MC aviation blog

Homework again

Hi.

As some might have noticed, my plane spotter blog seems like sleeping since the begining of the new year and there are several reasons for that. First: Weather has been really bad around here for photography with persistent rain and very little sun. Second: the Influenzae virus made me a long visit throwing me to the bed with fever and third, I am doing the homework for my upcoming spotting trip next March. That last point, as a matter of fact, is the one consuming more of my free time as I am trying to fight the begining of the growing anxiety with more and more information. I have always been like that before a spotting trip and never learned to deal with that anxiety. I always want to know everything there is to know before leaving home, but I also know that I will always have many doubts that will only disapear when my Canon starts working.

But today, instead of just justify why I am not updating my blog as I should I would like to show you some images of a small trip I did late 2007 and early 2008 to Madeira island. New year celebrations in Madeira island is something huge and one of the biggest postcards of the island. It was the first time I went there to spend new year's day and I really enjoyed it a lot. Surely an experience I want to repeat in a near future and that I strongly reccomend everybody to try.

As I went there on a small holiday period and as Funchal airport is so beautiful, I rented a car and drove to the airport a couple of times to have some photos for my collection. I also had the pleasure of knowing better the local photographer Rui Freitas who drove me around and showed me a hidden gem. A vintage point from where I got some different and nice frames. But...enough talking...shall we go to Funchal?

My flight to Funchal was with SATA international, and I had the pleasure of flying one more time on the A310. The aircraft I flew was on CS-TGV.

leg room not as generous as TAP's A310, but still nice for a little more than an hour of flight. Before getting on board, I went for the first time to Lisbon's Terminal 2 which is only for domestic flights and I got a very good impression of the space

 very simple, clean and easy to move around which is the way an airport Terminal should be.

but as I was saying, my flight was very smooth and pleaseant and a little more than an hour after take off we saw terra firme

and the airport

after a smooth landing on the 05, it was time to relax in Funchal until the next day when I would drive to the airport for some photos and this time I had VIP treatment as fellow photographer Rui Freitas showed me the house. Finally I nailed the wrecks of the Nordatlas that suffered a terrorist attack back in 1975 and since then is abandoned near the airport

a sad sight. And later that day I was "introduced" to the way to Rosário which is a beautiful place overlooking the airport.

what a fantastic place...ahhh...a small coffee house, the shade of a palm tree and aircrafts buzzing over my head. Perfect!

The morning was excellent, but I was in Madeira to see the island so I only returned to the airport on the last day of the year for a little, as I wanted to get some of the charters arriving for the party later that day, and the 31st of December was simply excellent with lots of sunshine and even warmer (22ºC) than the previous day (20º).

It was time to party in Funchal

and my two favourite are these

but speaking of aircrafts, my highlight was this one

I just love maddogs...

After some fun at the airport, it was time to return to Funchal and preparations for the new year's night celebrations was at full speed with several cruises arriving at the harbour. In fact...Funchal can also be nice for ship spotters

and so 2007 was coming to an end and it was time to register in photo the last sunset of the year and an island is the perfect place for that

it was time to party...

But Madeira is a beautiful island, and I couldn't help driving around the island to see a little more. To my surprise, Madeira is still very well preserved taking in consideration the amount of tourists they receive.

a lovely island indeed.

For the last day, I did another small visit to the airport for the last photos, but light was difficult

the best part was that I had the chance to talk once again with Rui Freitas and with his brother. Nice fellows. I really hope we meet again in Madeira. Who knows...we are going to have another new year's day in...12 months

So this is were my highlights from my trip to Funchal. As for my blog...oh well...I just hope to have some better weather, some free time and some aircrafts worth be shown.

Thanks for reading and take care