Airliners-India.com

[jbalonso777]

Link to previous TR: http://airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/viewtopic.php?p=116032#116032

Hello everyone!
Welcome to my third installment of this 5 part TR!
In this TR: All the pictures from South Africa, a flight with Kulula and the Rand Airport Aircraft Park!

So, here is plan:
7th: Cape Town city tour
8th: The Cape of Good Hope and Jackass penguins (Love that name! )
9th: Table Mountain
10th: On the famous Garden Route to Knysna, and a Lagoon Cruise
11th: Ostriches, Caves and Lions!
12th: MN 910 GRJ-JNB, and then a drive to Kruger..
13th: Kruger
14th: Kruger
15th: Back into Johannesburg, Gold City Amusement Park
16th: More lions, 2 747's, snakes and crocodiles!
17th: EK 762 JNB-DXB

And now, South Africa:



Parliament.


Cape Town and the Protea Tree..



One of many unfinished bridges..

One of many sports cars!

At the Two Oceans aquarium







Sea Lions!


The Atlantic..


The most South-Westerly point of Africa.

Look how high I was! I mean, altitude wise


All the stories, and our history itself, is from here.



Jackass penguins

Rainbow in the Rainbow Nation

Cape Town once again

'Economics' The name fits perfectly!

View from the Table Mountain, possibly older than the Himalayas..


Industrial Building? No, our hotel!


Cape Town International. Note the BA Boeing 747!

Runway

British Airways (Comair) taking off!

Garden Route..


A small airport! Definitely not regional, most likely a flying school. I'll find out what it is.







George Airport

And a Cessna 172!





Knysna Lagoon







Russell's Viper.

In case you're wondering, that's just a midget.

Cango Caves..


Apparently there was a plane crash on this very hill, and someone famous died. Researching....

DEPARTURE DAY, PRE BOARDING
After spending 6 days in the Western Cape, it was time to go onto the next stint of our trip: Kruger and Johannesburg. So, it was time for a domestic flight. Looking at the domestic fleet of all airlines in South Africa, I was hoping for an interesting aircraft. Sadly, our plans in South Africa were such; we had to fly in a Boeing 737-800. This was a kulula.com flight, in which they promise a lot of humor onboard. So on the morning of 12th April, we headed out of Knysna to George, the airport which connects this city to JNB Durban, etc. We went around the runway to enter the small, but neat airport.





As we were checking in, the agent told us about the new baggage policy, which was only one piece of checked in luggage per guest (mind you, kulula calls its passengers ‘fans’). So this meant a lot of hand luggage for us. Right behind the check in counter, on the tarmac, a South African Airways CRJ 200 was preparing for its flight to JNB, and taxied a few moments later. We didn’t web check in, so the seats, which were already allocated, were 7C/D/E/F.



That looks so sad

After a quick security check, we had at Gate 5 for the aircraft to arrive. I was pretty sure that there would be an interesting colour scheme on the aircraft, like all other kulula planes, hopefully Flying 101!
We kept waiting, the departure drew closer. Every ground vehicle was in place for the aircraft to arrive. Just then, I heard a whoosh. The aircraft had arrived. Sadly, it wasn’t what I’d hoped for. It was a 738 with winglets, but, it was all in a white colour scheme, with ‘kulula.com’ written over the tail in light green. Second disappointment after so much of promise.



Gate 5 and 6 looks dedicated for MN.



All ready for a quick turn around..

I never flew on a Jetlite all-white 737, so here is my all white 737.

According to Kulula.com: BLANK: We have two more planes, we like to think of them as our miminalistic planes. Their futures are so bright you need to wear shades when you board them. Hah, well, I didn't.
(And now they have a new K dot.)


Time to go!

BOARDING
20 minutes later, after a quick turnaround, boarding had started. ZS-ZWR was the aircraft. Looking at the aircraft condition, it looked like aircraft was under 5 years of age. The smiling crew welcomed us, and we took our seats.



One final picture of the changing landscape..while on ground



Leg room was just as any LCC, severely cramped. The pilot came over the PA a few minutes giving us details of the flight, (1 hour long, 37000 feet), and asked the passengers to move sideways to speed up boarding (that is smart!).

Well, it looks like a JetKonnect flight, doesn't it?



MOONEY!

All set to go!

In a hurry, the purser, quite aggressively went through the cabin to close all the over head bins (he missed one in the process) and armed the door. The four of us wondered if he armed the door safely, as he was in a real hurry!

If he left this open, I hope he didn't leave Door L1 open!

NOT TOO FUNNY AFTER ALL: KULULA.COM MN-910 GEORGE-JOHANNESBURG O.R. TAMBO 12TH APRIL 2012
Airline: Kulula.com (MN/CAW)
Registration/Aircraft type: ZS-ZWR, Boeing 737-85P
Seat: 7F, Economy.
Scheduled departure: 1015 hours, Actual Departure: 1008 hours.
Scheduled Arrival: 1200 hours, Actual Arrival: 1137 hours.
Loads (estimated) Y=85+ %


DEPARTURE
7 minutes before STD, we were pushed back for departure. Here was the only humorous part of the flight, the safety briefing.

Whatever you can hear in the announcements: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Hg4O6C5Pds

All set to go!

After a rather short taxi, but a long wait holding short of the runway, we took off into the bright sunny skies.

Taxiing, holding short, CFM56: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxY0xQd3Xv8

INFLIGHT

And a last glimpse of the Indian Ocean. Good bye

The quiet outskirts of George.



As the Ocean disappears, we fly over the hills...

Plains again..

Hard to take pictures of the wing when its behind

Quickly, we were in our cruising altitude, because of the light weight (about 80% loads, although). The meal service started. Dad saw the menu and said ‘Oh yes! Alcohol on a domestic flight’! That’s something missing in India! Anyhow, I took a hot drink combo, which included a chicken roll ‘munchie’ and a hot chocolate. Although the sandwich was cold (LCC), the hot chocolate felt like what mum makes for me...YUMM!








So, did kulula steal it?!


Horrible sandwich, awesome Hot Chocolate!

Aw, thanks Mom

South Africa is simply scenic from everywhere!

Mid flight, I went to washroom, which had a few amenities, not bad for a LCC!

9W BOM-CMB-BOM flights dont have this. +100 for Kulula!




One of three Capitals of South Africa. Remember I mentioned it on EGD's IFE? For the people who don't remember: Bloemfontein.

Ah, the airport!

Cabin...maybe there were drop down screens....


LOL my favourite!!



DESCENT AND ARRIVAL




Jo'burg!

A few minutes later, a quick descent into JNB started.




We reached a staggering 23 minutes before STA! During the long taxi, I saw quite a few tails in the international terminal, which included an EK 77W. (yup, EK-761 and EK-762, our return). There were a lot of domestic narrow bodies around, just like India! There wasn’t a single parking spot remaining! We parked at a remote stand. And because of our before time arrival, the ground staff took some time to arrive at our aircraft.

We surely had tailwind: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2KuZxBtLT0


SA A332 on its take off roll..

SA, BA and AA!


We were bussed into the terminal. Baggage took some time to arrive, but anyways, we were off to Kruger, with everything on schedule! It’s disappointing to say that kulula.com did not live up to my expectations. First, the baggage policy came as a bombshell. Then, the aircraft, and the lack of humour as they promised. Service was OK, for an LCC, but the highlight was flight being before time all throughout. Later, quiet brilliantly, the internet in my phone started working. I quickly the details of the frame which got me into JNB. I was surprised. A 13 year old airframe! I must say, kulula.com has done a great job in maintaining its aircraft!


The camouflage aircraft (the aero bridges look scary!)









Parking..


And now, continuing with South Africa: Kruger and Johannesburg..

Single horned water buck

African Elephant

SAY CHEESE Buffalo!

Impala

Cliff Springer

Zebra

Giraffe while neck fighting

Sleepy Queen

He is super angry!

Look who we found! I wanted to be on one of those

Blind snake

Marshal Eagle

So close!


Wild ostrich


Another sleepy queen


Kudu (Deer) meat!

Water monitor

Leopard? No, one of Kruger's 70 cheetah's...



Something's flying..

Johannesburg:

Come on, everyone knows what that is!

Gold Reef City

Rail museum


Awesome roller coaster! (I had to wait for Ferrari World Abu Dhabi!!)

They showed how gold was mined..



House mock ups..

Mumbai Gola?! In Johannesburg?!

On the final day, we had three parks to visit:
Rand Airport, Aircraft Park.
Lion Park..
Croc City, Reptile Park.

Although the Lion and Reptile Park were close to each other (and also, very close to Lanseria, the Domestic airport of Johannesburg), Rand Airport was close to O.R. Tambo International. So we left pretty early. Now here's the thing in Rand Airport: its open on weekends and open on weekdays, on request. So I sent them an email, but I got a reply only when I was in Knysna. It was a very, very faint confirmation. So we went there, and unsurprisingly, it was closed. I was ready for a big shouting from Dad. Now obviously, with two Boeing 747's right there, he was calm and let me wait for half an hour, maximum. Now the very helpful driver, asked the security in the museum if it was open. He told us to contact one of the numbers. I did so, and the person told he received the email, etc, etc, and told his wife would be coming there to open the gates. After a wait of about 25 minutes, a very friendly lady arrived. She told us that all museums were closed on Monday (what did I do?! Did I just call staff out of their day off just to open a whole museum just for me?! WHY?!?! ) But she said that she understand our tight schedule, etc, so she didn't mind coming, because she had her own work to do. Alright then, the once in a lifetime experience, getting up close and personal with a Boeing 747!!!!






































The great Mr. Sam Chui went up there But that's because he is Great!











































All this for just R20 (just a bit more than 120 INR) Not bad!!! Brilliant once in a life time opportunity! Dad also got similar shots, but of a 10000 times better quality, and a few pictures from a photography POV. Here are a few of his:













So we went to the museum gallery inside. After looking at all the items in the cabinets, I decided to make a donation of my own: DXB-CPT boarding pass and the amenity kit. The lady told us with a big smile: 'It may be surprising, but these are only our first donations with the Emirates brand. I was happy to give something new. I also found an Air India cutlery set in there!

Now, the Lion park:

Very faint, the Lanseria Airport Runway..


Why are they always sleeping?!



Leopard here

Yes, we cuddled with these cubs


Croc city now:


Yes, I put that around my neck

My hands!!


A mall in Johannesburg..


While everyone were packing I quickly took a few pictures of the amenity kits..




So that concludes my third EXTENDED part of my first ultra long TR. I'm sorry if I went a bit off topic, but its not fun when you read only about the flights. I hope you enjoyed the TR.

In the next part: EK 762 JNB-DXB (yes, back to flights ) and pictures from the United Arab Emirates

Thanks for reading..
Regards
Jbalonso777

Link to next TR: http://airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/viewtopic.php?t=12511
_________________
http://www.youtube.com/c/JishnuBasu777

[vvk106]

Superb trip report till now and yes i loved the non aviation part of the report as well, a great visual tour of South Africa...Can't wait for the remaining parts.

[jbalonso777]

[Nimish]

Loved both Parts 2 and 3 as well! Absolutely lovely pictures and enough to keep you mesmerized for a while...
_________________
We miss you Nalini!

[sumantra]

..AWESOME - what more can one say! Who says that this is a non-aviation report? You have so many pictures of rare aircraft in this report!
- Rare aircraft: The Aviation Traders ATL-98 Carvair, The Lockheed Lodestar, the DC-6 and the DC-4, the de Havilland Dove, the 747-SP with `those' engines, the Boeing 707 interior, the DC-3, and of course, the 747 interiors, the wheel well picture...leaves us panting for more!
- the Aquarium - did it have some bigger fish? The coast of South Africa is known to have Great White Sharks. I see that you quite like crustaceans
- Seals and Pelican - in the city environs? Wow!
- Amazing pictures of the sea and the coast!
- The trademark `Jishnu-brand' of humour and word-play - being `high', `story and history' at the Cape of Good Hope, `rainbow and the Rainbow Nation', Visa and economics - wow!
- the pictures of the birds, and the wildlife - superb! It was simply breathtaking to see lions and cheetahs so up and close, in the pictures.
The Malibu Stork, much looking like an old man - was simply out of the world - the clarity of the picture, and the snap itself! Ditto for the reflection of the cormorants.
- the hairy tarantula on hairy hands: nice picture!
The Kruger pictures were out of the world. What clarity, and how well you have captured the moment! That elephant looks like asking for a lift!
- the stalactites and slagmites at the Cango caves - in low light - superb!
- You got the Hansie Cronje crash mountain as well!
- the Kulula descriptions and pictures were nice. Interesting humour on the messages!
- amazing pictures of the land from the air...
We are really lucky to have you on the forum, Jishnu.
Keep it up!
Yours admiringly, Sumantra.

[jbalonso777]

[shivendrashukla]

Super TR. One of the best that I have come across in recent times.

Cheers
Shivendra

[jbalonso777]

[jbalonso777]

Hey people..
While I am removing a few unnecessary pictures from here, I add a few pictures which I could not take (in a hurry and excitement!) but here they are..
Taken from one of those Coolpix cameras so the quality may not be good..


Galley..



Things which make a toilet more roomy: Mirrors!


Bassinets in the front row of Y class..


F Class services!!


Up to the cockpit!
_________________
http://www.youtube.com/c/JishnuBasu777

[sumantra]

Nice to see you revive this thread - which of the 2 747s are these taken from? Sorry, I do not know much about the older ones, though I have travelled in a few 742s!
Cheers, Sumantra.

[jbalonso777]