We booked an overnight stay in the Ibis London Excel - a nice, new-looking hotel within easy reach of LCY by DLR (Docklands Light Railway).
We set off early on the morning of 2nd September, after we had checked in online at the VLM website. We had been allocated seats 11A and 11B but I changed them to 8A and 8B. Our travel went OK until a load of stops were added to the train ride down to London, and then there was an overhead power failure, so instead of arriving at 12:35 we arrived at 14:30. After checking in at the hotel we went to LCY to spot and have tea (the sandwiches there are very good and better than usual airport fare).
On the morning of our flight, we arrived at the airport and dropped off our bags at the fast baggage drop. We went through security but I had my bag searched because of the video camera I was carrying in the handbag (baggage restrictions mean you can only take on one piece of hand luggage so my camcorder was in my handbag instead of its usual carrying case).
I took some photos as we waited for our flight - they are in this topic lcy-03-09-07-photos-t23078.html
Our flight was VG154, scheduled departure time 11:00. It was to depart from gate 5 and was operated by Fokker 50 OO-VLE "City of Southampton".
OO-VLE at the gate.
We saw our bags being loaded onto the plane, so we knew they would be going with us at least!
Boarding was called at 10:56 - there were only 11 passengers on the flight, that is the quietest flight I've been on.
The crew consisted of a steward and a stewardess, who greeted everyone pleasantly.
We had a wheel view.
A wheel view is OK if you want to see the exact moment of take off and touch down.
The aircraft pushed back at 11:05 and taxied quickly along the runway before turning and beginning its take off run. We became airborne at 11:10.
The views after take off from LCY are very good.
Over the Millennium Dome.
The weather was largely clear along the way from London.
Inside the sparsely-populated Fokker.
We were told that the flight would last 50 minutes, and there was slight turbulence during the climb.
The snack was soon served, with a choice of sandwiches or fruit salad. I had fruit salad with tea in a china cup.
The snack.
The crew on VLM are very deferential towards passengers, something rarely seen in crews these days, and it's hardly surprising that they were Regional Airline of the Year in 2006. They are very professional.
As we approached the coast, it was reasonably clear.
But cloud thickened as we crossed further into Belgium.
The cloud thinned out again as we approached Brussels, though it was a turbulent approach.
The wheel came down at 12:54 and we touched down on 25L at 12:56.
It had been a fantastic flight, with a great crew. The Fokker 50 is a fun little aircraft, with more noise and vibration inflight than with the RJs. The VLM experience is flying like it used to be - planes with props and very attentive crews. It was great to fly with them again.
We collected our luggage straight away, as it got there before we did and went to eat in Brussels Cafe, where we also had a Stella which we can no longer get at home.
Afterwards we caught the sh*tty to Brussels Noord and then the train to Oostende, where we had a fantastic stay and will definitely return next year.
, so feel safe to book it