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And I come back to Pune in another double Bogey(Pics)

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

PostPosted: Sat Dec 07, 2013 5:00 pm    Post subject: And I come back to Pune in another double Bogey(Pics) Reply with quote

A) Background

I had a good time in Delhi, going to the Raj era Hotel Imperial at Janpath on day one and then at the impressive Field Marshal Manekshaw Centre near Dhaula Kuan. It is one impressive and well maintained building by the army and gives out to ministries for their functions / conferences etc.
However the whole event was poorly done and food was over within 20 mins on one of the days and on the next the food was around but the plates were over and the army caterer refused to get more plates and so on.

I also found Delhi traffic to be worst than before and had a tough time commuting every time I stepped out, which led to me walking a lot many a times to get a rick. Couple that with the election fever and things were in a mess.

Due to hectic schedules and meetings all across Delhi and Gurgaon, I would end up reaching back in hotel late in the evening. I still managed to visit some good places, in one case – The pint room in Gurgaon.

B) The surprise !

On one of the days, I planned to visit my ex colleagues in aviation both sarkari & non sarkari and one of this took me to the ATC tower in Delhi. Unfortunately, phone was not allowed.

I was lucky to have seen the Delhi tower, Area Control Radar, Approach Radar, Ground Control, Fog preparation room, Met briefing and armed forces clearance room.

IGI ATC has the best views of all the ATCs that I have seen so far, the other being the old one at BOM, PNQ & IXU.

It was a mesmerizing experience to hear something like

IFLY555 Delhi area control Report position
Delhi Area control IFLY555 position BORDA Flight level 330
IFLY555 descend to FL290 and report. Expect landing on runway 10

Apart from that I saw some of the best views of a lot of planes landing and seeing the massive A346 take off going to MUC

C) Rotation & Flight history

AI 853 was to be launched two seasons ago but it did not work out then for AI and they launched this flight on 5th Nov, which departs DEL at 1850 hours. The rotation is a little difficult to understand without help from FR24 but it generally does DEL DAC DEL KBL DEL PNQ DEL and regularly gets delayed in KBL and thus delays the PNQ flight.

However in my case the plane had come in from Chennai and the only way to identify that was from the edition of newspapers lying around.

With the aircraft around in Delhi for over an hour, they sure should have cleaned it up !


D) Spotting


While I could see a lot of planes landing over Saket on all days, there wasn’t much of spotting other than 3ATRs of KF and 2 A330s of 9W and a lot of Air India birds. Could spot the JL B772 and possibly saw VT-ANE which was on delivery flight as AI 164 non stop from Paine Field ?

E) Seat Blocking

I had blocked 3A for both the legs and it had auto selected 20A while I tried check-in a day prior to departure. However, when I went to the counter and requested for a seat in front, I was promptly given 3A.
Sad 20B was empty, 3B was not 

F) Aircraft Details

The ticket mentioned that the aircraft would be A320-100/200 and BREAKFAST will be served. When I mentioned this to in house AI expert Sumantra Sir, I was told it would be dinner. I did not contest it at all but still BREAKFAST ? ! Why write that so !

I flew VT-ESL , another double bogey in all economy config with the stylist A320 logo on the bulk head

G) The day of departure

I had some work all across Delhi I think. From the venue to ministry and so on. On top of that BIL & his family was to arrive at DEL T1 and take a train to Jabalpur. So this is what I did, take a cab and reach T1, meet BIL, take the shuttle which was running late by 10 mins and reach T3 and it went off really smooth. Had a lot of people who had come in on 6E and wanting to take flights to UDR, BHO, etc from T3

H) Ground Experience at DEL

I had reached pretty early, even the 1600 PNQ flight hadn’t left by then. The check in queue was really small and I quickly made my way to the counter. Seat changed, boarding pass obtained, bags deposited, I headed for security.

Just as I was about to put my bag thru the scanner, I realized I have a water bottle and told the CISF staff who promptly took the bottle aside and told me to collect it from him when I am on the other side. WoW .. this was simply unique !

The security was breeze too, came onto the SHA, saw the book shop, the retail outlets around, the domestic and international pier, a quick trip to the food court, down again, then towards the starbucks near gate 27

Saw a Kam Air bird and also a Safi bird, heading to KBL


I) Weather & NOTAM

VIDP 051200Z 27006KT 3200 HZ NSC 22/07 Q1013 NOSIG =

Clear weather and no change in NOTAMS

J) Boarding

I finished a lot of work sitting near starbucks and headed towards the gate at 1800hrs. There was a decent built up of crowd and AI staff was walking around the gate for starting the boarding process. It was smooth and quick. The aircraft was already at the gate for a long long time

K) Aircraft

As mentioned above the aircraft was VT-ESL, pretty old but not as the one I had for my journey from PNQ to DEL. It was not as neat as my onward plane.
The crew was pathetic. One really old aunty, who would just about manage to get into the aisle, without any clue of English language and hindi which had heavy accent. The other lady, younger than this one would just come around and give you the water bottle as if she is too bored to even look at you leave aside smile.
The older aunty in a typical hindi heartland tone shouted – Koi engineering se hai ? Ye band nahi ho ra… I only hoped – jo band nahi ho ra who darwaja na ho !
But it was something else, thankfully


L) Push Back – T/O – Food – Landing – Crew

We pushed back right on time at 1850 and taxied till rwy 29, lining up behind a 9W B737 which took off immediately and waited for two landings , one 9W bird followed by what I feel was VT-ANE, since there was no other B787 coming in to land at that time.
Many of the over head lights weren’t working.

We lined up and made a powerful T/O on rwy 29 and banked left cruising over Rajasthan, MP, Gujrat before banking leftwards to over fly Nasik and landing into PNQ right on time. The taxi our time and wait time at DEL was covered up by the direct routing.

Flight was uneventful and dinner came in little late. I opted for the Non Veg option which had chicken biryani with Dal, some desert in custard and some slices of tomato and cucumber.

I have figured one way of having coffee in the aircraft, and that is to not add creamer and have black coffee, tastes nice !


M) Arrival Experience


We docked at aerobridge 2 at PNQ and waited for over 15 mins to get the baggage. I have had this complaint before as well. PNQ in its old era display boards showed some other flight as arrived instead of this.

None the less, PNQ airport terminal is up for expansion yet again and the area where the old parking was will also be part of terminal.

N) Over all experience

I am happy with AI, for its on time performance, decently clean aircraft, more legroom than 6E, food on board which is nice.
From a business traveler point of view, I would not really decide on my flight based on the FA if its aunty or a young girl but AI needs to really improve on this count. You cannot be this horrible. I am using some harsh words but that’s how it was !

My next scheduled flight is on AI and that’s 19 days from now when I fly from IXU to DEL, then take a train from NDLS to JP, and then fly JAI-PNQ on 9W ATR via IDR

I will add the pics in a days time. Thanks for reading.
Honestly, I have not liked this structured way of writing a TR, I might just shift back to my haphazard way of writing from the next one. Do let me know your comments


Last edited by ameya on Mon Dec 09, 2013 1:56 pm; edited 1 time in total
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jbalonso777
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Joined: 05 Jul 2012
Posts: 1501
Location: Never, never land

PostPosted: Sun Dec 08, 2013 11:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wonderful TR again, Ameya sir!
It was funny when you mentioned that FA incident on WhatsApp too Razz

Looks like you had quite a lot of mixed feelings through the trip: in Delhi and the flights. Well, not everything can be 100% good, can it?

I look forward to the other TRs you have mentioned! Very Happy

Regards
Jish
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Karan69
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Posts: 1334

PostPosted: Sun Dec 08, 2013 3:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nice report Ameya,

That FA aunty sounds typical of the work culture you get in any Babu office

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

PostPosted: Sun Dec 08, 2013 3:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

jbalonso777 wrote:
Wonderful TR again, Ameya sir!
It was funny when you mentioned that FA incident on WhatsApp too Razz

Looks like you had quite a lot of mixed feelings through the trip: in Delhi and the flights. Well, not everything can be 100% good, can it?

I look forward to the other TRs you have mentioned! Very Happy

Regards
Jish


Thanks. This delhi trip was indeed awesome. I cannot really express my feelings of being in the ATC and hence I have not written much about it
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ameya
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Joined: 09 May 2007
Posts: 3671
Location: Pune,Maharashtra

PostPosted: Sun Dec 08, 2013 3:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Karan69 wrote:
Nice report Ameya,

That FA aunty sounds typical of the work culture you get in any Babu office

Karan


Absolutely, all gossip, haan ji .. ho jaega ji, tum itna dekh lo and not to do anything on your own !
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sumantra
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Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4685
Location: New Delhi

PostPosted: Sun Dec 08, 2013 8:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ameya Sir: my wait for this report was well worth it. You would perhaps be one of the very few TR writers who would have a TR carry its own, without pictures - though I know that the pictures are on the way. While I missed you when you were in Delhi, I am really happy to see that you had a nice time (not food-wise, as you have written, that too, in an army function!). I really envy you for the DEL ATC trip! Wow: you have been to ATCs in three other cities too! Now, who counts the number of trips per year, if one can have such visits? An old A320 not being cleaned up: is a bit of a surprise for me. I have been delighted with the average conditions of the old double bogeys, as I have definitely felt that someone at DEL (of all places) feels for the old birds, and ensures that their insides are very clean. I only hope that the old dirty trend has not infected the care of these elderly birds as well. You also had some bad luck with the FAs. Please tell us more about the PNQ expansion: do you have any pictures, or diagrams - though I guess not too many would be available in the public domain. They want to cull in the parking lot: hmm...so more terminal area. This may be quite desirable. While I like your structured reports (I too shifted to this after Dr. Ganguly explicitly mentioned this to me), please do not call your old reports `haphazard'. They are anything but haphazard, and...a pleasure to go through!
Cheers, Sumantra.
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ameya
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Joined: 09 May 2007
Posts: 3671
Location: Pune,Maharashtra

PostPosted: Mon Dec 09, 2013 11:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks Sir !

PNQ expansion details are as below

On western side, the private airliners will now have a hanger for themselves, the hanger should be operational in another 2 months time.

On the southern side - from where the vehicles approach the terminal, the terminal would be extended uptill the old parking lot which is now defunct

How it will span out, only time will tell !

Btw, there is no update on MAFI as yet
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sumantra
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 09, 2013 11:24 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks, Sir: will it be possible to draw a small sketch, take a picture, and post it? PNQ is a good example in severely constrained optimisation, as you know, first-hand!
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ameya
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Joined: 09 May 2007
Posts: 3671
Location: Pune,Maharashtra

PostPosted: Mon Dec 09, 2013 1:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Here are the pictures

Real good food - Chicken Sausages in mustard Sauce - Sumwhere in Delhi


20131202_191207 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr

Ek jamana tha jab ye sab udte the

20131205_154644 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr

Taller than the tallest ?

20131205_154651 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr

Back from the food court

20131205_162343 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr

One went to JED

20131205_162351 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr

Jetihad

20131205_162615 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr

767 777 787

20131205_165141 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr

One more time ! A320

20131205_182215 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr

Dinner

20131205_194328 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr


The marketing done by KSRTC at Delhi - lying around in my cubicle

20131206_124414 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr
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Theairplaneguy4ever
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Joined: 26 Sep 2012
Posts: 191
Location: Kochi, Kerala, India

PostPosted: Thu Dec 12, 2013 1:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sir, this was a wonderful short snippet of a TR. I enjoyed reading it!

Quote:
I was lucky to have seen the Delhi tower, Area Control Radar, Approach Radar, Ground Control, Fog preparation room, Met briefing and armed forces clearance room.


Lucky indeed! People would kill for that chance.

Quote:
The crew was pathetic. One really old aunty, who would just about manage to get into the aisle, without any clue of English language and hindi which had heavy accent. The other lady, younger than this one would just come around and give you the water bottle as if she is too bored to even look at you leave aside smile.


Another AI disappointment. Much like a certain experience I had a while ago (TR coming up), unfortunately mine was a bit worse.

Quote:
I opted for the Non Veg option which had chicken biryani with Dal, some desert in custard and some slices of tomato and cucumber.


Was the food good? Tajsats catering is usually great from DEL!

Quote:
None the less, PNQ airport terminal is up for expansion yet again and the area where the old parking was will also be part of terminal.


This is good to hear. Just a quick question I hope you don't mind answering, since you are from Pune.

How is the attitude from the CISF there towards photo taking?

I've usually noticed in the bigger airports that they don't really care much.

Thanks again for this wonderful and a lovely set of pics as well.

Adi,

Theairplaneguy4ever
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ameya
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Location: Pune,Maharashtra

PostPosted: Thu Dec 12, 2013 1:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for your kind words.

Food was good.

CISF attitude at PNQ is to catch the person the moment you click a snap, considering the sensitivity of PNQ in terms of defense infrastructure I think it is right too
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