Songshan Airport
This one is a special one: My first time flying solo, as a 13 year old. ( Also this flight report has a plot twist)
After a quick ride on the MRT, I arrived at Songshan airport.
TSA's domestic terminal was small and easy to navigate, which would be useful to someone like me.
UNI Air had kiosks for check in, but they didn't work, so I went to an airport worker, who happily helped me out.
After a few minutes, I got my boarding pass. My flight was B78811, with a 10:45 STD, and an 11:50 STA. However, I quickly found out that we got extremely delayed, until 12:10.
Because of the delay, I decided to go do some planespotting, since I had well over 2 hours until the boarding time.
TSA has a nice observation deck, and it didn't have too many people around, given the time and the day.
I spotted what was supposedly our aircraft for today's 45 minute flight.
JA829J getting ready for JL96 back to HND.
Since there wasn't much to see, I went back into the terminal to explore.
TSA has this cool area where it's really modern and full of shops, but it's mainly just for international departures
Since there wasn't much to do, and the departure time is always subject to change, I headed airside at around 10 AM, just under 2 hours before the delayed departure time
TSA's domestic departure hall has 2 floors, with the 1st floor being very crowded. My gate, gate 11, was on the 2nd floor.
The second floor was a lot quieter and peaceful.
B-17017 headed for Matsu
At the original boarding time, 10:25, the plane still wasn't here.
As I was walking around, I came across a VDGS board. It was my first time seeing one up close. Was pretty cool!
At around 11:30 AM, 20 minutes before the delayed boarding time, and 1 hour 5 minutes after the original boarding time, our plane arrived.
Our ride today was B-16220, a 10 year old Airbus A321-200. It has 184 seats in a C8Y176 configuration, with C being 2-2 and Y being 3-3. It also was NOT the plane that I saw at the observation deck. That one was B-16216.
By the looks of it, it seemed like the flight was going to be completely full. I did manage to get a window seat while checking in, though.
At 11:44, we got delayed yet again, to a 12:10 boarding time.
At 12:04, an hour and 40 minutes behind schedule, they started boarding.
EVA Air's A321s have a relatively old cabin. However, their A321 business class does have an IFE.
Their economy didn't have IFE's, but if you chose a seat in the front 2 rows, you get extra legroom.
My seat, 36K, had a excellent view of the flaps.
Since this was only a 45 minute flight, all that came with a seat was a waste disposal bag and of course the safety card
There was also a QR code to scan to access an entertainment system on your phone, however on this flight it was not working.
At 12:21, an hour and 36 minutes behind schedule, we started pushing back.
After a short taxi, we took off at 12:32 PM.
For some form of entertainment, they had these retractable TV screens.
Around 15 minutes after takeoff, they started to hand out napkins. I was surprised that there was any service at all given the length of this flight.
Around 5 minutes later, they handed out drinks. We had a choice between orange juice, tea, and water. I went with orange juice.
At around 12:55, we started our descent from FL200.
However, we soon ran into a problem. At 13:05, we started holding above Kinmen. The visibility for Runway 06 was dropping by the second, so we had to switch over to runway 24. As I looked down, all I could see was clouds.
The pilot initially said we would hold for around 10 minutes, however, after 20 minutes, I realized that we were still in a holding pattern. It was at this moment that the thought of diverting came into my mind.
After a few more minutes, the pilot made an announcement that I was fully expecting, but still kind of caught me off guard. He announced that we would be returning to TSA, since the visibility wasn't getting any better. It was kind of funny hearing all the old people on the plane groan and start complaining, but as someone who flys IFR in msfs and totally knows how to fly an A321 (sarcastic), I knew that this was the right choice. Had we continued to hold without the visibility improving, we would have run of our diversion options due to fuel, and it could have turned real bad.
As we neared TSA, I knew that this would be a bumpy landing, since it was only clouds outside.
We landed back in TSA at around 14:25, and the touchdown was a lot smoother than I was expecting, given the 8000 foot runway and the winds, so props to the pilots.
Our final flight path looked pretty disastrous
When I got back into the terminal, I saw that all of the flights head for KNH were either delayed or cancelled, so I was grateful that we flew in the first place.
UNI Air did give us a full refund after the flight, which I definitely did not expect.
All in all, other than the diversion, it was a pretty solid regional flight. They even handled the diversion well. Once again, I have been reminded why EVA is my favorite airline.
