FLIGHT INFO:
Server: Solo
Route: Shannon, Ireland to London, England
Aircraft and Livery: Airbus A320, Aer Lingus new livery
Flight Time: 52 minutes
CONTEXT:
It was a stereotypical rainy day in Shannon, when I was on a work Zoom meeting. I work for they National Virology Center of the United States, but since my job only involves in person meetings a few times a year, I’m free to live wherever I’d like. The director of my division announced that someone needed to travel to Antarctica to help some British scientists collect ice core samples. That lucky person must bring back a sample to be tested for various prehistoric viruses.
But, keep in mind, its still not summer! Nobody volunteered to take the samples. My boss said that someone had to do it, so I begrudgingly agreed.
Everyone else signed off the meeting, thankful that they weren’t the ones heading to the South Pole, and my boss sent a flight itinerary. Oh boy…
Flight One:
Aer Lingus A320
Shannon-London Heathrow
Flight Two:
British Airways 787-10
London Heathrow - São Paulo
Flight Three:
JetSmart A320
São Paulo - Ushuaia
Flight Four:
Infinite Flight Charters Q-400
Ushuaia - King George Island, Antarctica
AND THE WHOLE THING ON THE WAY BACK!!
I’ll post one flight a day. Enjoy!
I left my house at 8:00 AM Thursday, for a quick, hour long flight from my home in Shannon to London’s Heathrow Airport. Shanon Airport is nice, clean, and small, so there weren’t any lines for security. The Aer Lingus A320 was already at the stand, having landed the night before in from Paris (CDG).
I took my seat in economy, and we pushed back. The clouds broke, but the winds were still whipping at 30 knots. I could tell we were in for a bumpy ride. The flight attendants were asking people if they got airsick, so they could hand out extra bags if needed. Luckily, I have an iron stomach, so should be OK. I brought Dramamine, just in case.
Here we are, about to enter Shannon’s runway 24. We had to hold for a minute, while a chartered A350 landed in from Singapore. The wind sock was flapping around like wild, as the winds kept shifting.
Holy cow! The second the wheels left the runway, the aircraft started shifting left and right, and the pilot was struggling to keep us in line with the departure path. I did get a great picture of Shannon’s quaint little terminal, though.
Severe turbulence rocked us until about 5,000 feet, when the winds died down. Things got weirdly smooth, even more so than usual. When I talked to our captain, who was based in Shannon, after the flight, he said its normally turbulent through 10,000 feet at least.
Here we are, crossing the Irish Sea, just south of Dublin. We leveled off at around 25,000 feet. The flight attendants rushed through a drink service, and I bought a piping hot cup of coffee to wake me up.
The turbulence increased a bit on our approach into Heathrow, but nothing compared to our departure out of Ireland. The captain came on the PA, and informed us that we got a remote gate, because the jet bridge we were scheduled to use had mechanical issues. The forecast called for rain, so I was just hoping that we got into the terminal before it started!
I got this nice picture on the base approach into Heathrow. We had to hold for a few minutes because a BA A380 executed a go around, and needed time to land before we did. The flight spoilers were deployed on and off throughout the approach, because ATC wanted us a little slower than usual because of high traffic volume.
We had a nice flare above runway 09L. I had a feeling this was going to be a butter landing!
WRONG! This was Aer Lingus, not Ryanair! We hit the runway hard and fast, and the brakes were on MAX as we tried to make the second runway exit.
Here we are, pulling into our remote stand.
Luckily, we were able to make it to the terminal before the rain started. I have a few hours at Heathrow before my long haul to São Paulo. I’m doing laps of the terminal, because I have no interest in being sedentary for 11+ hours on this trans Atlantic flight.