Airliners-India.com

ameya

Sorry to have written two different TR's but I couldn't manage it in one to be honest.

As I reached the city, actually crossing the city center of MG road and onwards to Shanti Nagar, closer to Koramangala, my agenda was to finish the 11:30 meeting by 12:30, then head to Forum - Koramonagala and visit Model art, buy a couple of 1/400 models and head out to the airport, meet some friends there and head back.

Early morning good weather in Delhi meant that my return flight was to be on time.

I was inclined to book at 20:10 dep from BLR on 6E but when I came to know that the meeting is at 11:30 I advanced it to 17:00 flight. Goair flight 241departs at 16:55 which was another option but that touched IXC in the morning and hence I had dropped that plan plus y selecting 6E, the office also saved some money.

The rotation for this flight of 6E was
Inbound : 6E 406 BLR PNQ 1700 1820 A320 x2
Rotation : 407/407/407/406/406/406 – DEL PNQ BLR COK BLR PNQ DEL

I was impressed by the government office I visited in Shanti Nagar. Few things which I have always looked upon in any office, pan stains, cleanliness of toilets, and size of the rooms.

For the last 5 years that I have kept interacting with some or the other body in the government, my hypothesis has been as below. The head of the organization has a 2BHK+, and any director level, atleast a 1 BHK sized office and yesterday that continued to be true.

All said and done the meeting started late, around 12:30, and I was done by 13:20.

Nimish had offered to meet up in Forum if I managed well in time and I think I did because when I called him he had just stepped out of the meeting and yet to have lunch so I headed to Forum - first to model art where unfortunately they have stopped ordering any more scale models in die cast metal after their renovation.

Nimish patiently waited across at a outlet which served some real good filter coffee and we headed for quick lunch.
Thanks to him, I came to know some local terms, like KP - the kerala paratha which was nice., along with some really nice chicken. at the Malabar outlet in forum.

Also some good stories about Darshani's. In 2006 while I spent some time in BLR, I used to eat a lot at a place named Adigas. I am not sure if that is a darshani as well, but it used to be a very unhygienic darshani in this case

As we quickly finished up on the meal, the driver called to ask where he should come and I confidently told him Hosur Road, only to be told by Nimish that both the entrances of Forum are actually Hosur Road !

Anyways, we came out quickly from the mall. Unfortunate that I could not have a lot of time to interact but thankful to Nimish for taking some time out to manage a quick meeting over lunch

The cab headed out via the usual congested areas of Bangalore and towards the airport. It was a long journey and I started exactly at 2:30pm and reached only at 4:00pm

There was a long queue at the entry. The CISF - again my hatred for Bangalore, is really stupid in BLR. The chap was one at a time checking flight number, date, time, destination, name ID and so on. A line of over 30 people had built up by then and it took me 10 mins to get in side the terminal.

6E had a line of over 100 ppl to say the least and they really need to do a better job here to manage people. I decided to use my web boarding printout and head to security which also was slow.

One of my friends, working for BIAL accompanied me in the SHA and with his contacts, went around seeing the terminal and the way it ll be connected to the new part.

The work is still pending and the people their said that they expect it to be complete only by Jan end. Lets hope it solves most of the problems related to capacity at Bangalore.

It was time to board and I did some spotting. VT-LSR had arrived and would operated as LB604 to VGA. I hope air costa starts tie ups with MMT/Clear trip and other OTA's, they would get good response that way.

As boarding started, I quickly went in the line, the reason being I wanted to be the first to board and see how much load is 6E carrying from COK.
We waited in the bus and the crew had not yet reached the plane so we continued to wait for a long time and left.

Interestingly this aircraft was also at Bay 31 and the load was 176 out of which 42 were from COK. I am amazed to see this considering that SG has a direct COK-PNQ flight almost at the same time as this

We reached the aircraft and I quickly boarded and occupied my place. Everything worked with precision and despite the delayed boarding, we closed doors and pushed back at 1657hrs. Considering that boarding only started at 1645, this is an impossible task to achieve.

We quickly taxied to runway 09 and immediately took off east wards and banked left to proceed towards PNQ

The service started immediately and I did not buy anything. The flight was quick, with good views and landed 5 mins before schedule at PNQ on rwy 27
It was a smooth textbook landing

and came back to bay 08. Interesting that in the morning I was on bay 08 and returned to the same bay.

Overall again a good flight

AIrcraft details
VT-IFL MSN 5507
Delivered on 14/03/2013

STD : 1700
ATA 1657
STA 1820
ATA 1815

PIC : F. Joseph
Cruising altitude : FL360

ameya · Posted: Fri Dec 20, 2013 2:37 pm Post subject:

Bangalore airport

20131219_085253 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr

This was exactly here in the morning and exactly here in the evening

20131219_085522 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr
I was told this hasn't moved for a while

Evening

20131219_165410 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr

Morning

20131219_085653 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr

I wish them good luck

20131219_164233 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr

Thanks for reading !
ANd please pray that I can make my trips next week

20131219_180302 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr

Nimish · Posted: Fri Dec 20, 2013 3:18 pm Post subject:

It was great meeting with you Ameya - and my Kerala style biryani was delicious too Smile

.

Seems like 6E has great loads on the return as well. Wasn't 9W or AI an option for your day trip to BLR?
_________________
We miss you Nalini!

ameya · Posted: Fri Dec 20, 2013 3:21 pm Post subject:

Nimish · Posted: Fri Dec 20, 2013 3:39 pm Post subject:

ameya · Posted: Fri Dec 20, 2013 6:08 pm Post subject:

AI definitely, they once operated a mid day BLR PNQ GOI BLR flight, with a one way conxn to GOI. Now it is BLR HYD PNQ GOI and v.v

Considering PNQ BLR government travel, they have certain seats assured anyways.

As for 9W, the dep are 535 / 1135 from PNQ

0940/21:30 from BLR

SG has 0645/2300 from PNQ and 0555/2200 from BLR

6E - 0745/1110/1710/2200 from PNQ , 0545/0950/1700/2010 from BLR

So there goes the game of frequencies and timings to 6E

jbalonso777 · Posted: Sun Dec 22, 2013 9:51 pm Post subject:

Good to see an Air Costa aircraft in the TR, and nice to know they are doing quite well.

Great that you and Nimish could meet up, here's hoping I can pull off something similar in a few days!

Nice pictures and great TR as usual.

Thanks for sharing!

Regards
Jish
_________________
http://www.youtube.com/c/JishnuBasu777

stealthpilot · Member Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 2325 Location: BLR, DXB

Quick trip to BLR nice TR..... I am sure Nimish already warned you about the long ride from Forum Mall to BIAL.
CISF at BLR is a pain, surprised they spent so much time checking all the details. Generally they just look at the ipad/phone make sure the name and date is correct and in you go. Still a silly process which isn't needed ....

Any info from your friend on what we can expect with the expanded terminal?
_________________
eP007

sumantra · Member Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 4685 Location: New Delhi

Ameya Sir - thanks for the lovely 2-part TR, and also, it is wonderful that you and Nimish could meet up in Bengaluru. And that too over my favourite passtime...food Smile

KEral style Biriyani...hmm...I guess I need to refresh my taste buds on this, quickly. `Unhygenic Darshini'? Now, that is an oxy-moron, which went against the very basic principle of what the Darshini joints were set up, in the first place. An SG plane parked at BLR: it doesn't look stored, as was the situation with the beginning of IT's demise, but any idea what happened?
Cheers, Sumantra.

ameya · Posted: Wed Jan 01, 2014 10:46 am Post subject:

Thanks everybody for the kind comments.

Somehow yes, CISF has been a painful experience everytime at BLR

I guess it could just be the commandant out there who is painful and hence the entire system