N674UW
Nov 11, 03, 1:43 am
Hi folks...
A few days ago marked the one year anniversary of the end of my trip to England, which was my first visit to Europe...the trip was taken because I was selected for my school's British Exchange, which meant that I got to go to the UK for a month with 9 of my classmates during my senior year of HS...alas it was a one sided exchange as the Brits did not come over here on an official basis for a variety of reasons. Anyway, I was reading the TR's that I wrote about this trip for another website and I really like the way they turned out in retrospect so I figured you folks might like them as well...enjoy!
October 3, 2002
CO 26
EWR-BHX
757-200
After a cruelly long day at school I headed home, threw together a day pack for the flight, and then headed back to school with my parents to meet everyone else on the trip that was going. Our scheduled departure time from school was at 3:30 PM or so, but with all the parents saying goodbye to their sons and daughters for the next month, we didn't pull out of school until about 3:45 or so, which wasnt a problem really as we still made it to EWR in plenty of time.
The drive to EWR was about 2 hours or so, and as we rode past it on the NJ Turnpike, I whipped out my camera and started shooting pics of the activity going on there, and I saw a wide variety of aircraft including an Alitalia 763 and SAS A340, both of which were new sights for me.
We pulled around to CO International checkin at Terminal C and entered the checkin line...from there all hell broke loose. The chaperone who was taking us to England, a guidance counselor at my school whom we nicknamed "Doogie" decided to keep all of our passports and go up and ask the lady how she wanted to handle a group of 11 people checking in...I was internally outraged at this blatant stupidity since it was utter chaos checking in in this fashion, it would have been so much simpler to just give us the passports and let us do it on our own...finally everything got sorted out after about 20 minutes of checking in...
From there we proceeded through the snazzy looking security checkpoint in Terminal C where all of us made it through except for one of my classmates, who, on the bus ride up, had ironically been griping about how when she flies she always gets picked for random searches...the irony of it was funny. While she was getting her baq searched, another member of the group decided to take a photo of her and her stuff getting inspected, at which I winced and whispered to her not to do that, and the security woman gave a little glare and a shake of the head...she was lucky her film didnt get confiscated...
Once all was said and done at security, we headed off again to the gate, with Doogie leading us into the wrong concourse until I pointed this out and we got on the proper course. I saw the Peter Max 777 at a gate, which delighted me, but when the rest of the group saw it, they called it "the party plane"...LOL... Most of us were famished so we hit the food court and got some dinner, me getting some chicken fingers from Nathan's. After eating, we just chilled there at our table for a while and then went to gate C96 at about 7:25 for boarding, which was scheduled to be about 7:30.
There were no open seats in the lounge, which was very quiet, so we sat on the floor, tucked away into a little corner and resumed talking with each other. I could imagine that everybody who wasnt in our group that was on CO 26 was probably thinking "Oh man, this is gonna be a long flight with a bunch of talkative teens on board"...I felt sympathy for them somewhat, as I am probably the quietest one of the group. We had been waiting for about 20 minutes or so when they called pre-boarding, and then "Rows 25 and higher for Continental 26, nonstop service to Birmingham, England"
I heard this and immediately got up, with my seat assignment being 26F, and everyone else's being higher than that still, but nobody else moved. They were too busy blabbing away to hear the announcement, so again I pointed out that it was time to go and they finally moved.
The boarding queue was long but quick moving, and I got onboard at the 1L door and walked through the single aisle on the 757-200, staring enviously at the BusinessFirst seats. It was here that I heard one of my classmates behind me say in a nice loud voice with no hint of sarcasm, "Well yea, we are gonna make this flight a living hell for everyone" I winced at that, turned around, and asked if she was joking, to which I got no response.
I was, in a sense, disappointed by the flights that were booked for us (CO 26 & 27) as out of all of the airlines and aircraft combos that fly from the US to the UK, it had to be this one...an airline/type combo that I had already flown on before, and I did not like the CO 757 on my other experience with it (IAH-SJO-IAH) because the seat pitch was microscopic (according to their website 31") and caused me difficulty in getting comfortable. The SJO trip were only 3 hour flights, but this hop across the pond was scheduled at nearly 7 hours and I was not really looking forward to it in that respect, but knowing that at the end of it I would be in both a new continent and a new country reassured me somewhat.
Anyway, ranting about the CO 752 aside, I found my seat in 26F, aft of the wing with a window and got settled in. I shoved one of my carry-ons into the overhead and stuffed my daypack under the seat in front of me, a work of ergonomics since my pack was stuffed to the max. On the seat cushion there was a wrapping containing a blanket, pillow, and headphones. I didnt want any of those now so I threw the package on the floor and sat with my face pressed to the window, awaiting my seatmates. Having compared boarding passes earlier, I knew that none of my class friends would be sitting next to me, so I waited to see who got the tremendous privliege of sitting next to me on the flight across the pond. Within a few moments a black British couple sat down next to me, and that was that. They seemed like decent people so I returned my attention to spotting, but I didnt really see anything interesting given that it was dark.
The plane loaded surprisingly quickly but there was an unexplained delay in pushing back. Nevertheless, within 10 minutes or so of the door shutting, the aircraft pushed back and the RB-211's hanging from the wings spooled up. The captain announced that there would be no delay once we got to the runway and the 757 began taxiing out towards runway 4L. Out my window I was able to see a nice variety of aircraft parked at the gate, including a VS 744 and a CO 753, which I had been dying to see...what a thin bird that is...it needs to see a nutritionist (sorry for the stupid joke).
Over the p/a the captain asked the f/a's to take their places for departure and more or less on time, CO 26 left Runway 4L at EWR after a 41 second roll and began its estimated journey of 6 hours and 1 minute to BHX. Almost immediately we climbed through a scattered layer of clouds as I still had my face more or less pressed against the window. For some reason I find that staring out the window helps to kill a lot of time.
I was ready to fall asleep, but I wanted to stay up for the dinner meal that was being served. In regards to food service, first a hot (or slightly warm in my case with my seat so far aft) towel was offered, and then a bar service with a bag of pretzels was offered, to which I had a Coke w/o ice. The movie, "Almost Famous" began to play around the time the bar started, but I had no desire to see that so I took out the Discman and listened to a variety of music ranging from Dave Matthews to U2 to Red Hot Chili Peppers as I began reading the autobiography of Jimmy Doolittle.
About an hour or so into the flight, the dinner cart made it to my row with the classic question "Beef or Chicken, sir?" I chose the beef, because, you know, "it's whats for dinner" What I got was a tray containing the following: A small salad containing lettuce, tomatoes, grated cheese (which meant I couldnt eat it as I am allergic to cheese) and a thing of caesar dressing, a slice of sponge cake, a dinner roll with a small butter wrapping, a small container of spring water, and the main course, a small sliver of beef about half the size of my fist (if that) on top of mashed potatoes and veggies. I ate the beef, potatoes, and roll, drank the water, and when the 2nd bar service came around, I got another Coke w/o ice to wash it all down, and once the trays were collected, I raised my traytable, reclined my seat fully and attempted to doze off with the band "Live" blaring in my ear.
About 2 hours later, or just under 4 hours into the flight, I woke up and tried to force myself to go back to sleep, knowing that there was still quite a few hours to go, however these efforts proved to be completely futile so I changed CD's again and started reading the Doolittle bio again, and when I got tired of that, I watched an episode of Frasier that was playing. One thing I noticed was that CO lacked an airshow map that played between programs on the cabin monitors. This was frustrating to me as I would have liked to have known what the flight's status was, and maybe this is something they have planned for in the future.
At about 4 hours and 45 minutes into the flight, the cabin lights came on and the service manager announced brightly that a light breakfast would served shortly in the main cabin. Landing cards would also be passed out for non-EU citizens to fill in. I filled mine out fast and then put it away. Once again, "hot" towels were offered, followed by a breakfast bar where I got an orange juice w/o ice, then the meal, which consisted of a fruit salad and a croissant. I didnt want that so I declined, and continued to watch the IFE and the window. Soon enough I began to see the first hint of a sunrise off in the distance and as I looked below, I could see lights, and I guessed that we were probably over Ireland. I kept waiting anxiously for the slight sensation of weightlessness that signaled the start of the descent. The sky got brighter and brighter and soon enough I felt my seat go light as the aircraft nosed down slightly on the initial descent into BHX. The f/a's then came around collecting meal trays and trash (rubbish).
The first stages of the descent were above clouds, but as we got a little lower, around 15,000 feet or so, a vast sea of green appeared before my eyes. It was absolutely majestic...very picturesque. The landing announcements were made as we continued to descend and I observed cars driving on the wrong side of the road as we got even lower.
"Flight Attendants, prepare for landing" was called and the f/a's finished their cabin preparations and scurried back to their jumpseats. 2 sharp banks to the left, and we were lined up on a final for Runway 33. 6 hours and 10 minutes after leaving EWR, Continental 26 touched down fairly normally on Rwy. 33 and rolled out without the use of thrust reversers. That reminds me, how long is the runway at BHX? It did not have the runway distance signs on it so it was hard to determine...(I later got the answer, no need to find out anymore)
Anyway, from the moment we swooped in over the threshold, I knew I was in heaven...all sorts of aircraft that I dont see back home in the US were before my eyes, including a CSA 737, Britannia 752, JMC A330 and 752, BA A319, and a number of British European aircraft...it was heaven...The taxi was fairly short and we got to our gate, but things were a little slow in disembarking. I could see the breath of one of the line workers steaming up, which was not a good sign as when we left it was about 80 degrees, but it looked to be about 45 degrees or so in BHX...not good.
Immigration was quick and easy, although I noticed with a little contempt that my passport was stamped on page 11, kind of random cause page 8 was the next free page...oh well...my bag was first off the belt at Customs and we basically walked through there without a hassle...
I had arrived in the UK...finally...
While in England, we spent several days observing classes at a school in the Derby area, then began a tour of the UK including Edinburgh and southern Scotland, Bath, York, Nottingham, the Peak District, Stonehenge, Salisbury, Windsor Castle, London, and Warwick Castle, followed by more observing of classes...of course during this each period, each one of us lived with a host in Upper 6th form and with their families...it was very interesting to compare British homelife to American homelife...
Of course, mixed into that was tons of makeup work from school back in America, but also tons of partying and living it up helped to compensate for the workload...
Now, the return:
Thursday, October 31, 2002
Continental Airlines 27
BHX-EWR
757-224, N33103
Scheduled Departure 10:45 AM
Scheduled Arrival 1:45 PM
Seat 32A, Economy Class
I went to bed at about 12 midnight or so, and was shaken awake at the far-too-early hour of 4:45 AM by my host mom, who wanted me to be ready to leave at 5:30 AM. I quickly washed up, got dressed, did final packing, and made sure that I hadn't left anything behind. This didn't take more than about 15 minutes or so, so I found myself with plenty of time to spare. I chilled and watched telly while my host family finished their own morning routine. At 5:20 my host mom wanted me to take my stuff out to the car, and I seriously wondered how we were going to shoehorn in my 4 very packed bags into their fairly tiny Ford Focus, but somehow we managed and we set off to school on time, school being the designated meeting point for all of our group in the morning to meet our bus for the drive to BHX.
We got there about 5:45 or so, 5 minutes prior to the official meeting time of 5:50, and were the first ones there, but slowly cars began to come into the parking lot, and by 5:55 all of us were there, plus the hired coach to take us to BHX. It was time for the final goodbye, and I thanked my hosts profusely for all they had done for me over the past month, and it appeared that everyone else was doing the same. Once we had all gotten on the bus however, several of the girls on the trip began to bawl very loudly, and it felt like a soap opera was going on.
The 1 hour and 15 minute drive from southern Derbyshire to BHX was uneventful, and we unloaded promptly and headed inside, but we discovered that the checkin for CO 27 was not open yet, and would not be open for another 20 minutes or so. Our chaperone (a different one from the outbound flight to BHX thankfully) allowed us to go wherever we wanted while we waited, so I went to WH Smith and purchased 3 aviation magazines and some water to help with my sore throat. All of us were sick to some extent, and I knew that flying while sick is not the greatest experience, especially the after-effects, but I didnt have much of a choice in the matter.
Anyway, when the check-on for CO 27 finally opened we were among the first in line, and the very impressive security at BHX made its first appearance. Several security agents moved through the queue, talking to each passenger and asking them questions about issues such as where they packed their bags, their status since packing, whether or not there were any gifts in bags, and if so what were they, and what types of electronic devices I had with me. I answered all the questions truthfully, and the agent, satisfied, placed some stickers on my bags and tickets and moved on. When I was at the head of the queue, I was pulled aside and asked to open up one of the bags that I planned to check. I had 2 such bags, and I gave the smaller of the two to this agent, who opened it to discover that there was nothing in there other than a ton of books and aviation magazines. She was satisfied as well, so she gestured for me to move on to an open check-in counter, where I finally got my boarding pass for the flight, noting that my seat was 32A. I thanked the check-in agent and moved out of the way to find the rest of my group.
They were nearby, and we all compared seats to see if any of us would be together. It turned out that 2 members of the group happened to have 32B and 32C, which made me somewhat happy since I would be sitting next to people I know, unlike on the flight to BHX. However, my seatmates for this flight, Neil and Rach, had gotten to know each other real well over the month in England and were in a full-blown relationship, and knowing them, I knew they probably would be too occupied with each other to talk with me that much...oh well...
2 of the girls had bags that were deemed as "oversize" so they needed to take their bags to the oversize belt for check-in, and once they completed that task, we headed upstairs to the food court for some breakfast. I chose some chocolate muffins and munched on those while reading a USA Today that I bought to get caught up on the goings on back home. Pretty much everyone got something to eat, and we all ate at different paces (people say I eat really fast), but we managed to all finish our food. It was then time to head for security, even though it was only 8:45 or so and we had around 2 hours or until departure.
The security area at BHX was walled in so that no one could see in from either side, and before entering this area, a very bored looking lady sat at a desk checking to make sure that you had a valid boarding pass. After entering the security area at BHX, a friendly man took my 2 carry-ons and put them on the X-ray machine for me while I meandered through the metal detector and picked my bags up on the other side, and entered into the departure lounge.
The lounge was a vast area with tons of seats and duty free shops, and 7 or so passageways leading to the gates themselves. Our airport-incompetent chaperone wasn't quite sure what to do here, so, after seeing a monitor telling us that CO 27 was supposed to be at Doorway "D" I think, she took us there and down the passageway to the door itself. The problem was that at this point CO 27 was not listed on the screen for Doorway D as a flight that was being boarded, only a flight to Arrecife. I pointed this out, and she pondered this for a lengthy moment and decided I was right and turned us around and back into the lounge, where we plunked down on a row of seats.
To kill time, first, I went to the window and noted that the reg. of the 757 operating our flight was N33103. Secretly I had hoped for some kind of last minute equipment switch before the aircraft left EWR, but I knew this was probably not going to happen so I wasnt too disappointed when I saw the 757 perched at its gate. I also meandered through the shops and then started read some of my magazines. At one point around 9:45 or so I decided that I wanted Starbucks so I went over there and got a venti mocha, noting the superb view that could be seen there, and then headed back to the group. Scarcely had I sat down when I heard over the p.a. "Passengers for Continental 27 through doorway D please" Everyone else was too busy chatting so I informed the chaperone of this and she had this shocked look on her face but apparently believed me and roused everybody, moving us towards the doorway. We went through the door, and out one of the windows I could see a Turkmenistan Airlines 757, a first for me.
We reached Gate 41, where we had to queue again as the same security team from check-in again questioned us now about the status of our carry-ons before dividing our ticket and admitting us into a small holding lounge. I decided to throw out my mocha here, even though it was still pretty full, as it would be just a major spillage risk once I got onboard the plane. The person sitting next to the trash can where I threw it out gave me a very long and mildly evil looking glare, but I ignored him.
Not long after we were sitting again, the usual array of preboarders (OnePass Elites, disabled, young children, etc.) were invited to board, and then rows 30 and higher were called. This was most of us, so we proceeded through the jetway but just prior to reaching the aircraft, I heard one of my friends shout for me to stop, but a few other of my classmates continued on and boarded. The rest of the group appeared around the corner and the reason they wanted me to stop was so that our trip's videographer, basically the only participant with a video camera, could film us boarding. This process took far longer than it should have, but the film was taken and I made my way onto the plane, boarding through the 2L door.
With my overly packed bookbag and semi-bulky carryon, I had to somewhat waddle through the narrow aisle, and I stuffed with a bit of difficulty my carryon into an overhead on the starboard side near row 29 or so, then I proceeded to get cozy in 32A, shoving my bag under the seat, removing my camera, and kicking the “amenity bag (pillow, blanket, and headset)” to the ground. I kept my head pressed to the window, and I had a decent view of aircraft taxiing off of runway 15 after landing. I took a few pictures of stuff such as a BE ARJ and Lufthansa CRJ 700’s, but I hadn’t been looking too long when I saw my main spotting goal for the trip, the Uzbekistan 757, roll out. I readied the camera for 3 or 4 quick shots as it taxied past into a gate off the starboard side.
Shortly after this, one of my friends tapped me on the shoulder and said “Greg isn’t that your bag?” I looked up, and one of the f/a’s was pointing to my red Coca-Cola carry on and asking who it belonged to. I identified myself as the owner and was asked to come take it for a moment down to another f/a about 8 rows down the aisle. It appeared that they were completely emptying the overhead. This f/a directed me to put my bag in a different overhead, which I did, and then returned to my seat. Once the original overhead was completely emptied, a third f/a came and taped it shut with blue “Sorry this lavatory is not working” tape. I guessed that the overhead had broke or something but no explanation was given.
Also of note was a BHX customer service agent coming on the aircraft explaining that a couple sitting together in two of the bulkhead seats wanted to sit in opposing aisle seats, and would anyone like to trade? No one took them up on the offer, which wasn’t a surprise in my opinion as an aisle seat on a long-haul is a fairly precious commodity, and not something one would willingly give up.
Anyway, moving on, the rest of the loading process was straightforward aside from those above incidents, and we pushed back at 10:55 AM, started up and taxied out to runway 15. Along the way I could see two BA ERJ’s, and I wondered why one of them had the registration painted on the engine nacelle, while the other had the reg. on the aft fuselage. Any help with this would be appreciated. Along the way, the captain informed us of an estimated enroute time of 6 hours and 56 minutes, a cruise altitude of FL 320, and then “for those aeronautical minded folks, we’ll be cruising along North Atlantic Track Bravo” When he said “aeronautical minded”, I beamed a little bit, but quickly frowned when he said “North Atlantic Track Bravo” as I had no idea what that was…it wasn’t something I expected to hear over an aircraft p.a., and this being my first trip across the pond, I hadn’t thought to look that up….something to consider next time I go to Europe.
We took off after an SAS 737-600 (my first 736 sighting) at 11:07 AM, with a 37 second roll, and by my own estimate, about 7,000 feet of runway used. Within 15 seconds we climbed into cloud, and England was gone from my sights after my first visit. About 10 minutes after takeoff the service manager came on the p.a. and introduced herself and described the service for the flight, consisting of several bar services, a lunch, and a light snack. She then informed us that a video about arrival in EWR would be shown, and then after that Customs forms would be passed out. I did not watch the video, and when the forms were passed out, I filled mine out, but right before I finished it, I made an error, so I had to get a new one and start all over again. Not a big deal, just a minor inconvenience.
When I was done the form, noting that my friends next to me hadn’t done it, I looked up at the monitor to notice that an airshow map was being displayed. On the outbound leg to BHX, there had been no airshow map, and so this surprised me greatly and I could already see this, my longest narrowbody flight ever, become 300% better by this relatively simple luxury.
The movies for this flight were to be both “Nine Months” and “Housesitter” After we were well established in our cruise at FL 320, “Nine Months” began to play, and I decided to watch it as it’s a movie that’s allright, and would make a good timekiller. However, I couldn’t find the bag with the headset in it…I knew I had thrown it on the floor back at BHX, but it was nowhere to be found there. I figured my fairly large backpack was covering it over and making it inaccessible so I just decided to use my one pronged discman headphones in the two-pronged jack…I only got sound in the right earpiece but that was better than nothing I figured.
Just after the movie started, the f/a’s announced the beginning of the lunch service, starting with a bar service, followed up by the lunch choices of either beef with red wine sauce or chicken with parsley sauce, followed by another bar service. First, a hot towel service came around, and then the bar cart slowly made its way to the boonies of 32A. However, just before it got there, another f/a came to our row from the aft galley and offered us our drink. I noted that when Neil ordered a Coke, the f/a actually asked him whether he wanted ice or not. That was the first time in all my flying that Ive ever seen an f/a ask that, and as a person who drinks their Coke without ice, it made me pleased. I asked for a Coke , without ice of coursem and got it without any snafus (for some reason on planes the f/a’s usually give me a diet coke w/o ice or a coke with ice, can’t figure out why they never get it right), promptly downing it for the sake of my sore throat, and then went back to the movie. 15 or so minutes later the lunch cart made it and I was surprised to see that there was still a choice left, so I took the beef. However, those in row 33 were not so lucky as she informed them that there was no beef meals left and 2 chickens, with the rest of the onboard meals being vegetarian. Oh well…not my problem…
The beef meal came with the entrée, a roll, a small cup of water, a salad and ranch dressing, and a piece of some kind of nut cake, and as usual I passed on the cake (airline desserts never appeal to me for some reason) but ate everything else. I spilled a little butter onto my camera which was resting in my lap, but I cleaned it up and it still worked ok. As I was finishing it up the second drink service made it to me where I got yet another Coke no ice and a bag of peanuts, which I threw down, and then resumed watching Nine Months. Trays were collected, and nothing eventful happened for the rest of the movie really.
Since there was an airshow map available on the flight, I was expecting that to be shown between movies, but alas, immediately after Nine Months, the f/a’s put on Housesitter. However, the tape quality was extremely poor, skipping frequently, and it took the f/a’s about 15 minutes to sort out the problem before it worked. By this point I was feeling extremely tired so I reclined my seat a little bit and nodded off.
When I woke up, I immediately looked at the screens to see that the airshow map was finally back on, and that our position was about 20 miles north of the Vermont border, somewhere in Quebec. We had apparently climbed to FL 350 at some point, probably after we left the North Atlantic track. The aircraft was a little more than 300 miles from EWR, and we had about 1 hour before landing. I was feeling very bloated, something that happens often when I fly commercially for some reason, so I took out some Gas-X that I had for that purpose. I realized though that I had no water to take it with, so I anxiously fiddled with the pills as I waited to see what segment of the service came next.
Just as I began to wonder if I had slept through the snack service, the f/a’s pushed the cart down the aisle and started serving them from the front of the coach cabin, followed by the final bar service. When the snack cart reached me I accepted and got a small tray with a chicken sandwich, package of “Djionnaise”, an American-style biscuit, water, and a small package of something called “Cornish Cream” I decided to have the sandwich and Dijonnaise, and the water to finally down my Gas-X. It was a decent snack, and was followed up by a bar service, where I stupidly got yet another Coke w/o ice, something which wasn’t going to help me very much!
All the while, the airshow map was playing, and the skies above Quebec and the US were fairly clear, so I kept a constant eye on that. The captain came on an announced that we would be landing “to the northeast” which I interpreted as a landing on either 4L or 4R, and as we needed to swing around for that landing, our flight time would be a few minutes extra. He also said that our descent would follow the Hudson River for a bit. Right around the start of the descent near Lake George, New York, the f/a’s collected snack trays and cups, and I again glued myself and my camera to the window.
We descended to 16,000 feet somewhere past Albany and leveled off there for quite some time as we got closer and closer to EWR. Our approach, as promised, did take us alongside the Hudson River, and we descended just to the west of Newburgh/Stewart International Airport (SWF) at about 12,000 feet or so. SWF is an airport semi-special to me as one of my landing sites on my long solo cross-country, so I was super-excited to see it from the air again, and took quite a few pictures of it while remembering my experience there. Right after we passed SWF the f/a’s made the standard pre-landing cabin preparation announcements, which I complied with and then re-glued my face to the window
At about 7,000 feet or so, over northwestern New Jersey, the airshow map turned off and the drop-down screens retracted into the overheads. The f/a’s made their final cabin checks, and while doing so they were singing some Halloween song, which I found somewhat amusing. Our approach took us paralleling EWR by about 25 miles or so to the west, and then we turned east on a base leg, followed by a final approach turn setting Continental 27 up for about an 8 mile final. I was excited for this approach as I drive past EWR frequently and love watching the traffic on approach from the NJ Turnpike, but now I was actually experiencing it (the last time I flew out of EWR was 1994 and I don’t remember the runways used then). We floated in onto runway 4R, seemingly very slow, and 7 hours and 1 minute after takeoff, at 1:08 PM, Continental 27 touched down in a normal fashion and rolled out without the use of thrust reversers. EWR was full of “exotic traffic”, and yet another new spot for me, the Privat Air BBJ HB-IIQ, could be seen as we taxied to the international terminal.
One thing that I noted was that all the f/a and flight crew announcements on board referred to EWR as just “Newark International Airport”, not the new “Newark Liberty International Airport” After arrival at the gate, (I don’t remember which one), we were reminded for about the thousandth time that all passengers had to go through US Immigration and Customs. For some reason disembarking took a fairly long time, but I used the time to triple-check that I hadn’t lost anything and that I had the appropriate documents needed. I did have everything, except my passport, which our chaperone was holding for us until we got off the plane.
Again, I waddled through the aisle, saying goodbye to the crew, and disembarking through the 2L door. At EWR’s vast US Immigration hall, the group had assembled and passports were distributed, and of course I made it through without any difficulties. However, another member of the group was rejected for having filled out the Customs form wrong and sent to the back of the line to fix it, so we had to wait a little extra for her. When she finally made it, we made our way into EWR’s magnificent customs hall, which offered a magnificent view of operations as well as the PrivatAir BBJ and El Al 744 parked at gates. Unfortunately photography is not permitted in Customs so I regrettably could only watch.
My bags seemed to be the last ones off the belt, but 2 members of the group couldn’t find theirs, so while that mess got sorted out we had to wait an extra 10 minutes. Finally they located them and we were allowed to proceed through Customs, which was no big deal, and then we needed to locate our bus. The time when we left Customs was about 2:30 or so and our original estimated time to meet the bus was 2:00 but it was nowheres in sight. A few phone calls to the bus company told us that we had to hike over to Terminal C International Checkin to meet it, somewhat of a schlepp with our vast amount of luggage, but by 3:00 or so we were on the bus and headed home. Owing to major traffic the normal 1 hr. 45 min. drive back home took around 3 hours, but by 6:00 all of us were back at our school, joyfully reunited with family and friends for the first time in a month. Now it was back to reality as, *gasp*we actually had a full day of school tomorrow…
Thanks for reading!!
N674UW
Epilogue:
Our group was very disappointed that the Brits weren't able to come over on an official basis, however, almost immediately after coming back from England, we began talking to them to try to get them to come over...ultimately, we were able to get 4 of the 11 British hosts (including mine) to cross the pond for a summer visit in June/July 2003...they had a blast over here, and it was sad to have to see them go after a short 3 weeks here...I wish we were only able to get all 11 of them over...furthermore, my host decided to take a gap year and spend it horsing around in New Zealand for a year, and he invited me to come visit him if it was possible...now I'm always looking for excuses to travel to exotic, far away places, and New Zealand definitely qualifies for that, so I am currently finalizing plans to go hop the Pacific and visit him in May/June 2004...can't wait!!!
[This message has been edited by N674UW (edited 11-11-2003).]
[This message has been edited by N674UW (edited 11-11-2003).]
[This message has been edited by N674UW (edited Nov 22, 2003).]
A few days ago marked the one year anniversary of the end of my trip to England, which was my first visit to Europe...the trip was taken because I was selected for my school's British Exchange, which meant that I got to go to the UK for a month with 9 of my classmates during my senior year of HS...alas it was a one sided exchange as the Brits did not come over here on an official basis for a variety of reasons. Anyway, I was reading the TR's that I wrote about this trip for another website and I really like the way they turned out in retrospect so I figured you folks might like them as well...enjoy!
October 3, 2002
CO 26
EWR-BHX
757-200
After a cruelly long day at school I headed home, threw together a day pack for the flight, and then headed back to school with my parents to meet everyone else on the trip that was going. Our scheduled departure time from school was at 3:30 PM or so, but with all the parents saying goodbye to their sons and daughters for the next month, we didn't pull out of school until about 3:45 or so, which wasnt a problem really as we still made it to EWR in plenty of time.
The drive to EWR was about 2 hours or so, and as we rode past it on the NJ Turnpike, I whipped out my camera and started shooting pics of the activity going on there, and I saw a wide variety of aircraft including an Alitalia 763 and SAS A340, both of which were new sights for me.
We pulled around to CO International checkin at Terminal C and entered the checkin line...from there all hell broke loose. The chaperone who was taking us to England, a guidance counselor at my school whom we nicknamed "Doogie" decided to keep all of our passports and go up and ask the lady how she wanted to handle a group of 11 people checking in...I was internally outraged at this blatant stupidity since it was utter chaos checking in in this fashion, it would have been so much simpler to just give us the passports and let us do it on our own...finally everything got sorted out after about 20 minutes of checking in...
From there we proceeded through the snazzy looking security checkpoint in Terminal C where all of us made it through except for one of my classmates, who, on the bus ride up, had ironically been griping about how when she flies she always gets picked for random searches...the irony of it was funny. While she was getting her baq searched, another member of the group decided to take a photo of her and her stuff getting inspected, at which I winced and whispered to her not to do that, and the security woman gave a little glare and a shake of the head...she was lucky her film didnt get confiscated...
Once all was said and done at security, we headed off again to the gate, with Doogie leading us into the wrong concourse until I pointed this out and we got on the proper course. I saw the Peter Max 777 at a gate, which delighted me, but when the rest of the group saw it, they called it "the party plane"...LOL... Most of us were famished so we hit the food court and got some dinner, me getting some chicken fingers from Nathan's. After eating, we just chilled there at our table for a while and then went to gate C96 at about 7:25 for boarding, which was scheduled to be about 7:30.
There were no open seats in the lounge, which was very quiet, so we sat on the floor, tucked away into a little corner and resumed talking with each other. I could imagine that everybody who wasnt in our group that was on CO 26 was probably thinking "Oh man, this is gonna be a long flight with a bunch of talkative teens on board"...I felt sympathy for them somewhat, as I am probably the quietest one of the group. We had been waiting for about 20 minutes or so when they called pre-boarding, and then "Rows 25 and higher for Continental 26, nonstop service to Birmingham, England"
I heard this and immediately got up, with my seat assignment being 26F, and everyone else's being higher than that still, but nobody else moved. They were too busy blabbing away to hear the announcement, so again I pointed out that it was time to go and they finally moved.
The boarding queue was long but quick moving, and I got onboard at the 1L door and walked through the single aisle on the 757-200, staring enviously at the BusinessFirst seats. It was here that I heard one of my classmates behind me say in a nice loud voice with no hint of sarcasm, "Well yea, we are gonna make this flight a living hell for everyone" I winced at that, turned around, and asked if she was joking, to which I got no response.
I was, in a sense, disappointed by the flights that were booked for us (CO 26 & 27) as out of all of the airlines and aircraft combos that fly from the US to the UK, it had to be this one...an airline/type combo that I had already flown on before, and I did not like the CO 757 on my other experience with it (IAH-SJO-IAH) because the seat pitch was microscopic (according to their website 31") and caused me difficulty in getting comfortable. The SJO trip were only 3 hour flights, but this hop across the pond was scheduled at nearly 7 hours and I was not really looking forward to it in that respect, but knowing that at the end of it I would be in both a new continent and a new country reassured me somewhat.
Anyway, ranting about the CO 752 aside, I found my seat in 26F, aft of the wing with a window and got settled in. I shoved one of my carry-ons into the overhead and stuffed my daypack under the seat in front of me, a work of ergonomics since my pack was stuffed to the max. On the seat cushion there was a wrapping containing a blanket, pillow, and headphones. I didnt want any of those now so I threw the package on the floor and sat with my face pressed to the window, awaiting my seatmates. Having compared boarding passes earlier, I knew that none of my class friends would be sitting next to me, so I waited to see who got the tremendous privliege of sitting next to me on the flight across the pond. Within a few moments a black British couple sat down next to me, and that was that. They seemed like decent people so I returned my attention to spotting, but I didnt really see anything interesting given that it was dark.
The plane loaded surprisingly quickly but there was an unexplained delay in pushing back. Nevertheless, within 10 minutes or so of the door shutting, the aircraft pushed back and the RB-211's hanging from the wings spooled up. The captain announced that there would be no delay once we got to the runway and the 757 began taxiing out towards runway 4L. Out my window I was able to see a nice variety of aircraft parked at the gate, including a VS 744 and a CO 753, which I had been dying to see...what a thin bird that is...it needs to see a nutritionist (sorry for the stupid joke).
Over the p/a the captain asked the f/a's to take their places for departure and more or less on time, CO 26 left Runway 4L at EWR after a 41 second roll and began its estimated journey of 6 hours and 1 minute to BHX. Almost immediately we climbed through a scattered layer of clouds as I still had my face more or less pressed against the window. For some reason I find that staring out the window helps to kill a lot of time.
I was ready to fall asleep, but I wanted to stay up for the dinner meal that was being served. In regards to food service, first a hot (or slightly warm in my case with my seat so far aft) towel was offered, and then a bar service with a bag of pretzels was offered, to which I had a Coke w/o ice. The movie, "Almost Famous" began to play around the time the bar started, but I had no desire to see that so I took out the Discman and listened to a variety of music ranging from Dave Matthews to U2 to Red Hot Chili Peppers as I began reading the autobiography of Jimmy Doolittle.
About an hour or so into the flight, the dinner cart made it to my row with the classic question "Beef or Chicken, sir?" I chose the beef, because, you know, "it's whats for dinner" What I got was a tray containing the following: A small salad containing lettuce, tomatoes, grated cheese (which meant I couldnt eat it as I am allergic to cheese) and a thing of caesar dressing, a slice of sponge cake, a dinner roll with a small butter wrapping, a small container of spring water, and the main course, a small sliver of beef about half the size of my fist (if that) on top of mashed potatoes and veggies. I ate the beef, potatoes, and roll, drank the water, and when the 2nd bar service came around, I got another Coke w/o ice to wash it all down, and once the trays were collected, I raised my traytable, reclined my seat fully and attempted to doze off with the band "Live" blaring in my ear.
About 2 hours later, or just under 4 hours into the flight, I woke up and tried to force myself to go back to sleep, knowing that there was still quite a few hours to go, however these efforts proved to be completely futile so I changed CD's again and started reading the Doolittle bio again, and when I got tired of that, I watched an episode of Frasier that was playing. One thing I noticed was that CO lacked an airshow map that played between programs on the cabin monitors. This was frustrating to me as I would have liked to have known what the flight's status was, and maybe this is something they have planned for in the future.
At about 4 hours and 45 minutes into the flight, the cabin lights came on and the service manager announced brightly that a light breakfast would served shortly in the main cabin. Landing cards would also be passed out for non-EU citizens to fill in. I filled mine out fast and then put it away. Once again, "hot" towels were offered, followed by a breakfast bar where I got an orange juice w/o ice, then the meal, which consisted of a fruit salad and a croissant. I didnt want that so I declined, and continued to watch the IFE and the window. Soon enough I began to see the first hint of a sunrise off in the distance and as I looked below, I could see lights, and I guessed that we were probably over Ireland. I kept waiting anxiously for the slight sensation of weightlessness that signaled the start of the descent. The sky got brighter and brighter and soon enough I felt my seat go light as the aircraft nosed down slightly on the initial descent into BHX. The f/a's then came around collecting meal trays and trash (rubbish).
The first stages of the descent were above clouds, but as we got a little lower, around 15,000 feet or so, a vast sea of green appeared before my eyes. It was absolutely majestic...very picturesque. The landing announcements were made as we continued to descend and I observed cars driving on the wrong side of the road as we got even lower.
"Flight Attendants, prepare for landing" was called and the f/a's finished their cabin preparations and scurried back to their jumpseats. 2 sharp banks to the left, and we were lined up on a final for Runway 33. 6 hours and 10 minutes after leaving EWR, Continental 26 touched down fairly normally on Rwy. 33 and rolled out without the use of thrust reversers. That reminds me, how long is the runway at BHX? It did not have the runway distance signs on it so it was hard to determine...(I later got the answer, no need to find out anymore)
Anyway, from the moment we swooped in over the threshold, I knew I was in heaven...all sorts of aircraft that I dont see back home in the US were before my eyes, including a CSA 737, Britannia 752, JMC A330 and 752, BA A319, and a number of British European aircraft...it was heaven...The taxi was fairly short and we got to our gate, but things were a little slow in disembarking. I could see the breath of one of the line workers steaming up, which was not a good sign as when we left it was about 80 degrees, but it looked to be about 45 degrees or so in BHX...not good.
Immigration was quick and easy, although I noticed with a little contempt that my passport was stamped on page 11, kind of random cause page 8 was the next free page...oh well...my bag was first off the belt at Customs and we basically walked through there without a hassle...
I had arrived in the UK...finally...
While in England, we spent several days observing classes at a school in the Derby area, then began a tour of the UK including Edinburgh and southern Scotland, Bath, York, Nottingham, the Peak District, Stonehenge, Salisbury, Windsor Castle, London, and Warwick Castle, followed by more observing of classes...of course during this each period, each one of us lived with a host in Upper 6th form and with their families...it was very interesting to compare British homelife to American homelife...
Of course, mixed into that was tons of makeup work from school back in America, but also tons of partying and living it up helped to compensate for the workload...
Now, the return:
Thursday, October 31, 2002
Continental Airlines 27
BHX-EWR
757-224, N33103
Scheduled Departure 10:45 AM
Scheduled Arrival 1:45 PM
Seat 32A, Economy Class
I went to bed at about 12 midnight or so, and was shaken awake at the far-too-early hour of 4:45 AM by my host mom, who wanted me to be ready to leave at 5:30 AM. I quickly washed up, got dressed, did final packing, and made sure that I hadn't left anything behind. This didn't take more than about 15 minutes or so, so I found myself with plenty of time to spare. I chilled and watched telly while my host family finished their own morning routine. At 5:20 my host mom wanted me to take my stuff out to the car, and I seriously wondered how we were going to shoehorn in my 4 very packed bags into their fairly tiny Ford Focus, but somehow we managed and we set off to school on time, school being the designated meeting point for all of our group in the morning to meet our bus for the drive to BHX.
We got there about 5:45 or so, 5 minutes prior to the official meeting time of 5:50, and were the first ones there, but slowly cars began to come into the parking lot, and by 5:55 all of us were there, plus the hired coach to take us to BHX. It was time for the final goodbye, and I thanked my hosts profusely for all they had done for me over the past month, and it appeared that everyone else was doing the same. Once we had all gotten on the bus however, several of the girls on the trip began to bawl very loudly, and it felt like a soap opera was going on.
The 1 hour and 15 minute drive from southern Derbyshire to BHX was uneventful, and we unloaded promptly and headed inside, but we discovered that the checkin for CO 27 was not open yet, and would not be open for another 20 minutes or so. Our chaperone (a different one from the outbound flight to BHX thankfully) allowed us to go wherever we wanted while we waited, so I went to WH Smith and purchased 3 aviation magazines and some water to help with my sore throat. All of us were sick to some extent, and I knew that flying while sick is not the greatest experience, especially the after-effects, but I didnt have much of a choice in the matter.
Anyway, when the check-on for CO 27 finally opened we were among the first in line, and the very impressive security at BHX made its first appearance. Several security agents moved through the queue, talking to each passenger and asking them questions about issues such as where they packed their bags, their status since packing, whether or not there were any gifts in bags, and if so what were they, and what types of electronic devices I had with me. I answered all the questions truthfully, and the agent, satisfied, placed some stickers on my bags and tickets and moved on. When I was at the head of the queue, I was pulled aside and asked to open up one of the bags that I planned to check. I had 2 such bags, and I gave the smaller of the two to this agent, who opened it to discover that there was nothing in there other than a ton of books and aviation magazines. She was satisfied as well, so she gestured for me to move on to an open check-in counter, where I finally got my boarding pass for the flight, noting that my seat was 32A. I thanked the check-in agent and moved out of the way to find the rest of my group.
They were nearby, and we all compared seats to see if any of us would be together. It turned out that 2 members of the group happened to have 32B and 32C, which made me somewhat happy since I would be sitting next to people I know, unlike on the flight to BHX. However, my seatmates for this flight, Neil and Rach, had gotten to know each other real well over the month in England and were in a full-blown relationship, and knowing them, I knew they probably would be too occupied with each other to talk with me that much...oh well...
2 of the girls had bags that were deemed as "oversize" so they needed to take their bags to the oversize belt for check-in, and once they completed that task, we headed upstairs to the food court for some breakfast. I chose some chocolate muffins and munched on those while reading a USA Today that I bought to get caught up on the goings on back home. Pretty much everyone got something to eat, and we all ate at different paces (people say I eat really fast), but we managed to all finish our food. It was then time to head for security, even though it was only 8:45 or so and we had around 2 hours or until departure.
The security area at BHX was walled in so that no one could see in from either side, and before entering this area, a very bored looking lady sat at a desk checking to make sure that you had a valid boarding pass. After entering the security area at BHX, a friendly man took my 2 carry-ons and put them on the X-ray machine for me while I meandered through the metal detector and picked my bags up on the other side, and entered into the departure lounge.
The lounge was a vast area with tons of seats and duty free shops, and 7 or so passageways leading to the gates themselves. Our airport-incompetent chaperone wasn't quite sure what to do here, so, after seeing a monitor telling us that CO 27 was supposed to be at Doorway "D" I think, she took us there and down the passageway to the door itself. The problem was that at this point CO 27 was not listed on the screen for Doorway D as a flight that was being boarded, only a flight to Arrecife. I pointed this out, and she pondered this for a lengthy moment and decided I was right and turned us around and back into the lounge, where we plunked down on a row of seats.
To kill time, first, I went to the window and noted that the reg. of the 757 operating our flight was N33103. Secretly I had hoped for some kind of last minute equipment switch before the aircraft left EWR, but I knew this was probably not going to happen so I wasnt too disappointed when I saw the 757 perched at its gate. I also meandered through the shops and then started read some of my magazines. At one point around 9:45 or so I decided that I wanted Starbucks so I went over there and got a venti mocha, noting the superb view that could be seen there, and then headed back to the group. Scarcely had I sat down when I heard over the p.a. "Passengers for Continental 27 through doorway D please" Everyone else was too busy chatting so I informed the chaperone of this and she had this shocked look on her face but apparently believed me and roused everybody, moving us towards the doorway. We went through the door, and out one of the windows I could see a Turkmenistan Airlines 757, a first for me.
We reached Gate 41, where we had to queue again as the same security team from check-in again questioned us now about the status of our carry-ons before dividing our ticket and admitting us into a small holding lounge. I decided to throw out my mocha here, even though it was still pretty full, as it would be just a major spillage risk once I got onboard the plane. The person sitting next to the trash can where I threw it out gave me a very long and mildly evil looking glare, but I ignored him.
Not long after we were sitting again, the usual array of preboarders (OnePass Elites, disabled, young children, etc.) were invited to board, and then rows 30 and higher were called. This was most of us, so we proceeded through the jetway but just prior to reaching the aircraft, I heard one of my friends shout for me to stop, but a few other of my classmates continued on and boarded. The rest of the group appeared around the corner and the reason they wanted me to stop was so that our trip's videographer, basically the only participant with a video camera, could film us boarding. This process took far longer than it should have, but the film was taken and I made my way onto the plane, boarding through the 2L door.
With my overly packed bookbag and semi-bulky carryon, I had to somewhat waddle through the narrow aisle, and I stuffed with a bit of difficulty my carryon into an overhead on the starboard side near row 29 or so, then I proceeded to get cozy in 32A, shoving my bag under the seat, removing my camera, and kicking the “amenity bag (pillow, blanket, and headset)” to the ground. I kept my head pressed to the window, and I had a decent view of aircraft taxiing off of runway 15 after landing. I took a few pictures of stuff such as a BE ARJ and Lufthansa CRJ 700’s, but I hadn’t been looking too long when I saw my main spotting goal for the trip, the Uzbekistan 757, roll out. I readied the camera for 3 or 4 quick shots as it taxied past into a gate off the starboard side.
Shortly after this, one of my friends tapped me on the shoulder and said “Greg isn’t that your bag?” I looked up, and one of the f/a’s was pointing to my red Coca-Cola carry on and asking who it belonged to. I identified myself as the owner and was asked to come take it for a moment down to another f/a about 8 rows down the aisle. It appeared that they were completely emptying the overhead. This f/a directed me to put my bag in a different overhead, which I did, and then returned to my seat. Once the original overhead was completely emptied, a third f/a came and taped it shut with blue “Sorry this lavatory is not working” tape. I guessed that the overhead had broke or something but no explanation was given.
Also of note was a BHX customer service agent coming on the aircraft explaining that a couple sitting together in two of the bulkhead seats wanted to sit in opposing aisle seats, and would anyone like to trade? No one took them up on the offer, which wasn’t a surprise in my opinion as an aisle seat on a long-haul is a fairly precious commodity, and not something one would willingly give up.
Anyway, moving on, the rest of the loading process was straightforward aside from those above incidents, and we pushed back at 10:55 AM, started up and taxied out to runway 15. Along the way I could see two BA ERJ’s, and I wondered why one of them had the registration painted on the engine nacelle, while the other had the reg. on the aft fuselage. Any help with this would be appreciated. Along the way, the captain informed us of an estimated enroute time of 6 hours and 56 minutes, a cruise altitude of FL 320, and then “for those aeronautical minded folks, we’ll be cruising along North Atlantic Track Bravo” When he said “aeronautical minded”, I beamed a little bit, but quickly frowned when he said “North Atlantic Track Bravo” as I had no idea what that was…it wasn’t something I expected to hear over an aircraft p.a., and this being my first trip across the pond, I hadn’t thought to look that up….something to consider next time I go to Europe.
We took off after an SAS 737-600 (my first 736 sighting) at 11:07 AM, with a 37 second roll, and by my own estimate, about 7,000 feet of runway used. Within 15 seconds we climbed into cloud, and England was gone from my sights after my first visit. About 10 minutes after takeoff the service manager came on the p.a. and introduced herself and described the service for the flight, consisting of several bar services, a lunch, and a light snack. She then informed us that a video about arrival in EWR would be shown, and then after that Customs forms would be passed out. I did not watch the video, and when the forms were passed out, I filled mine out, but right before I finished it, I made an error, so I had to get a new one and start all over again. Not a big deal, just a minor inconvenience.
When I was done the form, noting that my friends next to me hadn’t done it, I looked up at the monitor to notice that an airshow map was being displayed. On the outbound leg to BHX, there had been no airshow map, and so this surprised me greatly and I could already see this, my longest narrowbody flight ever, become 300% better by this relatively simple luxury.
The movies for this flight were to be both “Nine Months” and “Housesitter” After we were well established in our cruise at FL 320, “Nine Months” began to play, and I decided to watch it as it’s a movie that’s allright, and would make a good timekiller. However, I couldn’t find the bag with the headset in it…I knew I had thrown it on the floor back at BHX, but it was nowhere to be found there. I figured my fairly large backpack was covering it over and making it inaccessible so I just decided to use my one pronged discman headphones in the two-pronged jack…I only got sound in the right earpiece but that was better than nothing I figured.
Just after the movie started, the f/a’s announced the beginning of the lunch service, starting with a bar service, followed up by the lunch choices of either beef with red wine sauce or chicken with parsley sauce, followed by another bar service. First, a hot towel service came around, and then the bar cart slowly made its way to the boonies of 32A. However, just before it got there, another f/a came to our row from the aft galley and offered us our drink. I noted that when Neil ordered a Coke, the f/a actually asked him whether he wanted ice or not. That was the first time in all my flying that Ive ever seen an f/a ask that, and as a person who drinks their Coke without ice, it made me pleased. I asked for a Coke , without ice of coursem and got it without any snafus (for some reason on planes the f/a’s usually give me a diet coke w/o ice or a coke with ice, can’t figure out why they never get it right), promptly downing it for the sake of my sore throat, and then went back to the movie. 15 or so minutes later the lunch cart made it and I was surprised to see that there was still a choice left, so I took the beef. However, those in row 33 were not so lucky as she informed them that there was no beef meals left and 2 chickens, with the rest of the onboard meals being vegetarian. Oh well…not my problem…
The beef meal came with the entrée, a roll, a small cup of water, a salad and ranch dressing, and a piece of some kind of nut cake, and as usual I passed on the cake (airline desserts never appeal to me for some reason) but ate everything else. I spilled a little butter onto my camera which was resting in my lap, but I cleaned it up and it still worked ok. As I was finishing it up the second drink service made it to me where I got yet another Coke no ice and a bag of peanuts, which I threw down, and then resumed watching Nine Months. Trays were collected, and nothing eventful happened for the rest of the movie really.
Since there was an airshow map available on the flight, I was expecting that to be shown between movies, but alas, immediately after Nine Months, the f/a’s put on Housesitter. However, the tape quality was extremely poor, skipping frequently, and it took the f/a’s about 15 minutes to sort out the problem before it worked. By this point I was feeling extremely tired so I reclined my seat a little bit and nodded off.
When I woke up, I immediately looked at the screens to see that the airshow map was finally back on, and that our position was about 20 miles north of the Vermont border, somewhere in Quebec. We had apparently climbed to FL 350 at some point, probably after we left the North Atlantic track. The aircraft was a little more than 300 miles from EWR, and we had about 1 hour before landing. I was feeling very bloated, something that happens often when I fly commercially for some reason, so I took out some Gas-X that I had for that purpose. I realized though that I had no water to take it with, so I anxiously fiddled with the pills as I waited to see what segment of the service came next.
Just as I began to wonder if I had slept through the snack service, the f/a’s pushed the cart down the aisle and started serving them from the front of the coach cabin, followed by the final bar service. When the snack cart reached me I accepted and got a small tray with a chicken sandwich, package of “Djionnaise”, an American-style biscuit, water, and a small package of something called “Cornish Cream” I decided to have the sandwich and Dijonnaise, and the water to finally down my Gas-X. It was a decent snack, and was followed up by a bar service, where I stupidly got yet another Coke w/o ice, something which wasn’t going to help me very much!
All the while, the airshow map was playing, and the skies above Quebec and the US were fairly clear, so I kept a constant eye on that. The captain came on an announced that we would be landing “to the northeast” which I interpreted as a landing on either 4L or 4R, and as we needed to swing around for that landing, our flight time would be a few minutes extra. He also said that our descent would follow the Hudson River for a bit. Right around the start of the descent near Lake George, New York, the f/a’s collected snack trays and cups, and I again glued myself and my camera to the window.
We descended to 16,000 feet somewhere past Albany and leveled off there for quite some time as we got closer and closer to EWR. Our approach, as promised, did take us alongside the Hudson River, and we descended just to the west of Newburgh/Stewart International Airport (SWF) at about 12,000 feet or so. SWF is an airport semi-special to me as one of my landing sites on my long solo cross-country, so I was super-excited to see it from the air again, and took quite a few pictures of it while remembering my experience there. Right after we passed SWF the f/a’s made the standard pre-landing cabin preparation announcements, which I complied with and then re-glued my face to the window
At about 7,000 feet or so, over northwestern New Jersey, the airshow map turned off and the drop-down screens retracted into the overheads. The f/a’s made their final cabin checks, and while doing so they were singing some Halloween song, which I found somewhat amusing. Our approach took us paralleling EWR by about 25 miles or so to the west, and then we turned east on a base leg, followed by a final approach turn setting Continental 27 up for about an 8 mile final. I was excited for this approach as I drive past EWR frequently and love watching the traffic on approach from the NJ Turnpike, but now I was actually experiencing it (the last time I flew out of EWR was 1994 and I don’t remember the runways used then). We floated in onto runway 4R, seemingly very slow, and 7 hours and 1 minute after takeoff, at 1:08 PM, Continental 27 touched down in a normal fashion and rolled out without the use of thrust reversers. EWR was full of “exotic traffic”, and yet another new spot for me, the Privat Air BBJ HB-IIQ, could be seen as we taxied to the international terminal.
One thing that I noted was that all the f/a and flight crew announcements on board referred to EWR as just “Newark International Airport”, not the new “Newark Liberty International Airport” After arrival at the gate, (I don’t remember which one), we were reminded for about the thousandth time that all passengers had to go through US Immigration and Customs. For some reason disembarking took a fairly long time, but I used the time to triple-check that I hadn’t lost anything and that I had the appropriate documents needed. I did have everything, except my passport, which our chaperone was holding for us until we got off the plane.
Again, I waddled through the aisle, saying goodbye to the crew, and disembarking through the 2L door. At EWR’s vast US Immigration hall, the group had assembled and passports were distributed, and of course I made it through without any difficulties. However, another member of the group was rejected for having filled out the Customs form wrong and sent to the back of the line to fix it, so we had to wait a little extra for her. When she finally made it, we made our way into EWR’s magnificent customs hall, which offered a magnificent view of operations as well as the PrivatAir BBJ and El Al 744 parked at gates. Unfortunately photography is not permitted in Customs so I regrettably could only watch.
My bags seemed to be the last ones off the belt, but 2 members of the group couldn’t find theirs, so while that mess got sorted out we had to wait an extra 10 minutes. Finally they located them and we were allowed to proceed through Customs, which was no big deal, and then we needed to locate our bus. The time when we left Customs was about 2:30 or so and our original estimated time to meet the bus was 2:00 but it was nowheres in sight. A few phone calls to the bus company told us that we had to hike over to Terminal C International Checkin to meet it, somewhat of a schlepp with our vast amount of luggage, but by 3:00 or so we were on the bus and headed home. Owing to major traffic the normal 1 hr. 45 min. drive back home took around 3 hours, but by 6:00 all of us were back at our school, joyfully reunited with family and friends for the first time in a month. Now it was back to reality as, *gasp*we actually had a full day of school tomorrow…
Thanks for reading!!
N674UW
Epilogue:
Our group was very disappointed that the Brits weren't able to come over on an official basis, however, almost immediately after coming back from England, we began talking to them to try to get them to come over...ultimately, we were able to get 4 of the 11 British hosts (including mine) to cross the pond for a summer visit in June/July 2003...they had a blast over here, and it was sad to have to see them go after a short 3 weeks here...I wish we were only able to get all 11 of them over...furthermore, my host decided to take a gap year and spend it horsing around in New Zealand for a year, and he invited me to come visit him if it was possible...now I'm always looking for excuses to travel to exotic, far away places, and New Zealand definitely qualifies for that, so I am currently finalizing plans to go hop the Pacific and visit him in May/June 2004...can't wait!!!
[This message has been edited by N674UW (edited 11-11-2003).]
[This message has been edited by N674UW (edited 11-11-2003).]
[This message has been edited by N674UW (edited Nov 22, 2003).]