<br/>KL1026
LHR-AMS
25 August 2012
Fokker F70 - PH-KZI
Off Stand: 19:23
On Stand: 21:24
Boarding started pretty promptly at 18:00
When I reached my seat, I was immediately asked by the guy sat opposite if I wanted to swap... Erm no sorry, I want the window.
Shortly after boarding the heavy rain that had made an appearance earlier re appeared.
At 18:25, the jet bridge pushed back and the captain came over the PA, first making an announcement in Dutch and then in English. And unfortunately the news wasn't good. We were all ready to go however due to the severe weather Heathrow was closed for the next hour, so all we could do was wait. And once we were underway, there was likely to be more delay due to the backlog of departures. Oh well, guess there's nothing that can be done except wait. Annoyingly, the cabin crew were nowhere to be seen, which was a little annoying as I was getting quite thirsty.
It seemed as though everybody was in the same situation however as our neighbor was also sat at the gate, with it's jet bridge detached.
The load seemed pretty high - after initially having a seatmate, they moved further forward and I couldn't see any other spare seats, although I think there may have been a few in business class.
Shortly after, another KLM Fokker F70 pulled in alongside - funny, as when I booked this flight it was 737's all day except this flight, and yet the previous flight was operated by an E190.
At just past 19:00 local the captain appeared at the front of the cabin to make an announcement. It was first in Dutch then in English. Again it wasn't good news. He firstly apologized for the delay, and followed up by saying that things were going to get more interesting still. We had been delayed by a further 50 minutes and therefore the current crew would be out of hours by the time we were airborne. Although, he followed up by saying that luckily the crew of the F70 that had just arrived next to us would be taking over this flight shortly. However there was still a long delay - although apart from the brief pour down nearly an hour before, the weather had brightened up - so not too sure why the weather was still being blamed?
Not long after, the relief crew boarded and the original crew left. Luckily they were a bit more pro-active and handed out water to everybody
At just after 19:15 local, the English captain came over the PA and said we had just been given clearance to push back and start - phew! Not too sure where the extra 50 minutes the previous captain mentioned came from but it now seemed we were back to the original hours delay. Cruising altitude was given as 24,000 ft. and a flying time of 45 minutes was also given. He also was very apologetic about the delay and that the crew changing had no bearing on this flight whatsoever – it just made things easier for KLM operations to do things this way round. Although I’m wondering what happened to their original flight? Did our original crew have enough rest in the 2 hours or so to be able to take it back?
And at just after 19:20, we pushed back. The engines were started, and we made a quick taxi out to 27L, and pushed our way to the front of the queue. At just before 19:35 we were off into some dodgy looking skies. To be honest being sat at the back of this little Fokker wasn't as loud as I was expecting.
Take off Video
The cabin crew seemed a little slow at getting the service started. In fact I was having my doubts weather we would be getting any service at all due to the short flight time. I did see a couple of trays of goodies go towards the front eventually however so I remained optimistic!
Eventually the 'meals' were handed out. I asked for a Sprite but was told they only had Coke, Tea, Coffee or orange juice on board. So I elected for a coke instead.
Then it was time to descend. Due to the bad weather, this flight was much like my flight between Glasgow and Belfast last month - entirely in the clouds.
Descent into Schiphol started at 19:56 UK time, and things got a bit bumpy. I guess the weather in Amsterdam wasn't any better than in the UK.
The Dutch first officer confirmed this a couple of minutes later and confirmed we would be landing on the Polderbaan in around 15 minutes.
Landing Video
Landing was at 21:15, and it was probably one of the smoothest I've experienced. There was no bump at all. Following this was a lengthy taxi in to the Fokker farm.
Then it was onto a waiting bus. As I was disembarking, I noticed the first officer standing at the flight deck door, however on this occasion I didn't ask for a flight deck visit as we were running late - all I did do was compliment him on the very smooth landing, to which he thanked me and said he would pass along the compliment.
Security was an easy affair, although I'm glad I didn't have any bags to collect as the reclaim area looked pretty busy!
I had a brief look round the terminal and then made my way over to the hotel.
