Route: MIA-DCA
Date: 9/16/09
Flight: AA 1054
Equipment: B-737-823
Registration: N975AN
Seat number: 4A
Scheduled Departure Time: 8:40am
Actual Departure Time: 10:20am
Cruise Altitude: 25,000ft.
Flight Duration: 2 hours and 5 minutes

My aircraft for the flight: N975AN




Directory of MIA’s gates:



Gate Directory of MIA’s North Concourse:



Map of AA’s gates at MIA:



The Departure Monitors at MIA:







PAA's Dixie Clipper at Concourse E:



Also at Concourse E check out the B763 with wing-lets:




After spending sometime at my favorite Admirals Club I decided to head over to gate D 24. The MIA Admirals Club at Concourse D is filled with vintage AA memorabilia so I took some photos before I headed for Gate D 24.



Flagship Boston:


A little AA history:







DC-7 Transcontinental Flight menu from 1950:



Plaque honoring Rosalind Russel from 1950:





The inauguration of the first non-stop DC-7 transcontinental service in both directions from 1953:





Plaque dedicated to AA from the DOJ:



View of the Concourse from the Admirals Club:





A model of the Boeing 752 is available for purchase at this Admirals Club:



At D 24:





About 5 minutes prior to boarding the Captain came out and announced that the a/c required maintenance and the flight would not depart until 9:20am. At 9:20am the Captain then announced that the flight would face another delay with a decision time of 9:50am. Since this was AA’s first flight of the day to DCA, many businessmen and other passengers decided instead to travel on the 10:00am flight to DCA. Some passengers also demanded a refund since they were already going to miss their planned business meetings in D.C.

Our B738 N975AN:





N975AN receives a little maintenance:






We began to board the flight at 9:55 am and since many other passengers were displaced by the delay the load was very light. By 10:15am the doors were closed and we pushed back and taxied towards the runway where we we’re number 3 for take-off. We finally departed MIA at 10:20am, 1 hour and 40 minutes behind schedule.


The attentive purser preparing beverages before pushback:



Pre-departure beverage:



Construction on the North Concourse at MIA continues:




Continental Connection operates out of both FLL and MIA:



Alaska Airlines B-737-800 taxing ahead of us for the runway:




Video of our take-off from MIA:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLBe9JkX_8k


The meal service only consisted of one choice that was rather dull:



The sleek wing-let of AA’s B738:




Video of the hard landing at DCA:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c4Sdgy4cVU