At the beginning of the month of October I flew off for a trip to Peru and Bolivia with my girlfriend. I had done the booking a couple of months before to ensure I would get a good price on the tickets. I found a ticket with KLM. The whole price, including taxes cost me 1400 SFR( 910€, 1,150$), just 30 francs more than with Iberia.
I was looking forward to flying the MD11 on long haul(I had only taken it once before for a 2 hours trip between GRU and EZE). Its not everyday we get to fly that bird.
The night before the flight we checked in GVA, to be told we would have to fly the two middle seats in the middle row! Something that hadn’t happened to me since 1996! Finally in amsterdam we were able to switch to a window seat despite the aircraft being very full. Just meeded to insist and be nice to the ground crew in AMS.
Here is a pic of the airplane I was about to take


Boarding started at 10:50 am. We were one of the first to get on board. I was very happy to try another airline than IB on longhaul (since I come from Costa Rica we don’t have much choice for flying there than IB, AirMadrid or other chartes).

Airline: KLM
Flight no: 741
Gate: D11
Aircraft: MD-11
Registration: PH-KCE
Seat: 12K
Destination: Bonaire
Date: October 3rd
Time of departure: 11:20am
Time of arrival: 2:45pm
Load Factor: 100%

My boarding pass


view from the outside of my seat


00:00 into flight Push back started at 11:20 am. Here is a picture I took as the aircraft turned around ready for taxiing. VLM and NWA are visible.


This may be the last time I saw one of NWA’s DC-10’s
.

It took us 10 min to taxi towards Kaagban for take off. Ahead of us was a USAirways767. We were then cleared to take off.
Click this link to download the video of the takeoff
VIDEO OF TAKEOFF 1min18

Since the airplane was totally full it took around 50 seconds for it to rotate. It was great to takeoff from the runway I had been spotting at a month and a half before.
GVA-AMS-GVA..An Amazing Day Of Spotting(pics+vids) (by RootsAir Aug 20 2006 in Trip Reports)
Here is the view from the aircraft after takeoff

Most of the last long haul flights I had taken had been with the A342 or A343. It was a great change to see MD11’s powerful takeoff where you had the impression the aircraft rapidly gained altitude unlike the 2 others.
It was not long before we saw the North sea beneath us.

There seemd to be lots of traffic going on. Just see the amount of ships on the picture !


00:20: A stewardess came with a pack of smoked almond and served me a coke I had asked for


00:25min: We started flying over the British coast


I hoped to be on the correct side of the aircraft since according to the airshow we were heading south of London.
And thankfully I was !!!!!!
00:30: Enjoy these pics I took over London

our flight over London, a steward passed with refreshing towels. However when I got it it was still pretty hot so I had to wait a while until I was able to use it..
Our flight continued over the south of England. I guess this is Exeter airport.

00:45 The captain started speaking to the passengers. He said we were at FL320 and that our flight would pass over the Azores in 2h30 min time. The first piece of land we’d see after crossing the Atlantic ocean would be Martinique before joining Bonaire where we would arrive ahead of schedule.
01:00 We flew off the Enlglish coast.
I was pretty tired from the early awakening in the morning so I fell asleep.
01:30 I woke up to find out that everyone around me was eating their meal and some had even finished. My GF told me she didn’t want to wake me up and the steward said he’s come with my dinner as soon as I woke up!
Therefore I waited eventhough I was getting hungry. Fortunately, in nothing of a time a stewardess brought my meal and the drink I had ordered. All in a very friendly way
The meal was a pasta with cheese sauce and cabbage salad with a piece of Salmon. I don’t know if it was due to my hunger, but it was very good, and totally forgot to take a picture of the meal. Here it is after I ate everything!
I ended my meal with a good cup of tea!


I found the crew even more friendly when a stward saw I was taking a picture ans asked to take a picture of my GF and I, which I thought was really nice of him. If ever you recognise yourself, thanks for your good service

Inside the aircraft

02:00 The first movie of the flight ,CARS started to be shown

I saw the movie, but after 45 minutes I felt the need to go to the bathroom. I took advantage of the situation to move a bit my legs and served myself some wter in the self service minibar.
03:30 We flew over the Azores as the captain had mentioned. It was a great sight indeed. Fortunately there were only a few clouds so we had a great view over the islands
Runway

Pico Volcano

04:00 A stewardess came with a tray where we could choose between a glass of orange juice or water. I took a bit of orange juice for myself. I took a little nap once the movie ended. When I woke up there was the airshow on the screen



05:30 The crew came up with a trolley serving a drink with Ice Cream. It was very good indeed and I was being very happy with the service and not regretting the extra 30francs I had paid to fly KLM rather than Iberia, where the crew serves you lunch then disappears until one hour before the flight when they give you a snackmeal !

I listenend to some music and read my Peru/Bolivia travel guide. I looked outside the window to see if I saw anything special.

06:00 The next movie started playing. It was Nacho libre


07:45 The crew came serving hot snacks. The presentation was excellent. The meal came inside a box which ontained to sudoku grills. On this purpose a pencil was furnished with the cutlery.Here you have the vegetarian meal my Gf got. Finally an airline that understands that vegetarians eat something else than just fruits and vegetables(eg in South African, she was served a sandwich with whole bits of vegetables inside )
The vegetarian meal contained a salad, and a sort of calzone with cheese, soya and onion inside. Got to taste a bit of it and it was good!

The calzone that I had was and Indian Style chicken. To be honest it was very good.

08:00: Flying over Martinique

Airshow over the caribbean

08:50We started our descent over the island of Bonaire. We saw appaearing beneath us the island . I was surprised as to how arid it looked down there.

.
09:15After 25 minutes of Descent we were ready for landing in bonaire. The approcah was very beautiful
VIDEO OF LANDING-Great approach(46 secs.)

Thrust fully reverted


Flamingo airport is really small so it took us nothing of a time until we were parked. Passengers flying to Lima we asked to leave the plane and go to the transit hall in the airport
One the a/c was parked, refueling was ready to start


So I got off the plane

and headed towards the transit hall

but before I wanted to get a pic with this beautiful bird


We had to wait 1h30 inside. It was very hot and crowded inside the terminal
. I went to check out the duty free stores.
In bonaire took place a crew change. Here you can see the two crews meeting each other

At 3:30pm local time it was time for boarding and get back on the a/c

[Edited 2006-10-28 11:30:37]