T0: First posts from London

Well, the flight with British Airways was mainly uneventful (nice food, followed by nice entertainment (more than 15 audio channels, and 15 difference movies -- and this was in economy class). Also, there wasn't much turbulence.

However, it would probably take a huge amount of turbulence to force a close to fully loaded Boeing 747-400 (AKA the megatop) into anything remotely uncomfortable. Indeed, even with full flaps on (i.e. maximum lift), this behemoth required almost the full 5000m runway at Toronto Pearson Airport to get airborne.

I regret to say that I forgot to take a picture of the plane, but here is one interesting pictures.

First pictures of London (from the plane, while in approach to landing (at approx. 8000 ft, and 200 kmph). As can clearly be seen, the traffic is horrible in London.



Anyway, for anyone interested in numbers, top speed was ~1000 km/hr, and with a nice tail wind, we made it to London in 6:20 minutes (ahead of our estimated time, 7:20). Also, maxium altitude for the flight was ~10,882m. As an interesting fact, at that height, the stars don't twinkle. Logically this makes sense, since we are above the troposphere. However, it is still pretty startling to actually see that for yourself.