Round The World and other travels
A frequent flyer's collection of trip diaries
January 2006 : Flight Log : BA6898
London Heathrow (LHR) - Gibraltar (GIB)
As previously
arranged, the group met up in the vicinity of the Terminal 1 BA
Lounge Pavilion at around 0630 - more or less! There were enough
gold cards to ensure that everyone could be admitted to the First
Lounge and before long we were all seated at the
impressive Champagne Bar. As at least one of the group said : "Might
as well start as we mean to go on!" Actually, most people started
off with fruit juice, cereal and bacon baguettes, but by 7 o'clock,
all pretence was cast aside and the first corks were popping on some
absolutely lovely Alfred Gratien pink Champagne. Very nice indeed
By 0730, I was dropping hints that it really was time to head for
the gate. Champagne bottle count by 0730 : 5
Delay at the
gate was minimal and we were soon boarding our GB Airways A320,
occupying almost the whole left side of the Club Europe cabin. I had
managed to grab 1A using OLCI, in cahoots with fellow EDI-based
FlyerTalker GregM, who was now in 1C. Those of us who were
paying attention were well and truly startled to hear the Captain
say, as part of his introductory remarks : " ... and a very special
welcome to the group joining us from FT this morning!" My goodness
... news does get around! You know, in retrospect, there was quite a
strong clue to the mystery in the message itself : the Captain had
said "FT", not "FlyerTalk". Who else but a fellow FTer would do
that? As we were soon to discover, our aircraft was to be flown by
our very own DarrenT. What an exceptional turn of events!
Things were to
be just a little bit delayed, however, for as Darren himself
explained, four different aircraft had all
requested pushback at the same time from the same little corner of
the airport! Oh well, not to worry. We eventually got underway at
0812, made our way out to runway 27R and lifted into the morning
skies at 0824, giving the group an excellent view of the latest
progress at T5. A hot towels service was offered as we headed
towards the Isle of Wight and soon thereafter, breakfast was being
served, accompanied by ... you guessed it ... more Champagne
We passed the time chatting once
the trays had been cleared away, as our A320 made its way across the
Bay of Biscay, over the north coast of Spain, passing west of Madrid
and out into the Mediterranean at Malaga. Our route then took us
west through the Straits for a big U-turn that would let us make our
easterly approach into Gib. The landing at GIB is a spectacular one
: it is such an odd feeling to be flying so low over water and with
such restricted space available at the airport, it's essential that
the pilot sets the aircraft down at just the right spot. Even then,
it's a major braking and reverse thrust job to ensure that you don't
end up taking an unscheduled boat trip
Thankfully, Darren had the situation well under control and we taxi-ed
to our stand for an on-time 1144 arrival.
Although it
seemed strange to sit tight while the Y cabin disembarked, we did
exactly that, so that we could say hello and thank you to the
other FlyerTalker aboard BA6898 - the
one in the very front seat!
Champagne bottle count by 1145 : 10
Date: Sat 21 Jan 2006
Aircraft : Airbus A320
Scheduled dep : 0800
Actual departure : 0812
Scheduled arrival : 1145
Actual arrival : 1144
Cabin : Club Europe (Business Class)
Seat : 1A
Linked reports from same trip :-
Gibraltar Fun-day
Flight Log BA6899