I was wondering who would be the first to pick that up! That could only work on AFF! And there will only be the one time where I get WP for the first time.
So to sum up the trip, I of course would have loved to have gone for longer. But I got everything done that I wanted to do.
I'm pleased I was able to do the trip after all because of my recent health issue. Things have improved a lot. I was concerned that I'd not allowed to fly. I was allowed to fly & it worked out fairly well. Partly thanks to time & partly due to a change of dressing type, my pain has reduced a lot. It could be argued that being out of the house has helped too.
Of course, I'm a little disappointed that I got Awful on the way to PER & I couldn't get a 33 on the way back. Apart from the IFE, I had no problem with Awful in J but I would not have wanted to spend $1600 one way to get Awful or Broken or a 73 in J.
Overall, I can't really fault the crews on my 6 sectors & the lounge angels & staff. There were a couple of minor things but a lot of that comes to VA proceedures & I can understand why the crews do what they did.
OTR for each of the sectors was pretty good. Of course, there was the missed approach in OOL & the aerobridge that didn't retract in PER.
Vlounges were nice but the food is an issue. I don't expect a 3 course meal but something hot that I can eat would be nice. I'm sick of cold beef but thankful it was there. No hot dogs or party pies - I would have welcomed that. None of the Vlounges were overcrowded & were reasonably quiet.
Priority security & boarding were handy & one of the best perks of having status. I was HLO so priority baggage wasn't required.
I was annoyed with the hotel for the check in procedure & the lack of powerpoints near the bed but the location was great. Surprisingly quiet too considering the location.
Of course I loved the flying, the train trip & the ice hockey. The last flight & how that worked out was excellent. It was typical of how things work for me. Something that was unplanned worked really well.
As always, I loved doing the report in close to real time. I loved the interaction with people here & that someone could take photos of my plane & tell the world about my missed approach before I could.
It is thanks to many people here on AFF that helped me along the way to become WP (as I will be when my last 3 sectors credit & my review is done). There is a lot of respect, friendship & information freely shared that I would never have known by myself.
I've enjoyed this TR & reading other people's reactions to it. Doing it in close to real time sure helps.
So what's my next adventure you can read about?
In 22 days I leave again on a jet plane. I'm off to AUH (first time) in J (first time) on VA. I'm then flying to LHR (for the first time) on EY (for the first time) to London (my second time) for a couple of weeks. Then I'm off to YOW (first time) via DTW (first time) on DL (not first time). I'll be enjoying the eastern side of the Canadian way of life (first time) where I'm meeting up with my roomie on next year's 70000 Tons of Metal. So for the first time, I'm being shown around by a Canadian local.
After that few days is over, I return home with a rest day in both LHR & AUH, basically the way I came. And I can't wait!