I'm a student pilot at OAC and already pretty early during our training we decided to do a trip to the Airbus factory in Toulouse. What surprised us the most is that 23 out of the 25 classmembers joined in on our weekendtrip to France.
Two persons in the class took care of everything and the dates were quickly set to 23/01/09 and return on the 25th. We were flying Ryanair on flight FR8023 from CRL to CCF. And returning on flight FR8024. At Carcassonne we were bussed to Toulouse. The total ticketprice was about €55 for both flights. Ryanair said while booking: €0.00+taxes, so we only paid taxes.
23/01/09
We arrived at CRL very early for our flight because we wanted to check out the new terminal there. I do have to say: very nice and efficient. Especially the security check was very speedy with 4 X-ray machines.
Check-in area CRL
FR8023
Boeing 737-800
EI-CST
Seat 28D
ETD: 15u20, ETA: 16u55
ATD: 15u20, ATA: 16u35
We checked in online for both flights to further decrease costs and we all had a single piece of handluggage with us. Since we didn't have priority boarding we were in the normal queue for boarding, so no window seat but an aisle seat for me. EI-CST is still in the older Ryanair colourscheme and with an older looking cabin (no leather seats). Doors were closed quickly and after a short taxi we took off on runway 25 on a Chièvres departure.
As we are very motivated student pilots we already did a small check on the weather enroute. We saw there would be a jetstream situated over France so we expected a bumpy ride south. Well, we were right a few times: there was some turbulence during the flight but definetely not severe. According to the flight deck we had a tailwind of 150kts! That explains the early arrival at CCF.
The crew was 3 female, 1 male. They were cheerful and acted in professional way. Their service was like an oiled machine.
We were looking forward to the approach and landing at CCF, since this airport has a single runway of only 2050m long, but also a circle-to-land procedure on runway 28. Well, we got wat we had hoped for: this procedure took us on a final approach course for runway 10 (only side equipped with ILS), we turned left to some sort of downwind course to make a 180° turn over the city of Carcassonne. Touchdown was kind of good (well, beter than my last landing) and after some good braking action we backtracked down to the small apron of CCF. Since we were early the very funny Ryanair tape played with the infamous 'another on time flight'.
We were granted a cockpit visit after landing with some interesting pictures. Our captain on the flight actually was the Quality Manager of OAC: Mr. Dekien. Very nice guy. We were out of the terminal in no time and were bussed to Toulouse.
Overall, a very nice experience with Ryanair. Especially since I had never flown with them before.
EI-CST on the apron at Charleroi
Cabin
Circle-to-land at CCF
Turning off runway 10
Cockpit shot, the one at the controls is a fellow student, he's actually testing the control column
24/01/09
Today we were supposed to visit the Airbus plant. We were granted the professional tour in the A380 assembly line. But it seems like we were out of luck today... We never even saw an A380 during our stay in Toulouse.
As you all saw in the news, a severe storm was passing over the southern part of France and North-Spain. So Airbus unfortunately quickly cancelled the tour because it was to dangerous to drive a bus with these torrential winds (gusts 75kts!). They said there actually were parts flying around the airport, more about this later on.
As we didn't have a contingency plan (not so good for a student-pilot) we searched for something else we could do. We found out there was a museum at the airport which had an interesting collection of vintage aircraft, including the famous 'Super-Guppy', the forerunner of the current A300-Beluga (we saw 3 of those on the apron). The museum was outside so it wasn't that much fun. They also had a collection of jet-engines, a Caravelle, a concorde landing gear, 2 flying boxcars and some other aircraft and helicopters. Totalling 61 aircraft.
We wanted to see the chaos at Toulouse Blagnac airport then, so we took a cab to the terminal, at the parking lot there were some trees seriously bent over and there was insulation material everywhere. All flights were cancelled so you can imagine the total chaos.
We completed the day with bowling, swimming, taking a sauna and drinking away our grief because of the cancelled Airbus visit.
Super-Guppy
Insulation material everywhere at the terminal of Toulouse-Blagnac
It sure was windy that day
25/01/09
Today we were bussed back to Carcassonne to visit the medieval city. Feelings were mixed about the weather today: it was CAVOK, with weak variable winds. We could actually lunch outside, but still we were sorry of the cancelled Airbus thingy. The castle at Carcassonne is very nice and big so we spent some time walking around. Soon enough we left for the VERY small airport of CCF.
FR8024
Boeing 737-800
EI-DPR
Seat 25A
ETD: 17u20, ETA: 18u55
ATD: 17u20, ATA: 18u50
This plane was in Ryanairs latest colourscheme and sported leather seats. We boarded once again throught the rear door and took window seat 25A. Take-off was from runway 10 this time followed by a low left turn north to avoid the city. This flight was without any turbulence and we watched outside as the sun set.
Crew was very funny this time with some jokes. They were 3 male, 1 female this time (so not that interesting for our level of testosterone :d).
The pilots were very talkative about the route, I couldn't understand all of it, but we cruised at FL340 passing Limoges, Paris on our left side and we passed Lille and Amiens. Landing was on runway 25 with a small bump. CRL was still very busy with some Ryanair flights coming and going.
Medieval castle
Airport of Carcassonne
EI-DPR
Sunset
Deplaning at CRL
I hope you guys enjoyed this tripreport as much as I enjoyed the trip (honestly I did enjoy it) and writing it.
Miguel
