Delta Connection “Endeavor” 4820
Syracuse, NY (SYR) – New York – LaGuardia, NY (LGA)
Bombardier CRJ-900
N482PX
Seat 9A
Scheduled Departure Time – 7:00am
Actual Departure Time- 7:05am
Scheduled Arrival Time – 8:06am
Actual Arrival Time- 7:42am
37 minutes
The first flight of the day was to New York. I would be flying on N482PX. I had just flown this same exact plane back in April, also from Syracuse to New York. That time I flew to JFK, and it was also an early morning flight. So, this flight was pretty much the exact same as that one. We pushed back a few minutes early. We taxied out to runway 33, behind a jetBlue E190, that was going to JFK. This would be my first time flying from SYR-LGA, since the end of 2017. The flight ends up being a few minutes shorter, then the flight to JFK. We quickly climbed up to 19,000ft where we leveled off for a few minutes, before starting back down
N482PX spent the night at gate 24. It flew up the night before from LGA
9A
We quickly climbed up through the clouds
Descending
Final runway 22
Pulling into the ramp, next to N914XJ that had just arrived from Greensboro, NC
The next flight for N482PX, was down to Wilmington, NC
By the time I got over to my next gate, boarding started about 10 minutes later
Delta Connection “Republic” 5765
New York – LaGuardia, NY (LGA) – Jacksonville, FL (JAX)
Embraer E175
N219YX
Seat 4A
Scheduled Departure Time – 8:41am
Actual Departure Time- 8:50am
Scheduled Arrival Time – 11:12am
Actual Arrival Time- 10:49am
1 hour 59 minutes
N219YX at gate D93. It had flown up earlier in the morning from Charleston, SC
4A, next to N918XJ getting ready to depart to Cleveland
It was a quick taxi from the gate, out to runway 31
Climbing out of LGA
We climbed up to 32,000ft, where we stayed for the entire flight. In first class, the flight attendant came through with a snack basket and refilled drinks throughout the flight. The Wi-Fi wasn’t working, but the flight went by pretty fast. Before long, we were already approaching Florida.
Cruising
Descending
Final runway 26
N219YX at gate A5, before flying right back up to LaGuardia
I had a couple hours in Jacksonville, before my next flight was leaving. I walked around the terminal, and checked out what planes were there
N17753 getting ready to depart to Newark
N675DL just after arriving from Atlanta. I wanted to take this flight, but it was more than double the price of the flight I took
N964AN getting ready to depart to Charlotte
N8632A at gate C2. It had been scheduled to depart to Denver at 6:00am. But, Southwest was having a system outage. A lot of flights were delayed or cancelled. It ended up leaving around noon, 6 hours late.
N219YX taxiing out
My flight was supposed to be leaving from gate A2. This A320 was at the gate, and had arrived late from JFK. There was an E190 going to Boston, at the other jetBlue gate. At this point my plane had landed from Boston, and was waiting for a gate to open up. They ended up pushing out the Boston flight first. So, they moved us to gate A4. The plane ended up pulling into the gate at 1:00pm, 40 minutes after it had landed
N216JB at gate A4
jetBlue 217
Jacksonville, FL (JAX) – Fort Lauderdale, FL (FLL)
Embraer E190
N216JB
Seat 16A
Scheduled Departure Time – 1:25pm
Actual Departure Time- 2:09pm
Scheduled Arrival Time – 2:45pm
Actual Arrival Time- 3:18pm
1 hour 9 minutes
The gate agents made multiple announcements that said they were going to try to turn the flight as quickly as possible. They also said that they had a full plane of people coming off, so to please not block the gate. Not that anyone listened. It seemed like half of our flight was lined up ready to board, before the inbound flight even started to deplane. They finally started boarding at 1:20pm, 5 minutes before we should have been leaving. Everyone quickly boarded, and took their seats. Before the door was closed the captain made his announcement. He mentioned that it was a typical summer day in South Florida, and there were thunderstorms building near FLL. He said he would update us, once we were a little bit closer. He also added that the front lav were inoperative, so we only had the one lav in the back. The woman in the row ahead of me seemed irritated by this. She told the person next to her “every time I fly jetBlue, their bathrooms don’t work. If they can’t get that working, I’m afraid to know what else does not work.” We pushed back at 1:53pm, 28 minutes late. The engines were started, and we taxied out to runway 26.
Climbing out of JAX
We climbed up to 24,000ft, for the flight down the coast of Florida. The flight attendants came around with snacks and drinks. About half way through the flight the captain made an announcement. The weather had deteriorated in FLL. There were heavy storms over the airport. He added that ATC was sending us out over the Bahamas, and then flying towards FLL from the south to get around the weather. He was anticipating it adding about an extra 25 minutes to the flight, and that we should be landing in about another 40 minutes. I checked the weather in FLL, and the METAR was showing westerly winds with thunderstorms, rain and cumulonimbus clouds at 1800ft. I originally had around an hour and a half to make the connection. I started to get a little nervous about the connection, since I also had to change terminals and we left late. I checked my flight status, and it showed ontime. But, then I looked at the inbound flight. The plane was still in Nassau. There were a lot of thunderstorms in between NAS and FLL. I was no longer worried about making my connection in FLL, but I started to get nervous about the connection on the other end in TPA. While I was supposed to have about two hours in Tampa, the plane was not scheduled to be arriving until after our departure time. I had work the next day, so I had to get back. I checked the AA flight later in the day from FLL-CLT, and it had a few seats left. So I figured if the flight was delayed too long, I would see if I could get on this flight. By the time I was done looking at all this, we had started a gradual descent. We leveled off several times on the way down. The closer we got to FLL, the darker the sky got.
Cruising
Flying over the Bahamas
Final descent
Final 28R
Just after touchdown, it started to rain hard. There was also lighting. We were the last arrival in for a while. The guys right behind us, were put in holding patterns. The tower asked us about our flight conditions on final. They said that it was smooth, and the wind was about 10 knots
Just as we were pulling into the gate, the ramp was closed due to the lightning. Just as everyone stood up, the captain announced that the ramp was closed. They were unable to connect the jetway, so it would be a little bit until we were able to deplane. Luckily, it was only about a ten minute wait. I kept checking my phone, and my plane for the next flight still had not taken off from NAS.
Pulling into the gate next to N950JT, that was delayed 4 hours going up to JFK
N216JB at gate F9, before flying to Nassau. Same place my next plane was coming from
As soon as I was in the terminal, I checked my next flight again. By this time I was glad to see the plane had finally taken off. It was showing an arrival time of 4:25pm. We had been scheduled to be depart at 4:10pm. It was now showing delayed until 5:15pm, with a 6:30pm arrival time. The terminal in FLL was packed, and there were people literally everywhere. So it took a while to get outside. I then walked over to Terminal 1, to check in for my Silver flight.
Silver check in
By the time I got to Terminal 1, the flight had been pushed back even further. It was now delayed until 5:45pm, with an arrival in Tampa at 7:00pm. This would only leave me 30 minutes at TPA, and I had never been there before so I wasn’t sure of the layout or where I needed to go. The woman who checked me in said it may end up leaving earlier, but she couldn’t say for sure. This terminal was also very busy, with lots of people. Today at the airports it seemed like it was a lot of people’s first time in an airport. No one seemed to know what they were doing, or unable to read signs or understand basic instructions. Getting through TSA was a lot more painful then it needed to be. When I was going through TSA, a woman was arguing with them taking her bottle of water. She was saying how it was still sealed, and wanted them to “explain their logic behind taking her perfectly good bottle of water”. The woman in front of me left her bag, before pushing it onto the X-ray belt, as if she expected someone else to move her bag into the machine. I finally I made it through security, and headed to the gate.
N69818 at gate C1. It was loaded up, and was ready to depart to Denver. Not sure the reason, but they ended up deplaning and switching to another plane. This 737 left the next morning to Houston
Silver Airways 92
Fort Lauderdale, FL (FLL) – Tampa, FL (TPA)
ATR –42 600
N406SV
Seat 7A
Scheduled Departure Time – 4:10pm
Actual Departure Time- 5:28pm
Scheduled Arrival Time – 5:25pm
Actual Arrival Time- 6:16pm
48 minutes
N406SV after arriving from Nassau
Luckily, we were able to leave earlier then they had it delayed until. Boarding started around 4:55pm
N906NK taxiing out to GSO
N226NV to Concord, NC
7A
We started to pushback around 5:15pm. A pre recorded safety demo was done. The announcement seemed a little dated. They said you may now use your phone from gate to gate, and they said to put away all DVD players, apparently because so many people still travel with their DVDs. A few minutes later, we taxied out to runway 28R
Taxiing past N675DL. I had seen this 757 earlier in the day, up in Jacksonville
Climbing out of FLL
We leveled off at 12,000ft, for the short flight to Tampa. The flight attendant came through with bottles of water. The ATR was pretty quiet, and it was a smooth flight. Before long, the captain was announcing the descent
Descending
Final runway 28
Once we got to the gate, everyone stood up and grabbed their bags. The flight attendant then made an announcement that there was a passenger who was going to Pensacola, who needed to deplane first.
N406SV spent the night in Tampa, before flying the next morning to Key West
After deplaning I headed over to the F gates, for my last flights of the day. I didn’t realize that I needed to go through security again. The 3 people ahead of me, each did not have pre check. The agent had to send them to the other line. As I was walking up, he said to me “I know you have pre check, you look like you know what you’re doing.”
American 1965
Tampa, FL (TPA) – Charlotte, NC (CLT)
Airbus A321
N165US
Seat 18A
Scheduled Departure Time – 7:23pm
Actual Departure Time- 7:33pm
Scheduled Arrival Time – 9:20pm
Actual Arrival Time- 8:46pm
1 hour 13 minutes
N165US at gate F80 after arriving from Charlotte, with a FedEx 767 taking off to Jacksonville
18A, with N747UW next to us that had just arrived from Philadelphia
Taxiing to 19R, with N984NN on short final after a quick flight from Miami
Climbing out of TPA
Prior to takeoff, the captain said there was some weather we would be going through. This was the only turbulence he was expecting. There were just a few small bumps, barely noticeable. Despite this, the seatbelt sign was on for the entire flight. Also the flight attendants did not do any service, and came through only to collect any trash as we were landing.
It was a pretty sunset, as we descended into Charlotte
Final 36L
Taxiing to the gate
Pulling into the gate next to N156UW, that had landed a little while before us from Seattle
N165US had one more flight to do that night, right back to Tampa
I had a little over an hour until boarding was starting for my flight back to Syracuse
American 1976
Charlotte, NC (CLT) – Syracuse, NY (SYR)
Airbus A319
N702UW
Seat 12A
Scheduled Departure Time – 10:34pm
Actual Departure Time- 11:21pm
Scheduled Arrival Time – 12:25am
Actual Arrival Time- 12:42am
1 hour 21 minutes
N702UW at gate B14, after arriving from Grand Rapids
Boarding
12A, next to N772XF getting ready to depart to New Orleans
Boarding wrapped up at 10:20pm. The captain announced that he had found a discrepancy in the logbook, and maintenance had taken it. They had not brought it back yet, so we needed to wait until they did. The captain made a few announcements keeping everyone updated. He even explained what an MEL is, and the reason maintenance had gotten involved in the first place. Apparently, this was not sufficient for the older gentleman sitting in the row behind me. At one point he stopped a flight attendant, and asked her when we would be leaving because “he was sick of waiting, and wanted to leave”. You know because everyone else on the plane, was enjoying sitting there waiting at 11pm. After almost 40 minutes of waiting, we finally started to pushback at 10:58pm. The engines were quickly started. We taxied out, and got in line behind the other planes taxiing to runway 36R
“American 1976 fly heading 025, runway 36R cleared for takeoff”
Climbing out of CLT, via the KILNS4 departure
We climbed up to flight level 350, where we stayed until we started our descent over Pennsylvania. On this flight, a service was done. It was a smooth and uneventful flight
We checked in with Syracuse approach, and were given vectors for the RNAV to runway 33. This would only be my second time ever landing on runway 33. The wind was straight out of the west, but runway 28 is currently closed. So, runway 33 was the next best thing
It was a super smooth touchdown
N702UW spent a few hours at gate 6, before flying back down to Charlotte early the next morning
I was glad that I was able to finally use the credit I had been trying to use with Silver. The ATR was interesting. It was cool to be able to fly on something that was completely different. It was kind of a weird plane, and Silver was not anything special at all. Still, I was glad to get a flight in on the ATR. All in all it was an interesting day trip with the ATR, all the weather, a new airline and two new airports.