ERJ170 Delivery Flight

It's all very well and good getting these new aircraft types, but at some point they have to get from where they are made to AWG's caring hands here in the British Isles. It just so happens that Embraer have their caring manufacturing hands in South America. And guess who drew the short straw.

Embraer's pick-up point for the new machines is in Sao Jose Dos Campos, Southern Brazil. My return flights would take me out to the old AWG station on Puerto Rico, through Florida before Frances made it, over New York's ultra-watched airspace and across the iceberg strewn Atlantic before finding a parking spot at sunny ol' Bournemouth on our shores.

Having flown the ERJ170 a little whilst Mr Boulton was negotiating the finer points of how much these babies were going to cost the airline, my co-pilot and I stepped into cockpit of our new transport (G-DEVN) back to British soil. My co-pilot is known to those who know his little pranks but whilst away he prefers to remain anonymous as I believe it was him who managed to spill some coffee in one of the seats of the front row! Hardly had the ink dried and already we needed some servicing....

Having received the plane and inspected it we were happy and took off some excited chappies in need of a flying fix. First leg to Eduardo Gomes Intl, Northern Brazil. Of all the places I've been, I have never flown in Latin America for AirWeGo. I never knew how big the rainforest really was until I spent almost 4 hours flying over it.

G-DEVN flies into SBEG over the Amazon

Now I like to think that I'm not a squeamish man but the sight of a million and one creepy-crawlies isn't a fun one. We didn't stay very long, just long enough for the local ramp staff to come along and admire the shiny new paint job and chrome. They tell me that the majority of traffic coming into this international airport are Brazilian internal flights. Not many British registrations.

This is where the story gets a little more exciting.....Next stop was San Juan, Puerto Rico. For those of you who have been with the VA that long will remember was a base of operations for us. Unfortunately our leased DC-3 has long gone from here but that was going to be the least of my worries.

Checking the spoilers at San Juan, clouds a-brewing

Dawn over the Caribbean, AirWeGo style

I had been anxiously watching the radar plots of the incoming tropical storm Frances, which I had just heard had been upgraded to Hurricane status. It wasn't really what I needed even whilst driving a vehicle I was familiar with, let alone one of Mr Mayes' brand new purchases. Our CEO still loves them like his own. It wasn't a long stay in San Juan, either. It was long enough however to speak to some of the ground staff that AWG employed during our term there. Long enough to hear the stories of our pilot's jaunts into the local nightlife when they were off duty. Nuff said. Paperwork's in my flightbag :-)). In the back of my mind was always Hurricane Frances' progress across the Caribbean. We left on the last day that flight operations were active in San Juan, along with some admin staff who man our gate operations down there who wished to be further away than this. More paperwork from the office was placed on the plane. Stuff was getting boarded-up pretty quickly I can tell you. Experience taught the residents better to be safe than sorry. The winds were beginning to pick up as we left before dawn. There was a lot of turbulence on the climb toward Jacksonville, Florida.

The Bahamas (and most of the North Caribbean for that matter) had pretty much shut down for the havoc that was approaching. The planes that I did see, most were fleeing the area. Orlando hadn't ceased flight operations by that point and the TCAS was barking out warnings all over the place as per norm over this crowded part of the world. The airspace seemed as busy as it always was. ATC was vectoring a lot more heavies around. I am guessing they were piling in to evacuate the tourists. It's going to cost Florida a lot of money this year. It isn't the first Hurricane of the season and might not be the last. At least we were out of the firing line. The landing at KJAX was uneventful, save for a little reduced visibility and my failure to setup the FMS correctly for the approach, which was pointed by my co-pilot (minus any beverages this time) way before it became an issue. And yes, I got some goodies for you lot whilst I was on the ground.

"I see no space-ships!" - NASA's mighty Cape Canaveral launch facility, Central Florida

After getting some sleep, we filed a flightplan that would take us the 1,600nm to St. Johns, Newfoundland. This was the part of the trip I was really looking forward to. The last time that I had flown this way (to Atlanta and back in the company B744) there was, I kid you not, blanket cloud covering the entire eastern seaboard of the States. The weather was more favourable for actually seeing something on the ground. We flew through South-Eastern states over Washington D.C. (which was covered in cloud!) towards New York. A quick wave and a nod to my relations down there in New Jersey before peering out the port windows when we banked to port. Our routing took us directly over Manhattan. Boston was also an impressive sight to behold.

Gear up please, Mr X.

No Caption needed, really

The ERJ170 does not hold a extended overwater certificate. Therefore I could not stray too far from any landmass. This meant a crossing of the Atlantic to Iceland via Greenland. Lucky it's summer here in the northern hemisphere. I wish it did have an ETOPS as looking at the wind speeds and directions I reckon the airframe could've made the west coast of Ireland direct from Newfoundland with the help of the jetstream. I wasn't about to test it however. Keflavik's concrete beckoned our arrival. Even in summer, there was plenty to see on the Earth as trawlers prowled the fishing grounds in search of food to put on plates. Plenty of icebergs too. Some quite big ones were clearly visible from the cockpit. I turned up the heat a little.

Greenland's southernmost tip

I saw only two commercial passenger flights this far north. The rest were cargo flights leaving Europe across the pole with their contents. I forget that Anchorage is an important cargo hub and a lot of American parcel companies have operations there. I didn't see any activity around Greenland, as you would expect. Probably only the scientists studying the flora and fauna whilst the ice has retreated and native Intuits down there anyhow.

Even the Chief Pilot gets caught out by strong crosswinds...

Anxious to get home we set out the next day with the promise of our own beds beckoning. We flew on the high level airway between Iceland and Scotland, which happened to take us over Vertigo's base of operations in the Faroes. A quick hello was said to them after we got patched through on the company HF phone on the flightdeck. The flight down the centre of the British Isles was almost cut short real close to our goal when ATC got the vectoring wrong over the Compton VOR, when TCAS told me there was BA B777 becoming a little too friendly. I intend to file a near-miss report complaint with the CAA in the near future.

Hello down there Helicopter Jockies!

Did anyone get that guys licence plate?

I wouldn't exactly say there was a huge crowd greeting us upon our arrival at Bournemouth, but just enough. That will wait until this new machine makes it's way round AirWeGo's base stations on the promo tour. I posed for a couple of pictures on the flightdeck with co-pilot Mr. X whilst I observed the jealous stares from a few pilots looking at the new chrome on the block. Now it's somebody else's turn to bring one up. After all, I now have to do all the paperwork I have both dodged (and also accumulated!) whilst I was away.

Home at last, G-DEVN at EGHH (where's me airstairs?)