Flight Report

crosscheck9 Guest

Whew!! I just made it to "King Fahad Intl" in Dammam, and what a LONG trip it has been. The following is a detailed explanation of the trip. We started off in DFW Intl, terminal C, on flight American 627 bound for Houston George Bush Intercontinental. The flight was only 40 minutes long, but it was VERY bumpy. To be honest, I got really scared descending into houston, because I really doubted the pilot for a few seconds. I don't know how pilots can fly through turbulence and act like it doesn't exist. We arrived in Houston, and we were already late - Air France flight 033 was already boarding, and it was PACKED. I boarded the 777-200ER, but I was upset. It was a 3-3-3 seating plan, and I was in the very middle. The 777 blasted into the skies bound for Paris. The flight was alright, except for a little bit of bouncing above the atlantic. The pilot was asked to circle the airport for 30 minutes due to dense traffic. Little did I know that it would be after we land, when I would experience real frustration. The CDG airport is by far the worst airport I have been in. The aircraft was asked to taxi to parking, so we had a little bus take us to a room, were 300+ people were waiting on another bus to take them to their terminal - The room had no ventilation whatsoever. We waited in the room for 45 minutes. When I got the terminal, I quickly proceeded to the gate, and found out that I was the last one boarding MEA service to Beirut. Again, we had a bus take us to the aircraft, because it was at parking. That stay in CDG was the worst ever. Words won't describe the ill treatment I received. We departed in the A330-200 service to Beirut, so I tried to relax a little bit. This was very strange to me though, because every CDG-BEY flight I have ever been on, was operated in an a321. We landed in BEY 1 hour late, but that was no problem, because my connecting flight to DMM was also delayed. I sat at the gate and waited for about 2 hours, until they called us to board the a321-200, that would finally take me home. I can't tell you much about this flight, because I slept throughout most of it, however the takeoff and climb was very smooth, and landing was FANTASTIC. In this trip, I came to the conclusion that I now favor Airbus Aircraft more than Boeing, to my surprise. The airbus flights were very smooth. I don't know if this is solely due to weather conditions, but I think the performance and specs had something to do with it too. I have a few questions to ask though.

1 - When we were still at the gate in DFW, (in an MD-80) about 4 minutes before pushback, a high-pitched noise came on. This noise remained on until about 2 minutes after takeoff, and then it also came on again for landing. When it is shut off, it sounds like a motor being disconnected. What sound is this? I know it's not the APU, because I recognize the APU sounds.

2 - In BEY, I saw a few aircraft that shouldn't have been their. As some of you might now, Gulf Air's hub is in Bahrain, and that is mearly 2 hours away from BEY by plane, so why was there an A340 in Gulf Air livery in BEY - I also saw two 777's, in the same airport, in Saudi Arabian airlines livery - Again, Saudi Arabian destinations are only about 2-3 hours away, so why were the jumbos in BEY?

I hope you enjoyed my explanation of the long trip from DFW to DMM. If your able to answer my questions above, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you

Crosscheck9

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Pro Member Chief Captain
RadarMan Chief Captain

Sorry the you had such terrible experiences with this trip. Check and see if there is a better way for next time.
At least you are safe and home now.
How long are you staying this time.

Radar

Pro Member Chief Captain
CrashGordon Chief Captain

Airline pilots have flown through enough turbulence that they've become used to it. Even if they aren't, you don't think they'd let the passengers know, do you? 😉

Welcome home.

crosscheck9 Guest

Thanks for the replies. Well, I don't know how long I'll be staying here, but I don't think it'll be for more than a couple of months. My brothers getting married in Dec. in BEY, so I'll be going there for a while. There is another route to get their, however, we started off the trip wanting to stay in BEY for a little while to see some family. In attempt to keep the price of the ticket a little lower, we decided not to change the airline that would haul us to the U.S. We filed for the whole trip to be operated by MEA or it's partners. Apparently, MEA has a joint alliance with Air France, which made everything all the more difficult. I found that travelling through Frankfurt, or Amsterdam would be my best bet.

Pro Member First Officer
Bartholomew First Officer

That is one great story! (For us 😂 )

At first I thought you were talking about FS! 😀

Happy stay!

crosscheck9 Guest

Thanks

Pro Member First Officer
Andrew (AJWatson2209) First Officer

In reply to question two, maybe the planes were on wet lease?!? Just hazording a guess, not too sure what wet lease means but i know that Private Air (or something like that) is wet leasing a few plans for KLM and another company to put on Business only trips to Huston from Amsterdam. So maybe it wet lease.

Pro Member Captain
Jon Van Duyn (JVD) Captain

Question 2: I'd say the airport was full of jumbo's because it was probably the holiday season in BEY and that all the planes couldn't take the large amount of passengers.Another thing is that maybe ceratain planes were broken and these were the only planes the airlines could send in.

You say that it's strange for these large aircraft to do such short flights. During the December [holiday season] in mauritius Air Mauritus and Air Austral send their A340's and 777's to each others country. Their countries [Mauritus and Reunion] are only 25 minutes apart. In the end I guess airlines send certain aircraft to a certain destinations depending on the required loads.

Pro Member Chief Captain
Jonathan (99jolegg) Chief Captain

crosscheck9 wrote:

Whew!! I just made it to "King Fahad Intl" in Dammam, and what a LONG trip it has been. The following is a detailed explanation of the trip. We started off in DFW Intl, terminal C, on flight American 627 bound for Houston George Bush Intercontinental. The flight was only 40 minutes long, but it was VERY bumpy. To be honest, I got really scared descending into houston, because I really doubted the pilot for a few seconds. I don't know how pilots can fly through turbulence and act like it doesn't exist. We arrived in Houston, and we were already late - Air France flight 033 was already boarding, and it was PACKED. I boarded the 777-200ER, but I was upset. It was a 3-3-3 seating plan, and I was in the very middle. The 777 blasted into the skies bound for Paris. The flight was alright, except for a little bit of bouncing above the atlantic. The pilot was asked to circle the airport for 30 minutes due to dense traffic. Little did I know that it would be after we land, when I would experience real frustration. The CDG airport is by far the worst airport I have been in. The aircraft was asked to taxi to parking, so we had a little bus take us to a room, were 300+ people were waiting on another bus to take them to their terminal - The room had no ventilation whatsoever. We waited in the room for 45 minutes. When I got the terminal, I quickly proceeded to the gate, and found out that I was the last one boarding MEA service to Beirut. Again, we had a bus take us to the aircraft, because it was at parking. That stay in CDG was the worst ever. Words won't describe the ill treatment I received. We departed in the A330-200 service to Beirut, so I tried to relax a little bit. This was very strange to me though, because every CDG-BEY flight I have ever been on, was operated in an a321. We landed in BEY 1 hour late, but that was no problem, because my connecting flight to DMM was also delayed. I sat at the gate and waited for about 2 hours, until they called us to board the a321-200, that would finally take me home. I can't tell you much about this flight, because I slept throughout most of it, however the takeoff and climb was very smooth, and landing was FANTASTIC. In this trip, I came to the conclusion that I now favor Airbus Aircraft more than Boeing, to my surprise. The airbus flights were very smooth. I don't know if this is solely due to weather conditions, but I think the performance and specs had something to do with it too. I have a few questions to ask though.

1 - When we were still at the gate in DFW, (in an MD-80) about 4 minutes before pushback, a high-pitched noise came on. This noise remained on until about 2 minutes after takeoff, and then it also came on again for landing. When it is shut off, it sounds like a motor being disconnected. What sound is this? I know it's not the APU, because I recognize the APU sounds.

2 - In BEY, I saw a few aircraft that shouldn't have been their. As some of you might now, Gulf Air's hub is in Bahrain, and that is mearly 2 hours away from BEY by plane, so why was there an A340 in Gulf Air livery in BEY - I also saw two 777's, in the same airport, in Saudi Arabian airlines livery - Again, Saudi Arabian destinations are only about 2-3 hours away, so why were the jumbos in BEY?

I hope you enjoyed my explanation of the long trip from DFW to DMM. If your able to answer my questions above, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you

Crosscheck9

Sounds like a pretty interesting series of flights 🙂

Pro Member Chief Captain
Manuel Agustin Clausse (Agus0404) Chief Captain

Great flight report, Crosscheck!

You are right about the Airbus flights being smooth. Indeed they are. Airbus makes their aircraft with a great new technology that makes the aircraft smoother when they land and take off. And that's not all....Airbus has a great technology incorporated in the cockpit called Fly-By-Wire System. That makes all the turns, climbs, approaches, and more very smooth. Also, it helps the aircraft to not perfom "acrobatics".

I've seem a really good video in the interet about Fly-By-Wire, but I can't remember the webiste. I'll try to find it for you.

If you have some questions about Airbus, I can try to help you, since I am an Airbus fan and I know pretty much about the performances of their aircraft. I'm not a professional, but I know a lot of stuff about that.

About your questions, I don't know about the first one, but probably about the second one. I guess it's because a divertion that the pilot needed to do because of an emergency or I guess that those aircraft didn't flt a non-stop route, instead of a route with more than 1 stop. That's why they are landing in that airport....it is where they stop first and then they continue the route again.

I've seen a picture in www.airliners.net of an Iberia A340-600 taxiing through the taxiways of the Lisbon Intl. Airport. The description said something like the A340-600 stoped there because that airport was their first stop, then it was heading to Brazil. I don't know why they do that...it's easier to fly non-stop routes, though.

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