lexkid12300 From United States of America, joined Mar 2011, 74 posts, RR: 0 Posted (1 year 9 months 1 week 1 day 4 hours ago) and read 7701 times:
Hey guys,
Earlier this week my girlfriend and i took a day trip on Delta Airlines just to fly on a DC-9 and i wanted to share my experience. My favorite plane is the Boeing 727 but i haven't been able to find any airlines still flying them commercially, so i figured the DC-9 would be the next closest thing as they both use the same engines.
So, i decided to do it again! We ended up finding a flight with Delta from my hometown airport PVD-DTW-BWI and BWI-DTW-PVD, using a CRJ-200, DC-9-51, DC-9-51, and Airbus A319 respectively for $59 each direction, so i booked it!
We left PVD for 7:05am on the CRJ-200 Flight# 3961. Here's the gate with an MD-88 in the background.
From aboard the CRJ-200, we were in 11A and 11B. Nice MD-88 next to us! From Delta's seating plan image for the CRJ-200 it appeared row 11 was just aft of the wing, but in reality it's on the wing. There were only 2 rows behind us, and both were rather close to the bathroom for our liking!
Our drinks. They ran out of orange juice, so the flight attendant offered a solution, to mix orange juice with Cranberry juice, so that's what the girlfriend had.
My girlfriend any myself on the CRJ!
We got to DTW on time, but waited 40 minutes on the ramp for a plane at our gate to leave. When we finally got off, I ran to McDonalds and got 5 hash browns (my favorite breakfast snack!) and quickly boarded the Dc-9-51 for Flight# 1536. It's really weird, because when we took this day trip last month we were on N777NC, and this time it was the SAME plane! Manufacture date of 1979.
Here's the view from the DC-9, with another DC-9 next to us, N764NC. We were in seats 23A and 23B, which I found to be the best place for views of both the wing and the engines.
lexkid12300 From United States of America, joined Mar 2011, 74 posts, RR: 0 Reply 1, posted (1 year 9 months 1 week 1 day 4 hours ago) and read 7698 times:
While waiting for everyone else to board, I noticed the first officer of the DC-9 next to us doing a VERY diligent exterior check. He spent literally 5 full minutes walking around the plane checking everything from the tires to the engines. A+ to this pilot! Although I would do the same considering its manufacture date is 1976!
I took a short video of the taxi and takeoff and posted it on YouTube. Sorry about the crappy quality, I need a new camera!
I did however get some AMAZING pictures from the sky. There wasn't a cloud between DTW and BWI and we could see the ground the entire time. We were cruising at 29,000ft.
lexkid12300 From United States of America, joined Mar 2011, 74 posts, RR: 0 Reply 2, posted (1 year 9 months 1 week 1 day 4 hours ago) and read 7698 times:
When we landed at BWI I took a picture of our DC-9 at the gate, N777NC. I believe 777 is good luck?
After an hour layover we boarded the same plane with the same flight number back to DTW. This time we were seated in seats 23D and 23E, where we had sat last month. It was weird knowing I had been on the same plane only a month earlier!
A view of the wing from 23E.
Another MD-88 next to us.
A view of #2 from cruise.
When we got to DTW we had a 4 hour layover until our return flight, so we took a tour of DTW which let me tell you, is BEAUTIFUL!! Compared to my local airport PVD (which is the smallest, most boring airport you could imagine) DTW is amazing. Since we don't get anything larger than maybe a 737 here at PVD, I was like a kid in a candy store in DTW.
Here's a pic from our day trip last month of a Delta 747.
And this time we saw an Air France A340-300!!
Here's a pic I took of the beautiful fountain at DTW with a 747 in the background. This is currently my phone's wallpaper and I must say it's AWESOME!
At DTW we took a ride on the trams that take you from one end of the McNamara terminal to the other, which is honestly a necessity as the terminal is SO long! It took me 7 solid minutes to walk (even with the moving walkways) from the McDonalds to gate A15 in the morning without the tram. We took a walk in the tunnel connecting the B/C concourse with the A terminal, which this time had the lights moving with music that was playing- pretty neat! Then we ate at Max&Erma's which was OK. We were going to go to the Chili's they have there, but they didn't have ribs on the menu, which I was looking forward to!! We then visited most of the stores in the airport until it was time for our return flight, #2217 from DTW to PVD.
Here's a view from row 17 on the A319. Definitely the best seat on the plane for a view of the flaps and what not. In rows 18 and 19 the windows are aligned too far ahead of the seats so you'd have to lean forward to see out the windows. Notice the optical illusion of the tails of the planes next to us? The tails of the 2 planes to our left look like a single tail, pretty cool.
Overall the trip was a complete success! I was a little worried about the first leg on the CRJ-200, with it being Pinnacle Airlines (Delta's regional counterpart), but the flight was very smooth and trouble free. Let me tell you though, the pilots were both VERY young!
The DC-9-51 was beautiful, although I wished it were a different one than the one we flew on last month (so I could say I flew on two different Dc-9's!). During taxi from DTW I noticed a lot of white smoke coming from the #1 engine, but it went away once we were in the air. I guess it's to be expected though, considering the engines were designed in the early 1960's! The engine sound from those JT8D's is unmistakable and it's very addicting!
It was a great trip and I'm about 99.9% sure we'll be doing something similar in the near future. I really loved being on the DC-9 and it was a real honor to be able to fly on one. It's definitely a beautiful airplane!
burj From United States of America, joined Nov 2007, 838 posts, RR: 4 Reply 4, posted (1 year 9 months 1 week 1 day 2 hours ago) and read 7460 times:
Nice trip report! Did anyone question why you were getting right back on the same plane you had just arrived on?
Were you able to get your return boarding passes ahead of time or did you have to get them when you arrived at BWI? In the past when I've done day trips I wasn't able to get the return boarding passes until I got to the destination.
Quoting lexkid12300 (Thread starter): We got to DTW on time, but waited 40 minutes on the ramp for a plane at our gate to leave.
lexkid12300 From United States of America, joined Mar 2011, 74 posts, RR: 0 Reply 5, posted (1 year 9 months 1 week 21 hours ago) and read 7049 times:
ah! Yea i was planning to go to the B concourse to sign a rock but we didn't have time We did however steal one of the black rocks from a plant in front of where the A340 was!
We were able to print out all of our boarding passes (all 4 per person) the night before the trip. Since all of the flights were on the same day we could print them out 24 hours before. Believe it or not, no one questioned us about getting off and boarding the same plane. In fact, the crews were entirely different! The pilots and flight attendants were completely different between the first DC-9 leg and the second DC-9 leg, even thought it was the same plane at the same gate.
It was truly an amazing trip, one that most people can't appreciate!
mke717spotter From United States of America, joined Dec 2005, 2310 posts, RR: 5 Reply 9, posted (1 year 9 months 5 days 4 hours ago) and read 5637 times:
Nice trip report and pictures! I always love flying through DTW, especially on the DC-9.
Will you watch the Cleveland Browns and the Detroit Lions on Sunday? Only if coach Eric Mangini resigned after a loss.
contrails15 From United States of America, joined Oct 2008, 1181 posts, RR: 0 Reply 10, posted (1 year 9 months 4 days ago) and read 5322 times:
Always looking for DC-9 TR. Yours was great. DTW is a fantastic airport. You get a little bit of everything their, at least aircraft wise. You are in Delta Country. I work in JFK and we did have the pleasure of the DC-9 in Northwest colors then in Delta and now we got nothing. No more DC-9 service out of here. Soon it won't be anywhere in the states. Its a very unique aircraft I feel and its gonna be missed.
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We did however steal one of the black rocks from a plant in front of where the A340 was!
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