Clark To San Jose De Buenavista
Let's go to San Jose De Buenavista the capital of Antique Province.
This was a PAL inaugural flight from Clark - the first by any commercial airline from anywhere. This must have been a historic moment for the province. At kasama ako!
But, as I always say, let's start from the very beginning.
0428H, look at this, already a long line of passengers at the airport's entrance.
When there are such lines at an airport entrance, no IFs or BUTs, there is something wrong with that airport and/or its procedures. If it has been-so for a long time, then iisa lang ang "that means" nyan - matagal nang dispalinghado ang mga namumuno!
It can be caused by many things, but one thing is for sure: there's something wrong.
But let's not ruin my morning's historic flight. I made it and got my boarding pass.
I went straight to Gate 10, as indicated in my boarding pass (as if.., where else can I go anyway, right?). Good that I did, because the staff there were calling passengers.
Aysus! They were checking for people with boarding passes on Flight PR2205. If so, they (we!) were asked to enter the security tape that lead to the cordoned-off Gates 11 and 12, to queue up at a buffet area! Wow naman, breakfast buffet at 5AM. O ha!
As I always say, I'm not a breakfast bum. I can only handle a few morsels. I'm not a coffee kid either. Yet I still checked the buffet. Osyoso ba! Aruu, pang-lunch! Heavy!
So I sat down, I knew boarding would be in a while. But they were busy asking more people to come and sit. Captured audience pala kami, the ceremonies was to start!
I thought this 'ceremony' was a short one, na me pa-basag-basag ng champaigne, to take place at planeside, with only them 'the officials', and media folks in attendance.
It's a lunch/dinner buffet party pala, taking place at 5AM in the morning ng umaga!
Oy me pa-cake pa! Since I wasn't busy eating, I inched towards front to take this pic:
I enjoyed witnessing all the goings-on - especially hearing speakers deliver carefully crafted speeches, even if it seemed like no one was really listening! Busy sa kainan!
After the speeches, ribbon-cutting, pictorials, we were eventually boarded - on time!
The impending sunrise created blue strips/streaks amid the slowly yellowing skies. Or, was that the other way around? Yeah, maybe. So Yellow strips/streaks adorning the blue skies. Still best seen with naked eyes -they weren't too visible in my photos.
For the camera, it was still dark outside. Pics still had reflections on glass window.
In scenes and sceneries like that, part of me automatically shifts to what I would do when I was in Kinder and Grade 1 - an impulse to identify and name the things I see!
Now that I am way into the golden hour, aw golden age nga pala, it does not stop at just mere identification. It's usually added with more information available to adults.
And I silently did! Let's do that now:
From left to right, that tiny little plane entering the runway (left edge of above pic) is a PAL Q400 plane (De Havilland Canada Dash8-Q400NG) similar to what I was riding.
To the right, the one that appears a little bigger with the tail very much visible under available morning light, is a similar plane. Too far to 'guess' where it might be going.
Next is a Jetstar Airbus A320 that's about ready to depart for Singapore. It's already delayed because their departure time is 5AM and I snapped that picture at 5:53AM!
To the back, a little front of Jetstar is a Qatar Airways Boeing B787-800 Dreamliner. It's still sleeping (yes pahinga muna) and will depart for Doha Qatar in the afternoon.
Ahh, this one on foreground is interesting! I couldn't guess where it was going, since they have a lot of flights. I did not check earlier, busy manood nung seremonyas eh!
BUT, eto ang history! That plane, An Airbus A320, delivered to Cebu Pacific as brand new in 2011, was the same plane that made subasob dun sa Davao Runway on the evening of 02JUN2013. Syempre ni-repair na yan, ayan na nga eh oh, at work again!
Oist, what I (and many people) were so happy about that incident? No injuries!
Okay, enough, lest our topic go somewhere else again. My flight departed on time.
That's Mt. Arayat surrounded by plains, the only mountain east of the Clark Runway.
And here we were, about to roll from the taxiway unto Runway 02 for takeoff...
Runway 02 is a northward run. So our plane took off in the direction of Tarlac where it made a u-turn in the sky, heading southwards over Bulacan, Metro Manila, Laguna, Tagaytay, Batangas, Mindoro, eventually the western side of Panay Island - Antique!
That, is what I've been mentioning in previous stories - the amazing beauty of flying on propeller planes. They don't go too high. I can still see and identify what is below.
And so we landed amid loud fanfare and excitement of many residents and officials of San Jose De Buenavista, Antique! They just started Binirayan Festival 2 days ago!
After I was ambushed by media folks, bloggers and the curious, while everyone was still busy with the politicians or arriving officials out at planeside, I went to see this:
Then I disappeared! Shh, I had many people to talk-to and other things to see!
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