chipped in places. If I had been slightly nervous this may have bothered me possibly. The cabin was clean and tidy, but looked well used.

The engines started at 0920 and one of the flight attendants did a brief introductory welcome announcement in both German and English - both completely from memory in front of all the passengers, she then demonstrated the safety features whilst her colleague read the announcement from her position at the rear.

The engines made quite a rumble when operating, we then taxied out literally straight onto Runway 10 after a landing British European Dash 8.

Full power was applied and we made a sprightly departure at 0924 from the runway and climbed out on this gloomy Summer's morning over the industrial East London suburbs of Beckton and Barking before disapearing into the thick cloud.

About 15 minutes later and still out over the Essex coast we were served a light snack. This consisted of a drinking yoghurt, a very bland cheese and cucumber baguette and a small milk chocolate bar. The food cart started at the front followed by the drinks cart, and I had some coffee and orange juice. A further drinks service was offered and I had a couple of beers.

The flight crew made an announcement to tell us we were flying at around 7000m (22,000 feet) and would arrive at Hamburg on schedule - it was quite difficult to hear the announcement over the rumble of the turboprops.

We headed out over the North Sea and the Netherlands near to Amsterdam, but there was still quite a lot of cloud cover which didn't really break up until near Hamburg.

We made a gentle descent towards Hamburg over the river towards Runway 05 and you could see light aircraft flying directly below us, and beneath that on the river, a tug spraying water in all directions which was very impressive from the air.

It was good to be able to see the landing gear pop out of it's housing, and I waited to see the moment when it made first contact with the tarmac which was interesting too. we touched down exactly 1h 40m later at 1204. A short burst of ground reverse on the propellors and we headed towards the parking stand from where we were coached to th arrivals hall.

I would recommend flying on a turboprop commuter aircraft to anyone - I found it better than being on a jet and far more interesting. HAM-LCY to follow soon!