Costa Rica

Costa Rica is a country which has always been interesting to me. It may not be the most exciting place from an aviation enthusiasts perspective, yet the airport of its capital city, San Jose, does offer some interesting traffic and a few good spots around its perimeter to capture good shots. The locals are very interested and up for a chat.
Altough not boring from an aviaiton perspective, the countryside is definitely much more exciting, so that was the main focus of the trip.

Flying on Air France

Booking flights to Costa Rica I unfortunately had to go for the absolute cheapest options, compromising on time and comfort. Flying from Zürich to San Jose fortunately I only had one layover in Paris.

The first flight would take me from Zürich Airport to Paris Charles de Gaulle in the early morning. Scheduled takeoff time was 06:45am, way too early! But as usually, the excitement made up for the 4am getup. This flight was really nothing special. It was still a bit exciting for me, because this would be my first time flying on Air France.
The aircraft that would take me to Paris on this cold friday morning was a 23 year old Airbus A321-212.

The first flight went by very quickly and not long after taking off from Zürich's runway 32, we touched down at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, one of the biggest airports in Europe, another first for me. I had almost five hours to kill until my connecting flight to San Jose would depart and used that to explore the airport, grab a meal and trying to photograph some airplanes. This unfortunately didn't really work out since the windows distorted all my shots, despite all my efforts.

When it was finally time to board my flight to San Jose, I got very excited. The aircraft for this flight would be a 1.5 year old Airbus A350-941. Not only was I happy about how new my airframe was but also that I would finally get to fly on an A350, one of my absolute favorite aircraft since it came out.

While I was surely a bit sad that I had to sit further back I was also looking forward to sitting in the first row of economy class. I booked the first row to get a bit more legroom and a good view of the engine and the A350's beautiful wing. When I arrived at my seat I was positively surprised by just how much legroom I would actually have. I couldn't wait to take off!

The extra legroom seat turned out to be a very good investment. I can't rememeber being able to fully stretch my legs without even being able to touch the seat, or in this case, the bulkhead in front of me. A small downside of this seat was that the screen folds out from your armrest, which does not only take away an inch or so from your seat width, but also makes watching movies a bit awkward since you have to look down, which i found to be a little bit uncomfortable for my neck.
The views were definitely worth the money. This is definitely something only avgeeks will be able to understand, but sitting in front of the wing is so much more special than sitting right over or behind the wing. Unfortunately for us, the seats with these kind of views are mostly first, business and premium economy class and the ones actually availabe in economy class are usually quite expensive to reserve. But, since this was a special occasion I didn't hesitate to spend that extra money.
The views and the hard product were unfortunately about the only positives about this flight. Air France does offer free wifi for messager apps, like Whatsapp, iMessage etc. But can anyone explain why they didn't turn it on until three hours into the flight? Also it turned off randomly quite a few times and wouldn't come alive again in the next half hour. Annoying but not the end of the world of course. More like the end of the world was how dinner tasted. The chicken had a very weird texture and tasted very artificial.

After the worst meal on any flight I had ever taken, I was back to enjoying the views, reading and watching some movies. The selection was actually great and the IFE is over all very fast and modern.

Planespotting at San Jose Juan Santamaria Airport

San Jose Juan Santamaria International Airport is Costa Rica's largest airport and the country's gateway to the world. Roughly six million passengers travel via SJO every single year. Altough not offering a huge variety of aircraft or airlines to see, the airport has some amazing photo spots. Planespotting is not a widely spread leisure activity here but many people come to watch the planes takeoff and land, without taking photos, so be prepared to be appraoched by interested locals asking you questions about your camera and your hobby.

I definitely recommend coming during the sunset hours as throughout the daytime hours heathaze will make it almost impossible to properly shoot. Also the sun sets around the axis of the main runway making for some really beautiful scenes. Due to the proximity to the equator the sun will set very rapidly leaving you only with a narrow timeframe to spot planes. I was lucky that the airport was at its busiest exactly around that time.

Flying on Copa Airlines

The first of three flights to get home was on Copa Airlines to their hub in Panama City. I was kind of hoping for the flight to be operated by a 737 MAX, unfortunately though the flight around midday was always operated by 737-800's. I arrived early to the airport and dropped my bag and cleared security within less than 15 minutes. This meant that I had plenty of time to explore and snap some images here and there. I was hoping to be able to see the arrival of my 737 but it turned out that my aircraft had already arrived quite a lot earlier that day and was already ready at the gate.

My aircraft for this relatively short flight was an 11 year old Boeing 737-8V3(WL), registered as HP-1830CMP. To my delight it was not wearing the standard Copa Airlines livery but the Star Alliance livery. Boarding went smoothly and I took my aisle seat in the second to last row of the aircraft. The flight was pretty much booked out so you can imagine how happy I felt about the empty middle seat.

The flight was very uneventful. The crew was very lovely and came by quickly to offer drinks and a little snack, the normal procedure on short flights like this one. Things turned very exciting very quickly. For some reason there was an aircraft blocking our runway so the pilots decided to execute a go-around. I had been waiting for so many years to experience a go-around so you can imagine the joy I felt when the nose pitched up and my body was pushed into the seat. Kudos to the flightdeck for very quickly informing us about what exactly had happened and explaining that this was a normal manouver and that everything was in perfect control.
Another ten minutes later we went for our second try and this time the runway was clear and we landed smoothly.

Layover at Panama City Tocumen Airport

As mentioned, flying back I had my first stop at Panama City's Tocumen airport. Despite the layover being very long, almost six hours to be precise, I was quite excited for it. Not only was it my first time to Panama but the airport is home to one of the world's last active Boeing 727's. I had studied its schedule and the chances of seeing it fly were about fifty-fifty, not bad at all in our business.
Unfortunately it did not work out and the 727 remained outside its hangar on a very remote side of the airport, not even visible from the terminals. Nevertheless I spent most of my time watching mostly Copa Airlines 737's and exploring the airport. On top of that I was able to get some very nice shots of my KLM 777 pulling into the gate when it arrived from my destination, Amsterdam.

Flying on KLM

My aircraft for this flight to Amsterdam Schipol would be a 16 year old Boeing 777-306(ER), registered as PH-BVA. This is not just any KLM 777-306(ER), it is called the Orange Pride and wears a beautiful orange-blue livery, representing the flag of the Netherlands, what a treat for my avgeek heart!
Soon boardig commenced and as always I waited for everyone else to board first because I don't see the point in waiting in line for boarding. My seat would be 53A, a window seat for this overnight flight, perfect. We took off well after the sun had set with a small delay. Not long after takeoff dinner service started. By that time I was absolutely starving and looking forward to an edible meal. After having had very gross food on Air France, my expectations were very low. The meal arrived and already looked significantly more presentable. And my first impressions were right, this meal actually tasted very good. The only thing to be critisized was the bread, which was very bland and ice cold.

After finishing dinner and my bottle of wine I went straight to sleep. The flight was calm and I was asleep for a solid fife hours until I woke up somewhere over the atlantic with only about two and a half hours of the flight left. Not very long after waking up the crew started breakfast service. I was very pleasantly surprised to see KLM serving warm pancakes and yoghurt with fresh fruits.

Breakfast was just as delicious as dinner and soon after we already crossed the United Kingdom and started our descend into Amsterdam Schipol Airport.
Overall flying longhaul on KLM was much more pleasant compared to Air France. I don't understand how they are so different since the two companies are so closely related. The hard product was fantastic on both airlines, altough the 777 definitely can't keep up with the A350. Both flights featured modern and clean cabins. Where KLM really stands out is the service. The cabin crew was much friendlier and the food was so much better. Even though my flight with Air France left from their hub in Paris, their catering was so much worse compared to the KLM flight that didn't leave from the airline's hub in Amsterdam. I am definitely going to fly with KLM again and would even pay a bit extra to avoid Air France.

Layover at Amsterdam Schipol Airport

After landing at Amsterdam Schipol I had another three hour layover in front of me. Definitely a less exciting airport for me than Panama was, but quite a bit bigger, so I was not going to get bored. Without a plan in my mind I started strolling around to see what I could find.

Flying on KLM

And finally it was time for my third and last flight on this very long journey home. This flight would be operated by a 13 year old Boeing 737-8K2(WL), registered as PH-BCB. The flight left with a small delay that we would later make up for on our way to Zürich. This flight was once again very uneventful except for the fact that it was snowing upon arrival in Zürich, in late April! I was still wearing shorts and a t-shirt after having spent three weeks in 30°C+ weather. The least warm welcome I could have imagined...