Saturday, May 17, 2008

Achtung Munchen! Clear for Landing!














I am on reserve this month and it seems to be only getting better.
Deustchland here i come, i was pulled out for Munich yesterday and golly what an amazing city it is.
As i was in A-position (meaning no door assignment) i was able to sit in the cockpit for takeoff and landing and it was phenomenal. Here are some shots of Germany as we started to descend, it was a glorioius vista as we hurtled past the Bavarian Alps. As we were taking over another jet i captured the jet trails and storm clouds over the alps.













This is the view from the cockpit which is quite breathe-taking. Since post September 11 the cockpit is out of bounds to non-crew so enjoy these unsurpassed views. It was quite surreal seeing the jet trails come out the back of the engines, it looks like steam shooting out at over 1000kmph.






Well once we descended into Munich, you could really get a sense for the German precision, the way the land is cultivated and the city lines are planned you realise that they don't mess about when it comes to design. Even the airport runway at Munich is incredibly efficient, it is uber slick and well designed.

During the flight i had the pleasure of looking after the UAE shooting team who were on their way to a the world championship in Munich, they are very highly accomplished athletes who i believe also work for national defence.
Well one of the highlights of the flights was meeting a little boy who literally followed us everywhere around the plane on the 6 hour flight.
He was travelling with his mother and i ensured that he had an amazing flight. I took him on a tour of the plane including business and First class and i think he really took a liking to the latter. I also gave him my service jacket and one of my colleagues hat/scarf and he was loving it. He wore his Ray ban aviators and carried his A380 model jet everywhere with him. It's a real joy to come across such kids on long flights as they keep the crew entertained for hours and i remember my first flight as a kid and how excruciatingly exciting it was. Even though he spoke little english, i was able to practice my limited German from lessons i took last year.
The coolest part of the flight was that he started helping me collect the headsets down one side of the aisle and i think the passengers were convinced that we started training quite early.
To top things off once we disembarked the plane and went through customs, he was waiting for us and he gave me a hug and high five at the gate hahaha. So i have just introduced you to a future Emirates captain or First class passenger!!

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