A good friend of mine was coming to visit me for 2 weeks this winter. He would be arriving in ARN at 09.40 with NW/KL from DSM via DTW and AMS, and I decided to fly down to pick him up and then go to Stockholm for the day. We would be taking the train back to Sundsvall in the evening.

This whole trip sort of started out in a bad way. On the evening of Dec 27th, I get an e-mail saying that his flight from DSM to DTW was cancelled because of heavy fog. He would instead fly via MSP and AMS and arrive at ARN about 3 hours later than planned. Oh well, I thought. I can always roam around and breathe some airport atmosphere.
When I finally had fallen asleep in bed, my cell phone calls. It's my friend's mom saying that his flight to MSP was so delayed that he wouldn't make his AMS flight from there. He would instead fly through MEM and arrive another 3 hours later at ARN. She said she would call me again when he had gotten onto his AMS flight. The only problem was that he didn't have a whole lot of time to change planes in MEM. 3 hours at ARN is OK but there isn't enough things to do for a 6-hour wait, so I decided to bring a good book and some music.
Because I was so nervous, I couldn't fall asleep, so I went online and found a flight tracking site (by coincidence) where I could follow his flight to MEM. I watched it slowly get closer and closer. After a while, it was 10 minutes past arrival time, and it still hadn't arrived. I was really worried that he would miss his flight. A few minutes later, his mom called me and said that he had gotten on his AMS flight. He had to run across the entire airport and just made it on the plane. To add to all this, this was also his first time flying  


I woke up at 05.00, showered and had breakfast. I packed a bag with some stuff that I would need during the day and off I went. My dad took me to the airport and we arrived there at about 06.30. The airport was pretty empty. I went upstairs to the empty restaurant with a view over the runway and gates to listen to some music.
At about 6.50 (can't remember exactly), I went down to the check-in desks to get my luggage checked. I had checked in myself online the evening before and picked my seat. I got mu luggage tag, put it on my bag, and then proceeded through security, which went smooth.
While sitting at the gate, waiting to board, I reached into my pocket to look at my boarding pass. I couldn't find it and looked through all my other pockets without finding it. I started to worry since I couldnt think of where i put it. After a couple of minutes, I found it in a pocket which I have never used before. Have no idea why I put it there.


Our DH8 sitting at the gate.


Our plane before boarding.

We boarded around 20 minutes before departure and I took my seat.

Segment: SDL-ARN
Flight: SK 047
Date: Wednesday Dec. 28th 2005
Aircraft: De Havilland Dash 8 Q400
Reg. nr. OY-KCG
Dep. 07.20
Arr. 08.20
Seat: Can't remember (might have been 15A)


The view from my seat.

I ended up sitting next to a lady who lived in Norway but originated from Sundsvall. She had been back to visit her mom.
Before departure, we had to be de-iced, which delayed our departure with a couple of minutes.
This was my first time on a DH8 and I was really looking forward to compare it with the Saab 2000 I had flown about 2 months earlier.
After takeoff (which impressed me btw), we went through the clouds. After a while, the FAs came around with breakfast. I was glad to see that SK still gives you a decent breakfast. I have heard that the "food-giving" isn't as good during the rest of the day.
The breakfast consisted of yoghurt, a bread roll with butter and cheese, orange juice, and coffee or tea. I opted for coffee since I hadn't gotten much sleep during the night.


My breakfast

After breakfast, I watched the sun rise and tried to take some pictures while talking to the lady next to me. She told me about her journeys to the mediterranian sea as a teenager, which was really interesting actually. She also thought it was funny that i was such an aviation nerd (not in a bad way). She was really nice to talk to.


The sun is rising above the clouds.

We broke throug the clouds quite late during the descent, and the weather was really lousy. I took some pictures during the landing. It was pretty cool to watch the wheel touch down on the ground thanks to the wings being on top of the aircraft.


After breaking through the clouds on descent.


Gear is down.


Touchdown!


Slowing down on the runway.


At gate 34.

After arriving to the gate, I asked the FA if I could have a look into the cockpit, and to my delight, she said yes. I chatted briefly with the pilots and took a picture of the cockpit and the cabin before exiting the aircraft. I then picked up my bag and went to sit down in sky city for a while.


Flight deck.


Cabin.


Our aircraft after deplaning.

During my 6 hour wait, I walked around at the airport, taking some pictures, and I sat in the upstairs "lounge" in sky city. I met two guys who just had arrived on TG from BKK and were waiting for their flight to UME. Their flight left about the same time as my friend's flight arrived, so we kept each other company during the day. They had had a great experience in Thailand, and after hearing their stories, all I wanted to do was to take all the money I own and go there  


Terminal 2 at ARN (check-in hall).


Terminal 5 at ARN (check-in hall).


Sky city.


TG B744 being de-iced before going back to BKK.


A FlyMe B737.


My friend's B739 sitting at gate 11 after arrival from AMS.


Finally, at around 15.00 (or 3 PM), his KLM B737-900 arrived. I must admit I was slightly jealous that he got to fly both the DC-10 and the B739  
I went down to the arrivals area and waited. I waited for a very long time, and was a little worried that something else had gone wrong. Finally, he came out with all his luggage (which impressed me since had only 25 minutes between his flights to/from MEM. We sat down and talked for a while and surfed the internet before taking the train home.

Please, comment on this report! What can I do better next time?

Thanks for reading!

[Edited 2006-03-10 01:13:53]