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threekay76 Member
Joined: 27 Dec 2006 Posts: 180 Location: Chennai, India
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Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2007 6:15 pm Post subject: TR PNQ-MAA SG232(No PIcs) |
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Had a whistlestop trip to make to Pune. The only no frills option available for return leg was by Spicejet. Check in at PNQ was chaotic. Spicejet incidentally has two departures from PNQ, one to MAA and the other to BLR at the same time. This sector (PNQ-MAA) is unique in one aspect. Two other LCCs have operated and abandoned this route. DN and Go Air being the other two.
The Baggage scan area was chaotic as well. The X-Ray machine being shared by IT and SG.
The checkin counters for BLR and MAA were adjacent to each other. The baggages bound for both destinations were dumped at a common area behind the counters and all is then left to the person manning that area to call out a index number for a bag, get the tag from the Check In counter, Check if the index number is written on the tag and affix them onto the correct bag. I wonder how spicejet manages to deliver its bags with such primitive methods in place.
Anyways Checkin complete, trudged into the waiting area. Time was close to 15:00, when i saw my ride to MAA land at PNQ. Some 20 mins later another Spicejet aircraft (VT-SPJ "Mint") touched down. I presumed this would be the BLR one.
No boarding anouncements made, I had to simply retort to the Indian way of identifying that boarding was about to commence. For the un-initiated the Indian way is when suddenly you see a crowd near a gate and if the time is approx close to your boarding time, then you need to get up and go. Needless to say, BLR PAX were jostling for some space as well, only to be shooed off near the gate.
As we were walking along from the gate to board the aircraft , we were told to stop dead on our tracks. The reason, VT-SPJ "Mint" was about to come to a halt at a parking bay close to us, After it had come to a dead stop we commenced walking to reach our bird VT- SPH Ex ATA "Saffron".
Boarding was quick. I found my way to seat 09F. This gave me a rather good frontal view of the Engine and wings. The seats had signs in English, Hindi stickers and some European Language which started with "Festet"
My seat could be pushed back without pressing a button. This reminded me of my good old college days and TNSTC Buses. Load was pretty good(Close to 95%). Trip details are given below
Sector : PNQ-MAA 28-Oct-2007
Flight : SG232
Aircraft : VT-SPH "Saffron"
STD: 15.45
ATD:15.50
Airborne : 15.57
STA : 17.45(Way too High )
ATA: 17.26
After take off the engines were toned down , scaring me to the max possible extent, before revving up again.
Our captain JP Singh was a pleasing personality . He gave us the cruising altitude(FL 370), Ground speed (850 or so). Headwind(40 kph). After take off we were cleared by Mumbai on our route and passed over Belagavi(Belgaum) and Bellary , before turning left to intercept Tirupati , and touching down at MAA.
Some 45 mins into the trip we were surrounded by dark clouds. This phenomenon gave us company till we touched down at MAA.
Snacks were sold and were not too expensive at 60 bucks for a Sandwich, 20 bucks for Fruit juice etc.
As we approached MAA we were told by JP Singh that we were passing Tirupati . He also told us not to bother because anyways we wouldn't be seeing much , because of the rain clouds.
He told us that the temp at MAA was a cold 21c, the coldest he had experienced in his entire life.
I was getting a bit paranoid as there was a heavy downpour at MAA. All my fears were laid to rest , as we had one of the smoothest touchdowns at rwy 25. It was a spectacular sight to see all the water being sprayed around as we braked and braked real hard. The thrust reversers were in my opinion deployed for a long time. Some allowance needs to be given for the wet weather I guess.
Spotted 9W A332 on the tarmac. Was hoping that we get an aerobridge,to escape the rain. Alas!! That was not to be as we were allotted to a standard bay. Bags came out after 15 mins and a good experience came to an end. Comments most welcome
Last edited by threekay76 on Tue Oct 30, 2007 7:23 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Nimish Member
Joined: 16 Dec 2006 Posts: 9757 Location: Bangalore, India
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Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2007 7:13 pm Post subject: |
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Excellent report 3K76!
Was this a personal or an official trip? |
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threekay76 Member
Joined: 27 Dec 2006 Posts: 180 Location: Chennai, India
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Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2007 7:16 pm Post subject: |
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Hi Nimish
It was a personal trip |
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vivekman Member
Joined: 26 Dec 2006 Posts: 1897 Location: BOM
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Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2007 10:42 pm Post subject: |
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Neat report KK!!
Landing in wet weather reminded me of our Spicejet 737 landing in GOI. The aircraft bounced twice with a mighty shudder before braking |
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HAWK21M Member
Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 8132 Location: Mumbai, INDIA
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Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2007 3:29 pm Post subject: |
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Nice TR.Pity about no pics though.
Yes Capt JP Singh is a friendly guy,he was in BZ earlier & very good conversationalist.
regds
MEL _________________ Think of the Brighter side !!! |
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threekay76 Member
Joined: 27 Dec 2006 Posts: 180 Location: Chennai, India
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Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2007 7:38 pm Post subject: |
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vivekman wrote: | Neat report KK!!
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Thanks Vivek. The onward journey was by supercrawler 6010. It was fun too. |
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threekay76 Member
Joined: 27 Dec 2006 Posts: 180 Location: Chennai, India
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Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2007 7:40 pm Post subject: |
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HAWK21M wrote: | Nice TR.Pity about no pics though.
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Thanks MEL. Something went awfully wrong with my camera before i commenced this trip. Will have to make up for that in my next trip |
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sri_bom Member
Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 2365 Location: Singapore
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Posted: Thu Nov 01, 2007 2:30 pm Post subject: |
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Nice interesting TR...
Cheers
Sri_Bom |
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malQ Member
Joined: 20 Dec 2006 Posts: 713 Location: Delhi, India
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Posted: Thu Nov 01, 2007 4:55 pm Post subject: |
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PNQ is going through major turmoil due to the runway renewal on one side and absolutely inept AAI on the other. Landside is a disaster waiting to happen. Life goes on.
I too never understood why the PNQ-MAA-PNQ routes never really continued, because there seems to no problems with filling up PNQ-BLR-PNQ (8 flights a day now, 2x6E & IT, 1 each x IC/9W/SG/DN). In fact, PNQ-DEL capacity seems to be scaling down, JetLite 2 x B737 has come down to 1 x CRJ, for example.
MAA at 21 Centigrade, talk about global cooling? |
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threekay76 Member
Joined: 27 Dec 2006 Posts: 180 Location: Chennai, India
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Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2007 10:18 am Post subject: |
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I have been on all MAA-PNQ flights(9W,DN,G8,Now SG), except IT. The patronage has been quite good. |
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