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Today I present you another flight review. This flight review will be focused on American Airlines Flight (Operated by Envoy Air( 3377 from Bill and Hillary National AIrport, Adams Field (KLIT) to Dallas Fort Worth International Airport onboard one of my favorite airplanes, the Embraer ERJ-175. This flight was operated by N272NN and went out of Gate 5. This flight occured on Monday, August 17th, 2020. This flight review will be different in the stance that before I got to fly, I had to work in the morning. Some of you might ask why i took an afternoon flight after working in the morning but I wanted to and did go to two cities and this was the only way for it to work out nicely. So, what are those two cities. The two cities that I had planned for this trip were Reno, NV to see my brother who took a job out there for his current company and then down to Phoenix, AZ to see some good friends and hangout with them. All of these flights will have reviews on them. So, now that you guys have a little background information, lets get started.
Once i got off of work, I changed out of my work clothes to some street clothes and then went to my car to drop off those and to pick up a few more items that i had purposely left in there so I did have to lug everything around. Once I did that, it was 1115am local time and it was time to go through security. Since this was a 1230 departure, and nothing really happens around noon at my local airport, it took like a minute to get through. At 1117am, I went to gate and hung around there for a while and then finally at 1140am, I got my baording pass. This flight was a full flight but I got lucky and got a first class seat and oh did it feel good to have a nice seat after a long morning of working and an even longer day of traveling out west. My seat assignment for this leg was seat 4D and it turned out that i had my own row to myself which was even better. At 1202pm, we started boading and since we were all going to the same place origianly, I was in no hurry to board. I did of course eventually board and at 1227pm, we pushed from the gate. We had a short 3 minute taxi over to runway 4R and exaclty on time at 1230 we thundered down the runway and were airborne into the hot Arkansas summer sky. The flight was smooth and uneventful and 20 minutes from landing at 1301, we started our inital descent into the greater Dallas Fort Worht area. At 1321, we pulled into the gate. Todays gate assignment was B46. Deplaning was quick and easy and I started my way over to my next flight which would take me from Dallas Fort Worth Interantional Airport to Phoeinx Sky Harbor Internaitonal AIrport. Overall, this was another uneventual flight with a great crew and of course a great plane. Comment below, what do you think of these flight reviews and what is your favorite regional plane?
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Flight Review: AA3413 (DFW-LIT)
Welcome to part 3 of 3 of flying home from Reno, NV last week. This part has beend delyaed a little bit longer just because i have been busy with work and have also been traveling on my off days. Let me know if you want trip reports of those flights I did. If you havent checked out parts 1 and 2 of this trip, please do so. Anywho, lets get started. On this flight, we continute the journey home on part 3 of the 3 on this trip. On this leg we are traveling from Dallas Fort-Worth International AIrport to Bill and Hillary National Airport, Adams Field in Little Rock, Arkansas. After arrving in Dallas from Phoenix, I went from the C terminal were I arrived to the A terminal were my dad is arriving. Since I got in about 90 minutes before he did, I took my time getting there and wondered around for a bit. Once I saw that his plane was on the ground, I headed to his gate were I waited for him to deplane. Since he was near the front, he got off quickly which was nice since we didnt have much time to make our flight home to Little Rock. Our flight home was on an Embrear ERJ-175, with registration N226NN. Once we got to the B terminal, we found our gate which happened to B21. Once we found that, we realized we still had some time left before boarding started so we went a gates down to Cousins BBQ and got some dinner so both of us hadnt eaten in a while. I had a pulled pork sandwhich and he has a brisket and some pulled pork. Not long after we got to the gate, boarding started. Since he was on a confirmed ticket, he got to board with his group as I waited back with one one other non-rev. This flight was completely full and it was going to have to be a maricle for myself and that other non-rev to get one. While waiting to get one, my dad kept texting me and asking me if I would get on as he was worried. I told him that I had a backup plan, like everyone flying stanby should and that I have done it a “few” times. Before I go on, what do you think happend? Do you think I got one? Comment below. Since you read that and hopefully made your guess before finishing this review, the other non-rev and i did get on thanks to 2 people out of a 16 person group misconnecting after they held the plane about 20 minutes past scheudeld departure time for that group to get on. We got the last two seats on the plane, seats 22A and 22F. I was not complaining at all as I was tired and did not really want to travel back out west to Phoenix to spend the night with friend and to try it again that next day.. Also, the gate agents in Dallas working this flight were some of the best Dallas gate agents I have ever came across. They were professional, nice and most of all, really helped us and kept giving us updates as to what was happeneing. We might be on standby but just like everyone else, we do deserve to know whats happening. Overall. it was a good trip and glad I got to make it home and got to sleep in my own bed that night. light Review: AA441 (Phoenix-Dallas)
Welcome to part 2 of 3 as I take a trip from Reno, Nevada back home to Little Rock. This is the second flight in my journey home and on this leg I am flying from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport to Dallas-Fort Worth Airport. On this flight, we are continuing our journery home. I get back to the airport around 1030am and head staright up straight upstairs to security as I already have my verifcation pass to let me through security. Once again, since I have TSA PRE it was a mere 3 minutes to get through. After I got through security, I went to my gate, A7 and saw my aircraft parked at the gate. Today’s aircrafft was N416AN, a 6 month old Airbus A321NX. Since our gate area was busy, i decided to go across the way and sit at A6. What’s so special about A6 on this trip? Anywho, I waited around for about 45 minutes then decided to go up to the counter and get my boarding pass. I got my boarding pass and on todays flight to Dallas, I would be sitting in seat 11A, a window seat in Main Cabin Extra. At 1130am, we started the boarding process. Since this flight was mostly empty, boaring was quick and just as quick as it started it ended and the door was closed. Once boarding was complete, I realized that I had a whole row, yes, even the other side of the same row was empty to myself. I had plenty of room to stretch out and get some work done and like always, enjoy the views of the vast waste lands of the west. At 1149 local time, we pushed from the gate and taxied over to runway 25R and right on time at 12pm we thundered into the hot Phoenix sky and we were on our way to Phoenix. Once in the air, we climbed to an altitude of 35,000 feet or FL350 for a few minutes due to some corssing traffic but after that, we eventually climbed all the way up to our cruising of 39,000 feet or FL390. The flight was uneventful as I listened to music, looked out the window and of course worked on the pervious flight review. About 25 minutes from landing, we started out decent into the greater DFW area.As we were descending the captain of the flight pointed out some cool landmarks which I thought was a cool touch. After all, it is the small things that matter. At 3:48pm local time, we landed on runway 13R. Not only did we land on runway 13R, but it was a greaser. It was probably one of the best landings ive ever experience flying. After that, we had about a ten minute taxi to our gate which was D34. Once we pulled into our gate, we deplaned and I went over to gate A34 to meet up with my dad since he was coming in from Reno and that was his arriving gate. Overall, this was a much better expierence on the American Airlines Airbus A321N. Stay tuned for a crazy part 3 of this trip. Flight Review: AA112 (Reno-Phoenix)
This evening, I bring to you guys another American Airlines flight review. This flight was one of three for the day traveling back home to Little Rock after driving cross country out to Reno with my brother since he is moving out there. This flight was operated by an Airbus A319, N762US, which is an old US Airways bird and 19 years of age. I had an early morning start to the day with a wakeup call of 4am. Once I got up, I got ready and was out the door in about 20 minutes. I headed down the elevator from the 14th floor and waited for the shuttle bus to take me to the Reno-Tahoe International AIrport. The drive was quick and around 440am, we arrived at the airport. I walked into the terminal and immidently went through security. Since I was TSA PRE, it took all of 3 minutes to get through security. Once I got through security, I went to my gate which was C9. I was at the gate by 5am. Boarding started at 550am for the 0620a departure out of Reno. About twenty minutes before boarding, I went up to the gate agent to tell her I was here and she asked if I wanted a window or an aisle. I told her window beciase what avgeek doesnt like the window seat.. especially with the sunrising over the mountains. Note: Most of the time flying standby, you dont get a choice but if flights are empty enough or if the gate agent is in a good mood, they will ask. On this flight to Phoenix, I was seat 16A, a standard economy seat. This flight was about 85% full which was good to see in a time of a global pandemic. Once boarding had pretty much wrapped up, the captain of the flight, came out of the cockpit and went section by section and gave his pre-departure speech and also cracked a few jokes which was cool. He said we were going to go fast (which we did) since it was go home day for him and his crew and he wanted to get home. At 610am, we pushed from the gate and we taxied over to runway 16L for departure. Some of you might ask we taxied to 16L for departure instead of 16R and that is because 16R is closed. At 615am, 5 minutes early, we thundered down the runway and were in the morning Reno sky. Today’s flight was a quick one hour and 35 minutes at an altitude of 39,000 feet or FL390. About twenty minutes from landing, we started our decent for Phoenix and shortly thereafter, we landed on runway 26 and taxied over to the gate. Today’s gate was A6 and our schuedled arrival time was 802am but we actually got in and parked at the gate at 749am. Since I had plans in Phoenix during my four hour layover, it was nice to get in early and have more time to do those plans. Overall, the flight was not that bad. I have definitely had better crew for early morning flights but I get it. I hope you all enjoy this flight review and look for two more in the coming days as I fly on a 6 month old Airbus A321NX from PHX-DFW and the American Eagle (Operated by Envoy Air) E175 flight from DFW-LIT. On Monday, I flew out to Phoenix to see a couple of friends. Here is flight one of two on Southwest.
Before we get into the flight review, let’s talk about the cleanliest of this airplane. Southwest does an amazing job of cleaning there planes. Upon entering I just did a quick glance and everything was so clean from the carpet to the seats to the galleys. When I reach my row, row 20, I chose the window seat which was 20F. Now SWA has an open seating policy so you pick where you sit but I wanted somewhere alone-ish and that seat was the place. When I reached my seat, the seat, it was in amazing condition. Like the rest of the plane, the seat was clean as well. I couldn’t find a speck of dirt. Now, back to the flight. Today’s flight was on N455WN a Boeing 737-700. This flight was from Little Rock to Dallas Love Field. Our cruising altitude was FL360 or 36000 feet. It wasn’t the smoothest of flights but hey, what’s a flight without some bumps. The crew on this flight was amazing. Even for such a short flight and with limited service, they made sure that everyone was taken care. This airplane had the new heart interior and livery and I really enjoy this interior and livery. I had plenty of leg room (5’5”) and the seats were probably some of the more comfortable ones I sat in. With Coronavirus going around, SWA is keeping all middle seats open which is nice. While that is nice, nothing beats having your own row to yourself which is also nice. The rest of the flight was uneventful. We soon arrived into the Dallas Love Field Airport with a typical Southwest landing on runway 13R and taxied over your Gate 8. Stay tuned for a trip update on the next flight from Dallas Love Field to Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. Scores: Airplane:9/10 Crew:8/10 Seat:8/10 Overall: 8/10 (Didn’t rate IFE due to it being subjective for such a short flight) On Thursday, March 19th, 2019 I had the privilege to fly from Dallas Fort-Worth International Airport to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport on board the Boeing 757-200. Today’s plane was N200UU, a 24 year old Boeing 757-200. Boarding started at 8:45 a.m. local time and on this flight I was Group 1 and seat 2F, a window seat in first class. Upon stepping onto the plane, I could definitely tell this bird was showing her age, but, it’s a 757 and they are still beautiful airplanes no matter how old they are. Once I settled into seat 2F, I was offered a pre-departure beverage from the flight attendant which I politely turned down. This plane also had no IFE in the headrest but instead had the TVs that are wall mounted. This plane did have electrical outlets to charge your device. I also had plenty of legroom and could stretch my legs out no problem. The flight departed early at 9:02 a.m. local time. Boarding was quick and efficient as today’s load was light with only around 50? people onboard. Our departure gate was C31. Once boarding was completed, we pushed from the gate and very slowly taxied over to runway 18L since we were headed westbound. Shortly thereafter, we thundered into the sky after using about 2,000 feet of the runway. Climb out was steep and bumpy as there had been some convective activity the night before and some of it was still lingering around. We reached our cruised altitude of 36,000 feet (FL360) quickly and settled in. Since it was bumpy on the climbing and for the first 30 minutes, the captain made the flight attendants stay in their seats until we got out of it. Once all of that passed, the flight attendant up front started taking drink orders and meal orders. On today’s flight, we had two options for breakfast. They were both cold options. If I was to take a guess, this is because they want to deep clean all the ovens on the planes before they serve hot meals. The choices on today’s flight were a fruit plate with yogurt or a bagel sandwich with a banana. Since I tend to eat a little healthier when I fly, I opted for the fruit plate and yogurt. My drink of choice was a good ole cup of water. (Remember to stay hydrated kids). Believe it or not, the fruit plate and the vanilla bean yogurt was good. It didn’t take me long to devour it as I was hungry. After service was done, I decided to sit back, relax, fall asleep and enjoy the rest of the flight on board the 757. After what seemed to me like 20 minutes, (it was actually about an hour) we started our descent into the Phoenix area. Not long after that, we landed on runway 7R which is on the southside of the PHX airport. We exited the runway about 2/3rds down, crossed 7L and taxied to the gate which was gate A20. All in all, it was a wonderful and relaxing flight.
Some scores: IFE:3/10 Food:7/10 Crew:9/10 Plane:7/10 Overall:7/10 The next few blog posts are about Dillon and I’s family vacation to the Big Island. This is part one of three for this series.
It was a cool, crisp Friday night as we loaded into the Nissan Altima for Memphis. We were all excited for this trip as we all needed a break, but first, we had to get to Memphis. The drive to Memphis was around two hours through narrow Arkansas roads. After two hours of slow driving through the farmland of Arkansas, we made it to our hotel in Memphis. We stayed at the Courtyard Marriott right by the Memphis International Airport. We arrived at the hotel around 7:30pm and was in the rooms by 7:40pm. We did not do much that night as we had to get up early the next morning for our flight to Dallas and then on to Kona, Hawaii. For the rest of the night, Dillon and I just watched “Shark Tank” until we both fell asleep around midnight. It is the next morning and the time is 5:30am on Saturday, March 16th. Dillon and I are up and we are getting ready to head out of our room and meet our parents downstairs so we can drive to the airport. We loaded into the car and left for the airport. Since it was so early in the morning, we had no trouble getting to the airport. We arrived at the airport but had trouble finding a parking spot. After ten minutes, we finally found a spot on the top level and walked across the street and into the terminal building. Once inside, we walked to the “B” concourse security line. Security was fast as we were TSA Pre-Checked. After going through the line, we then proceeded to our gate, gate C12B. After finding our gate, it was breakfast time. My parents went to Starbucks and Dillon and I got some cookies for breakfast. Our flight was delayed a few minutes due to mandatory crew rest. In short, our flight was delayed because out flight crew flew in the night before and got in late so they still needed there FAA mandated rest. It was not much of a delay as we actually boarded on time and pushed back from the gate on time. We taxied to runway 36C but had to go to the “penalty” box for about 15 minutes for our release time for Dallas. A release time is a time given by ATC to a specific flight to help spacing into a big terminal area. After our 15 minutes, we took off runway 36C and blasted off to Dallas. What I thought would be a quick flight, turned into an extra thirty minutes as Air Traffic Control vectored us all over the place. This caused us to land about twenty minutes later so we had to hustle to our next gate. After an hour and a half in the air, we landed on DFW’s runway 35R and taxied to our gate in the “A” terminal. After we landed and got to the gate, we hustled to our new gate, gate D28A. After arriving at our gate, we had about 15 minutes before we started to board. Dillon and I took advantage of that time and took a quick bathroom break. By the time we got back, there was about five minutes to boarding. Those five minutes went lighting speed and before I knew it, we were walking down the jetway to board our aircraft, a Boeing 777-200. We walked onto the plane and found our seats, seats 23 A-D. After that, we settled down and went through all the In-Flight Entertainment. American had a good range of entertainment from shows, live TV, music and games. Once boarding was completed, we pushed from the gate and taxied to runway 36R for departure. After a somewhat short taxi we held short of 36R. Next to us was a beautiful Boeing 787 Dreamliner. That plane departed first then we took off moments later. Once in the air, we climbed up to our initial cruising altitude of 34,000 feet or FL340. Not much happened in cruise as we were served lunch, some drinks and some cookies. The lunch consisted of a BBQ chicken wrap, some chips and some shortbread cookies. The wrap was okay and I was just happy I got some food. After that, I decided to watch some movies. I watched one of my all time favorites, “Top Gun”, “Toy Story”, “Wall-E” and several others. Those movies occupied most of my time and before I knew it, we were well over the Pacific Ocean. At this point in time, we had climbed to 36,00 feet, or FL360. We stayed there for the rest of the flight as that was the smoothest ride over the Pacific Ocean. Even though it was the smoothest ride, there was still some bumps along the way. Not much happened for the rest of the flight as I relaxed and finished my movies. After I was done with the movies, Dillon, my dad and I played some Texas Hold-em. We played for about 20-30 minutes and then went to do our own thing. After that, i decided that I just wanted to listen to music so I listened to music. About an hour from landing, I turned off the music and looked out the window at the big blue open waters of the Pacific Ocean. Forty minutes later, we were starting our descent into the Kuaila-Kona Airport. We entered a right downwind for runway 35 and flew your normal pattern that was also a visual approach. The landing was a little rough but we made it after a long 8 hours and 15 minutes. After landing, we taxied to gate 2 and deplaned. Since Kona has no jet bridges and is an open air airport, we had to deplane via air stairs. After that, we walked through the airport and went across the street to catch our rental car shuttle bus. We had to wait close to ten minutes for a bus but it was not a problem. I was on vacation and enjoying the nice and warm Hawaiian weather. We get to Enterprise and get our car. It was not anything special, just a Cadillac. After getting our car and putting all of our luggage in it, we decided to eat as it was the middle of the afternoon there and all we had on the was plane food. We decided on a local sandwich shop and it did not disappoint. After that, we went across the street to Wal-Mart and got some much needed food items for our condominium/hotel room. After that, we went straight to the hotel and just had a chill rest of the day and passed out around 8pm local. This was the first part of the three parts on our vacation to Hawaii. Stay tuned for parts two and three coming in the following weeks. Phoenix Tower Tour
Seeing the other side of the flying world was a learning experience indeed. What is this other side? Well, from a pilots perspective, the Air Traffic controller is on the other side of the story. I think all pilots should go tour an air traffic control tour, whether it be your local Delta or Bravo tower, all pilots should do it. Doing this gives you a whole new perspective on airspace and flight in general. I was lucky enough to be able to tour the local KPHX bravo ATCT (Air Traffic Control Tower) and TRACON (Terminal Radar Approach Control) center. When you first walk into the tower you’ll notice first off that the view is spectacular, but that’s not what it all is about. It’s about seeing the view so you can control what is within the view so to speak. They have the ability to see and communicate with anything in a pretty large radius whether it be by light gun or radio, or whatever the means. They do their best to communicate with us and point us in the right direction. They watch their radars to see what's in the air, on the ground and even watching/listening for emergencies at all times. It’s not easy to explain every single thing that they do up in that tower, but they do know what they are doing. They undergo monthly training to keep up on the latest and greatest, technology is always being upgraded so the tower is performing as best as possible. All in all there is a lot they do, and it’s hard to explain, but I gotta thank them for doing what they do. They’re always there to help us when we need it most. Aviate, Navigate, Communicate. Three of the biggest parts to flying an airplane. Controllers are there when we need it most, so we should do the same for them. On January 23rd, 2019, my aviation life changed. I asked one of our local controllers who I happen to be in a facebook group with if Dillon and I could possibly bring them lunch or dinner one day. After talking back and forth, he said it was okay for us to do that. Once we got the go ahead from our controller friend, it was go time. Since all of this was planned that day, Dillon and I had to figure out what to bring them. We decided either pizza or even better, Chick-Fil-A. After much thought, we decided to get Chick-Fil-A because who does not like Chick-Fil-A. Once we decided that, we drove to our local Chick-Fil-A and told them about what we wanted to do. They said that catering would be the best for this situation. We talked about what we wanted for a little bit but finally on the medium catering tray of chicken nuggets and a large catering tray of chic-n-minis. After deciding that, we placed our order for it and paid for it. We asked them how long it would take them and they said about twenty minutes. In that twenty minutes, Dillon and I left to go down to the gas station and fill up with gas. That did not take twenty minutes so by the time we got back, we still had to wait about ten minutes which was not a problem at all. After ten minutes, we got our food and got on the road. After receiving our food, we got on the road. The drive to Little Rock National Airport is a quick one, about 40 minutes total. Not much happened driving there expect that I went around the terminal once and realized that there was no entrance to the tower on that side. So, I circled around and when I came back to the stop light, I made a right turn and finally found the road I was suppose to be on. Once I got on that road, it was a short drive to the tower parking lot. Once arriving at the parking lot, we had to be buzzed in. Upon being buzzed into the parking lot, we found a parking spot at the very empty parking lot and got out with the food. Upon reaching the door, we were greeted my two wonderful air traffic controllers from the facility and welcomed us with open arms. They asked what we had brought them and we told them that we had brought some Chick-Fil-A for them. They were in awe and the two controllers that let us in also took us to there breakroom to set down the food. Once we did that, one of the controllers asked if we wanted a tour of the facility. With Dillon and I being av geeks and flying down to Little Rock all the time, we said yes. Our first stop of the tour was the TRACON or radar room. This is where controllers vector airplanes into the airport and make sure the spacing between aircraft are good. When we went in, they were in the middle of a shift change which was cool to see. Little Rock has two main approach frequencies, 119.50 for the traffic coming in from the West and 135.40 for the traffic coming in from the East. At this time however, traffic was light so they had only one person on radar working both frequencies. This is super common for most facilities when traffic is light so resources are not tied up and everyone is more fresh. After watching the shift change and watching the controller work, our tour guide, showed us what everything met on the radar screen. He explained airspace limitations on different part of the map. For example, he explained that Little Rock only has the airspace up to 3,000 feet around Searcy but up to 15,000 feet around the airport. He also explained to us that they can turn on Jet routes, Victor Airways, Final approach paths for instrument approaches, etc. With all that, the most interesting thing was how they control the military planes (mostly C-130s) and how they assign transponder codes. All local non military traffic gets a “02XX” code and all the local military traffic that comes up gets a “01XX” code. After our tour guide showed us that, just talked for a little bit and asked some generic questions. After 45 minutes in the radar room, we were offered a tour of the actual tower. Of course we did not deny that. After accepting the tour of the tower, another member of the air traffic control team took DIllon and I over to the secure elevator and we went up seven stories. After going up seven stories, we took three flights of stairs up to the very top of the tower. Once we got to the top of the tower, we got a little tour of it. Additionally, our controller friend was working the tower position when we came up so it was cool to see him in his natural habitat controlling the various planes on the ground. When he did not have planes on his frequency, he showed us and told us what the various pieces of equipment does in the tower. He also explained to us that Little Rock is a “top-down” facility meaning that they have both radar and local control in the same building, It also means that after a predetermined time, the radar moves upstairs to the tour and radar and local is all controlled upstairs by one person (two people are up in the tower though). Not much happened after that as they rotated shifts every 45 minutes to 1 hour. Dillon and I continued to talk to the amazing people up for another two and a half hours and got to pass flight strips back and forth from the ground controller to the tower controller. Ever wanted to know how a the controllers in the tower communicate? It’s super simple. The controllers in the tower literally just talk to each other like two people having a normal conversation. If the controllers need to talk to the controllers down in the radar room or vice versa, then they just pick up a telephone and call them with what they need. After spending a good two and a half hours there, we left around 8:45 p.m. local time. Nothing much happened as we just drove the short forty minutes home. About a month after this all happened, Dillon and I received a card in the mail for the Little Rock Air Traffic Control Team thanking us for our support for them during that time. All the controllers that work at the LRATCT signed it and it was a cool little gift. This was the blog post about Dillon and I feeding our local air traffic controllers. If you like this one, please let us know so we can continue posting them. Until the next blog post, Blue Skies and A Tailwind. Welcome to part three of three of our aviation meet-up in Phoenix, Arizona. Part one was all about the travelling my brother and I did and that days events. If you have not checked out the first two parts yet, please go check that out before reading this.
Day 3: Well, it is day three of the three day trip. We all know what that means, go home day. Go home day was not as bad as I thought it would. Dillon and I got a good night’s sleep that night since we knew that we would be traveling all day that day. We got up around 7:45 am local time to get ready and to leave the hotel by 8 am local. We got up and got dressed and finished packing up the rest of our clothes. Once we got the rest of out clothes packed up, we headed downstair. Once downstairs, we walked out of the hotel, down the sidewalk so we can cross the street and go up to the airtrain that would take us back to terminal four. We finally get to cross the street and we arrive at the at the airtrain station. We wait less than five minutes for the train to arrive and board. It was a quick 5 minutes train ride to terminal four. Once we got to terminal four, we got off the train and went all the way downstairs so we can get our boarding passes. We were flying Southwest on the return leg, so we went to where Southwest is on the bottom floor to get our boarding passes. It was a smooth and easy process as we only had to put in our confirmation code and print our tickets. Once we did that, we went back up to the main floor and went through security. Since our plane departed from the “C” concourse, we elected to go to the “C” concourse security to limit our walking distance. After ten minutes, we finally made it through security. Going through security was easy and smooth and we had no problems. Now that we had made it through security, it was time to find our gate and to get some quick breakfast. Our gate was C7 (Charlie 7) for our flight to Little Rock. Once we found our gate, Dillon sat down and I went across the way to get some water and juice for us. That took all of ten minutes to do and then I went back across the way to sit down with Dillon and enjoy my drink. About an hour later, we started boarding for our flight to Little Rock. On today’s flight, our aircraft was a Boeing 737-700 in the new Southwest Heart Livery. Dillon and I had A boarding slots, numbers 20 and 21. We got the board the aircraft quickly but had to sit at the gate for quite some time because an inbound flight was late and some passengers on that flight needed to connect and be on our flight. After about twenty minute delay, we finally pushed back from the gate. The flight was mostly full with quite a few empty seats. Once pushed back from the gate, we taxied to runway 7L for our departure. Since we were on the east side of the airport our taxi took some time. Not only did the taxi take some time but actually taking off took some time. Phoenix is a busy airport with a lot of traffic so naturally, we had to wait our turn in line. It was only a short, probably around five minutes, but after that we lined up on the runway and took off into the somewhat cloudy Phoenix sky. Once airborne, we hit some clouds and had some very light chop. Shortly thereafter, we climbed above the clouds and could see the bright and sunny sky. Within 20 minutes, we were at our cruising altitude of 39,00 feet or FL390. Nothing much happened throughout the flight as I had a water and we were served both crackers and cookies. The seat belts continued to stay on as the ride did not get any smoother for the two hour and ten minute flight. After an hour and a half of an uneventful flight, Dillon noticed two younger boys sitting across from us. We got talking and after a very short conversation, we decided to give them some JetBlue pins that Brett Smith, one of the guys that was at the main event and works for JetBlue. Upon reaching this agreement, we picked some wings out for them and I asked them if they would want them. They accepted them with great smiles and said thank you. I am glad Dillon and I did this because I always want to spread aviation as best as I can. I believe that that memory will be with them forever and ever. After that little priceless moment, nothing happened for the rest of the hour flight in cruise. About twenty minutes left in the flight, we started our descent into Little Rock. Shortly thereafter, we made a firm, not hard, landing on runway 22L. I am not sure why 22L because that is the furthest runway from where Southwest parks. It didn’t matter as we still made it to the gate ten minutes early. We parked at gate ten and two or three minutes later we started to deplane the aircraft. Since Dillon and I were near the front, we were one of the first people off of the airplane. Once we got off the airplane, we headed straight for the bathroom before we headed home. After using the bathroom, we walked out of the terminal and down some stairs to the main part of the lobby. We walked all the way around to the other side of the terminal to some escalators and went up those and across a walkway into the parking garage. We walked down the row of cars and finally found our car in spot 25. After finding our car, not much happened as we put our luggage away and drove home. This concludes part three of three of the Blue Skies and A Tailwind meetup blog posts. If you have not read parts one and two, please read those before reading this part. We hope you enjoyed this blog series of our trip. Be on the lookout for another blog soon. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
August 2020
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