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jbalonso777

This'll be a mini TR, once again on behalf of my Father.
Weddings could mean anything: a long trip in the US, or just some time in
an Indian city. For Dad, it was the latter. The main function was in the
evening. Therefore, the search began for an afternoon departure out of
CMB, and a morning or afternoon departure from MAA. 3 things popped
into mind: SG DH8, 9W's afternoon run & maybe flights on UL.

-The SG DH8 in the afternoon was changed into the very inconvenient red eye run, up gauged to a B738.
-9W continued with this disappointing 'cut cut' trend, therefore 9W254 &
9W251 did not exist.
-UL had a total of 16 options. One of them was:
UL127 CMB MAA 1255 1415 A343
UL122 MAA CMB 1000 1120 A332
Matched Dad's criteria perfectly. Seats 28A on the A343 and 52A on the A332 were selected.
Although, there were doubts about the aircraft. Cousins had come in on
UL128, it was an A320. Once again we were in Negombo, spotting, UL127
was on a A320. Fingers were crossed.

There is a trend in this forum, where the aircraft registration is predicted,
and as always, when you get it correct, its an amazing feeling. By now, it
was sure UL127 would be operated by an A340.
Trend was like this:
Chinese city-BKK-CMB followed by CMB-Saudi Arabia-CMB and then CMB-
MAA-CMB.
On this particular day (31st Jan), these routes were operated by 4R-ADB.
I took a gamble, saying if its not 4R-ADB, you get to select what gift I get after my IGCSEs.
I knew, if this back fired, it would be bad.

31st Jan afternoon, I got a text from Dad saying 'Boarded bd.' Of course, I
was disappointed. I had lost the bet. I did my research on 4R-ABD and it
turned out that 4R-ABD does not exist in the UL fleet!
I checked the text again, and oh my I was mistaken! It was 'Boarded
db.' and not 'Boarded bd.' Getting a prediction correct is a different feeling altogether!

Here is what Dad had to say:
31st Jan 2013 saw me boarding a flight from Colombo to Chennai for an
errand of mercy. No it's not all that serious, I had to conduct the wedding
of a little niece of mine in Chennai that her father couldn't do because of
reasons of the Gouthra. So imagine my surprise, at ground level
departure at BIA when the bus pulled up and took us to the largest plane
in UL's fleet, the A340. 'A340 to Chennai?' I thought to myself, UL must be
doing good for themselves on this route! None the less, in about 15 minutes, we were inside DB, in zone D or C, and about 20% occupied. A
completely un eventful flight. Courteous enough FAs, and in about a jiffy,
we were in Chennai. A short comment - the A340 in my view is one the
most stable aircraft ,I felt nothing during turbulence and no disturbance.

A very very standard snack served, not worthy a mention, but not bad.
And we were descending to Chennai. Air bridge arrival but nothing
prepared me for a long walk to immigration and customs. Not ULs fault. My second flight in a A340, and every moment enjoyed.

Pictures and videos:

Charter from Ukraine.

A BBJ from the US.

Ramp boarding for a wide body always feels amazing!

Short video of start up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMnqxrJh2pU

Long video of departure: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMtuMliFMFk (skip to the middle to listen to the amazing CFM56-5C2 engines roar!)

Maybe I need to start telling Dad to open the lids of the food. That yogurt costs INR13. Surely airlines can do better, right?

Cruise: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pnal3J3OtP8
Interior: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MTF4V5d7tE
Landing at Chennai: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKFznCN9NNk

Dad was done by the night, although very tired.
He sent me a text saying that he retained seat 52A for this flight, meaning
that it was to be operated by an A330. I do not remember the trend,
although, I do remember I just predicted (no bets, I knew ADB was a one
off!) 4R-ALG for the flight.
And indeed, I was wrong, because it was upgraded to:

Yes, 4R-ADE. Its a -313X rather than a -313. DB was a -313.
The aircraft then flew to New Delhi after this! India is seeing a lot of A340s thanks to UL!

Cabin. Seats look quite good, put the PTVs are scary!

Like I was saying..

En-route..

Start up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHA0oC7vPBs
(note VT-JBP going by, ironically, she flew into CMB as 9W253 that very day!)
Take off: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-hcmdseSV0
Arrival: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9rsUau1mBY

Few notes on my behalf:
Lead FA makes his announcement reminding passengers to keep window
shades open and tray tables closed when engines are already revving up for take off (see video take off from CMB). No matter which airline, errors do happen, no need to whine.
Not a single announcement in Sinhala. Most of the workers (which
Theairplaneguy4ever has described wonderfully in his TR) go out of Sri
Lanka on UL. UL's arch rivals like EK or 9W, have announcements in Sinhala too. They need to get this right.
Regards
Jishnu
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http://www.youtube.com/c/JishnuBasu777

Nimish · Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 5:20 pm Post subject:

Thanks Jishnu for posting this TR from your dad. A 343 running at 20% capacity for a 40 minute flight must be an extremely light flight - quite unlike any typical 343 flight Smile

.
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We miss you Nalini!

Theairplaneguy4ever · Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 6:00 pm Post subject:

Hey Jishnu

Magnificent TR you've got here for us!

The pictures are great and nice mini descriptions are what gives this one the perfect atmosphere.

Sri Lanka doesn't appear to be as troublesome as in India for photography on the tarmac.

Is this the actual case or did your dad have to sneak it through?

UL for me is sort of a mixed bag after reading this TR.

And the meal presentation looks a bit bad honestly.

Are the crew friendly/hospitable? When I watched your video, the announcers seem to be a bit uninterested in their job.

Despite this route being an A343, UL doesn't seem to be doing good, huh?

Once again great TR and videos too by your dad.

Theairplaneguy4ever
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India's first HD Video Trip Report Channel : www.youtube.com/Theairplaneguy4ever

shivendrashukla · Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 8:02 pm Post subject:

Hi Jishnu,
Excellent TR. Say thanks to your dad for amazing pics and Videos. Any idea about what kind of food was served and how was it? I guess Prof Sumantra has spoilt me as all his TR's have a very delicious flavor to it Smile

Cheers
Shivendra

Spiderguy252 · Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2013 12:36 am Post subject:

Exciting TR, thanks for sharing.

I've done this route a couple of times, even got a 343 back in 2004.
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Yeah.

sumantra · Member Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 4685 Location: New Delhi

Jishnu, yes, I was looking forward to it, after you had mentioned this in passing. I had a couple of busy days, so I did not enter this section at all, for fear of getting glued to the screen in the midst of work. I succumbed to temptation today evening without logging in, and enjoyed this thoroughly. It must feel wonderful to have your papa as much of an aviation enthusiast as you! Always eager to try out something out of the ordinary - an exotic plane type, an exotic route/destination, and of course, the sheer joy of being on a wide-body on a short flight. The 340 is one plane that has always eluded me - I envy The Wife and Junior for having travelled on both a 343 as well as a 346! It was nice to read your Papa's views, and do the trip with him, in the trip report interspersed with your witty quips, thank you! Can we request you to bring your Papa on board formally, so that he shares more of his gems with us? I wonder if we have any two generations active on this forum. This is something unique, and something to be really proud of.