My last flight on a Lufthansa 737 (Farewell event to Heviz)

[Litjan]

Hi everyone,

I would like to share my (somewhat emotional) own personal farewell to the 737 I flew for 10 years here at Lufthansa. I started out as a First Officer in 1996, flying -300, - 400 and -500 variants. Later the -400s where phased out. In 2002 I transferred to the 747-400, and in 2008 I came back as a Captain to my beloved 737. I got to fly it until 2012, when, with the reduction in numbers, I was transferred to the A320 family.

Last Saturday saw the last commercial flight of a 737 in Lufthansa service, but the plane has a huge following among "Lufhanseats", and we were not willing to just let it go like that. So together with the 737-fleet administration a plan was made to bid farewell to the 737 in style.

Two 737-300´s were scheduled to fly to Heviz, Hungary (the "FlyBalaton" airport) on November, 1st - spend the night there and then fly back to Frankfurt on the 2nd. After that there was a farewell event in one of the huge maintenance hangars on the airport. Here are some pics:

Checking in at the airport:

A booklet we got and my ticket:

Arriving at the D-ABEC "Karlsruhe":

Landing/turnoff light assembly:

Our head of fleet, who flew us to Heviz:

Me getting on board (I hate sitting in the back!):

Taxiing out, we saw the second aircraft to follow us an hour later, D-ABEK:

Arriving in Heviz, after backtracking we were greated by "water fountains" from the fire-trucks!

The Heviz airport:

Some detail shots in the afternoon sun:

Even the mayor of Heviz came out to greet us (and he brought some local liqueur!)

Malev flies 737s (or used to?):

After a nice celebration dinner in a downtown hotel, meeting with many colleagues and friends and a whole evening of "talking 737" we headed back out to the airport the next morning. Our two fine "Bobbies" waiting for us on the apron:

"Fanhansa" D-ABEK:

My old office

Departure over Lake Balaton, so lifevest mandatory!

And getting off the 737 for the last time :-((((

After we arrived, there was the farewell celebration in the hangar:

They REALLY polished good old "Neubrandenburg" D-ABEN:

And our CEO and my former flight-school classmate Carsten Spohr had some nice things to say about the 737 (even though he only flew 320s):

Finally they pulled the plane out of the hangar in a symbolic "roll-out". The aircraft will be flown to the U.S. over the next few weeks, some of them will continue to fly there. So if you see any of them, give them my best...

https://youtu.be/18qiHDDA-DU

Good-Bye, Bobby! Jan

 

[sizziano]

Awesome post Jan. Thanks.

[Tom Stian]

Nice story and pictures. Thanks for sharing your farewell to the 733. 

[frumpy]

Nice post, thank you! Hard to imagine there is no LH737 anymore.

The video is set to private.

[Litjan]

10 minutes ago, frumpy said:

Nice post, thank you! Hard to imagine there is no LH737 anymore.

The video is set to private.

Its still "processing" - let me know if you still can´t see it in an hour or so...

Thanks, Jan

 

[birdy.dma]

Jan,

Probably a moving sight for you.

[jfim88]

Very good story. Thanks for sharing!

Enviado desde mi iPhone utilizando Tapatalk Pro

[Litjan]

25 minutes ago, birdy.dma said:

Jan,

Probably a moving sight for you.

Most definitely

[fffirefly]

I'm very content with my life and try to make it a point not to envy anyone else's but in your case Jan, I make an exception!

[Tim013]

I'm still trying to figure out who has the better "job."  The flight school classmate of Jan's who is now the big boss CEO, or Jan, who gets to fly transport category aircraft for a living.  Tough call. 

Tim

[Rodeo]

I can't help but feel disappointed that there's no gateway airport for LHSM; I expected to find one, and made by Litjan of course!

[Dhruv]

17 hours ago, Litjan said:

Me getting on board (I hate sitting in the back!):

Had someone already claimed the jump seat?!

[vitabutch]

Finally it happens. I remember you told me Lufthansa decided to migrate from 737s. Now it is done. This plane is a very great thing of course, but people are the most important. Thank you very much for your passion with 737 and your efforts to bring us a part of this beauty with IXEG product. I am a very lucky person to get to know you. All the best to you and your family! Cheer up!

[NKGMig]

Seeing this topic, I'd like to share my experience with Lufthansa B733 this summer. I was on my way back home from a trip to England on 16th July. D-ABED(LH941)took me from EGCC to EDDF, then D-AIGL(LH780)  took me from EDDF to ZSNJ(Nanjing, China). One thing to be mentioned, the aircraft for LH941 was A320 when booking this flight but about one month before departure, the type changed to B733. At that moment, I was flying IXEG B733 frequently on VATSIM, that news made me really excited. This was my first time but also my last time to fly Lufthansa B733.

Weather in Manchester is not that good, at gate 24 ready for push/start.

 

Moments after departure. It was the first time that  SWISS CS100 flew to Manchester that day. I could see groups of people gathering at the spotting location near runway 23L when I was lining up the runway.

 

B733 safety card

 

Cabin shot.

 

Final approach to 25R, great view of the terminal.

 

Remote stand, first time to get off the plane from back door.

 

Fanhansa livery, taken inside the terminal during the 6 hour transfer.

 

D-ABEH

 

D-AIGL waiting for boarding. I chose to fly Lufthansa because of the A343 but B733 gave me a great surprise!

 

Climb out of runway 18, very nice rate of climb. In fact I prefer a 25C departure because it could let me take some overview photos of FRA airport during the climb.

 

A343 cabin.

 

In the end, some shots of airshows in England

 

Thank you so much

 

 

 

[Rodeo]

13 hours ago, Dhruv said:

Had someone already claimed the jump seat?!

Half the passengers must have been Lufthansa, and many/most of them must have flown the 737 at some point. I bet the jumpseat was "booked" months in advance!