It is not a long trip - one hour and fifteen minutes maybe, at most. Actually we would spend more time on the ground during a turn-around than in the air. Stops at Warsaw - Okecie airport were long enough to make it to a duty free in the company representative’s van, shop for a bottle of ‘Zubrovka’ 
, and come back, still ‘rush-free’.
It was 2003, I was on the Tu154 captain upgrade line training at Aeroflot. By chance I put my hand on a digital camera which my wife Victoria brought from her office. So, I couldn’t wait to give it a try on that trip to Warsaw.
Here we are, Misha (line check and training captain), Dima (flight engineer), and myself, a captain trainee. I should tell you, I flew with awesome guys.
As I had a minute to spare, I did a bit of ‘aircraft spotting’
Right on, was lucky enough to spot a Polish derivative of the Antonov An-28 design, which is know as PZL M-28 ‘Bryza’. Now as I ‘cook’ this report, I’ve just made some ‘googling’, and found out that chances to see the type were not too low at the Warsaw’s airport Okecie. This ‘tail number 0208‘ was just one in a bunch of them flying in and out there.
Unfortunately, the camera wasn’t great, it could shoot images not larger that 1280×960.
Quite naturally, wherever else - in Warsaw! - you may expect to see a ‘mini-parade’ of aircraft flying for Polish operators.
I believe, this 737-400 ‘SP-LLF’ still flies in Poland. Go ahead, find it out on Google
ATR-42 of ‘EuroLOT. Sure thing, today you can find much better pictures of this SP-EDC on the Internet too. By the way, at least one operator in Russia flies ATR-42s nowadays. In fact, I have a friend who is an ATR First Officer, and he’s been through a very interesting career turn, - ‘justifiable case’ for a story on this blog
And a ‘Canadian’ on the ramp of the ‘Frederic Chopin’ Warsaw Airport! Well, it is an Austrian.. I mean, it is an Austrian plane, ‘built in Canada’. See, what I’m saying: …’spotted in Poland.. by Russian pilot.. who’s already a Canadian’
And a final touch..
before going home to Moscow ‘one of us’ did a ’stunt’ - walk around the plane on hands. Do not you think it is ‘accordingly some Russian SOP’. It was just for ‘pure fun’
Recent Comments