Since my internship has been winding down (Tuesday is my last day in the office), one of my colleagues decided that it would be a nice change for me and set-up what's called a crew-umlauf. In the span of one day, I was notified on Tuesday, that on Thursday I would be flying to Milan-Linate and back.
On Thursday morning, I reported to central command headquarters where the crew was debriefed by the pursor and any issues amongst the crew and cabin crew were discussed. I partook in this meeting and the crew was able to meet me. This was good as the pilot asked me if I wanted to sit in the cockpit during take-off and landing since it was not clear if I had a seat. (I had a seat, because in order to do this crew-umlauf, Lufthansa actually has to buy me a corporate ticket). Regardless, the pilot and co-pilot were friendly and invited me to sit in the jump seat.
Unfortunately, I still had to check in in the terminal and go thru security like a regular passengers. Like a pro, I checked-in online, scanned my mobile phone over the scanner to check in at security, and then got through security.
My de-briefing was at 7:30 and lasted about 30 minutes. The flight was scheduled to depart at 8:45. So I was still at HQ at 8:00am and then I had to go up to my office to drop off my stuff. When I got through the line at security, I had just barely 25 minutes to get to the plane. Usually this isn't a problem, but since many of the flights at Frankfurt don't have gate parking positions, you have to take the bus to the remote gate stand. This adds time and boarding in these cases starts earlier. Nevertheless, I made it to the gate and checked-in within time.
As I traveled with all the passengers on the bus to the plane, I got lots of weird looks. As company policy, you have to keep your Lufthansa badge visible at all times. In addition, I had to wear this "Management in Practice" pin so that the passengers knew that I was "visiting" and that I'm not certified as a flight attendant.
I boarded the plane, an Airbus A319 named after the German city "Friedrichshafen" which is located on the shores of Lake Constance. I was last to get on the plane, and I went right into the cockpit. This was not my first time this year to fly in the cockpit, about a month back, I flew to Moscow and I asked to sit in the cockpit. However, this time, I got to sit in the cockpit during take-off and landing. That's an experience since you can see out in front of you, and the feeling is different being at the tip "spitze" of the plane.
After we had reached a cruising altitude of 10,000ft, I left the cockpit to go do my duties as a "flight attendant". It was decided that I'd help Jacqueline in economy. As I walked down the aisle of the jet towards the rear galley, I again got the same looks as I did on the bus. Nobody questioned my authority though. Jacqueline told me to start handing out the cream-cheese rolls. She instructed me that I have to walk with my face towards the passengers meaning that I had to walk backwards down the aisle as I was supposed to start at the rear of the plane with the service. This was because the business class would be served relatively quickly at which point the crew up front would start serving economy.
Given that the flight from Frankfurt to Milan-Linate is only 55 minutes, it doesn't leave the crew with much time to complete the whole service. After handing out the cream-cheese rolls "frischkäse brötchen" I had to start the beverage service. I took the trolley out of the galley, and again with my back facing the front, started the beverage service. We had soda, juice, coffee and tea. Vovic, to your chagrin, I decided not to do the "coffeetea" saying that you have come to expect from Lufthansa.
I luckily made no mistakes during the beverage service. I didn't spill on anybody. I did however have trouble doing the service since I kept forgetting that I serve 3 rows along side Jackie, and then we move the trolley and I skip 3 rows so that Jackie can serve them. She of course was much faster than me.
After crossing the Alps, we were already starting our descent towards Milan. I decided that it was time to go back into the cockpit and prepared for landing. I returned into the cockpit (the pilots have monitors to see who is standing at the door for security reasons now) and I was let back in. I took my seat, buckled up and put my headset back on. It was cool to see the landing approach. The plane was basically flying itself, all that the pilots had to do were change the localizer settings and heading coordinates as we passed certain positions. It was quite easy. They just rotated switched to adjust altitude and heading. However, they did engage the flaps, put the gear down and verbally communicated to one another (in English) each command. Then as the runway was in sight, they made visual contact with the runway and the plane then starting to count down, "2500, 1000, 500, 400, 300, 200, 100, 40, 30, 20, RETARD, RETARD." The autopilot is very loud and strict. Retard basically means touchdown, and you have to engage the throttle so that the noise will point up again.
We landed quite hard actually, since the co-pilot was manning the controls. After landing, the pilots have to control the direction of the plane by pressing the pedals that control the vertical stabilizer flap. This helps that plane land in a straight line.
Linate has just 3 gates, parked next to us was a KLM 737-800 from Amsterdam and an Airfrance A321 from Paris. I stepped out of the cockpit once the seatbelt switch was turned off, and I then bade farewell to our passengers as they de-boarded the plane.
In Linate, we had just 35 minutes before we had to turn around and fly back to Frankfurt. In that time, the cleaning crew came aboard and cleaned the aircraft and lavatories. We didn't refuel as the pilot said it was much too expensive, and that we had extra fuel from Frankfurt. We had about 4000 kg of fuel on board left. After drinking one cup of real Italian coffee, we boarded all the passengers again, and I returned to the cockpit. The flight back was not any different than the flight down. In all my sojourn to Milan took about 3 hours. I was already back in my office at 12pm. It's a strange feeling to know that within the span of 3 hours I had been to Italy and back.
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