QF09 MEL-SIN(-LHR) Tue 6 Mar 2012
A388 VH-OQJ "Bert Hinkler"
Seats 59H/K
Boarding 1615 (Gate 9B)
Scheduled: 1700
Pushback 1658
Takeoff 1710 (to South)
Landing 2122 (SIN time)
Gate 2130 (Gate C23)
Reluctantly, we leave Firstland and head down. Our jet is parked downstairs and we join the line to board. I can't say I love the looks of the beast, just looking at it as we wait. Some airliners are graceful and sleek. Think Concorde and VC10. Even that 60s-era fossil, the Boeing 737, has a charm about it. My favourite of the current crop would have to be the Airbus A340: four engines, wide body, one deck. It has it together.
But the A380 is big and brutal. That huge "forehead" makes it look a bit like a whale I think. Strong and sturdy, with great thick wings and a tail that's already at cruising altitude. In my mind, it's a block of flats that can somehow fly.
I've picked out the seats ahead of time. There are a few pippins, according to SeatGuru. 80A and 80H are normal window seats with a two seat exit row ahead. No window seats in that row, giving 80A/H huge footrooms and unrestricted access to the aisle by just getting up and walking forward. These seats are snapped up early, and I've heard of one genius taking aboard a blowup footstool to get maximum benefit from the setup.
But these are long gone by the time I come looking. I pick seats as far forward as possible, because it's supposedly a night flight and I might as well be amongst the first off at arrival into Singapore and Heathrow. We've got seats 59 H and K, with 59J between us showing vacant. This is the shaded side of the aircraft as the sun sets and we head northwest, so I can get some benefit from the limited view over that enormous wing without the sun setting into my eyes. I remember a Cathay Pacific late afternoon flight out of Melbourne, when I was sitting on the port side and I essentially had no view at all with the sun pouring in and washing out the landscape below.
Once I'm settled into my seat, with Kerri in the aisle, the waiting begins. Passengers stream past, and we look for the one who will stop, push their gear into the overhead locker and look at our empty middle seat.
The flow stops, the door ahead closes and we smile at each other. Yes! Having a vacant chair between us makes a huge comfort difference. A spare seat to stuff our stuff, a spare underseat storage area, a spare set of pillow and blanket. And nobody to crawl over to get out.
As long haul economy seats go, this is toward the high end. The seats recline slightly and the cushions push forward, giving a reasonable recline. Cathay Pacific has the same deal without the seat recline and it doesn't work well at all. Underneath the seat in front is a movable mesh that can be pushed down to hold the feet. It has enough spring in it that it doesn't force you into a rigid posture like a traditional footrest, and it feels softer on sockfeet.
There's a nice big gate to gate AVOD, which means that as soon as I sit down, I can watch a movie or a TV show and I can pause, fast forward, rewind, select other programs to my heart's content until the moment I leave the seat. More on this later.
There are sockets in the armrests for USB and apparently power sockets in the armrests of the row ahead. I couldn't find the power sockets, but I did manage to power my iPad from the USB. The AV system didn't recognise my device for playing my own stored audio and video, despite the promise on the menu system, so I'm a bit in the dark as to how that works.
A really neat feature on the AVOD is that apart from a configurable flight map display, there's a "SkyCam" delivered from a camera high on the tailfin. The picture quality is pretty ordinary, but it's fun to follow the taxiways as we head out to the runway and watch as we gather speed and rotate into the sky:
The view over the wing is minimal, but one of the things I like about any takeoff is the variety of atmospheric effects visible, especially if the air is in any way damp. Here there's a stream of vapour lifting over the wing:
Another bank to starboard and we're aimed at Singapore:
As it happened, I should have gotten a seat further back, as we had daylight for a few more hours, and though Central Australia isn't much chop, generally, there are a few sights along the way. At one stage I felt a bank port and then starboard, with the captain announcing that those on the starboard side would have a fine view of Ayer's Rock. I've seen the Rock from the air before, and it's quite a sight, but all I could see was wing. *sigh*
Keeping my eyes inside the boat, I was overjoyed with the AVOD selection. There were a bunch of recent release movies, including My Week with Marilyn, the Adventures of Tintin, The Artist, The Descendants, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and
a bunch more. Not to mention the list of recently screened movies, Fifty Oscar Classics, and several other categories. There was material enough for several round trips without running out of good stuff.
Huge CD library,
radio channels, TV shows out the wazoo including an absolute feast of documentaries, and a new, although scantily-populated, section for audiobooks. I pulled out my headphone adaptor, plugged in my own set, and listened and watched and was very happy.
Until the dinner came along, which was a pleasant enough interruption. I never eat all available, but at least I can pick at things. Regular travellers will be familiar with the setup, but once all the vegetarian, kosher and halal meals were served, we had:
Salad, main meal, Tiramisu (rather than the advertised Fig and Honey Rice Pudding), Cheese and Crackers. The usual range of drinks were offered, but I can't say that I care all that much for carbonated drinks aloft, the range of wines is sad, and the only bright point is the presence aboard of Mr and Mrs T and their wonderful Bloody Mary Mix spiced tomato juice. Coffee and Tea offered afterwards and you may read my previous remarks to gauge the horror.
The rest of the flight was the usual mix of movie-watching, working, trying to sleep, and occasionally napping. I actually did get some sleep at one point, and I managed it by draping the blanket over the armrest, jamming the pillow into the window, throwing my head in after it, my legs in the mesh net and thinking of England. Well, Heathrow. That did the trick, and I woke some time later, neck cramped, mouth dry, thoroughly uncomfortable.
I also found that my headphones had stopped working, and I found that during my nocturnal struggles, the adaptor had disintegrated, leaving a couple of wires sticking out of the socket and the black plastic housing vanished. Bugger. $9.95 down the drain.
I had a bit of an internet crisis on another site which needed an urgent blog post to fix, and I worked away at that, hoping I'd be able to upload it in Singapore.
At one stage I got up and had a bit of a wander. Used the facilities, which were the usual uninspiring though functional cubicle. Checked out the snack bar, which was really awful. There were a range of half-size soft drinks (Coke, Coke Zero, Sprite), water from a tap (no way!!!!), bananas and a choice of two snacks, endlessly repeated. Some Tuscan biscotti and a Byron Bay cookie bite. Nothing invited a return visit.
I dimly remembered someone coming around offering ice creams during my sleep period, but hadn't bothered to surface.
About an hour out from Singapore, the cabin lights undimmed and the midnight snack was served. Grilled Vegetable Pizza - each in its own plastic wrapper - coffee and tea. I tried to take a photo of the itty-bitty pizza, but my camera batteries had faded and my man bag was out of reach somewhere with tray tables down. Oh well, I kept the wrapper and it wasn't half bad. Zucchini, smoked mozzarella and onion jam pizzetta.
They cleared away the rubble, we commenced our descent into Singapore, and I began retrieving all my bits. Shoes, iPad power cable, novel and so on. With the lights on, I began a hunt for the black plastic bits from my headphone adaptor, and with some diligent exploration of the under seat and beside the armrest and under my bum areas I found the two pieces.
Lights began appearing in the blackness outside, I turned on the Skycam, and thought of jb747 as we slid in, thumped down and cruised into the dock.
. Lovely TR so far. Enjoy Vienna.
