Delta 893
New York, NY (JFK) – West Palm Beach, FL (PBI)
Boeing 737-800
N3740C
Seat 19A
Scheduled Departure Time – 3:55pm
Actual Departure Time- 4:22pm
Scheduled Arrival Time – 6:58pm
Actual Arrival Time- 6:41pm
2 hours 19 minutes
N3740C at gate B34, after arriving from Tampa
Boarding started around 3:10pm. It was a full flight, and the whole plane was just standing there all waiting to board at once
Boarding
19A, next to N171DN getting ready for a cross country flight to Los Angeles
Boarding was chaotic, with people sitting in the wrong seats. Then boarding got backed up as people were in the wrong seats. At one point a woman was traveling with a little dog, and was introducing him to people. It was the dogs “first flight”, and she thought that it was important enough to slow down boarding to tell people. Finally a flight attendant had to tell her to move a long, and sit down. Then a bin wouldn’t close, and the flight attendant had to rearrange some bags to get it to close. As he was doing this, another line formed. A woman said to the flight attendant “Why don’t you let us pass you, then you can go back to “playing” with the bags. That would make more sense.” The flight attendant did not even say anything to her. Once he got the bin closed, he let her go past. Finally, everyone sat down and the door was closed two minutes late. A few minutes later we pushed back. We were given our taxi instructions, and instructed to cross 4L. On the opposite side, we were originally instructed to follow a jetBlue A320. But they called ground with a maintenance problem. We were then told to continue straight ahead to the full length and monitor tower
N412DX getting ready for a flight to Athens
N802NW an older A330, before a flight to Amsterdam
We were given our Line Up and Wait clearance, and instructed to climb via the SID and change the initial altitude to 4,000ft. After a few seconds in position, we were cleared for takeoff
We checked in with the Departure controller climbing out of 1,700ft. The controller cleared us to 6,000ft, and to turn left to a 110 heading
The controller pointed out a VFR Cherokee that was our 11 o’clock position in 5 miles at 7,000ft, that was northeast bound.
The Cherokee reported us in sight. Once they were no longer a factor, we were cleared to 12,000ft and direct to WAVEY. Then we were handed off to NY Center
We climbed up to flight level 360, where we stayed for the entire flight. It took the flight attendants almost an hour until they started the service. They also didn’t come around to collect trash, until we were on our final descent
Off the coast, we had to deviate a little around a build up
Cruising
Once we were on the other side of the weather, the sun started to set as we got closer to Florida
About 25 minutes before landing, we began the descent for PBI
Final 10L
N761JS taking off to PLS
N292JB at gate C14, after arriving from Westchester, NY (HPN)
N603JB had arrived the morning before from Newark, and didn’t depart to JFK until the following day
N706JB pushing back for a flight to LGA. I’ve flown on this plane twice before
N3740C at gate C4, before a flight right back up to JFK
After about a week in Florida, it was time for part of my recurrent training. The day before I left I had the ground school portion, followed by a test on systems of the airplane. Then I would fly up to Indianapolis, and have my Procedures Validation the next day. I originally was going to do Delta PBI-ATL-IND. But the PBI-ATL flight started to fill up. Southwest had a flight from PBI-ATL, around the same time. It had more open seats, so I decided to go with this as I would be able to pick my own seat. I have flown Delta several times from PBI-ATL, but this would be my first time flying the route on Southwest. It would also be my first time flying Southwest into Atlanta
Southwest 1549
West Palm Beach, FL (PBI) – Atlanta, GA (ATL)
Boeing 737-700
N482WN
Seat 6A
Scheduled Departure Time – 11:50am
Actual Departure Time- 12:40pm
Scheduled Arrival Time – 1:35pm
Actual Arrival Time- 2:02pm
1 hour 22 minutes
C-GJYE pushing back for a flight to Montreal
The weather in the Northeast wasn’t great. Very low visibility from Boston to Washington, DC. The weather at BWI was 2200RVR, 1/2sm visibility with 300ft ceilings. My plane was coming from Baltimore, and it had gotten a late start
Pulling into the gate
As people were deplaning, they already were making announcements for people to start lining up for boarding
6A
They tried to get everyone on as quickly as possible. The flight attendant made an announcement “We aren’t rushing you, but hurry up and sit down so we can leave”. The door was closed at 12:23pm, 33 minutes late. We were pushing less than 1 minute later, at 12:24pm. It felt like as soon as the jetway stopped moving, we started pushing
A Bahamasair ATR from Marsh Harbor
Holding short of 10L, as N571JB arrives from JFK
N419YX passed in front of us, before taking off to DCA
N595JB on short final from DCA
N187JB taxiing behind us for a flight up to Westchester, NY. I had just flown this plane from JFK-SYR a month before
“Southwest 1549 wind 050 @ 18 G 21 runway 10L, cleared for takeoff”
We checked in with Palm Beach Departure climbing out of 900ft on TBIRD5 Departure. The controller didn’t give us any higher altitude, before we got handed off to Miami Center
Climbing out of PBI
On this flight we went all the way up to 39,000ft, before descending back down to 35,000ft over southern Georgia. Not long after leveling off, the flight attendants came through with a service
Cruising
It’s a quick flight. Shortly after the service was done, we were already over Georgia and getting ready to descend
On a downwind
Final 9R
It was a smooth touchdown
Once we landed the flight attendant made an announcement about connections. She said people who were continuing to Chicago – Midway, Dallas and Denver had really tight connections and what gate they were leaving from
N918NK pushed back for a flight to Fort Lauderdale
N632NK taxiing to the gate, after arriving from Detroit
N8986B arriving from Columbus, MS
Pulling into the gate next to N7825A, that departed later in the afternoon to Denver
N482WN continued on to Philadelphia as flight 1549
I was originally planning on taking a Delta 757 ATL-IND. But the flight filled up. Due to the weather in the northeast, the gate agent said that several people had gotten into ATL earlier then expected, and switched from the later flight to this one. I didn’t make it on the flight by 1 seat, and the jumpseat was also taken. So my short layover in ATL, turned into 6 hours. The next flight was a Southwest flight. So to kill some time I went out to the parking garage to watch some planes. I also did a little bit of studying for the next morning
The flight I was trying to get on
N361NW taxiing out for a flight up to Syracuse
N988AT arriving from Westchester, NY
A7-BFS on short final for 8L from Luxembourg
N293PQ taxiing for a flight to Wilmington, NC
N376CA was heading down to Key West
N3731T was heading to Savannah
N977AT was going to Greensboro, NC. I have flown N977AT from SYR-ATL
N355NW was going up to LaGuardia
N556NW was going down to Fort Lauderdale
N695DL after arriving from Pensacola, FL. It had done a go around before landing
N911DQ after landing from San Francisco
PH-BQE was going to Amsterdam
N405DX was also going to Amsterdam
C-VWAG before its transatlantic flight to Manchester
N293AK had come in from Seattle
N515DN getting ready for a 14 hour flight to Johannesburg
N679DA about to takeoff to Fort Myers
F-HTYQ getting ready for a flight to Paris
N176DZ had just arrived from Orlando
N837MH getting ready to takeoff to Munich. I have flown on N837MH on a flight from Phoenix-Atlanta
N671DN was going to Miami
Once it was dark, I headed back inside, hoping to get on the Southwest flight to IND. If I didn’t get on this one, there was still two more Delta flights that would get me to Indianapolis that night. Luckily, I made it on the Southwest flight
Southwest 2567
Atlanta, GA (ATL) – Indianapolis, IN (IND)
Boeing 737-700
N7847A
Seat 18A
Scheduled Departure Time – 7:45pm
Actual Departure Time- 8:25pm
Scheduled Arrival Time – 9:15pm
Actual Arrival Time- 9:22pm
57 minutes
N7847A had arrived a little late from Orlando. This would be my second time flying on it. The first time was from Phoenix – San Diego
18A, next to N295WN getting ready for a flight to Baltimore
As soon as everyone was on board the door was closed, and we quickly pushed back and started taxiing
There was a double ding shortly before takeoff. The flight attendant announced that we have been “Cleared for blastoff”
“Southwest 2567 RNAV RONII, 8R cleared for takeoff”
Climbing out of ATL
We spent a few minutes at 33,000ft, and 38,000ft. It was a quick flight and after only a few minutes at cruise, we were already on the way back down. The lights were turned on at 10,000ft, and kept on for the entire flight
Descending
Final 23R
There was a group of college kids sitting behind me. They were talking all about our landing, and how when it is windy you have to fly a plane at a 90 degree angle to the runway. Then fix it, right at the last second. The other added that the winds play a big part in the landing, and that he could tell the pilots were fighting the winds on the approach. He mentioned how the wind changes a lot, and the wind even at 200ft, is different then right over the runway. As we were about to touchdown the kid said “see I told you, he’s got it. It wasn’t to windy to land” Meanwhile the wind was only 7 knots, and it was a smooth approach and touchdown. I’m not sure what they were getting at, but I found it amusing
It was a quick taxi to the gate
I got the hotel around 10:30pm. A lot later then I had been planning on. I was up early the next morning for my Procedures Validation that started at 6:00am. It occurred in one of the flat panel trainers. It is no where near as realistic as the sims, but it has the cockpit layout on screens and we can touch the buttons and use the MCDU (FMS). The scenario was a flight from the Bahamas to Charlotte. We covered international operations, deviations around Thunderstorms, Holding, some exercises in the MCDU like crossing restrictions, a diversion, RNAV (RNP) Approach, a QRH procedure, cargo fire, emergency evacuation, a temperature compensated approach due to cold weather and a PRM Approach with a break out procedure. It wasn’t bad, and we were done in a little over 3 hours. In the afternoon, I headed to the airport for a flight to New York. I was planning on flying IND-MSP-JFK on an E-175, and an A319. But the flight ended up getting delayed, and I would have missed the connection. Chicago was having strong winds so a lot of flights were delayed or cancelled. A lot of the flights out of IND started filling up. I ended up taking a CRJ-900 IND-DCA, in the jumpseat. It was my first time in a CRJ jumpseat. After this I flew DCA-JFK.
N119FE arriving from San Diego
N643FE arriving from Portland, OR
N319NV taxiing for a flight to Key West
N7829B departing to Orlando
N670NK had been flying LAS-ORD, but diverted to IND
N189UW had been flying from Phoenix – Chicago, but also had to divert to IND
N830MH departing for a charter flight to Providence
N760MQ at gate B7. It was delayed 6 hours going to Chicago. It had been a while since I have seen the old American Eagle livery. I flew on it once on an E-145 in 2014
N297WN was getting ready to depart to Denver. I’ve flown this plane from LAX-PDX when it was still in the old colors
N238NV departed the next morning to PIE
American Eagle “PSA” 5349
Indianapolis, IN (IND) – Washington, DC (DCA)
Bombardier CRJ-900
N570NN
Scheduled Departure Time – 5:19pm
Actual Departure Time- 5:33pm
Scheduled Arrival Time – 6:59pm
Actual Arrival Time- 6:44pm
1 hour 11 minutes
N570NN arriving at the gate from DCA
N570NN at the gate in DCA, before its next flight to Raleigh
I had just missed a flight to NY, so I had to wait a little over 2 hours until the last flight of the night. There weren’t any more flights to LGA, just to JFK
Delta Connection “Republic” 5698
Washington, DC (DCA) – New York, NY (JFK)
Embraer E-175
N244JQ
Seat 7A
Scheduled Departure Time – 9:35pm
Actual Departure Time- 10:27pm
Scheduled Arrival Time – 10:56pm
Actual Arrival Time- 11:07pm
40 minutes
N244JQ after arriving from Boston
N593AS after arriving from Los Angeles. I have flown this plane from Seattle - Phoenix
The flight was only about half full. Boarding started around 9:10pm, and a few minutes later everyone had boarded. We sat for about 15 minutes before the door was closed, and we started pushing back
N187JB had just arrived from Boston. I had just seen it the day before in PBI
As we were taxiing we headed to the pad near runway 15, and shut down the engines. The captain said that ATC had blindsided them with a wheels up time, in 45 minutes. They ended up letting us go 15 minutes early, after 30 minutes of sitting
There weren’t any planes taking off or landing, so we were cleared for takeoff without any further delay
Climbing out of DCA
We went up to 17,000ft for the quick flight up to New York. The flight attendants didn’t so any type of service since it was a quick flight
Cruising
Descending
On the RNAV Z runway 13L
Touchdown
We were originally supposed to park at Terminal 2. But they switched us to Terminal 4. I would assume because there were passengers who were connecting to Paris, France and Accra, Ghana. Since we were delayed, the people only had to go a few gates away
Pulling into the gate next to N722TW that had arrived earlier in the evening from Mexico City
N244JQ spent the night at gate B25, before flying up to Boston early the next morning
