7.45; Slowly waking up for the last time in Tempe, Arizona USA. One of the most sad moments I felt in life. “Woef woef” was Jake saying to me. I think he knew I got to go some hours later…
7.50; After a quick visit to the Internet, I went down to get a very little breakfast. Eggs with a hot sauce, a traditional breakfast for our friends. “So, we’ll miss you guys”, the said… “What do you thin we’ll do?”, I said back... Even it was now 8.00 in the morning, the temperature was really nice: 25°.
8.15; A first time to say goodbye to one of our friends, she had to work that morning and couldn’t leave later… Everybody crying crying crying, I guess you could fill a river with all that water
. “We’ll see you within 5 years”, we said to each other… 8.45; Waiting and waiting, still 30 minutes in Tempe and then off to Belgium
. It was getting hot hot hot in Tempe; now already 28°, quite warm . 9.15; The last time thru the beautiful front door of our friends’ house… We also said ‘Goodbye’ to the very friendly neighbour, who was a really nice guy. We got in our car, my brother and one of our friends got in their car because we need to put the car back to Alamo (Rental company).
9.20; “Ooh God, I gonna miss those streets” was my reaction on our short drive to the rental company.
9.35; Time to say goodbye to the friends, a very sad sad moment. We were picked up by a little airport-shuttle that drove us to Terminal 2 (United terminal, Alaska Airlines, …)
9.45; After the short hop, we were in Terminal 2 waiting in the long and slow check-in queue. Finally, after 20 minutes waiting, it was our ‘tour’ to check in. As the previous trip, a very friendly women who checked us in, but she couldn’t give me a window seat on the long DEN-FRA leg, but only on the PHX-DEN and FRA-BRU flights. Better then nothing…
9.55; We arrived to the security point in a quite long row. We waited 25 minutes in that row and then we got thru. Once thru, the paradise was there for me
. 10.15; I decided to make an appointment with my parents and brother; “I’ll meet you guys
@ 11.25 here @ the same point, I’ll go for some spotting…”
10.20; What I said I did, I went to the end of T2 where the planes were taxiing by for take-off. Man; I had fun with all those TO’s @ sky harbor. Saw many Southwest and America West planes, also US Airways, United, Frontier, Alaska Airlines and the most beautiful the Hawaiian B763.
11.20; The last plane I saw taxiing by was an America West A320 when I realised that I need to go to the gate. Under my may I didn’t saw that much…
11.25; I arrived on time on the place and some moments later, a lady spoke thru the Terminal: “Ladies and gentlemen, flight UA1450 to Denver is now ready for boarding gate A1…”
11.35; I got in Ted’s A320-200 (N485UA). I saw that the cockpit-door was open, but there were to many people in there to take a nice picture…
11.43; Boarding completed en push-back from gate A1. What a sad moment :’(. We had a great push back and in a couple of minutes we were on the runway.
11.55; Lining up on the runway, giving full power to Denver as light UA1450. After a rather short take-off roll, we did a slow climb with some great views over the borders of Phoenix, the city of my heart
. We banked first a little bit left, afterwards we did some nice right turns on our way to DEN. In a sad day, I had still some highlights: we overflow Bryce Canyon and the meteor crater. A marvellous view over those 2 very very nice ‘things’. Our A320 was then at the cruising altitude of 29,000ft. We got a little ‘snack’ (or how do you call it )= a ‘Party Mix’, special designed and made for Ted. I also got one of my last American Cokes . I got a view on the safety-card, the inflight-magazine when I saw the first ‘Rockies’, a wonderful view. I turned my ‘jukebox’ of my seat on. After I saw that channel 9 was ‘From the flightdeck’, I couldn’t get fast enough to that channel. Marvellous! “UA1450, descend to FL200, for DEN”, or something like that We were descending into DEN, what was clearly seen outside: all the mountains, the nice landscape of course, ... The ‘fasten seat-belt’ sign turned on due to heavy turbulence. Ladies and gentlemen, due to turbulence we ask you to do your safety-belt on… So I did… We approached DEN over the city and made our final turn to intercept the localiser. Gear out, flaps set and cleared to land at Denver International. We did a hard touchdown on the same runway I landed from FRA. The landing was 7 minutes late. We taxied to gate A54, near the other Ted planes. When I got out the plane, the main-FA gave me a big smile when she saw my digi cam. 14.00; Our flight to FRA was only departing @ 17.00hr, so we got time enough to eat and drink something, … We had a ‘lunch’ in the same restaurant we went on 2nd april. I got a sort of salad, with bacon and a little bit of chicken; a strange combination. The lunch was OK and I got again a ‘small’ Coke
. When I was in the restaurant, I got a nice view of the Ted planes. The one that brought me to DEN was pushed back, again for PHX but there were some problems with the front-landing gear, I think. A coming and going of push-back ‘guys’ to check out wich was the ‘problem’. They contacted the pilot several times, but I think it wasn’t too bad, because the plane still departed, although 20 minutes late. 14.40; After my lunch, my family decided to go to drink something somewhere else, when I was beginning my ‘terminal-walk’. Saw Frontier, United, Allegiant, … I had a nice view of the UA terminal (the B-concourse) with many T7’s (:D woehoew, my favo
) Spotted several animals on the planes ( ). 15.45; When I got back to the gate of Lufthansa, I saw our ride to FRA arriving. D-ABTL was the plane that would bring me to FRA, the latest addition to the LH B744-fleet. I took some pictures of the great nose, the huge engines and lots of other stuff. I was a little bit hungry now (again:D), so I decided to go search something small to eat. I saw my brother and dad returning from a ‘coockie’-shop. I got two chocolate-chip-cookie, fresh from the oven… Tasty man, tasty
. When I returned, I hoped to see the BA772, but a pity that I couldn’t see her… 16.30; Waited 30 minutes and finally a voice thru the speakers: “Ladies and gentlemen, flight LH447 to Frankfurt is ready for boarding…” Business and first-class passengers first, of course… When we got in the jumbo, my place was seat 46D, no window
But an aisle was also quite nice, go out when I want. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is your FO speaking. Welcome on board this Boeing 747-400 with destination Frankfurt. We’ll arrive Frankfurt 45 minutes early, this due to the short flight time of today; 8 hrs and 35 minutes. I wish you a very pleasant stay on board. I’ll contact you later whilst we are inflight.” 17.00; Boarding completed and ready for push-back. We were pushed back and ready to go for Frankfurt.
17.10; After the taxi, holding some moments on the runway and some seconds later giving full power to FRA. A long but nice take-off roll and off we go. We did no much turns, but after 5 minutes there were some nice ones. Banking to the left, and then, some minutes later, a steep turn to the right on the airway to FRA. After 20 minutes, we got headphones (as usual) to listen to some advertising first and then to watch a movie or listen to music. Our height at that moment was 10,080m with a cruising speed of 1080km/h (!). We got a meal, the same as my last one on the FRA-DEN (a pity, I love more variety) Although it was the same, it tastes still nice… There was no turbulence at all but we climbed to 11,217m with an outside temperature of -49°. Time to go to sleep, what I did… After my 2,5 hours sleep, I was awake and saw a very nice sunrise… Magical, over the rough Atlantic ocean. I watched a movie (don’t know anymore wich one…) and after an hour the lights went on… 30 minutes later the passengers were enjoying their breakfast, but not me; I wasn’t hungry at all… My mother said me that it tastes wonderful, so I got a little piece… Not bad, but enough… I got an orange-juce as drink (I don’t think they served Coke then
). 50 minutes later we overflow Amsterdam and started our long descend into FRA. We did a long approach into FRA’s rwy 25R (I think, not sure, the one closest by terminal). Smooth touchdown and a short roll out as our Jumbo was heading for the gate. How sad it was to see Europe again, don’t like it anymore . We got out the Jumbo and saluting by a very kind, friendly and good looking crew. 9.45: Time to search our gate for the final leg to Brussels, our final destination. We checked out the screens and saw that our gate was B7. We waited 25 minutes for the passport-control and went to our gate. Under my way, I was squeezed between wide-bodies and very nice planes. Singapore, Lufthansa and Qatar Airways were ‘awaiting’ me. We went down with the elevator and were heading for terminal B. Under the tarmac for the second time in 2 weeks, thru the nice corridor. We arrived at our gate but we needed to wait still some 3 hours…
11.30; I was able to see most of the American airliners that were on their gates. AA’s B772, US Airways’ B762 and A333, Delta’s B772 and B763, all present in FRA. Many LH long-haul planes, I also saw 5 of their 7 A346’s… My brother and mother were very tired so they felt in sleep. I couldn’t sleep; imagine; a plane spotter sleeping in a huge airport as FRA??? NO WAY!!!
12.50; My last steps on the German ground as a lady said that our flight (LH4578) was ready for boarding.
12.55; We went downstairs where a coach was awaiting us to carry us to our plane. A marvellous ride between the wide-bodies that I should never forget. Just love the huge B777 and the A346… Under my way, I saw 80% wide-body; Lufthansa, Air India, Cathay Pacific, Delta, United, British Airways (B763), …
13.00; Arrived at our plane, a B737-530 – D-ABII, between some ERJ’s at the end of FRA’s 2 parallel runways.
Time to make some shots from outside the aircraft. I saw a B742F on approach, so I waited to the very last to board that I could make an ‘artistic shot’ (See coppermine). We boarded our plane and I had seat 6F. (Row just after Business-class).
13.10; Doors closed, pushed back and ready to taxi for BRU. We taxied all the way to FRA’s rwy 18 and I saw several plane still landing the parallel runways. (Uzbekistan B763, LH A300)
13.20; After quite a long taxi, take-off after an A300 of LH. Giving full power for my last time and of we go to BRU. Long take-off roll, smooth climb near downtown Frankfurt. We banked right for BRU. I took several wing-views as our ‘lunch’ was served. A bread with cheese (nothing for me) and the traditional water…When one of the very kind FA’s saw that I had a digital cam, he asked me “Hi sir, would you like some cockpit-shots?” I looked at him realy happy as I gave my digicam to him. “If it was possible, I should take you in the cockpit, but that’s not allowed anymore…” “How many shots do you want?” I said back
“As much as possible “. After 5 minutes he returned and gave me my cam back. I said that I’m a JP.Net photographer and that he could find the pictures there. He asked that I knew the site airdisaster.com…
After all this nice stuff, we were descending into Brussels, approaching rwy 25L… Over Liège and Sclessin (Comet
) to Brussels. I overflew the garage where my dad’s car comes from, also Airbus_fan’s house Pretty nice to recognise things like that . Flaps set, gear out and ready to land at Brussels. Touchdown was nothing special, but just ‘nice’. ‘That’s it’, I said by myself. My trip to the USA was over where it begun 2 weeks earlier…The landing was 10 minutes to early and we taxied to gate A57…
So, this is it. I hope you enjoyed reading it!
greettzzz
.
I will check your pictures immediately.
