Goodbye Lesley!

Today my friend Lesley left for London. As I mentioned before he was recruited by British Airways (BA) and now will train at their training facilities. He will be gone for 4 months and will be back on January 20th, but between December 15th and January 5th he's going to St. Maarten to spend the holidays with his family. After he was finished packing, he disconnected all electric equipment in his apartment. He locked up and gave me the key so I could check on his mail and stuff every once in a while. After everything was done, we drove from Hoofddorp to Schiphol, which is only 5 minutes away.

Lesley's apartment at Hoofddorp is the brown buidling to the right

BA gave Lesley an open duty ticket that could be used at anytime to London Heathrow (LHR) or London Gatwick (LGW). He checked in at the BA counter for the flight to LGW. After that was done we went upstairs and had luch at the Panaorama Restaurant. There we chatted for a while untill an anouncement came for Lesley's flight... "Uw attentie asltublieft. Passagiers met British Airways en American Airlines naar Londen Gatwick, vertrektijd 10.00, aan boord alstublieft via gate D12... Your attention please. Passengers on British Airways and American Airlines to London Gatwick, departure time 10.00, on board please through gate D12".

Walking towards departure 1

Lesley at the Panorama Restaurant

We went downstairs and I said goodbye to my friend. Then this mister is going to remember that he had to carry back his Schipholpas to Triport. When he comes back in January and starts with BA, BA has to request a new Schipholpas for him. So I told him I will carry it back to the Marechaussee at Triport for him.

Lesley's Schipholpas

I waived goodbye and my buddy was gone. I walked over to the Iceland Air counter to look for a buddy of mine, Frank. KLM Ground Services handles Iceland Air at Schiphol with the use of SPL/PG. I asked him to check in FIRDA which runway BA was scheduled to use and he told me that it would depart from 06/24... the Kaagbaan. So I drove to the very famous spotting location at Schiphol and told Lesley to send me a SMS when he starts taxiing. I wanted to take a pic of his plane taking-off.

Spotters location at the Kaagbaan 06/24

There is a snack truck for the spotters

Exactly at 10.01 Lesley I got a SMS telling me he was ready to go. And yes... before my eyes the Airbus A319 took-off for LGW.

Goodbye Lesley!

After that I drove to Rotterdam to do some work on my house together with R. Later in the evening I told him goodbye as well. Tomorrow he's going to Washington D.C. (IAD) for a 47 hour lay-over. It is his last time as a CA on the Boeing 767-300ER. His 'wisselkist' will now be the MD11 from October 18th. Since IAD is a destination that R. likes, it is the perfect way to end his relationship with the 767.
Personally as a passenger, I hate that aircraft. KLM's 767 are old, the seats in Economy are shabby and the legroom is a disgrace! World Business Class is also nothing to brag about. Thank goodness KLM is getting rid of those things. They should also get rid of those noisy 737-300's and -400's. At least the 747-400 and MD-11 are getting renovated. The 747 and MD11 are getting new Business Class seats like the 777 and A330 and the MD11 is getting a new seat configuration... it is going from 2-4-3 to 3-3-3. The overhead screens will be flat screens that fold down. Ik ben benieuwd...