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Indore again in 2012, April

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

PostPosted: Sat Jan 12, 2013 3:01 pm    Post subject: Indore again in 2012, April Reply with quote

Indore again in 2012, April
---------------------------
Yet another official trip to Indore.
Yet another official trip with large, steel trunks.
62 of them, to be precise.
Yet another official trip with a large set of colleagues.
21 of them, to be precise.
Most of us were headed towards Indore, some onward, towards Ujjain.
Hasn't the reader got tired of my Indore trip reports?

This trip report can be found at the following URL:
http://www.airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic12937.html

The itinerary for this part of the trip was as follows:

Set out 06 Apr (Fri) for Indore from New Delhi
AI 634: Air India (A320) [Seat: 05F; PNR: Y73G2]
IGIA T3, New Delhi - Raja Bhoj Airport, Bhopal -
Devi Ahilyabai Holkar Airport, Indore -
New Delhi (DEL) - Bhopal (BHO) - Indore (IDR)
[06:00 pm - 07:15 pm; 07:45 pm - 08:30 pm]

What was to be new on this trip?
First, the ticket was booked by the official travel agent.
I sneaked out my PNR from them, located my booking on
www.airindia.in, entered my frequent flyer number,
and pre-reserved my seat on the website.
I hoped that it would not change on a airport group check-in,
since Indore is not a destination on which web- or tele-check-in
is permitted.
I do not know why.
During the mass check-in, I was handed over my boarding pass,
with the check-in agent saying that this was a `special' case.
I do not know why.
Or perhaps I do, due to my listed actions, above.
Yes, but what was to be new on this trip?
This would be my first trip aboard an all-economy configured
Air India Airbus A320.
This was something I noticed when I selected my seat, 05F.
This would be an old A320, which had been configured for an
all-economy configuration. This had been possibly done to have
some old robust aircraft do Air India Express routes, but this
plan did not materialise. The plane remained with Air India.
It was VT-ESJ. It would indeed result in SJ, `Sheer Joy'.
The reader may wonder why. The food? No...how would that
associate with the plane in question? Yes, it was the general
appearance of the plane in question.



One thing I have noticed as being on-the-face is the
spic-and-span cleanliness on most Air India aircraft, even if
they are the old ones. The seats had the new vermillion-and-ochre
seat colours, which were clean. The metal surfaces showed their
age, but the plastic surfaces were amazingly clean. No, there
was no dust or grime in the are around the back-seat trays, where
the `Sicma Aero Seat' was written. This is quite commendable.
When the lights were dimmed, a flickering light on the forward
left side (just above the stylised `A320' sign) was perhaps the
only visible indication of the plane's age, for the layperson.
We boarded a cool aircraft, and I found some excellent loads on
the plane. I estimated loads to be around 80%. Captain Arun Kumar
was in command. He made an extremely long and powerful take-off
from the new runway 11-29 (on runway 11), towards the east, and
turned right soon after. I admired the bright sun through the
old scratched window, before my co-passengers motioned at me to
pull the shades down.

The snack service was...just that.
There were two solid items on the menu.
The first was a Panini bread sandwich, with a crispy lettuce, and
cottage cheese (paneer)-based filling inside. While there was
nothing spectacular about this sandwich or its overall taste, the
lettuce indeed tasted fresh. The second item was almost a
certainty on this route, a slightly dry brownie slice, which had
a hint of a buttery smell, with ground dry fruits spread almost
evenly over the skewed cuboidal volume. This was again nothing as
spectacular as some masterpieces I have had on Air India, but it
had a nice home-made taste to it. This brought back memories of
my helping Mummy bake numerous cakes in the old round oven we had
at home, with me helping out in the kneading, sugar grinding,
ingredient mixing, and the final baking.
With me salivating all the time, of course.
The reader would have noticed my vain hope on my numerous trips,
to have a good coffee, and sighing/signing off with `a very
ordinary coffee rounded off the meal/snack'.
This time, a surprisingly nice instant coffee rounded off the snack.
There could not have been a coffee maker on board.
No, this was an old plane.
Some ovens also had perhaps been removed, to save weight on the plane.
As we were coming in to land, the cabin lights were dimmed.
I was doing some reading work then.
Suddenly, I found the reading light above me, turned on.
A member of the cabin crew had switched it on while she was
rushing towards the forward crew seating area, to prepare for the
imminent landing. What a sweet and thoughtful gesture!

Captain Arun Kumar announced that there would be some turbulence
in the final 20 minutes to landing, and that he had commenced the
descent. Yes, there was quite a bit of chop, and perhaps some
wind shear close to the ground was well, as we landed a bit
further on the runway, and the air brakes came into action. We
landed on runway 12 at Bhopal - this was a first for me. I have
always landed from the other side of runway 30-12, the 30 end,
sitting on the right side of the plane just to have a view of the
old terminal building, perhaps catch a glance of the old F-27
which was once parked there? I wondered if it was still there.
We parked beside an aircraft in the Jet Airways colours VT-JLR,
but with the titles `JetLite' on the fuselage. There were two
small private planes parked on the apron, in front of the
impressive new terminal building at Bhopal's Raja Bhoj airport.
It was nice to see Captain Arun Kumar come out, and chat with the
cabin crew, who were a mix of very senior and fresh recruits. A
good number of passengers got off at Bhopal, and a good number of
them boarded. Most of them are usually travelling to Mumbai, as I
found out from my by now, numerous trips on this route.

By now, the direction of the wind had changed!
We approached the runway 12-30 from the 30 end, and took off from
runway 30. It was a very powerful take-off again, taking up a
good length of the runway, and rising up, powerfully.
The flight time to Indore was half-an-hour, and there was a bit
of chop on the way. Captain Arun Kumar made a flawless landing at
Indore's Devi Ahilyabai Holkar airport.
The temperature outside did little to cheer me up.
It was two degrees less than the Delhi temperature.
33 on the Celcius scale, to be precise.
The view outside did more than cheer me up.
The old terminal building was all dark.
The new terminal building was up and running, to be precise.
We were bused to the new terminal building.
It had been a very long wait.

Over the course of my numerous trips to the city, I had waited
and waited for the new terminal building to come up, and be
operational. No, it was not that the old one had lacked
substance. It was limited in size, and I felt, was still
sufficient for the number of passengers that the airport could
handle. In fact, I liked the sandstone arched structure of the
building from the air-side. Anyway, it was all dark now.
The new building was glowing in the dark.
This looked and felt new.
It was shiny, clean and impressive.
As we waited inside, I noticed two belts in action.
Our luggage all came through the belt.
But where were the trunks?
We looked all around. The international arrivals area was all dark.
There were two aero-bridge points.
We waited.



As the boarding for the onward flight was announced, we sighted a
load of some very heavy trunks inching their way towards
us, on tractor-driven luggage trailers.
We were completely exhausted, but this triggered off some fun.
``Ah, here they are. Had they been on the belt, they would have
flown from the land-side to the air-side!''
``Remember the formula for momentum? Mass times velocity.
The belt speed...''
``Headlines: New Terminal opens and shuts down the same day.
Heavy metal suspected.''
The luggage trolleys belonged to a forgotten era, and some of us
(including Yours Truly) got some unruly ones, which had a mind of
their own. One could see what pressure does to an individual -
the trolleys in question, here.
The wheels locked at inopportune moments,
sending some of us in Brownian motion.
Thankfully, the other motion did not occur. Apparently.
It was quite a sight.
21 men and women, in the age range of the thirties to the
sixties, trying to control the trolleys, running amok.
I am not sure what gave the celebrated Scottish physicist Robert
Brown the inspiration for trying to explain the phenomenon that
now bears his name. Was he describing the motion of pollen
particles in water, as seen under a microscope, or had he visited
Indore, by any chance?
Or were we under the influence of not something Scottish but
er...Scotch? Newton's laws were on view, as some trunks slid off.
There was thankfully no damage to anything - the terminal, the
people, or their egos, as we laughed off the sight of sudden
starts, stops, weird turns, and one good turn, deserving another.
Navigating the trolleys to the waiting vans outside was an
experience, on the rough cemented floor.
This took quite some time, as we observed the airport staff
switching off the lights, as the terminal started wearing a
deserted look. The last flight for the day had come in, who were
these people staggering around like loonies?
The outside of the airport terminal reminded me a bit of the new
one at Bhopal's Raja Bhoj airport, which retained its old
terminal building since the ATC was housed in it,
possibly along with a few office establishments.
The Indore ATC was beside the fire station, adjacent to the new
terminal building.

Our accommodation at Hotel Fortune Landmark, again.
I really wondered that we must have done some wonderful work in
our previous births to deserve such luxury, though in my case (to
the best of my knowledge), I sincerely doubted it.
This is indeed a city landmark, situated some distance from
another top hotel in the city, the Sayaji Hotel, which is quite
well-known for its food. We did not dare venture close to it, as
our meagre budget would not permit such a misadventure.
On our way back, we would have a smaller number of trunks, which
would also be expected to be a bit lighter.
What if we could sell off the used trunks, and at least make a
quick buck from the operation?
The reader would have by now, been quite convinced that I was
indeed under influence.

There was an aberration, however. We had checked in our team all
at one go, at a separate dedicated Air India counter at IGI T3.
There wasn't much time either, so the check-in agent took the
list of travellers, checked in all bags at one go (hence, we did
not have separate tags for individual checked-in bags), and gave
the receipts against one traveller's name (our group leader), who
paid the excess weight charges for the huge load of trunks. As
luck would have it, a colleague was missing his bag. He was
assured by the Air India counter that his bag would be delivered
to him the next day, at his hotel. At the time of this trip
report (06 April, 2012), the plane doing AI 634
DEL-BHO-IDR-BOM in the evening comes back the next morning from
Mumbai following the opposite routing. The colleague was very
pleasantly surprised to get a call from the hotel that his
baggage had come in. This was indeed very nice, as Air India had
managed to track the tag-less bag, and bring it back to the
owner, well in time. Seeing him in a fresh set of clothes the
next day gave us an indication of what had happened. His smile
re-iterated his happiness at the above.

Three days after landing up at Indore, we were ready to depart.
No trip to Indore is complete without a fairly mandatory trip to
the `Chappan Dukan', or `Chappan Market', named after a
collection of 56 shops, and famous for its snacks and savouries.
Not just people, we found a curious visitor also there.



This time, the number of trunks had approximately reduced by a
third. There were 21 of them. We had woken up very early in the
morning, checked out, and would set out for the airport.
But wait.
Yes, the reader would have guessed it.
I had got up at 3:30am.
My time starts now, said my tummy.
By the time we had checked out, it was sending rather urgent
signals to my tummy. The hotel had organised some boxes to be
packed for all of us. As we loaded our trunks onto the waiting
taxis, I went up to a colleague with my food box in my hand.
``This will not last very long,'' I said with a very straight face.
The colleague looked at me anxiously, and said that no, food did
not go bad that quickly.
The reply, and concern on the colleague's face could barely make
me suppress a smile.
``Oh, you mean...''
We had a hearty laugh.
This would be the first time we would get to see the the
departure part of new terminal building at the Devi Ahilyabai
Holkar Airport, in Indore.
Ditto for the taxi drivers, as at least one of the 21 vehicles
turned towards the old terminal building.
On reaching the very impressive new terminal building, another
colleague asked me where my (food) box was.
``I have checked it in,'' I said, with a twinkle in my eye.
He obviously missed it.
``What - it will get crushed...''
He started off, but my silence was but a pause.
``I have checked it in to MY massive cargo compartment.''
More colleagues joined in the fun.
Some of us were helping to load the trunks onto the X-ray
machine, and then, for sending to the plane, since they were very
heavy, at nearly 30 kgs each.
Taking an active part in the proceedings was a young and
well-built colleague, clad in a pair of jeans.
We noticed a `Security checked, DABH Airport' sticker, whcih had
come off one of the trunks, and pasted itself on his jeans.
``Go on, please check this in,'' we urged him.
``Any way, you are overweight.''
``This gives the term `trunks' a new dimension''
We were pulling his legs now. And pulling hard.

My itinerary for this leg of the journey was as follows.

Set out 09 Apr (Mon) for New Delhi from Indore
AI 633: Air India (A320) [Seat: 04F; PNR: Y73G2]
Devi Ahilyabai Holkar Airport, Indore -
Raja Bhoj Airport, Bhopal - IGIA T3, New Delhi
Indore (IDR) - Bhopal (BHO) - New Delhi (DEL)
[07:50 am - 08:35 am; 09:10 am - 10:25 am]

I had already done a web check-in for this leg.
I was again the subject of some extra attention.
``Sir, you are the one in the team who had done a web check-in
the day before, right?''
Heads turned (thankfully, not rolled), as I basked in glory,
albeit very briefly.
``I'll put the tags for all trunks behind your boarding pass.''
I had to wait, therefore.
The Air India agents were very prompt, and we went upstairs to
the security check, which hardly took any time.





Currently, there are at least 11 departure gates, which currently
all lead to the ground floor. The aero-bridge fingers are not yet
operational - this piece of information is circa April, 2012.
The large terminal is airy, well-planned, and well-lit.
Our plane came in from Mumbai, landing from the west side at
7:20 am. A Jet Airways ATR joined in, soon.

We were called for boarding from the ground floor. This was a bus
gate, from where an ancient bus picked us up, and deposited us
close to the plane. It was SI, the `units' plane, VT-ESI.
This is an old A320, in the new Flying Swan livery. The plane had
come in from Mumbai, and a large crowd had got down.
A large number of people boarded the plane - very few seats
remained empty. The plane was quite neat and clean, though not
spotlessly spic and span as VT-ESJ, which had taken us to Indore.
There were some minor grime marks near the tray locks, which
could be easily overlooked in a casual observation. It is nice to
see Air India take the cleaning and maintenance of the interiors
also, very seriously. VT-ESJ for the DEL-BHO-IDR leg, was
spectacularly perfect!
Captain Sunil Vashishth was in command.
Again, we had heavy boxes with us.
Captain Vashishth made a very powerful take-off on the heavy
plane, from runway 25 at Indore.
There would be no food on the short 45 minute IDR-BHO segment, so
I tried some self-control.
It worked in a way, as I fell asleep very soon.
I woke up as the descent commenced, and I missed out on taking
pictures of the beautiful large lake yet again.
Captain Vashishth made a very smooth touchdown at Bhopal's
Raja Bhoj Airport on runway 32. Yes, the old F-27/F-50 was still
there! I wonder what is the story behind this plane.
The Mumbai-Bhopal crowd got down, and a large number of people
boarded at Bhopal, leading to a very full plane once again.
As Captain Vashishth executed another very powerful take-off from
runway 30 at Bhopal. I discovered that I was not the only one
looking forward to breakfast. I was on seat 04F, a colleague in
04D was also looking forward to it.
I told him (excitedly) that I had done this route a large number
of times in the recent past, and that we could expect some hot
Mumbai Sambhar with Medu Vada, in the main course.
I was mistaken.
The breakfast was a vegetable patty. The filling inside had
mashed peas, potato, which had been lightly tossed around in a
some oil, with cumin seeds and tomato slices. There was nothing
spectacular about this, it was as fresh as something could be,
which had been loaded in Mumbai in the early morning, when the
plane had done the BOM-IDR-BHO segment. The taste wasn't too bad.
The dessert was better: this had a moist and sweet dry fruit
cup-cake. It had been generously embellished with finely slices
almonds on the top (the almonds must have been soaked in water to
get them soft, and in proper shape). The inside also had a good
amount of mashed sweetened dry fruits. A usual instant coffee
rounded off the rounded writer's breakfast.

Captain Vashishth made an amazingly soft landing on the new
runway 11-29, coming in from the east (so runway 29, it was). I
really wanted to express my admiration for the superb landing to
the Captain, but we were in a big hurry to claim our bags, and
trunks, as they came in. This had sensitive material inside, and
we needed to take possession of them as soon as they came out.

However much one may be in a hurry, one should always take out
time to smell the flowers.
Or for that matter, to admire the greenery inside IGIA T3:





We waited by the baggage belt. A few pieces of luggage were
collected by their happy owners (which included the colleague
whose bag had been misplaced, on the forward trip), while the
rest of us waited in despair as the notice board said that the
luggage for flight AI 633 had been all put on the belt, and the
process had stopped. The other bags came in after quite a while.
We had been a bit worried at the delay.
Besides, the trunks would come up through the OOG belt near the
exit doorway, and would be put out in the open, beside it.
How did I know that, wondered a colleague.
I told him (excitedly) that I had done this run a large number
of times in the recent past, and that we could expect this again.
I was mistaken.
After a long wait with some of us shuffling between the OOG
outlet and Belt 1 (where our bags finally arrived), the big, bad
and ugly masses of steel made their appearance. 21 trunks later,
we headed off towards the departure gate, where there was a mass
of drivers holding placards, some of them with our names on them.
A colleague who had reached there first, was reading out the names.
``Sumantra. Wanted, Dead or Alive''
My luggage trolley with my bags and my trunk changed direction,
and made an unexpected beeline for him, as he laughingly stepped
aside, as the (mis)guided missile just missed its target
by...much more than a few inches. We found our vehicle soon, and
after depositing the trunks where we had to, I came back home to
a good lunch with The Wife and Junior (`TW' and `Jr'), the former
welcoming me in, whereas the latter could not have cared less -
he was busy watching an episode of Tom and Jerry, as I played
cat-and-mouse to TW's queries about what I did at Indore.
Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat, what did you do there?
I became a frightened mouse, and hid under the chair.
Why cat-and-mouse?
I was dog tired.
Over a hearty lunch, TW asked me what my plan for the rest of the
day was. I listed out quite a few items.
The list remained as it had been formed,
as I woke up (a la Rip van Winkle) to another hearty meal - Dinner!
---
Links to my previous trip reports:

35. Can't Cut Calcutta Calls! CCU, Mar'12
http://www.airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic12909.html

34. Tinsel-town ahoy! Mumbai, Mar'12
http://www.airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic12885.html

33. Indoor/Indore in 2012
http://www.airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic12835.html

32. Colour Range over the Orange City: NAG, Jan'12
http://www.airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic12803.html

31. AI strike(,) PAT in the back: Patna, Jan'12
http://www.airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic12781.html

30. Regressive TR: Shuttling between Delhi and Mumbai
http://www.airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic12742.html

29. No Eyesore in Mysore; Part II: Mysore Memories; HAL Museum
http://www.airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic12730.html

28. No Eyesore in Mysore; Part I: Mysore
http://www.airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic12686.html

27. Hampi Hamper, Part 2: Hampi!
http://www.airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic12661.html

26. Hampi Hamper, Part I: Banashankari, Badami, Pattadakal, Aihole
http://www.airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic12623.html

25. JAI Ho! Jaipur, Sep'12, My Double Standards?
http://www.airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic12592.html
(This is out of sequence, only to report on something that is
very recent, circa Sep'12)

24. PNQ: PeNning Queued Reports, Dec 2011
http://www.airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic12557.html

23. Little BHO-Peep, Nov 2011
http://www.airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic12496.html

22. The Call of the Vaigai! Madurai, Oct 2011
http://www.airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic12465.html

21. Eats, Shoots, and Leaves: Beijing, 2011 Part 3
http://www.airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic12452.html

20. No Panda-monium: Beijing, 2011 Part 2
http://airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic12389.html

19. North By Northwest...er, AI and CA: Beijing, 2011 Part 1
http://airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic12348.html

18. Going Bananas over Oranges: Nagpur, Aug'11
http://airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic12333.html

17. To the City of Joy and back, on Air India: Aug'11
http://airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic12238.html

16. To Chennai, Mar'12 with a Celebrity Captain!
http://airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic12196.html
(This is out of sequence owing to sheer excitement, and nothing
else!)

15. Marble Rocks, Marbles Rock; Jul 2011
http://airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic12157.html

14. The Fish-Eye Beckons! Madurai, on Air India. Jul 2011
http://airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic12136.html

13. To Russia, with Awe: Moscow, 2011, Part 3: Monino!
http://airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic12091.html

12. To Russia, with Awe: Moscow, 2011, Part 2: The Central Museum
of the Armed Forces
http://airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic12016.html

11. To Russia, with Awe: Moscow, 2011, Part 1: The Overall Trip
http://airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic11717.html

10. The City of Lakes: Mother's Heart, Heart of the Motherland
http://airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic11556.html

9. Mostly Indoors, in Indore:
http://airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic11533.html

8. Inter-metro Shuttling on AI: DEL-BOM on AI810, BOM-DEL on
AI888
http://airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic11449.html

7. On the cusp: DEL-BOM on IC863, BOM-DEL on AI660
http://airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic11160.html

6. DEL-BOM on IT308, BOM-DEL on IC166
http://airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic10986.html

5. DEL-MAA on IC439, MAA-DEL on IC802
http://airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic10809.html

4. DEL-PNQ on IC849, PNQ-DEL on IC850
http://airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic10510.html

3. DEL-MAA on IC429 (A321), MAA-DEL on IC7602 (CRJ7)
http://airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic10401.html

2. DEL-NAG-NDC, NDC-BOM-DEL on G8
http://airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic10169.html

1. IGI T3, AI 314 DEL-HKG and AI 311 HKG-DEL
http://airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic10018.html
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ameya
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Joined: 09 May 2007
Posts: 3671
Location: Pune,Maharashtra

PostPosted: Sat Jan 12, 2013 5:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hey a very superb report !

Enjoyed reading it throughly !

Looks like you had a huge gang with you and the entire gang was fun loving !

Nice !

But Apr'12 to Jan'13... a lot of backlog Sir Smile

Looking forward to some more and more !

Finally you had a journey where the meal ended with a good coffee
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sumantra
Member


Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4685
Location: New Delhi

PostPosted: Sat Jan 12, 2013 10:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

ameya wrote:
Looks like you had a huge gang with you and the entire gang was fun loving!
Thanks, Ameya - yes, it is fun to see people close to retirement actually have a little naughty child in them. I guess I have been fortunate to have people like them around me. I love to write about such incidents!

ameya wrote:
But Apr'12 to Jan'13... a lot of backlog Sir Smile

Now that you have mentioned it, the next one will be a description of a trip to Calcutta. `Calcutta: A Short and Sweet Trip, June 2012'.
Does that ring a bell?
If not, check out the itinerary of my onward trip:

Set out 22 Jun (Fri) for Kolkata from New Delhi
AI 764: Air India (A321) [Seat: 10F; PNR: H4X1D]
IGIA T3, New Delhi - NSCBIA Domestic Terminal, Kolkata
New Delhi (DEL) - Kolkata (CCU)
[06:00 pm - 07:55 pm]

Yes, Sir - this was one memorable trip, since I met our walking Encyclopaedia on aircraft utilisation and rotations, route planning, registrations, and so much more, while he was waiting for a 9W flight to Pune. We had talked about the mysterious A310 with the blue tail, the Il-14 `Crate', and AI hubbing, and route and capacity planning. I remember it as if it was yesterday. You made my day, Sir!

ameya wrote:
Finally you had a journey where the meal ended with a good coffee

Very Happy
Cheers, Sumantra.
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Theairplaneguy4ever
Member


Joined: 26 Sep 2012
Posts: 191
Location: Kochi, Kerala, India

PostPosted: Sun Jan 13, 2013 9:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Another great TR Sumantra sir!

Really enjoyed this one as well!

A thing that surprises me is the snack run, usually airlines wouldn't give this much food on such short sectors, hats off to AI for that.

May I ask a question, was the landing any different from normal A320s with single bogey main landing gear?

Waiting for the next one!

Cheers

Theairplanesguy4ever
_________________
India's first HD Video Trip Report Channel : www.youtube.com/Theairplaneguy4ever
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sumantra
Member


Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4685
Location: New Delhi

PostPosted: Sun Jan 13, 2013 1:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks a lot for your appreciation, Sir! I especially appreciate this, since you have introduced a new format for trip reports on this forum, and we all love your video reports for their slick editing, contents, and the overall package!
Theairplaneguy4ever wrote:
May I ask a question, was the landing any different from normal A320s with single bogey main landing gear?

I had never thought about this, Sir - personally, I have not felt any difference, though as The Wife says, I am as thick skinned as a rhinoceros Smile
Cheers, Sumantra.
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ameya
Member


Joined: 09 May 2007
Posts: 3671
Location: Pune,Maharashtra

PostPosted: Mon Jan 14, 2013 10:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

sumantra wrote:
ameya wrote:
Looks like you had a huge gang with you and the entire gang was fun loving!
Thanks, Ameya - yes, it is fun to see people close to retirement actually have a little naughty child in them. I guess I have been fortunate to have people like them around me. I love to write about such incidents!

ameya wrote:
But Apr'12 to Jan'13... a lot of backlog Sir Smile

Now that you have mentioned it, the next one will be a description of a trip to Calcutta. `Calcutta: A Short and Sweet Trip, June 2012'.
Does that ring a bell?
If not, check out the itinerary of my onward trip:

Set out 22 Jun (Fri) for Kolkata from New Delhi
AI 764: Air India (A321) [Seat: 10F; PNR: H4X1D]
IGIA T3, New Delhi - NSCBIA Domestic Terminal, Kolkata
New Delhi (DEL) - Kolkata (CCU)
[06:00 pm - 07:55 pm]

Yes, Sir - this was one memorable trip, since I met our walking Encyclopaedia on aircraft utilisation and rotations, route planning, registrations, and so much more, while he was waiting for a 9W flight to Pune. We had talked about the mysterious A310 with the blue tail, the Il-14 `Crate', and AI hubbing, and route and capacity planning. I remember it as if it was yesterday. You made my day, Sir!

ameya wrote:
Finally you had a journey where the meal ended with a good coffee

Very Happy
Cheers, Sumantra.


Yep I remember !

Incidently, I was to stay back in Delhi for that weekend and suddenly this Pune thing came up !
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