Help check presentation of the Alliance
During the charter flights, we held an on-board raffle to raise money for charity. On Friday, November 20, 2009, we delivered the first check from this campaign. It was a check for $3000, given to the Help Alliance, a charity run by Lufthansa staff members. An overview of all Help Alliance projects can be found here. The money raised for Help Alliance during the StarmegaDO is being put to use in a school project in South Africa. FlyerTalkers will be able to follow the status of the project as it progresses, and even participate more directly.
Many more event pictures now available!
![295-110309_0268[1]](http://www.starmegado.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/295-110309_02681.jpg "295-110309_0268[1]")
We’ve created a special picture blog of photos from the events. Visit them visit them here:
http:/ / www.starmegado.com / Plogger/
Feel free to click on the pictures and post comments, or select some for downloading.
More photos from the Airbus factory tour
Just a few more photos from inside the final assembly building at Toulouse…
Plane spotting at Toulouse
What great fun to be at the factory and see the planes from so many carriers all in one place.  And there were plenty to be seen.  Check out some of these beauties:
This is the plane we were touring in all day:
Not all the planes on the ground were Airbus, but they were still cool:
Some of the bigger birds on display:
Of course, the main focus of the visit to Toulouse was plane spotting of a different kind.  We were there to tour the A380 final assembly line.  We did, and it was amazing.  More stories, video and photos from that soon.
Inspecting the crew rest bunks
As a group of mostly very frequent flyers, getting to go behind the scenes and see the other side of the operations is always interesting.  After all, we’ spend plenty of time on the customer side.  Hitting up the crew side is the next step in the adventure.  So when Lufthansa opened up access to their Technik facility – their maintenance operations – scores of our group showed up to take part. 
Among other things, the group wandered through a couple planes that were in for their regular maintenance checks.  These planes are essentially fully disassembled and then put back together, with various bits replaced and refreshed along the way.  One of the more popular scenes during these tours were the visits to the crew rest bunks.  They may not be glamorous, but they are fully flat, quiet and dark.  Not too shabby.  I could travel like that.  Then again, I’ve been in an overhead bin and didn’t think it was all that bad. 
Anyways, here are pictures of some folks having fun in the crew rest bunks:
A “missed approach” at Toulouse
When showing up to a party is is a good idea to make a grand first impression, right? So what about buzzing the field at Toulouse? I like it.
Our arrival at the Airbus facility was a spectacular event, highlighted by the expert fly-by executed by the first officer on our Condor air 757-300.  Sitting in the middle of the plane, I knew that we were low to the field and I knew pretty early on that we were long on the approach.  But just now, flying back to Los Angeles, I have had a chance to view a video taken from the cockpit and know just how close we were.
The voice of the computer counts down the approach.  Fifty. Forty. Thirty. Twenty!
That’s right…Twenty.  Feet, I think.  That’s pretty ridiculous.  And we cruised pretty much the length of the runway at that altitude.
And then the shouts from back in the cabin – sheer excitement as we cruise on down the field so close, yet so very far away from touching down.  Finally, at the end of the runway, an ominous “six hundred remaining” is heard as the end of the runway is clearly visible and we’re very clearly still not on the ground.  And then the thrust of the engines and only clouds and sky visible through the cockpit window as we climbed out and around for our actual landing. 
Yeah, we made one hell of a first impression!
The second movie here is of the actual landing.  Mostly the same except that we actually bothered to stop that time around.  Still plenty of excitement from the cabin.
Fun ‘n’ snow in Oslo
First stop on the trip was Oslo to pick up a few more participants and to meet the folks from SAS who were kind enough to host us.  They provided all the traditional Norwegian fare for us, including snow on arrival.  Walking off the plane in a Hawaiian shirt and making a snow ball was quite enjoyable.
There was traditional music and dance:
And there were a bunch of displays set up around the hangar.  The Air Force had a demo of their med-evac procedures on display and we were able to walk around one of the planes, including in the engine cowls and the landing gear areas.  Very cool stuff.
There was a presentation from the folks at SAS about their airline and the Euro Bonus program as well as two singing performances by one of the flight attendants, including one where the wing of the plane was used as the stage.  Video of that should be forthcoming shortly.
And then there was the biggest surprise of the morning’s events.  The main organizer, Tommy, actually got to leave the plane via the evacuation slide:
Some others hopped on afterwards, but I am quite certain it wasn’t the same.
And then our stay in Oslo was complete.  It was off to the de-icing pad and our departure for Toulouse.  Another exciting flight and an even more exciting arrival!
Getting an early start to the day
I’ve never seen so many people quite so happy to be boarding a plane at 5:15 in the morning.  And yet there we all were.  Nearly 200 mostly awake and in a remote gate area of Frankfurt International Airport, ready to climb on board the first of three flights in our chartered Condor Boeing 757-300.
Plenty of sleepy eyes in the gate area but once boarding started most folks perked up in a hurry.
Maybe it was that we were giving out lies in conjunction with the first flight’s theme – a Continental Airlines flight from Hawai’i to Los Angeles in the 70s.  Or maybe it was because the excitement all finally just bubbled over.  Who really cares why…folks were downright giddy and it showed in their faces and behavior.
And the party never stopped.  It would be days before things calmed down.  But it is still before 6am on a Thursday morning in this story and we haven’t even taken off for our first stop, Oslo and a breakfast party with SAS.
What amazing generosity
There were a ton of different things going on throughout the week designed to make sure that our group had a great time.  One of the highlights, however, was the charity auction that was held during the trip.  After having each spent a whole bunch of cash on getting to Frankfurt and in booking seats on the charter flights, I don’t think that anyone really expected the level of giving that was seen.
Even before the raffle started the charity was apparent.  Members from around the globe contributed a variety of prizes, ranging from airline amenity kits and sleeper suits to Windows 7 Ultimate.  We had signed copies of the final United 737 flight manifests and a bunch of autographed hats from Captain Denny.  And some cool electronics, too.
Raffle tickets were purchased in US Dollars, Euros, British Pounds and Canadian Dollars.  And there were a LOT of tickets purchased.  Several hundred tickets were sold and we raised almost USD $5,000! Handing out the prizes was great fun, as was announcing where the money raised is going to be distributed.
Part of the money is being contributed to FlyerTalk kiva.org's lending team.  That group has lent out over $15,000 thus far and the donations from our trip should have that pushed up over $20,000 and beyond in a hurry.
The other part of the money is being donated to the Captain Jason Dahl Scholarship Fund.  Captain Dahl was a pilot with United airlines and was working as the Captain of flight 93 on September 11th.  He loved to fly from a very young age and was able to make a career out of it in part due to a scholarship he received to attend flight school.  In his memory family and friends have established the fund to provide similar scholarships out to aspiring pilots.  Give our love for travel we felt that it was an appropriate way to help further our ability to have this fun.
What a pretty plane!
Just a couple photos here of the gorgeous Condor 757-300 that we chartered for the day.  Good times!
