This was from my recent trip back to New York, for Thanksgiving. I needed 1000 hours of flying to be able to start at an airline, as a pilot. My flying job ended at the end of October. I was still short 117 hours, after the job ended. For the month of November, I came down to Florida to rent a plane and finish the rest of my hours. My goal was to have the flying done by the end of the month. I was actually able to finish it before I went home for Thanksgiving. I flew 117 hours in 19 days, it averaged out to a little over 6 hours of flying every day. It was a lot of flying, but I am glad to have all my hours completed. I have a little under a month until I start training at the airline. I flew my last flight the day before I took this flight. A few other things were that my family recently moved from Syracuse, NY, where they have lived my entire life to South Florida. While I still have some other family in the area, my immediate family, isn’t there anymore. This would be my last time in Syracuse for a while. For years I have been hoping that Southwest would start flying to Syracuse. Literally at least since I was in high school. Sure enough back in June, Southwest announced that they would start serving SYR with flights to BWI and MCO on November 14, 2021. I had booked myself on the inaugural flight, but I ended up being down in Florida doing my flying. I debated about going up to take the first flight. But, I ended up deciding not to since I wanted to get the flying done as soon as I could. I had also booked myself on Southwest a few weeks later, to fly back from Thanksgiving. I used to feel like Southwest would never start flying to SYR. I had waited for years for them to start. Sure enough my first flight on Southwest at SYR, was also one of my last flights out of SYR since I won’t be going back that often anymore.



I was flying back with my friend. We parked at a parking lot, and took a shuttle to the airport. It was the night before Thanksgiving, and the airport was packed. There was a ton of traffic getting into the airport, and the bus was just sitting in traffic for several minutes before finally arriving at the first terminal. Once we were inside, the airport was busy but not as packed as it seemed from driving in. There was just two people ahead of me on the line to check my bag. My bag was 71 pounds, and the woman told me it would be $200. I asked if she could put it in as a few pounds less, so it would only be $100. She put it in as 68 pounds. She looked kind of confused, and then handed me my boarding pass and told me my gate. I thanked her and quickly walked away, before she tried to charge me for the heavy bag. I was able to get through the precheck line quickly.

N697DL pushing back for a flight to Atlanta



G-VIIO getting ready for a flight across the pond, to Heathrow. Speedbird had just restarted its flights to the US a few weeks before



Delta 2759
Orlando, FL (MCO) – Detroit, MI (DTW)
Boeing 757-300
N593NW
Seat 36A
Scheduled Departure Time – 5:20pm
Actual Departure Time- 5:31pm
Scheduled Arrival Time – 8:01pm
Actual Arrival Time-7:44pm
2 hours 13 minutes





N593NW at gate 74, after arriving from Detroit. I had flown this same exact plane from DTW-ATL, on my way down to Florida a few weeks before. While I prefer the 757-200 over the 300, I was still excited to be flying on the 757





Boarding



36A with a Delta A321 arriving from Salt Lake City, and an A319 departing to Raleigh



The row across from us was completely empty. Once we took off the guy that was sitting on the aisle moved over, so the middle seat was open

Taxiing to 35L with a Frontier A320 taking off to where I was going, Syracuse



“Delta 2759 RNAV JWOLF, runway 35L cleared for takeoff”







Climbing out of MCO





As we flew a little north, a solid overcast layer developed below us



We climbed up to 35,000ft. We stayed there the entire flight. It was a smooth and uneventful for most of the flight. It was a little bumpy as we got closer towards Detroit










Cruising



It got dark out, about half way through the flight



30 minutes before landing we started the descent. There were some bumps on the way down, as we were in and out of clouds



The spoilers were out for a lot of the descent





The flaps were fully extended, before the gear was lowered. It seemed like the gear was lowered a little later then usual. The woman behind me was from Detroit it would seem. She kept pointing out landmarks she recognized to her little kid. The kid kept asking over and over when we were going to be landing. The kid was so excited to be landing. She kept talking about it from the time we passed 10,000ft, when the flight attendants came through to collect the trash and make sure everything was good for landing

Final 21L



It was a really smooth touchdown, with minimal braking. The kid was disappointed by it. She asked her mom why it wasn’t louder?



Pulling into the gate next to N879DN, getting ready for a flight to Ft Myers



N593NW spent the night at gate A20, before flying to Fort Lauderdale early the next morning







We had a few hours until our next flight. So, my friend and I got some dinner before going to our next gate

Delta Connection “Endeavor” 5089
Detroit, MI (DTW) – Syracuse, NY (SYR)
Bombardier CRJ-900
N335PQ
Seat 16A
Scheduled Departure Time – 11:05pm
Actual Departure Time- 11:14pm
Scheduled Arrival Time – 12:24am
Actual Arrival Time-12:03am
49 minutes





N335PQ at gate A43. It had arrived earlier in the evening from Albany, NY



Boarding started at 10:25pm. By 10:40pm everyone had boarded, and we were ready to go. The captain announced that we could plan on some bumps on the climb out and descent into SYR, due to “ the weather that was above us”.



We pushed back a few minutes early. Once the engines were started, we taxied out to runway 22L. It was a rainy night, and my window was covered in water until we started the takeoff roll. There were about 5 planes ahead of us in line. Eventually we were given our Line Up and Wait clearance. After a few planes crossed the active runway, we were cleared for takeoff







Just as the captain said, there were some turbulence on the climb out





We climbed up to flight level 310 for a few minutes. We spent most of the flight either in IMC, or right in the tops of the clouds. It was smooth for the most part though. The flight attendants came through with water, tea or coffee and snacks



We checked in with SYR approach as we were leveling off at 11,000ft. The controller cleared us to the MOYIK intersection for the ILS approach to runway 10, and to descend to 3,200ft. Shortly after this when we were still over 20 miles from the final approach fix, we were told to cross at or above 3,200ft and cleared for the ILS



Final runway 10





As we were taxiing to the gate, it was my first time seeing Southwest since they had started service 10 days before



All of the gates had airplanes on them. We stopped short of the gate. There was an A319 at our jetway. They had to remove it so our flight could. We sat short of the gate, for about 10 minutes waiting



N335PQ spent the night at gate 24. It flew down to JFK early the next morning



After a few days back in New York, I was going back down to Florida. This time I was going down to West Palm Beach, where my family moved a few weeks before. It would be my first flight on Southwest at SYR. It would also be my first Southwest flight since the spring of 2019. Southwest is one of the airlines I have flown on the least. I had flown on about 15 Southwest flights before this. Most of them were when I was in college in Phoenix.

The new check in





The board is finally full again



Southwest 2497
Syracuse, NY (SYR) – Baltimore, MD (BWI)
Boeing 737-700
N452WN
Seat 16A
Scheduled Departure Time – 4:50pm
Actual Departure Time- 5:10pm
Scheduled Arrival Time – 6:15pm
Actual Arrival Time-6:02pm
52 minutes



Flight information was showing the wrong flight number. They took a piece of paper and taped it over, with the correct flight number



N452WN slowing down on runway 28, after arriving from Baltimore



N452WN pulling into gate 1







Shortly after the last passengers were getting off, the new crew went down. The gate agents made an announcement describing the boarding process at Southwest. After this, they had everyone in the A group line up. I was A38 for my first flight, and A58 on the second flight. This would also be my first time at BWI.

My second time boarding in one of the newer glass jetways





When I boarded the flight attendant was on her cell phone, and didn’t look up at all. I settled in one of the first window seats that was open





Boarding was done by about 4:40pm. The captain announced that they were waiting on some last minute bags. We ended up sitting at the gate for about 15 minutes. The door was closed at 4:58pm, and we were pushing 4 minutes later at 5:02pm. The flight attendants did the safety demo, and we quickly started the taxi out to runway 28

Pushing back on the airport webcam





Taxiing out



Cleared for takeoff





We checked in with the departure controller. We were given a southwest heading, and cleared to the Elmira VOR and to maintain 10,000ft





We leveled off at 10,000ft for a little bit. Once NY center took the handoff, we climbed up to 26,000ft. Over central Pennsylvania we went down to 15,000ft. The flight attendants handed out snacks, and had a limited drink menu. I got orange juice. The flight went by very quick. As the flight attendants were finishing up the service, we were starting down





Cruising





Descending into BWI on the TRISH3 arrival



Final 33L





N452WN departed the following afternoon to Chicago – Midway, as a repositioning flight



I had a little over an hour, until boarding was starting for my next flight

Southwest 3529
Baltimore, MD (BWI) – West Palm Beach, FL (PBI)
Boeing 737-700
N7738A
Seat 18A
Scheduled Departure Time – 7:40pm
Actual Departure Time- 8:13pm
Scheduled Arrival Time – 10:10pm
Actual Arrival Time- 10:16 pm
2 hours 3 minutes





N7738A at gate A5, after flying down from Portland, ME



For this flight I was hoping to sit in front of the wing. There were two window seats open. The first the woman said she was saving it for her younger daughter who was standing a few people behind me, and if I wouldn’t mind letting her have it. I didn’t care that much at all, so I kept going. The person ahead of me took the only other open window seat. So I finally ended up in the same place, as the first flight. This time I was two rows further back in 18A



We sat at the gate on this flight as well once everyone had boarded. The captain welcomed us aboard the “737-700 jet service to Palm Beach”. After a little while the gate agent came on and had someone get off with them. The captain then announced that the passenger issue had been resolved, and we’d be pushing back as soon as the door was closed



Cleared for takeoff



“Southwest 3529 RNAV WONCE contact departure”



Climbing out of BWI





We leveled off at 38,000ft, where we stayed for the entire flight. The flight attendants came around to start the service 40 minutes after takeoff, because of some turbulence. I got the same thing I had on the first flight



Cruising



Descending



On a downwind for runway 10L



We overshot the final. I could see the entire runway out my window. After another turn, we were lined up



It was a super hard touchdown



N7738A spent the night at gate B3, before flying up to Atlanta early the next morning





After years of waiting, I was glad that I was finally able to fly Southwest on a flight at SYR. It was weird to be flying out of SYR for the final time on a regular basis. I have flown in and out of SYR regularly for my entire life. Now I will only be flying back to visit.

Congrats on getting your 1000 hours. Hope you enjoyed your time on Southwest and at BWI!

BWIAirport wrote:

Congrats on getting your 1000 hours. Hope you enjoyed your time on Southwest and at BWI!

Thank You! BWI was good. I didn't have that long of a layover to check it out. Southwest was good. But, I go back and forth on how I feel about the open seating though.

Glad you were able to experience WN out of SYR, I was on the first flight out… how full was your SYR-BWI flight?

SyracuseAvGeek wrote:

Glad you were able to experience WN out of SYR, I was on the first flight out… how full was your SYR-BWI flight?

I was almost on that flight too. I think it was pretty full, just a few open seats.