Vio From Canada, joined Feb 2004, 1111 posts, RR: 10 Posted (1 month 2 weeks 13 hours ago) and read 3920 times:
YVR-SEA-CLT-DTW +4200km drive across N. America(PICS)
During the early morning of August 24th , I woke up early and headed to Vancouver International Airport. The days which I waited without patience to go flying have long gone. Lately it has become a boring and tiring routine, having to fly monthly between Vancouver, Seattle, Portland and Detroit. Out of curiosity, I’ve added up the distance flown (as a passenger) this year and they top 50,000 (fifty thousand) kilometers. I even ended up being “the regular” at a pub in MSP (Minneapolis International), where every last Sunday of the month, I was transiting, catching a connecting a flight to YVR. “Hey, it’s that Canadian guy who’s flying with Northwest from Detroit to Vancouver, Canada” , the bar tender would say, “One Sam Adams pint coming right up”.
My trips were both work and pleasure related. My girlfriend lived in Windsor, Ontario not far from the border with Detroit USA, and I’d fly there at the end of each month to spend a week with her. I managed to combine work and pleasure, while saving some good old cash in the process. The preferred airline between YVR, SEA and PDX was always Alaska Airlines. I can’t say they have a phenomenal service, but the price was right and more importantly the schedule matched my lifestyle. The flights to Detroit were strictly based on price. Depending where I’d be (PDX or SEA) I’d look up flights on the internet and whatever would be cheaper won my bid. I’ve flown with Northwest through LAX, United through Chicago, US Airways through Charlotte, etc.
The morning of the trip I arrived in Vancouver, said goodbye to my dad who was kind enough to pick me up from my house and drive me to the airport. Check-in is a thing of the past. Having to fly so often I became an expert not only at packing luggage but also trying to optimize my time. I hate waiting in airports and normally I’m the last guy to board the plane. Having checked in on-line the night before, I had my electronic boarding card and with a carry-on only and my lap-top bag I quickly passed through US Customs (yes, they are at YVR… weird) and security.
On my way there, I grabbed breakfast and took a few snapshots. The “US Terminal” wing of YVR was quite busy this morning, but nothing out of the ordinary. I was used to this. Being Monday morning, lots of business people would head toward major US Cities. I was one of the last ones to reach gate 80 where I would eventually board a Boeing 737-700, Alaska Airlines flight #702 to Seattle.
Vancouver Airport
My breakfast
“Good old” Tim Hortons… the best sugar & cream (plus a bit of coffee) drink I’ve ever had…
Some other photos from Vancouver
The most unprofessional baggage handler I have ever seen in my life. He slept there for more than 20 minutes.
After he woke up, he decided to work a bit. What were passenger thinking, looking at this guy. My first question “Is he fit to do his work today?”
One of the building at YVR. I think its’ a hotel. The Fairmont Hotel to be more precise.
Normally I pick a seat near the front of the aircraft since I want to be one of the first passengers to get off the aircraft. I took my seat and I started taking photos of different planes and activities happening on the airport ramp. After the familiar safety briefing, the pilots started the engines and we started our long taxi toward the active runway. The sun started to rise and its rays were partially blinding me. For this same reason, I wasn’t able to take better photos. After about 5 minutes of taxi we were holding short of runway 05. We were number two for take-off after a Metroliner. After “the tube” took off, we started moving again, taxiing to position. Out the window, I could see to airplanes waiting behind us for their turn; one, an Air Canada Embraer 190 and one United Airlines. Airbus A320.
The engines started to power up and shortly after, I was pushed back in my seat as the 737 lifted off the ground and climbed toward the skies. The flight was extremely short; something around 30 minutes. We flew over a number of island and a few peninsulas, on the West coast of Washington state. I had a glass of orange juice after I started taking more photos. In no time, we started our descend into SEA-TAC. Sitting on the left side of the aircraft, I had the sun rising from the East. The pictures turned out pretty bad, but I managed to save a few “acceptable ones”. We flew over downtown Seattle and eventually landed toward the South.
Morning flights to United States
A Cathay Pacific Boeing 747 Freighter. I wonder why he was at the passenger gates and not on the cargo ramp. A nice surprise though
A new Canadian Airline “Enerjet”, owned by Tim Morgan, one of the original owners of WestJet.
Waiting for take-off
The great mountains of the “North Shore”. If you look closely you can see a Sikorsky S-76 operated byt HeliJet.
Take-off
Cargo Ramp at YVR
YVR Terminal
Cargo Ramp with a Purolator (KFC Kelowna Flight Craft) Boeing 727 and DC-10F
Cargo Ramp with a Fedex Boeing 727 and Airbus A310F
One of Air Canada’s hangars at YVR
Downtown Vancouver with the district of North Vancouver and West Vancouver (on the North Shore)
Boundary Bay, the airport where I am doing my flight instructor rating.
Mount Baker, in Washington State
Toward Seattle
Sunrise
Landing in Seattle
Downtown Seattle. Bad quality due to sun.
Boeing Field, many Boeing 737s before being delivered to customers. Can you pick out the airline colors?
Who can see the Concorde?
We landed on runway 16R, one of the 3 parallel runways which line North – South. The Boeing taxied to the terminal and less than 10 minutes later, I was out of the airport, in a taxi going toward Bellevue (a Seattle suburb, where I would spend the rest of the week)
Seattle-Tacoma Airport
Friday night, the 28th of August, a buddy of mine from Vancouver drove down to Seattle. The weekend was fairly full with activities. We did the “Boeing Tour” in Everett where the 747, 777 and the 787 are being assembled. Unfortunately, photography is strictly prohibited. At first I thought it was because of “secrecy” but according to our guide, it’s because of safety. A lot of people dropped their cameras from the balconies (where the tour takes place) and it puts the workers at risk of being struck in the head by falling electronics. I did include a link of what the plant looks like. See below a picture by a fellow A.netter. (Thank you.). After the factory tour, we visited Seattle downtown and in the evening we went to a baseball game to see the Seattle Mariners at Safeco Field.
Trip to the Boeing Factory in Everett, WA at Paine Field (Snohomish County). A USAF B-52
Something quite interesting here. A “V-Australia” Boeing 777 a FedEx 777F and the tail of a 787 Dreamliner
A Gulfstream business jet
One of the gigantic buildings of the Boeing Factory, where they assemble the Boeing 747-400, B747F, B747-800, B777 and B787. If I’m not mistaken, the B767 is also assembled here, but I may be wrong. Anyone know for sure? Let me know if I had any of the info stated wrong. I’m not 100% on all…
UPS Boeing 757F
A nice engine
Flight Engineer’s panel (Boeing 727)
... and the First Officer (B727)
Edi (left) and me (right) (an old cockpit of the Boeing 727…)
Some photos from Seattle. You can see Smith Tower
The two stadiums. One for baseball and one for American Football.
Me… a little rough looking. Didn’t have time to shave… for about 3 days.
Bank of America
Bridge to Mercer Island, while on our way to Bellevue. Apparently, Mr. Bill Gates lives there. We wanted to stop for dinner, but then again, I wasn’t too hungry…. LOL We also had to go to the ball game…
Downtown Bellevue
At "Safeco Field”, watching the Seattle Mariners in action.
Me after the game. Seattle ended up winning that game.
Edi and I
Space Needle, the famous landmark of Seattle
To be continued in the next reply
Superior decisions reduce the need for superior skills.
Vio From Canada, joined Feb 2004, 1111 posts, RR: 10 Reply 1, posted (1 month 2 weeks 13 hours ago) and read 3921 times:
On September 1st, I would fly from Seattle to Detroit, connecting through Charlotte, North Caroline. US Airways flight #576 was scheduled to depart at 10:20pm. I arrived at the airport extremely early, around 5:00 pm. Since I had nothing to do in Bellevue, I decided to come to SEA-TAC and hang around. I went to the Alaska Airlines lounge. I can’t say it’s anything out of the ordinary but it was quiet, it has wireless internet and free drinks. It’s nice, but not even close to some of the Asian lounges or even the Maple Leaf lounge at Air Canada. I spent most of my time talking to my girlfriend on Skype, surfing the Romanian Spotters website, Airliners.net, etc. I took some pictures and had a couple of cold beers. The flight was late almost an hour. It was almost 11:30pm and we were still at the gate.
Once we left, things started to get worse. First of all, I can’t sleep in airplanes. If I do sleep, I’m either exhausted or drunk. Beside me was an older lady with her 20 something daughter. Both were really nice, but “the mom” snored like a bear. She apologized to me prior to sleeping, that she would snore, but I thought she was joking. The entire night I had to listen to that. Where is the IPod when you need it? On top of the snoring, it was extremely hot. I had to take of my shoes and roll up my jeans.
Pictures from the Alaska Airlines lounge
A British Airways Boeing 747 ready for its long flight to London, UK
FedEx MD-10 (I think)
Evening... Alaska Boeings
Pictures from the lounge
Heading toward the gate. Pictures from the SEA-TAC terminal
The A321 that would bring me from Seattle to Charlotte.
The 5 hours eventually passed and I finally arrived in Charlotte. I was dead tired, walking around the airport like a zombie. I had a breakfast sandwich that was 50% grease and 50% mayo the headed to board my next flight to Detroit. The flight was US Airways #3188, operated with an Embraer 170 by Republic Airlines. Lucky for me, I didn’t have anyone sit beside me and I was able to “stretch out” a bit. Charlotte is a disaster when it comes to air traffic. We waited about 45 minutes to take-off. The only airports that I had to wait longer were O’Hare and JFK in New York. It seems that even LHR is less crowded. Finally we reached our queue for takeoff and after snapping few shots I tried to get some rest. When I woke up we were somewhere over Sandusky, Ohio, crossing the shore of Lake Erie, flying North toward Essex County (Ontario). We flew just west of Pelee Island, Canada’s Southern-most point.
I’ve done a trip report flying over this island with a Cessna 172. See below:
We flew toward Kingsville, Ontario after which we turned North-West toward Wayne County, Michigan. For those of you who don’t know the Windsor – Detroit area, I can tell you that the Detroit River divides the two geographic areas, more specifically, Michigan USA and Ontario, Canada and of course the two cities Windsor and Detroit. As a fun fact, I should let you know that Windsor is my “hometown” in Canada. I lived there for more than 8 years. US Airways is not as good as I thought it would be. I can’t say I was impressed, except perhaps by the low fares. They don’t have a good service (based on about 6 flights with them), the flights were always late and this time the aircraft was really hot. On a previous flight with them, I was freezing while flying CLT to DTW. However the price for this trip was $200 US Dollars. You can’t argue with that. For that price, I shut up and suck it up…
After arriving in Charlotte in the early morning, the following day.
US Airways everywhere you look
Before takeoff
Charlotte Airport with the downtown in the background
Over Ohio, USA
Pelee Island, the Southern-most point in Canada
Essex County
Windsor, and Windsor Airport
Detroit River, in the center. Windsor, Ontario Canada is on the right and on the left you can see Michigan, USA
Here you can see Detroit River, with Ambassador Bridge which connects the two countries. You can also pass through a tunnel, underneath the Detroit River, which connects downtown Windsor to Detroit. Also the Renaissance Center is visible, the headquarters of General Motors. In the background you can see Lake St. Clair. The border between Canada and USA is right in down the middle of the river.
Landing in Detroit
The shadow of our Embraer 170
McNamara Terminal in Detroit, home of Delta / NorthWest / Air France / KLM
To be continued in the next reply
Superior decisions reduce the need for superior skills.
Vio From Canada, joined Feb 2004, 1111 posts, RR: 10 Reply 2, posted (1 month 2 weeks 13 hours ago) and read 3909 times:
From Tuesday to Saturday morning was awesome. We had great weather and most of these days were spent relaxing with the family and my girlfriend. Like I have said before, I would come to Windsor every month to see my girlfriend, however this time was different. It would be the last time I would go there for that reason, because this time, she would come with me to Vancouver, BC.… for good.
Saturday the 5th of September, after we loaded up the car, a 2008 Honda Civic, we started our long journey to Vancouver. We drove for five days, crossing North America from East to West. We passed through four Canadian provinces and six American states. Ontario, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia, our new home, where Vancouver is located.
The first day, we drove about 500 km (310 miles) from Windsor, Ontario to Chicago, Illinois where we stopped for the night at one of Gabriela’s old high-school friends’ house. The next day we drove 1200km (745 miles) from Chicago to Jamestown, North Dakota, crossing the states of Wisconsin and Minnesota. The third day, was a little easier, driving about 750 km (466 miles) from Jamestown, ND to Regina, Saskatchewan (in Canada), pass through Minot ND. The fourth day, we drove from Regina, Saskatchewan to Calgary, Alberta again, about 750 km (466 miles). Calgary is also my 2nd home, where I spent about 6 years. Most of you have seen quite a few trips from me that involved Calgary, especially my Pilot Reports, while I was getting my CPL. The fifth day was the nicest. The drive from Calgary to Vancouver, BC was about 1000 km (621 miles), but by far the most scenic. About one hour out of Calgary, you enter the Rocky Mountains and you have an endless amount of natural beauty to enjoy. We stopped a bit in Banff and Lake Louise, wher ewe have taken a few photos and had breakfast. Around 6pm that day we arrived at our new home in Vancouver, BC… where we started our new life… living together…
Our route from Windsor, Ontario to Vancouver, British Columbia.
Crossing the"Ambassador Bridge" from Canada to Detroit, USA.
Chicago
John Hancock Tower
A Virgin Atlantic Airbus 340 taking off from Chicago O'hare
My girlfriend Gabriela and I, somewhere near Des Plains, IL (near ORD)
Gabriela and our little Honda, somewhere in Wisconsin.
Gabriela and the cow in Wisconsin. What does Wisconsin say “America’s Dairyland”?
Somewhere in Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Me on a patio in Minneapolis.
Somewhere in North Dakota
Flat land as far as the eye can see
Gabriela with a AT-602 Air Tractor in the background
AT-602 Air Tractor used for crop dusting.
My fav. domestic animal
A forgotten village, somewhere in North Dakota.
Harvest time in North Dakota
Canadian Train (spotting… LOL) in North Dakota
A tragic accident in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada. A man was killed when he crossed the Trans Canada Highway without looking out for traffic. The RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) is investigating. You can see the crashed car in the background and the unmarked police cruiser.
The highway between Regina, Saskatchewan and Calgary, Alberta
Entering Alberta
Grain silos somewhere in Eastern Alberta
The famous landmark in Medicine Hat, Alberta
Calgary Olympic Park
Early morning in Calgary, driving on the Trans Canada Highway, toward Banff.
Entering the Rocky Mountains
Banff National Park, Alberta
The town of Banff, Alberta
Gabriela enjoying the view
The resort town of Banff
Train station in Banff
Driving to Lake Louise, Alberta
Road work…
Lake Louise, Alberta. One of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen.
Gabriela and I at Lake Louise
A little video of Gabriela at Lake Louise. Translation:
Gabriela: “And now, if you look this way, I’m going to “touch this screen”…. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VwmGOoNE64
Entering the province of British Columbia
Driving to Vancouver
Total Kilometers sine leaving Windsor: 4,214.6 (2,619 miles)
Overall, it was a great trip, because first, we were together and second, because we saw a lot of new and interesting places. I recommend that people take this drive. True, it took us 5 days and flying takes less than 5 hours, but once in a lifetime, it’s worth it.
Comments are greatly appreciated.
Kind regards
Vio
Vancouver, Canada
Superior decisions reduce the need for superior skills.
Oldman55 From United States, joined Jan 2004, 1407 posts, RR: 48 Reply 5, posted (1 month 2 weeks 9 hours ago) and read 3538 times:
Fantastic report and pictures Vio . It looks like your going to possibly settle down; at least a little Great pictures of your ride across the countries aalso.
too bad most of us get too soon old and too late smart
Johruk From United Kingdom, joined Jan 2008, 87 posts, RR: 0 Reply 7, posted (1 month 2 weeks 2 hours ago) and read 3121 times:
fantastic pics, especially of Alberta. Brings back a lot of memories as I have friends who lived in Canmore just outside Banff and now live in Nakusp BC....Been a while since I was there.
Lake Louise is the most beautiful place in the world ...Well to me anyway!
CXB77L From Australia, joined Feb 2009, 327 posts, RR: 0 Reply 9, posted (1 month 1 week 6 days 23 hours ago) and read 2986 times:
Wow! Such an absolutely beautiful country. I'm glad to be visiting Vancouver in December, but I won't be venturing as far east as Alberta. One of these days I've got to do a self drive tour across Canada ... maybe Vancouver to Halifax in a car?
It is a sad ending, albeit a happy one, here at Montreal for today's grand prix.
FlyingFinn76 From Finland, joined Jun 2009, 173 posts, RR: 3 Reply 12, posted (3 weeks 5 days 23 hours 40 minutes ago) and read 1569 times:
Whoa! Definitely a great report. Not too much attention to the flight details, but that's okay - there are many different ways of doing these reports. Those pictures of your road trip through half of North America are very good, some downright stunning. Excellent stuff.
PS. Aren't you the same dude who posted a report about visiting Turku, Finland (of all places!) in the past year or so? That was a great piece of work as well.
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LOL We also had to go to the ball game…
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. It looks like your going to possibly settle down; at least a little 
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