On the 21st of October, a Wednesday with overcast skies and milder temperatures, we flew GOL Linhas Aéreas G3 1117. This is the company's daily flight departing from Brasília International Airport and ending at São Paulo International Airport (Guarulhos).
Brasilia suffered from intense heat days before, however two days before our departure to São Paulo the Federal Capital experienced days with rain and a cold front.
The flight
The aircraft that carried out flight 1117 to São Paulo was the Boeing 737-800 with registration PR-GZZ, arriving at GOL in December 2019. One of the differences between this aircraft and the company's other common -800s is the absence of winglets, affectionately nicknamed 'Chevetão'. This writer had never flown in one of these.
GOL maintained Air China's standard of wider and larger seats in rows 1 to 4. Called GOL+ Conforto, you pay extra to have more space and more comfort during the trip. In addition, it has priority boarding.
I settled into seat 2A from GOL+ Conforto, and clearly the larger seat would bring more comfort during the trip. Even though it is wider, it does not have a headrest, its blue fabric does not characterize its former operator Air China, however it has characteristics similar to that of an executive class seat.
The more expensive seats have greater reclining, which makes all the difference to take a good nap in flight. On board the 737-800 there was an occupancy of 157 engers, in a configuration for 168. Captain Buzzelato and his crew welcomed us on board, and we started the pushback at 05:53 am.
A note to the crew of this flight who, even early in the morning, were being very attentive, polite and showing empathy. There were times when engers needed to be taken care of, such as a lady who had a pet on board and others who needed special attention, such as the elderly, all very well done.
After the checks during the activation of the Boeing's CFM engines, we started the taxi to runway 11R at Brasília Airport. Aircraft that take off or land from runway 11R/29L, over the famous viaduct that connects taxiways R, K, U, T and who frees the EE to the runway.
As there was little traffic at that time, Commander Buzzelato accelerated a little more during the taxi to reach headland 11R, the path is quite long. When we entered the runway, the takeoff was made practically immediately, at 06:05.
The Captain had informed me at the end of the flight that GOL had asked the pilots to be able to use as much of the runway as possible to help save fuel in this time of crisis. The runways at Brasília Airport are 3200m on 11L/29R and 3300m on 11R/29L.
After takeoff we spent a few minutes inside a lot of clouds until we reached the top of them. The sun was already with enough strength and light, which made many engers close the blinds on the left side, in order to have a good nap since it was very early that Wednesday.
Some things remained on these seats used by GOL, such as the audio control used on the armrest in addition to the ashtray. There was also a small table to accommodate objects or glasses if served separately. The recline was considerably better than the other seats used by GOL.
About 20 minutes later we stabilized at flight level FL370 or 37 feet. We had few moments of turbulence during the journey to Guarulhos, this aircraft was not yet equipped with plugs or Wi-Fi. So the entertainment was sleeping, listening to the good sound of the CFM 56 and reclining the armchair.
Throughout the flight, the crew was extremely careful and attentive. Distributing water, sachets with gel alcohol. As with Azul, GOL also continues to serve its Cookies and Potatoes when disembarking to prevent engers from running out of masks and having more during the flight.
At 06:59 the Captain announces that we will begin our descent to land at Guarulhos Airport. The flight attendants immediately by, carefully collecting all the garbage on board and using gloves at all times.
Guarulhos, known for its fog in dry and rainy weather, had rainy weather for most of the day. At 7:17 am, the pilots lowered the landing gear and started the final approach for landing at the Guarulhos Airport runway 09R.
The landing took place at 07:22 am (local time) and it was very smooth and the Boeing braked smoothly to release and proceed to Terminal 2, at Gate 202. We arrived about 20 minutes before the scheduled time.
The PR-GZZ has some shared entertainment screens, but GOL does not use this entertainment system.
At the end of the flight, when everyone disembarked, the crew authorized me to take some pictures of the empty aircraft before the cleaning team entered. I also visited the cockpit of the PR-GZZ, which was manufactured in 2006. The engines of this aircraft are 26K, the brakes are also different from the SFP used by GOL.
With that, this specific 737 would need more runway to be able to perform a deceleration, due to its aerodynamics.
We thank this crew who welcomed us with great care and showed a lot of empathy. At the end, a good conversation about aviation with a crew that shows to those who are still at the beginning of their careers in aviation.
In general it was a good experience, for those who like to hear the sound of the engines flying in such an aircraft from rows 1 to 9 guarantee the proximity to the engines. We had a little turbulence on the approach to São Paulo, but we landed without major problems.
This is one of the routes that GOL offers the most availability from Brasilia, both cities are part of the company's major flight distribution hubs.
Article: Gabriel Melo
