Category: airliners.net

Week-end a Zurigo: meeting di Airliners.net

Anticipato di qualche settimana rispetto agli anni scorsi, anche in questo 2010 ha avuto luogo il meeting zurighese di Airliners.net presso lo Zurich Airport.
Il programma della giornata prevedeva alcune tradizionali visite già svolte nelle edizioni passate, ma riservava anche qualche sorpresa.
L’allegra brigata, armata di macchine fotografiche, binocoli e obiettivi di grandezze tra la più disparate, ha iniziato il suo tour sulla terrazza panoramica presente sul tetto del “Dock E” dell’aeroporto: da lassù si potevano immortalare i vari velivoli in partenza dalle piste 28 e 16, così come anche alcuni aerei posteggiati ai gate. Tra di essi era pure presente il possente Airbus A380 della Singapore Airlines, l’aereo più grande che calca le piste dell’aeroporto ospitante. Tutti attendevano con ansia l’orario prestabilito per la partenza di questo gigante dei cieli, ma problemi tecnici non ci hanno permesso di vederlo da questa posizione.
Dopo due ore di permanenza sulla terrazza (tempo certamente ben speso per i fotografi, forse un po’ troppo lungo per gli altri comuni mortali), ci siamo spostati in un luogo spettacolare, un posto che solo l’aeroporto di Zurigo offre ai suoi visitatori: trasportati da un bus abbiamo raggiunto l’incrocio delle piste 28 e 16, un fazzoletto di cemento a poche decine di metri di distanza da dove gli aeroplani rullano e alzano le loro ruote per spiccare i loro lunghi voli. L’orario scelto per questo appostamento è stato volutamente richiesto dagli organizzatori dell’evento, per permettere ai partecipanti di veder sfrecciare davanti a loro il maggior numero possibile di aerei a lunga percorrenza, tra i quali i diversi Airbus A330 e A340 della nostra compagnia di bandiera. Con grande sorpresa, pochi minuti dopo aver raggiunto questa postazione privilegiata, è partito pure l’Airbus A380, lasciando dietro di sé un impressionante vortice d’aria e molta emozione tra tutti i presenti (chi più, chi meno)…
Dopo un pranzo libero nel food corner dell’aeroporto, la giornata è proseguita con un interessante tour guidato della struttura. In poco meno di due ore abbiamo potuto visitare: la cappella dell’aeroporto, allestita con materiale in grado di soddisfare i fedeli di quattro religioni diverse, il dock A con il suo shopping center, il Kids Corner per i bambini in transito, il trenino sotterraneo per raggiungere il dock E, l’area del controllo doganale di sicurezza, il reparto di smistamento dei bagagli e, sorpresa finale, un Airbus A340 della Swiss posteggiato in attesa di partire. La nostra guida ha optato per mostrarci la parte della business class, gli 8 sedili della First Class (da 21000.- per un volo andata e ritorno su Bangkok) e la cabina di pilotaggio, tralasciando la parte di Economy Class “visto che tanto a voi non interessa”.
Alle 17:30 ci sono stati i ringraziamenti di rito agli organizzatori, i saluti tra i vari partecipanti e poi tutti via verso casa. Noi abbiamo salutato Simone e Ena che ci hanno raggiunto per la giornata e poi ci siamo diretti verso l’appartamento di Giana a Albisrieden a riposare un po’.
La serata, incredibilmente fresca per essere in luglio (17°, roba da mettere i pantaloni lunghi), è poi proseguita al ristorante Il Pulcino (che non si smentisce mai) e al Lobby Bar a bere una gustosissima Margarita alla fragola.
La giornata di domenica, come è giusto che sia una domenica, è iniziata nella calma totale ed è poi proseguita con delle tranquille passeggiate, dapprima al Chinese Garden, sul lungolago tra Tiefenbrunnen e Bellevue (conclusasi con un pranzo a base di Bratwurst alla griglia) e nel pomeriggio presso la Werdinsel sulla Limmat, dove gli indigeni sono soliti passare i loro pomeriggi di refrigerio gettandosi nelle acque del fiume e facendosi trasportare dalla corrente.
Alla fine del pomeriggio ecco che ci siamo seduti nel nostro bianco mezzo di trasporto e ci siamo avviati verso il Ticino…
È stato davvero un bel week-end, non c’è che dire, e qui non ci resta altro da fare che ringraziare Giana per l’ospitalità, la compagnia e la guida durante la gran parte del viaggio di andata (da non dimenticare la sosta al ristorante “dei polletti” di Attingausen) e di ritorno.
Qui di seguito potete vedere alcune foto della gente presente alla giornata di Airliners.net e del tour dell’aeroporto: per le immagini degli aerei, si deve pazientare ancora un po’, eheh…

Escursione aviatoria a Zurigo

Dopo un pomeriggio di shopping in Bahnhofstrasse (viva il nuovo Apple Store!) e una cena sublime alla Brasserie Lipp, siamo rientrati alla nostra camera d’albergo con vista aeroporto.

Sabato mattina abbiamo iniziato la giornata aviatoria con un paio d’orette di permanenza sulla terrazza panoramica del “Dock E” dell’aeroporto a fare qualche foto e ammirare gli aerei che partono. Peccato che sembrava essere un momento di poco traffico, forse non era l’orario migliore.

Il pomeriggio è stato caratterizzato da una visita guidata alle officine di SR Technics. La guida, molto competente, ci ha mostrato i vari laboratori dove vengono smontati, riparati e ricondizionati i motori. Poi siamo passati agli hangar dove vengono riparati e riverniciati i vari aerei. Una visita durata 2:30 ore, a tratti molto tecnica, ma (o forse proprio per questo?) molto interessante.

Verso le 18 siamo poi ripartiti verso il Ticino. Volendo evitare le strade chiuse del centro a causa della Street Parade, abbiamo scoperto una nuova alternativa per rientrare in Ticino dall’aeroporto, passando dal paese di Urdorf. Da tenere presente per le prossime volte!

Grazie all’organizzatore di Airliners.net della visita guidata, e a Curzio e Giana che ci hanno accompagnato… con la speranza che a Curzio sia piaciuta la sua prima visita all’aeroporto :-). All’anno prossimo!

E ora… eccovi le foto.

Airliners.net trip report: LX LUG-ZRH-YUL (Y) and YUL-ZRH-LUG (C), pics+vids

So it’s that time of the year again – summer vacation, here we come! This year me and my bf decided to visit Montreal. And for the first time, we made the big step and upgraded ourselves to Business for the return flight. As it turned out, it was definitely worth it.

The entire trip consists of 4 legs, which I’ll try to describe as accurately as possible for all you fellow A.netters…

Click on the pictures for an enlarged version.

Lugano-Zurich, Switzerland

Flight: LX 2905 (LUG-ZRH)
Airplane: Saab 2000
Operated by: Darwin Airline
Class: Y
Seat: 12F
ETD: 10:35
ETA: 11:25

We didn’t even have to get up too early. Lugano is a nice little airport in southern Switzerland, and you can literally check-in until 30 minutes before departure. We did web-checkin, so we were able to show up at the airport at 10:00.

The entrance of Lugano Airport

The Saab 2000 taking us to ZRH

View from my seat

Boarding began on time, about 15 minutes before departure, and we took off right at the scheduled time. The estimated flight time was 35 minutes, but it turned out we had to hold about 10 minutes overhead Zurich because of the usual congestion there is at that time. At the end, we still landed on time.

As usual, this was a short, uneventful but still very nice flight with Darwin Airline’s Saab 2000 – actually my favorite airliner. Service consisted of 1 bottle of water and some Swiss chocolate.

Take-off video:

Landing video:

A look out of the window right after landing in ZRH

Just got off the Saab 2000, bags already being unloaded

Inside the bus taking us from the stand to the terminal

We now had 1:25 hours to get to our next flight – plenty time in Zurich. We even had time to get something to eat.

Zurich-Montreal

Flight: LX 86 (ZRH-YUL)
Airplane: Airbus A330-200
Class: Y
Seat: 18G
ETD: 12:50
ETA: 15:00

After lunch, we took the SkyMetro to go to gates E.

Our gate, with already lots of people standing in line – boarding hadn’t begun yet.

When on board, I had a very nice surprise: I was one of the 2 people in the Economy section to have a lucky seat where I could actually stretch my legs to one side, because there were only 3 seats in front of our row of 4!

Take-off was 10 minutes after the scheduled time. The flight was really quiet, no turbulence to speak of. The service was great, I would say above average for Economy. Smiling FAs, very efficient and quick.

We received a snack shortly after take-off (some pretzels and drinks – yes, the entire can, without asking!), then later some lunch. There were 2 choices, of which you can see the pictures below:

Both were actually quite good. Yes, airline meals can get better with time 🙂

Landing was right on time. There was a 10 minute wait at immigration, and our bags were already there after that. The terminal we arrived at in YUL was a little shabby IMHO. Right outside, we took the tickets for the Aérobus taking us to our hotel.

Sorry, no videos for this flight, as we were seated in the center seats.

For those who care, you can look at the pics we took during the vacation itself in the following gallery:

https://plus.google.com/photos/106211949865049388502/albums/5616216018818415057

We took this as a very relaxing and easy vacation, really just doing some sightseeing around the city, and driving to Quebec City for 1 day. Montreal is a nice place, and I’d recommend it to everyone.

Montreal-Zurich

Flight: LX 87 (YUL-ZRH)
Airplane: Airbus A330-200
Class: C
Seat: 12A
ETD: 16:50
ETA: 06:15 (+1)

Fast forward 9 days, it was already time to leave again, vacation was over. Too bad… but a nice flight in Business class was waiting for us 🙂 which cheered us up a bit.

We took the same Aérobus to get to the airport. Being used to North American standards, we showed up at the airport around 14:15 – 2:30 hours early. It turns out this was *way* too early, especially because we were flying in Business. There was no queue whatsoever, and even security looked empty. Check-in and security took about 10 minutes total, and we were there at 14:30 ready to board. Our airplane wasn’t even there yet. Hah!

Luckily we had the right to access the Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge, which we obviously did. Free drinks always sounds good 😉

I also took the time to play with my MacBook and iPhone 3GS: tethering actually works, and is quite fast, too!

At 15:00, right on time, our airplane from ZRH landed.

Around 16:15 we went to the gate. Boarding started just when we arrived, we bypassed the queue (OK, I admit it, I really enjoyed that part, especially because I never did it before) and boarded immediately. We had all the time in the world to make ourselves comfortable in our seats.

Now that’s what I call legroom!

The view from my seat

Take off was about 10 minutes late, but no problem, we had already received our welcome drink. Champagne, please…

And that’s the part I prefer:

After take-off, service started with an apéro. The same pretzels we had during the onward flight, but with some white wine and a nice white tablecloth on the table.

Later, we were given the menu, where we had a choice among 4 meals. I picked “Seared beef tenderloin in red wine sauce with potato and portobello mushroom purée, carrots and green beans”. Delicious and with a very nice presentation!

Lights were turned off at 01:00 (Swiss time) and turned on again for breakfast at 04:30. Those who can sleep on airplanes could have slept for 3:30 hours straight. For some reason I’m unable to do so – probably I need a totally quiet environment to sleep – but I was still able to relax nicely while listening to some music.

Yes, the A330-200 still has the old Business class cabin, and therefore no lie-flat seats. But still, for us this was a huge difference and we found them really comfortable.

Then, breakfast was served – we were asked to fill out a form right after take-off with our breakfast preference, and I received what I wished. Unfortunately it was too dark to take a decent pic of the breakfast, but it was once again very nicely presented and very good.

And here’s a quick shot I captured while approaching ZRH:

Take-off video:

Landing video:

Landing was 15 minutes early, at 06:00. We got off the plane, took the SkyMetro and headed for the Business lounge at gates A. We had to wait for 3 hours until we could board our flight to Lugano.

We relaxed a little bit on the massaging chairs – it actually gets annoying after a couple of minutes, so I just turned it off and stayed there relaxing a bit and enjoying (…) jet lag. I hate travelling weast-to-east, and it really screws up my day. Luckily melatonine works wonders, and I only feel like not having slept an entire night (which is true) after having taken it.

Zurich-Lugano

Flight: LX 2902 (ZRH-LUG)
Airplane: Saab 2000
Operated by: Darwin Airline
Class: C
Seat: 1F
ETD: 09:25
ETA: 10:05

3 hours later, we finally headed to our gate for the flight to Lugano. Boarding started just as we arrived.

The bus took us to the stand…

…and we boarded.

A quick glimpse at the cockpit before take-off…

The Saab 2000 door

We took off 10 minutes late, but the flight was supposed to take only 30 minutes. Really short, nice. We chatted a bit with the FA, as she was 2 meters from us on her jumpseat.

The view from my seat

And out of the window

After 15 minutes, the captain announced we were starting our descent. Yes, these flights are really short.

I noticed that our descent wasn’t really taking place as fast as it should. I fly on this route quite often, and we were still at about 15000 ft while only about 10 nm from the point where the approach starts – and the airplane is normally at 6000 ft there. I was right: the captain came on the PA to announce that an airplane had blown a tire on the runway in Lugano, and that we had to hold at PINIK until the runway was cleared.

After 10 minutes of holding, I dared, and I nicely asked the FA: “as we’re holding and the pilots are probably not too busy, is there a chance to visit the flight deck?”. She said that she doubted, but that she would still ask. And guess what – it was granted! 🙂 Sorry, no pictures of that part. The captain was very nice and explained me some things about the Saab 2000, while the F/O checked the airplane flying the holding pattern over and over by itself. Both very nice guys, thanks again for this opportunity!

At a certain point the captain sent me back to my seat and said we were going to divert to Milan MXP because the runway was still closed and we had used up all our holding fuel. Not what I wanted to hear, but oh well. The plan was to land in MXP, refuel, then take-off again to LUG as soon as the runway would open again.

So, after holding for 45 minutes, we started our approach into MXP

After a while, the engines spooled up again, and the captain announced that LUG was now open again, therefore we wouldn’t have to divert to MXP. Good news!

Here’s a pic of Mount Bre near Lugano during our approach:

Sorry, no videos of this flight, as we chatted with the FA all the time. She was really nice. Apparently there was a passenger who wanted to sue the pilot who blew the tire, and now we were 45 minutes late because of that. WTF?! He should be glad that our pilot decided to abort the approach into MXP, otherwise it would have gotten much, much later.

After a nice landing and 2 minutes waiting for our bags, we were on our way home.

All in all, these were 4 great flights, with great flight attendants and even a cockpit visit. What could I whish more than that?

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my trip report. All feedback is welcome.

ZRH Meeting

Dopo una traumatica sveglia alle cinque (!!!) del mattino, ci siamo recati in stazione – accompagnati da moltissimi nottambuli che hanno approfittato della vita notturna festivaliera – per poi partire in direzione di Zurigo, all’incontro di Airliners.net. Una volta giunti all’aeroporto siamo stati calorosamente accolti da Patrick, con il quale abbiamo chiacchierato un po’ del più e del meno (drammatico il suo racconto sul crash aereo di Überlingen del 2002, località nei pressi della quale lui vive); dopodichè ci siamo spostati dapprima sulla terrazza del terminale B,

poi su quella creata appositamente sul moderno terminale E


ed infine – questa è una chicca che offrono solo a Zurigo – nell’incrocio delle piste 10-28 e 16-34, dove abbiamo potuto ammirare gli aerei in decollo a pochi metri di distanza dalle nostre teste.

La giornata è poi proseguita per gli altri partecipanti con la visita guidata alle strutture dell’aeroporto: noi, invece, passando dalla stazione centrale infestata dai ravers della Street Parade, siamo rincasati, per approfittare di una delle tante serate all’interno della “Rotonda del Festival”, villaggio multiculty a margine del festival del film, dove si mangia, si beve e si incontrano persone che è da un sacco di tempo che non si vedono…