I left my house at 4.30 a.m. for the drive from Southampton to London Gatwick. The weather was great and it was still pitch black when we left. I was pretty nervous as this was my 1st solo flight.
I arrived at LGW at about 5:45 a.m. and checked straight in. I only had my hand luggage with me so that was quite handy. Cleared security and proceeded to gate 55. It was a bit of an old looking/feeling gate. We boarded our plane, G-GBTB, and I was seated in 13A. I love the blue leather seats in the 737, these were real comfy. We pushed back and had the safety procedures given to us. The Captain came on the P/A, and the Co-Pilot was called Steven Gerrard This made me giggle to myself. I carried out a quick head count, 13 pax including myself on this BBJI mean 737!!
I was now beginning to feel the "buzz". We taxied towards 26L, which seemed to take a while (Maybe I was just anxious). With-out pause after lining up, full power, lag, then zoom! This baby can move, I had my Sony DV Camcorder with me, on the video you hear me say "F**k me" as this happened Within seconds we were airborne. I had this weird sensation upon rotation, it soon passed. We climbed and leveled of at FL240 and the F/A's came around with the breakfast. It was real good to get something like that to fill me up.
It seemed like no time at all had passed then the Captain came on the P/A again, "Hope you are all enjoying your breakfast, we are flying over BHX as we speak and we will begin our descent quite soon, the weather in MAN is looking pretty good and the temperature is around 5 degrees. I will speak to you again when we are on the ground and it looks like we are ahead of schedule, ok thanks, goodbye"
The Fasten Seatbelt sign came back on and we started a descent. It really didn't take as long as I expected, then "Cabin crew 10 minutes to landing" Before I knew it we were on finals on 24R.
Touch down, a smooth cushioned landing followed by some hopping along the runway with reverse thrusters and airbrakes deployed. Taxied to our gate, engines off. Result
In-flight pics were taken with my camcorder as I was making movies, but I now wish that I used the DSLR I apologise for the crap quality.
A few minutes after take off.
Banking to the right with the nice orange sky in view.
Cabin view on this empty 737-436.
A few random in-flight pics now
We started to make a descent at this time. Some great effects created from the early rising sun
On finals for 24R
Touch down!! A smooth cushioned landing followed by a bumpy slow down.
Past the Aviation viewing park.
Just pulling up to our gate. End of flight
=========================
Spotting at MAN:
Manchester has a number of spotting facilities, we ventured out into the muddy fields to get runway 24L 06R views. I was wearing a pair of black (No Grip) loafers, black trousers, my best shirt, a sweatshirt and my sailing coat. It was safe so say that MYT332/Alex didn't make it clear to me that we would get a bit messy
You live and learn Next time i will be going a little bit casual. We then went to the Aviation viewing park and visited the "mounds". I have never seen anything like it, the picture taking ability was amazing. We left the viewing park and caught the bus to T1. We went to the car park level 13 -which was full of spotters! It reminded me of LGW a little bit.
We left the car park and went to the The Airport Pub. It was great seeing planes that close again, the flight crews kept waving and looking over at us, it was great! Seeing a few 747's up that close just made the day By then it was getting cold and we both had enough so we made a move back to his house (Which is very nice ) A "Meet the Parents" time too
=========================
=========================
MAN-LGW
Sunday 25th January 2004
Departure: 16:40 p.m. Actual Departure: 16.43 p.m.
A very very busy flight. I don't think that there was one spare seat on this plane.
I sat in... Wait for it... Seat 25A, right at the back. I asked for a seat by the wing, I think she mis-heard and thought i said behind! Oh well, it wasn't all that bad. Was sat next to a nice attractive blonde girl
It wasn't a bad flight all in all. I was a bit clumsy... I knocked over my can of coca cola Oops I was no longer Mr Cool!!! I had a chicken tikka masala before I went with alex's family so i was too full to eat their offerings on board. I wish I did as on the way home from LGW i started getting peckish
Anyway, it was a nice flight and we had crosswinds on finals which made it interesting! We touched down and departed via the stairs which was cool.
Push back time!
Climbing out of 24L.
Nearly there We hit about FL190 on this leg! Super altitude!!!
Banking hard to the left.
I didn't really get and decent images from the landing so we skipped a part !
Here's my ride parked up after we landed! We took the stairs. Kinda cool.
=========================
If anyone would like any further info, please do not hesitate to ask me.
MYT332 From United Kingdom, joined Sep 2003, 9112 posts, RR: 74 Reply 3, posted (9 years 4 months 1 day 5 hours ago) and read 4328 times:
Well firstly good report, secondly I bloody said we were going to the fields!!! I mean come on we aint in Spain, we're in the north west of England were it had rained for 3 days solid prior to your arrival so your own fault for not putting in some boots or wellies, lol.
Jkw777 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 4, posted (9 years 4 months 1 day 4 hours ago) and read 4258 times:
Well firstly good report, secondly I bloody said we were going to the fields!!! I mean come on we aint in Spain, we're in the north west of England were it had rained for 3 days solid prior to your arrival so your own fault for not putting in some boots or wellies, lol.
Ndebele From Germany, joined Apr 2001, 2895 posts, RR: 25 Reply 7, posted (9 years 4 months 1 day ago) and read 4216 times:
Thanks for this entertaining report, I enjoyed the photos / camcorder screenshots, made the report quite vivid I can't say what's sadder to see, the broken-up Monarch DC-10 or the RJX.
MYT332 is correct, you should have expected muddy fields and rain, I mean I have visited lots of UK airports, and it was raining nearly every single time - well, sometimes it was snowing, I admit Anyway, my visit to SOU was sunny and warm. - Glad that you enjoyed your trip!
Jkw777 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 12, posted (9 years 4 months 2 hours ago) and read 4085 times:
Hi Jamie:
On the outbound flight I got an English Breakfast which was great I thought
Inbound they offered the Delhi service, Which was like a sandwich/roll thing, but I was too full to eat so I stuck to coke which i managed to spill down me in a moment of excitement trying to get my camcorder whilst flying over EMA.
You will enjoy the super 734 too You gotta love the acceleration!!! Brought a huge smile to my face.
Ryanair737 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 13, posted (9 years 3 months 4 weeks 1 day 23 hours ago) and read 4074 times:
Most airlines wouldn't do a full breakfast in the morning, its great that BA still do. I will get the "All Day Deli" when I fly with BA next month, and I'm looking forward to it!
Kevin752 From United States of America, joined Jul 2003, 713 posts, RR: 5 Reply 15, posted (9 years 3 months 3 weeks 6 days 15 hours ago) and read 3978 times:
I have really been lucky to fly on so many 737-300's in the last year. I love the older 737's and I am glad that you enjoyed your 737-400 flights aboard BA. I have only been on LH 737-300's in europe. In the USA I been on Southwest and America West 737-300.
Jkw777 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 16, posted (9 years 3 months 3 weeks 4 days 3 hours ago) and read 3874 times:
Very good report, I enjoyed reading it and watching the pictures. I am looking forward to more of your reports.
Thanks very much I hope to get on another flight soon-ish.
I have really been lucky to fly on so many 737-300's in the last year. I love the older 737's and I am glad that you enjoyed your 737-400 flights aboard BA. I have only been on LH 737-300's in europe. In the USA I been on Southwest and America West 737-300/
DC-10 Levo From United Kingdom, joined Nov 2001, 3432 posts, RR: 5 Reply 17, posted (9 years 3 months 3 weeks 4 days 2 hours ago) and read 3865 times:
Great report Justin! I've been to MAN a couple of times now and have got to agree it's a great place for photography. You can get so close to the action there. Never been to the car park though. Any good?
Car park wasn't too bad, a bit nippy Reminded me of the LGW skyview (R.I.P. ) somewhat. There is a huge anti-photographer fence too, but someone kindly cut a few squares of about 6x6 for the lens to go through!
Chris78cpr From United Kingdom, joined Feb 2004, 2813 posts, RR: 52 Reply 19, posted (9 years 3 months 3 weeks 2 days 21 hours ago) and read 3837 times:
Very nice report Justin, i think i may have to try going up to MAN from LHR sometime!!! The spotting is very good up there i have heard!!!
Chris
5D2/7D/1D2(soon to be a 1Dx) 17-40L/24-105L/70-200F2.8L/100-400L/24F1.4LII/50F1.2L/85F1.2LII
Boeing733 From United Kingdom, joined Jul 2004, 19 posts, RR: 0 Reply 21, posted (8 years 10 months 2 days 10 hours ago) and read 3148 times:
Fantastic report Justin,
I flew EDI-LGW-EDI in March this year and although I fell asleep on the return leg (was late shift the night before and didn't get much sleep), I had nothing but praise for the service BA provided, especially from what was a very bumpy approach to one of the smoothest landings that I have ever had. Fine praise to the Captain who landed us.
One thing, if you can for the future, if you liked the BA service, you should try and get on the BA Citiexpress EMB-145, I flew to CDG for the day with them and this is one awsome aircraft, it is so fast and powerful and yet quiet at the same time, and the service is second to none.
K
They Say That Life's A Carousel, Spinning Fast, You've Got To Ride It Well
MYT332 From United Kingdom, joined Sep 2003, 9112 posts, RR: 74 Reply 24, posted (8 years 10 months 2 days 10 hours ago) and read 3140 times:
Just got back from a trip. Met up with fellow user MYT332 and spent Saturday at MAN.
LMAO, i read that and was like wtf? News to me!
One Life, Live it.
25 WidgetBoi: nice report and great pics!!! jeremy
26 Jkw777: Seems a bit odd Justin, if you saw your outgoing flights tail and it was union then it WAS G-GBTB, G-GBTA has Youm-Al-Souq tail: It was f*cking dark w
27 Planesarecool: It was f*cking dark when I left. Not only that the view from the terminal wasn't brilliant. Also another forum user informed me on the reg when I retu
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From , joined Dec 1969, posts, 
This made me giggle to myself. I carried out a quick head count, 13 pax including myself on this BBJI mean 737!! 
Within seconds we were airborne. I had this weird sensation upon rotation, it soon passed. We climbed and leveled of at FL240 and the F/A's came around with the breakfast. It was real good to get something like that to fill me up.
I apologise for the crap quality.
Next time i will be going a little bit casual. We then went to the Aviation viewing park and visited the "mounds". I have never seen anything like it, the picture taking ability was amazing. We left the viewing park and caught the bus to T1. We went to the car park level 13 -which was full of spotters! It reminded me of LGW a little bit.
From Germany, joined Apr 2001, 2895 posts, 
I can't say what's sadder to see, the broken-up Monarch DC-10 or the RJX.
From United States of America, joined Sep 2003, 351 posts, 
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