From Chris Liao (Boston)

Sam,
PHENOMENAL trip report. And good for you for taking advantage of flying the Concorde now. I know that all Air France
Concorde flights are booked until the end of May ... they did increase the # of seats available to non-rev AF employees, but I
do not think I will be able to make it, I am planning a few things and have just made a few investments. I guess I will survive.
In any case, well done, thanks for including me on the list. It was so much fun to read.
Best from Boston,
-Chris
 

From Tony Best (London)

Hi Sam

Sorry I missed you in London but I think the weather was poor on the Sat.
Was doing some films for a friend and saw he shot a SSC landing at LHR, then I saw the date! the 17th. So I think this must of been your
flight.
I will ask him if it will be ok to send you a copy and if you can use it.
Nice report, and glad you got your flight on a great British (French!) aircraft.
Tony
 
 

From Jens Polster (Germany)

Dear Sam Chui,

thank´s for your great report. I just got the feeling of flown on my own with the concorde !

Tomorrow I depart to London for a long weekend to meet some spotters and friends from UK and
the US. Unfortunately weather forecast is extremely bad with only rain in the next days.

take care

Jens Polster, Germany
 

From Eddy Gual (Miami, FL)

Good Job SAM ,
I enjoyed very much all of the details and comments.
Wish i could have done it myself.

regards

Eddy
 

From Arthur Yu (Taiwan)
 

Hi Sam,

Thanks for being considerated to include the link only instead lots of photos.

I appreciate you share your concord report with us. This is the experience most of us will never be able to have in our lifes. I felt like being on concord already after reading your report.

Best Regards

Arthur Yu
 

From Alan Gayler (London)
 

Hi Sam, I`m glad you experienced the best passenger aircraft ever built. My
trip on Concorde was when I was working in the Middle East in the early 80s.
I travelled back from Bahrain when there were only 12 passengers and only 3
of us were drinking. I was invited onto the flightdeck at 60000 ft and mach
2 and stayed for 25mins and whilst there the captain had to throttle back as
a panel of lights had turned orange which meant that the outside temperature
of the aircraft was beginning to exceed limits.
After the deceleration to Mach 1.8 was completed everything was back to
normal but the pilots did thumb through the flight manual to check that they
had correctly
aadjusted the speed.

Needless to say I was absolutely drunk as I left LHR in a taxi

best regards
Alan

ps at one time the cabin crew used to radio ahead for some wheelchairs to
help those drunks to get to the terminal!!
 

From Graham O'Hara (Perth, Australia)
 

Hello

I just read your trip report! WOW it was great! Although I am not an A-Net member so I cant praise you there! hehe.
Anyway I was just wondering where you got the log book? I found it very interesting and I have wondered now for about a
year where to get one whether to make my own.

Thanks a lot

Graham O'Hara

Perth/WA
 

From Alain Durand (France)
 

Dear Sam
Many thanks for your last travel report related to the Concorde, I wish I could have done the same for mine from PEK.
Furthermore you stroke a nice deal since usd.2,999+taxes return even though the latter was on a 772/744 in coach is not so
expensively paid for.
Here in Euroland, 2,999 bucks + taxes translate in more or less 3,000 euros which is the price tag of one SSTway from
CDG. The way you also concluded the deal over the phone such as getting the tkt in SYD was not bad either ! From Europe,
BA offers deals bookable in the UK, payable in the UK, tkts aviable in the UK...for us this means get someone in the UK.
I need a piece of advice in scanning slides to A.net. I scrolled the (over) numerous messages in the forum, to date I reached
January
 

From Andrew Charles (Vancouver, Canada)

Hi Sam:

Thank you for the story and pictures of your Concorde trip to London from New York. It has proven to be an
awakening gesture about the luxury of flying on a Concorde. I certainly liked the way you told your story. It was
almost like my being there. Of course, your pictures speak a thousand words. No doubt, the cost of flying a
Concorde is prohibitive for most people. However, the experience out weighs the cost and I am very happy for
you.

Best wishes,

Andrew.
 

From Dann Borduas (Montreal, Canada)

Hey SAM you are lucky. I think the sensation was good.

 For me, the only aircraft that I flown more than mach 1 was the CF-18 when
I was on Canadian Air Forces. and the flies were fantastic and I think the
Concorde is Almost the same.

Dann Borduas
 

From Bill Blanchard (East midlands, UK)
 

Nice report Sam - seen all the pictures somewhere before though  ;-)))

Best Rgds

Bill

www.goodweather.flyer.co.uk
 

From David Kaufman (Mt Prospect, IL, USA)
 

Hi Sam --

Dave Kaufman here, Joe Pries' friend who used to work at JFK airport
operations department.  Now I live in Mt. Prospect, Illinois.  I enjoyed
your new web pages on your SST trip.  I'm sure you'll always look back
happily that you were able to do it.  Alas, it appears that I will just
settle for my memories of watching 1000+ SST takeoffs and landings, and the
Concorde will retire without my having been on its flight.  I hope that one
of the Concordes can be donated to a New York museum and permanently
displayed at JFK.  JFK by far holds the record as the airport that has had
the most number of supersonic flight operations, since both BA and AF have
served it all these years.

Anyway, I'm writing to add a few facts and clear up a few questions you
posed.

-- It was very unusual that you departed from Gate 6.  BA has set up Gates 1
and 2 as the two gates with direct access from the Concorde lounge (unless
that has somehow changed in the last year).  The ongoing construction at
Terminal 7 may have temporarily closed Gates 1 & 2 on the day you flew, or
perhaps other factors were at play.

-- It was slightly unusual that you departed on Runway 13R.  Only about 10%
of the Concorde departures are on 13R.  About 55% are on the opposite
direction 31L, and about 35% are on 22R.  All other runways are extremely
rare for Concorde, less than 1%.  Joe can brag that on his non-supersonic
ferry trip JFK-DTW, they departed on 4L.

-- 13R has a certified length of 14,572 feet, making it the longest
commercial runway in North America*.  However, due to a pavement condition
problem at the southeast end, the runway is presently NOTAM'ed at a slightly
shorter length of 13,100 feet, still quite long.  (* - When Denver opens
their new 16,000' runway later this year, it will take over the record.  The
longest paved runway in the world is 16,076' at Uppington, South Africa.)

-- Books and articles on the Concorde and on supersonic flight state that no
particular special sound is heard on board as the aircraft becomes
supersonic.  However, in general terms, there tends to be a bit more
buffeting and pitch changes as the speed transitions to supersonic.

-- Many people are under the misimpression that the "sonic boom" is only
made when an aircraft crosses into supersonic.  Actually, the supersonic
shock wave is continuously generated through the entire supersonic flight,
and observers everywhere along the flight path will hear a boom as the shock
wave passes them.  That is why Concorde is only operated supersonically over
oceans.  Ships on the North Atlantic routinely hear the boom, which is more
like a gradually increasing then decreasing loud rumble when the SST is at
its cruise altitudes.

Hope this info is helpful to you in documenting and relishing your great
trip!

Regards, Dave
 

From Jason Nicholls

Hi Sam,

I thought I would just drop you this e-mail to express my thanks for writing
such a great trip report, i thoroughly enjoyed reading it and looking at the
photo's. I only wish I could fly Concorde before she goes out of service,
but with me been a 17 year old Student I doubt that will happen any time
soon! Hopefully I will get a chnace to photograph her in flight one last
time out of LHR, doubt she will ever visit MAN again! Anyway thanks again
and keep up the good work (a.net photography).

Yours Sincerely,
Jason Nicholls
(BAPILOT2B)
 

From Jamie Sensicall

Hi brilliant website really enjoyed reading about your concorde trip
 

From Dickson Ching (Hong Kong)

Excellent Page! I'm envy you!
 

From Øystein Sømme

Hi Sam!!

I would just like to thank you for a great trip report!  very interesting reading.  Nice photos also!

Check out the lates Airliners World magazine, lots about that chief captain and the Concorde.

Cheers

Øystein Sømme
 

From Michael Devor (Malibu Stud!)

Sam is a stud! Great pics and love
 

From Peter Schneidair (Zurich, Switzerland)
 

Hi Sam,
great trip report and as allways great pics!
Sadly, I am not in the Supersonic-Club, but had the chance to fly Concorde
many years ago:

1.10.1979 IAD-DFW, Flight BN 053  Concorde, Reg.  N94SD (ex F-BVFD) Flight
Time 2h 14 min.

In these days, Braniff leased Concordes for evening flights from Washington
IAD to Dallas DFW.
The Planes carried N-Reg's for this flights. We flew at 48'000 feet, but
only in subsonic speed (M 0.95)
The ticket was a regular First Class at around 150US$ oneway!

It is 24 years since, but I still remember this flight very well. Especially
the acceleration during take-off
is unbelievable.

Best regards

Peter Schneider, Zürich, Switzerland
 

From Gary Watt (Aberdeen, UK)

Hey Sam

Crap photos ;o))

Only joking.....excellent BA Concorde report and photographs.

I too have flown supersonic with Concorde and have memories that I will cherish forever.

Regards
 
 

From Andrew Willoughby (Melbourne, Australia)
 

I'm a SAMB member. Outstanding review of your trip of a lifetime. You are the ultimate enthusiast Sam - love sharing in your adventures. Just think, if United bougt Concordes back in the 70's, you would be broke by now... Best wishes, Andrew.
 

From Jeffrey d'Hedouville

Dear Mr Chui,

     I must say that is a gorgeous picture of the Air France Concorde.  You really captured the famous bird's essence, it's true grace.  I thank you for that.

                               May God bless you and everyone through Jesus Christ,
                                                        Jeff
 

From John Yu (Taiwan)
 

Hi Sam,

The trip is amazing! Still have to find time to read all the report! Should
be a nice topic if you put it on a magazine!

John

From Li Jing (China)

Hi Sam,

After reading your article,I just can't say nothing but perfect. I quiet envy that you have chance to have this trip.I think it is always a dream to me.I recommend your homepage to many friends.

Hope to see you more photos

BR

Li Jing
 

From Pierre Langolis (Montreal, Canada)
 

Good morning Sam,
 
This is a very good trip report and your photos are excellent.  I received the link from one of my correspondant in the USA.  It is one
of my dream to fly on the Concorde and I do not have much time left to do it.
 
I do have some photos on airliners.net mainly from Dorval Airport (YUL).
 
Regards,
 
Pierre Langlois
 

From Paul Arnold (Manchester, UK)

Hi Sam,
 
Just had a read through your Concorde trip report!  Excellent!
 
It's making me awfully tempted!  :-)  I've just arrived back from LHR and saw G-BOAG depart on Wednesday
evening...  Thought of you!  If the picture makes it onto airliners.net, then I will be sure to dedicate it to you!
 
Hope you're ok and look forward to hearing back from you when you can!  *I'm not on your respected users list
yet?!  :-)*
 
Take care mate,
 
Paul.
Cheshire - England.
 

From Sylvain

Thanks for sharing all this with us! I am an Air France F/A on Concorde, and I was VERY interested in your photos and comments. Brilliant! Sooo cool to see enthousiasts enjoying their Concorde flights !
 

From Florian Trojer

Sam, at first; very well done and amazing trip report on G-BOAG! Was a very good read! I'm glad you've loved the Concorde... I'm only 15 years old and do not have the money for trips like these, so too bad that I'll never have the pleasure to fly this Supersonic plane in my life. I've got a question: You are preparing such a loogbook for every of your flights? How are the captains getting them? Have you edited the logsheet yourself?
 

From Tom Turner (New York)

Sam !!!   I was so happy to read your report..

You write a very good trip report...and your enthusiasm is contagious I think, not just for us reading it, but also, from all the people
you touch in your travels..as evidenced by the all the people that happy pose for your pictures and add their comments.

Thanks for including me on your list...

See you next time..

Tom Turner

From Katie Wood (CA, USA)

Nice shot of the inside cabin, its to bad that they are going to stop
flying them. I don't know why they are doing that. Also i have read
your trip report to.

Katie