Long Haul Flights...

Until the other day, the longest flight I had undertaken had been across the US from NYC to LAX/SFO or from JFK to LHR...depending on winds and weather they're all about the same...sort of. I boarded my Singapore Airlines flight at LHR on Wednesday not really knowing what I was in store for. My flight time was scheduled to be almost 14 hours. When the captain spoke to us, we were going to clock in with a flight time, thanks to prevailing winds, of just under 13 hours...added to traveling ahead 8 time zones. We left the UK at 10:55am on Wednesday 30 Nov and arrived in Singapore on 1 Dec at 7:15 am, slightly ahead of our scheduled 7:55 am arrival. Thank god for business class. I'm not sure how I would have done that otherwise.

I can now say that I have flown the world's largest passenger aircraft, the Airbus A380. It's truly amazing. Double decked (fully) it boards with two gangways...no, seriously. We de-planed with 2 gangways as well. The take off was one of the quietest I have had (I was on the upper deck, so that might have had something to do with it) and was very smooth. It did appear to take longer than normal to actually leave the runway though, and at one point I was worried we were running out of room and then we were airborne. It was also remarkably quiet during the flight...something that is hugely beneficial on these long haul flights I would imagine, as sleep is a requirement. Landing, now that's another story. You try taking that beast of a plane and putting it onto a small little runway and see what happens. It's not the smoothest of landings, at all. After touchdown, it's much smoother than others, but touchdown comes hard. Much less shaking experience though as the plane slowed itself down and taxied...which was nice. All and all...an amazing experience on the flight...service in flight with Singapore Air was brilliant...once on the ground however, not so much. But that's another story...