Roehris Aviation Pages - Gallery on the job

This morning promised to feature weather I like the most: A front had rushed through only hours before our scheduled takeoff time, and our taxi-out would happen shortly after the sunrise. So a dramatic weather scenery was waiting for us. Today's commander was Captain Christian Raabe, a very nice guy from southern Germany. He was very cheerful when he entered the crewroom, and I was soon to find out why: It was to be his first A300-600R ride today! So come along on a nice morning ride to Heraklion and Dusseldorf, enjoy the weather and the beauty of our aircraft!
	After being bussed out to the gate by our lovely ramp lady in FRA, we enter the aircraft and prepare her for flight. Soon after, the 308passengers get on board, and we get the startup clearance. Pushback happens 30 minutes after sunrise. We are pushed a bit farther back than usual, as our gate will be soon picked by a Lufthansa A300-600R.
	There our "opposite traffic" is rolling in. In the meantime we are cleared for "Feuer frei auf eins und zwei", or "Gentlemen, start your engines" in english (engine startup). :-)
	Only seconds later the "Lufti-Bus" has turned to the gate and we are ready to taxi out.
	Commander Raabe has already made himself physically and mentally comfortable in his new ride, and is eager to take her to the air. Wouldn't we all be?
	Rolling out on taxiway "Mike" towards taxiway "November" to get to runway 18. The weather is dramatic as promising (not dramatic in terms of danger but in terms of a dramatic beauty).
	Shortly after liftoff, our climbrate is around 4-5000ft/min, and we punch into the greyish skies over Frankfurt. Only one hole remains southeast of the field, bringing some great corpuscular rays of the sun onto earth. Trust me, in real life this looks even 100 times better - one of the reasons to love my job...
	Soon we pop out of the heavy skies, and a warm early morning sun kisses our 150 tons of aircraft hello.
	Cloud surfin'...
	...while we are pushed towards Munich by our two monstrous CF6 engines.
	Commander Raabe is happy...
	..as can be. Same with me... :-)
	These are the days...
	Time warp: We are already on long final to runway 27 in Heraklion/Crete Island.
	Now optically pimped to the max... :-)
	... commander Raabe guides the big ship gently towards the windy cliffs of Heraklion Nikos Kasantzakis airport.
	A stable approach, finished by a smooth landing despite the typical gusty winds that are producing bad gusts over the threshold 27, as if he had flown the A300 for years. Big fella! Although the A300 is systems-wise and handling-wise more or less the same as the A310, the A300 is quite a step in size, mass and inertia. And consider that in the longer aircraft, you sit even higher over the runway on touchdown and have a different view of the things! You might judge this factor as negligible. It isn't, trust me. So a big thumbs up for "el Capitan"!
	We have taxied to the ramp, and settled us on a stand. Soon after unloading our 308 passengers, the cleaning and catering crews hurry up the stairs to start their busy work. In the meanwhile, the ramp men are unloading the cargo containers, one after the other.
	As they are busy at work, I'd like to take you on a ramp tour, showing you the full beauty of our craft.
	Isn't she lovely?
	Isn't she wonderful?
	The pointy Airbus widebody nose.
	One of many containers to be swallowed from the forward cargo hold door...
	..and the rear cargo door is waiting for containers as well.
	Food is being loaded into the service door 4R...
	..while the fueller pumps somewhere around 20 tons of kerosene into our tanks.
	And now for something completely different: Let's play "search the commander"...
	...any guess already?
	There we go!
	My home is my ...plane.
	An old adage says that you only fly a real aircraft if you can perform the walkaround upright (without bending down). This is definitely the case here. So I consider this to be a real aircraft. :-)
	The "dirty end" of our bus. The brown trails are inevitable: This is the part of the fuselage where all fluids dripping from the aircraft (condensation water, deicing fluids, small spills of hydraulic fluid) are blown to inflight, and collect before being blown off the fuselage. Nicely visible is the APU inlet door (sliding door at the very bottom of the picture).
	The humongous tail section.
	Mjammy...food still being loaded.
	For once we are the first ones on the Heraklion ramp. Normally it's a beehouse, today all is quiet. This makes for a nice ramp shot.
	Registration in the gleaming morning sun.
	The nose gear assembly, taller than me. Check the steering cylinders that are poking out of the assembly left and right. They are hydraulically operated to steer the nosewheel when taxying.
	Mini me.

	Boarding via door 2L rulez. Another clear sign that you are flying a real aircraft.
	The "riders of the storm".
	looking back about 40 meters from door 2L towards the tail section.
	The left wing with one of our General Electric CF6 "fuel to thump converters" hanging underneath. And they thump magnificently! Somewhere around 60'000 lbs of thrust each.
	We have left Heraklion behind us, and have already overflown the Peloponnes peninsula, the Greek mainland, Albania, the former yugoslavian states, Croatia, Slovenja, and have reached the northern part of Austria.
	The city of Linz lies underneath us. I hope you have enjoyed the ride with us!