747-400: D-ABVY
A320: D-AIZW
A340-600: D-AIHU
Ready? Here we go! Apologies for low quality images, all I have is a four year old phone.
I'm almost never in Terminal E in Boston and the afternoon/early evening is of course a very busy time for international flights, so I got myself to the airport four hours before the flight to tour the terminal. Those A380 jetways are so far off the ground!
I'm no expert on the Terminal A&E Delta connections, but I think there's a bus. For those that don't know, A&E are at opposite ends of BOS and you cannot walk between them while staying in the screened side.
I counted five Delta 767s at E alone! A Qatar plane was parked at the gate our plane was going to use, so the arriving flight had to sit for about 45 minutes. They reparked the Qatar plane at a remote stand.
Everyone on A.net complains about gate lice. This was far beyond any other gate lice I've ever experienced. Six times or so, I approached a group that was in the line itself, not just clustered around. And they'd move forward a little but not as much as they should. So I'd ask, "are you in line?". Each time, they said "yes"...then five seconds later they would say, "but this isn't our group...oooh, you are in group X? Go ahead of us". Well then you shouldn't be IN THE LINE ITSELF!
You have no idea how excited I was. I was thrilled to have the yellow tail for the 747 and the A340. Seems more like genuine Lufthansa. On this trip I took 340 pictures in 3 days. 90% of planes. Engine start up wasn't too loud. Slight smoke smell in the cabin.
RWY 4R departure. Pilots did a turn and burn takeoff. Would have been fun to hold the brakes and get launched. 40 second roll. Some wing flex. Moderate push into the seat, some nice deep thunder, but no comparison to an A332 takeoff I had earlier this year. Per an uncalibrated app on my phone, 94 dB at seat 50K on takeoff. 84 dB during climb. 82-84 dB during cruise later. I've had a few 100 dB readings on other takeoffs. I watched just about every Youtube video on "Lufthansa 747-400 economy" and checked out all the Seatguru sites to guarantee a good seat. Can you imagine the horror of having a misaligned window on your only 747 flight?!?! I wanted to have a good outboard engine view and I sure did.
Interior was in good shape. Seats were fabric. Comfortable enough. I'm 6' 4" and I had just enough leg room.
I was unaware of the "high speed aileron" on the 747 until I saw it in action. So cool! We had almost no turbulence. Pretty smooth the whole way. No, I did not sleep on the plane! I wanted to soak in every second on the plane. Ended up being wide awake for 28 hours before I went to bed that night. Too much excitement.
I think we landed on 07R at FRA. Sadly no RT. I did not see the cowling move. It was a firm but quiet landing with some rudder action. I saw the blue smoke from our tires! The flight barely felt longer than a BOS to SFO TCON flight because, well, it wasn't that much further. I wish it was longer. Very simple immigration and connection process in FRA. Much better than Toronto (hell).
I explained to the flight crew about my aviation passion and my interest in the 747 and they just thought it was weird I guess. They just didn't seem to get it. Maybe the language barrier didn't help. On 757 USA flights, I've been invited in the cockpit and the crew loves to talk about the planes. They were understandably under pressure to get everyone off the plane and ready for the next flight. They did let me very quickly see the UD but I didn't get to see the cockpit (and of course, they don't owe me anything).
Next was an A320 flight to MUC. Not the focus of this report. A little delayed. Not much to report. Not a yellow tail. Terrible seat comfort though. Felt like I was on a Frontier A320 (bad). Prior to takeoff, I thought we were doing a fast taxi for a while, then we all of a sudden we had T/O thrust without turning. We departed RWY 18. It was actually a little concerning for me because I didn't realize we were already on the RWY (I thought we were headed for the 07's. I was too intimidated to try the train to MUC. We flew fairly low, so I did get to see the landscape. Also interesting, I think the gear came down before the flaps. Never had that happen before. Does that even make sense?
At MUC I walked from the Hilton to The Mound. Also went to the Terminal 2 observation deck. I soon noticed that everyone in Germany smokes. It was really bothersome. Want to get a breath of fresh air outside? Seriously, good luck. You cannot avoid cigarette smoke. I was coughing a lot.
The Hilton at the airport was outstanding. I was in room 6228 and that is THE room to be in. It's a corner room facing the north RWY with a partial view of one of the terminals. I'm glad I stayed there.
As a stupid American that doesn't know German, I was pretty intimidated to leave the airport area, but I got myself on the train and saw the Rathaus-Glockenspiel and the market. That was fun, I'm glad I got out of my comfort zone (the airport lol). I got two pretzels while I was there and they were not good surprisingly.
Back to MUC! A seized Aeroflot? Easy immigration process. Wait wasn't too bad. The bathrooms had towels that you couldn't rip off...were they getting sanitized and reused? Oh also, good luck finding the bathrooms in the German airports. They were hidden and tiny. What the heck?
We began boarding the A346 at 3:46 pm! It doesn't take much to impress me. I intentionally chose a seat in the way back, 57A. Our outboard engine was blowing the grass quite a bit on taxi. It really had some overhang.
I could see the horizontal stabilizer! (I'm easily impressed I guess...)
55 second take off roll, also a turn and burn. Not thundery. Very minimal push into the seat. 88 dB takeoff. It felt like the back of the plane got pretty close to the runway on rotation. Tons of cross traffic in the first hour or two in the air. WiFi wasn't working so I couldn't ID the flights. I was really looking forward to "racing" some other planes across the Atlantic at a 1 mile or 2,000 ft separation but there was literally nothing to see the entire flight on the left until we got back to the US. I did get FR24 working and all the close proximity planes were on our right. Less leg room on the A346 than the 744. It was tight. Oh well.
The wing was very stiff in turbulence. Very, very little flex. We did have some rough air at a few stages but nothing approaching severe.
When we were landing, I saw the Lufthansa 747 Frankfurt flight waiting to take off after we landed! That was a fun surprise. We landed on 4R. Used reverse thrust this time.
At the end of the flight, I was able to chat with the F/As who were more impressed by my enthusiasm than the 747 crew. They bent over backwards, giving me Lufthansa chocolate, showing me the crew rest downstairs by the bathrooms and even allowing me to very quickly see the cockpit! Again, I know they have no obligation to do this, and I shouldn't expect it every time. It helped end the trip on a very high note. We only had two pilots but two sets of F/As, so they did use the beds, located by the downstairs bathrooms.
Excellent trip, no regrets. Well worth every penny. It is a good way to get my feet wet so I know what to expect when I do plan a more legitimate international vacation. It's funny, in Frankfurt, after staring at all the 747s they have based there, an A330 starts to look like an A320. It's going to be hard to go back to 737-800s and A320s after this trip. I want to do it again!
