By river Thames, Central London, England, UK

September 26, 2009 • Taken by Joe


This is one story from our trip last October that is still waiting to be told. Trust me, you wanna read it... and laugh! I'm not sure I won't be sorry later for telling it, but here goes... before I think it twice *s*.

We had 6 flights in this last trip. We flew to Israel through London, UK (thus 2 flights each direction), and we also flew from Israel to Italy and back... 6 flights all together.

Now, I have a lot of flying hours under my belt... dozens of flights along the years. I know exactly how things work. You have to be at the airport few hours before your flight, so you have enough time to go through security checks and what not. We all know how it works, and we try to be on time, even before time, to make sure we'll be on the airplane when it leaves the ground.

So on our last day of the trip we left Israel early in the morning and got to Heathrow, London's airport around 10:00 am. We had a layover of 6 hours till our connection flight to Calgary at 4:10 pm. As soon as we could, we went through the passport checks and out the main building of terminal 5. The weather was ok, a bit of rain and then the sun came out.

Afterwards, Joe wanted to take photos of airplanes taking off. We climbed to the roof of terminal 5, and spent sometime there, shooting. The sun was very lovely at this time, and we just enjoyed the passing minutes.

We came back inside the terminal around 2:00 pm. We knew that the airport authorities let passengers know which gate they should board from only 1 hour before flight, for security reasons. All along we mentioned few times to each other that our flight goes out on 4:10 pm. We knew it, we didn't forget, and we planed our moves according to the clock.

Around 3:00 pm (70 minutes before the flight's schedule) we checked the screens and saw our flight's boarding gate mentioned there. We checked things up and made sure we knew where we had to go. Nobody was in the gate yet, so we decided to go back to the duty free stores and finish our souvenir shopping, since we still needed to buy few more little thing.

Let me tell you... if you decide to bring something back from your trip to family members or friends, don't never ever leave it until you have no more time to look for the right gift. Buying stuff at the airport's duty free store can be very expensive. Bad mistake on our part... something I'll never do again!!!

So here we were, dragging ourselves in and out the stores. I was loaded with my camera bag + my personal purse, which - of course - was heavy. Joe was carrying his camera bag + another bag with the Netbook and other gear. Besides that we had a bag we took with us to carry whatever we buy at the airport, which was already half full from Israel's airport. Everything started to feel too heavy, our backs were hurting, and the fun was gone, making room for some stress and impatience. And all this time, we were checking our watches, making sure we have time to get to our flight at 4:10 pm.

Tomorrow, we'll tell you how it ended.

DAILY MAIL
By David Norris Industrial Correspondent Friday April 19, 1996

THE first one flew proudly into service the same year the Queen was crowned, Everest was conquered and Len Hutton became England cricket captain.

And yesterday , 43 years to the day since its inaugural journey from London to Cyprus in 1953, the Vickers Viscount took off for a farewell 45-minute flight.

On boards the tubby little plane, British-made to its last rivet, there were moist eyes among the guests, including its designer Sir George Edwards.

Despite recent illness and leaning on a stick, 87-year old Sir George was determined to join Flight 1949, the date his brainchild took shape on the drawing board, for a journey into aviation history.

The phone was the world's first turbo-prop airliner, its four propellers are driven by gas turbine engines, and the first to have pressurised cabin so it could fly above the weather.

But thousands of passengers who flew with British European Airways are more likely to remember its old-fashioned comfort, huge windows and ample leg room.

As if reluctant to take its final bow yesterday, the Viscount which was due to pick up the dignitaries was damaged and another one had to be flown to Heathrow to take its place.

Among the guests saying farewell to the red, white and blue plane, was 83 year old Sir Peter Masefield, who headed BEA, now British Airways, in 1953,.

He said simply: "This aircraft did us proud."

Also on board was British Airways president Lord King.

He recalled: "Flying in the Viscount in the 1950s was like entering a new world."

From the ground, Prince Philip said: "I am sure the many people who flew, or flew in, these aircraft will be pleased that it is being given a suitable farewell."

BA's remaining 24 Viscounts were taken over in 1982 by the independent British Air Ferries, now British World Airlines.