BEEEEP..........BEEEEEEEP
The alarm clock screams into action, doing its job well, in waking me up.
I proceed to slam my hand down onto the alarm (the alarm has taken some beatings).

My first thought is 'what the......, why am I up at this ridiculous hours ?', it takes a few seconds, but it eventually clicks....'plane.....flight....HOLIDAY !'
I climb down from bed, and pick out my holiday cloths, shorts, T-shirts, trainers etc, and slowly put on my smart flying cloths, consisting of a Black shirt, black trousers, school shoes and a belt.

With all the packing done, it was time to go, and without much drama, we make our way to LHR Terminal 1 for our flight to LAX.

We arrive, dad parks the car, and we make our way down to the staff travel center, where we are greeted by a semi-happy looking ticket desk person.
She does the usually stuff that happens at check-in, and then tells us to wait until 09:15, so we make our way to a coffee shop, where we had breakfast and some drinks.
Soon enough, 09:15 comes, and we make our way back to staff travel, we are given our tickets, and with a hint of eagerness, I inspect the my ticket.
The ticket reads '05A, First', indicating a window seat in first class !!
What more could I ask for ?, first class, and a window seat, excelent 

Route: London Heathrow- Los Angeles
Airline: British Airways
Flight number: BA278
Aircraft: Boeing 747-436
Registration: G-BNLE
Seat: 05A (First)
Duration: 10hrs 40mins

View Large View Medium

Photo © Paul Massey

View Large View Medium

Photo © Mike Moores


We make our way through security, and down the long walkway to the Gate, where we see our aircraft G-BNLE waiting, but with a delay, becuase It was late from maintenance (slightly ironic as that was my fathers department !)
But after a phone call to the grnadparents and a convesation with my father about his airline days, the plane was ready for boarding.
We went through the gate area, and down the Jety-way to the plane, where I was shown to my seat.
Waiting for me, was a bowl of mixed nuts, the video selection, a menu, headphones and a pillow.
I seteled into my seat, looking out the window, and began to inspect the highlife and 'First life' magazines for the films, Which included:

FIRST Personal Video Library
1. Brokeback Mountain
2. Syriana
3. The Producers
4. The Family Stone
5. The New World
6. Tristan and Isolde
7. Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
8. Fun with Dick and Jane
9. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
10. Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
11. The Godfather
12. The Godfather II
13. The Godfather III
14. Serpico
15. Witness
16. The Beat That My Heart Skipped
17. Edison
18. Manuale d'Amore
19. The Californians
20. Shopgirl
21. Sideways
22. On The Waterfront
23. The Wild Bunch
24. The Truman
25. Man on the Moon

Film and TV Channels
1. Movie The Wild
2. Movie The Sentinel
3. Movie Friends With Money
4. Movie Thank You For Smoking
5. Movie Firewall
6. Movie Failure to Launch
7. Movie Little Fish
8. Movie Akeelah and the Bee
9. Movie Die Another Day
10. Movie Message in a Bottle
11. TV Comedy
12. TV Comedy
13. TV Sport
14. TV Explore
15. TV Country Life
16. TV Business Life TV
17. Family Movie Curious George
18. TV Cartoon Network

With that, I made my selections of what I was going to watch.
Quickly, the cabin crew came round, ordering pre-flight drinks, from which I ordered my usual order of Coke with Ice.
And with that, the aircraft pushed back, and we slowly trundeled down to the runway, everything was cleared away, and the saftey demonstration shown.
We, turned onto the runway, and with power apllied, the fully laidened 744 rolled down the runway, gaining speed, I was pushed into my seat, the destinked scream of the 4 RB211 engines running through my head, we slowly lifted off, the landing gear retracted and we were off to LAX  

Shortly after leveling off at 38,000ft (flight level 380), the cabin crew came round and took our Lunch orders, of which I took the Lamb.
lunch was presented on china plates, with metal cutlary. The lunch consisted of a plane rack of Lamb, and a potato.
It was very good tasting, not too dry, and I had no problems with the portions.
I will now let the picture do the talking for a bit.

[img]http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m151/wrightbrothers/Picture028.jpg
[/img]




We routed over Ireland, Iceland, eastern and Central Canada, Salt lake City and finaly Nevada, at which point, just above Hudson bay, I had a hoit bacon roll, which really hit the spot, I'd recomend it to anyone.
Salt Lake city from 38,000ft

Over Nevada

LAS from 38,00ft, infact, LAS was my final destination for my holiday !

Now only about 2 hours from Landing, afternoon tea was served, I had warm scones, with jam and clotted cream, very nice !  

We started to desent into LAX, while the cabin crew cleared the cabin, I took another in-flight photo and adjusted my seat back to landing postition.


The aircraft passed over the In 'N' Out burger and made our way quickly to the runway.

A view of LAX just before landing


The plane landed with a bit of a bump, a a lot of trust reverse, with a bit of braking, brought the aircraft to a walking pace, and we exited the runway, taxing to the Tom Bradely Internation Terminal/

BA 744 going back to to LHR

Air Tahiti A340 at gate 121.


The seat (taken on our retunr flight to LHR, but it's the same seat)

My seat on my LAX-LHR flight (16/08/06)

We deboarded the plane, saying good-bye to the cabin crew, and walked down to imigration.
One last suprise was in-store for us on arrival at the baggage carrosel, BA had managed to lose (not for the first time either) one of our 3 bags, so after dealing with that, we made our way out into the LAX sunshine

Overall, I'd give:
The food: 8/10 (not bad at all)
The IFE: 9/10 (very good selection IMHO)
The seat: 9/10 (very good, I'm just looking foward to the new BA F seat !)
The cabin crew: 10/10 (BA crew never fail me)
OVERALL: 9.0/10 (I just can't fault BA, an excelent airline all round, only reason not for 10/10 was for losing our baggage, but these things happen  

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed reading it, please feel free to leave your comments bellow
 

Wrighbrothers

[Edited 2006-08-22 17:47:40]