A number of factors played a part in the creation of this trip. Firstly was the fact that my compensation came through from my road accident in June. The US Dollar was sitting at $2 to the pound, and I had been looking for a DSLR camera in my price range for two years. With $2 to the pound it effectively meant things were almost half price, especially considering that electronics are cheaper in the US anyway. I am also about to move jobs out of the travel industry so it would be good to get one last industry rate trip before I left! The chance to get a bargain on some Christmas shopping was too much to resist, and when the money came through on the Tuesday we decided to pop over to the states that Friday. Next question was where to visit. We had heard of blizzard conditions throughout some of the USA, and to make it really special we wanted to go Christmas shopping in the snow, amongst huge tower blocks, something like “Home Alone” or “Miracle on 34th Street” – a typical American Christmas shop like in the movies! Ideally it had to be non-east coast, as I’ve only ever visited the east coast and wanted to go further inland. Looking on a map and the weather forecast, it seemed Chicago would be the best place to go. There were four inches of snow when we booked, with temperatures around -10C to -15C. It was ideal!

I rang TIS (the industry rate travel agent), and discovered we could get MAN-ORD on BMI for £250. We booked that before I visited the operations floor of our company and got an agency rate at the Crowne Plaza Allerton of $125 per night, against a rack rate of $160 per night. Not too shabby I thought!

The night before the trip, I checked the website and saw that on the Thursday the BD flight was six hours late leavingMAN, and was due to arrive two hours late back into MAN. This indicated to me there would be a delay of some sort, hopefully not too major.

Two days later, we were up at 4.30am for the fourth long haul trip this year! We called into ASDA which was empty at 5am to pick up a couple of books for the flight. We took the M1 to Sheffield then the A628 across to Manchester, taking about 90 minutes. On arrival sure enough we were due to be leaving an hour late, but still arriving on time. We walked into Terminal 3 at Manchester at 8am to be greeted by a scene of absolute chaos! The queue for BD check in was out of the door as a tannoy read “Ladies and gentlemen BMI would like to apologise for the delays in check in caused by a faulty baggage belt”. Marvellous I thought. Rachel held our place in the queue while I went to the self checkin machine to see if we could check in online, but as it was to the USA we couldn’t do this. We would just have to grin and bear it!

It took us 45 minutes to get to the pre-check in screening, where we were interrogated by a woman in BMI uniform. She took our passports, asked us where we were going, how long for, what our occupations were, the purpose of our visit, and why we were only going for three days. “We’re helping the American economy” I told her. Without even acknowledging that statement she thrust our passport back at us and said “Go and queue there”. Charming! AnotherBMI chap opened another lane for us where we were fourth in line. It still took us half an hour to get to the front of the line as there was one person taking 10 minutes per person to check people in. We finally got to the front of the line, and after checking in the lady apologised for the delay, before sending us the length of the terminal with our bags to take them to the domestic bag drop, to then go the entire length back to security again. 

Before we went to security we had to go through another checkpoint where we were asked if we had any liquids, make up etc. We said no it was all in our hold luggage, and went through. I set the beeper off, so had to take my boots off then go through again. It didn’t go off again but I had to have a full body search as well as my boots searched by hand by the guard. I looked up to see Mrs G trying to explain why there was a tube of “KuRust” in my coat pocket! It was the first time I’d worn my winter coat in months and had left the car rust removal chemical kit in my coat pocket! Oops, I apologised to the man and said he was welcome to confiscate it as it was my own fault! He said “I’m afraid we’re going to have to keep it”, which was fine. We continued through to departures, which resembled a meat market. It was absolutely crammed, the claustrophobic low ceilings not helping matters. The first stop was for a full English breakfast. We were starving! We went to pay, only to find the credit card machine was out of order. Rachel went to get cash while I waited. I put some brown sauce on my brekkie. An American chap came over. “What’s that sauce you just put on there?” he said. “Brown sauce – absolutely delicious” I replied. “I’ll try some of that” he said, “You won’t be disappointed” I said!

Rachel came back and we went over to eat our breakfast. We didn’t get drinks as we weren’t paying £3.50 for a 330ml bottle of orange juice – I decided to go down to WH Smith to get two for £1.69 instead!

We then went through to sit by the window and watch the morning’s arrivals and departures. The BA 767 to JFK was boarding, as well as the other morning American flights – the AA 757 to BOS and MCO, the AA 767 to ORD. The DL767-400 landed as well as two CO 757s with winglets. I watched the BMI Star Alliance A330 depart, I thought we obviously have the other one.   Eventually our flight was called for boarding at gate 44. Sure enough there sat our beautiful A330 in full BMI colours. The flight was pretty full, and was about 50/50 with American businessmen returning home and old couples off to visit family and friends. An announcement was made for passengers transferring throughMAN without boarding passes to come forward, and the line was very long. I would estimate that a quarter of the flight was passengers connecting from elsewhere, most had flown up from London.

 

 

At 11.15 we were called for boarding, and we made our way forward. Checking our boarding passes was a very butch looking woman by the name of “Emma”. She answered the phone in a very deep and gruff Mancunian accent. When we got closer not only did ‘she’ have huge legs, but was flat chested and had stubble under her chin! The hair looked like a wig too!   I feared another incident like in Turkey where I was harassed on stage by a drag act, but we got through pretty easily.

We entered the aircraft and were asked for our boarding passes. Mrs G still had mine without realising it, and we got in trouble for holding up the line while we searched for my boarding pass. We eventually found it and were able to continue, making our way to our seats in row 33.

 

Date	8 December 2006
Airline	BMI British Midland
Flight Number	BD705
From	Manchester Intl (MAN)
To	Chicago O'Hare (ORD)
Aircraft	Airbus A330-200
Registration	G-WWBB
STD/ATD	10:40 / 11:58
STA/ATA	13:10 / 13:55
Flight Time	8:03

 

The aircraft was very comfortable, although the interior was a very strange mix of colour. The seats were BMI turquoise blue, but the carpet and armrests were in a very regal dark red with yellow dots. The carpets looked like they were straight out of the Royal flight, but the seats looked like they were from a charter airline. A very strange combination!

We pushed back from the gate at 11:58, 1hr 20 minutes late. The safety video played as we began our taxi to runway 24R. Captain Roger Waite welcomed us aboard, giving us some info about our trip. He apologised for the delay as they were still playing ‘catch up’ after the gale force winds hit the UK on Thursday. There were quite strong headwinds in the Atlantic so we would take a route much farther north than usual, flying overhead Greenland and northern Canada, giving us some fantastic views. The flight would be smooth and flying time would be a little under eight hours. The weather in Chicago was currently -10C but was due to warm up to -7C by the time we landed. 

We lined up on 24R and applied full power. I just love the sound of the Rolls Royce engines on the A330, and it feels a lot more powerful than it’s four-engined sister. I have only ever flown the A330-300 with Air Canada and US Airways, so this was the first time on the shorter A330-200.

Departure video from Manchester:

 

 

We could feel the gale force winds shoving our aircraft from side to side as we powered down the runway. We rotated smoothly in front of the viewing park, and almost instantly the left wing dropped sharply to the ground. The crew handled the wind well though, with instantaneous responses to the wind. We made a sharp right hand turn after departure, towards Manchester city centre. I got a good view of the city of Manchester, with the airport in the distance.

 

Manchester

 

We took a left turn towards Pole Hill, heading over the Lake District towards Glasgow. The IFE was turned on, and I started to watch “The Wicker Man”. Lunch was served overhead Glasgow. There was a choice of Macaroni Cheese, Chicken Korma or Beef, Carrots and Yorkshire Pudding. We both took the Chicken Korma, which was delicious. The meal was served on a huge tray, with glasses bearing the BMI logo, and Wedgewood china. With the korma we had a pot of salad, a Kit Kat, bread roll, cracker, cheese and butter. After polishing this lot off, we were given a tub of mint choc chip ice cream. By the time we had finished our meals we were overhead the Western Isles of Scotland. We flew overhead the Isle of Harris, where I took some snaps.

 

Scarastavore Beach, South Harris

Scarastavore Beach, South Harris

Uninhabited Isle of Pabbay

Uninhabited Isle of Pabbay

 

The Wicker Man was a good movie with a good twist, but alas this finished about halfway between Scotland and Iceland. I had a flick through the aviation geek channels (all three of them), which featured a camera view straight down, one out of the nose and of course the essential Airshow map. Out of my window I noticed another trailing aircraft that we were overtaking, heading the same way as us. It was quite a way away so could only identify it as a 767/777! 

We flew to the south of Iceland, turning left towards Greenland. The cabin lights were switched off, as the light gradually faded in the northern winter sky.

 

 

 

 

 

I watched Greenland etch closer on the map. Looking out of the window I suddenly saw what looked like really bright lights on the water. On closer inspection it turned out this was the low sun reflecting off several icebergs. From FL370 these looked several times larger than ships, I can only imagine how big they must be close up!

 

 

Within a few minutes the icebergs got bigger and we were soon looking at huge snow-covered islands. These made way to one of the most beautiful landscapes I have ever seen as we crossed the coast into Greenland. Dark blue sea contrasting with pure, untouched, white snow.

 

 

 

I snapped away, however the photos do the real thing absolutely no justice whatsoever. There were beautiful mountains, as well as huge gouges in the landscape from glaciers. Clearly obvious from this altitude was icemelt into the sea. The blue sea had huge white streaks where ice had melted and drifted off. After the initial mountains and lakes we were into miles and miles of untouched plains. I found it incredible that there was not a mark on this snow. It had probably been there for weeks, maybe even months, and never had one person set foot on it, aside from maybe the odd passing polar bear.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What a pure, clear, remote place and here I was sat here watching this sight on a fuel-guzzling aeroplane surrounded by 300 people drinking beer and watching TV, most of them not even bothered by this impressive sight below us. Is this the state we’ve got to, one where the most awe-inspiring sights of natural beauty is ignored simply because people want to watch TV?

The plains of Greenland made way to rocky, mountainous terrain again as we reached the western side of the peninsular about an hour later.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few icebergs later and we were over open sea again, the Labrador Sea between Greenland and northern Canada. This leg lasted about another hour or two, before we hit more snowy scenery below, this time of Newfoundland and northern Quebec. The terrain here was a lot more rocky, with many more outcrops popping up.

 

 

 

 

 

The cloud built up as we headed into Canada, before turning into solid overcast cloud way down below. I flicked through the TV, and picked up “Adrift”, a pretty decent thriller about a group of people who go out on a yacht, get drunk and jump overboard, only to (durr) realise they hadn’t put the ladder down so they’re stranded in the middle of the ocean.

By the time this had finished we were being served our snack. We had a choice of cheese and onion or chicken sandwich. I opted for the cheese and onion, which wasn’t too bad, served in a paper bag. We spent a bit of time chatting to Stephen, our rather flamboyant flight attendant. He was a middle aged guy, and nothing was too much trouble for him. He spent time having a laugh with us, and it was great how he struck up a jokey conversation with everyone on board. Come to think of it, the entire crew were like that, very laid back and enjoying themselves.

 

 

 

We crossed the border from Canada into the United States, and decided it was time to fill in our green forms and customs slips. We flew south from Toronto towards Grand Rapids.

 

 

 

 

 

We got a good view of my great aunt’s town of Grand Haven, MI, a place I have never been to in real life but sadly know it through Flight Simulator! I took a few photos of the town covered in snow as we began our descent and made a right turn across Lake Michigan.

Grand Haven, MI

Grand Haven, MI

Holland, MI

Holland, MI

I was amazed at how large the lake was, it took us a good 20 minutes to cross in the descent! The lake looked very choppy down below with many white horses on the waves.

 

 

The female first officer whose name escapes me came on to say we had begun our descent, and that it was “absolutely freezing down there”, -7C on the ground. Before long the skyscrapers of downtown Chicago came into view, with Navy Pier and the former Meigs Field standing out from the coast. We continued descending and turned south to fly parallel with the skyline, before making a sharp right hand turn to almost double back on ourselves. We lined up for the ILS on runway 27L, however the entertainment had been switched off so I didn’t get to see the landing from the nose camera at my seat.   The lady in front of me however was luckier, the entire approach was visible on her screen, looking like a Just Planes DVD that you could feel every move of!

We flew over some less-affluent looking areas, complete with tower blocks and linear streets covered in snow, before crossing an interstate with cars driving on the wrong side of the road, as well as huge American lorries. We crossed the perimeter and passed a line of aircraft waiting to go, before touching down smoothly on runway 27L. 

Video of our landing in Chicago:

 

 

We exited the runway to the right and held for a few seconds before continuing. I watched a United 777 take off from the cross runway, making a stunning sharp left turn just as the gear was going up. An American MD80 landed on the cross runway underneath the UA 777, as another aircraft took off from somewhere else. This was absolute chaos – there were aircraft coming from all directions! There were ground vehicles everywhere, a steady stream of buses, tugs, baggage carts, fuel trucks plying the airport aprons non stop.

We pulled onto stand next to a United 777. The cold outside air was evident as the ground handlers were dressed in thick layers, with balaclavas, gloves and hats! The engines were shut down and we waited a few minutes before starting our walk to the front of the aircraft. We said our farewells to the flight attendants, and made our way up the cold airbridge to the terminal. 

After all the hype about US security I was fearing the worse. Long queues, intimidating security personnel, incriminating photos and fingerprints. I walked into the immigration hall and thought I was in the wrong place! There were lots of desks open, with only a few people queuing. The staff on the counters were having a laugh with one another, while another lady directed us to the next available kiosk. At this counter was another female officer, who welcomed us to the United States and took our forms. The fingerprint scan was harmless, just stick your finger on the red light. The photo was taken without fuss and without us even realising until we saw the camera on top of the monitor! We had our passports stamped and made our way to the baggage claim. The bags were out within 5 minutes, and within 15 minutes of getting off the aircraft we were outside braving colder temperatures than we’d ever felt, waiting for the airport shuttle bus to the hotel!

The bus turned up and we drove around the airport to the domestic terminal to pick up more passengers. One thing I did notice was how open the airport was. At Heathrow it is physically impossible to see through the fences, so for the US I was expecting something similar. However we drove out alongside an American MD80 taxying to the runway, while another aircraft flew low over the road to touch down. The fences were all chainlink, with lots of grass around them. It would be incredibly easy to spot and photograph aircraft from around here, compared to the UK where everything is surrounded by trees and panelled fences!

The drive to downtown took about an hour. The traffic was horrendous, crawling most of the 16 miles to downtown. The city however was very American, the whole look and feel of the place.

We arrived at our hotel, the Allerton Crowne Plaza on Michigan Avenue, where we settled into our room and switched the TV on. There had been a shooting at an office block a couple of miles from the hotel, right in the central loop. This was causing chaos with roads and rail being shut down right during rush hour!

On the Saturday we got a cab first thing to the Calumet store to buy my new camera!   I picked up a great deal on a Canon Digital Rebel XTI (EOS 400D) with USM/IS 17-85mm lens and USM 75-300mm lens, as well as UV filters, a 3 year international warranty and 1GB Compact Flash card for $1300 (around £750). Looking at Jessops (UK) website that afternoon I worked out it was about half the price, and that alone had paid for the flights to Chicago!

We walked the two miles back into the centre of Chicago, stopping for coffee on the way. The rest of the day was spent shopping for Christmas presents, including a Nintendo DSLite + games for Mrs G (£60 saved), clothes and shoes (around £50 saved). We headed back to the hotel, and in the evening walked down to Navy Pier. We were looking for a quiet romantic restaurant but it just wasn’t going to happen there – it was absolutely packed and very noisy! We found an Italian restaurant right at the front of the pier, but it was pretty noisy and the food wasn’t great.

We caught a taxi back to the hotel. On Sunday morning we went shopping again, this time to Marshall’s, Virgin Megastore and to Walgreen’s for sweets to take home! I took a few photos with the new camera.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

American police car:

 

And a Police Academy van!

 

 

Our hotel, The Allerton Crowne Plaza:

 

 

 

Very nice!

We got back to the hotel at around 1pm, and started to pack our things for the afternoon flight. We checked out at 2pm and the concierge called us a cab to the airport. We climbed into a smart black car, a lot nicer than any of the yellow cabs we had been in this weekend! The concierge assured us it was a standard cab and that it would cost us no more than $40 to the airport. 

Off we went, flying through red lights, cutting people up, chopping lanes down the Interstate to the airport. The driver assured us it would take 18 minutes to get to the airport, but it felt more like 18 hours as every slap of the brake, every swing round a 40 tonne truck felt like it would be our last!

When we arrived at the airport it felt like the end of a Cagney & Lacey style car chase. We screetched to a halt, not quite surrounded by tyre smoke but it wasn’t far off!

“60 dollars” the driver said. “But we were told $40” I replied. “That’s for a standard cab. This is a limo!” the driver replied. I felt he should be paying us danger money for our little escapade, but instead I found myself legging it through Chicago airport to find an ATM to get an extra $20 for the driver. I found one and took out the right money. Back outside to the taxi ramp I went, and gave him his money. The next challenge was to find the BMI check in desk. We found it was a shared desk with Scandinavian Airlines, SAS presumably providing the ground handling for BMI at ORD. When we booked it was going to be £140 return to upgrade to Premium Economy, so we’d figured we’d ask and find out if it was going to be maybe £70 each one way. The guy told us a PE upgrade would be $350 each – more than the cost of the return leg booked in advance!

Never mind, we stuck with our economy plans and took the bags across to the friendly TSA guy who was screening baggage before putting it on the belt. We walked through to security. I was fearing huge crews and intimidation after reading all the reports about security in the states. It was pretty harmless, the line moved fast and within 5 minutes we were at the front. We took our shoes off and put everything on the belt, and went straight through with no problems at all. We picked up our bags and headed to our gate, M16. 

We stopped off at duty free and got a cracking deal, a 2 litre bottle of Smirnoff and a 2 litre bottle of Malibu cost just $33, the price of a 1.5 litre bottle of vodka back home! The only trouble was whether we’d get 4 litre of spirits through customs as well as our £1000 worth of purchases – best just keep our fingers crossed and not look too suspicious eh!

On arrival there were only a couple of other people, so we took the good seats near the window. The gate was empty, but I knew our A330 was in as I had checked the airport website before we left! I figured it had maybe been taken to some remote stand, so the gate could be used in the five hours between arrival and departure. Before long there was some activity at the gate. Looking up I saw a United 777 pulling onto the gate. This aircraft deplaned before it was pushed back, and presumably to another stand. I decided to take my camera and go to take some shots. I only took a few as I was worried I might get told off by some over-zealous security guy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We saw a “Visit-USA” kiosk that a couple of people had been to. A closer inspection revealed we had to check out of the US at this kiosk by inserting our passports, scanning our fingerprints again and it taking a quick photo of us. We weren’t told by anyone we had to do this, but did it anyway just to make sure we didn’t get ourselves into trouble! Hardly any of the British people on our flight used the kiosk, and we were almost the only people with the receipts the machine gave out, so either we had done a pointless exercise or there would be a lot of people refused entry back into the USA next time!  

Before long the area around the gate was packed with people, about half of which were American businessmen, the rest being mostly young British couples heading home. Before long, a couple of American gate agents arrived, and opened up the flight. They called for anyone who didn’t have a red APIS stamp on their boarding card to go to the desk to get one as they wouldn’t be allowed on the flight without one. There was a huge line of people without this, presumably transit passengers. There was one Egyptian looking guy who didn’t possess a boarding pass, and apparently didn’t speak enough English to understand when he was asked how he had got through to the gate without a boarding pass!

There was more activity outside, and our ride from the outbound flight, G-WWBB was being towed onto the stand.

 

 

The crew turned up for the flight, it was the exact same crew as the outbound leg. Stephen from the last flight saw us and said “That was quick!”. “Oh no, not you again” I replied, and he explained that they were due back the previous night but the flight was cancelled, so they got an extra shopping day in Chicago. And shop they did, each one of them had loads of bags from various shops in Chicago!

The crew boarded the aircraft and shortly after that we were called for boarding. We were row 34, of course they called rows 35 and up first! A few minutes later it was our turn, and we had our boarding cards checked before heading down the jetway. At the bottom was Maxine from the last flight. “Hello again” she said, “that was quick!”. We headed down to our seats in row 34, just behind the seats from the outbound flight.

 

Date	10 December 2006
Airline	BMI British Midland
Flight Number	BD706
From	Chicago O'Hare (ORD)
To	Manchester Intl (MAN)
Aircraft	Airbus A330-200
Registration	G-WWBB
STD/ATD	18:30 / 18:45
STA/ATA	08:10 / 07:25
Flight Time	6:40

 

Stephen came around with the amenity kits for this sector. The amenity kits are made up of a pair of socks, eyemask, toothbrush/toothpaste and a notepad/pen. Captain Roger Waite welcomed us onboard again and was pleased to announce that thanks to a favourable tailwind our flight this evening would be just 6h40m, arriving some 50 minutes early into Manchester.

We pushed back from the gate a few minutes late, and made our way out to runway 22L. There was quite a queue of the US regionals, with AA MD80s, 757s and CRJs, as well as UA A320s and CRJs. We managed to cut in front of most of the queue, with only 3 or 4 aircraft in front of us. After a few minutes we were up, and we lined up. Within seconds the engines were spooled up and we were off. We passed the end of runway 27L and rotated alongside the main terminal area. As the gear was retracted we began a sharp left turn only around 50 feet above the runway! I couldn’t see the ground but could see the lights of the fire station area reflected on the back of the wing! Very exciting for such a large aircraft!

Video of our departure from Chicago:

 

 

We levelled off and headed towards downtown Chicago. What amazed me was how absolutely huge the city was. There were rows and rows of straight neon lit streets as far as the horizon. I have never seen such a big city at night. Despite its size it was still perfectly symmetrical, just rows and rows of blocks. The lights stopped abruptly at the lakefront, and despite it being pitch black outside we could still see very clearly the outline of the lake.

We headed out into the lake before turning directly north, flying along the coastline headed up towards Milwaukee. Just north of a place marked as “Kenosha” on the map, we turned right on a heading of 45 degrees, across the lake to coast in north of Muskegon, MI.

 

 

Stephen came round with drinks. I was very thirsty and knew I’d drink a glass of water down in one! I asked if I could be cheeky and have an Orange Juice and a glass of water. “You can have whatever you want” he said. With that he gave me a glass of orange juice with the rest of the carton, saying “Here you go, drink it up and do yourself a second glass while I pour your water”. So I got two glasses of OJ and a glass of water!

The meal was served and we had a choice of Thai Green Curry, Beef with Mashed Potato or Pasta with cheese. I went for the pasta which was absolutely delicious. Mrs G went for the Beef with Mash but the beef was still pink in the middle! With the main course we got a salad, bread roll, cracker and cheese and water. Shortly after the meal service the crew came round with a Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream - very nice! The food trays were taken away as we were crossing into Canada, before we flew to the north of Toronto, nicely lit up in the late night sky. I continued watching the Airshow map as I was intending to sleep later in the flight, so didn’t even start on any movies.

 

 

 

We flew towards Ottawa and Quebec City, where the cabin lights were dimmed. I put my complimentary eyemask on and reclined my seat, before going to sleep.

I woke up several hours later as we were crossing the west coast of Ireland. I’d slept the entire length of the Atlantic crossing and was very thirsty. The cabin lights came on a couple of minutes after I woke up, and shortly after that the crew brought around damp hot towels. These were collected and a drinks service started. The captain came on to wish us a very good morning, that we’d had a good tailwind for most of the crossing and were due to land around 7.20am. It was currently raining in Manchester (there’s a surprise), and the temperature was currently 10C. The breakfast service would shortly be starting, and he’d talk to us again in the descent.

 

 

 

 

Sure enough, the crew came around with breakfast, which was a bowl of fruit and a blueberry muffin. This was served in a paper bag that said “Wakey wakey” on it – very apt!

It was still pitch black outside and was now 6.20am. We crossed Ireland and flew to the north of Dublin, which was beautifully lit up in the darkness.

 

 

 

 

We began our descent as daylight began to appear on the south-eastern horizon. Things got pretty bumpy as the crew were collecting trays. Mrs G asked Stephen if he wanted to take our rubbish. “Not if it carries on like this” he said, “We’ll leave that to the ground crew!”.

We finally saw the lights of the UK in the shape of Holyhead, Wales, as a few lights in the dark before that lit the way for the morning ships crossing the busy Irish Sea. We now began the point I most enjoy on a long flight. After hours and hours of flying in a straight line, just me and a few other people through constant darkness, the atmosphere comes alive. There is suddenly civilisation down below, and as if to celebrate this the aircraft, alone and flying straight for thousands of miles, begins twists and turns, and sharp banks left and right, all the while getting closer to the ground and closer to the final destination.

We flew overhead Liverpool and to the north of Manchester, which was again lit up in the night sky. We started to fly around Manchester’s outer suburbs, which was interspersed with the odd little cloud close to the ground. As we got lower the aircraft started bouncing around quite a lot in the rain. We entered light cloud as we got lower, with the strobe light on the end of the wing lighting up the rain like a lightning bolt. It was clear the ground was very wet, as we crossed the M62 motorway with headlights reflecting off the wet road.

The fasten seatbelt sign was lit, and the lights dimmed for our final approach. The captain called “Cabin crew 10 minutes to landing”, and we started to follow the motorway round to the airport. We crossed Stockport flying parallel to the motorway I travel each time we travel to Manchester Airport. The gear came down just after Stockport, when the motorway appeared to jam up. It looked absolutely solid, and the worse part was that in an hour we’d be sat in it!

We continued on the ILS for runway 24R, passing the Airport Pub and a couple of aircraft waiting for departure. Touchdown was smooth and we saw Concorde lit up on the Viewing Park. 


Video of our landing in Manchester (note the rattly aircraft!):

 

 

 

We exited the runway to the right and began our taxi back to Terminal 3. As we passed the general aviation area we came to a halt, before the captain came on. “Folks, from the flightdeck welcome to Manchester. Unfortunately due to our early arrival there isn’t a gate ready for us just yet, so we’re going to wait here for a few minutes until one comes available. Sorry for the wait.”.

So there we sat, watching other aircraft come and go. We caused a few problems as we appeared to be blocking two taxiways due to our position, so not only could I see a Ryanair 737 and a MyTravel A320 behind us, there was also a Lufthansa CRJ just vacated the runway that couldn’t move any further due to us being there!

After what seemed like an eternity (in reality about 10 minutes), we started to move. Then, suddenly we just stopped and the engines shut down. From where I was sat it seemed like we were on a remote stand, and it wasn’t until we got off the plane that I realised we were actually attached to an airbridge on the end of T3.

Rachel secured our position in the aisle to let me out, while I grabbed the bags and coat down. We exited the plane as Maxine said “See you next week!”. “I wish” was my reply! We headed up the airbridge and back towards the main terminal. This was where the chaos ensued. The first port of call was passport control. There were loads of people about. “Not to worry” I thought, being British we normally have an express line. Wrong! There were six desks open. Four of those were for foreigners, two for British citizens. I guess that says it all about our government really! The doors are open so come on in! We had to walk to the other end of the terminal to get to the end of the line. We then queued for 45 minutes for passport control. As we neared the end of the queue, a VLM Fokker 50 pulled onto stand. Shortly after that we were pushed out of the way by two businessmen sporting VLM tags on their bags. I told one of them that the end of the line was back the other way, which he totally ignored. Knowing my instinctive dislike for any businessmen, particularly snooty ones wearing suits and thinking they’re it, Rachel probably wasn’t surprised by my next move. As we started moving I made sure the heavy end of my camera bag was sticking out, and pushed them out of the way. We carried on walking as I made every effort to clobber them at every opportunity with my bag. Yay it worked! They relented and took position several people behind me. Childish maybe but it worked!  

We got to the front of the line where the bored looking immigration officer asked us where we’d come from and from which flight. We told her Chicago and BD705 which she seemed happy with, before simply handing our passports back with no word of a “thanks” or “goodbye”.

Obstacle one complete, the next stop was the baggage reclaim hall. The scene resembled old ladies at a jumble sale. All the belts were in use with at least two flights on each belt. Ours was shared with the BMI flight from Las Vegas, the next belt was for the AA flights from ORD and SFO, as well as the BA flight from JFK. PA announcements apologised for the delay, caused by all the American flights arriving together. I guess the strong tailwind was causing a few problems!

After about 20 minutes we finally saw our bags trundling around the belt, which we loaded onto our trolley and with fingers firmly crossed headed for customs. The green lane had a bit of a line, I was just hoping they weren’t checking too many bags this morning! Fortunately there was nothing to worry about, there were no officers there at all and we just strolled through into arrivals. We’re home free I thought!

Next challenge on this morning’s Krypton Factor was to get back to the car park. There was supposedly a shuttle bus outside. We went outside to see a taxi queue the length of the terminal. There was also a huge queue at the shuttle bus stop, with no sign of a bus. Sod it I said, let’s walk it. We took the trolley around some roads clearly not designed for trolleys, least of all a trolley that swung to the right when pushed. There were no dropped kerbs so it was a team effort to lift it onto the road and back onto the pavement again, in between taxis and cars flying round the corners. We finally made it to the car park and loaded the bags into the car, 90 minutes after landing! So much for our early arrival!

We needed to get petrol before we went home, and drove past the petrol station on the airport as it was 87.9p per litre! We decided to head for the Texaco south of the airport, the one I drive past when I go spotting south side at MAN! I pulled in to find it was still marked as 87.9 even here! Must have shot up while we were away! Anyway, I filled up to find it was actually 93.7p – I’d put bloody premium unleaded in  Would have been better going to the one on the airport after all!

We put £40 in and headed home, arriving home at 10.30am, after a cracking weekend away. We had a great time in Chicago, BMI were great, Chicago was a cool city, my first taste of American city life. I was also amazed that after all the hype, the security, immigration and everything else was much easier in America than in the UK. I’m not the only one that noticed that – my physiotherapist went to Las Vegas for the same weekend and said the same about there too! So don’t go complaining Americans – you have it easier than here!