Well, this is mine. Hope you guys enjoy the report.
Date: 29th January 2004
Airline: Singapore Airlines
Origin: Bangkok
Destination: Singapore
Aircraft type: A340-541
Flight number: SQ511
Time of departure: 2000 (BKK time)
Departure Gate: 52
Arrival Gate: F60
Seat: 32A (9V-SVC), 47A (Mr.BA)
Class: Economy
Registration number: 9V-SGA
Departing runway: 21R
Load factor: 5-6 passengers, 65% full in economy
Assigned FL: FL390
Arrival runway: 02R
Duration : 2 hrs 5 minutes
Our flight is 2000 hrs and the check out time of our hotel is at 12noon, we decided to take our lunch before heading to the airport to spot planes. It was around 1300 hrs after our ThaiÂ’s meal at the hotel, we paid 700 bahts for the hotel taxi to the airport, pretty expensive right? Well, since itÂ’s a holiday and itÂ’s a Volvo car, we went for it. The journey to the airport took around 40 minutes with traffic jam in the business district area. We reached to the airport around quarter to 2. As we could not do an early check-in, Mr.BA and I decide to find a spotting area, we had a good walk along the airlineÂ’s office and shops before finding ourselves at Terminal 2Â’s observation deck. Since both of us were hungry, there was this restaurant just in front of NaNa NaNa restaurant, we went there to grab some light snacks and spot planes for a while there.
Soon the check-in time came, we left the observation deck for row 10, there were not many people at SQ counter as the earlier flightÂ’s SQ 67 check in counter has just closed SQ511Â’s counter just opened and Mr.BA and myself booked our seats and got our boarding pass. We paid 500 bahts for airportÂ’s tax before heading to the departure hall. Luckily for us, the queues for the immigration were short and It took less then three minutes to get our passport checked and done. We tried to look for an airplane model shop at BKK but we asked some airport staff but sadly there wasnÂ’t one so we decided to head towards our gate. Our gate 52, was at the end of terminal 2, we had a fifteen minutes walk. Along our way, Mr.BA took a number of shots at the airport, usually the airport staffs would have stopped us but they were not bothered at all. We walked towards our gate, 52. The earlier SQ flight, SQ 67 which was operated by a Boeing 747-412, 9V-SPH was at the gate parking beside a Thai Orient B747-100 which was heading towards Hong Kong.
Time flew fast and soon our aircraft landed and parked at our boarding gate. We thought our aircraft will probably be 9V-SGC or 9V-SGB.To our surprise, the aircraft was 9V-SGA. I was told that the aircraft was out of service for preparations for the SIN-LAX flight. About 40 minutes later, it was time to board. This time they boarded the raffles class first before the rest of the passengers were called to board. Mr.BA who was looking through the windows saw 2 pilots and he thought he saw the chief pilot which he hopes he was not because the chief pilot will never let anyone visit the cockpit or filled up any technical forms due to past experiences with other plane spotters. Sorry for being long winded in this part of my trip report.
Here comes the real trip report J
As soon as we entered the plane, a couple of cabin crews greeted us and one of them called me by my name, this was the first time I was being called by my name. I sat at 32A and Mr.BA who loves sitting at the back, sat at the last row, 47A. Push back and start of safety video demo starts. I forgot to add this to my last trip report; the screen of the demo is pretty grainy. As I was sitting near the Raffles class, I had a quick peep, there were only 5-6 passengers. The flight deck crews were once again Singaporeans, the captain was pretty straight-forward and not much flight details, he told us that we will be departing soon and tell us that the A340-500 is SQÂ’s newest plane which will fly SIN-LAX route.
The engines were quickly started and flaps were set. We taxied to runway 21R and took off immediately. The take off was powerful and smooth and we turned immediately heading to our assigned FL390. This time there was not much turbulence, so the seat belt was off about 15-20 minutes after take off. As usual, I decided to walk around, I went to Mr.BAÂ’s seat and had a little chat with him before heading back and played some games and watch a movie. There was a problem with the IFE system. I wanted to watch movie A but they showed me movie B. The cabin crews knew about the problem but they canÂ’t do much about it after resetting the system, which took around 10 minutes. Since they shut down the system and there was nothing much to do, I went back to Mr.BAÂ’s seat and chatted with him who was also talking to the chief steward, Jason. He told us that he likes this plane but preferred working in the 747 or something like that; he was quite surprised about our passion for planes through. If I was not wrong, Mr.BA asked him to pass the technical forms to the Captain fill up and hopefully get a cockpit visit end of the flight.
Dinner was about to serve, I went back to my seat quickly and this time the meals were slightly different. A choice of beef and fish, the thought of fish freaked me out (see my last trip report), so I had no hesitation to choose beef, the meal was pretty alright, nothing special about it, well at least itÂ’s much better then the fish I ate during my SQ510 trip to BKK. After the meals were cleared, the system was back but again the same problem occurred, the announcement from the first officer told us that they apologized for this problem. According to the chief steward, he told us (Mr.BA and I) that SGA would be out of service the next day for IFE testing and last minute preparation for the SQ 19 flight to LAX. Even the PA system was not working well; well I guess new plane will tend to have all these minor problems.
Later on, the first officer went towards Mr.BAÂ’s seat. How do I know? I saw him holding Mr.BAÂ’s technical form, I went to find Mr.BA and he told me that there was a possibility of a cockpit visit and also filled up some questions from Mr.BA but didnÂ’t fill up the technical form.
Soon, the IFE system was shut down and descending started as we were approaching Changi Airport. The seatbelt sign was on early because of expected bumps during the descent. Surprisingly, the descend was pretty smooth and the landing was almost perfect. The reverse thrust was pretty strong as such powerful braking woke up those who were sleeping . We landed on runway 02R, I suppose Mr.BA must be feeling disappointed because he was hoping to land at runway 02L so that the aircraft can do a south cross. Anyway, our plane taxi passed some ex-SQÂ’s A310 and some 777s at the remote parking bay before reaching our gate,F60.
I waited for everyone to alight from the plane, Mr.BA and I took some quick shots of the economy seats and there was announcement from the captain calling Mr.BA to the cockpit. Both of us were grinning away. We waited for a while for the captain and first officer to finish off their paperwork before we entered the cockpit. The cockpit was pretty small, just like the 777. Pretty much like the A330/A340-300Â’s cockpit except that the screens are LCDs. We met Jason, and he helped us took a photo of Mr.BA and I in the business classÂ’s area. We chatted for a while more before alighting and heading towards immigration.
Photo of my plane
9V-SGCExcellent plane.
Check in: 8/10 (The lady was quite nice)
Service on board: 9/10 (Very helpful crews and another good service on SQ)
Food on board: 6/10 (Better then the SQ 510Â’s food, pretty average still.)
PTVS : 6/10 ( Not working well, have to sort out the problems)
Overall: Another great flight on SQ, I will fly them again in the future. Those who are thinking of flying SIN-LAX, you will enjoy your flight especially with the 2-3-2 spacious configuration.
Thanks for reading my trip report. Feel free to ask me any questions.
Cheers to all