Eleftherios Venizelos.

It turned out to read the first time? ;))) I do not have! :) This is the name of the airport in Athens. For over a year I fly to be there the first time. It is fair to say that the flight this season and why it is so rare.





The morning started the day before yesterday is still quite late at night. He buried his head in the pillow, imploring Service to shut up, but the volume has increased steadily, with methodical maniac vykorchёvyvaya me out of bed.

 - Yes, everything, everything! I woke up, just shut up!

1:30 am. Oh, would now be more an hour, two, well, or, okay, agree on an hour ... But I do not and 15 minutes - trudged to the shower. Clouds of steam filled the entire space in the bathroom, a jet of hot water slightly burned skin, but its task is performed - the body and mind every second so desired poured me now cheerfulness. Nothing invigorates as it makes the hot water. Now I do wake up. What do we have today on the plan? Fly? In Athens? Excellent!
Cereal, milk, remaining with yesterday boiled chicken, tea with lime, wild roses, oregano and mint, and of course the traditional spoon of honey. Of all the ritual preparation for the flight gives me the hardest ironing shirts and trousers, and so this tedious process, I try to complete before going to bed, he was not trying to spoil my mood sleepy morning.

At breakfast begins preparation for the flight. Looked weather in Athens, alternate airport in Thessaloniki route - all weather "millions upon millions" and just on the border with
Ukraine predicted a little turbulence. In Athens, two parallel strips having a direction roughly from north to south. In fact the wind was blowing north-vostotchny, in twelve-hour forecast is expected north wind is strong enough, and - at times up to 35 meters per second, so now with great confidence we can examine the approach procedure to strip 03 right and 03 left, that is the direction from the south to the north, in the twenty-first band we ever sit still, but not today, and that is exactly.

3 am - time. In the courtyard of silence - not a living soul, always and everywhere, even shifty cat gone missing. Each step of the echoes reflected from the dark and the cold walls of the houses hanging over the tiny courtyard with flimsy vegetation strangled stone ego city. Three minutes to warm the heart of the car, again to scroll in the head - "and everything is taken?" And in a way.

Night city street on summer romantic-deserted, and only rare shade spree nighters whisper that you are not alone in this asphalt-concrete maze of buildings, roads and sidewalks. From the speakers barely audible pours favorite track, filling the space and soul fit and the best attitude. 5 intersections with traffic lights asleep drowsily blinking orange eyes, Ring Road, left lane, sinking cruise control button, the speedometer froze at around 118 km / h ...

In the summer of Domodedovo sleeps, and even at 4 am at the entrance of all. Time has long - standing, waiting, merging with a flock of penguins, trampling people.

 - Good ... - the voice stopped short ... - Ahem! Morning! It is already morning? In short, hello! Yashin. S7. Athens.

The girl at the entrance apparently not shared by the word "good" and nodded toward frame metal detector, like, go already, then started shouting at four something in the morning.

Medkontrol, Weather, Notes, list pending faults, maps, diagrams ... Cap came, did not fly with him, but the familiar instructor. Offer captain slightly reduce fueling - air traffic controllers in the European sky is always rectifiable and fuel we spend less than our calculation shows, and landing weight in Athens with an estimated amount of fuel and has a maximum load. So when refueling on the calculation, we may be in a situation where the band is in front of us, but we have to sit on it can not because it exceeded the maximum landing weight. The captain agreed with my arguments, we reduce the total 400 kg of refueling and ask for 16, 3 tons of kerosene. More here we do not need anything, it's time for the aircraft.

A platform all can not sleep. Oh, man, you never sleep never seen! You will ever rest? And even a small queue to crash. We are for Lufthansa, and before them the B-747 Transaero. Well do not we take off for Jumbo, let the Germans shaking agitated during this edifice the air.



We were allowed to take off! With God! Let's go!
 - Man flex, SRS, runway, autothrust blue!
 - Checked! Thrust set!
Wheels mercilessly fulfill joints Pliny, to say the least not very smooth runway airport Domodedovo. With every second the tempo increases, the heart echoes, abruptly accelerated with each passing second.
 - One hundred knots!
 - Checked!
 - V1!
 - Rrrrotate!
And just like that we were like everyone else, we were on the ground, and now we are different - we are in the sky and every fraction of a second all of the above.



Over the border with Ukraine, and really shocked. So much so that we had to release air brakes in order to cool the ardor of the trend rate of growth, which is a second skakanul for limiting the maximum speed of flight, limited, by the way, the strength of the design of the aircraft, so this bad joke. Buffeting ended as abruptly as it had begun. And then time stopped. And though long flights at times better shorter, but much more in a short month and you get used to them - took off, he filled the paper, ate, prepared for the landing and sat down. And then you look, and even to the airport more than a thousand miles ... Well, esteemed clever books ...
Kiev, Odessa, reserve the right Burgas and take the course to Istanbul. And here he is:



Fly on the Sea of ​​Marmara. To my shame, I had not even heard of it until today. The captain began to prepare the car for landing. Nothing has changed - and northeastern wind and the band left for boarding 03.
In front of and under the wing of the different marine beauty:



We fly to Athens:



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As I said, the founding fathers of the commanders on the ground preparation for this flight, "is always talking on the entry - the mountains, the heat." And we chatted lightly. Well, or a little, as anyone. :)

I can not fill vidos (((



All bathed in sunshine and the window is not open, it seems that everything is flooded and more heat, but no - the north wind well refutes this view, and the thermometer does not show the southern July temperature - 22 degrees. And somehow I do not smell the sea.



There's no hurry, before departure for an hour. The fingers lazily crawling on your keyboard, preparing the aircraft for the new take-off and a new journey.

Memory photo:



And domoooy.
Athens waved and headed for Moscow, home ... but more about that some other time. Or not ... How to get.
Source
All !!!