This was the flight for my annual holiday, and I chose Turkey this year. Dalaman is on the south coast, by the Med.

I turned up nice and early at Gatwick, only to find that the flight was delayed by 4 hours. This is my longest flight delay for some years. The airline staff were very apologetic, and kindly gave me a voucher for five pounds, to spend at the airport.

Of course I accepted their apology, and it's just one of those things. However, I have given a low mark for punctuality. This is due to factual reporting rather than any annoyance at the delay.

Anyway, the gist of it was that one of the First Choice planes broke down, and that left others in an incorrect place. They were unable to fix the problem, so eventually they wheeled out one of their big long-range aircraft - a B-767 - to take us down to Turkey.

I think we were meant to travel on a 757. By the time we were all aboard the 767, it was still only about two-thirds full, and a lot of those were children.

We took off powerfully towards the west, making a right turn after takeoff, then another, and then gaining height swiftly. It was such a light load for the plane. The impression I got was of a big muscleman lifting a couple of bags of sugar!

Pretty soon we were at 38,000 ft. We then moved speedily down through Europe, passing over Belgium, Germany, Austria, the former Yugoslavia, and Bulgaria. There was no turbulence to speak of. Flight deck kept us informed of progress.

The service from the cabin staff, as usual on First Choice, was pretty good. The plane was just lovely. I am 6ft 5ins, and I had plenty of legroom in economy. However, this plane would not normally be used on this route.

Pretty soon we were descending over the Aegean Sea, for a pillow-soft landing on the westerly at Dalaman. A really nice flight, just a shame about the long delay. I would be happy to fly with First Choice again.