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I Adore Indore: May-Jun'13

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

PostPosted: Sun Jan 05, 2014 12:39 am    Post subject: I Adore Indore: May-Jun'13 Reply with quote

I Adore Indore: May-Jun'13


Isn't the reader tired of my Indore trip reports?
What more could be left to describe in a small but important city,
and that too, after I have described my experiences in the new
airport terminal building, from an aviation point of view? So has
member Ameya, with a more recent trip report, circa 2013.
The reader may remember my following trip reports (in reverse
chronological order):

36. Indore again in 2012, April
http://www.airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic12937.html
33. Indoor/Indore in 2012
http://www.airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic12835.html
9. Mostly Indoors, in Indore
http://airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic11533.html

This report can be found at the following URL:
http://www.airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic13589.html

59.1 Some history, Introducing Mr. J. R. R. Talking, from the
Middle Earth...er...Central India


Yes, this would be a trip that had almost become twice-a-year.
The trip, as the reader would remember, with large steel trunks. 18 colleagues this time, with 18 heavy trunks, each about 45-47 kgs.
``Exactly half your weight'', The Wife pointed out, helpfully.

On the last occassion, there was something new to look forward
to: my first flight aboard an all-Economy configured Air India
A320, the experience of the new terminal at the Devi Ahilyabai
Airport in Indore, to name two prominent points. Of course, there
would be the usual leg-pulling among colleagues. This time, there
wasn't much to look forward to in terms of aviation-related
novelties, except for the state of the terminal, since I had seen
it almost brand-new almost exactly a year back. Something new was
the flight. The AI 636/635 combination was one of the traditional
`milk routes' of Air India, which was DEL-BHO-IDR-BOM and back,
last year. In the past, IC 133/134 even had a GWL stop, if I
remember correctly, since I had booked it once just to have three
Indian Airlines meals. In what may come as a complete shock to
many, something out of the ordinary happened at the Mumbai
airport T1A. The check-in lady had managed to convince me to
choose a window seat on an earlier flight, over three near-meals.
The regular reader naturally would be flabbergasted at this, if
he/she remembers my obsession for matters of the stomach.

The AI 636/635 combination now removed Bhopal from the itinerary,
both ways. This still had an all-Economy configured A320 in both
directions, while Bhopal had been shifted to AI 634/633 with an
A321 in one direction, and an A319 in the other. Was this because
of good average loads in one direction (BOM-BHO-DEL)?
Not quite, replied a friend in the know.
As a digression, let me introduce him to the reader. I will refer
to him as Mr. J. R. R. Talking, the slightly reclusive but
extremely affable aviation hobbyist, not from Middle Earth as the
characters in the original Tolkien novels, but from Central
India, Bhopal, to be specific. Like me, he has to travel by Air
India as a part of many of his official duties. Hence, he takes a
keep interest in matters related to the national carrier.
Further, he knows quite a lot about Delhi and Mumbai as well,
since he has to travel via the two cities, for most of his
official travels abroad.

So, Bhopal been not been shifted to a different flight because of
stupendous loads and demand at that time, necessitating a
separate flight. It was purely for operational reasons, said Mr.
J. R. R. Talking. The Indore loads were usually quite good, he
added. And yes, both the Indore and Bhopal flights, now
separated, had Delhi and Mumbai at both ends. The timings of the
Bhopal flight had changed drastically, whereas the Indore one
remained unchanged with regard to the start times of the entire leg.

59.2 The D-Day

The Wife and Junior were not yet back from Junior's summer camp,
so I simply hurried up. There was no time to catch up with my
favourite obsession (food, of course). I set out for the place where
the official transport was to pick us up. At least, I did not
have to wake up at least one of them in the very early hours of
the morning, since this was an evening flight. My departure in
the early hours of the day is definitely not something to lose
sleep over (or lose hair over, for that matter), both literally,
as well as figuratively. An few evenings before I recounted an
incident when we had gone shopping, and The Wife had asked the
salesman to show her some hair fall prevention solutions. I
looked at the price tag, and immediately, something under my
thinning hairline got into action. Yes, that included the horns
protruding from my head too, like antennae.
``Do you have anything for men?'' I asked in right earnest.
The Wife looked back at me, but the salesman took the bait.
He answered in the affirmative, and quickly handed me a bottle,
when I let the next question out,
``Do you have anything for husbands?''
I noticed a dirty look that The Wife gave me immediately, and the
salesman too got the point, and we had a good laugh.
After all, as a good friend puts it, the relation between a
husband and a wife is always psychological.
``One is a psycho, the other is logical,'' she says.
Remember the gender of the friend who made that comment.
It is but obvious what she means.
Coming back to the drug store visit, I asked if there was any
cream to treat carbuncles. The salesman got the point, but could
not understand why I let out a little chuckle, thereafter.
`Carbuncle' was a name one of my friends had christened me with,
for his little son to address me as. No, it is not my rounded
belly which reminded him of the same, it was more of `Carb Uncle',
referring to my love for sinful carbohydrates and fats, in every
meal, which was in turn responsible for my `all-round'...er, not
capabilities, but unflattering figure, instead.

59.3 At the IGI Airport

The itinerary for this leg of our trip was as follows:

Set out 31 May (Fri) for Indore from New Delhi
AI 636: Air India (A320) [Seat: 05F; PNR: ZBMG1]
IGIA T3, New Delhi - Devi Ahilyabai Holkar Airport, Indore
New Delhi (DEL) - Indore (IDR)
[06:00 pm - 07:30 pm]

We reached the airport well in time.
A separate Air India counter opened for us, to check in the 18 of
us, travelling with 18 large and extremely heavy trunks. I had
picked up my ticket's PNR from the official travel agent, and
used Air India's website to locate my PNR, and add it to my list
of trips. I use this primarily to select my seat (and in case of
a slip by the official travel agent, to insert my Air India
Flying Returns FFP number as well), and have one better chance of
having the miles credited to my trip. I was pleased as punch to
have got my selected seat itself (05F), even though we were
booked in a whole bunch, with one of us paying the huge extra
baggage charge (from an official kitty, of course), and having all the
baggage tags being pasted on his boarding pass.

Yes, we had landed up with the 18 heavy trunks at the airport. The
Air India officials took us to the extreme Eastern end of the
airport, where there was another OOG belt (`Oversize, Overweight
Goods') belt. The banter between like-minded naughty colleagues
went unabated. ``Here Sumantra, you go in here,''
pointed out someone. Some serious colleagues talked shop.

A colleague was discussing some of his work with light
polarisation, where a probe could be used for...endoscopy.
Now, that rung a bell.
Alarm bells, rather.
A few decades back, I had had an endoscopy, in which an endoscope
probe was inserted from the other end of my body, the process
followed, and some time after it concluded, it causes some
unsavoury emissions from both ends.
I guess I must stop here, before things get too gross.

There was something else new too, this time.
It was May, 2013. For the first time, I would notice the new (and
extremely impressive!) Air Force display enclosure opposite to
the old Kingfisher Airlines check-in desks.

The Su-30MKI is an awesome sight!


The LCA Tejas is another `looker!

Many of us would recognise the picture of Wing Cdr (then, Sq Ldr)
Rakesh Sharma, who went into space in 1984.

The Su-30MKI, from the other side:


Another view of the LCA Tejas model:


Soon, we were air-side.
There was a lot of interesting traffic on view. The movements
were from the west to the east. I perched myself in an ungainly manner
atop one of the slumberette seats towards the end of the first
domestic finger (facing the international end), and watched the
proceedings, with interest. As soon as I had come in and climbed
the slope, I noted the beautiful `Wide aircraft' WA (VT-IWA) come
in to the eastern end of this finger, and much to my pleasant
surprise, park at a remote stand! The A332 looked stunning in the
late afternoon sun. It parked beside a `masked bandit',
the `Quick Turnaround/Just Back' plane, JB: VT-RJB.
This plane soon pushed back for a flight to Baroda. The other
interesting movements included two Air India B777s coming in: a
B77L and a B77W, the latter followed by a JAL B772, coming in to
land on runway 11. The `bandit' made its usual steep take-off on
the same runway. In the meantime, there were numerous narrow-body
movements: there were Air India 320s, 321s, 319s, and Jet
Airways/Konnect B738s and B737s all around. I sat there,
enthralled, until it was time to board the plane.

59.4 A Memorable Trip on the `Memory Card' Plane

There had been a gate change, and from 31B, we were supposed to
head toward gate 34B. It was SD, the `memory card' plane, VT-ESD.
This is an old double-bogey A320 with the V2500 engines, in the new Air
India Flying Swan livery. The plane was as attractive from the
outside, as it was from the inside. I was on seat 05F. I was
pleasantly surprised to see that the window was not very scratched,
permitting pictures to be taken through it. Both the fabric as
well as the plastic surfaces were spotlessly clean.
I told my friend Mr. All-Stare MacLean over an SMS,
that I really like the way Air India maintains these senior ladies.
He replied back immediately, as to whether I was referring to
the cabin crew. The cabin crew on this flight were young ladies,
who went about their tasks with enthusiasm and cheer.

This is the lovely A320 sign on the bulkheads of the old Indian
Airlines A320s - a sight which many will miss, once the elderly
but well-maintained A320s, are retired, soon.



I was able to catch a reflection of the memory card plane's
tail's reflection in the aerobridge glass, in this picture, below.



The snack service started without any ado.
The snack was hardly anything that can be called a `snack'.
This was May 2013, a short while before the food-related
further austerity measures on Air India would set in.
It started with a nice Panini sandwich, where the softness of the
bread was as awesome as the filling inside. The filling inside
had a combination which always appeals to me. The filling had
sweet corn, a generous amount of soft Mozzarella cheese, and
shreds of spinach. It was as tasty as it looked. This was
accompanied by a very tasty chocolate cake slice. It was
extremely fresh and tasty, and smelt sinfully of a hint of
butter, without being greasy in any way. Ah...what bliss!
Even the coffee which came in very quickly, was excellent!

59.5 Landing (up) at Indore

Captain Saurabh Mishra brought the plane down in Indore like a
feather, about 5 minutes ahead of schedule.
There were two SpiceJet Q400s on the tarmac, with the one closest
to us being the soapy one, VT-SUD `Tejpatta'. I did not catch the
name of the plane, or either the name or registration of the
other one, as we were bused towards the impressive arrival area
at the Devi Ahilyabai Holkar Airport at Indore.

Our team of 18 had 4 bags to check in, no guesses, the lousy
traveller that I am, I was one of the quartet who checked in
their bags. The bags came out after some delay. The domestic part
of the Devi Ahilyabai Holkar Airport at Indore has two baggage belts,
but the vehicle doing the loading and unloading wasn't exactly
the best suitable for a fill all-Economy A320 almost emptying at
Indore itself. Yes, we saw most passengers disembark at Indore
itself, I would estimate it at close to 75%. That is a lot of
anxious passengers standing beside a long baggage belt. Add to it
the confusion on the steel trunks we were supposed to take from
here. The trolleys finally came in. A senior colleague
volunteered to stand at the gate (the CISF guard was not too
averse to the idea, when he saw the massiveness of the task at
hand), and call out the team number corresponding to the trunk
being unloaded. The baggage trolleys were the old ones with a
mind of their own, where the wheels locked unexpectedly, and took
turns to take turns, all on their own, completely independent of
the other three companions. The temperature was welcome for us
Delhi'ites, since it had rained a few days back at Indore, and
the city had a pleasant breeze blowing. Depalpur is in the
outskirts of the city of Indore, so we got a breeze better than
what people in the city would get, otherwise.

We were put up in Hotel Fortune Landmark once again. I took
pictures of my luxurious room. One of my cell-phone pictures
(remember, I still use my entry-level Nokia 2700 classic) came
out quite well, a night picture of a cabinet door with
wicker-work on it, with a light inside being diffracted by the wicker screen.



59.6 Preparing for the Return

We had come in on Friday night, and after two very tiring days at
Indore, we were ready to set out for Delhi on 03 Jun (Mon). I had
a disturbed sleep, with my alarm scheduled to go off around 03:30
am, a time which is just about midnight for me, in my usual
schedule. After a few iterations, I coaxed myself out of the bed,
and drank water like a fish, in a bid to induce elementary hydraulic
pressure on my alimentary canal, in a bid to perform the morning
ritual. A shave and a bath later, I was ready to face the world.
We would be carrying one trunk back. Our team also had arranged
for them, a packed breakfast, which had two coleslaw sandwiches,
a muffin, and some potato wafers/chips. The metal box would go
into the belly of the aircraft, while the cardboard one (the
contents thereof, not the box itself, I was not on a high-fibre diet)
would go into my massive belly. While my colleagues packed in the
box to have it at the airport, I shocked one and all by finishing
the contents of the cardboard box even before most members had
even taken one into their hands. Of course, I take matters into
my own hands, and looked pleased as punch, at having my hunger
quenched, albeit to some extent. It would an Air India flight,
after all. I had been up since 03:30 am, and two hours later, I
was understandably hungry. The box had done wonders to me.

The itinerary for my return flight was as under:

Set out 03 Jun (Mon) for New Delhi from Indore
AI 635: Air India (A320) [Seat: 02F; PNR: ZBMG1]
Devi Ahilyabai Holkar Airport, Indore - IGIA T3, New Delhi
Indore (IDR) - New Delhi (DEL)
[07:50 am - 09:20 am]

59.7 A nice check-in experience on Air India

Some vehicles for our team had failed to arrive on time. We
somehow managed to get ourselves and our trunks (the metal ones,
that is,) into the available vehicles, and reached the Devi
Ahilyabai Holkar Airport at Depalpur, Indore, well on time. As we
entered, the Air India counter had just opened. A Jet Airways
counter was checking in passengers (`guests', in their parlance),
for flights to Delhi and Mumbai, if I remember correctly. A
SpiceJet counter had also opened, for a flight to Delhi. A senior
Air India official Mrs. Sharma came in, and gave our group some
special treatment. She noted the average weight of a trunk. She
then checked the date of booking of the tickets, to see if we
could be accommodated on the old and more generous baggage rule.
Since that was not the case, she ensured that our baggage would be
amortised among all 18 group members, and asked those among us
who were Flying Returns members, to help shave off the excess
baggage charges from the total kitty. At the end, we were only 19
kgs overweight (I am about 15 kgs overweight myself), and our
team leader went to pay the amount at the Air India office. The
cheerful senior lady could have well averted all this extra
effort, and simply gone passenger-by-passenger, and taken in the
dues. I appreciated this effort, and the cheer which went with it.

We went upstairs for the security check, which was done in a jiffy.
I had a look at the FIDS board.
The board also showed a Ventura Air flight to Jabalpur, in
addition to two Jet Airways flights, the SpiceJet one, and our
Air India flight. The airport has two aero-bridge points, which
have not received their aero-bridges yet. There are stairs
descending to the tarmac. Some part of the first floor is also
still under construction. It was disappointing.

As member Ameya described the situation in his trip report a
while back, the Departures area of the new Devi Ahilyabai Airport
at Indore was showing its age. This is an almost brand-new
airport terminal, having been inaugurated last year. I had been a
bit surprised when I had noticed the Arrivals section to be
relatively neat and clean, and well-organised. The Departures
section was quite the opposite. In just about a year, the
beautiful new terminal was showing its ugly side. Corners were
unclean, there were shoe marks on the walls, and the lack of
maintenance showed quite clearly, in a terminal building that had
otherwise been constructed quite well.

59.8 A nice return flight!

Our plane, an all-Economy A320 in the new Flying Swan livery,
came in to land at 07:15 am, on runway 25.
I was a bit surprised that the Jet Airways flight to Delhi before
us (on VT-JBR) had taken off on runway 07, but we got runway 25
for take-off, as the wind direction clearly revealed to be the
optimum one for take-offs and landings. Captain R. K. Srivastava
was in command, and he made a very powerful take-off towards the
west on runway 25. The plane was 100% full in Economy again, with
a huge crowd having boarded in Indore. Ms. Asha Lata was in
charge of the cabin. The plane had come in to Indore from Mumbai,
and parked beside VT-JBR, a Jet Airways B738.



Another Jet Airways B738 had come in and parked beside JBR, while
a SpiceJet Q400 `Tejpatta' (VT-SUD) had come in and parked between us and JBR.



Our ride for the day was SI, the `units' plane, VT-ESI. An
all-economy configured old A320, she was all spic and span from
the inside. Both the plastic surfaces as well as the fabric
looked clean and fresh. It felt nice to be on board. Ms. Asha
Lata made the announcements in a characteristic Marathi accent.
As she went around the cabin during the service, she spoke of a
`whej' snack. Oh how I miss people with this accent, which I
simply adored in the six years I spent in Mumbai. She requested
passengers to fill the `fiDH-back' forms too. I really miss the
Marathi accent, the language, and the people around me, here in Delhi.

I was drifting in and out of sleep.
Welcome smells from the galley woke me up - I was on seat 03F.
The caterer was Ambassador's ChefAir, and the plane had been
`catered to' at Mumbai itself. It was a treat.
A vegetarian patty had a very generous American sweet corn
filling inside, which had been done with an Indian spice
combination. It was hot and very tasty, and made its way down my
oesophagus in no time at all. It was accompanied by a sweet, a
sohan pApDI, or what Punjabis call the batIsA or
the patIsA. It had dry fine layers of besan
(chick pea/gram flour), and was not overtly sweet, In a major
surprise, the instant coffee turned out to be quite tasty. The
trays were collected quickly, as we were done by 08:45 am. Our
part of the aircraft had a senior lady and a relatively
not-so-senior one, both of whom were cheerful and smilingly
chatting with passengers. It felt nice!

There was nothing much about the trip to write, more so, since I
had fallen asleep again, and barely felt the smooth landing at Delhi.
We had chartered vehicles waiting for us outside the airport, and
soon made it back to office in peace/one piece, trunks and all!
---
Links to my 59 trip reports:
https://sites.google.com/site/sumantratrip/
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ameya
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Posts: 3671
Location: Pune,Maharashtra

PostPosted: Sun Jan 05, 2014 7:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for the TR Sir. As always I will push you to finish the rest soon, since we are already into the new year now

I think the A321 / 319 parity is nothing to do with loads but more with aircraft availability

You seem to have had a good experience in Indore one more time !
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sumantra
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Posts: 4685
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 05, 2014 7:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

ameya wrote:
As always I will push you to finish the rest soon, since we are already into the new year now
Thank you, Sir. As always, every time I sit to read a TR, your voice rings in my head!
ameya wrote:
I think the A321 / 319 parity is nothing to do with loads but more with aircraft availability
Yes Sir, this is what I have mentioned. Now, having done this route late last year DEL-BHO-DEL on AI (as well as 9W!), I have also seen good loads on both the DEL-BHO A319 leg, and the BHO-DEL A321 leg, which bodes well for the timings, and the routing, which was completely governed by aircraft availability at that time. It turned out to be good decision in terms of loads as well. Initially, the loads were a bit sluggish on the BHO-DEL return sector, with cheaper tickets easily available till almost the date of departure. The segment sees some decent Government official traffic.
ameya wrote:
You seem to have had a good experience in Indore one more time !
As you mention this, I have a DEL-IDR-DEL official trip coming up again, but this time on 9W-9WK (early morning B737 departure, late AT7 return). I look forward to this.
Cheers, Sumantra.
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ameya
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 05, 2014 8:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think the morning flight is 9w 791 which is an early morning dep ex del. You can enjoy the atr 72-6 on the return
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sumantra
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 05, 2014 8:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

ameya wrote:
I think the morning flight is 9w 791 which is an early morning dep ex del. You can enjoy the atr 72-6 on the return
Yessir! The AT7-6s sighted at DEL include JCY and JCZ. I remember you telling me on my last 9W BHO trip: expressing pleasant surprise over my getting lucky with an AT7-6 VT-JCY on the morning departure out of DEL, but dousing my enthusiasm on the return, saying that it would almost definitely be an AT7-5: it was a nicely refurbished JCD, an ex-DN bird. I look forward to another AT7-6 trip!
Cheers, Sumantra.
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jbalonso777
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 05, 2014 8:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

...and I adore this TR too!

Thank you so much Sumantra sir for yet another one of your brilliant trip reports! The Sumantra-esque humor is well established here, plenty of them! This will surely rank as one of my favorite read TRs!

A few things -
1. Since all of you work for a government organization, why didn't AI waive the excess luggage costs?
2. The picture from the gate you took outbound, I couldn't help but remember that my last arrival into DEL was indeed at the same gate. And I got a similar picture, however, with not one but 2 787s in the same frame!

3. That picture from the phone was brilliant! Very Happy
4. We'll surely miss your descriptions of the food, once the backlog is done. I fear it won't be long before we start reading about the little meal AI is serving of recent. Here's hoping you start flying mostly on the long flights, so that we get to read more of the fantastic descriptions!

We look forward to more!
Regards
Jish
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sumantra
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 05, 2014 9:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

jbalonso777 wrote:
...
Thank you, Sir: i really value your feedback!
jbalonso777 wrote:
1. Since all of you work for a government organization, why didn't AI waive the excess luggage costs?
At last in this respect, some are not more equal than others. We get the same `privileges' as any other passenger on the network, and the same fares as well. We also do not get any preferential bookings, and if an Air India flight is booked out, we have to apply for permission to fly another carrier. Incidentally, the upcoming IDR trip will be on 9W-9WK for the same reason. We also get no preferential treatment on Indian Railways. An upcoming trip to Kota sees us with two tickets, one of which has three wait-listed passengers, and has been such since the last month Sad These are some of the bad parts of being in a semi-Government organisation. One gets all the bad parts of a Government job, but very few of the good ones!
jbalonso777 wrote:
2. The picture from the gate you took outbound, I couldn't help but remember that my last arrival into DEL was indeed at the same gate. And I got a similar picture, however, with not one but 2 787s in the same frame!
That is a lovely picture, Sir!
jbalonso777 wrote:
... Here's hoping you start flying mostly on the long flight

Me too, Sir Very Happy Thank you once again, for the detailed comments.
Cheers, Sumantra.
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Spiderguy252
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 06, 2014 6:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Very good reads, pretty cool snaps of those Air Force models too, no sign of a MiG though? Wink
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sumantra
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 06, 2014 6:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Spiderguy252 wrote:
...those Air Force models too, no sign of a MiG though? Wink
Thank you Varun: yes, as you point out, the reason is obvious: the bad perception of any aircraft from the MiG lineage in the eyes of the general public, not just the Mig-21. The second is a very smart selection: India's indigenous 4th gen light interceptor showcase, the LCA Tejas, and a `Sukhoi', which has quite hit the Indian public's tongue from the moment jAnI Raj Kumar went about creating havoc over our Western neighbour, in his Su-7. The film was `Hindustan ki Kasam'.
Cheers, Sumantra.
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Theairplaneguy4ever
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 06, 2014 9:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Another brilliant work of yours this TR has been, sir!

The typical sumantra style TR had me grinning through the entire read. You've managed to make a routine work hop into such an in depth experience. Great work again!

Quote:
The Su-30MKI is an awesome sight!


Indeed. Great of the air force to do this.

Quote:
The snack was hardly anything that can be called a `snack'.


I'm gonna argue with you on this one sir. The food seems amazing for a 1.5 hr flight. Most airlines would probably do a drink run at most.

Quote:
Our
part of the aircraft had a senior lady and a relatively
not-so-senior one, both of whom were cheerful and smilingly
chatting with passengers.


A nice change from the usual AI crew. Do the crew fly in from BOM or board at IDR?

Looking forward to the next one!

Adi,

Theairplaneguy4ever
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sumantra
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Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4685
Location: New Delhi

PostPosted: Mon Jan 06, 2014 10:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Adithya, thank for the kind words: it makes it all worth it! The crew came in from BOM.
Cheers, Sumantra.
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PAL@YWG
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Joined: 22 Dec 2006
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Location: YWG, Canada

PostPosted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 12:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sumantra, once again an excellent TR with lots of sumantra-esque humour!
Nice to see the IAF display in T3, Tejas look great! Is it 100% indigenously built or it has components from Russia?

Thanks for posting!
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sumantra
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Location: New Delhi

PostPosted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 3:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sir, thank you for the appreciation. Seeing Mr. Pal on the forum after a long time makes us smack our lips in eager anticipation of an impending exciting trip report from him, especially after an India family trip with an exotic routing. When do we get the treat, Sir?
PAL@YWG wrote:
Tejas look great! Is it 100% indigenously built or it has components from Russia?
The LCA Tejas is not yet 100% indigenous. One of the prime components which is not, is the power plant, currently the GE-404, which will be upgraded to the powerful but heavier GE-414. The Kaveri engine project did not workout for the LCA Tejas, but the experience should work well for the development organisation, the GTRE. For the huge consortium of organisations that got together to design the LCA Tejas, it is still a huge leap, given the earlier disappointment with the HF-24 Marut. The LCA Tejas is a very capable fourth generation aircraft, which will get some 4+ generation features in the Mark 2 version. It is currently expected to make up Squadron strength in the IAF, by the time the 3+ generation uprated Mig-21s are phased out. The IAF has the impressive Mig-21 `Bison', the earlier Mig-21 Bis, and some older models, after the Mig-21 FLs were phased out in late 2013.
Cheers, Sumantra.
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stealthpilot
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Joined: 19 Dec 2006
Posts: 2325
Location: BLR, DXB

PostPosted: Fri Jan 17, 2014 7:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

A group of 18 .... I hope you educated (irritated) them about the wonders of flying Very Happy
It seems all your flights have 'feather like' landing as you put it .... time for someone to bang it down me thinks Laughing
The Fortune hotel in IDR? Must be the same one I stayed in, with the nice dinner and music in the garden each evening?

Another brilliant TR ...... hope 2014 started off with nice flights?
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avbuff
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 17, 2014 7:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

nice TR ... liked the pictures that are being shared ... thanks for that.
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sumantra
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Joined: 28 Oct 2007
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Location: New Delhi

PostPosted: Fri Jan 17, 2014 10:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

stealthpilot wrote:
A group of 18 .... I hope you educated (irritated) them about the wonders of flying Very Happy
It is good fun, Sir: large groups. The banter and leg-pulling makes us all 6 year old kids, and I enjoy being a part of it, and reporting on it, as well Smile
stealthpilot wrote:
It seems all your flights have 'feather like' landing as you put it .... time for someone to bang it down me thinks Laughing
Some of the reports which do not have anything mentioned about the landings did not have it that smooth. One B77W landings on AI was one of the heaviest I have experienced, but that was in very bad weather, I have to admit. However, I have had overall wonderful experiences on Indian Airlines and Air India. I usually try to convey my appreciation to the front office after great landings. On two occassions, much like the former Soviet Union, I have experienced many on the plane clapping to appreciate a magnificent landing during a thunderstorm. 2003 BOM-DEL Capt Manoj Jahiya, and 2004 CCU-BOM Capt J. K. Ghosh. These are indelible memories. I have sometimes stayed back to congratulate the front office crew. I look forward to flying an EK A330, to appreciate the landing of someone whose posts I admire Smile
stealthpilot wrote:
The Fortune hotel in IDR? Must be the same one I stayed in, with the nice dinner and music in the garden each evening?
Yes Sir, the same one, with the bar ominously named `Nostradamus'. This is on the AB road, and close to the other prominent hotel in Indore, Hotel Sayaji. A nice location. The two hotels are terribly expensive, and I thank my stars for the official trips, to be able to stay at such places, in spite of my not-too-high official position, and places which I will definitely not be able to afford on personal trips, ever.
stealthpilot wrote:
hope 2014 started off with nice flights?
I will draw a complete blank this Jan, unfortunately. I wish I were in a more respectable official position to travel around more. The next official trip will be in February, and coincidentally, to Indore again. However, we will be put up at the comparatively more Plebian Hotel Ginger, Chhoti Khajurani, near the Shaniwar Darpan office.
Cheers, Sumantra.
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sumantra
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Posts: 4685
Location: New Delhi

PostPosted: Fri Jan 17, 2014 10:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

avbuff wrote:
liked the pictures that are being shared ... thanks for that.
Thank you, Sir: I really appreciate you being active on the forum in spite of your busy official schedule. Unlike some lazy semi-Govt people like Yours Truly Smile
Cheers, Sumantra.
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