WOW, Just WOW. Never in million years would of thought I would see a 747-200 fly in 2020 or in my life at all. One of my bucket list aircraft finally ticked off. On Tuesday 26/5 on Facebook I saw that someone had posted that this 747 was due into LHR on Thursday the 28/5. This created quite a stir on the groups as it's one of only 10 left in commercial service. It was supposed to be 4L-GEN but, then 4L-GEO headed up from Georgia where GEOSKY is based to Belgium and apparently this was actual one due in. It was planned into LHR at 9am. This would be a very nostalgic moment as they are Ex BA aircraft (G-BDXN City of stoke on Trent and G-BDXM, City of Derby ) respectively and operated out of LHR in their time with BA. Unfortunately it was not to be and it cancelled early in the morning. Feeling quite disappointed, I thought will ever see a -200.
Then on Friday morning I heard it was rescheduled into STN which seemed more likely of a place for it to go. This time though it turned out it was GEN again as I spotted it inbound on the Radar. It had actually been put into storage in the boneyard for 7 years until Geosky purchased in march 2019 and has been operating it ever since. She is now 33 years old as being originally delivered to BA in 1987 and has been through 5 different airlines in her life. Sizing the opportunity to see my first proper 742. I packed all the stuff in the car and rushed down to Stansted she was due in 14:45L. I set off at 11:30am, it was going to be tight. Unfortunately due to road works for a massive portion of the M4. I missed the arrival by minutes. So that was irritating but, the spot at STN which I could manage to get on because there was quite a few people to see it as you can hear in the background, wasn't that good for the landing because you can't see the touch downs anyway so I wasn't to bothered about it. So then it was the long wait for the departure. I talked to the local chaps and a few others that had travelled to STN for it and the few other arrivals we had that day which I'll upload in separate video. Finally after 2h's she pushed pack. started up and taxied and blasted out, went up like a rocket, I assume because it was empty and only a four hour flight back Tbilisi. The sight and sound of a classic 747 was something to behold. the RB211-524D4’s sounded nice with a real grunt behind them and off she went with a nice bank to right and steady climb out. Interesting fact about the 742 is it uses Uranium in its tail as weights when the rudder is used to balance the tail. I have to say it was well worth the 340 mile round trip and 6h's on the road. It was also another first being that it was furthest I've driven before and my first time at STN, I have to say I will be back at some point. Saw a few other interesting things and Stansted is one of those airports where anything can happen obviously because of Coronavirus pandemic it was very quiet with only a few Ryanair commercial flights but, there was some other stuff I've never seen before. Which will come out later.
Anyway, enjoy the sight and sound of this classic lump, sorry about a few shaky clips probably me being a bit excited 😆. and not being able to use a tripod oh and talking and wind.
Anyway many thanks for watching I didn't get home until 10pm was a long day and very long drive but, It more than worth it for this
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