Weather Warning
By Chris Smith
Time for my usual January week off and I had tentatively penciled in another London run identical to my last one in November, but my sister Catherine was working near Manchester Airport for a couple of weeks so I decided to go there instead and meet up with her on the evening.
Weather wise, this trip was a disaster, I didn't manage a single photo on either of the two days, luckily I didn't do too badly with airframes and it was entertaining watching go-arounds and tail-strikes, but overall a failure of a trip.
When I got to Manchester I headed straight for the mound overlooking the runways, but I was there all of 30 seconds when gales and hail made it completely impossible to stay there, of course sods law in the time it took to get back to my car the hail had stopped and the sun was even breaking through the dark cloud! I decided option 2 was to spend a few hours and a small fortune in car parking fees on the top of the T1 multi-story, but when I saw the tariff I wasn't prepared to spend that much of a fortune!! So after half an hour or so option 3 was the car park of the Tatton Arms pub, but it was barriered off!! So my final option was The Airport pub, I fancied some grub at this point anyway. When I got there I quickly discovered it had just reopened that day after a refurbishment, and it's had a proper refurbishment - no expense spared! I've been involved in the opening of a few new Wetherspoon pubs in my time but this beats them all, definitely the smartest pub I've ever seen. The downside was I now felt very underdressed compared to all the 'suits' that where in, some holding business meetings in there, the staff were also in suits and there was 10 or more of them, heavily outnumbering the customers, then there was me with my muddy tracksuit bottoms from the mound!! The food was top notch though, I recommend the Pulled Pork Sarnie! Too cold to sit in the beer garden I sat in my car instead for an hour, but frustration was starting to get the better of me so I went to check-in to my Travelodge at nearby Didsbury in the hope it offered views of the 23 approach, I wasn't expecting it to as I thought it was too far away but luckily I was wrong and I saw more or less everything going in, and this rescued the day a little bit.
Manchester Airport
28/01/15
| REG | A/C TYPE | OPERATOR | NOTES |
| A6-EDK * | Airbus A380-861 | Emirates | |
| AP-BGL * | Boeing 777-240ER | Pakistan International Airlines | |
| AP-BGZ * | Boeing 777-240LR | Pakistan International Airlines | |
| CS-TNQ * | Airbus A320-214 | TAP Portugal | |
| D-ACNR * | Bombardier CL-600-2D24 CRJ-900ER | Lufthansa Regional (Eurowings) | |
| D-AILX | Airbus A319-114 | Lufthansa | |
| D-AIPA * | Airbus A320-211 | Lufthansa | |
| D-AIRR * | Airbus A321-131 | Lufthansa | |
| D-AISR | Airbus A321-231 | Lufthansa | |
| D-AIZY * | Airbus A320-214/S | Lufthansa | |
| EI-DAK | Boeing 737-8AS/W | Ryanair | |
| EI-DCH | Boeing 737-8AS/W | Ryanair | |
| EI-DHC | Boeing 737-8AS/W | Ryanair | |
| EI-DHZ | Boeing 737-8AS/W | Ryanair | |
| EI-DLO | Boeing 737-8AS/W | Ryanair | |
| EI-DPK | Boeing 737-8AS/W | Ryanair | |
| EI-EBX | Boeing 737-8AS/W | Ryanair | |
| EI-EZV | Airbus A320-214 | Virgin Atlantic Little Red | |
| EI-FCZ * | ATR-72-600 | Aer Lingus Regional (Stobart Air) | |
| EI-REJ | ATR-72-201 | Air Contractors | |
| F-GTAJ | Airbus A321-211 | Air France | |
| G-CELH | Boeing 737-330/W | Jet2.com | |
| G-ECOB | Bombardier DHC-8-402Q (Dash 8-Q400) | Flybe | |
| G-ECOE * | Bombardier DHC-8-402Q (Dash 8-Q400) | Flybe | My last Flybe Dash 8! |
| G-ECOF | Bombardier DHC-8-402Q (Dash 8-Q400) | Flybe | |
| G-EUOH | Airbus A319-131 | British Airways | |
| G-EZBV | Airbus A319-111 | easyJet | |
| G-EZDH | Airbus A319-111 | easyJet | |
| G-EZFK | Airbus A319-111 | easyJet | |
| G-EZTR | Airbus A320-214 | easyJet | |
| G-EZTT | Airbus A320-214 | easyJet | |
| G-EZWP * | Airbus A320-214/S | easyJet | |
| G-FBJB | Embraer ERJ-175-200STD | Flybe | |
| G-FBJC | Embraer ERJ-175-200STD | Flybe | |
| G-FBJD | Embraer ERJ-175-200STD | Flybe | |
| G-FBJG | Embraer ERJ-175-200STD | Flybe | |
| G-GDFD | Boeing 737-8K5/W | Jet2 Holidays | |
| G-GDFT # | Boeing 737-36Q/W | Jet2.com | |
| G-JECE | Bombardier DHC-8-402Q (Dash 8-Q400) | Flybe | |
| G-JECO | Bombardier DHC-8-402Q (Dash 8-Q400) | Flybe | |
| G-JEDM | Bombardier DHC-8-402Q (Dash 8-Q400) | Flybe | |
| G-JMCD | Boeing 757-25F | Thomas Cook Airlines | |
| G-LGNP * | Saab 2000 | Flybe (Loganair) | |
| G-LSAA | Boeing 757-236 | Jet2.com | |
| G-LSAC | Boeing 757-23A/W | Jet2 Holidays | |
| G-LSAI | Boeing 757-21B | Jet2.com | |
| G-LSAJ | Boeing 757-236 | Jet2 Holidays | |
| G-OBYE | Boeing 767-304ER/W | Thomson Airways | |
| G-OOBC | Boeing 757-28A/W | Thomson Airways | |
| G-OOBM | Boeing 767-324ER/W | Thomson Airways | |
| G-OOBP | Boeing 757-2G5/W | Thomson Airways | |
| G-OOMC # | Raytheon 390 Premier IA | RB209 IoM Ltd | |
| G-OZBL | Airbus A321-231 | Monarch Airlines | |
| G-OZBN | Airbus A321-231 | Monarch Airlines | |
| G-SMAN | Airbus A330-243 | Monarch Airlines | |
| G-TCDW * | Airbus A321-211 | Thomas Cook Airlines | |
| G-TUIB | Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner | Thomson Airways | |
| G-VGAL | Boeing 747-443 | Virgin Atlantic Airways | |
| G-ZBAE | Airbus A321-231/S | Monarch Airlines | |
| G-ZBAM | Airbus A321-231/S | Monarch Airlines | |
| G-ZBAO | Airbus A321-231/S | Monarch Airlines | |
| LN-NGM * | Boeing 737-8JP/W | Norwegian Air Shuttle | |
| LN-RKI | Airbus A321-231 | SAS Scandinavian Airlines | |
| N19130 * | Boeing 757-224/W | United Airlines | |
| N186AN * | Boeing 757-223/W | American Airlines | |
| N287AY * | Airbus A330-243 | US Airways | |
| N915FD | Boeing 757-236SF | FedEx Express | |
| OH-LKL * | Embraer ERJ-190-100LR | Finnair | |
| OO-SSH * | Airbus A319-112 | Brussels Airlines | |
| PH-BGF | Boeing 737-7K2/W | KLM Royal Dutch Airlines | |
| PH-BXG | Boeing 737-8K2/W | KLM Royal Dutch Airlines | |
| PH-BXW * | Boeing 737-8K2/W | KLM Royal Dutch Airlines | |
| TC-FBJ * | Airbus A320-232 | Freebird Airlines | |
| TC-JSI * | Airbus A321-231/S | Turkish Airlines | |
| TC-JSL * | Airbus A321-231/S | Turkish Airlines | |
| TF-FIA | Boeing 757-256/W | Icelandair |
Day two and the plan was to get up early at 5.45am for the Cathay and other exotic stuff, but my alarm went off and I thought bollocks to it I'll have another couple of hours. Luckily this turned out to be the right call as the weather was even worse and the airport was closed, meaning I hadn't missed anything as it was all still in! It had snowed heavy during the night and the roads were at a stand still, there were abandoned cars and lorries and the ten minute drive from hotel to airport took an hour. I went back to the T1 multi-story with the intention of quickly logging everything on the ground before leaving, while I was up there though visibility reduced so much that I could only see the three stands directly in front of me, no matter though as I'd noted anything decent. My final stop before heading home was a visit to Air Livery, I've been toying with the idea of becoming an aircraft painter but there isn't a great deal of information available on the Internet so I was going to go in and make some enquiries, but what appeared to be a landside entrance on Google Earth turned out not to be, and given the way the roads were I had no intention of looking further, so I just headed home on what I thought would be a very long drive, but once out of Manchester both the weather and the roads were normal and I had a good run back!
Manchester Airport
29/01/15
| REG | A/C TYPE | OPERATOR | NOTES |
| 9V-SWQ * | Boeing 777-312ER | Singapore Airlines | |
| A6-EGQ * | Boeing 777-31HER | Emirates | |
| B-KQL * | Boeing 777-367ER | Cathay Pacific Airways | |
| D-ISJP * | Cessna 525A CitationJet CJ2 | Corporate | |
| EI-DEF | Airbus A320-214 | Aer Lingus | |
| EI-FAV | ATR-72-600 | Aer Lingus Regional (Stobart Air) | |
| G-EZWR * | Airbus A320-214/S | easyJet | |
| G-MDBD | Airbus A330-243 | Thomas Cook Airlines | |
| G-TCDE * | Airbus A321-211/S | Thomas Cook Airlines | |
| G-TUIA | Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner | Thomson Airways | |
| HB-IPV | Airbus A319-112 | Swiss International Airlines | |
| N286AY * | Airbus A330-243 | US Airways | |
| OY-VKI | Airbus A330-343X | Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia | |
| PH-BXZ | Boeing 737-8K2/W | KLM Royal Dutch Airlines |
As always thanks for reading if you got this far and to view all the photos I never took visit my website airTeesside!