We decided to book ourselves on an end of season trip to Menorca, with the hope of getting a little sunshine before the winter set in.  Flights on BMIBaby were cheap, so we decided we’d head off on 9 September from East Midlands.  This would be an important flight, as it would be our 18 month old son’s first ever flight, naturally an important moment :-)

We booked to fly out from East Midlands to Menorca on the 10:05 flight, heading back just over a week later.

A week out from our holiday however, our plans had to change.  I had to sit on a training course in Newport, Wales, and the only dates available were 6-9 September.  Cancelling the holiday was not an option.  We had already shelled out £1200 on the holiday that we would lose if we cancelled a week out.  The only possibility would be if I could fly out from Cardiff and meet my family there.  It would mean missing our son’s first flight, and leaving it to my wife to look after him on the journey, but at least it meant we would all be there.  Thankfully, BMIBaby have a flight out from Cardiff to Menorca on the same day, leaving at 18:30.  This meant I would have time to finish my course and head across to the airport for my flight.

I was surprised that only a week out the flight was only £19.99.  I called BMIBaby who after much kerfuffle, three telephone calls to their Indian call centre staff, and £30 lighter finally managed to split my booking and send me from Cardiff, with my wife and son going from East Midlands.  We would all be returning on the same flight, under two different booking references.

I went online to try and select a seat, and was very surprised to notice that the seat did not have one seat reserved.  Strange, I thought, also noting the fact the flight was only £20 just a few days before departure.  Further investigation revealed that this flight was the last of the season to Menorca from Cardiff, so I figured nobody would be wanting to head outbound on the last flight of the year with no way of getting back to Cardiff.  I just had to hope now that the flight operated in the first place!  Hopefully the return flight would be busy so they would have to operate it to collect the passengers from Mahon.  Nevertheless I looked into alternatives should the worse happen, and although it wasn’t particularly convenient, easyJet had a flight to Mahon out of Bristol the following day, just in case, so I knew I should get there one way or another.

The week of the course came, and I said goodbye to my wife and son before heading off on the train to Newport.  I arrived in at 10pm and did my training on the following four days.  Friday came around, and we finished the training course at lunchtime.  I got a taxi to the airport and got on the train to Cardiff.

On arrival at Cardiff I had to lug my case across seven platforms to get to my train, which arrived in on time at 13:41.

I caught my onward train without issue, and after 30 minutes crawling through some of the most depressing parts of South Wales, we pulled into the rather grandly titled “Rhoose – Cardiff International Airport” railway station.  Incidentally this station has the honour of having the longest railway station name in the UK.  To call it the airport railway station was a bit of a swizz, as in reality the train just pulls onto a platform in the middle of nowhere.  I had to walk with the other passengers down a long ramp to a waiting bus, which then took us on a 15 minute whirlwind tour of the surrounding area (turns out it is mostly terraced houses), into the Holiday Inn Express (only 50 yards from the terminal), where a member of staff came running out after the bus waving her arms at the bus, which proceeded to just carry on driving anyway.  It then took us across to the airport dropping us outside departures (Gadael in Welsh).

Shuttle bus from the railway station

I headed into the small terminal, which was packed with a couple of flights going out.  My flight was not showing on the screen yet, so I asked a member of flyBe staff if there was anywhere I could store my bag until check in opened.  “No sorry” she replied, adding “But there is a bar upstairs, you could go and grab yourself a cup of coffee”.  “Thank you” I replied, and headed out of the terminal with my bag to go and grab a couple of photos.

 

 

Terminal building at Cardiff

Some rather sorry looking BA 747s

It started raining, so I headed back inside the terminal to go upstairs, and sat at the window to check my emails and, more importantly, the flight status.  Thankfully it was still showing as operating and on time, and a bit of research revealed todays flight would likely be operated by G-TOYH, a new aircraft and reg for me.  It was at this time on the ground in Murcia, Spain, about to head back at 15:20 UK time, due to arrive in Cardiff at 18:00.

My wife sent me a text to let me know they’d arrived in the hotel OK in Menorca, so it was just me left behind in a rainy UK now!

Surprisingly to me, Cardiff is a relatively busy little airport.  There were flights heading out to Belfast City, Edinburgh & Paris with flyBe, Anglesey (with Manx2), Zurich with Helvetic, Dalaman with Thomas Cook and Thomson flights to Zakynthos and Tenerife.  There was also a KLM flight to Amsterdam scheduled.  The terminal was very compact, and reminded me how East Midlands used to be a few years ago.  Not flashy, not full of shops, and with that funny ‘airport’ smell, but a very homely little airport.  Signs around the airport indicate they are about to embark upon a large rebuild of the terminal.  Hopefully it won’t lose any of its charm in the process.

I headed downstairs for a wander, and found some quieter, more comfortable seats near the BMIBaby check in desk.

Check in area at Cardiff

A chap was already stood at the desk waiting, despite check in not opening for another hour.  He was soon joined by his wife.  At least it meant it looked like more than just me on the flight.  Another chap came running in for the Aer Lingus Dublin flight that was about to close.

A few more people turned up for the Mahon flight, and at around 16:20 I went to join them.  Check-in opened a few minutes late but nobody seemed to mind.  After the few people in front of me checked in it was my turn.  The lady was very pleasant, and I asked if I could have a window seat.  “You can have any seat you like”, she said, “the flight is almost empty!”.  “Really”, I feigned ignorance.  “I can give you a row to yourself, would you like to sit near the back?”  “Fine by me” I said, “How many are booked on tonight?” I asked.   “Just 13” she replied.  “Wow” I replied.  “Last flight of the year” she said, followed by “Can I just ask where you’re flying back to?”.  “East Midlands” I replied.  “Have a lovely flight” she said, handing me my boarding card.

I took a plod up to departures again, which was now empty bar a few people off the Mahon flight.  I grabbed a Burger King, which was both sold, cooked, and served by only one guy!  As soon as I’d sat down he closed the shutters.  Business must have been pretty slow this evening.

Deserted Burger King

After eating my BK I toyed with grabbing a beer landside, but thought I’d be better heading airside.  Security was a doddle, the security guys all having a laugh and a joke as a team.  I love this sort of laid back atmosphere, makes you feel really at ease.

Once airside, I walked through into a departure lounge with a few shops and bars around it.  I wandered through to the gate area to see what was happening out on the ramp.  There was a ThomsonFly 737 boarding for Mahon (I would later see this aircraft again in MAH), and a KLM Fokker jet heading back to Amsterdam. 

ThomsonFly 737 ready to go to Mahon

I decided to grab a pint from the bar before deciding what to do next.

Echo Bar in the departure lounge

Boarding Pass, Beer and Passport.  Always a good combination

By the time I’d drank that it was 5.45 and we’d soon be boarding.  The screens still did not show a gate, but I remembered just inside the gate area was an unattended PC screen on the wall with a list of all the flights on it.  I wandered up to take a quick look, and saw we would indeed be on G-TOYH as previously noted, and we’d be going from gate 3.

ThomsonFly pushing back for Mahon

I wandered down to the deserted gate 3, where G-TOYH was just pulling onto stand.

"Baby of the North" getting ready for my flight

A few minutes later some staff came down to open up the gate.  They let me and a couple of others through, the lady asked the dispatcher if we could go straight down.  “Just another few minutes” he shouted back up the corridor.

While I was waiting, another guy was chatting the lady on the gate.  I overheard part of their conversation.  “Did you hear about what happened this morning”, he said.  “No” said the lady.  “Well an Edinburgh passenger got on the Belfast flight, and nobody realised until the flight had left”.  “I haven’t heard anything” the lady said.  The guy said “It was my fault as he slipped through when I was checking the boarding passes, and everyone’s been talking about it today”.  “Somebody even posted about it on Facebook”.  He seemed genuinely upset about the unfortunate passenger, although I have to question how anyone can get on the wrong flight when they are so clearly signposted at Cardiff.

It wasn’t long before we were called for boarding though, and I handed my boarding pass in and walked down the stairs to our waiting aircraft, the correct one I hasten to add.

 

 

Date	9 September 2011
Airline	bmibaby
Flight Number	WW2185
From	Cardiff (CWL)
To	Mahon (MAH)
Aircraft	Boeing 737-300
Registration	G-TOYH
STD/ATD	18:30 / 18:36
STA/ATA	21:50 / 21:35
Flight Time	1:59

G-TOYH is my 16th flight on a 737-300, now by far my most common aircraft.   This particular example is one of BMIBaby's youngest, and was delivered new to SATA International in March 1998.  It served with Go-Fly and easyJet as G-IGOY from 2002-2005, and a couple of months in storage was delivered to BMIBaby in December 2005.

I climbed the stairs and was welcomed aboard by a friendly Welsh flight attendant.  “Hello there, straight down the back on the left” she said.  My seat, 25F, was second row from the back, and the other 12 passengers were spread across the rest of the aircraft.

Last of the passengers boarding

View from 25F

I was just getting settled in when a flight attendant came up to my row.  “Would you like a bit extra leg room?” she enquired.  “Sure” I responded, and she led me to the exit row 14.  “Take the window” she said, which was nice because I did not have a seat in front of me.  This really was the life :-)

View from 14F

The flight was soon loaded, and consisted of two couples in the first two rows, another a few rows in front of me, three students on the opposite side of my row, and a family of three sat near the back.  The captain came on to welcome us aboard this evening’s flight, which would take around two hours.  The weather in Menorca was currently 27 celsius with a light southerly wind, meaning we would be landing from the north.  He asked us to pay attention to the safety briefing, which soon followed as we pushed back and started our engines.

Our route for today's flight

The crew took their seats and we taxied out to the active, runway 12.

                         

It was a fast and powerful take off, rotating about halfway down the runway and commencing a steep climb out over the Bristol Channel.  Almost immediately we made a right turn towards the Devon coast, entering clouds as we approached it.  I had no idea how close Cardiff was to Devon, within a few minutes we were overhead Devon.

Climbing out over North Devon

Break in the cloud  below

Sun shining above

Business Class legroom on a £20 flight

Welcome to the land of the Gods

We climbed above the clouds into the beautiful sunshine above on our climb to FL370, and the crew began their buy on board service.  This was done by coming through the aircraft to take orders, before bringing them all down, without use of the trolley.  I procured myself a can of Magners.

Cider at FL370

I headed to the lavatory which was very cramped.  It was the first time I’d been in a 737 loo, but it did the job.

Low lying sun illuminating the inside of the almost empty 737

Back at my seat, I watched the sun start to set in the west as the cloud broke up below, and I saw us crossing the coast into northern France overhead Saint Malo.  In the distance was the Bay of Biscay.  We flew overhead Rennes and between Nantes and Algers, where I spotted an aircraft coming towards us and took a photo, I recognised it as a TAP A320, later identified as CS-TNI, at FL360 (1,000ft below), en-route from Lisbon to Copenhagen.

TAP A320 cruising through the skies of France towards Copenhagen

We continued southwards, passing the city of Bordeaux off to the right hand side, as the sun started to dip below the horizon in the northwest.

Window seat with 3 windows

My icy window

Meanwhile the cabin crew had retreated to the back row with a pile of newspapers and sat chatting and reading the newspapers.  Nothing else to do I guessed, especially with only 13 passengers onboard.  The students opposite rang the call bell a couple of times to purchase bottles of wine, other than that it was a very quiet flight.

Sunset over Southern France

Last sight of the sun for today

It gradually got dark outside and we flew overhead Toulouse.  In the distance were the Pyrenees, their dark outline only slightly contrasting with the ashen sky beyond.  A little later on and I recognised a much larger city.  “This must be Barcelona” I thought.

Barcelona beautifully lit up at night, from FL290

The intercom crackled into life.  “Ladies and gentlemen, from the flight deck, we’ve just began our descent down into Menorca.  Those of you on the right hand side of the aircraft will be able to see Barcelona down there”.  Result!  “We’ll be on the ground in around 20 minutes, temperature in Menorca currently 24 degrees”.

We descended initially to FL290 and headed out across the dark Mediterranean Sea.  Eventually I saw two lots of lights amongst the darkness, one being Menorca and the other in the distance being her larger sister, Majorca.  “Cabin crew 10 minutes to landing” the intercom crackled.

The crew came through collecting rubbish.  Soon the seatbelt sign came on, and the crew finished their duties and took their positions, dimming the cabin lights.

We descended across Menorca, seeing a couple of motorways down below in the darkness, before touching down with a slight bounce exactly 15 minutes early at 21:35 local time on runway 19R.  Reversers were engaged but not used.  We exited to the left and were welcomed to Mahon by the crew.

                     

We pulled onto stand next to the Thomson 737 that had left just before us from Cardiff.  As we exited the aircraft the cabin crew thanked everybody individually, saying “It’s been a real pleasure having you onboard tonight guys”.  An elderly couple asked if they were staying in Menorca.  “No we’re heading straight back now with a full flight, it’s the last one back into Cardiff”.  “Are BMIBaby shutting down then?” asked another.  “No the airline’s still going but we are being laid off next month.  We’ll be selling The Big Issue on the streets of Cardiff in a few weeks time!”.  Such a shame for the airline to lay off such brilliant staff.  Honestly, BMIBaby staff are always brilliant, but this crew were particularly so.  Nothing was too much bother for them.

I walked down the steps and out to the waiting bus, which ferried us quickly to the terminal.  We walked straight through to the passport booth, and after flashing our passports we went into the baggage claim, where the bags were already waiting.  Within 5 minutes of stepping off the aircraft I was on the transfer bus, alone, being whisked along the island’s roads in darkness, en-route to our hotel in Cala’n Bosch to meet my family.

Our holiday was lovely with warm temperatures of 34-35C most days, but after just over a week it was time to head back to the UK.  This was to be a special flight for me as it would be my first flight with our little boy, as I missed his outbound flight due to work commitments.

We set our alarm for 06:30 as the transfer bus was going to pick us up at 7:15.  The bus arrived bang on time and took us to the airport, via a few other resorts on the way.  We arrived at Mahon Airport at 8:30.

The terminal was packed with two flights heading back to East Midlands, ours and a Thomas Cook flight.  Check-in for our flight did not open until 09:05, but already the queue was the length of the departure hall. 

Check in hall

Queue for our flight

After a while some BMIBaby staff appeared and split the queue into two.

I had a chuckle listening to a group of passengers behind us, one of them regaling the others with tales of all the airlines she’d flown.  “Thomas Cook, Airtours, MyTravel, Britannia”, each one met with a subsequent “Oooohhh”.  An Iberia flight was called.  “I’ve flown on them too” she said.  “Oooh you’ve been to Iberia too?”  “Iberia’s not a place, it’s an airline!” she replied.  “Oh I thought you were saying you’d been there!”  Sometimes you just have to laugh!

It wasn’t long before checkin opened, and the queue started to go down.  The staff here were meticulous with the baggage weights, weighing every item of baggage, including hand baggage.  Anyone even slightly over was sent away to repack their bags, which resulted in a lengthy wait for anyone behind.

We were finally front of the queue, and our combined weight came in at 48.8kg, just 0.2kg under our combined 49kg limit!  My hand baggage weighed 7kg, again under the 10kg limit by 3kg.

Boarding cards in hand, an English member of staff stepped in to advise us where we needed to go, which was a very nice touch.  We took the lift to the departures level, where we entered the security queue.  This was a simple process, no shoe removal necessary, no tasting of liquids, just straight through to departures the way it should be.

I checked FlightStats on my mobile, which showed the inbound flight on time, and gate 14 in use for the outbound flight.  Checking Flight24 revealed that today’s scheduled 737-300 had been subbed for a -500, strange to downgrade I thought, considering how full the flight would be.

I took a few photos while we waited for our aircraft to arrive from East Midlands.  Some interesting movements this morning.

Spanair A320 arriving from Barcelona

Air Europa ERJ-195 pushing back for Barcelona

Interesting Eagles AIrlines Fokker 100 taxying out  for the flight to Venice

Medallion Air MD83 taxying out

Thomas Cook A320 heading to East Midlands ahead of us

Before long, the familiar sight of a BMIBaby 737 touched down on runway 19R, and taxied into the stand.  We headed to the gate area and took our seats, as the staff started to prepare the gate.  Despite the usual announcement “Please remain seated”, a queue started to form at the gate.

A few minutes later, another announcement was made, inviting those requiring assistance and those with small children to board.  Of course everybody lept up at this stage, the staff just let everyone through regardless.  We hopped on a lift downstairs, and out to the waiting bus.

The bus filled to squeezing point before making the short journey 50 metres across to the waiting 737.  We took a couple of photos before climbing the steps to the waiting aircraft.

Me and Baby G about to board his second flight

Our aircraft

Captain Brian Bradley preparing the aircraft for the flight

"Little Costa Baby" sitting on stand

Date	18 September 2011
Airline	bmibaby
Flight Number	WW5032
From	Mahon (MAH)
To	Nottingham E.Midlands (EMA)
Aircraft	Boeing 737-500
Registration	G-BVZE
STD/ATD	11:05 / 11:06
STA/ATA	12:30 / 12:23
Flight Time	2:17

Today's route

This would be my fourth 737-500 flight, and my third on BMIBaby (the other one was a SAS one).  This aircraft is 19 years old, having been delivered initially to SAS and then to British Midland in 1995, where it has remained in the group since.

We were greeted aboard the aircraft by the cabin manager, a lovely lady called Sue who was from the East Midlands area.

We headed for our seat, collecting the lap belt extension for Baby MG on the way.  We were seated in 9A and 9B, next to the engine on the -500.  Another bus load of passengers turned up, which took a while to board.

An ex-Norwegian 737 with a Lithuanian reg pulled onto stand next to us, I took some photos of it.

Second bus load of passengers arriving

The captain came on the PA, an Northern Irish chap called Capt Brian Bradley, a training captain for BMIBaby with over 30 years experience, who welcomed us aboard the flight, introducing himself and the first officer as well as the crew.  We were pushed back off stand as the safety briefing commenced.

Nice Global Express on the apron, G-OXRS belonging to James Dyson (Vacuum Cleaner tycoon)

We were soon taxying out to the active runway, 19R again today.  We swung right on the runway to ensure we had every inch available, then lined up and held for a few seconds, before power was applied and we began our lengthy take-off into the warm Mediterranean skies.  

   

We used most of the runway for take-off, we must have been very heavy today.  We climbed out over the sea, making a sharp left hander as we climbed out, taking us into the cloud layer above.  As we pulled above the cloud a huge thunderstorm became visible to the left, which we appeared to be going around.  The seat belt sign remained on for a good 10 minutes after takeoff.

Climbing out of Mahon

Dusty Menorca

Huge thunderstorm

Flying around the thunderstorm

After a while, the sign was switched off, and the first officer came on to apologise for the length of the seatbelt sign being on, which was indeed due to us skirting around this huge thunderstorm.  We were now heading up towards Marseille, from where we would head towards Lyon, then Paris, before crossing the English Channel and coasting in near Hastings.  We would then head across London, before commencing our descent down across Northampton and Leicester into East Midlands.  Flight time today would be around the 2 hour mark, cruising at 36,000 ft.

Thick cloud right up to cruising altitude

We bought some Cheddars to help pacify our increasingly irate son, as well as a couple of Pepsis.  Baby MG was temporarily satisfied by these, at least until he got bored and started playing with the menu and the safety cards.  The crew came around selling scratch cards.  We had 6 Euro coins left over that we were never going to use, so used these to buy 6 scratch cards.  We won on one of them, albeit another scratchcard which we didnt win on.  Ah well at least it was for charity!

Meanwhile, our flight was progressing nicely, but the cloud was solid and right up to our cruising altitude, for most of France.  The cloud started breaking up as we approached the Paris area.  Baby MG had a couple of screaming fits, but largely due to him being told off for tearing the inflight magazine to pieces :(

End of the solid cloud, approaching Paris

Between the breaks in the cloud, I spotted Orly airport down below, as well as Paris city centre.  We then flew over Charles-de-Gaulle airport, where I briefly spotted the tarmac with a couple of airliners parked up. 

Approaching Paris

French countryside

Pretty clouds overhead France

Paris Orly AIrport

Paris

The cloud started building up again, and was soon completely covering the ground.  An Air Berlin A320 passed below, perhaps heading down towards Spain.

Air Berlin A320 en-route Hannover-Palma Mallorca as BER55E

The cloud started to break again as we hit the south coast of the UK, with the captain announcing that we were coasting overhead Camber Sands and Rye. 

Cloud building up across the English Channel

Reflection of our aircraft in the engine

Top of descent in the London area

A bit of speedbrake at the top of approach

The cloud built up again so we did not see London, but there were a few aircraft on approach to the London airports down below us, descending into the cloud.

Soon it would be our turn, and we began our descent.  As we descended a Continental 777 en-route from London to Houston climbed alongside us, before climbing above us.  This was about the closest aircraft we were to see on today’s flight.

Continental 777 climbing out of Heathrow

Speckled clouds over southern England

Descending towards the clouds

Mrs MG spent the remainder of the flight chatting to a lovely lady sat next to her, as Baby MG went to sleep, not to awake until we got off the plane.

Before long, we were passing through the clouds and the captain announced 10 minutes until landing.  The cabin manager came through the cabin offering sweets to suck for the descent.  A nice touch not seen since we were in New Zealand 5 years ago.  

We flew overhead Leicester, with the King Power stadium visible off to the left.  We then flew parallel to the A46 before making a standard left hander onto the final approach for runway 27.  Unfortunately the batteries in my camcorder died at this point, so I had to take photos for the final approach.

Wigston, Leicester

King Power Stadium, Leicester

Syston, Leicester

Turning final with the A46 Nottingham-Leicester road in the distance

We took our approach to the north of Loughborough and overhead Kegworth, before passing the M1 and touching down firmly on runway 27.

A46 Nottingham-Leicester road

Wymeswold Disused Airfield

8 mile final

Crossing the A6 Loughborough-Leicester road

M1 motorway, A453 and directly overhead the scene of the Kegworth Air Disaster

Crossing the threshold for runway 27

Touchdown

Spoiler and idle reverse deployed

Taxi off at Mike

We used idle reverse before pulling off on taxiway Mike.  As we pulled off, a flying school Cessna 152 lined up and departed behind us, followed by another one landing as we taxied in.  Clearly a popular day for circuits and bumps today. 

Taxying into the terminal

Pulling onto the apron

Pulling onto the apron

Pulling on stand

A Ryanair 737 taxied out behind us as we pulled onto the apron, and onto stand 10 minutes early.  Alongside us was the Thomas Cook A320 that had departed a few minutes before us from Mahon.

A sign said “Welcome to the great East Midlands, gateway to Nottingham, Leicester and Derby”.

Welcome home

Arriving on stand

We disembarked via the front steps, walking across the apron to the international departures entrance. 

Disembarking via the front steps

We were not able to use the biometric passport lanes, as we had an infant with us.  Still, the queue for standard passport control was not long, and was probably quicker than using the machines at the moment.

We went through to the baggage claim, the signs advising us that we would be at belt 3.  However, a few bags appeared to be coming off on belt 4, including Baby MG’s pushchair, under a sign saying it was for the Thomas Cook flight from MAH.  The belt stopped, and then belt 3 started, underneath the sign with our flight written on it.  Everybody moved over to the new belt.  Then, a couple of minutes later, this one stopped, and the other one started again – everyone heading across to the original belt again.  Eventually, after 40 minutes of going back and forth, we grabbed our bags and headed through to the arrivals area, where the in-laws were waiting to take us home.