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That Condor Moment - updated again!

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marpleman
Posts: 346
Joined: Sun Feb 09, 2014 4:41 pm
Location: Marple Bridge, Cheshire, overlooking approach into EGCC

That Condor Moment - updated again!

Post by marpleman » Tue May 27, 2014 8:13 pm

That Condor Moment
(With apologies to an advert from the 80’s for those old enough to remember!)

So, after spending the last several weeks fighting a losing battle with Bob from Runcorn, as to who could bag the most flyovers, and movements into both Manchester and Liverpool, I decided enough was enough, and it was time to return to the world of employment.

Completely out of sheer luck, I landed a five week assignment working as a consultant for the maintenance arm of Thomas Cook Airlines, based at their maintenance facility at Ringway. Could I believe my luck? Not really, especially when I found out that most of the time would be spent working on behalf of their sister airline Condor, based at their Cargo City Sud (CCS) maintenance facility at Frankfurt Airport, sandwiched in between the Lufthansa general maintenance and A380 facility on one side, and the main cargo terminal on the other!

A fairly quiet introductory week was spent at Ringway, where unfortunately, the offices overlooked the car park and the Monarch hangar. No direct view of airside……………never mind. Several circuits of the hangar in order to be involved in meetings etc didn’t reveal anything too out of the ordinary. In fact the only aircraft worthy of note being worked on during the week, was
D-AICJ A320 Condor

Outside was G-BYAX B757, which transformed into VP-BOO of Royal Flight outside of Monarch and Air Livery during the week.
Other movements of note from my perspective on the daily commute back to the railway station for the journey back to Piccadilly were:
G-VYGG A330-MRTT
And a single LH A340 bringing in Bayern Munich, to dispose of Manchester’s “other club” in the Champions League.

Deciding to use Public transport this week, I was appalled at how badly the Cargo /Maintenance Centre is serviced. Basically two bus services operating once an hour, within a couple of minutes of each other. Shocking!
So a fairly slow start, especially with a week off the following week, due to holidays in Germany.

It had been decided that I would commence my stay in Frankfurt on Tuesday 29th April through until Wednesday evening as Thursday was a public holiday in Germany. One of many as it transpires………….Lady luck was however with me, as all flights out of Frankfurt on the Wednesday afternoon/evening, were fully booked.
“We realise it’s inconvenient, however could you stay over on Wednesday evening and fly back to Manchester early Thursday morning?” It took me less than a nano-second to respond in the affirmative, thinking a full nights spotting, not worrying about departures etc would be much more agreeable.

A 3 a.m. alarm call on Tuesday the 29th, came far too early, but a trouble free departure and a swift transit, saw us touching down on the “newish” 07L/25R runway before taxiing to Terminal 1 past the fire station, resplendent with mocked-up airliner “D-FEUR” and two “proper” aircraft in Apache D-IHGB and Sikorsky S-58 B12/D-HAUD. The highlight of the taxi being ANA B787 JA828A sat out on a remote stand awaiting its early evening departure.

A swift passage through passport control, and a quick recce of both Terminals to suss where to spend the evenings spotting (the observation deck on T1 closes at 18:00, little use if you’re working late!) showed the McDonald’s seating area to be a hands-down winner.

Taxi to Cargo City Sud, round the perimeter of T2, past the “memorial” to the US Air Force Base, housing the impressive sight of the two “gate-guards”, namely Douglas C-54 “9063” and C-47 “349081”, joining the main approach road to the Condor facility at the far western end of CCS.
Passing Avro 146 D-AMAJ , now an instructional airframe owned by N*CE Training, and several “wide-bodies” on the remote parking around the chosen site for the speculative Terminal 3, saw us pass through the vehicle security barrier, which seems to annoy all the taxi drivers, and an arrival at Condor Technik at just after 10 a.m.
The LH A380 hangar has to be seen to be believed…………up close, it’s the size of a small town, only slightly bettering the huge B747/MD11F and A340 facility next door.
Just to the east of these two monsters, lies the somewhat more homely older Condor Technik hangar, with room, just about, for a B767 or smaller. Rumour has it, they have to “jack” up the nose to make the tail “dip” slightly, to get the 76’s into the hangar……………

The good news…………………………..the facility is at most twenty yards and a fence away from the biz-jet ramp, and the southern taxi way , adjacent to the cargo area. And I’m greeted with a decent line-up going straight into the book.
D-ARTE CL601
D-CJET Citation CJ3
HB-JEL ERJ135
LZ-TRH Learjet 60
N596DC Gulfstream V
OE-HII BD-100 Challenger
OE-INA CL605
OH-GIV Gulfstream G450
OY-UCA Citation CJ2

The bad news……….as the facility is classed as airside, yours truly had to go through another security check, similar to that on any normal departure from EGCC, but this time with the German equivalent of Barry and Paul Chuckle, and what appeared to be a 1970’s baggage scanner………..Twenty minutes later, after tracking down my host for the visit, I’m off and running to do what I’d been paid to do…………………..work!
The real downer of the day however, comes with the realisation that the finance department have recently moved offices, previously overlooking the corporate ramp, and runways, they now occupy a suite of offices commanding an impressive view of the………………………………….. car-park.

The only redeeming factor, was a trip to the loo’s requiring a walk past several lengthy windows, so where possible a sneaky glance on t’internet on the Frankfurt Spotters page, gave a constant update of arrivals and departures, so where possible, toilet breaks were co-ordinated accordingly. Unfortunately not that easy due to the lengthy meetings I was involved in.
It soon transpired, that my host , although not a spotter, had a keen interest in aviation, so was sympathetic in my pursuit where possible, but typical “German efficiency” did mean that work came first.

A long day, with a 20:00 finish, saw your by now fatigued scribe waiting for a return taxi to the hotel, before a shower and the commencement of some real spotting.
The Stiegenberger Airport Hotel was my hostel for the two nights, and room 829 afforded almost unparalleled views of landing traffic, being directly underneath the approach to runway 25R, so much so, that it was almost impossible to tell what the aircraft were unless you were familiar with the undercarriage configuration of the modern day airliner! It also allowed reasonable views across the apron from the mid-point of both terminals, over to my earlier working location at Cargo-Sud.
Despite the spotting offered from my room, I decided to venture back to McDonalds. After all, the hotel is located about 1/2km from the entrance to Terminal 2. “Only a ten minute walk”, the porter mentioned!
Three quarters of an hour later, I made it into the terminal…………………………………………………………….
You can easily see the entrance, but getting to it is a situation not rendered easy, by firstly a decidedly dodgy “homeless” Buddhist shrine/camp with some very nasty looking abusive drunken grebo’s, and secondly a series of bewildering road/pavement works, which unless you were a car, were almost impossible to navigate. If only the hotel porter had mentioned the “every fifteen minutes” courtesy bus!!
Finally, I choose a front row seat in the seated area adjacent to the worlds “number one fast food” restaurant………………………”fast food” isn’t a concept our Teutonic brothers and sisters understand, as the average time spent in the queue was around thirty minutes whenever I tried to get some food or drink, eventually giving up and getting some provisions from the underground supermarket, including a supply of ridiculously cheap premium beer!!!

Comedy value for the evening was provided by the only other noticeable spotter in the area. A slightly drunken German gent who downed around six or seven beers in just over 90 minutes, and kept leaving his table to “pole” something he needed, and then entering into a drunken argument on returning to “his” table that was now occupied by some bemused foreigners waiting for their loved ones to arrive!

A very decent evenings spotting produced the following of interest below, after which a quick return journey of under three minutes on the shuttle bus got me back just in time to see Real demolish Bayern in the second leg of the Champions League semi, courtesy of both the added hour on German clocks, and “ITV+1” on the hotel TV!!!
4X-EKL B737 El Al
7O-ADT A330 Yemenia
9V-SKS A380 Singapore
B2040/2090 B777, B6081/6533 A330 Air China
B5941 A330 China Eastern
B-KPQ B777 Cathay
CC-BBD B787 LAN Chile :clap:
D-ABYN B748 LH
D-ASXO B737 Sun Express
EC-KRH A320 Vueling
EI-RDF ERJ190 Alitalia
ET-ALJ B767 Ethiopian
HL7460 B747 Korean
HS-TGR B747 Thai
JA828A B787 ANA :clap:
OE-IHD ERJ190 Nikki
P4-KEB B767 Air Astana
PT-MUC B777 TAM
TC-SNO B737 Sun Express
UR-GBD B737 Ukraine
VN-A142 B777 Vietnam
VT-ANH B787 Air India
ZS-SNC A340 SAA

Wednesday dawned nice and foggy……………………..a real “pea souper”. As a consequence, any morning spotting was abandoned in favour of a re-think for the evenings activities.

Having finally understood how to get a free wireless connection in my room, loading “FR24” on the old lap top, together with the gradually lifting fog, and a constant stream of arrivals onto runway 25R , again directly over my room, made it an obvious decision to get more beer in, and return that evening to stay glued to the window, with a combination of “FR24” zoomed into Frankfurt, and the afore mentioned “Arrivals/Departures” page, giving an almost unobstructed picture of all movements into and out of the airport until the late evening curfew kicked in!!!

Another day at work, revealing additional biz-jet ramp occupants CS-DFD F2000, CS-DRC Hawker 800, D-CEFD CJ3, D-CNOB Citation 525, OE-GXB CJ4 and a brace of PC-12’s M-CCCV and HB-FWG and a bit of commotion with ADAC Dornier 328 D-BADC with multiple medevacs.

I also received a very informative tour of “company” owned 767 D-ABUZ , which was involved in a landing incident several years ago in the Caribbean, where a wing struck a pylon. As a result “Uniform Zulu” is the only aircraft in the Condor fleet “owned” by the airline, as no leasing company will touch it, and to this day is known by the Condor employees as “Uniform Zombie”!!

On departing the offices later that evening, the day had turned into a fairly bright, sunny but showery evening.
My taxi back to the hotel took an eternity to arrive, but I cared not a jot, as I stood by the biz jet ramp as the following procession of “Triple Seven” freighters passed by literally feet away, the highlight being B2095 (Air China),followed by A7-BFC ( Qatar Cargo),A6-EFM (Emirates) and N885FD (Fed Ex), together with various LH MD-11F’s (D-ALCF/P/R) and B747 freighter B-LID (Cathay), joining the already resident cargo apron occupants, 9M-MPS B747F (Malaysian), and a trio of Air Bridge B747F’s in VQ-BAX/BJB/BLQ. Quite an impressive sight!

Arriving back at the hotel, a fantastic evening produced the following highlights, by keeping an eye on “FR24” and gazing out of the window:
4R-ALG A330 Sri Lankan
4X-EKI B737 EL AL
9A-CTH/L A319 Croatia
9V-SKR A380, 9V-SWF B777 Singapore
A40-DD A340 Oman
A6-ECL B777 Emirates
B2038 B777 Air China
B6115/6538 A330 China Eastern
B-KPK B777 Cathay
CC-CBE B787 :clap: N778LA B777F LAN Chile
D-ALFC B777F LH
EC-LRN/LZF A320 Vueling
EI-RNB ERJ190 Alitalia
F-GUGO A318 Air France
HB-IJV A320 Edelweiss
HL7420/7423 B747 Asiana
HL7495 B747 Korean
JA741J B777 JAL
LZ-PLO ERJ190 Bulgaria
N105UA/178UA B747 United
N772FE MD11F Fed Ex
OK-NEP/REQ A319 CSA
P4-KDA A321 Air Astana
SP-LNF ERJ195 LOT
SU-GCG A330 Egypt Air
TS-IMJ A319 Tunis
V5-ANO A330 Air Namibia
VN-A145 B777 Vietnam
VP-BBB A320 Aeroflot
VT-ANM B787 Air India
YR-ASB A318 Tarom
YU-APE A318 Air Serbia
ZS-SNG A340 SAA
Plus countless LH A319/320/321/330/340/747/ERJ/CRJ etc
For a final bonus, the following were logged OTT;
4X-ECD B777 El Al
D-AGET B737 Germania
EC-LPM B717 Volotea
T7-MRD A320 MEA
VP-BZQ A320 Aeroflot
YR-BGH B737 Tarom



At times , the arrival pattern resembles a “who’s who “of the Lufthansa fleet, and from around 22:00 hrs things start to gradually wind down in respect of non LH traffic. Just as well, as my laptop battery had had enough by then, and I’d forgotten to bring an “EU adaptor” . Doh!!
It was too dark by now to effectively see anything landing on the two original runways, as you had literally a split second opportunity to see then as they broke on landing, between the two terminals, so unless the arrivals were on 25R that was it for the night!
Sleep perchance to dream……………..

Thursday morning and an earlier than welcome return flight home to Manchester.
Perusal of the Arrivals page gave me a good idea what I wanted to see prior to departure, and it is safe to say all was seen before 737 D-ABEL lifted off to whisk me back to a predictably wet Ringway.

Other highlights noted before a 07:00 departure were;
9V-SKN A380 Singapore
A9C-AN A320 Gulf Air
B2086 B777 Air China
B6543 A330 China Eastern
B-KPP B777 Cathay
EC-LUD A320 Iberia Express
HS-TND A330 , HS-TUB A380 Thai :thumbs:
JA814A B787 ANA :thumbs:
VN-A141 B777 Vietnam
ZS-SNA A340 SAA

Awaiting to greet me on the thinly populated biz jet ramp were an as yet unidentified Gulfstream and Falcon….
Straight round to Thomas Cook after clearing arrivals, and the contents of the hangar were slightly better, with Thomas Cook Belgium A320 OO-TCQ and Thomas Cook “Scandi” A321 OY-VKA .

So ended the first week at Frankfurt. Not a bad start at all!

To be continued
Last edited by marpleman on Sun Aug 31, 2014 9:46 pm, edited 4 times in total.

EGVP
POTM winner
Posts: 1921
Joined: Mon Dec 07, 2009 1:50 pm

Re: That Condor Moment

Post by EGVP » Wed May 28, 2014 12:05 pm

Sounds like a pretty damn goo job you've landed yourself there, not at all jealous! :whistle:

marpleman
Posts: 346
Joined: Sun Feb 09, 2014 4:41 pm
Location: Marple Bridge, Cheshire, overlooking approach into EGCC

Re: That Condor Moment

Post by marpleman » Wed May 28, 2014 12:21 pm

EGCC wrote:Sounds like a pretty damn goo job you've landed yourself there, not at all jealous! :whistle:
I had to keep pinching myself tbh!!!

Unfortunately, as you'll see from the remaining installments when I get around to posting them, it's now come to an end, but it was most definitely the best five working weeks of my life to date, (other than the two week "stay" in Luanda , Angola, but that's another story!)

Rich

marpleman
Posts: 346
Joined: Sun Feb 09, 2014 4:41 pm
Location: Marple Bridge, Cheshire, overlooking approach into EGCC

Re: That Condor Moment

Post by marpleman » Wed May 28, 2014 10:10 pm

PART 2 - A Change Is As Good As A Rest

Bank holiday weekend over and done, and its back to Frankfurt for another three days spotting, er I mean work!

Tuesday morning, and another 4am “Skylink” from the sleepy backwater of New Mills direct to the airport, and the rather splendid sight of Turkish Jetstream TC-RSA sat on the remote stand directly in front of the departure lounge of T1.

Arrival into Frankfurt by the more conventional use of runway 25C saw us park up on Stand 20 ,and a quick “bus” evacuation to customs.

A quick “run” up to the McDonald’s via the “Air-Link” train between T1 and T2 (very useful to keep tabs on the more exotic “heavies” tucked away out of sight of the Observation Deck), and then the obligatory taxi round to CCS.
Unfortunately, my driver claims he doesn’t have the correct ID to get through security (pull the other one pal!), and dumps my by Tor 31. It’s a beautiful day, I don’t have much luggage, so I decide to walk to Condor’s facility and see what we can log………About an hour later, resembling a wet rag doll, I finally get there! Believe me, it’s a long walk!

Much the same routine as last week, keeping an eye on FR24, but this week I’m in a slightly better position, occupying a desk that looks out over the departure path from the take-off only “North-South” runway 18, used by around 70% of departures, and with a window that can be used to hear the whine of anything taxiing to the cargo and biz jet aprons.

My heart sank when I found out that The Stiegenberger was fully booked for the week and alternative accommodation was being sourced.
At around 7pm, I headed off by taxi to the Holiday Inn Express. Situated approximately three miles directly south of the airport, I resigned myself to a few days of limited spotting, other than returning to McDonalds after work and then a late arrival to the hotel in the evenings.
I needn’t have worried, for west facing room 147 afforded a great panorama of everything departing on both departure runways, either directly in front from runway 18, or when banking after take-off from 25C or 25L .
Free wired internet made this so easy, again thanks to “FR24”!
The Holiday Inn Express, although not as luxurious as the Stiegenberger, is not a bad choice for the spotter. It’s cheap, has a free complimentary buffet breakfast and a very efficient and fast airport shuttle. The sight of dozens of Chinese guests basically “filling their boots” and anything else they could find to fill, with cooked meats, fruit, pastries and for some reason as much cucumber as they could carry, was a sight to behold at breakfast!

Shuttle to T1, and after my previous days commotion with the taxis, I’m determined to find out more about the CCS/T1 Shuttle Bus.
Is it reliable? Yes, of course it’s reliable. This is Germany for pity’s sake! Every 15 minutes on the dot!
Is it free? Yes sir!
A refreshing change to the pitiful experience with transport back at Ringway.

However, the real bonus with the “CCS” shuttle is, it goes almost “airside” for most of its journey, passing remarkably close to the T1 apron, from which everything can be seen, and similarly in respect of the remote parked heavies and Condor machines parked in the south-east corner of the airport.
Ten minutes later, and I disembark directly outside Building 507 and a two minute walk to the office!

If anyone is spotting at Frankfurt, I can recommend this bus to get a better view of the biz jets and cargo aprons, plus to see if anything is tucked away inside the Lufthansa facilities, as the main hangars are at right angles to the main airport, making it impossible to see into the hangars.
It would take no more than an hour to do a round trip, all free of charge. Get off at Building 507 and walk between LH Technik and Schenker to access the biz jet ramp, or wander west to the A380 facility.
This yielded Corsair 330 F-HCAT on heavy maintenance, and Arkefly 767 PH-AHQ as well as several MD11’s of the parent airline over the weeks.

I think it’s fair to say, so long as you remain inconspicuous and don’t “make a scene”, you’ll be left alone! I wasn’t challenged once, despite trundling a very noise wheeled flight case along behind me, stopping to read stuff off! It is worth mentioning however, that I did not come across any other spotters on the south side.

The real highlight of the day, was the prospect of a four hour meeting with the Condor team, disrupting my already challenging spotting routine. Oh well, can’t complain!
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry as I was shown into the meeting room, this time on the north side of the facility, with completely uninterrupted views of the entire airport, on what was possibly the most glorious day of the year so far weather wise!

I quickly grabbed a seat facing the window, and got on with spotting, I mean chairing the meeting!
It can be quiet challenging, discussing the merits of IFRS v German GAAP (I won’t bore the non-accountants amongst you), whilst keeping a log of movements to later tie up to the Frankfurt movements page. This is made even harder with respect to cargo movements which are excluded from the referred page.
Iraqi Airways A321, Jordanian A319 and Saudia A320’s also don’t help either, and I quickly developed a routine of “gazing” past the other meeting attendees, in hopefully what appeared to be moments of thought in response to the discussions………………………………………not sure if they “bought it” but I didn’t really care.
Meeting over at 4pm, and I decide to stay put instead of returning to my normal desk. I then become a “pig in muck” for the remaining three hours of the working/spotting day!

On returning to the Holiday Inn the week’s dilemma was forced upon me……….
As a life-long Manchester City supporter and season ticket holder, it was inevitable that the fixture pile-up would result in me missing some mid-week games. Tonight, after Liverpool capitulated at Selhurst Park on Monday evening, the game at home to Villa took on new meaning in our quest to be crowned Champions .
The game was un-missable from my perspective, so a split laptop screen, with a live stream direct from The Etihad, as my beloved team systematically demolished Villa 4-0, and “FR24” meant that a man can entertain his two favourite pastimes at once, whilst having a beer (oops……….make that three at once!).

Same routine for Thursday, with a departure back home on the “late” flight.

One thing to note whilst awaiting my departure that evening, was the unique grouping of 787’s of Qatar, Air India, Ethiopian, LAN Chile and ANA, all in a huddle between T1 and T2. Quite a nice sight!
A very late arrival back at Ringway gave me yet another opportunity to complain about the useless state of public transport in the UK.
Arrive outside T1 at 11:15 pm, and no trains, but just one bus……………thankfully the 199 Buxton “Skyline” once again comes to my rescue.

A non-descript day in the hangar at Ringway, leads into a non-descript weekend prior to my final week at Frankfurt. Oh, sorry , forgot to mention the victory against a non-plussed West Ham, to win the Premiership title (again)!
Several beers after the game, catching up with long suffering, still slightly bewildered older City mates, pinching themselves to prove the last four years have not been a dream, and a slightly inebriated yours truly crawls into bed in the early hours of Monday morning.

This weeks highlights;
4X-EKS/EKT B737 ELAL
70-ADP A330 Yemenia
9A-CTJ/CTK A320 Croatia
9V-SKL/SKM A380 9V-SWD/SWL B777 Singapore
A6-EFF/EFK/EFL B777F A6-ECU B777 Emirates
A7-BFD/BFE B777F A7-BAN B777 A7-BCF B787 Qatar
A9C-AP A320 Gulf Air
A40-DF/DG A330 Oman
B16462 B747F Eva Air
B18202 B747 China Airlines
B2032/2033/2046/2085 B777 B2075/2097 B777F B5933/6540 A330 Air China
B5908/5920/5938 A330 China Eastern
B2081 B777F China Southern
B-KPA/KPI/KPL B777 B-LJI B748F Cathay
CC-BBC B787 LAN Chile :thumbs:
CN-RGN/ROA/ROP B737 Royal Air Maroc
CS-TNI A320 CS-TTE A319 TAP
D-ABCH/ABDB/ABFC/ABNE A320 D-ALSA A321 Airberlin
D-ABOK/ABOM B757 Condor
D-AEAM A330 EAL
D-ASTW A321 D-ASTY A319 Germania
D-ASXG/ASXH/ASXJ/ASXP/ASXS B737 Sun Express Germany
D-AHFH/AHFP/AHFW/ATUB/ATUG/ATUL B737 TUI
EC-KRJ ERJ Air Europa
EC-KOH/LYM A320 Iberia Express
EC-LRE/LVP/LZZ A320 Vueling
EI-RDD/RDO/RDP ERJ EI-EIC A320 Alitalia
EI-RUB/RUM B737 Transaero
EP-IBB A310 Iran Air :thumbs:
ER-ECC ERJ Air Moldova
ET-AMT B757 ET-ALP B767 Ethiopian
EW-294PA B737 Belavia
F-GUGH/GUGN/GUGL/GUGP A318 Air France
F-HCAT A330 Corsair (LH maintenance)
F-GRPK ATR CSA
HB-JLT A320 Swiss
HL7421 B747 Asiana
HL7402/7404 B747 Korean
HS-TUC/TUE A380 HS-TND A340 Thai
HZ-ASA/ASG A320 HZ-A14 B747F Saudia
JA731J/738J B777 JAL
JA785A/786A/787A/814A/822A/823A B787 :thumbs: JA786A B777 ANA
JY-AYL/AYP A319 Royal Jordanian
LX-LGH/LQA DHC8 Luxair
LZ-BUR/SOF ERJ190 Bulgaria
N116UA/122UA/181UA/197UA B747 United
N890FD B777F N599FE MD11F FedEX
OE-IHB/IHE/IXC/LEF ERJ Nikki
OE-LDD A319 OE-LBA/LBM/LBS/LBU A320 OE-LBB A321 OE-LGL/LGM/LGN DHC8 OE-LVG/LVI Fokker 100 Austrian
OK-MEL A319 OK-GFS ATR75 CSA
P4-FAS/GAS B757 Air Astana
PH-EZS ERJ KLM
PT-MUA/MUB/MUD B777 TAM
S5-AAU CRJ Adria
SP-LIF/LIL/LNA/LNC ERJ LOT
SU-GCH A330 SU-GDB B737 Egypt Air
SX-DGA A321 Agean
TC-ANP B737 Pegasus
T7-MRB, OD-MRN A320 MEA
TC-JIH A340 TC-JGU/JFD B737 TC-JPO A320 TC-JSD A321 TC-JDR/JNA A330 Turkish
TC-SNF/SNJ/SNP/SNT B737 Sun Express Turkey
UR-GAZ/GBC B737 Ukraine
V5-ANP A330 Air Namibia
VN-A144/A146 B777 Vietnam
VP-BIT EI-ETO A319 Rossiya
VP-BIG, VQ-BAQ/BGZ/BIT/BRH B747F Air Bridge
VQ-BEH/BEJ VP-BQU/BRX/BWE A320 Aeroflot
VP-BUI B757 Uzbekistan
VT-AND B787 Air India
YI-AGR A321 Iraqi Airways :thumbs:
YL-BAI DHC8 Air Baltic
YR-ASA A318 Tarom
YU-AND B737 YU-APA A319 Air Serbia
YU-ANK B737 JAT
ZS-SNI A340 South African
4R-ALC A330 Sri Lankan
7T-VJT B737 Air Algerie
9M-MPR B747F 9M-MRA B777 Malaysian

Corporate:
D-BOOK Falcon 2000
M-FASH Falcon 900
N525AJ Citation 525
OE-FMI Citation 525
SE-RGX Citation 525
CS-DXD Citation 560
D-CTTT Citation 560
D-IMAX Citation 525
G-CIEL Citation 560
G-SONE Citation 525
HZ-SM1A Learjet 60
LX-MBE Falcon 2000
M-LWSA Glex
OD-MIG Hawker 900
OO-LFS Learjet 45
VP-CGS Falcon 7X
D-CINS Learjet 45
TC-ATC Falcon 2000
VP-CAM Falcon 2000
OE-IRP Glex
Last edited by marpleman on Fri Sep 05, 2014 12:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.

marpleman
Posts: 346
Joined: Sun Feb 09, 2014 4:41 pm
Location: Marple Bridge, Cheshire, overlooking approach into EGCC

Re: That Condor Moment - updated

Post by marpleman » Sun Jun 01, 2014 5:29 pm

No room at the Inn

Common sense had prevailed in booking my final flight out to Frankfurt, and the normal 06:00 departure gave way to a more civilised 08:00 slot. Put it this way, after the excesses of the previous nights celebrations, if I’d have been the pilot, I’d still be well over the limit!

I don’t remember the flight, as I was asleep all the way, and had to haul myself back into the real world to attempt to figure what delights were awaiting on the ramps at Frankfurt.

The entire week was to be spent at Frankfurt this week, with it being the final week of my project.
Without sounding ungrateful, like any other major international airport, things do start tot get a tad repetitive after being in situ for a couple of weeks, and you begin to notice the same aircraft cropping up time after time. The majority of European operators are prone to this especially Iberia, Air Europa, Austrian and Alitalia, however there was still enough to keep me happy.

This week was a bit of a nightmare accommodation wise. Luckily Monday and Tuesday saw me return to the Stiegenberger, although room 601 was no way near as handy as the previous room I occupied. This time, I had a split second to “catch” the landing aircraft as they crossed a very narrow corner between the north and west facing wings of the hotel. The live internet connection was therefore essential.

The shuttle bus provided its usual means of seeing everything worth seeing, and my desk overlooking the southern departure runway, meant that I now had everything pretty much under control during the day.

For some reason all “airport” hotels appeared to be fully booked this week? At one point, I was even contemplating crashing down at the office, things were proving that difficult to find a room.
No luck at the Holiday Inn Express, so it was looking like the city centre was the only alternative. At the last minute, a room became available at the Holiday Inn Airport North!
Sounds promising, as it has the word “Airport” in its title!!

Maybe there was another airport near by, as a twenty minute bus ride to the hotel, situated in the middle of a forest adjacent to Eintracht Frankfurts (remember them from the 70’s??), showed this one to be no where near Frankfurt airport!

Ok, tell a lie, you could see the odd aircraft on approach if it flew directly overhead, but the only entry to the log book for Wednesday and Thursday evenings was a sole Singapore 777. Such a contrast to the earlier evenings of my entire stay!

To counter act this, I prolonged my stay at “the office” each evening, followed by a coffee at McDonald’s until the light started to fade. By now, the only “new” aircraft after around 10pm, that were not going to be present the following morning on my trip via the shuttle bus, were the odd Airberlin 320 or TUI 737, so no great loss.

The final week was a great success work wise, with everything coming together nicely, for a final goodbye on the 16:30 afternoon departure back to Manchester.

As we climbed out of Frankfurt on an eastern departure, the A321 banked round passing directly north of the airport, giving a fitting panoramic view of the entire airport, as I glanced back re-living what a great time I’d had over the past month!

Arrival back at Manchester revealed the unexpected sight of Moldavian Fokker ER-FZA parked on cargo.

A couple of days back in the hangar at Thomas Cook, wrapping everything up, and Wednesday brought about the end to my project once and for all.

I ventured down to the Aviation Viewing Park for a final time to see if anything interesting was in……..one final set of lights in the distance delayed my walk back. It was D-ABOM a Condor 757, almost acknowledging my job was complete! A fitting end to a great month!

I hope any of you who’ve stayed with this, have enjoyed my little story!

I’d recommend Frankfurt as a spotting destination. It’s friendly, accessible and has a wide variety of aircraft and operators, as well as some decent spotting locations, although in my opinion, the observation deck could be a lot better.

I must add that my spotting was limited to whatever time I could fit in around work, so the logs in this report, are not a true reflection of everything passing through,(and also exclude a lot of stuff such as Air Canada, United US Airways and American that were common sightings) but mainly between 06:00 to 09:00 and from 19:00 to 23:00 hours.
The cargo movements were possibly the highlights, together with the wide variety of 787’s visiting during my stay.

In total, I logged just shy of 1,000 different aircraft, a good chunk of those being “new” to me, and that excludes the majority of the LH fleet , as several visits to Munich in the past years meant that only new aircraft were of any interest to me (B748’s, B777F’s and the odd new A320).

“New” highlights of the final week (12/5 to 15/6)

ELAL B737 4X-EKB/EKF/EKH
Air Algerie B737 7T-VJQ/VKC
Croatia A319 9A-CTG/CTI
Kuwait A340 9K-ANA B747 9K-ADE
Malaysian B777 9M-MRB/MRL
Singapore A380 9V-SKQ/SKT B777 9V-SWG/SWI/SWM
Oman Air A330 A4O-DC/DE
Etihad B777F A6-DDC
Emirates B777 A6-ECD/ECI/ECJ B777F A6-EFC/EFJ B747F OO-THD
Qatar B777 A7-BAH/BBA/BBE/BCK B777F A7-BFA B787 A7-BCB/BCG
Gulf Air A320 A9C-AM/AO
China Airlines B747 B18201/18205/N168CL
China Eastern A330 B5937/
China Southern B777F B2042/2071/2080
Air China B777 B2035/2043/2087 A330 B6070/6131/6536/6541
Eva Air B747F B16482
Cathay B777 B-KPF/KPH/KPM/KPR B747F B-LJA
LAN Chile B787 CC-BBA/BBB
Royal Air Maroc B737 CN-RNQ/ROJ
Air Portugal/TAP A319 CS-TTO A320 CS-TNG/TNH/TNK/TNR/TQD A321 CS-TJE
Airberlin A319 D-ABGK A320 D-ABDQ/ABFE/ABFN A321 D-ABCF/ABCK/ALSC B737 D-ABBJ/ABBX/AHXC
Condor B757 D-ABOB/ABOF/ABOH/ABOL B767 D-ABUB/ABUM A320 D-AICI
EAL A300F D-AEAO
Germania B737 D-AGEP/AGER
TUI B737 D-AHFR/ATUE/ATUF/ATUI
Private Air B737 D-APBC
Sun Express Germany B737 D-ASXD/
Air Europa ERJ190 EC-KYO/KYP/LKM/LMM
Air One A320 EI-DSL
Iberia Express A320 EC-JFH/JSK
Vueling A320 EC-JYG
Alitalia ERJ175 EI-RDG/RDL A320 EI-DTL
Transaero B737 EI-EUZ/RUC/RUJ/RUL
Rossiya A319 EI-EYL
Iran Air A310 EP-IBD/IBK
Ethiopian B787 ET-AOP/AOS
Belavia B737 EW-250PA/253PA ERJ170 EW-340PO :thumbs:
Air France A318 F-GUGD/GUGE/GUGI
Asiana B747F HL7419
Korean B747 HL7461/7473 B747F HL7438/7603
Thai A380 HS-TUF B747 HS-TGH
Saudia A320 HZ-ASB/ASE
Air Dolomiti ERJ190 I-ADJP

JAL B777 JA732J/733J/736J
ANA B777 JA784A B787 JA814A
Royal Jordanian A319 JY-AFN
Luxair DHC8 LX-LGE/LGF
United B747 N116UA/120UA
FedEX B777F N851FD MD11F N589FE
Nikki ERJ190 OE-IHA/IXF/LEA/LEC A320 OE-LEG/LES
Austrian DHC8 OE-LGE/LGJ A319 OE-LDA/LDD
CSA A319 OK-NEO/PET/REQ A320 OK-MEK ATR75 OK-GFR
Air Astana B757 P4-KCU/MAS
Arkefly B767 PH-AHQ (LH maintenance)
KLM ERJ PH-EXC/EZU
ADRIA CRJ600 S5-AAL/AAO A319 S5-AAR
Bangladesh Biman B777 S2-AFP
LOT ERJ SP-LIA/LII/LIM/LIO/LNE
EGYPT AIR B737 SU-GCZ/GEB A330 SU-GCK
Agean A320 SX-DGP
MEA A320 T7-MRA/MRC ,OD-MRM/MRS
Pegasus B737 TC-AHP/IZC
Turkish A330 TC-JDS A320 TC-JPG/JPM A321 TC-JRK/JRP/JSE/JSJ/JSL B737 TC-JFF/JGN
Sun Express Turkey B737 TC-SNH/SNM/SUM/SUV
Tunis Air A32O TS-IMI/IMT
Uzbekistan B767 UK67003
Ukraine B737 UR-GAT
Vietnam B777 VN-A143
Aeroflot A319 VQ-BBA A320 VP-BDM/BKC/BKT/BKX/BWD, VQ-BAZ/BCM/BCP/BIU/BKS
Air Bridge B747F VQ-BLR
Air India B787 VT-ANA/ANB
Iraqi AW A321 YI-AGS
Air Baltic B737 YL-BBN DHC8 YL-BAF/BBT
Tarom A318 YR-ASD B737 YR-BGB/BGF
South African A340 ZS-SNB/SNF
Algerian AF C130 7T-???

All LH A380's were logged over the duration of my stay,with the exception of "A" for some reason, all three B777F's (D-ALFA/B/C) all the "new" 748 series (through to D-ABYN) and almost the entire MD11 fleet, also the few A320/321's I still needed were picked up, together with most of the Embraers needed. :D

Corporate:
N888SF Citation Soverign
D-ITMA Citation 525
N750CW Citation 750
SE-RIZ Citation 560
D-APLC Falcon 7X
M-IRNE Hawker 800
N7600K B737BBJ
OY-TSA Citation 525
D-CEFD Citation 525
HB-JFJ Challenger 604
OE-GVH Learjet 60
OY-EDP Citation 650
D-CFME King Air 350
D-IPVD Citation 525
D-CSLT Learjet60
D-CHHH Citation 560
D-CHIO Citation 525

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Mike
Administrator, SPOTM & FC POTM winner
Posts: 10372
Joined: Sun Nov 01, 2009 6:46 pm

Re: That Condor Moment - updated again!

Post by Mike » Sun Jun 01, 2014 5:41 pm

I've really enjoyed reading this, thank you for taking the time to post it. :) :thumb:
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marpleman
Posts: 346
Joined: Sun Feb 09, 2014 4:41 pm
Location: Marple Bridge, Cheshire, overlooking approach into EGCC

Re: That Condor Moment - updated again!

Post by marpleman » Sun Jun 01, 2014 6:04 pm

Mike wrote:I've really enjoyed reading this, thank you for taking the time to post it. :) :thumb:
Cheers Mike!

It was the best way I could think of to make me sort my logs out.

Rich

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