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Taken October 2003 from Nuremberg (NUE) to Cardiff (CWL) via AMS

NUE - AMS KL1880 Fokker 50 (F50) PH-KUA

3rd October 2003 06:35.

Early morning departure from Nuremberg to Amsterdam. I was going back to the UK for the weekend to visit my family. Ironically, I had to use a Dutch airline to take me from Germany to Britain. Booked the flight quite late so the price was fairly high, but I wasn't paying for it so it didn't matter too much.

The flight left on time and arrived early. In flight service was excellent even on a short flight. The crew served drinks then a CHOICE of sandwiches which was followed by a very tasty cake. You could have more of anything if you wanted.

Not much word from the flight deck until just before we landed, but this appears to be standard on KLM. The only problem was the turbulence. This was the bumpiest flight I have ever been on as there was some very high cloud over Europe at the time. As the Fokker 50 is a turboprop, it can only fly at 25,000 feet & so could not avoid the clouds. I fly on a regular basis and even I was scared on a few occasions. The seatbelt sign remained on throughout the flight which is something I have never experienced. Smooth landing in spite of the bad weather and some very nasty crosswinds.

AMS - CWL KL1059 Fokker 70 (F70) PH-KZE

3rd October 2003 09:45.

This was the second leg of my trip to Cardiff. After a very easy transfer in Amsterdam, I boarded the Fokker 70 for this short hop across the English Channel. We took off 20 minutes late, but the flight time was only 55 minutes so we landed on time. Fast and powerful take off and I certainly noticed the difference between the turboprop I was on before and this small jet.

Straight after take off we were over the English Channel and the weather began to clear up. Lovely views of London and the South East coast. Inflight service was the same as on the NUE-AMS leg with drinks, sandwiches and cakes. All this delivered in only 55 minutes was extremely impressive. Again, no word from the cockpit until about 15 minutes before landing (just over Bristol). Landing in Cardiff was excellent and we were on the stand exactly on time.

Overall, 2 fantastic flights! Well done KLM Cityhopper. I looked forward to my return flights 2 days later.