Scintillating Summer 2018 (19 - last one): Back to base on the CRJ-700ER! (ORD-FAR OO3146 Aug '18, pics & VTR)

CollegeAviator · Thu Apr 09, 2020 4:06 pm

SkyWest Airlines OO3146 (as American Eagle AA3146)
Chicago O'Hare International Airport, IL, USA (ORD/KORD) to Fargo Hector International Airport, ND, USA (FAR/KFAR)
August 17th 2018
Departure: 1328 hours CDT, Arrival: 1524 hours CDT
Seat 20D, Main Cabin
N744SK, Fleet No. 744, 14.9 years old ~~Boeing 747-400~~ Bombardier CRJ-701ER
1st flight on the CRJ-700ER!
4th flight on American Eagle
5th flight on SkyWest Airlines
12th flight on a CRJ family of aircraft
Route: PMPKN NEATO DLLAN RONIC BAE J34 ODI J36 FAR
#106 video Trip Report on YouTube
FlightAware tracker Link

FINALLY, THE ELUSIVE CRJ-700!
The final flight! It had all boiled down to this. Just the one CRJ-700 flight for me, a new subtype! For those of you who may remember I have had bad luck with logging the CRJ-700 aircraft. Some of my past attempts:

A SkyWest flight from Fargo to Minneapolis, my first time back to India in the fall of 2015, CRJ-700 switched to a CRJ-200.
Another SkyWest flight, this time from Grand Forks to Minneapolis, another switch to a CRJ-200, summer 2017.
That same summer, a Mesa Airlines flight from Washington DC to Minneapolis, a CRJ-700 swapped to a E175.
For the bigger I guess, summer 2017.

How likely would it be that my first CRJ-700 would be swapped? I stupidly thought that the CRJ-200 would not have the legs to fly between Chicago & Fargo… that was until I remembered literally 3 seconds later that I was on an Air Wisconsin CRJ-200 on the exact same route. For what it was worth, it was a fine flight.

The more rational me looked up SkyWest Airlines’ fleet composition: CRJ-200s only operated for United Express & Delta Connection. However, 58 of the 100 CRJ-700s were flying for American Eagle. Perfect, as long as SkyWest were slated to operate the flight, I was on course to log in my first CRJ-700 flight.

CRUCIAL CONNECTION #6: O'HARE
Fast forward to T-24 hours as I showed in the last part, the online check in confirmed a CRJ-700. N744SK, fleet number 744, unfortunately not quite a 747-400, but a CRJ-700, would take me over back to Fargo, the end of a crazy trip.

1hr04min may seem like a reasonable layover in Chicago, but you just never know! In addition, I wasn’t overly confident of American’s 767 taking me from Miami in to O’Hare getting in on time. I was wrong, however. AA2796 docked at the gate at 1225 hours, one minute behind schedule and I was off the airplane just 5 or 6 minutes later. AA3146 would depart from Gate G1B: I didn’t have too long for planespotting, but whatever it was were mostly RJs. In addition, this was a last minute gate change too as AA3146 was originally supposed to depart from G13 anyway, so it wouldn’t be as bad a walk.

BOARDING
Promptly a boarding announcement was made 28 minutes before departure, it was generally fairly orderly, and not much of a line clogging the jet bridge.

Mall receipt boarding pass

Hooray no crowd!

ONBOARD
I was onboard at 1307 hours, 21 minutes to departure, and the flight attendant was quite cheerful & welcoming which is always nice to see. I believe it was just her, Susan. All six seats in First Class were taken, and the rest of the cabin filled up too. I walked all the way back to seat 20D, to a rather sickly seat mate. For as sickly the seat mate was, and for as tired as I was, there was quite the chirpy and talkative NDSU bound freshman, quite excited for the next phase of their life. Just like the CRJ-200, and unlike the CRJ-900, the cabin felt cramped. I wanted to get this flight over with quick and was looking forward to getting back to ND.

Cabin looking a whole lot like Envoy's offering(s)

A quick announcement from the flight deck: it would be a 1hr18min flight across (LOL, and I thought a CRJ-200 wouldn’t make it. Ha, ha ha ha…..) at 36000 feet, and decent weather at Fargo.

Pretty soon I noticed that there wasn’t a whole lot of activity on the ground - as in the people. 10 minutes after the usual announcements happened, 3 minutes past departure time another announcement came around, this time for a delay! What had gone wrong?

A DELAY BECKONS
The Terminal Area Forecast (TAF) did call for a thrunderstom in the vicinity, however not all forecasts are as (in)accurate as the ones that GFK: the storm did come in, rather lightning was seen not too far off from the field, to the southeast. We’d be delayed for the next 20 or 30 minutes because all ground personnel were required to get off of the ramp: our plane was fueled up and loaded with bags, we just needed to get going.

Finally, a delay! And a pretty minor one at that. I looked at what AA’s policy was with regards to lightening: 5 mile radius of the field and use of headsets was barred, 3 mile radius and every one had to be off the ramp. This reminded me of a delayed boarding Dad had to face a month and a half prior due to thunderstorm & lightening at Winnipeg: he was on a WestJet B737 MAX 8 to Toronto!

I looked at the radar and the cell was in fact just 2 miles away, so this was a much required precaution. Everyone was delayed, for what it was worth, including AA2796 back to Miami. Except that it was delayed by an hour instead of the majority being 25-30min delays.

DEPARTURE
Not much happened of course. As the storm tracked further east/southeast and away from ORD we pushed back at 1336 hours a delay of 28 minutes. Fired up both engines and we were on our way to runway 9R.
Start Up video

Air Wisconsin side of things

]

Over to the Delta side

GoJet, I think?

Several other airplanes were in the sequence unsurprisingly, mostly regional jets in line for departure. It was quite the sight seeing T tail after T tail launching in to the sky!

Lined up and took off at 1412 hours for the quick hop across. Turned west fairly soon and climbed up to 36000 feet. Unlike most of the American and American Eagle flights so far, this flight did not have the usual pre-recorded announcements.
Take Off Videos

INFLIGHT

Feeling tired and well in to jet lag season I started to go in and out of several naps. The sickly seat mate headed to the restroom on several occasions, too. Service started just fine with the usual pretzels or cookies, I had the pretzels with a sprite, we were 33 minutes in to the flight.

Scrolled through to see what the entertainment options were since the longer CRJ-200 does offer wIFE. I must have fallen asleep during the descent preparations, the bumps during our negative climb ensured that I woke right up, however.

WiFi plans

EnRoute

A touch delayed

Service

Seatback pocket stuff

Safety card of the lengthy CRJ-200

Overhead

DESCENT & ARRIVAL

Fairly soon the smoky skies over Fargo welcomed us - the wildfires from Canada not doing us any favors.

Lined up with Runway 36 just fine and touched down at 1536 hours after a flying time of 1hr24min. Would you believe it, this trip actually finally came to an end! Announcements happened, we docked at Gate 3 at 1539 hours, a delay of 16 minutes.
Landing video

Air Wisconsin grounded

I thanked Susan for the flight, she wished me a good flight: the pilots were getting ATIS as they’d be waiting to receive clearence back to Chicago O’Hare soon.

Thank you N744SK!

Kittyhawk

Baggage claim - just our flight

Waiting waiting

My suitcase got to Fargo too and while waiting for my ride I saw N744SK, the 747-400 that isn’t, depart back to Chicago. Here I was a month ago on a chilly morning waiting for AA3418 to Dallas Fort Worth. What a trip, what a trip!

DOG!

This flight itself was fine: sure, we departed 30 minutes late, sure we got there 15 minutes late - but the flight back got to it’s gate just 10 minutes late at O’Hare. For the sake of passengers they probably made their connections just fine.

Crop dusting enroute GFK, ft. Smoky Skies

KLASM83 · Fri Apr 10, 2020 3:06 am

I largely regard ship 744 as my stalker jet, as somehow it always found a way into my life, from when I ramped and nonreved, to MSFS, and even now lol

CollegeAviator · Thu Apr 30, 2020 10:26 pm

KLASM83 wrote:
I largely regard ship 744 as my stalker jet, as somehow it always found a way into my life, from when I ramped and nonreved, to MSFS, and even now lol

Haha, that's pretty funny!
I bet she's grounded now because of COVID...

KLASM83 · Thu Apr 30, 2020 11:16 pm

CollegeAviator wrote:
KLASM83 wrote:
I largely regard ship 744 as my stalker jet, as somehow it always found a way into my life, from when I ramped and nonreved, to MSFS, and even now lol

Haha, that's pretty funny!
I bet she's grounded now because of COVID...

Ship 744S seems to be still plying the skies, getting ready to make a TYS-ORD run at the time of writing. Random observation seems that the RJs are still going.

CollegeAviator · Fri May 01, 2020 4:41 am

KLASM83 wrote:
CollegeAviator wrote:
KLASM83 wrote:
I largely regard ship 744 as my stalker jet, as somehow it always found a way into my life, from when I ramped and nonreved, to MSFS, and even now lol

Haha, that's pretty funny!
I bet she's grounded now because of COVID...

Ship 744S seems to be still plying the skies, getting ready to make a TYS-ORD run at the time of writing. Random observation seems that the RJs are still going.

That is interesting. I heard that DL are also mostly flying their A220s, compared to the other planes in the fleet...

KLASM83 · Sun May 03, 2020 4:15 am

CollegeAviator wrote:
KLASM83 wrote:
CollegeAviator wrote:
Haha, that's pretty funny!
I bet she's grounded now because of COVID...

Ship 744S seems to be still plying the skies, getting ready to make a TYS-ORD run at the time of writing. Random observation seems that the RJs are still going.

That is interesting. I heard that DL are also mostly flying their A220s, compared to the other planes in the fleet...

It's such a cheap airplane to fly, it seems. I think when airlines are in an ordering mood, they will order them in droves. This basically proves it to me. At least we'll have a nice 2-3 airplane out there. #RIPtheMadDogs

CollegeAviator · Tue May 05, 2020 4:26 pm

KLASM83 wrote:
CollegeAviator wrote:
KLASM83 wrote:

Ship 744S seems to be still plying the skies, getting ready to make a TYS-ORD run at the time of writing. Random observation seems that the RJs are still going.

That is interesting. I heard that DL are also mostly flying their A220s, compared to the other planes in the fleet...

It's such a cheap airplane to fly, it seems. I think when airlines are in an ordering mood, they will order them in droves. This basically proves it to me. At least we'll have a nice 2-3 airplane out there. #RIPtheMadDogs

Will certainly miss them Mad Dogs - am happy to have logged some flights on them!

Scintillating Summer 2018 (19 - last one): Back to base on the CRJ-700ER! (ORD-FAR OO3146 Aug '18, pics & VTR)

Scintillating Summer 2018 (19 - last one): Back to base on the CRJ-700ER! (ORD-FAR OO3146 Aug '18, pics & VTR)

Re: Scintillating Summer 2018 (19 - last one): Back to base on the CRJ-700ER! (ORD-FAR OO3146 Aug '18, pics & VTR)

Re: Scintillating Summer 2018 (19 - last one): Back to base on the CRJ-700ER! (ORD-FAR OO3146 Aug '18, pics & VTR)

Re: Scintillating Summer 2018 (19 - last one): Back to base on the CRJ-700ER! (ORD-FAR OO3146 Aug '18, pics & VTR)

Re: Scintillating Summer 2018 (19 - last one): Back to base on the CRJ-700ER! (ORD-FAR OO3146 Aug '18, pics & VTR)

Re: Scintillating Summer 2018 (19 - last one): Back to base on the CRJ-700ER! (ORD-FAR OO3146 Aug '18, pics & VTR)

Re: Scintillating Summer 2018 (19 - last one): Back to base on the CRJ-700ER! (ORD-FAR OO3146 Aug '18, pics & VTR)

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