photographic trip-report of daytrip to

[Pieter C. 5]

Lounge 1 at Schiphol : Christmas decorations

My aircraft this morning F-GUGC Airbus A318 (rare aircraft-type)

tailview of F-GUGC: sorry for blur and reflections; my window under (F-GUG)C

Note: 2 curtain positions (1 for business-class and 1 for Economy-plus)

Seat-pitch not much

Fellow sister A319 will leave in about 1 hour, also for CDG

Following the queue for 36L: visible are 737 of KLM, 763 of Martinair and 321 of Iberia

City of Haarlem, right after take-off from 36L

Just breaking cloud-tops at around 4000 feet

Air France ah-moi serving me the croissant and coffee

Other ah-moi, but started from the front...

Decending into CDG, just above the clouds at around 5000 feet

Both ah-mois still busy while passing clouds for approach to CDG

Between 2 layers of clouds and sun just peeping through about 10 minutes out

Breaking hard after landing on 26L at CDG

CDG: guess who's home-base this is ?

Cabinview with friendly ah-moi: my seat was the last one (window) on the right (22A)

 

[Pieter C. 5]

Return flight shown still on time, but actually about 30 minutes late (I was told at check-in)

Only 26 passengers between CDG-AMS (9 local boarded at CDG, rest in transit)

Seat-pitch a bit better than on Air France

Nice Recaro seats and no other passengers to be seen (row = 3/4/2)

Welcome on Board Varig - the Brasilian Star

My window-seat

Concorde statue outside the terminal and close to Hilton hotel

Waiting for line-up and take-off clearance at 27R

Due to light load, very steep climb after take-off (look at wing angle)

Enroute CDG-AMS over Belgium

Brazilian ah-moi granma (but VERY friendly) serving my sandwich and orange-juice

My ham-sandwich and orange-juice: delicious !

Nice sun-set glow on winglet

Approaching runway 06 at Amsterdam-Schiphol

Greenhouses have permanent lighting on day and night (rose-cultivation)

Spotters-place next to runway 06: hi guys

Leaving the runway (06): note the ATP of Westair Luxembourg on the right

Finally back at SPL: 10 minutes before sun-set I took a picture of the 737/BBJ KLM is using for the Amsterdam-Houston all business-class flights; happy to catch her strobes

 

[Ibrahim 0]

Waooo Realy Nice Trip Report.. I Love your Wing View And Cloud Stunning Scenery.. More Ah Moi Pic Arrr.. HeheheHe Thank Pieter.. Cool Baby Bus Too.. Congrat On The Strobe Light Pic.. Lucky laaa You !!!

[Chaity 1]

Nice report, Pieter.

 

There are some Christmas trees hanging upside down in the first pic

 

You were flying Varig's MD-11 on your way back ?

[Meor 0]

Pieter C., correct me if i'm wrong. I notice that the Ah-moi on air france wearing that "little wing" (what is it called?) on their uniform. what is it for?

Edited December 15, 2005 by Meor

[Pieter C. 5]

You were flying Varig's MD-11 on your way back ?

 

 

Pieter C., correct me if i'm wrong. I notice that the Ah-moi on air france wearing that "little wing" (what is it called?) on their uniform. what is it for?

 

Thanks, guys, for the compliments/input It least it gives you "the feel" of doing a flight between AMS-CDG-AMS yourselves !!!

 

Chai,

 

YES, flew back on MD11 of Varig from CDG to AMS: flies like a rocket !!!

 

Meor,

 

If you mean the 2nd ah-moi: the round one you mean? that's the Skyteam logo; the one with the wings as in the 1st ah-moi pictures, just says "AF" ... part of their uniform, I guess, designating their cabin-crew status...

 

 

[Meor 0]

Thanks for the info Pieter.

[S V Choong 4]

Thanks for your trip photos, Pieter. I really enjoy looking at it! No nice chick on your trip?

[Walter Sim 1]

lovely pics Pieter.

 

Love the md-11!

[Peter Smith 1]

Fantastic Pieter! Very jealous you flew on A318 (and MD-11)!

[Pieter C. 5]

  No nice chick on your trip?

 

S V,

 

French girls are known to be good looking, however I was not lucky with this AF-crew Prefer the Air-Berlin (German) girls, though

 

The Varig crew cosisted of 4 male- and 4 female F/A; purser was female and spoke VERY good French and English, besides Portuguese/Brazilian...in our Y-class (with the 26 passengers) we had 4 crew, so very personalized service !!!

[Sanjay Thaker 0]

nice pics pieter.....enjoyed them...we dont get these pics often..thanx!

[TK 0]

Pieter seems to be lucky wit the beacon light...

 

MD-11 and A318...what a joyride you had.

Good one Pieter.

[Nicholas Wan 0]

pieter...still waiting for you to come to m'sia..

[Azman MN 1]

Hi Pieter, thanks for the report and nice pics!

 

A318 very short but still have 3 classes?

 

Love the 3-4-2 seating of the MD-11. Was the same on the Swiss ones too. You could travel in 2s, 3s, 4s, no problem. The best is if the plane is less than 90% full then you and your companion have a good chance to sit on the ones with the 3 seats.

 

Wonder why no triple7s have same arrangements?

 

 

 

[Pieter C. 5]

pieter...still waiting for you to come to m'sia..

 

 

A318 very short but still have 3 classes?

 

Love the 3-4-2 seating of the MD-11.  Was the same on the Swiss ones too. You could travel in 2s, 3s, 4s, no problem.  The best is if the plane is less than 90% full then you and your companion have a good chance to sit on the ones with the 3 seats.

 

Nicholas,

 

Holiday for February approved as per today (just received the OK-slip from my boss), so watch this MW for further developments

 

Azman,

 

Indeed, AF has 3 classes on their A318; all cabins really felt "cramped" but seat width was very good...business class was rows 1-4; full-economy rows 5-9 and economy (or Tempo) rows 10-21 (no row 13)...

 

Actually, flew on PP-VTJ, which is an ex-Swissair MD11, so I guess they didn't change much of the seating-arrangments; on the CDG-AMS Varig flight, there was free-seating, so choose a window-seat behind the wing, just to make these great pictures

What I noticed, however, was that the flaps were lowered to the 3rd slot during approach, but went back to the 2nd slot during a level-off, and later were lowered again to slot 3 and 4 for final landing....I always thought raising flaps was really a no-no and should have been avoided at all costs; maybe, TK or Radzi can explain more about this "weird" flap-setting on Varig ???

 

[S V Choong 4]

Pieter are you going back to Kudat with your wife this time?

[Jonathan Kong 0]

Cool pictures Pieter. MD-11 rocks!

 

hmm that Varig Grandma.... i bet she is a leading stewardess

[T Azahan 1]

pieter, congrats for being on an A318. there is none here in our backyard.....

cheers for sharing. i always enjoy your euro pictures.

[Pieter C. 5]

Pieter are you going back to Kudat with your wife this time?

 

No Sabah trip planned in February, just a spotting trip to the Peninsula and other Asean countries

 

 

hmm that Varig Grandma.... i bet she is a leading stewardess

 

Nope, she was just a "commisario de voo" or "air stewardess" ; the purser was a different blonde 50+ lady

 

 

cheers for sharing. i always enjoy your euro pictures.

 

As much as I'm always enjoying your Asian pictures...

 

[Eric M 0]

Hi Pieter

 

I saw you made a same trip as I did earlier this year, although Air France bumped me into one of their A319's I'll bet their is not much difference to the A318, is there?

Also the sandwich Varig is providing on the flight to AMS is a good choice in my opinion. For the short flight, this 'catering' is better then AF and KL offer in Y-class!

 

My flight was on PP-VQK that time, and seatplan was exactly the same as on yours.

 

Nice pictures too! Did you go out of the terminal for spotting or did you just transfer from T2 to T1 to catch your return flight?

 

Anyway, you were lucky that RG didn't cancel your return flight They do that all the time...

 

Thanks

Eric

[Pieter C. 5]

Eric,

 

The catering on AF was very disappointing indeed, only a COLD croissant (no butter or marmelade/jam) plus a small glass of water or cuppa tea/coffee

 

CDG is an enormous airport and because the weather was lousy, took the free shuttle between T2 and T1 and back about 3 times in a row, just to get the numbers...pictures: out of the question (see also my Concorde picture for the weather conditions)...checked-in about 2 hours before departure, and because of the slight delay was even able to chat with the captain mr. Paulo Giovaninni, a really nice guy (" sorry, due to safety regulations I cannot allow the jump-seat to you", after I told him I was interested AND it was my b-day so would have been a nice b-day gift)...

 

If RG had been cancelled, I would have been disappointed but would have taken KL or AF back to AMS the very same evening...