22nd July 2019
BA492
LHR-GIB
0710-1105
British Airways Airbus A320
Seat 11F

Not being a morning person, the check in for this flight is a bit of a blur
I know I skipped over the lounge and more or less got straight on in order to save time
Boarding was via a bus gate at terminal 3

I had followed the advice in the "which side of the plane to sit" thread and opted for an exit seat on the F side of the plane (more on that later).
The plane was exceptionally lightly loaded however (maybe 30-40% at a guess) and I had the entire row to myself

On commencement of the safety demonstration, I noted that one of the cabin crew was incredibly familiar but I couldn't quite place his face. Almost the entire flight later I worked out it was one of my clinical tutors from nursing school, who had some kind of 50:50 arrangement nursing/BA cabin crew going on
I wandered back about 2/3 of the way into the flight. Of course having had probably a couple of hundred thousand students over the years, and myself having been through 3 accent changes and at least 2 surnames, I was less recognisable than he was!!

We had a nice chat and I subsequently ended up with a glass of champagne, which was very much appreciated

Cannot grumble


As descent started I was looking forward to some interesting views. Unfortunately....


The condensation issue only seemed to affect the overwing exit rows so I'm assuming there is some difference in the way these are insulated?


Annoying!

I'm not sure I missed out on much though, all things considered. The views on exit were phenomenal


I'd never been to Gibraltar before and must confess had literally no clue what I was really expecting- kind of a little England on the Iberian peninsula complete with angry Spanish nationalists hurling Molotov cocktails over the border?

I was actually (overall) quite pleasantly surprised by the joint
I had booked to stay at the Rock Hotel, "splurging" the very tiny extra for a room with a view
In order to make up for the excess cost I took the bus to the cable car terminal and then walked up the hill to the hotel


My room was not available but they let me ditch my bags there and I headed off into town for a look around

There were a couple of cruise ships in so Main Street was pretty well rammed
I didn't realise until subsequently that on days with no cruise ships, things like the bloke standing guard and the beautiful brass cannons are not put out, which is an interesting if someone pragmatic approach for sure


I imagine this is a fairly standard appearance for a Rock Hotel room



View from hotel balcony

It seems in Gibraltar you are never far from the airport action. I had taken myself for a walk to check out the city walls, a couple of monuments I had spotted on the bus ride into town, and a boring supermarket run for dumb stuff like snacks and bottled water, when I spotted an aircraft on approach

"Kill the intruder"



Obviously by this point I had remembered the existence of Winston Churchill Avenue traversing the runway so I guessed it would be rude to not go check it out

Not sure if anyone else finds the sensation of walking across an active runway a bit...unusual



There was a fairly recent bit of aviation nostalgia evident on the far side


I hung around at the barriers on the far side for departure. I suspect this has me on some kind of register of known weirdos


(None of this will be news to regulars but as a non-regular I was quite fascinated by the process)- evidently a road sweeper operated by the RAF is sent out to sweep before and after every aircraft. I'm a bit sad that you can't listen into the ATC here as I imagine it would be mildly interesting in terms of coordination

"FOD squad"?! Who named this??