Excellent report so far, colpuck!

And you and I have something in common...working with abused and neglected children. :)

Great report so far ^
I was very happy to see you at the Sheraton when you finally arrived in FRA.

Love the trip report so far.... ^^

I am sitting here with a smile on my face! what a relief about the passport!

Day 2 part 2
 

Another day another entry into this report. It is what I do. I last left my adoring readers at the start of the formal program that first day. Some lufthansa people started to wave us over to start the tours. Cmike said something about being back for dinner. Anyways.

We left the Sheraton and boarded the bus for the short trip to the lufthansa mothership. The mothership looked like -|-|-|-. We were joined by an older man in a tan coat that would be guiding us through the Technik tour. He was pretty cool. He was a retired pilot who claimed to have flown most of the LH fleet.

We walked from the mothership to the technik hangers that house some of the widebody aircraft. The hangers were huge, larger than Delta Techops. The first hanger held some of the narrowbodies as well as two A346s. We were allowed in the aircraft. The AC had come in from CCS that morning, and was being turned over for a night flight to JNB. I could tell it was from CCS as that was what was marked on the catering containers.

We first sat in the first seats, then we got to explore the cabin. Man that plane is long. You don't know how long until you get to the end of it. On LH the main galley, restrooms, and crew rest is under the main cabin in the hold. In fact the LH crew rest is stored in a cargo container. Apparently it can be pulled out and replaced with cargo. The caterers/cleaners had not hit the plane yet and there were still half eaten meals in the galley.

Leaving the plane, we split into two groups. The group I went with headed into the engine shop to look at the engines. This was roughly equivalent to the DL techOPs tour. Before going to the 744, we saw a promotional video about LH. It was neat, but far from memorable. In a rough repeat of the 346 we did the same tour of the 744. One FTer fell out of the crew rest bunks on the floor. Funny, though I am glad she did not injure herself. I got my picture taken in the seat I should have had on the TATL

Finishing the Technik tour we moved to flight training. We saw the in flight simulators for both flight and cabin crew. We also saw the service trainers. One person we saw was preparing a service cart.

After flight training there was dinner back at the mothership. There I ran back into Cmike who proclaiming to all that would listen that he was going after Jan Allbrect the CEO of *A for *A swag. Dinner was a buffet style affair. One of the features was the LH cocktail, sweet drink served like scotch. I got one of the empties, the bottle looked really cool. I spoke with the head of loyalty programs for LH and asked about the BD golden goose...err program. He said there were no immediate plans. I kept trying to CO Insider's other half Shannon to admit that reciprocal upgrades with UA were coming. After that I don't really remember, I got tanked at dinner. I do remember Scott and Cmike as well as everyone else keeping up a series of passport jokes.

The next report will be the charter. This one appeared to be more clinical than the previous.

I didn't think it was funny. (I'm glad I wasn't injured.)

After the party broke up at the LH mothership we made our way back to the hotel. I went with the box crew to the Sheraton Lounge. The drinking continued. I am pretty sure some of the beer was alcohol free. I didn't know they made that in Germany. Either way I set a wake up call from the lounge for 4am.

I went back to the room. I am not sure how I made it across the lobby but I did the fact that I had to be up in 4hrs reminded me to keep it together. Got back to the room and passed out. 4am came way too fast and I woke up hungover.

I jumped in the shower and got warmed up for the day. This would have not merited mention except for the fact that door locked behind me. Poor MNmag could not get in. So she did what a good FTer would do. Go to the front desk and demand compensation.

We walked to the B Pier of Terminal 1 to see the Condor flight the first flight of the day. Having collected boarding passes yesterday I learned I was sitting next to the mad New Jerseyian Rolov. We collected in the boarding area. One of the Mods was late and as such the flight was delayed. I shot what will probably be my first and last youtube video in the boarding area.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/colpuck/4093925489/

IF your office disapproves of the word "sex", then it is mildly NSFW. I decree it to be funny as hell.

We finally boarded. I was right behind the exit row where the author of "the middle seat" for the WSJ was sitting. CO Insider's better (working) half was on the other exit row. Rolov was in the middle next to me. Olton Hall's friend was in the window. LHrelate was across the aisle as well as a couple from NZ? (These two deserve mention only as they will be making an appearance in the Seehiem episode) Sbm12 was a couple of rows ahead. Cmike was in row 2 wayyyyyyyyy up there.

Well, take off was a smooth affair. the cabin crew set the tone for the day when they said "you can ring your call buttons all you want, we will not respond." Without surprise the ding of the call button would be the background music for the day.

We are all children.

Including me.

Especially Me. (A NW pilot and father to my first EX said, "Growing old mandatory, up not so much.")

The mods got to do the safety briefing (after seeing the video) in German. Condor had a nose camera that we got watch. The FA said "I was up all night installing it, hope the captain doesn't notice." Captain replies, "I noticed."

FRA-OSL (about the same as IAH-ATL)
Short flight. The theme for this flight was Hawaii. Sbm12 and others mods would be doing service in Hawaiian shirts. It was a cold plate for business and a cheese sandwich for Y. There was Kona Coffee served in business. I got to talk to the guy who brought the coffee in from the islands and he is very cool and very passionate about good coffee.

I don't know what it is, but I always enjoy listening to people speak about their passion, whatever it is.

Well we landed in OSL about 90 min later. The Captain came on and said he requested a flyby, but the pattern was indeed full. We were 12th inline for landing and it went smoothly. It was snowing in OSL and we taxied to a hard stand and from there we were bussed to the SAS hangers.

The SAS people had clearly never been apart of FT and they were happy to be there. There was a Norwegian breakfast (fish) and coffee or water. I brought some of the coffee home to degrease my car. Seriously, I will never understand the European obsession with Nescaffee. Instant coffee is terrible.

One of the SAS FA's walks out of the 737 they have on display and starts singing. I can't do justice to it. She was amazing, like american idol quality. Conversation stopped. Then there was a folk dance group. The SAS leadership made some speeches as well. The 737 was set in a medical airlift configuration and we were allowed to tour it. The SAS technik people were there and talking about their work. One of the highlights was they deployed the rear exitslide and either Tommy or Scott was allowed to go down it.

We were then bussed back to the plane for the trip to TLS.

More to come. I am just done for the moment.

Awesome report so far. ^:D

AKL and SAN, respectively. What kind of "mention," I shall be interested to see :rolleyes::p

Great to meet you colpuck!

The rest of the report is written. However, FT being what it is of late I am going to hold off on posting it for a few days until the rat is fully recovered.

Needless to say one of the episodes reads like a bret easton ellis novel. Do you like Huey Lewis and the News?

I'm enjoying the report. Thanks colpuck ^^^

OSL-TLS
 

The party was ready to kick into gear. The "official" purser gets on the mic before leaving OSL and says that is wayyy too much booze on the flight. Excellent.

My hangover was eliminated by the battery acid of coffee served in the hanger, and it is time to party. Scenes from "fear and loathing in Las Vegas" were playing in my mind. The flight got under way, which was good because we were in bat country. As the fight started, the morning coffee was over, and breakfast was a memory. But the scotch and gin was just kicking in. Seth was serving me drinks and IIRC he dropped a bottle of red at my seat. The FAs were now resplendent in nordic sweaters.

Lunch was a chicken affair. vysean dropped some salad on the floor, I have a great picture of it. Lunch was getting to me, it was like I was back in Nam.

I could feel the fear coming on.

Fear or not, XYZZY came by. I though he was going to start handing out heavy ordnance, or at least "if it aint boeing, then I aint going" stickers. No he was selling raffle tickets. I bought 10 Euro worth. It went to a good cause the FT Kiva.org team.

I think the movie was Ice Age II, the screen was moving so I couldn't tell. It may have just been me. The colors were flitting by at the speed of smell. Scott was pulling some sort of stunt, I don't remember what but cockpit visits were on.

Ollton Hall's friend was comfortably passed out in the window seat for most of the flight. Never the less, he was total gamer the whole day, the people's champ.

Two hours later we began the decent into TLS. I tried to get another one for the road, no success. The pilots left the door open for landing. It took a few seconds for me to notice, but we did a flyby over the runway. Calls of "Negative ghostrider the pattern is full," filled the cabin. The cheering was massive, and it was joined by a fresh round of call button madness.

We came around and landed. Then we were bussed to the terminal. There I finally got to do what I always wanted to do. Ride the baggage belt.

Yes I am a child.

Being drunk and semi-disorderly, some guy with Freddie Jr. was pushing people on luggage carts. He almost shoved me into a wall. Thankfully we all made it alive to the buses that would take us to the Airbus plant. Why we could not have parked at the Airbus ramp is beyond me.

The Airbii factory.
 

After being bussed to the Airbus visitor center, we were ushered into a small reception area. I quickly made for a seat. Having done the Boeing factory tour, I knew a huge amount of walking would await us. The boxers had collected in one corner, with Cmike holding court. He was of course deploying his normal self. There were comments about how it is high and it is far. Apparently the announcer for the NY Yankees (for whom he was discussing) road the short bus to school.

Yankee slamming began. While I am solidly a National League kinda guy, there is one statement that stands above all others in my baseball universe.

Yankee's suck.

Any questions?

Didn't think so.

I started on the assembly tour. Somehow I got separated from the boxers and ended up in LHrelate's group. She is from H-town as well. Go Houston! Nick the Britt was going on about the A380's Welsh wings. This was odd considering he was from Bristol.

Anyways hearing the tour guide was out of the question, so we just started making up our own tour. Once again proving the point about the French, "looks good not so functional." Talk in out group turned to the FMLA, the Family Medical Leave Act, and it effects on hiring. The comparative law class was much more interesting then as unheard tour.

Sorry Airbus, I'm going to let you finish, but Boeing has the best tour ever.

We left and then went through the story. Wayy to expensive for my taste. Though there was a rumor of stolen and or missing models that floated around after the trip.

We got back to TLS and so French like, the airport is very pretty but not so functional.

Now for all you french defenders, don't get me wrong I love France. Don't think I am bitter and hateful. But if you feel the need to dish it back, by all means do so. Be aware though I drop more bombs than the airforce. And for the record I do not believe any my own press.

Anyways enough mocking of the cheese eating surrender monkeys. We got through security and were at the gate. The gate was a small crowded affair. This of course type A and Aspergers in several people who began to flip out. Seriously, it was not like the plane was going to leave without us. It is a charter. Take some Valium and chill.

We boarded the buses back to the plane for the short flight to FRA. There was a new crew since the old one had timed out while we were at Airbus.

From T1 at JFK this is the COL saying, that life is wayy too short to micro-manage life and flip out of things you can't control. Relax and let go and you will find the unexpected pleasure you never knew existed.

Over and out.

So, you have a French passport? :confused:

and it's highhhhhhhhh and it's farrrrrrrrrrrr and it's goneeeeeeeeeeeee.

Thanks for sharing!!^:-: