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back from 4 days of spotting together with John Altenawe've flown with KLM Cityhopper PH-KZM
we've flown to Liverpool as this saved us 50 euro's each on the ticket,and from Liverpool we've travelled with the bus and train to Manchester Airport,total costs about 18 euro's each and about 1 and a quarter our work.as we were in Liverpool you have to catch the famous yellow submarine....
it was a nice trip and this way we saw some of the country.
we've staid in the Airport hotel and had room number 5 as this is the one at the balkony.we we're a bit scared as we heard about the dogs on the balkony and that it would be a bit dirty.this was not the case,still the same as 3 and 4 years ago,old stuf but eventualy it was all clean.
as we arrived the planes took of from the wrong site so photographing was not an option yet so took it easy on and first grabbed a big pint of Carling.
about 1 our later all things turned aroud so it was time to get the camera out of the bag.figurly
only big thing was that they were working on the taxiway so no planes taxiing by the hotel.
but oke make the best of it
at one point the sun broke trou the clouds as expected,the weather forecast was great,it said that we would get 4 days of sun,ok it's England but still had some good hopes for it.
the next day we grapped a breakfast(yes the full english one) and after that dicided to look for a good spot to catch the planes as it was allready sunny and with almost no clouds.and from the hotel you only can get pictured agaist the sun untill 1400.
we dicided to walk towards the landing light where I could try to get decant pictures from the aircrafts.
as this was a bit close for the big aircraft I've tried to walk a little away i founded the garden centre and they had a little coffeeshop(no not like the onces in Amsterdam).
as the were not opened yet(opens at 10.00)dicided to allready grap a chair and take the pictures from there.
from this moment I knew where I could be found in the morning.
they have some nice sorts of cappucino's and much better food then in the Airport hotel.
this was the catch of the day:
around 2 pm went back to the hotel to grap another pint.and the rest of the day on the balkony to catch the other birds.nothing really special allthough the daily T7-300 of EK is always nice to catch as also a Freebird A320(TC-FBJ) came in.
after this called it the days as the sun was behind the horizon.
next morning got up at 6 am to be early as this would be a bizzy day around Manchester airport as there was something special to happen this day.
got our breakfast early as the kitchen was also ready to recieve a lot of people.
after the breakfast started to walk to the garden center to get a tabble for the day.
it opened at 8.00 and walked to the terrace of the coffeshop and preparred for a long day.
the coffee was served early as they allready opened at 9.15.
at the table I was sitting together with John 2 older ladies arrived and tolded us that they reserved the table allready but we could stay sitting there and had a great time with them.they talked our ears from the heads and we've tried to do that to them also .
this was one of the planes I wanted to catch as it was cancelled the previous day.
also a nice visitor was this one:
and this one appeared for the second time.other registration so 2 times seen.
after this one the time of the Emirates came close as this was the one where our whole trip was based around.allready it got pretty bizzy with people as we've heard from others arriving at the garden centre.every road around the airport was full of traffic and on every highway was a traffic jam.
there where an estimated 15000 to 20000 peolple around the airport as we all been waiting for this one
after this one came by some people were a bit disapointed as the expected something bigger
isn't this one big enough? I think a lot of people didn't expected it to be this quit.
after this we took our time to get back to the hotel to get back to the balkony and wait for the departure for this newest from Emirates as this one was delivered the 12th of august.as I heard this bird is one of the first without the crewrest and has about 20 seats more then the others.so this one will be used on the short routes only.
normaly the EK departs at 14.30 but to the press and all the stuff around it this day the plane departed an our later.
look at the wingspan and the engines hanging over the grass.how ashame it was that the are working on the taxiway and we all knew that it would take the earlier taxipath to the runway,we all had the hope that it would taxi to the beginning of the runway.unfortunatly it didn't
damn those diggers.... It was quite impressive to see the whale taking of with 2500mtrs of runway as the intersection to the beginning of the runway makes a difference of 350 mtrs(give or take).
the rest of the day we took our time.
only regular traffic the rest of the day only note that the EK of the evening-service was delayed about 3 ours,and saw it arrive in the dark.
the next morning I decided to walk to the parking garage from terminal 1 and level 13 as they turned the runways around and they were taking off in front of the hotel and it was no use for me to try to take pictures.
I wanted to get the famous line up.
around 10 am the runway use was turned into the good direction for me so dicided to take a walk back to the garden centre,took me half an our to get back there.
one of the first planes taken from the garden centre was Virgin's G-VLIP.as I was not standing at the right point missed a great detail of this bird. on the back section is a big picture of Harry Potter.darn missed...
also this one came in another time
as we had to leave around 1400 I also could catch this nice bird.
this time the A6-EDJ popped up so has my second frame of an EK380.
some people who were there were surprised to see the 380 show up,they tought it was a one time occasion,and told them from now on it's the daily service.the surprise for people was even bigger.
after all good times there comes a time to head back home as duty cals.
took the train to manchester Piccadilly from there on the train goes straight to Liverpool and from there bus 30A goes straight to the airport.
there took a coffee and then checked in.
this is all there is,about 15 desks for Ryanair 12 for Easyjet 3 for KLM and 2 for Eastern Air.thats it.
a total of 48 desks so some are not in use as these airlines are the only opperating from here.
after this picture went trough custems by only showing you're boarding pass
a Good tip you can by a 3 pound ticket for the fast lane for securaty check, BY IT ,as there were only 3 security checks opened and it took us more then 20 minutes before went trough it.
as they are reconstucting the whole terminal it was a kind of labyrint to walk trough everything before getting to the gate.
all went fast and before we knew the door closed and got our push-back.
Nice note Our english pilot was called Richard Holland.the whole plane reacted when it was said.
the co pilot was called Michael de Jager.
had a great take off.it was like a short runway take-off.no flaps handbrake and full-trottle at the beginning of the runway and then like a rocket in to the sky.
during the flight we've had an great effect seen out of the window.
don't know if seen but there was some kind of rainbow colors in the sky below us.
after landing on runway 24 it was a 1 minute taxi to the stand as we took S3 and then a 3 minute bus ride to the gate after that we were trough the custams within 5 minutes and the baggage took only 5 minutes after that.
it sure was my quickest one ever from landing to standing outside smoking a sigarette within 20 minutes.
well had a great time and will do it again in the future.
now going trough the 1500 pictures taken .
small note all the picture are straight out of the camera and only cropped an if needed straightend.
hope you all like this report.
greetings Ton
