Going Solo - Concorde to New York

CONCORDE TO NEW YORK

Saturday October 1 – Ringwood NJ

Well – what a day yesterday was. I was up pretty early to finish off my packing etc. I didn’t go for a run as I didn’t want to pack any hot smelly clothes. I had arranged for a cab to pick me up from the hotel and he was right on time at 08.30. it was a cool, drizzly morning, but there was no hold-up in the traffic and we got to Heathrow at about 09.15 - £15 but worth it to avoid having to lug around two very heavy suitcases.

I checked in to the Concorde section – specially set aside it is, but not all that efficiently manned I dare say. A quick visit to the Duty Free for some perfume for Rab and then through to the Concorde Lounge. Again nothing too special – I had expected plush in abundance but there wasn’t – just comfortable but normal seats the likes of which you would have in any Business Class Lounge. What there was on offer was a wide variety of newspapers and magazines, champagne and any drink you could think of, coffee etc, all on the house and served by very pleasant folk as you sat waiting for takeoff.

I was observing other passengers closely for Rab, but I’m not very good at face recognition of the rich and famous and had to report regretfully that I failed to identify anyone in those categories. I was also instructed to study the fashions.  One or two of the business men looked particularly well dressed but the few women who were there were not. Having said that I do realise that what I thought were rather ordinary looking clothes may well have been designer clothes at truly appalling prices. One young lady in skin tight, but rather shabby, corduroys looked rather rough, but she of course may have been a celebrity. I guess my designer outfit may not have been quite what the other guests expected  - Team Herbert tracksuit, corporate branded T-shirt and North Star runners.

Apropos the subject of clothes, I couldn’t help chuckling to myself later in the day when an elderly Pom strolled down the aisle to talk to a mate of his sitting in the same row as me. I noticed him particularly because of his very elegant silk shirt which was dark blue and which had a black three button cuff with very full sleeves. As he bent down to talk to his cobber, you could see right through the seat of his trousers, which seemed to be well worn mohair! You could also see where the trousers had been darned between the legs and where a gusset had been put in, presumably when the old boy put on a bit of weight in the past, but in a different material. He was met by a chauffer driven limousine in New York, so presumably wasn’t short of a bob or two.

But back to the departure lounge. We were called through to board in batches and I went in with the second lot. The entrance doorway to the aircraft is very low – about the same height as a Viscount so I had to bow my head and keep it bowed as I made my way to my seat. If I stood up straight my head brushed the ceiling. The body seemed a good deal narrower than a Boeing 707 but as there are only two seats on each side of the very narrow aisle, the seats are wider than they are in Economy on a 707, but not as wide as First Class. There was plenty of leg room – always an issue for me when flying. I had a non-smoking window seat as requested and as I was just over the leading edge of the wing I had a good view, such as it was. The windows are very small indeed.

We started taxiing right on time at 10.30 after placing our orders for drinks and washing our faces – and other parts in some cases - with the hot towels brought around by an obsequious steward. We seemed to rumble along forever to the take off point – with the aircraft rattling as if there were tin cans attached. On enquiry later in the flight it turns out that because the fuselage heats up so much, the various parts are quite loose at ground level and do rattle until flying speed is attained.

And then we were off! Great surge of power with the engines at full throttle and we hurtled down the runway, up at a steep climb. The Machmeter which I noticed for the first time showed 65. we carried on climbing rapidly but stayed subsonic until we were over the Bristol Channel when, after he had announced his intentions, the pilot brought in the afterburners. It was like kicking down an automatic car – there was a surge and we were over Mach 1 and still accelerating.

While all this was going on the cabin staff had been bustling around us serving drinks and distributing canapés before getting the lunch menus out. I had a couple of Buck’s Fizz to drink and some delightful little snacks – smoked salmon stuffed with some glorious cheese, a touch of Beluga caviar and so on. As I said in the postcard I wrote for Rab there certainly is something about flying seven miles up at 1,000 miles an hour, drinking champagne and eating caviar. I can highly recommend it from my personal experience.

There was some good old British humour on the audio system (no visuals back then) so I listened to that until lunch was served. All very elegant – a Royal Blue tablecloth on the tray and very stylish crockery. I had half a mind to nick some items as souvenirs – they were also Royal Blue with gold Concorde symbols  patterned on them. The food was excellent. I started with the mixed sea food – a bit of langoustine, crab and smoked salmon followed by the Concorde equivalent of a mixed grill and then some very good cheese. I felt like asking for a repeat of the entire menu it was so good. But I felt that might have been construed as Gluttony and since I am already in debit with several of the Deadly Sins, thought I should avoid that one. The wine, needless to say was very good as was the port. Delicious coffee with Grand Marnier and some home made chocolates completed the meal to my satisfaction. I did think of trying to save the chocolates for those less fortunate than me back home in Harare, but in view of the lack of space in my travel bag – I had to put both my suitcase and my cabin bag in the hold as the overhead lockers were so small – I ate them!

We had been flying just below Mach 2 most of the time. The pilot said weather conditions were responsible for the apparent slowness although we were in fact travelling faster than usual because we did the trip in three hours and twenty one minutes. About half the time a normal scheduled flight would have taken. We hit Mach 2 about an hour out of New York, presumably as the weather cooled and we started our descent. We were at an altitude of 58,000 feet for most of the flight and, as is reported, you can see the curve of the earth at that height while the sky above is a dark grey/black. I tried a couple of photos and hope they demonstrate this although I think the ultra violet light up there will do some very funny things with light meter readings.

One of the problems with the narrow body and aisle is getting to the toilet but I managed to make my way there after the coffee cups had been cleared away. I had to slip sideways through the door, while ducking my head. The woman I mentioned earlier wearing the dirty white cords had been there ahead of me and hadn’t even bothered to empty the wash basin! I don’t know how many cabin staff there are for the one hundred passengers, but in the section where I was we had four or five and as the cabin is roughly divided in half that is a fairly high proportion per passenger. The plane was, I think, full and the American man who sat next to me said not a word to me during the flight and I didn’t speak to him.

There was cloud from take off to landing so there was not much to see during the flight although we did catch a glimpse of the Manhattan skyline as we touched down. Off loading was very quick, the luggage came off efficiently, I cleared Customs with no problem and was outside and waiting for my lift with our pals the Schafers at 09.30 local time – one hour before we left London.

Having rocketed across the Atlantic I waited and waited and waited for my pals to turn up. Long story short, Uli’s Vanagan had caught fire and burned out the night before and there had been a substantial downpour early in the morning which had flooded a number of roads and prevented them getting through in Nora’s car. In the days before mobile phones it was difficult to get this tale of woe to me, although they did leave a message with British Airways who didn’t communicate it to me. I finally got in touch with Uli’s secretary who told me the story and in due course they picked me up. It was great to see them and I had a lovely weekend seeing the beginning of Fall with leaves just beginning to turn. That was when I decided we had to do a leaf peeping tour – which we did in 2003 – to be reported in due course. I flew home on the direct flight from New York via Johannesburg with a re-fuelling stop at Ilha del Sol.