DesertFlyer From United States, joined Nov 2005, 317 posts, RR: 1 Posted (3 years 8 months 1 week 6 hours ago) and read 2100 times:
This is my first trip report, so give me advice for future ones please! Click the Large Image links to see larger versions of the pictures.
I am a huge amusement park fan and run a website that follows a park in the bay area, Six Flags Marine World. The close for about three months in the winter, and reopen in spring (late winter.) Lucky for me, March 4th was opening day and living in the Palm Springs area, I had to fly up to attend. We looked from all the southern California airports to all the bay area airports, but it made the most economic sense to fly from PSP-SFO on Alaska's service. Through their web specials, we were able to pick up a $112.30 round trip fare per person, only we had to leave on Thursday and come back on Monday morning. It wasn't a big deal, and meant I got to miss more school, always a plus.
We got to PSP, parked the car ($8/day is pretty good for parking) and walked right into the terminal. I really enjoy flying out of PSP since there is enough activity to be interesting for a spotter and yet it still is as easy to get in and out of as any small regional airport. It's also nice to know we have quite a few non-stop and single connection destinations. Having checked in online, we went right through the new security area. Large Image
This new security area wasn't really needed, but goes to show they are thinking of the future, especially with the new gate area under construction. Large Image
Speaking of which, the America West Express planes are now using gate 2, where American Eagle use to be, and Horizon is now going to gate 12.
I had some time to look around, so I took a few pictures. A Skywest from LAX arrives. Larger Image
A Lockheed KC-130 had just landed and has been a fairly regular guest recently. Large Image
An AA MD-82 (N480AA) headed to DFW sometime later in the day. Large Image
The gate next to ours had a WJ 737 headed off to Calgary just a tad late. Large Image
And they were using the rear stairs too! Large Image
It was here I found out after the stop at SFO the plane would be continuing on to YVR. During the summer, you can't get to YVR without changing planes or N/S like you can in the winter. Just shows how seasonal the market really is in PSP.
It's not often I've had a chance to ride on a Mad Dog, in fact, the only time I've flown on one before was on AA from DFW-PSP. This would also be the first time I was able to walk up the rear stairs. Here are a few pictures I got of this beauty from the ground. Large Image Large Image Large Image Large Image Large Image
Finding our seats, I noticed the overhead bins look very boxy and a bit smaller when compared to the AS 734s and 737s that I usually fly this route on. An AWE (Freedom Airlines) plane pushed back from Gate 2 at the exact same time. Large Image
As we taxied, there were a couple of planes ahead of us, but the wait was short. When we finally rolled on to 14L and took off into the overcast weather to the north heading right over the Yucca Valley and then turning left over Big Bear and to toward the coast. Large Image Large Image Large Image
It was at this time the captain came over the PA to apologize for not coming on earlier, but that he wanted to get all of our paperwork done to stay on time. He then went on to tell us the route we would take, heading up along the coast, flying over Santa Cruz and across San Jose. There was lots of good information, but not long winded like some of the cockpit crew can be.
The seats were comfortable, the pitch was fine at 31”, and the flight attendants were quick and friendly. Large Image
I got cranberry juice and the snack was a small bag of trail mix. Pretty good, as I'm not a big fan of nuts. Unfortunately, my girlfriend woke up right after the service, and proceeded to eat my trail mix and drink my juice! At least I got a picture before she woke up. Large Image
About 20 minutes into the flight, my window started fogging over and it stayed that way up to when we got off the plane. Unfortunate for me, as it made taking pictures difficult. Since it was such a cloudy day, I read their magazine and dozed off for a few minutes. Before I knew it, we started our decent into SFO. One thing I noticed was our landing seemed quite fast, although it was very smooth. Large Image Large Image Large Image Large Image Large Image Large Image
Overall it was a nice flight. Smooth, clean, and comfortable. The only thing was that the weather was not good to see the ground. Also, what is with this aileron? Large Image
I was happy to see one of the special livery 734s (N784AS) at gate 20. Large Image
I've decided AS is a great airline for trips like this and have a good product when compared to other airlines on these routes. Their interiors are also very nice colors and comfortable. I grabbed one last picture of our plane and we headed off to the Skytrain for our trip to the rental car lot. Large Image
I hate terminal 1 at SFO, it's ugly and is over complicated to get around. But anyways, it was a great trip. We spent a day in San Fran where I'm from and enjoyed the couple of days of cold but nice weather before our trip home to the desert. Large Image Large Image Large Image
Oldman55 From United States, joined Jan 2004, 1404 posts, RR: 44 Reply 1, posted (3 years 8 months 1 week 5 hours ago) and read 2080 times:
nice pics! nice gf also!! WHat you can really notice from these pics is how much clearer the air is around SFO then in S.CA San Fran is one of my favorite places to visit in,US.
too bad most of us get too soon old and too late smart
Isn't PSP 13/31? And if that's what you meant, you would have rolled from 13R. 13L is only about 3,000 feet. I have flown to PSP alot doing cross country flights. Millionair has great cookies and milk, plus some hot girls in the FBO.
DesertFlyer From United States, joined Nov 2005, 317 posts, RR: 1 Reply 3, posted (3 years 8 months 6 days 19 hours ago) and read 1877 times:
Sorry, not sure what I was thinking when I wrote the report but we took off in the normal northwestern direction on 31L. Funny how you can fly out of somewhere so much and still make that mistake. Yeah we get a lot of Millionair flights here, but since I can't write off my travel cost, I'd rather spend my money on other things.
FutureUALpilot From United States, joined May 2000, 2221 posts, RR: 9 Reply 4, posted (3 years 8 months 6 days 19 hours ago) and read 1847 times:
Great report. I like flying into PSP when Im home. It is quite an interesting airport at times. On another note, for some reason I remember washing your particular MD80, N960AS over the summer in SAN. Just thought I would throw that in.
Clrd2go From United States, joined Feb 2003, 1000 posts, RR: 0 Reply 6, posted (3 years 8 months 6 days 16 hours ago) and read 1741 times:
Nice report and great pics..I've taken the one of the GG bridge to be my wallpaper here at work and at home. Reminds me of how much I miss the SF
area.
Jim who grew up there and hasn't been back in too long
DeltAirlines From United States, joined May 1999, 7285 posts, RR: 16 Reply 7, posted (3 years 8 months 6 days 11 hours ago) and read 1589 times:
Quoting FutureUALpilot (Reply 4): Great report. I like flying into PSP when Im home. It is quite an interesting airport at times. On another note, for some reason I remember washing your particular MD80, N960AS over the summer in SAN. Just thought I would throw that in.
Seems like this plane pops up a lot...my lone AS flight in October was on 960AS (DFW-SEA). A neat little tidbit is there is a plaque by the door in front of the F cabin saying that it is the 1,000th MD-80 series to be built.
FutureUALpilot From United States, joined May 2000, 2221 posts, RR: 9 Reply 8, posted (3 years 8 months 6 days 10 hours ago) and read 1543 times:
Quoting DeltAirlines (Reply 7): Seems like this plane pops up a lot...my lone AS flight in October was on 960AS (DFW-SEA). A neat little tidbit is there is a plaque by the door in front of the F cabin saying that it is the 1,000th MD-80 series to be built.
What an odd coincidence...I never even noticed that plaque when I was going in and out of the flight deck. I remember it came into SAN quite a bit this past summer, as we saw it a good number of times but only washed the girl once I believe.
DesertFlyer From United States, joined Nov 2005, 317 posts, RR: 1 Reply 10, posted (3 years 8 months 5 days 13 hours ago) and read 1372 times:
Thanks for reading everyone. They used both the jetway and stairs, but I took the option of going up the stairs. Sorry I didn't make that more clear. I had a bit more interesting of a trip coming back (very late) although it was at night so I didn't get many pictures. I'll post it on Friday probably.
September11 From United States, joined May 2004, 3176 posts, RR: 26 Reply 14, posted (3 years 8 months 5 hours ago) and read 910 times:
Very nice trip report, DesertFlyer. Nice pictures you took in PSP. PSP, without doubt, will expand as the valley population is growing and still growing.
Now, I look forward returning to PSP in the next few months.
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