On Sunday, I arrived at Raliegh/Durham Intl Airport around 10:55am, for my 12:35pm flight to MSP via DTW, and the airport was getting to be very busy. I however easily checked in at one of the kiosk’s, as I had just a carry-on.

Sometimes the security line at this airport can be very crowded, but this morning it was fairly empty. Within about 5 minutes, I was beginning my walk down the A-Concourse. On the television screens, there were a few delays, but my first flight to Detroit (DTW) was on-time.

I walked down the A-Concourse past a few departing Delta flights, and the Continental gates.

Here's a SW 737 taxiing to the gate:


Gate A-5 was my gate today, and it was getting crowded as I arrived.

June 18, 2006

Northwest Airlines #1691
RDU-DTW
DC-9-50
100% Full in both F & Y.
Scheduled: 12:35pm-2:28pm
Actual 12:50pm-2:40pm

The DC-9-50 arrived late, so thus boarding was delayed by a few minutes. Again, Northwest boarded First Class and then everyone else. After waiting in a very long line on the jet-way, I finally arrived at my seat #5A.

Here’s a view out the window:


After everyone got seated, we pushed back and the captain came on to inform us we were running a few minutes late, but should be able to make up most of the time once airborne. Flight time to DTW was estimated at 1 hour 18 minutes.

The taxi to the runway was rather long as we had to taxi past the entire A-Concourse and down to the runway near the American Airlines terminal. I spotted a Delta MD-88, and a 738 parked as well as a few US Airways EMB-170's.

We did not have anybody in front of us for takeoff, so as soon as we moved into position we began the takeoff roll. An American S80 pulled up behind us as we began to move down the runway.

We pulled off the runway into the hazy sky, and began our climb.

Here are some pictures from the climb up to cruise altitude:









After we leveled off, the beverage service in First and Coach began and being that I was seated in #5A, I was served pretty quickly. Overall the service on this short flight to DTW was very nice.

Here's a view as we began our descent into DTW:



After lots of turns we began our descent at about 2:15pm, and flew over Detroit a while before coming down for landing. Our gate was A25 and we arrived there a few minutes after 2:30pm


My connection to Minneapolis was due to leave at 3:15pm, so I began to run out of the gate, as I did not have much time. My next flight #745 was due to leave from A64.

Wow, the Detroit airport is very nice inside! I saw lots of A330's and 747's getting ready to flights to Amsterdam, Tokyo-Narita, Osaka, Paris and London.

When I got to A64, boarding had already begun and there were lots of people in line down the jetway. Again, passengers were not boarded by rows so it took a long time to get inside the aircraft.

Northwest Airlines #745
DTW-MSP
B-757-200
100+ Full in F and Y.
Scheduled: 3:15-4:07pm
Actual: 3:35pm-4:20pm

The 757-200 was being boarded through door 2L, so I got to my seat 19F pretty quickly once on the plane. But, there was no window!!! Oh well, it would be a short flight. Because I had boarding late, there was no room in the overhead bins except down by row 28. I quickly stowed my bag, and after a short delay, we pushed back.

We took off after a very short taxi, and climbed through some bumpy skies.

Here’s a view out the window in row #20F.


Here's a view out the window in front of me; I apoligize for the quality of the picture. It's not very clear.


Beverage service began from the galley located right behind First Class, so I soon got something to drink.

There was some light turbulence the most of the way, but it wasn’t all that bad. For most of the flight, I did some reading.

We finally began to descend around 3:50pm, and we landed just a few minutes behind schedule at MSP. It was a short taxi to F7, as we did not have to wait at all on the ground.

Here’s a view of our aircraft, now bound for San Francisco as flight #357.


All in all, a good flight.

Comments and suggestions are welcome!

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