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My Concorde Story |
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| Back in 1967, we flew from Malaysia to the United
Kingdom on board a BOAC Vickers VC-10. We lived in Taunton, Somerset and on one
of my junior school outings, we were taken to Filton to see the Concorde being
built and tested. There was, of course the obligatory project to do - which unfortunately has long since been sent to the big recycle bin in the sky. We had collected a lot of literature from Filton. During my University life (at Bath), Concorde frequently flew overhead, and I often said to myself, "One day, I will fly onboard Concorde". Here in Basingstoke, BA002 flies over my house, before turning for it's approach to LHR - I usually see her around 17:25 hrs each evening (but alas, not for much longer), streaking gracefully by, followed by her famous sonorous engine noise. |
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| When the Paris crash occurred in July 2000 and
Concorde was grounded, I thought that my dream was finally over. However, the
dream came back to life when Concorde returned to service in November
2001. And then came the sad news on April 10th 2003 - Concorde was going to be retired ... with British Airways ending their service in October 2003. |
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| Mild panic ensued in my mind - how was I going to get
to fly on Concorde before my dream was terminated forever ? I looked at my lifetime savings and decided that, with interest rates so low, inflation was eroding its value, and I may as well spend it - after all, you only live once, right ? At the end of April 2003, I managed to book BA001 for 12th July 2003. I couldn't afford both ways on Concorde, but at least this way I get to arrive in New York before I left London ! |
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| So, the day before, I had everything packed - not
much in the way of clothing, but lots of electronics - including my laptop, my
Kodak digital camera and my camcorder. To go along with these were numerous
rolls of film, spare NiMH batteries for the Kodak and several long-life
batteries for the camcorder (+ tapes and tape head cleaner). I had a restless night - as I was full with excitement for the coming day. |
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12th July 2003 -
And now the big day dawned. I was up at 5am ! Checked my passport and tickets
for the umpteenth time and waited for 9am for the taxi driver to take me to the
railway station. Beep beep ... the taxi arrived and we were off. Five or so minutes later, I was at the railway station. I had bought the RailAir ticket the day before, so it was straight onto Platform 4 to catch the 09:17 train to Woking. The train arrived at Woking in time to catch the 10am coach to Heathrow. Unfortunately, Terminal 4 was the last stop, so I had to go through the routine: Terminal 1 (drop off), Terminal 2, Terminal 3, Terminal 1 (pickup) and finally Terminal 4. As I walked through the doors at Terminal 4, I had forgotten how busy it was. I scanned around and eventually found the sign for Concorde and First class. I carefully picked my way through the obstacle course created by my fellow travellers and made my way to the check-in desk. As I approached the desk, I was stopped by a British Airways attendant. He asked politely, "First Class, Sir ?", to which I replied, "No, Concorde !" {with a big grin on my face}. To which he said, "This way, Sir", and pointed me in the direction of a free check-in assistant. I presented my ticket and passport and put my luggage to be weighed. All done in under 5 minutes. I collected my two Concorde baggage tags and my boarding card, and was pointed in the direction of the Fast-Track security check-in. Again, straight through in less than 5 minutes - I think that I could get used to this .... I was now "Airside" - it was now around 11:30am, so without further ado, I made my way to the (well hidden) Concorde Room - completely missing out on all the various Duty Free stores. |
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As I entered the Room, I was greeted by two British Airways ladies, who checked my boarding card. They pointed out the various things which could be done in the Room, so I had a nose around before settling down with a newspaper. Darn it, I had (almost) forgotten about the Molton Brown Travel Spa, so I made my way out of the Concorde Room and proceeded down the spirally staircase. I booked my back massage for 15:30 hrs and then made my way upstairs to the Concorde Room again. Before I got back to the Concorde Room, I spied the Business Suite, so I went in to have a look - there were a few Internet connected PCs in there as well as Fax and photocopying machines. I bookmarked that for future reference. Anyway, back to the Concorde Room, where I found two internet enabled PCs and desks where you could connect your own laptop to their telephone system. As it was approaching 12 noon, I then thought about food, so I went over to the serving area and got myself a table. I started off with the Soup of the Day (Minestrone) and a bread roll. I helped myself to the selection of drinks they had available for us DIY'ers ! I spied a pair of Connolly leather seats on display next to the tables - it looks like it is there as an "art" display as opposed to being there so that you can test them out before you get on board. The soup was followed by a selection of sandwiches and a lovely gateaux. |
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Whilst eating my lunch, I noticed that the Concorde
Room had become fuller - presumably with the first class passengers. All of a
sudden, the attendants started paying lots of attention to one guy. He sat at
the table next to me, so I tried my hardest to identify who he was - no joy.
After he left, I asked them whether he was someone famous. They said no, they
were just admiring his long blond hair ! They did say that a black American
actor was in the Room this morning ... but they couldn't remember his name
! Lunch over, I proceeded to try out the various chairs around the Room, in order to see which one would be the best to bag. I settled for the nice leather one overlooking the stand. In the meantime, I had met up with Deryk who would be in the Concorde seat (14A) behind me (remember: no row 13 on Concorde) and a nice couple who were flying Concorde to New York for the nth time - he had a rather nice Concorde tie (I believe he said that it was a limited edition tie from the British Legion). An elderly gentleman came in and sat down - he must have been in his late 90's. A British Airways lady came over and tried to help him complete his Visa Waiver and Customs Declaration form. When asked where he would be staying in New York, he replied that he just wanted to fly on Concorde (and didn't want to stay in New York) - good for him I thought, fulfilling his lifelong dream too! We weren't celebrity hunting or anything, but there was Rod Stewart and Penny Lancaster (+ entourage) also sitting in the Room. They weren't going on Concorde - I believe that they were heading for Los Angeles. It was 15:25 hrs so I made my way down to the Molten Brown Spa for my back massage. My masseuse was Kam. She asked me to take off my shirt and shoes and she would be back shortly. I quickly sneaked a picture of the room, and when she came back, she got me to lie face down on the couch. I won't go into details, but I can tell you, it was a wonderful experience and can recommend it to anyone following my footsteps - and it left me feeling relaxed and ready for my next part of my Concorde Experience. Returning to the Concorde Room, my seat was thankfully still vacant. I sat down and the champagne arrived. Through the corner of my eye, I saw her arriving. It was now 17:25 hrs. Quickly grabbing my camera/s, I zoomed in on the letters G-BOAF. Virtually everyone in the Concorde Room had made their way to the windows and were snapping merrily with their cameras - no other commercial aircraft commands such an audience. She might be a product of the late 1960's, but her shape, beauty and elegance is a truly timeless work of art and engineering. G-BOAF was at the stand and our luggage and food was being loaded. Shortly we would soon be boarding ... Meanwhile, BA002 was making it's approach for landing. We watched her land, but all too soon she disappeared from view. |
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Soon, an announcement came over the PA system, announcing that as Concorde had limited onboard storage space, any items not needed for the flight could be put into the hold, and anyone wanting to use the "suiter service" should bring their garments forward. They also mentioned that if we needed any papers or other reading material, we were to take them from the Room - as there wasn't much on the plane. I quickly went to the PC's in order to send a quick e-mail to my friends to say I was boarding soon - they were both taken, so I popped next door to the Business Suite and sent the e-mails from there. I hurried back to the Concorde Room with expectations that boarding had begun. It hadn't, so I had time to catch my breath and take a swig, sorry, sip from my glass of champagne. Next they announced that boarding would start shortly, starting with rows 11 to 26. The time was now 18:12 hrs. With my heart palpitating with excitement, I thought ... That's me ! ... I leapt up from my seat and headed for the queue that had already formed in front of the boarding desk. I presented my boarding card and passport at the desk and then made my way down the ramp to the doorway of G-BOAF. Through the doorway and turn right ... I found my window seat, 12A - quite well positioned for the Marilake displays - "Welcome to Concorde", it read. It was now 18:16 hrs. The cabin was small and cosy ... as I had been previously warned it would be. |
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