Some have accused me of a lack of patience ... well excuse me for being enthusiastic!
Geert had intentionally not shared with me any details of this months' FOTM and I took it personally. (I vowed to get him back at some point this month).
The March FOTM over Niagra Falls was pretty quick and easy - with the kids' help I was done by the third. The April FOTM over Ararat was e-mailed to me last year so we (The kids and I) had flown that in February. The May FOTM was mine, worked up last year. So really, I hadn't gotten any "real FOTM flying" done in about four months - some "other" flying but ... Needless to say, I was anxious to see and hear what we had in store for June. When the FOTM information first popped up I thought, "Great, it's Salina's Euro LoCo all over again" but as I read on I quickly learned that Geert had something slightly different in mind - and he emphasized As Real As It Gets.
With that, I was looking for a way out of Ethiopia. At first I thought that a nice East African VC-10 was the way to go. With that thought I worked up the various FOTM legs in my mind with a Q-400, an F-70, an ATR-72, a couple 732s (Geert loves Baby Boeings), and maybe an A-318 thrown in. I called in my order to "The Collector" and turned into bed Monday night the first of June.
About midnight local time I awoke and thought, "Wouldn't it be nice to see a 707?" So I called the proper authorities and changed my VC-10 to a Trans Global 707. Then I was back to bed. But my sleep was restless - I kept thinking about how much Geert loves BOEINGS ... I could do the whole FOTM in 737-200s ... But variety is the spice of life ... At least I could fly some different liveries ... But the guy wouldn't even tell me what continent I was to be flying in ...
Finally it dawned on me (literally and figuratively) about 04:30 local time! I decided to fly ONLY AIRBUSES this month! "HA! That'll get the little Boeing-Lover where it hurts!" With that I bolted from bed, showered, hailed and cab and raced over to Bole International to arrange my flights!
Commute Leg 1: Ethiopian Airlines A-320 Addis to Cairo.
Commute Leg 2: Mediterranean Airlines A-320 Cairo to Reggio.
Commute Leg 3: Italiano A-320 Reggio to Amsterdam at sunset. Looks like this livery needs a little more work!
Anyway, I arrived in Amsterdam just after sunset on Wednesday June 3rd. While I had thought about sort of doing a "Mix-and-Match" this month, Geert said we had to follow the rules and besides that, he has this great on-line flight planner thing so I was going to do it right, starting cold-and-dark and on-time with real-weather and flight and fuel planning and ... you know, "As Real As It Gets." So, no promises as to how many flights you'll get - this all takes a little time and effort. (Which I suppose is actually good for me.)
Thursday morning - "Amsterdam, we have a problem." I awoke in Amsterdam but all of Geert's flight options start elsewhere! AAARRGH! I swear he's out to get me this month! I swear it! So we are back to the Mix-and-Match plan: Flying for KL1961 - Amsterdam to Zurich departing 15:10 Flying for SK610 - Zurich to Copenhagen departing 20:10 Flying for SK2551 - Copenhagen to Amsterdam departing 08:15 Flying for SK822 - Amsterdam to Oslo departing 10:55 Flying for SK4609 - Oslo to Manchester departing 17:50 Then ... we'll just have to see what happens.
Flight 1961: In Swiss Livery To Depart Amsterdam at 15:10 gate E-24 To Arrive Zurich at 16:35 Routing via EHV - LRD VORs
Flight 610: In Jetstar International Livery To Depart Zurich at 20:10 gate T-5 To Arrive Copenhagen at 22:00 Routing via LBU - HLZ - CDA VORs
Flight 2551: In KLM Livery To Depart Copenhagen at 08:15 gate B-19 To Arrive Amsterdam at 09:45 Routing via HNT - ENW - EEL - PAM VORs
I've since finished repainting the tail cone and getting the logo centered on the tail.
Flight 822: In Nordic Air Livery To Depart Amsterdam at 10:55 gate E-24 To Arrive Oslo at 12:40 Routing via LWD - RAM - TOR VORs
Flight 4609: In British Airways Livery To Depart Oslo at 17:50 gate 173 (again) To Arrive Manchester at 19:00 Routing via RYG - KAR - VES - HDR - CGY - WAD - GAM
There are a couple of airways options that are more direct but I wanted to see the time (had mostly been arriving early) and the scenery, so took this flight along the coast lines. This was 752 miles total.
Push-back was on time ... taxi was short and easy ... take-off was at 17:58 ... approach was directly in from the north, no hold ... taxied right over to the gate but this is where the longer route dinged us! Shut down was at 19:20 - that's 20 minutes late.
Finally we come to the last leg for this FOTM. I looked up for any references on this one and all flights connect through somewhere else. I remember Bill going to look up a flight and having the message, "no logical connection" and that seems to be the case here. Oh well, it's only a game, right? So I loaded up a flight in a commemorative livery (El Euro LoCo from Salina's FOTM back in 2004) from Manchester to Lisbon. Clearance delivery was at 5:50 AM Pushback from Gate 8 was at 5:52 AM. Start-up at 5:53 AM We were cleared to depart from runway 24R at 5:59 AM Our routing (High-Alt Airways minus the Intersections) was via BCN - BHD - QPR - AVS - VIS VORs
approaching Lisbon from the north. Landing runway 21.
This was 929 miles total.
There you have it Geert, Hopping Around Western Europe in European Airbuses! Actually, aside from being REALLY FUN, I loved the planning and seeing how "On Time" I could be - something that has entertained Bill for years but something that was just sort of labor-intensive for me. GREAT JOB! Many Thanks Again!
A few days' rest and I'll be off to South America!
pretendpilot@yahoo.com
