The meeting finished early, so myself and a few other people who flew in for the meeting had a beer airside at AMS (and continued our own meeting!).
I checked in using a self-service machine which supported check-in for a number of different airlines using Schiphol. It even has a document reader for verifying your details using your passport! You just press the logo/name of the airline you are flying with on the screen, scan your passport, confirm your destination, and voila, you can change your sear selections, and your boarding pass is printed.
The departure immigration and security lines weren't too long, and it only took a few minutes to get through to airside. I quickly stopped off to buy a new case for my mobile phone, and then walked down to the gate, which was a good 5 minute walk away.
On reaching the gate, our aircraft, OO-VLS 'City of Manchester' was already waiting for us, having it's toilet tanks emptied! But, before long, we were on board, and pushed back on time - maybe even a few minutes early.
Again, our crew seemed to be from VLM's Belgian base, and were very efficient, again passing the sweets around before takeoff!
A short taxi out to runway 24 for departure, after a couple of 737s went in front of us, and we did a non-standard departure (a slight right turn rather than the usual left turn) because we would be slower than the bigger jets. It's a common ATC trick when dealing with slower traffic to maintain the proper departure rate! So we climbed out directly over Hoofddorp, instead of detouring around it like the noisier jets do.
Slightly busier flight this time, with 16 passengers, and the service started quickly. This time, there was a choice of a meat or a cheese 'cold plate' (in a plastic box), with a bread roll - kind of like a DIY sandwich. As is the Belgian habit, no butter for the bread, but the contents of the cold plate were perfectly acceptable - cheese and tomato, with lettuce and coleslaw, or salami with sun-dried tomatoes, lettuce and a ham and veggie salad in mayonnaise. All this was good and fresh tasting, and considering it was only a small snack, well presented too.
This differs from what I've had on the Manchester service, which is usually a British-style filled roll, which is buttered.
This was accompanied with a bar service, coffee/tea and chocolates, again multiple beverage runs were made, and you just had to ask if you needed anything else.
Arrival took us over Southend, and then across the Thames just east of Dartford, passing South of the airport - to pass over Eltham, Blackheath (waving at my house on the way past!), Lewisham, and Peckham, before doing a big u-turn near the Oval, before doing City's steep 5.5% approach to land on runway 10 (in an Easterly direction). For comparison, a usual approach is 3%. The 5.5% approach feels more like a dive, and the landing seems very steep and fast.
Just as we were landing, the wind was in the process of changing direction (they switched runway direction about 3 or 4 aircraft after us), so our landing was a little bit bouncy, but all safe, and we had even arrived a few minutes early.
Straight out, through immigration (small queue), out to pick up the car, and then it took almost as long to get home as it did to make the crossing from AMS because of the traffic!
Very impressed with VLM on this trip, and I'm already booked to fly with them again on this route in October.
Mike
