Examining the new at Aircraft Interiors Expo 2018 – FlyBe BE7109 Birmingham to Hamburg
- Other airports exist other than Heathrow
- Did I mention I hate suitcases? Off to Birmingham Airport
- FlyBe BE7109 Birmingham to Hamburg
- Into Hamburg
- The IBIS Budget St Pauli
- Aircraft Interiors Expo – A look back at the coverage
- The Crystal Cabin Awards 2018
- Back to Hamburg Airport
- FlyBe BE7110 Hamburg to Birmingham
- Home James
- Innovation is key. Also being prepared
BE7109 Birmingham Airport to Hamburg Airport
FlyBe, Bombardier Dash8-Q400
Economy Class, Seat 16A
Front boarding? No…
Boarding under the wing?
Ahhh. The back of BE7109
I was welcomed aboard and turned left to board. Well it’s hard to turn right at the back of the plane…
Interesting. Lithium battery fire kit at the back of the plane
I headed to my seat, and found some space in the overhead bins. Amazingly, a Q400 will take a wheelie bag… if it’s loaded in sideways. Thankfully, no bags had to be gate checked during the load process, and the plane filled up with only a couple of spare seats left – a rather full flight today for Hamburg.
Loading up…
The loaded cabin
Incidently, someone was sitting in my seat. I asked politely in German for the person to vacate my seat. The seat itself is, is a tight one – a typical Q400 seat.
Just enough legroom, but lean to the right to to gain a few more millimetres…
Overhead control panel
Despite the app telling me it would be a 50 minute flight (which I knew which was a bunch of rubbish), a 1 hour 30 flight was estimated by the cabin crew.
With the safety demonstration was carried out by hand, and once complete – our Dash pushed back and headed for the runway.
Although I swear FlyBe could invest in some window cleaner… the windows were not the cleanest I’ve ever seen on a plane before.
The forward window was clean…
FlyBe has a habit for being “FlyMayBe”. Well not today – our Q400 pulled back and was in the air on-time. Which – for FlyBe – makes a change.
Towards the runway.
WIth a roar of the turboprops, BE7109 took to the air.
With the plane in the air – the obvious sales pitch came along. Unless you had a All-In ticket (and I doubt many did), it was a full on sales push.
Buy! Buy! Buy!
As for in flight entertainment, you had the safety card, the magazine and the window.
And you do know how to put on an oxygen mask don’t you?
As I had a drink in the terminal – I declined to partake of the service, rather looking out of the window, and pondering why I didn’t go to London.
With the cloud levels being low, and the Q400 cruising at 24,000ft, pictures were limited. Also, I had the engine in my way…
Cabin during cruise.
In terms of noise, the plane was as loud as I expected. Sitting near the engine, I counted a reading of 94db on average – akin to being on a london underground train for far too long.
Because everyone loves listening to foodblenders.
Thankfully, the SkullCandy headphones I use seemed to block out a lot of the dead noise. The track I listened was pretty listen-able even through the drone of the props.
If you’ve never listened to a choir sing “You’re so special. You’re so ***ing special…” head here…
The flight over Europe was a gentle one – with only a few bumps along the way.
Germany below.
Eventually, the call came in from the flight deck that we were coming into Hamburg. The crew did a safety belt check, and secured the cabin of any rubbish floating around.
With that, BE7109 continued its descent into Germany, and touched down at Hamburg Airport.
With the plane down, we had a short taxi to the area where our plane would park. It seems that FlyBe are too lazy to pay for gate at Hamburg Airport.
Windex anyone please?
Eurowings A320 and Lufthansa Airbus A321
Once parked, only the front doors were used to exit the plane. Whilst two doors would had helped to deplane faster, only one door today.
Everyone up…
Follow the leader to the exit.
Overall: For a 1 hour 30 hop – it was acceptable. The crew was friendly, and delivered a safe effective service. I can’t ask for more than that for a Euro-hop like that. I do wish the seats had slightly better legroom, and the seats were better designed. But in reality, it’s a no-frills A to B hop. Not too bad at all.
Next: Into Hamburg
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Question: those Q400s always seem to taxi using just one engine. Is that the case with jets too? I’m not sure whether all planes do that, and you just don’t notice with a jet, or if it’s a Fly-be/prop thing?
Yes they sometimes used only one engine to save fuel.