FlyingFinn
Jan 14, 03, 4:24 am
Well, this is my first attempt at a TR, so be gentle. Comments, suggestions and questions are always welcome.
A little note about the weird routing:
This all started as a simple HEL-OSL-HEL run for the Sunday the 12th, booked from the SAS Christmas Calendar promo, which most FT's probably are familiar by now. Then somehow I managed to book the trip to Vienna for the same weekend, and managed to even fit them together, so that I could do both.
Note: all times are local times (GMT+1, except for Helsinki, which is +2).
Anyway, onwards with the show:
January 10:
SK719 HEL-CPH
SD: 17.45, AD: 17.45
SA: 18.30, AA: 18.35
MD-81 OY-KHL "Knud Viking"
Seat 19F
Left the office at around 15.15 to take a train to downtown Helsinki and a bus to the airport from the central station. At the SK checkin there were almost no queues, so after waiting one minute I got a free agent and was promptly checked in, got my boarding passes for both of my legs today, bag checked through to VIE. Asked for a window seat on the F-side, and got one for both flights. All done by 16.25, I headed donwstairs for a quick snack and then passed airside through security. Vantaa was moderately busy, but nothing special. Wandered around for a while, and the headed to gate 22, where boarding began at 17.20.
Plane had the standard SK interior, dark blue seats with red covers for the headrests. I counted a total of 12 rows of business class. Boarding was smooth, I estimated the load to be around 75-80% in eco, almost full in biz. I guess these Scandinavian trunk routes are quite a cash cow for SAS. Luckily the middle seat next to me remained empty. The crew was apparently Danish, all the FAs were senior, so no hot Danish blondes onboard. ****. Were pushed back excactly on schedule at 17.45. To my surprise, there was no deicing, even though the temperature outside was around -22C (-8F)! When being pushed back I saw a Finnish Air Force Fokker 27 taxiing. We started our journey towards runway O4R for our 1h25m hop to Copenhagen.
It was rush hour at HEL, with a big queue ahead of us. The following planes were taking of before us: DC Saab 340, two AY Babybuses (A319) and AY DC 9-50. At this point the captain came on, explaining that we were still number 6 for take off, but he expected on-time arrival. A KF Saab 2000 and another DC Saab 340 took off and then an EE ATR-72 landed on the same runway. Now this was a little surprising, I thought that the recently-opened paraller runway 04L was intended to be used for landings in rush situations like this, but for some reason wasn't used now. Then an AY MD-11 took off for its flight to Beijing, must've been full since it used almost all of the runway. A nice sight. After a couple of incoming planes, we finally got to the threshold after an BA A319 to LHR, and started rolling at 18.07. Around 40 seconds later we were airborne. Almost immediately made a gentle 360 degree turn to the left and headed southwest towards the Baltic Sea.
Service started less than 10 minutes after takeoff. The standard SK snackbox was provided, which contained a tub of water, a bread roll, slices of turkey with salad and a muffin. It was pretty good, for airline food. A drinks round followed, so I asked for a beer and got a full can of Tuborg. A cup of coffee to finish it all and I was satisfied. To my dismay I discovered that since row 20 was an exit row, my 19F wouldn't recline at all. 19D and E had recline. Anyway, the seat pitch on these SK birds isn't too bad, so that wasn't such a catastrophe. Relaxed with the inflight magazine and my book, sipping my beer every now and then.
At around 18.00 the throttle was eased, and I could feel the gradual descent starting. At 18.15 the seat belt sign came on and an announcement was made about the impending landing. We were over Malmö by the time. On approach to Kastrup from the south we flew in clouds for quite a long time, so I missed on most of the scenery. The clouds were hanging really low, we must've been only a few hundred meters high when we finally broke the cover. A touchdown followed at 18.28. Just seven minutes later we were on our gate B10. Some of the more interesting visitors included a SK A340, a RG M11 to Rio via Heathrow and a FI 757 to Reykjavik.
SK9405 / OS5306 CPH-VIE
SD: 19.55, AD: 20.38
SA: 21.40, AA: 22.45
Fokker 70 OE-LFJ "Stadt Vienna"
Seat 12F
Emerged to B-pier of Copenhagen's terminal 2 only to find out that my flight had been delayed to 20.30. Bummer. Wandered around CPH for a while, took a look at the nice shops (for shopping, CPH is definitely one of the better airports in Europe) and grabbed a beer at a cafe. The aiport was quite busy this Friday evening. At 20.00 I arrived back to the B-pier, to gate B7 this time. Boarding pass was already collected when entering the gate area (walled off from the main pier). Tyrolean Airways' F70 "Stadt Graz" arrived at the same time to the gate. Boarding started 25 minutes later. Newspapers were offered in the galley when entering the plane. Tired-looking gray leather seats in 2-3 configuration, my seat 12F being over the wing. More cramped than the SK MD's, but still bearable. Middle seat next to me was empty again. Three rows of biz featured a load of about 80%, with eco trailing behind at around 50%. Two young FAs, the one serving the back was quite cute. When I took my place, I could see the pilot and a ramp agent examining the top of the right wing for signs of ice.
Pushback commenced at 20.38. Apparently there had been signs of ice, since we taxied towards deicing station B and got a nice shower. The pilot came on, saying he was sorry about the delay and explaining that we would depart from rwy 04R and that the flight time was to be about 1h25m. Annoying elevator music played in the background for the whole boarding and taxiing process. Started our takeoff roll at 20.57 and the little jet jumped to the air only after some 20 seconds. Nice views of the famous bridge after takeoff when we flew right over it.
Service started soon, and consisted of a rye bread sandwich with either cheese or ham. I had the ham one, which was decent, if not really a culinary experience. The drinks round followed, I got a full bottle (!) of Zipfer beer. A little later another drinks round followed, I declined from coffee/tea and asked for a Gin Tonic instead. Again a full bottle of Tonic and a small bottle of Gin were handed to me, with a plastic glass with ice. Reclined back on the seat a bit and relaxed sipping my drinks and reading my book.
Around 21.55 the throttle was eased once again and my ears confirmed to me that we were indeed descending. 5 minutes later the seatbelt light was turned on. Weather in Austria featured some heavy snowing, and our approach was quite bumpy. I could hear the throttle being constantly juggled back and forth. These Fokkers are quite noisy, the pilot made an announcement mid-flight and I couldn't make it out. Anyway, our gear was extended at 22.30, with a touchdown at 22.35. There were lots of snow everywhere, with more and more falling all the time. 10 minutes later we stopped at a remote stand next to a company Dash-8 and were bussed to the terminal. Bags were pretty fast to arrive, mine along the first ones (I was a little afraid that it wouldn't make it, given the problems at CPH in the beginning of the week, but luckily it did). I hopped on a bus to Vienna City Air Terminal and from there a taxi to my hostel.
January 12:
SK9402 / OS5301 VIE-CPH
SD: 7.05, AD: 7.07
SA: 8.55, AA: 8.55
Fokker 70 OE-LFI "Stadt Klagenfurt"
Seat 12A
Because I had to be in HEL in time for my 14.05 flight to OSL, I had to take the 7AM flight to CPH. This meant getting up at an ungodly hour of 3.50. Took a taxi to Bahnhof Wien Mitte, and from there the first S7 train to Schwechat airport at 5.13. Arrived at 5.45, a quick walk to Terminal 2 followed and I was checked in with both boarding passes in hand by 6.00. A number of Polish people were checking in before me, apparently they spoke no other language than Polish, so the checkin agents had some trouble dealing with them. Boarding passes in hand I passed to airside, noticing my gate B32 in the process. Airside was deserted, with almost all the shops and bars being closed. I walked donstairs to the B gate area (all bus gates), passed through security and sat down near my gate. There were maybe a whole of 4 people in the B area. Some more people arrived and finally a coffeeshop opened, so I was able to wake myself up with some caffeine. Near boarding time I counted a whole total of 10 people in the B32 gate area! A couple of officials came around with a dog that sniffed all the benches and all the passengers. I'm not sure if they were looking for drugs of explosives, but anyway I've never seen that kind of thing before.
Boarding started at 6.47, with a bus backing directly to the gate allowing us to enter via the backdoors. The ten of us quickly settled in and were bussed to another hard stand, next to our Fokker 70, "Stadt Klagenfurt". Ramp action was dead this early. Spotted some Lauda Air birds (B737 and 777), a number of Austrian Airlines A320s and MDs with a Swiss RJ and a Saab 2000 nearby. All of us were on board by 6.58. Two FAs, one stunning young blonde and an older one. Biz class curtain was set after row 9, with only one lady in Business class, weird. While getting seated in my seat, another bus parked alongside and a family of 4 people boarded the plane, the only Austrians on this flight. That raised the total pax count to 14. Engines were started at 7.03, and we started moving at 7.07. Off we went to deicing. Two deicing trucks were working on us at the same time, so the process was fast. At 7.19 we started our takeoff roll from rwy 29, with rotation in less than 20 seconds. Must've been the light load. A slight left turn followed, after which we flew directly over downtown Vienna. Nice views of the city and the snowy Alps in the distance, with the rising sun giving them a nice red color. Passed over Wienerwald. Soon after service started, with a tub of orange juice and a cheese or ham sandwhich. Decided to go for the cheese, which was again decent. Two cups of coffee finished my breakfast. The coffee was extremely good, one of the best coffees I've ever tasted. The Viennese seem to really know their coffee! No additional drink rounds were offered.
Germany was overcast today, so there really wasn't anything to see except for the nice red sky. Decided to focus on my book again. Captain made another announcement somewhere over Germany, but due to the engine noise I had no idea what was being said. Anyway, at 8.19 seatbelt light came on again and we nosed downwards for our descent. Very cloudy again, visibility was down to a few hundred meters and the clouds hand extremely low. Touched down at 8.45 on rwy 21. The weather was gray and wet. After 4 minutes we arrived to gate B16, next to a SK MD82 and an Air Luxor A320, must've been a charter.
SK1712 CPH-HEL
SD: 9.55, AD: 10.15
SA: 12.30, AA: 12.45
MD-81 LN-RMO "Bergljot Viking"
Seat 12A
Since I had been assigned seat 32A for the next flight in Vienna, and I really didn't feel like sitting next to the engine, I walked to SK transit checkin and asked them to put me to a seat more up front. I got a new boarding pass for seat 12A (again!). Saw that the gate for the Helsinki-bound flight would be B7, the very same gate I departed to Vienna just 36 hours earlier. After some Travel Value shopping I headed to the gate, where boarding commenced by 9.35. A very light load again, with maybe 15% of eco occupied and maybe 5 people in the biz part of the cabin. Since biz was 11 rows, my row 12 faced the curtain. On our left side I could see a SK A321, SE-REG and on the right side there was a LH A310 which had arrived just 10 minutes earlier (probably from FRA).
The flight featured 3 older FAs and a young purser serving the biz pax. Before the safety demonstration I overheard the purser asking all the biz pax individually if they were familiar with the safety procedures. I assumed he was going to skip the demonstration, since all of them seemed to answer yes, not sure about this since the curtain was blocking my view. At 9.50 it was announced that we would depart immediately for our short 1h10m (must be some favorable winds) flight to HEL. And then nothing happened. We stood still for 20 minutes, and finally at 10.10 the Norwegian captain came again again, describing that apparently the jetway wasn't retracting and they were looking for "someone more experienced in operating it". At 10.14 I spotted the jetway moving again, very slowly, and sure enough, a minute later we were pushed back. I spotted a TG 747 as well as a SK 767 over at the C-pier. We taxied to rwy 22R in the midst of a long queue of company MDs, and commenced a powerfull takeoff at 10.26. Weather was still overcast, so there wasn't much to see.
Soon after another SK lunchbox followed, this time a tub of water, a bread roll, 2 slices of cheese, strips of ham and some weird apple/onion/tomato salad thingy. For dessert, two FazerMint chocolates were provided. Apparently biz class was getting a full hot breakfast/lunch serving, since the nice aromas were carried straight to my nose from the better side of the curtain (****!). A glass of orange juice and a cup of not-so-good (definitely not up to the Tyrolean standards) coffee followed. Our captain came on somewhere over southern Sweden to inform us that we were cruising at 10.000 meters, were expected to land in HEL around 12.45 and that weather at our destination would feature clear skies and a temperature of -3C.
I finished my book and reclined back to try to catch some sleep and staring at the Baltic Sea from the window. At one point I spotted a plane coming from the opposite directiong, trailing a huge black exhaust trail. That must have been a Russian Tupolev! I'm sure glad these birds are going to become extinct soon, it wasn't a reassuring sight. I must've dozed off, since when I came to, we were already making landfall to Finland over Hanko. Descent started at the same time, and the belt sign was turned on, with an announcement about landing being expected in 12 minutes. After flying over most of Espoo and western Vantaa, we touched down on rwy 04R at 14.43. Very smooth. Arrival to gate 26 was just 2 minutes later. Baggage arrived very quickly, and I went through the customs. I moved some items from my carryon to my roller and deposited it to the left-luggage office.
SK6617 / KF503 HEL-OSL
SD: 14.05, AD: 14.03
SA: 14.40, AA: 14.49
RJ-85 OH-SAL
Seat 16F
There was a queue of around 10 people to SK checkin, so I decided to use the self-service machine instead. Easy and smooth. With boarding passes for both the outbound and inbound flights in my hand I went back to airside. The metal detector went off, so I was treated to a nice wanding service. My belt buckle and watch were pointed out to be the culprit. Funny, since I've been wearing the same belt and watch for the whole trip, and this was the first security check that I failed. Anyway, at 13.00 I was back airside. I did some tax-free shopping (since Norway isn't a part of EU, I wanted to take full advantage of my trip). Shortly afterwards I headed to gate 22, where our Air Botnia OH-SAL plane was being readied for the flight. Boarding started at 13.45, and I was the first one on the plane. These KF RJs feature a 3-2 seat configuration, and I had intendedly chosen window seats on the 2-side (F) for both flights today. Row 16 turned out to be the second to last row. Loads were pretty heavy, maybe 2-3 vacant seats in the whole eco cabin, and biz seemed to be packed as well. A youngish blonde FA and an older purser. When we were pushed back at 14.03, I saw the Evergreen 747 freighter arrive. When we were starting our engines an emergency crew fire truck parked nearby, which was a little bit disturbing. Everything went fine, and a quick taxi to rwy 04R (again) followed, with a rolling takeoff starting at 14.16 and the plane leaving the ground some 30 seconds later. Another 360 degree turn to the left followed and we headed to Oslo.
Soon the FA came on the PA to announce that the water system in the plane was not functioning due to the coldness, so coffee and tea couldn't be served. The obligatory SK lunch boxes were delivered once again, featuring a tub of water, a bread roll, potato salad with some raw, salted lax (which I absolutely loathe) and a fruit salad. I only ate the bread roll and the fruit salad and a tiny bit of the potato salad. Washed it down with a Koff beer (full can again) from the drinks round that followed.
When we were overflying Stockholm, the first officer (a she) came on to inform that she was expecting arrival around the scheduled time of 14.40 and that the temperature in OSL would be -3C. Time passed quickly, I was reading a newspaper. At 14.32 the seat belt light came on, and we started to descend for the Oslo Gardemoen airport. Nice views of the hills of southern Norway, some fjords and pine forests on either side of the plane. Touched down on the runway 01R at 14.44 and taxied to gate 39, where we stopped at 14.49. Bought a roundtrip ticket on the FlyToget from the baggage hall ticket machine, and boarded the 15.14 train to Oslo S.
SK6616 / KF506 OSL-HEL
SD: 19.30, AD: 19.28
SA: 22.00, AA: 21.50
RJ-85 OH-SAL
Seat 11F
I was back to the airport at 17.30. The FlyToget was pretty nice, although I expected something a little more. Still, it got you from place A to place B fast and reliably. Don't know how it compares to the Arlanda Express, which I'm to try in two weeks. The new airport in Gardemoen was extremely impressive. Very modern, with lots of metal structures. The excessive use of glass gives it an airy feeling, and the wood a certain warmness, that some old airports built from concrere seem to lack. Lots and lots of checkin desks were featured on the departure lobby. Since I already had my boarding pass, I just passed through the security, no problems there (and still wearing the exact same outfit as in HEL!). Upon leaving the security, the domestic gates were to the left and the international area to the right. At the extreme right end of the international area was the non-Schengen area, with passport control required to enter it (actually, to my surprise I saw a LOT flight to Warsow displayed at a gate that was part of the Schengen-area, I wonder if they'll do passport checking at the gate?). You had to show your boarding pass to a nice lady to be admitted to the international area. That done, I did some more tax free shopping and sat for a beer (horribly expensive, but I had to spend my remaining crowns somewhere) at a bar.
Oslo was amazingly busy this evening, with a constant stream of arrivals to 01R. At any given moment there was a plane on finals and another one further back, with sometimes the lights of three planes visible at the same time. Most of the arrivals seemed to be domestic, since the international side wasn't too busy. The SAS Group was heavily represented, with large numbers of SAS, Braathens and Wideroe birds around. An AY DC9-50 came in, and I spotted a British Airways Airbus and a LH 737 as well.
Around 19.10 I made my way to gate 40 to discover that the plane would be OH-SAL again. This would then be my third time flying with this one. The plane was being deiced while empty and hooked to the jetway, never seen this one to happen before. Still handy. At 19.15 it was time to board my fourth and the last flight of the day, with one UAM being led on board before everybody else. The plane featured 8 rows of biz class (the previous one had been just 3), with a load level of 75-80%. Back in eco, loads were lighter, with maybe 50% of the seats taken. Luckily I had a free seat next to me. Announcements made about predicting our flight time to be 1h10m. Pushback was at 19.28, taxi to 01L, takeoff run started at 19.39 and after another 30 seconds we overcame the earth's gravitational pull. A couple of turns left followed, with a great view over the lights of downtown Oslo. There was some turbulence as well.
Another announcement about the water system still being broken (I actually used the lavatory a while later and at least it had running water, go figure), so no coffee/tea. 2 young FAs, a black-haired one and a blonde. Service consisted of (you guessed it!) a SAS lunchbox, this time with a tub of water (yawn), a bread roll (double yawn), cold pieces of chicken with some horrible salad (pickles, onion, paprika) and a piece of chocolate. Opted for a small bottle of red wine this time.
Another female first officer (not sure if she was the same one as before today) came on when we were passing Mariehamn to inform us about the altitute of 10.000 meters, the temperature in Helsinki (-7C) and that we were expected to be 10 minutes early. Sure enough, seatbelt light came on at 21.36, with landing announced to be just 10 minutes away. A rough touchdown followed to rwy 15 at 21.47, and the plane come to stop on a hard stand 3 minutes later. A quick bus to terminal, I passed through customs, retrieved my back from the storage and headed for the bus that would take me home, only to find that the cat had obviously had a ball at the place in my absence. Another trip finished!
That's all for now. I know it's a little long, but I still feel like I left out a substantial amount of stuff. Anyway, please comment on it and tell me if I should post in the future as well (have at least HEL-ARN-HEL scheduled in a few weeks, probably no report for this, and HEL-ARN-BRU-ARN-HEL and HEL-CPH-MUC-CPH-MUC to follow in February and March, respectively).
.P!.
A little note about the weird routing:
This all started as a simple HEL-OSL-HEL run for the Sunday the 12th, booked from the SAS Christmas Calendar promo, which most FT's probably are familiar by now. Then somehow I managed to book the trip to Vienna for the same weekend, and managed to even fit them together, so that I could do both.
Note: all times are local times (GMT+1, except for Helsinki, which is +2).
Anyway, onwards with the show:
January 10:
SK719 HEL-CPH
SD: 17.45, AD: 17.45
SA: 18.30, AA: 18.35
MD-81 OY-KHL "Knud Viking"
Seat 19F
Left the office at around 15.15 to take a train to downtown Helsinki and a bus to the airport from the central station. At the SK checkin there were almost no queues, so after waiting one minute I got a free agent and was promptly checked in, got my boarding passes for both of my legs today, bag checked through to VIE. Asked for a window seat on the F-side, and got one for both flights. All done by 16.25, I headed donwstairs for a quick snack and then passed airside through security. Vantaa was moderately busy, but nothing special. Wandered around for a while, and the headed to gate 22, where boarding began at 17.20.
Plane had the standard SK interior, dark blue seats with red covers for the headrests. I counted a total of 12 rows of business class. Boarding was smooth, I estimated the load to be around 75-80% in eco, almost full in biz. I guess these Scandinavian trunk routes are quite a cash cow for SAS. Luckily the middle seat next to me remained empty. The crew was apparently Danish, all the FAs were senior, so no hot Danish blondes onboard. ****. Were pushed back excactly on schedule at 17.45. To my surprise, there was no deicing, even though the temperature outside was around -22C (-8F)! When being pushed back I saw a Finnish Air Force Fokker 27 taxiing. We started our journey towards runway O4R for our 1h25m hop to Copenhagen.
It was rush hour at HEL, with a big queue ahead of us. The following planes were taking of before us: DC Saab 340, two AY Babybuses (A319) and AY DC 9-50. At this point the captain came on, explaining that we were still number 6 for take off, but he expected on-time arrival. A KF Saab 2000 and another DC Saab 340 took off and then an EE ATR-72 landed on the same runway. Now this was a little surprising, I thought that the recently-opened paraller runway 04L was intended to be used for landings in rush situations like this, but for some reason wasn't used now. Then an AY MD-11 took off for its flight to Beijing, must've been full since it used almost all of the runway. A nice sight. After a couple of incoming planes, we finally got to the threshold after an BA A319 to LHR, and started rolling at 18.07. Around 40 seconds later we were airborne. Almost immediately made a gentle 360 degree turn to the left and headed southwest towards the Baltic Sea.
Service started less than 10 minutes after takeoff. The standard SK snackbox was provided, which contained a tub of water, a bread roll, slices of turkey with salad and a muffin. It was pretty good, for airline food. A drinks round followed, so I asked for a beer and got a full can of Tuborg. A cup of coffee to finish it all and I was satisfied. To my dismay I discovered that since row 20 was an exit row, my 19F wouldn't recline at all. 19D and E had recline. Anyway, the seat pitch on these SK birds isn't too bad, so that wasn't such a catastrophe. Relaxed with the inflight magazine and my book, sipping my beer every now and then.
At around 18.00 the throttle was eased, and I could feel the gradual descent starting. At 18.15 the seat belt sign came on and an announcement was made about the impending landing. We were over Malmö by the time. On approach to Kastrup from the south we flew in clouds for quite a long time, so I missed on most of the scenery. The clouds were hanging really low, we must've been only a few hundred meters high when we finally broke the cover. A touchdown followed at 18.28. Just seven minutes later we were on our gate B10. Some of the more interesting visitors included a SK A340, a RG M11 to Rio via Heathrow and a FI 757 to Reykjavik.
SK9405 / OS5306 CPH-VIE
SD: 19.55, AD: 20.38
SA: 21.40, AA: 22.45
Fokker 70 OE-LFJ "Stadt Vienna"
Seat 12F
Emerged to B-pier of Copenhagen's terminal 2 only to find out that my flight had been delayed to 20.30. Bummer. Wandered around CPH for a while, took a look at the nice shops (for shopping, CPH is definitely one of the better airports in Europe) and grabbed a beer at a cafe. The aiport was quite busy this Friday evening. At 20.00 I arrived back to the B-pier, to gate B7 this time. Boarding pass was already collected when entering the gate area (walled off from the main pier). Tyrolean Airways' F70 "Stadt Graz" arrived at the same time to the gate. Boarding started 25 minutes later. Newspapers were offered in the galley when entering the plane. Tired-looking gray leather seats in 2-3 configuration, my seat 12F being over the wing. More cramped than the SK MD's, but still bearable. Middle seat next to me was empty again. Three rows of biz featured a load of about 80%, with eco trailing behind at around 50%. Two young FAs, the one serving the back was quite cute. When I took my place, I could see the pilot and a ramp agent examining the top of the right wing for signs of ice.
Pushback commenced at 20.38. Apparently there had been signs of ice, since we taxied towards deicing station B and got a nice shower. The pilot came on, saying he was sorry about the delay and explaining that we would depart from rwy 04R and that the flight time was to be about 1h25m. Annoying elevator music played in the background for the whole boarding and taxiing process. Started our takeoff roll at 20.57 and the little jet jumped to the air only after some 20 seconds. Nice views of the famous bridge after takeoff when we flew right over it.
Service started soon, and consisted of a rye bread sandwich with either cheese or ham. I had the ham one, which was decent, if not really a culinary experience. The drinks round followed, I got a full bottle (!) of Zipfer beer. A little later another drinks round followed, I declined from coffee/tea and asked for a Gin Tonic instead. Again a full bottle of Tonic and a small bottle of Gin were handed to me, with a plastic glass with ice. Reclined back on the seat a bit and relaxed sipping my drinks and reading my book.
Around 21.55 the throttle was eased once again and my ears confirmed to me that we were indeed descending. 5 minutes later the seatbelt light was turned on. Weather in Austria featured some heavy snowing, and our approach was quite bumpy. I could hear the throttle being constantly juggled back and forth. These Fokkers are quite noisy, the pilot made an announcement mid-flight and I couldn't make it out. Anyway, our gear was extended at 22.30, with a touchdown at 22.35. There were lots of snow everywhere, with more and more falling all the time. 10 minutes later we stopped at a remote stand next to a company Dash-8 and were bussed to the terminal. Bags were pretty fast to arrive, mine along the first ones (I was a little afraid that it wouldn't make it, given the problems at CPH in the beginning of the week, but luckily it did). I hopped on a bus to Vienna City Air Terminal and from there a taxi to my hostel.
January 12:
SK9402 / OS5301 VIE-CPH
SD: 7.05, AD: 7.07
SA: 8.55, AA: 8.55
Fokker 70 OE-LFI "Stadt Klagenfurt"
Seat 12A
Because I had to be in HEL in time for my 14.05 flight to OSL, I had to take the 7AM flight to CPH. This meant getting up at an ungodly hour of 3.50. Took a taxi to Bahnhof Wien Mitte, and from there the first S7 train to Schwechat airport at 5.13. Arrived at 5.45, a quick walk to Terminal 2 followed and I was checked in with both boarding passes in hand by 6.00. A number of Polish people were checking in before me, apparently they spoke no other language than Polish, so the checkin agents had some trouble dealing with them. Boarding passes in hand I passed to airside, noticing my gate B32 in the process. Airside was deserted, with almost all the shops and bars being closed. I walked donstairs to the B gate area (all bus gates), passed through security and sat down near my gate. There were maybe a whole of 4 people in the B area. Some more people arrived and finally a coffeeshop opened, so I was able to wake myself up with some caffeine. Near boarding time I counted a whole total of 10 people in the B32 gate area! A couple of officials came around with a dog that sniffed all the benches and all the passengers. I'm not sure if they were looking for drugs of explosives, but anyway I've never seen that kind of thing before.
Boarding started at 6.47, with a bus backing directly to the gate allowing us to enter via the backdoors. The ten of us quickly settled in and were bussed to another hard stand, next to our Fokker 70, "Stadt Klagenfurt". Ramp action was dead this early. Spotted some Lauda Air birds (B737 and 777), a number of Austrian Airlines A320s and MDs with a Swiss RJ and a Saab 2000 nearby. All of us were on board by 6.58. Two FAs, one stunning young blonde and an older one. Biz class curtain was set after row 9, with only one lady in Business class, weird. While getting seated in my seat, another bus parked alongside and a family of 4 people boarded the plane, the only Austrians on this flight. That raised the total pax count to 14. Engines were started at 7.03, and we started moving at 7.07. Off we went to deicing. Two deicing trucks were working on us at the same time, so the process was fast. At 7.19 we started our takeoff roll from rwy 29, with rotation in less than 20 seconds. Must've been the light load. A slight left turn followed, after which we flew directly over downtown Vienna. Nice views of the city and the snowy Alps in the distance, with the rising sun giving them a nice red color. Passed over Wienerwald. Soon after service started, with a tub of orange juice and a cheese or ham sandwhich. Decided to go for the cheese, which was again decent. Two cups of coffee finished my breakfast. The coffee was extremely good, one of the best coffees I've ever tasted. The Viennese seem to really know their coffee! No additional drink rounds were offered.
Germany was overcast today, so there really wasn't anything to see except for the nice red sky. Decided to focus on my book again. Captain made another announcement somewhere over Germany, but due to the engine noise I had no idea what was being said. Anyway, at 8.19 seatbelt light came on again and we nosed downwards for our descent. Very cloudy again, visibility was down to a few hundred meters and the clouds hand extremely low. Touched down at 8.45 on rwy 21. The weather was gray and wet. After 4 minutes we arrived to gate B16, next to a SK MD82 and an Air Luxor A320, must've been a charter.
SK1712 CPH-HEL
SD: 9.55, AD: 10.15
SA: 12.30, AA: 12.45
MD-81 LN-RMO "Bergljot Viking"
Seat 12A
Since I had been assigned seat 32A for the next flight in Vienna, and I really didn't feel like sitting next to the engine, I walked to SK transit checkin and asked them to put me to a seat more up front. I got a new boarding pass for seat 12A (again!). Saw that the gate for the Helsinki-bound flight would be B7, the very same gate I departed to Vienna just 36 hours earlier. After some Travel Value shopping I headed to the gate, where boarding commenced by 9.35. A very light load again, with maybe 15% of eco occupied and maybe 5 people in the biz part of the cabin. Since biz was 11 rows, my row 12 faced the curtain. On our left side I could see a SK A321, SE-REG and on the right side there was a LH A310 which had arrived just 10 minutes earlier (probably from FRA).
The flight featured 3 older FAs and a young purser serving the biz pax. Before the safety demonstration I overheard the purser asking all the biz pax individually if they were familiar with the safety procedures. I assumed he was going to skip the demonstration, since all of them seemed to answer yes, not sure about this since the curtain was blocking my view. At 9.50 it was announced that we would depart immediately for our short 1h10m (must be some favorable winds) flight to HEL. And then nothing happened. We stood still for 20 minutes, and finally at 10.10 the Norwegian captain came again again, describing that apparently the jetway wasn't retracting and they were looking for "someone more experienced in operating it". At 10.14 I spotted the jetway moving again, very slowly, and sure enough, a minute later we were pushed back. I spotted a TG 747 as well as a SK 767 over at the C-pier. We taxied to rwy 22R in the midst of a long queue of company MDs, and commenced a powerfull takeoff at 10.26. Weather was still overcast, so there wasn't much to see.
Soon after another SK lunchbox followed, this time a tub of water, a bread roll, 2 slices of cheese, strips of ham and some weird apple/onion/tomato salad thingy. For dessert, two FazerMint chocolates were provided. Apparently biz class was getting a full hot breakfast/lunch serving, since the nice aromas were carried straight to my nose from the better side of the curtain (****!). A glass of orange juice and a cup of not-so-good (definitely not up to the Tyrolean standards) coffee followed. Our captain came on somewhere over southern Sweden to inform us that we were cruising at 10.000 meters, were expected to land in HEL around 12.45 and that weather at our destination would feature clear skies and a temperature of -3C.
I finished my book and reclined back to try to catch some sleep and staring at the Baltic Sea from the window. At one point I spotted a plane coming from the opposite directiong, trailing a huge black exhaust trail. That must have been a Russian Tupolev! I'm sure glad these birds are going to become extinct soon, it wasn't a reassuring sight. I must've dozed off, since when I came to, we were already making landfall to Finland over Hanko. Descent started at the same time, and the belt sign was turned on, with an announcement about landing being expected in 12 minutes. After flying over most of Espoo and western Vantaa, we touched down on rwy 04R at 14.43. Very smooth. Arrival to gate 26 was just 2 minutes later. Baggage arrived very quickly, and I went through the customs. I moved some items from my carryon to my roller and deposited it to the left-luggage office.
SK6617 / KF503 HEL-OSL
SD: 14.05, AD: 14.03
SA: 14.40, AA: 14.49
RJ-85 OH-SAL
Seat 16F
There was a queue of around 10 people to SK checkin, so I decided to use the self-service machine instead. Easy and smooth. With boarding passes for both the outbound and inbound flights in my hand I went back to airside. The metal detector went off, so I was treated to a nice wanding service. My belt buckle and watch were pointed out to be the culprit. Funny, since I've been wearing the same belt and watch for the whole trip, and this was the first security check that I failed. Anyway, at 13.00 I was back airside. I did some tax-free shopping (since Norway isn't a part of EU, I wanted to take full advantage of my trip). Shortly afterwards I headed to gate 22, where our Air Botnia OH-SAL plane was being readied for the flight. Boarding started at 13.45, and I was the first one on the plane. These KF RJs feature a 3-2 seat configuration, and I had intendedly chosen window seats on the 2-side (F) for both flights today. Row 16 turned out to be the second to last row. Loads were pretty heavy, maybe 2-3 vacant seats in the whole eco cabin, and biz seemed to be packed as well. A youngish blonde FA and an older purser. When we were pushed back at 14.03, I saw the Evergreen 747 freighter arrive. When we were starting our engines an emergency crew fire truck parked nearby, which was a little bit disturbing. Everything went fine, and a quick taxi to rwy 04R (again) followed, with a rolling takeoff starting at 14.16 and the plane leaving the ground some 30 seconds later. Another 360 degree turn to the left followed and we headed to Oslo.
Soon the FA came on the PA to announce that the water system in the plane was not functioning due to the coldness, so coffee and tea couldn't be served. The obligatory SK lunch boxes were delivered once again, featuring a tub of water, a bread roll, potato salad with some raw, salted lax (which I absolutely loathe) and a fruit salad. I only ate the bread roll and the fruit salad and a tiny bit of the potato salad. Washed it down with a Koff beer (full can again) from the drinks round that followed.
When we were overflying Stockholm, the first officer (a she) came on to inform that she was expecting arrival around the scheduled time of 14.40 and that the temperature in OSL would be -3C. Time passed quickly, I was reading a newspaper. At 14.32 the seat belt light came on, and we started to descend for the Oslo Gardemoen airport. Nice views of the hills of southern Norway, some fjords and pine forests on either side of the plane. Touched down on the runway 01R at 14.44 and taxied to gate 39, where we stopped at 14.49. Bought a roundtrip ticket on the FlyToget from the baggage hall ticket machine, and boarded the 15.14 train to Oslo S.
SK6616 / KF506 OSL-HEL
SD: 19.30, AD: 19.28
SA: 22.00, AA: 21.50
RJ-85 OH-SAL
Seat 11F
I was back to the airport at 17.30. The FlyToget was pretty nice, although I expected something a little more. Still, it got you from place A to place B fast and reliably. Don't know how it compares to the Arlanda Express, which I'm to try in two weeks. The new airport in Gardemoen was extremely impressive. Very modern, with lots of metal structures. The excessive use of glass gives it an airy feeling, and the wood a certain warmness, that some old airports built from concrere seem to lack. Lots and lots of checkin desks were featured on the departure lobby. Since I already had my boarding pass, I just passed through the security, no problems there (and still wearing the exact same outfit as in HEL!). Upon leaving the security, the domestic gates were to the left and the international area to the right. At the extreme right end of the international area was the non-Schengen area, with passport control required to enter it (actually, to my surprise I saw a LOT flight to Warsow displayed at a gate that was part of the Schengen-area, I wonder if they'll do passport checking at the gate?). You had to show your boarding pass to a nice lady to be admitted to the international area. That done, I did some more tax free shopping and sat for a beer (horribly expensive, but I had to spend my remaining crowns somewhere) at a bar.
Oslo was amazingly busy this evening, with a constant stream of arrivals to 01R. At any given moment there was a plane on finals and another one further back, with sometimes the lights of three planes visible at the same time. Most of the arrivals seemed to be domestic, since the international side wasn't too busy. The SAS Group was heavily represented, with large numbers of SAS, Braathens and Wideroe birds around. An AY DC9-50 came in, and I spotted a British Airways Airbus and a LH 737 as well.
Around 19.10 I made my way to gate 40 to discover that the plane would be OH-SAL again. This would then be my third time flying with this one. The plane was being deiced while empty and hooked to the jetway, never seen this one to happen before. Still handy. At 19.15 it was time to board my fourth and the last flight of the day, with one UAM being led on board before everybody else. The plane featured 8 rows of biz class (the previous one had been just 3), with a load level of 75-80%. Back in eco, loads were lighter, with maybe 50% of the seats taken. Luckily I had a free seat next to me. Announcements made about predicting our flight time to be 1h10m. Pushback was at 19.28, taxi to 01L, takeoff run started at 19.39 and after another 30 seconds we overcame the earth's gravitational pull. A couple of turns left followed, with a great view over the lights of downtown Oslo. There was some turbulence as well.
Another announcement about the water system still being broken (I actually used the lavatory a while later and at least it had running water, go figure), so no coffee/tea. 2 young FAs, a black-haired one and a blonde. Service consisted of (you guessed it!) a SAS lunchbox, this time with a tub of water (yawn), a bread roll (double yawn), cold pieces of chicken with some horrible salad (pickles, onion, paprika) and a piece of chocolate. Opted for a small bottle of red wine this time.
Another female first officer (not sure if she was the same one as before today) came on when we were passing Mariehamn to inform us about the altitute of 10.000 meters, the temperature in Helsinki (-7C) and that we were expected to be 10 minutes early. Sure enough, seatbelt light came on at 21.36, with landing announced to be just 10 minutes away. A rough touchdown followed to rwy 15 at 21.47, and the plane come to stop on a hard stand 3 minutes later. A quick bus to terminal, I passed through customs, retrieved my back from the storage and headed for the bus that would take me home, only to find that the cat had obviously had a ball at the place in my absence. Another trip finished!
That's all for now. I know it's a little long, but I still feel like I left out a substantial amount of stuff. Anyway, please comment on it and tell me if I should post in the future as well (have at least HEL-ARN-HEL scheduled in a few weeks, probably no report for this, and HEL-ARN-BRU-ARN-HEL and HEL-CPH-MUC-CPH-MUC to follow in February and March, respectively).
.P!.