We were checked in by British Airways, who also gave us the boarding passes for our return flight later that day. On the outward flight we had been given seats 10A and 10C, leading me to think we would be flying on an Avro, a repeat of our first ever SNBA flight, which was also SN2038, back in March.
We sat in the departure lounge and spotted whilst we waited for our aircraft to arrive. Main sightings were Ryanair 737, CSA 737, KLM Fokker jet, Aer Lingus 737 and Continental 757 arriving from Newark.
A British Airways ARJ is pushed back from terminal 2.
The BA ARJ completes its push back.
The space in front of where we were sitting was empty, and it was nearly time for flight SN2037 to land. I could see the handlers preparing for an imminent arrival, so I kept my fingers crossed that we would be lucky, but no....
This is what arrived in the vacant space. This ARJ was operating a flight to CDG.
Shortly after 08:00, the moment I had been waiting for finally arrived...
OO-SSK parked at the terminal in BHX.
I was surprised to see that we would be going in an A319 after all, and even more surprised that the aircraft had parked near where we were sitting.
I watched the CDG passengers being called to board, and the it was our turn!! At 08:28 we were called to board flight SN2038 to Brussels. We walked through door C and gate 14. I was wearing my Luchtzak tee shirt, and had waited for this moment for weeks!! It was great to be flying to Brussels again!!!
We were greeted on boarding by a male purser, who offered us a newspaper and a copy of Connect. Two stewardesses were in the back of the aircraft. VC10 thought the purser may have been on our first ever Sabena flight in 2000, but I don't know if he was.
I was pleased to see that we were sitting in the exit row, more legroom on these comfortable leather seats. It couldn't get any better!
The view from seat 10A.
The scheduled departure time of SN2038 is 08:50, but we were pushed back at 08:46 - great! The screens kept going up and down, before they finally stayed where they were and the safety video was shown. So we would never know if the steward had been on our first ever Sabena flight.
We taxied to the runway, and waited whilst the British Airways ARJ took off for Paris, and a Flybe BAe 146 took off, before it was our turn. Behind us I could see a little ERJ of Swedish carrier City Airline moving into take off position behind us.
Then we were off! After a relatively short run, we were airborne and climbing through the clouds, with some turbulence. Click on here to see a video of the take off
The current copy of Connect.
The cloud over Birmingham.
It was cloudy throughout the flight. The screen showed an information map with the aircraft's position, speed, height and time remaining. That was a nice addition to the flight, and was absent from our last A319 flight.
The information screen.
The two stewardesses began handing out the in flight snack. It consisted of a pleasant cheese sandwich in a bread roll, a cinnamon-flavoured muffin and a carton of tropical fruit juice. I had orange instead of the juice, but the rest was nice.
The in flight snack.
I checked the screen when we were over London, and our highest point of the flight was 30,000 feet, with a ground speed of 565 miles per hour.
Shortly after crossing the Channel, we began our descent into Belgium.
Descending into Belgium.
The stewardesses handed out the Neuhaus chocolates, and I took three yellow label ones, and they are very nice
![Mr. Green :mrgreen:](./images/smilies/icon_mrgreen.gif)
We made a smooth descent into Brussels and touched down on 25L at 10:46. It was great to be back in my favourite airport and my favourite country again after seven weeks!
Touch down in Brussels.
We taxied to the terminal.
United Airlines Boeing 767.
United Airlines Boeing 767.
I also saw a Delta 767 but it was at the wrong side. Other notables were a Loftleidir Icelandic and a white 737 with Virgin Express titles.
JAT, Turkish Airlines and bmi at the terminal.
After leaving the aircraft we caught the sh*tty thing into Brussels (we even got one which had armrests at the seats!) and savoured the rest of the day in my favourite capital city!
The flight had been great (though not so great as my first one back in March) and had a load factor around 50%.