My flights were: BRU-FRA (LH4572), FRA-DEN (LH446) and DEN-PHX (UA1450)
6.35; “Biep biep biep...“My alarmclock rings… “Wake-up, Jens” Screams my dad. I got dressed in 2 mintues (!) and was awake, counting the seconds waiting for my departure off to the airport (BRU).
7.10; “Tuut tuut”, my uncle before my house. “And Jens” he said, “ready for the big trip?”. “Off course man
” I said back. Loading the 4 bags of lugguage into his Renault Espace and off we go… 7.55; After a 45 minutes drive, we arrived in BRU airport. My first plane I saw was G-OBYB (Brittania B763) on the remote-parking at the C-concourse… We said goodbye to my uncle and we went into the nice terminal-building.
8.00; After some problems with the electronic tickets, we finally checked in row 4 for our trip to the USA. My dad asked for a window-seat, but there weren’t any window-seats available anymore
. I only got window-seats on the short hops from BRU to FRA and from DEN to PHX… Better then nothing, but still…8.20; After the check-in, we decided to go to eat something in Wingtips… I got a little breakfast between nice planes 8O
. At the B-terminal were HB-JVB (Helvetic F100), OO-SFM and OO-SFN (SN A333), SP-LKE (LOT B735 Star Alliance c/s) and lots of SN BA’s… TF-ILB and another A300 of DHL in white “c/s” were parked at the DHL-apron… Whilst having breakfast, I saw Tine Reymer (Sedes & Belli; Belgian TV-program) and Peter Van Den Begin (Sketch a Go Go; Belgian TV-program) in Wingtips, pretty nice to start the day like that 
. 8.50; We walked under the tarmac, straight to concourse A, where our flight to FRA departs. After we passed the security-check, we decided to go straight to our gate A57.
9.15; Waiting and waiting in concourse A, but not too bad for me, I did some nice spotting from concourse A… Finnair, KLM, SN BA, Virgin Express, … all parked awaiting their flight.
10.13; Our plane (D-AIQS, A320-211, coming from FRA flight nr.: LH4572) arrived only 3 minutes late at the gate. The passengers disembarked, plane refuelled and being prepared for the return-flight back to FRA.
10.40; “Ladies and gentlemen, flight LH4573 is now ready for boarding gate A57. We ask you kind to get your boarding-pass ready…” We boarded the plane in ‘Zones’. I don’t know how long this methode is active yet; comments welcome…
10.50; Once in the plane, my seat was 15A and the main-FA welcomed us aboard; “Ladies and gentlemen welcome on board this Airbus 320-200 with destination Frankfurt. We’ll reach Frankfurt after 45 minutes flight. Captain *** (don’t know his name anymore) and his crew wish you a very nice stay aboard.
10.58; After a short taxi, we were on rwy 25R. A holding of 3 seconds and giving full power to FRA. Smooth take-off, gear retraced and turning left to avoid Brussels city due to noise. Rather slow climb and heading to FRA. We got our meal (fast catering!); a little sandwich with cheese and bacon, with a little ‘glass’ of water. Our cruising altitude was 27,000ft but I don’t know the speed anymore… I took the inflight-magazine, safety-cards, for a short read.
I can swear you one thing; 45 minutes flying is nothing, it passed soooo quick. We leaved BRU in bad weather, but that changed as we were over the border of Belgium/Germany. Descending into FRA was long, because of the many traffic over there. Over the city, on a left-downwind-leg. We landed in FRA on rwy 25R, I think (rwy closest to terminal, cargo, etc…) We arrived FRA on time and we parked near a SAS A321 (OY-KBB). (Load factor in economy was 100%)
11.45; When we disembarked the plane, we were searching for the right gate for our flight (LH446) to DEN. We found the gate-number and walked to the B-concourse (our was B25)... We were a little bit stressed first because of the short-get-over-time… But everything was OK, flight LH446 was delayed with 1 hour, so time enough…
12.05; We walked under the tarmac in the tunnel that connects the A-concourse with the B-concourse… A tunnel with special light effects, quite nice but sure not new;). We got to the big security-check in FRA… The man who “scanned” me said to put out my sweater, shoes and all the metal-things… Security-level is soooo high on long-haul, and especially transatlantic, flights…
12.45;After all that stuff, we got a drink and walked to our gate where D-ABVT (B747-430) “Rheinland-Pfalz” was waiting for our flight to DEN. I saw a Singapore B744, several LH 744 and A343, also 3 A346’s of LH and A330’s… We boarded our Jumbo at 13.40…
13.55; The boarding is completed, and LH446 is ready to go to DEN. “Ladies and gentlemen welcome on board this Boeing 747-400 flight number LH446 with destination Denver. The flight-time of today is 9hrs. and 45min. Please fasten you seat belt and do not smoke until the entire flighttime…”
14.00; Whilst pushing-back, an amusant video of the safety-instructions was shown on the screens…
14.10; After a rather short taxi, we were the 5th in line-up for rwy 07L… The previous planes were away and the rwy was clear for our Jumbo…
14.15; Full power! What a beast that a 744 is on take-off roll… Giving full power and blasting everything away for DEN. After take-off, the fasten-seatbelt light went out and we were finally in the air. A pity that I didn’t got a window-seat to view everything under us
. But I can imagine that the take-off was awesome… I was so happy to be in the Jumbo that I almost forgot to breath man 8) After 1 hour flight, we saw our route to DEN. Over Köln to AMS, Ireland and South Greenland, over Labrador City (Woef;)) and Minneapolis. We got our first drink above AMS. A coke was on the menu for me, served by a very kind, friendly and good looking LH-crew. The screens were already 30 minutes on, but now are cruising speed and cruising altitude were visible. Some technical details: outside temperature: -59°, altitude: 10,700m., 1,000km/h… We got our lunch; a sort of roast-beef, potatoes, salad with tomatoes, a little bread (Butter and cheese included) and a little cake as desert. My second coke was also a fact . Watching some films, walking around, reading some magazines, … all to let the time passing… 7 hours under our way and we got our dinner. There was a choose between chicken and pasta. I got the chicken, but I was so hungry that I forgot to make a picture of it (I’m so sorry 
). Again good tasting, although it was quite spicy. My third coke and first water were a fact . Dinner was finished as we climbed to 11,700m., I have no idea why, but probably due to some turbulence… We passed the Atlantic for more then 3 hours now and were heading over the rough landscape of Canada and northern USA; a wonderful view. Time past so quick as we started our (long) descend into DEN. A rather bumpy approach but a great, smooth landing in the wonderful Denver-world. (Load factor on this flight was 100% in economy)16.45: We left our Jumbo and we did our first steps on American ground. A great feeling
. We went to the passport-control where we were in a looooong row. We waited about 45 minutes. The officer checked our passports, papers, … “Welcome to America, sir” He said. 16.50: We picked up our luggage for 5 minutes to go thru the control and check in again. “So, where are you guys coming from?” asked a nice lady us… “We’re from Belgium, miss…” “Oh really?” she said, “I hope you enjoy our wonderful country sir, have a nice day and go on to gate A52…”.
17.00: We did what the kind lady said and after 5 minutes of walking, we were on the famous ‘Denver-bridge’. It was quite funny to ‘walk above an aircraft’:D. I did some reg-spotting whilst my parents and my brother already went to the gate. Man, Denver is fun for spotting! I can strongly recommend you; from huge T7’s and B744, to very good looking A318’s…
17.15: A quarter after my family, I finally arrived at our gate. Everybody was already tired from the long trip (except me, of course;)), but we had still some 1,5 hours flying time to go.
We had a drink in a typical American pub. Man; America is BIG. I asked for a ‘small’ coke, I got 0,5L coke . What they call ‘small’ .17.20: After our short pub-visit, we decided to go to our gate. The plane was delayed with 30 minutes, but they were almost up now, so time to say ‘goodbeye’ to the Jumbo who brought me there… The push-back was great, I got a friendly wave of the F/O…
17.30: “Ladies and gentlemen, flight UA1455 with destination Phoenix is now ready for boarding gate A52. Please keep your boarding card ready…” Last time boarding, last flight’ll begin… We were ready for boarding Ted’s ship N497UA, an Airbus 320-200
17.45: After the taxi, we did a direct take-off… The take-off was really powerful and very fast… I was waiting to the ‘gear-retraction’, but there wasn’t :s. After 10 seconds, the F/O contacted us and said that the gear was too hot, and retracting it late the only and best way was to cool it down. Quite nice, as I had seat 6F and saw the reflections of the gear in the engine… Finally, after 7 (!) minutes, the pilot retracted the gear. Off to PHX, my final destination. I was a now a little bit tired, but I didn’t went to sleep because flying is so wonderful with a very nice sunset
. Heavy turbulence after 55 minutes flight waked the plane up… The, very very kind and friendly, FA’s waited a little bit with serving our beverage and a ‘little snack’. I got a coke and everybody got ‘Pretzels’. After a rather turbulent flight (wich is quite normal; the cold mountains going over in desert gives always some problems) we started our descend into PHX. We did a right downwind-leg into Sky Harbor International… After a very short final, we did our very last, and very smooth, landing… There I was; Phoenix – Arizona, starting the 14 holidays…We visited the Hoover Dam, Las Vegas, Zion National park, Bryce canyon national park, the Grand Canyon, Montezuma castle, Camp Verde, Sedona, Tucson, the desert-museum, the Kartchner Caverns, Bisbee, Tombstone and downtown Phoenix and Tempe… We stayed 4 days with our friends, the other days when visiting things were in Best Western Hotels…
If you have any questions, hints or comments, just push the reply-button
(Some pictures can be found in the coppermine)
greettzzz
But you've seen many planes. Can't wait to read part 2! 
