9th July 2019
There had been a series of schedule changes on a Vueling flight I was due to take this evening, and given my lack of experience with helicopters, Mediterranean weather etc., that made me uncomfortable. As such I decided to get myself moved forward from HTY206 (1520-1540), to HTY204 (0925-0945). The intervening flights were all to Algeciras so the option was essentially a long layover or virtually no layover
Reading the conditions of carriage it seemed that this change would be free to make as long as it was done at least 6 hours in advance of the booked flight. Seeing there was still a seat free on the earlier service it seemed the most sensible thing to do would be to head to the heliport and make the change



Unfortunately it seems my/google's combined understanding of Spanish language conditions of carriage is incorrect, as I was told I needed to pay for a new ticket as I was making the change within 6 hours of the flight I was intending to move onto. Not sure about the logic of that but sometimes it's easiest just to go with it. Nothing better for me to spend EUR160 on that day anyway

I took the opportunity to do some chopper spotting (fnah fnah) while waiting




There was a medical chopped parked on the apron and a couple of Guardia Civils buzzing around but the bulk of the action seemed to be variations of firefighting flights (at least, I assume that's what the buckets are all about?)

HTY204
JCU-AGP
0925-0945
AW139

I probably shouldn't be half as fascinated by this stuff as I am but I did enjoy the various signage, including the "how to approach a helicopter" part



My recollection is that the engine was running throughout the turn around although this picture seems to contradict that and it was a while ago so I could well be wrong


I was last to board and initially it looked like there was no seat. The super awesome loadmaster (pictured above) worked out that some idiot was sitting across 2 seats and it was all sorted out really quickly and I was strapped in by him as well. I felt a bit spoilt actually

Same crew as last time and fairly identical seating arrangement all round





Again we were treated to pretty interesting views on the way back in. It must have been a little more hazy though as Gibraltar was very much not visible today


Upon landing we had to wait for the flight crew to do a spot of baggage handling before the minivan could depart
They both seemed to be finishing up for the day- not sure how rosters work in a company such as this, they seemed to have done AGP-JCU-LEAG-JCU-AGP on this day. Who knows how many crew the company even employs? They all seem to be Malaga based, it was the same helicopter on both occasions but one would like to believe they perhaps have a spare? Who knows


Arnhem land "get it done" mentality in action


Side view showing the seating arrangement a bit more clearly

Baggage was again claimed from the random Spanish north african territories section of the airport. I got massively lost and had to be taken back through an exit in order to retrieve my bag...



With a now fairly substantial layover in Malaga, I decided to dump my baggage and go and check out a DC3 I had spotted from the taxi
Research had shown this was at the Museo Aeronautico de Malaga, which appeared to be walking distance so off I went
I was not to be disappointed

1938 terminal building

An extremely jolly DC9

Back in the jump seat


Convair from the 1950s. Or the present if you happen to be a Chatham Islander

One for PUCCI

One for the BA fans!!

Inflight catering exhibition


Spotters paradise from the old ATC tower


Some kind of twin Beech possibly

De Havilland Heron (or possibly Dove)

Not a DC3 after all- note beer of Malaga being brewed in the background (smells like a swamp)

All in all not a bad way to spend a few hours- especially so given the museum is free!!

Arriving back at the terminal, a bit of present day plane spotting, especially of stuff that is probably pretty mainstream in Europe but won't be seen dunnunder any time soon, such as the A220



9th July 2019
VY2612
AGP-BIO
1645-1815
Vueling A320
9F

Actual departure time ended up being pushed back to 1749, so *of course* I actually would have been fine after all
However the huddled masses were queuing up not only long before boarding started but before the plane had even landed

"Don't leave without me!"

When the plane eventually touched down and boarding started, I was one of the last to board. They were approaching people in the line ahead to gate check their carry ons- since I didn't need access while on board, I proactively offered to have mine go into the hold, which was accepted

Flight was fairly standard Vueling fare


We managed to make up some time and were thus only 41 minutes late arriving

Clearly I don't follow Spanish news adequately but there was obviously some kind of protest going on at Bilbao- turned out there was a ground handling strike happening later that week and this was some pre-strike agitation in progress. So strike 1 of many successfully avoided today