AWACSooner wrote:

N5814D wrote:

I'll miss the Mad Dog, rode on that bird plenty of times from KOKC to various destinations...Matter of fact, the last one I took was KDFW-KOKC withthe coolest F/A ever. Had a great conversation about aviation and received free cocktails on a flight so short that there was no proper beverage service.

Just about any flight from OKC to the Metroplex is pretty much this:
*DING* We are leveled off. You can now use your large electronic devices...
2 second later...
*DING* We have begun our initial descent into the Dallas-Fort Worth area, please put away and stow your large electronic devices.

jco613 wrote:

So I just happened to be at FLL today to spot...and I totally blew it:

Arrived at the South Side 10R spotting area to hear "Ops 5 we need to reposition for a water cannon salute for a retiring pilot"

Then I looked up the flight and realized it was a Super 80. I figured I should just stay there even though they were taking off on 10L. The water cannon salute happened BEHIND the fire station and I got some blurry shots on my iPad of the plane taking off. Likely the last Super 80 ever at FLL. My question is, why FLL? Did the pilots (assuming they are all retiring as well) choose their airport? FLL does not normally see Super 80s, so it was shocking to me.

The Super 80 was a horrible plane as a passenger, but there is something about the bare metal shine on a sunny day that is just intoxicating.

Oh, and I left after that figuring my luck had run out. As I drove home, DL brought a rare August 767 in followed by Envoy's weekly flight from Guantanamo. Oh well.

jco613 wrote:

The Super 80 was a horrible plane as a passenger

dptpa wrote:

I asked the pilots and they said they would all head back to DFW on scheduled ENY flights. I suppose they are blocking a certain amount of seats on each flight to get them home?

Beatyair wrote:

The MD's (140 seats) where replaced by A319's (128 seats) in Calgary. We occasionally get one and sad to see them go, but they are old.

dptpa wrote:

ckfred wrote:

Here's my dumb question. How are they going to get all of the pilots back, presumably to DFW? Twenty airplanes means 40 pilots. Considering that service between ROW and DFW is all Embrear 135s and 145s, that's a lot of seats needed, just to deadhead crews back to DFW.

I was asking myself the exact same thing. I'm a controller at ORD and just worked N570AA operating as AAL9660 out. I asked the pilots and they said they would all head back to DFW on scheduled ENY flights. I suppose they are blocking a certain amount of seats on each flight to get them home?

william wrote:

If you have plane finder or Flight Radar you might want to look at Roswell now.

ckfred wrote:

Here's my dumb question. How are they going to get all of the pilots back, presumably to DFW? Twenty airplanes means 40 pilots. Considering that service between ROW and DFW is all Embrear 135s and 145s, that's a lot of seats needed, just to deadhead crews back to DFW.

Beatyair wrote:

The MD's (140 seats) where replaced by A319's (128 seats) in Calgary. We occasionally get one and sad to see them go, but they are old.

n471wn wrote:

Beatyair wrote:

The MD's (140 seats) where replaced by A319's (128 seats) in Calgary. We occasionally get one and sad to see them go, but they are old.

Not that old as a good many of them were built in 1998 and 1999

n471wn wrote:

Beatyair wrote:

The MD's (140 seats) where replaced by A319's (128 seats) in Calgary. We occasionally get one and sad to see them go, but they are old.

Not that old as a good many of them were built in 1998 and 1999

727LOVER wrote:

n471wn wrote:

Beatyair wrote:

The MD's (140 seats) where replaced by A319's (128 seats) in Calgary. We occasionally get one and sad to see them go, but they are old.

Not that old as a good many of them were built in 1998 and 1999

Some of those were delivered to TWA after AA started receiving 737-800s

The first 738 was delivered to AA in Feb 1999...when in 1999 was the last 3 MD-80s delivered to TWA?

I'm thinking there are about 4 of the 738s delivered BEFORE about 4 of the MD-80s

ckfred wrote:

A slightly off-topic observation. I flew ORD-DEN-ORD last month, MD-80s both ways. It seems to me that on both landings, the pilots didn't use reverse thrust. Are pilots going easy with reverse thrust on landings, to save wear and tear on the engines? I seem to recall the same thing with the F100s, as they started the retirement draw down.

STL to ORD; Only one MD-80 flight replaced by 738s
STL to DFW; Only two MD-80 flights replaced by 738s

jetblastdubai wrote:

Will there be a short-term over-staffing issue with pilots and FAs? Will they bump some more junior crew members and force upgrade/differences training or will the reserve list just grow by a few pages overnight?

commavia wrote:

This Friday just one of AA's fifteen flights DFW-ORD is an MD80 ... wow ... times they are a-changin'

dennypayne wrote:

And it looks like Airways flew out there on one of them - looking forward to that story in print!

https://twitter.com/airwayslive?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

rta wrote:

AA posted a couple tweets commemorating the Super 80s. #Super80Sendoff

commavia wrote:

This Friday just one of AA's fifteen flights DFW-ORD is an MD80 ... wow ... times they are a-changin'

Wow, that really puts things into perspective. I thought this route would be one of the few to remain MD80 strong until the end.

On a related note, I'm interested in knowing how they decided to coordinate the retirements. Surely it costs more to ferry these aircrafts from certain parts of the country, like the East Coast. So why initiate ferries from PHL, RDU, PIT... and even a place like FLL that almost never sees MD80 service?

TW870 wrote:

ckfred wrote:

A slightly off-topic observation. I flew ORD-DEN-ORD last month, MD-80s both ways. It seems to me that on both landings, the pilots didn't use reverse thrust. Are pilots going easy with reverse thrust on landings, to save wear and tear on the engines? I seem to recall the same thing with the F100s, as they started the retirement draw down.

I doubt it has to do with the draw-down, although I would certainly be corrected by someone who works for AA. But most airlines SOPs require light thrust reverse in windy operating conditions (or even in all operating conditions), because the target-type thrust reversers disrupt airflow over the rudder, which reduces rudder effectiveness. The higher the EPR in reverse, the less effective the rudder. I haven't read the latest reports on the DL incident at LGA last winter, but high EPRs in reverse in gusty crosswind conditions on an icy runway was rumored to be one of the reasons they lost directional control on rollout.

reidar76 wrote:

MD80s brings back memories.

I very frequently flew with SK between SVG-LHR in the early 90s to mid-90s, always operated with MD80s.

The MD80s were replaced by 737-600 from 1996 (SK was launch customer for the 737-600). The MD80s were very noisy (and I think their operations was severely restricted in Norway) and you could smell fuel during pushback and taxiing. Back in those days I was smoking and the only aircraft you were allowed smoke on were the MD80s. The cabin was filed with cigarette smoke before reaching cruising altitude, because of the bad air conditioning. Those were the days. Smoking and free alcohol (as much as you could drink) even in economy class (at that time called pleasure class by SK).

It is amazing DL has kept flying those old birds.

skymiler wrote:

Are you sure some will not go to ATL and get a widget? 28 years is young for an MD product! LOL