I finished work at 2pm and my friend drove me to LHR (Thanx Dave ).
Relitivly clear traffic untill we got close to LHR (its always bad round that part of the motorway).
Waited around for a little while, got sum munchies from Burger King and spent my last bit of change till I get paid 2morrow (cant wait!!)
Wasnt too much of a long wait for Dan. I caught some ZZZZZ's in the tube station whilst waiting.
Finally he arrived. 35 mins late but thats dan .
went to collect the tickets (I was still in my uniform) getting some strange glances from the other PAX. Finally got to check in. was a little bit tired of waiting but there were 4 flights waiting to be checked in. (JNB, EWR, LOS, NRT).
Proceeded to security after having to buy a tee shirt because I am not allowed to travel in uniform and I had just checked my bag in with all my spare clothes in. [b]DOH![/b].
Got stopped for a quick frisk and they also needed to check my bag because I had forgotten to take a chisel out of my back pack from college :/
EEEEKKK, I felt like a rite muppet coz my ID was in the bag and seeing as I work for an airline I should know better :/ :P. Anyway after putting that embarrasing area behind me we proceded to the gate (25). And saw our aircraft. I was gutted!!! G-VFLY is our OLDEST aircraft and I think its an ex airbus prototype.
Ahhh well. after haggling with the woman on the gate. I tried to get an upgrade from cattle class. but the flight was full and I dont have any upgrades in the system anyways. :nonono:
we pushed back from the gate at 2035 and watched the wing flexing alot in the wind.Dan was a little dismayed witht he size of the PTV's only being about 4 inches across. but the aircraft is being sold so the good IFE has been removed.
We taxied out to the hold short for Runway 27R and lined up fro departure. with dan leaning over me trying to see past my massive head in the window the captain advanced the throttles into TOGA and we were away, the following takeoff roll was a long one and we had gone atlease 2/
3/4's of the runway before rotating and another few seconds passed before the airplane reached into the sky. Outside we could see the wing flex upwards about 3 or 4 feet as the airplane sat into her "seat" of lift towards london for the SID.
We passed an overcast cloud layer at about 8 or 9 hundred feet. which was a shame but it gave us the best view of the moon in a long time.
Virgin played the news which was supposed to last 20 mins but didnt last 15.
As the IFE was switched on, I decided not to watch TV but play on the SNES :clap:. 3 or 4 games or F-Zero later, dan's PTV packed up and refused to exit his game of boxing. He managed to get it fixed but only after calling the cabin crew who then "mocked" (Friendly Banter she wasnt being nasty hehe) me for not being able to fix it.
Dan got stuck into Finding Nemo and I started watching Legally Blonde 2 but after a Vodka and Apple Juice (Thanx for the suggestion Dan) I fell asleep and woke up for dinner which was chicken I think (please help me out here dan I really cant remember). Plus a Flake Desert and a glass of orange juice. We noticed that the cabin crew lady (She was called Karen) had to repeat the food choices about 13 or 14 times on EVERY row so when she got to our row it was "What were the choices again" even tho she knew that we knew what the choices were. I was given either Strangulation or Poisoning :P.
Again I fell asleep and woke up for Duty Free (I didnt bother buying anything) and got some water from the galley. Had a nice talk with the crew and went back to our seats for arrival dinner. (Only a chicken sandwich) pretty rank but I was really hungry.
Arrival Started soon after. It was VERY bumpy into NYC (Although most of the flight was. at one point we had a 151mph headwind!!!)
After bouncing around all over the place, we popped out of the clouds and could see manhatten .
We then started approach and the flaps were all put out quite late. after a smooth landing (Well done captain) we taxied to the term and had a nice wait in arrivals while Dan was taken in for extra questioning hehe.
Our hotel was on church street. The Millenium Hilton. Our room was on the 45th floor and we could see rite into Ground Zero as our hotel is directly across the road. couldnt have gotten a better view had I wanted one.
Hope you like...please comment
Whoever said "laughter is the best medicine" never had Gonorrhea
Leezyjet From United Kingdom (England), joined Oct 2001, 3895 posts, RR: 60 Reply 2, posted (5 years 7 months 4 days 20 hours ago) and read 2471 times:
Good report,
Although the IFE has always been the same on that a/c - the good one has not been removed as it was never there in the first place !!!.
Also how did you know from your seat that they used TOGA and not a flex take off ?? Just wondered.
"She Rolls, 45 knots, 90, 135, nose comes up to 20 degrees, she's airborne - She flies, Concorde Flies"
MIAspotter From Spain, joined Nov 2001, 1040 posts, RR: 21 Reply 4, posted (5 years 7 months 3 days 19 hours ago) and read 2078 times:
Hehe Pretty nice report!
I had the pleasure of flying on G-VFLY last december LHR-MIA. when i saw the plane at the gate i was also gutted (I wanted to fly on the A340 with the new livery) but it was nice and on the way back I got G-VSUN in the new livery!
I love virgin atlantic! they are smashing good and I will fly them again this december to Miami! woohooo!!
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