Bahrain Nov 7th - 12th     Dave Rose

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I wanted to visit a friend who recently moved to Bahrain with work and thought I would see a few bits and pieces en-route!! The journey started at Manchester on Etihad Airbus A332 A6-EYG bright and early on 7/11/07, the interior layout in "Cattle" class is 2-4-2 and I took seat 35F with a window. The flight looked full and we pushed back and taxied to runway 24L, complimentary water etc were given out and the 10 inch PTVs came to life showing the view from the nose camera. After a short hold the throttles were pushed and we were off, turning right on the Stock SID off 24L. Another right turn and we were on track to Dolas on the north norfolk coast. The cameras remain on showing a forward and down view and a navigation page, we proceeded to climb to FL390 and routed over Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Munich and over Serbia towards Cyprus. We then flew over Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar before starting the descent towards Abu Dhabi. It was dark by now and we joined downwind for runway 31 visually followed by a smooth landing.

Manchester 7/11/07

I was due to connect with Etihad to Bahrain and had an hour to kill, spotting from the very arabic designed terminal is difficult but I managed the following

Abu Dhabi 7/11/07

I was then bussed with about another 40 pax to Airbus A332 A6-EYE, the flight should have been on an A320 leased from Air Malta but we ended up on the 330!! Obviously we climbed like a rocket on the 32 minute flight and landed on runway 30 in Bahrain. Abu Dhabi looks an interesting place with a large GAMCO maintainance facility who specialise in Airbus conversions etc and a large support facility for the oil industry. Bahrain is a very modern airport in comparison and we parked on a jetway next to Cathay Airbus 330 B-HNL which is all I managed to write down.

During my stay I managed 2 visits to the airport, the first was a drive round of the perimeter. Security is fairly low key until something military arrives but I had no issues. The end of runway 30 is the best place for spotting and photography, there is a designated area with a cafe and kids swings and its perfect for photos. The terminal is in the distance and cargo even further away and this is shared by the armed forces(USN,USAF and RAF). The yanks supply their ships from here and their Sea Stallions, C130s and Tracker aircraft are mixed with communication aircraft. On the civil side the movements are dominated obviously by Gulf Air, they are in the middle of re-registering the fleet as Bahrain A9C prefix as they have stopped flying from Oman. The other middle east airlines are visitors and the Biz scene is fairly active along with the based presidential aircraft, a small biz parking area can be accessed behind the DHL hangars and houses the based A9C biz. Movements wise it is probably as busy as Glasgow but due to its location there seems a fair amount during the night, especially from India and Pakistan using the LOCOS over there. Here is a selection of visitors without the Gulf Air fleet which is based(340,330,767, 320 and leased B738).

Bahrain

I then did the reverse journey, flying Bahrain -Abu Dhabi on Airbus A332 A6-EYI again with very few passengers. After an hour in the terminal we re-boarded EYI and flew back to Manchester basically on the same route as outbound and at FL360. Service was again very good with "mood" lighting to replicate the stars!! We parked on the cargo apron at Abu Dhabi and were bussed to the terminal which was great and allowed me the opportunity to log the following-

We arrived on 24 Right at 0645am and I quickly got the car and drove home!! All in all Bahrain seems a decent place to spot and get photos, its not the busiest but has an interesting mix of traffic. Please see below some shots mainly from the spotting area.