V-Bird
Niederrhein (NRN) – Berlin Schoenefeld (SXF)
Flight #: VBA-1031
May 15th, 2004
Departure time: 06.58 AM
Arrival time: 08.04 AM
Airbus A320-212; PH-VAC
Seat: 01F
Reading other trip reports I decided to give it a go, so here is my first trip report.
After reading an article about V-Bird in the January issue of “Piloot & Vliegtuig” I decided to surf to their Internet site and look what they had to offer. With a 29 Euro fare for a one-way ticket it came apparent to me that even as being a poor student I could afford a round trip. By coincidence I stumbled across advertising for the ILA 2004, and since I’m very interested in aviation I talked to my mom to see if it was all right with here. She said I could book her a round-trip ticket also because she then could visit a friend of hers, which lives in Berlin. So she gave me the credit card and I booked for the first time tickets on the Internet. The total costs for a round trip were 116 Euro, but we had to get up very early in the morning, but for us that was not a major problem.
Having received just little sleep before being woken up by my mom at 04.00am, I needed a cold shower to get awake. Being to excited I couldn’t get any breakfast into my mouth so I decided to wrap it up and take it with me. I already had packed all my other stuff, which I needed the day before so off we went at 04.30am. At this hour of day there was little traffic so we where in about 1.45 hours in Niederrhein, which could be found easily from the Autobahn. All the morning flight where leaving so at there was a lot of things to watch. The terminal is an old hanger but looks like a new terminal building, very nice. Having only hand-baggage and reserved seats we where quickly checked in and waiting for the bus to drive us the couple of hundred meters to our plane. At about 06.45 the busses arrived to take about 80 to 100 pax to the aircraft.
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The scene around the aircraft was just awesome. The fog was lifting from the runway, there was condensation over the aircraft and the sun was rising. After taking a picture I quickly boarded the aircraft, sat in my seat and buckled up. One thing that I noticed was the generous seat pitch and the leather seats onboard. It was apparent that I was not the only aviation nut on board.
We taxied al the way along the terminal to the beginning of the runway where we stopped short before applying full power and taking off. This was the first time I noticed that on take off the A320 engines produced an irritating sound. When we where airborne the crew put on the IFE an Mr. Bean, and then they quickly came around with snacks and drinks, which you had to pay for. I got myself a coke for 1.50 Euro and I was surprised to find out I got a whole can and not just a glass. But drinking the coke was a bad idea after all, mainly because I had not eaten a thing until then. Despite the early hours the crew handled things professionally. But after finishing my coke we began to descend for Berlin. After cruising around a bit we landed on the south-runway (09-27) where I had a nice overview onto the ILA terrain. I visited the cockpit and the F/O offered to make a picture of me sitting in his seat. The picture turned out to be really nice and I carry a copy in my wallet to remember that moment.
Because the ILA would not open until 10.00 am we had to wait and then I got myself finally a breakfast. The day went by and for me it was really exciting, but because of the rain I already headed back by bus to the terminal at 14.00 am, which turned out to be wise because there was a huge traffic jam. After check in I relaxed a bit around in the terminal waiting for our flight back to NRN.
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V-Bird
Berlin Schoenefeld (SXF) - Niederrhein (NRN)
Flight #: VBA-1036
May 15th, 2004
Departure time: 15.58 AM
Arrival time: 16.55 AM
Airbus A320-212; PH-VAC
Seat: 02F
The aircraft arrived a little bit to late so boarding commenced about 20 behind schedule. For me being dead meat it wasn’t a big problem because I just sat and relaxed. When we boarded the flight I noticed it was the same aircraft that took us to Berlin. While boarding an RNLAF F-16 was roaring overhead with full afterburner, which gave it a dramatic effect. I sat down and watched all the movement going on until we departed, leaving Berlin in rainy, gray skies. As soon as we where over the clouds the sun smiled at us again. The crew did exactly the same job as on the way towards Berlin, putting a film on the IFE and coming around with drinks and snacks. However one big difference was that the cabin crew was more entertaining the passengers rather then just serving them. So it the flight back was great fun with a lot of laughing going on.
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The skies over Germany, as we were heading to NRN.
But all good things come to an end, so did our flight. We approached the runway almost from the east so we touched down very smooth and quickly. Because of the lack of taxiways in NRN we taxied the whole way back over the runway towards the tarmac. I asked the cabin crew if I could make a visit to the flight deck and for the second time access was granted.
http://www.freewebs.com/b744skipper/Air ... ockpit.JPG
Sorry for the bad quality of the picture.
After everybody deplaned and me having finished my conversation with the flight crew I complemented the cabin crew on their “performance”, which was a unique experience to me. Being the last one to deplane I had to walk to the terminal and I grabbed that chance to take some quick photographs. It turned out to be no problem because of the relatively quietness at NRN.
My mom and I where really impressed by V-Bird’s performance and I can recommend them to anyone and we are planning to use them again in the future. One really gets what he/she has paid for.
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The PH-VAC after landing at NRN.
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A Ryanair B737-3Q8 from London Stansted landing at NRN, it has still the Buzz color scheme.
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The A320-212 and the B737-3Q8 standing next to each other.
I hoped you enjoyed reading my first trip report.
Feel free to post any questions or comments you may have.
