So, the week before last I was at Manston with G-ZBJ A and my colleagues for the first week of B787 operations.
Here are aselection of my many, many photos that I took whilst there!!!!
We arrived after the aircraft had flown on the Tuesday so the first day was many familiarisation of Manston, what a great airport!!!!
Once the aircraft had arrived and put to bed there was just time for a quick picture as we left.
Day 2 and it was my turn to be one of the engineering team to fly with the aircraft for the day. Leaving at 10am ish we flew down to France and spent seven hours on board while the pilots and the aircraft accumulated the necessary landings they both required for certification. In total we did 7 full stop landing split between Vatery and Chateroux.
It was quite bizarre to be floating round France at 2500 to 3500 ft while we did different circuits and approaches.
We didn't even have time to get off the aircraft, indeed for immigration and custom reasons we didn't even shut down the engines or open the doors, at Vatery we parked just before the runway turn on each time for 20-30 minutes while the crew changed over and did their briefings, then off we went again!!!!
Inbetween we spent the time getting familiar with some of our relevant areas of the aircraft cabin, and of course taking photographs
Chateroux.
The next two days were spent supporting the aircraft when it was at Manston and preparing for its arrival and upcoming work while it was flying.
A big thanks to Andy from Manston, the ground ops guy, the immigration guy, the customer liaison guy and just about anything else, who still found time to take me out to the runway to get some photographs of the aircraft taking off and landing!!!!
At the end of day three one of the First Officers on board went round to the local flying club, of which he is a member, and brought their Stearman round for a photo call with it's more modern descendant
Then and now....
Then one of guys went up for a few aerobatics over Ramsgate.
The next two pictures I include for the wildlife lovers amongst you, Manston's luckiest Hare
Finally a few pictures of the cabin.
Thanks for looking, I hope you enjoyed them.
Cheers,
Jeff.
