Two weeks ago, Delta retired their MD-88/90 aircraft. It was one of my favorite planes, in their fleet. I flew on my last MD-88, the day before they were retired. I am still working on that trip report. Before that, I started working on this. I had some pictures from a trip I took to Atlanta, a few years ago. Since the flights, involved two MD-88’s, I decided to put a trip report together. Delta flies nonstop from Syracuse to Atlanta, 3 times a day. In the early morning, late morning and evening. The person picking me up, was not able to get to ATL in time, if I took the nonstop flight at 6am. So, I decided to book a flight, with a connection in DTW. This flight would get me into ATL, later in the morning. Typically Delta has one flight early in the morning to DTW. But on the day I wanted to fly, they had two. I was originally booked on the flight at 6:30am. The night before I got an email from delta, that my flight was delayed 2 hours, and I would miss my connection to Atlanta. I rebooked myself, on the later flight to DTW. This would still allow me to make the flight I originally booked, with a layover around 40 minutes.

Delta Connection “Endeavor” 4117
Syracuse, NY (SYR) – Detroit, MI (DTW)
Bombardier CRJ-200
N8847A
Seat 8D
Scheduled Departure Time – 0750
Actual Departure Time- 0757
Scheduled Arrival Time – 0922
Actual Arrival Time- 0905
1 hour 8 minutes



Since the earlier flight was delayed, the later flight was completely full. There were a lot of people at the gate, still trying to get on the flight. They started boarding around 7:20am. By 7:40 everyone had boarded, and the door was closed a few minutes later.



N667GB to ORD



N375PH to EWR



N367CA pushing back to LGA



AC to YYZ



N916DE to ATL



N8847A at gate 20





The plane was parked at gate 20. It has a jetway, but it was not connected. So, we ended up going down the stairs, and then walked across the ramp to the plane.

Boarding



8D



Once the engines were started, we taxied to runway 28



Taking off



We climbed through a few cloud layers, before leveling off at 26,000ft. The flight attendant came through the cabin, with drinks and Biscoff cookies. It was a quick flight, and soon enough we were starting the descent.



Cruising



Descending on a right downwind



Short final



Pulling into the gate, next to N8587E getting ready to depart to Manchester, New Hampshire



N8847A, before its next flight to Chicago – Midway



I had a short layover. By the time I got to my next gate, they were already half way through boarding

Delta 1175
Detroit, MI (DTW) – Atlanta, GA (ATL)
McDonnell Douglas MD-88
N999DN
Seat 30E
Scheduled Departure Time – 1005
Actual Departure Time- 1012
Scheduled Arrival Time – 1201
Actual Arrival Time- 1145
1 hour 33 minutes



N999DN, before the flight down to Atlanta



30E, next to N917DL departing to Fort Lauderdale



By the time I got to my seat, the last few people were boarding. As soon as everyone had boarded the door was closed, and we pushed back. It was a quick taxi. We were in the air, within 10 minutes of pushing back.

Taking off 4R



Climbing out of DTW, with another MD-88 taking off from the other side



We climbed up to 32,000ft, for the first 40 minutes of the flight. Then we descended down to 31,000ft. The flight attendants came through with drinks and snacks. About half way through the flight, the captain said that he was anticipating turbulence. He asked the flight attendants, to take their seats. Once it smoothed out, the flight attendants came back around, to finish with the last few rows. By the time they were done, we were starting down into Atlanta.



Cruising





Descending





Final 26R







Pulling into the gate, next to N589NW about to depart to Salt Lake City



N999DN at gate A18, before its next flight to Dallas/Ft Worth



After spending 5 days in Atlanta, I was going home. This time instead of connecting in DTW, I was connecting in LGA. It was a Friday afternoon, and the airport was really busy. The line to drop you bag was long, and the line for security was even longer. After waiting for over an hour, I was finally through security. There had been storms building in the afternoon, and by late afternoon it had gotten worse. Flights were starting to get delayed, and eventually the storms moved over the airport. The ramp was closed due to lightning. My MD-88 was arriving from Cozumel, Mexico. It had landed, but it took almost 40 minutes for them to get to the gate. This led to our flight being delayed, 1 hour.

DL 757 taking off, as I was driving into the airport



DL check in



N1610D to Los Angeles



N128DL to San Francisco



N327NW to Chicago – Midway



N3769L to Austin



N986DL pushing back to West Palm Beach



N615DL to San Antonio



Delta 786
Atlanta, GA (ATL) – New York – LaGuardia, NY (LGA)
McDonnell Douglas MD-88
N983DL
Seat 30E
Scheduled Departure Time – 1745
Actual Departure Time- 1857
Scheduled Arrival Time – 2020
Actual Arrival Time- 2040
1 hour 43 minutes



Once everyone had deplaned, the gate agent made an announcement. She said, since it had come in from an international destination, that an inspection had to be completed. As soon as this was done, boarding began.





N983DL



30E, next to N916DL which was also delayed going to Detroit



We started to pushback at 6:45pm, exactly one hour after our scheduled departure. By the time, we had started to taxi, the storms had moved east of the airport. We were able to taxi out to runway 9L, and takeoff without any further delays

It was a powerful takeoff



Climbing out of ATL



Before we departed, the captain mentioned the weather. He was anticipating it being turbulent, for the first 20 minutes of the flight. Once it smoothed out, the flight attendants came through with drinks and snacks.



Cruising



Cabin



Starting the descent







Descending





Final runway 22



Taxiing into the gate



Pulling into gate D5



N983DL spent the night at LGA, before flying to Orlando early the next morning



I had 1 hour and 40 minutes, until my next flight. The terminal was pretty empty, since there were only a few other flights leaving to Buffalo, Rochester and Boston.

Delta Connection “Compass” 5692
New York – LaGuardia, NY (LGA) – Syracuse, NY (SYR)
Embraer E175
N637CZ
Seat 15A
Scheduled Departure Time – 2220
Actual Departure Time- 2245
Scheduled Arrival Time – 2327
Actual Arrival Time- 2323
38 minutes



N637CZ pulling into the gate







15A



As we were taxiing towards the runway, we came to a stop. There was a maintenance issue. We ended up waiting for 25 minutes, before we were able to takeoff. We climbed up to 20,000ft, for the short flight to Syracuse. The flight attendants did not do any service, and soon enough we were descending into SYR. We touched down hard on runway 10, at 11:23pm. We just barely missed one of the turnoffs, so they made a 180 and then taxied to the gate.



N637CZ at gate 23. It flew back down to LGA, early the next morning

Love the TR! Anything MD-80 I support. Looks like a fun time.

I'm normally bored with the constant US domestic trip reports, but this was good with the CRJ and MD-88. Thanks

KLASM83 wrote:

Love the TR! Anything MD-80 I support. Looks like a fun time.

i am going to miss flying on them!

outbackair wrote:

I'm normally bored with the constant US domestic trip reports, but this was good with the CRJ and MD-88. Thanks

It was a nice variety, with the CRJ, MD-88 and the E175.