2023 Trips

 

2nd to the 3rd March 2023

Amsterdam & Billund

The 2nd March saw my Son and I fly out of MAN to Amsterdam for the day en-route to Billund, This trip was all about flying the British Airways / Sun Air Dornier 328-300 (Jet) and going via AMS allowed a day of spotting there which was a bonus.

We departed MAN around 30 minutes late on board KLM B737-800 PH-BXC arriving at Schipol at 08.20 local time. We spent the day airside where the following were photographed in sunny weather.

Air Hub Airlines operate this strange looking ex KLM A330 9H-PAX for Surinam Airlines.

German Airways Emb.190 D-AKJC was on lease to KLM Cityhopper.

Surprise of the day, one of the new Dutch Coastguard Dash8-100 C-FCGE taxied all the way down runway 27 (and past us) before doing a 180 and departing off 09!

A great day with some decent movements caught by the camera along with 46 new numbers.

We had a bite to eat in the terminal and awaited our late evening KLM flight to Billund. We departed just before 22.00 on board B737-800PH-BXU arriving Billund at 22.35. We were staying at the Svanen which was a short taxi ride away.

The next morning we walked from the hotel to the fence line on the southside of the airport to view the stored aircraft, we then walked around the airport to the small viewing area near to the terminal, the following were seen during a very slow day (once the fog eventually cleared!!)

OY-ASC departed in to the fog early morning while OY-ASA was parked up near the hangars.

Ex Great Dane Emb.190 OY-GDC remains parked up near the hangars after the airline folded.

Ex Sky Express (Greece) ATR42 OY-YAL was parked next to ex Aeromar ATR72 OY-YCU

OY-ASB parked on stand, meaning the whole B737-400 fleet of three were seen in one morning.

The most colourful movement of the day, Air Baltic A220-300 YL-CSL wears this great looking "Latvia" scheme.

At 16.50 we walked out to our awaiting Dornier Jet, OY-NCO and departed Billund just after 17.15 local time.

We landed back in Manchester just before 18.00.

A great trip and so good to knock the Dornier off our flight list, not an easy type to catch.

My thanks to Ash for a great couple of days, plenty of new subjects caught by the camera and another 79 numbers in the log book.

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5th & 6th May 2023

Stansted, Luton & Heathrow.

A two day trip down south to try and catch a few of the visiting aircraft for the King's Coronation saw us depart home in the very early hours of the 5th, heading straight for Stansted with the hope of being in position for the arrival of Brunei's B747-800 just after sunrise!

Success as just after 06.00 V8-BKH was captured just about to land in a very brief bit of weak sunshine!

We moved around to the northside as the weather for the rest of the morning was forecast to be poor, we spent a few hours watching arrivals and also took a walk around the fence line to see some of the aircraft already parked up.

Qatar's B747-800 A7-HHE was nice to see in a good position for a photo.

Deerjet's B787-8BBJ 2-DEER was also nice to catch having only seen it once before in Beijing back in 2018.

Brazilian Air Force A319CJ FAB2101 arrived mid morning

Another big highlight for me was the rare Turkmenistan Government B777-200LR EZ-A777

Final movement of interest for us was the arrival of the Indian Government B777-300 K7067 just after midday, sadly the weather had taken a turn for the worse!

We then made a quick dash over to Luton to try and get there in time for the arrival of the Polish Government B737-800 0110 ...... and made it just in time!!

Malaysian Government A320 9M-NAB was hemmed in amongst the biz jets but still nice to catch.

Following this short stop we continued on to Heathrow for the rest of the day where the following were caught before retiring for the night.

Nice to finally catch up with one of the fairly newly painted SAS Star Alliance A319s

and another "catch of the day" for me, Capital Airlines A330-200 B-8981 wearing their great looking "Beijing Daxing" special scheme.

A great day with plenty of new subjects caught by the camera and some very nice numbers too,

The next morning saw us up early to catch arrivals for a few hours, the weather was pretty awful and got worse as the day wore on. The following "specials" were nice to add to the collection despite the poor light and weather.

Finnair's "Moomins" A350-900 OH-LWP

Middle East Airlines' A321 Neo T7-ME3 with "10,000 A320 Family" titles

Delta Airlines' great looking "TEAM USA" A330-900 N411DX 

and last but by no means least, the great looking Royal Jordanian "Petra" B787-8 JY-BAH

We set off for home mid afternoon and made a short stop at Luton to see what was around,

Netherlands Government B737-700BBJ PH-GOV departed,

Montenegro Government Learjet 45 4O-MNE taxiing for departure,

Azerbaijani Gulfstream G550 4K-JJ888 departed,

State of Kuwait B737-900BBJ 9K-GCC arrived from Birmingham 

and the Polish Government B737-800 0110 taxied out and departed.

A pretty productive stop off, we headed off home happy.

My thanks to Gary, Fraser and Ashley once again for a great trip despite the hit and miss weather, plenty of new photos and another 79 Frames and 18 Scrapes in the log book.

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7th to the 9th May 2023

Frankfurt Weekend.

Having not visited Frankfurt since our day visit back in November 2018 a visit was long overdue, We flew out on the 06.00 Lufthansa departure from MAN on Friday 7th May (Lufthansa A321 D-AIRK) arriving FRA just before 09.00. 

We quickly collected the hire car and rushed over to the Zeppelinheim viewing spot as Thursday's SF Cargo flight had been delayed to today and we were hoping to catch it depart.

Just a few minutes after arriving at the spot we were rewarded with B-2423 departing 07C, what a result!

Happy with a few departures we set off for the Runway 18 spot to catch 07 arrivals and 18 departures where the following were seen over the rest of the day.

A great first day with quite a few new catches including a few specials and a fair few of the new Condor scheme fleet too. We retired to the Inter City Hotel for the night.

Up early Saturday morning to catch a couple of early arrivals, the following were caught from the layby alongside runway 18.

We then made our way back to the 18 Viewing Platform where the following were seen over the next few hours. The weather was very mixed this morning with a lot of cloud around despite the forecast of full sun!

By midday we assessed what was due (very little) and made the decision to try our luck at the Museums of Sinsheim and Speyer, two places I had wanted to visit for many years. 

We headed south and after just over an hour we arrived at Sinsheim. The museum here is superb and where else in the western world are you going to see (and look onboard) a Tupolev Tu144?

Having seen what we were after we made the 30 minute drive between the two museums and arrived at Speyer.

After a very enjoyable afternoon we headed back to Frankfurt for a couple of evening movements, these seen from the 18 spot and the Zeppelinheim platform.

So nice to catch the Dan Air A320 long after sunset, must admit though .... I much prefer the original from my days in the 1980's!

Certainly a day to remember in the end, not many times you get to log so many rare airframes nowadays!

Sunday was a our last day and was spent mostly at the Zeppelinheim platform where the following were caught,

We moved back to the 18 Platform for an hour mid afternoon to catch a couple of departures before we dropped the hire car off.

We made our way airside late afternoon and found a quiet gate area where our last few shots of the trip were taken, a few nice catches rounded things off nicely!

We departed back to Manchester at 22.49 on board Lufthansa A321 D-AIRU arriving Manchester just after 23.00 local.

A very enjoyable weekend with many new subjects caught by the camera and another 166 new numbers in the book. My thanks for Ashley and Fraser for a great time and lots of laughs!

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8th to the 11th September 2023

A great weekend in Rome.

A lovely long weekend visiting the sights in Rome with my wonderful Wife meant a couple of passes through Fiumicino Airport. Friday the 8th saw us flying MAN - FCO on Jet2 B757-200 G-LSAB arriving at 11.20 local overflying the main airport and the Military field of Mario De Bernardi on our way in.

The following were taken from our aircraft as we taxied to stand.

After an amazing weekend in the city together, Monday the 11th saw us back at Fiumicino for our flight home, the following were taken from the gate area in Terminal 3 before departure.

Our flight back to Manchester was on board Jet2 A321 Neo G-SUND departing early afternoon, the following two pics taken during our taxi out.

A few nice pics and another 65 new numbers seen both at the airport and whilst wandering the city over the weekend were a great bonus.

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24th September 2023

A day trip to Copenhagen Airport.

Early Sunday morning saw three of us at Manchester to catch Easyjet A320 G-EZWU to Copenhagen for a day trip. Landing at 09.40 the following were caught taxiing in,

We headed straight to the long stay car parks to photograph arrivals with the following passing us,

Early afternoon, as the sun moves around, we walked up the road towards the terminal to get on the other side, the following were taken until sunset shortly before 7pm.

We made our way back to the terminal to await our Easyjet flight home, A320 Neo G-UZLL doing the honours with us landing back at MAN just after 23.30. A good day out with a few laughs and some decent subjects passing the camera and the added bonus of another 49 new numbers in the log book.