I am going to be a pilot and the purpose of going to PHX was to see the Embry Riddle Campus in Prescott, AZ. Once we decided that we were going to go we decided we would spend a few extra nights. But the day we wanted to go back the cost of the flights were like 400 more per person so we decided to spend a week. On December 1st, 2013 after several weeks of figuring out what dates and what airline and flights, we were looking at DL through ATL on a MD88 and 757 and back 757 and MD88 however we decided our literary which would be B6 SYR-JFK on an E190 then JFK-PHX on an A320. The return flight would be the opposite PHX-JFK redeye on an A320 then back to SYR on an E190. The total per person for the flights were $612 per person. B6 was a little more expensive than the other airlines but we were going to be using points for one of the flights so we didn’t have to pay for the fourth person so it came out cheaper.
Our flight to JFK was scheduled to depart at 2:15PM, We would have to get there by 12:30PM so I decided not to go to school. In the morning I did some last minute packing. Over February break I went to my grandma’s in New York City and she said that she would be coming to SYR for a week in April. It turned out to be the week before and she would be on our flight to JFK exactly one row in front of us. So she got to our house around 11-1130AM and my aunt was going to drive us all to the airport. We left for the airport around 12PM and where at the B6 counter with no one on line around 1220PM. It was pretty quick getting all of us checked in and after about 5 or 10 minutes we were online for security. My mom had TSA PRE Check so we got to go through with her and didn’t have to wait online. Once we were through security my mom, sister and grandma went to our gate and I walked around SYR to go plane spotting until our plane from JFK arrived.
Curbside

B6 check in



Security

For the past few weeks Eagle “envoy” has been sending the CRJ 700 to SYR instead of the usual ERJ145. I have yet to see an old colors CR7 and want to see one before they go back to the 145. The last time I saw an AA CRJ700 at SYR was when they stopped flying to DFW at least 5 or 6 years ago.

N531EG as flight 2753 to ORD
N874RW as Shuttle America flight 6013 to LGA at gate 24

Here was this flight headed to runway 15 for departure

An Endeavor Air CRJ200 to DTW departing runway 15

I then headed down to the DL gates and saw this

N839CA as flight 4838 at gate 21 after arriving from CLE and turning as flight 3590 to EWR


While I was watching a few planes at SYR leave I was also tracking my planes inbound flight, flight 316 from JFK. It was scheduled to land at 1:11pm and i was listening to LiveATC and once I heard B6 316 check in with tower I headed back to our gate to see my plane pull into the gate. I hadn’t checked what the tail was and once it pulled up I saw it was N324JB the Blueberries tail. I had waited to go on this tail for 3 years because it was the last one I had to go on and I flew on it in FEB and this flight and to PHX so after waiting 3 yrs I flew on it 3 times in a row.
N324JB pulling into gate 15



At around 1:45pm they began boarding with extra legroom. On the E190 it was rows 1 and 12-14, followed by pre board and then boarding from the rear of the aircraft forward. Being in Row 3 I didn’t want to have to wait until they end, so I walked up and figured they would make me wait but they scanned my boarding pass and I was allowed to board.
JetBlue Airways 1515
Thursday April 17, 2014
Syracuse, NY (SYR)-New York, NY (JFK)
Embraer E190 N324JB Delivered Oct.2010
Seat 3A
Scheduled Departure Time- 2:15PM
Actual Departure Time-2:14PM
Scheduled Arrival Time-2:48PM
Actual Arrival Time-3:11PM
Flying Time- 57 minutes
Departure Runway- 15
Arrival Runway- 13L
Departure Gate- 15
Arrival gate-25
https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N324JB/history/20140417/1815Z/KSYR/KJFK


Gate 15

My grandma was in 2B I was in 3A my mom in 3B and my sister in 4A. Within 15 minutes everyone was on board and after trying to figure out if a certain passenger was on board, I am assuming because his bag was already put on and they were not sure if he was the gate agent confirmed he was and closed the door pushed back the jetway and a few minutes later halfway through the safety demo we began our pushback. We taxied straight back then made a left turn and stopped. The pilots started the engines pretty quickly and within a few minutes we began our taxi to runway 15 via taxi way Alpha(A) Echo(E) and Mike(M).
Looking Forward

Ended up being a full flight

Preparing for Departure

My Friend who was going to meet me in PHX on the 21st was at the airport to watch my plane leave and sent me this picture of my plane at the gate

Jetway being pushed back

Engines started, Flaps Down and beginning our taxi

Making the left turn onto taxiway Alpha (A)

N466AW to DCA as flight 3960 at gate 8

Passing by the UA planes

Holding Short of 15, as the Flight Attendants were taking their seats for departure

Video of Our Departure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ie3-o3TVhI
It was a pretty powerful takeoff for the 190 and after taking off we made a slight turn but pretty much flew straight out to the POMPY VOR then up to 21,000 feet.

On this flight they offered the “express” service which consist of Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite and Water. They also gave out Chocolate Chip Cookies or Popcorn Chips. I got the PopCorn Chips and a Sprite and just looked out the window and watched the inflight map on channel 13. As we got closer to NY I saw a few planes including a DL 737-800 off to our left in probably 10 miles climbing out.






Instead of making a left turn where the normal approach into 13L we continued to fly straight over land over NJ and made a wide right turn the flew straight and another left turn then resumed the normal visual approach to 13L. For a minute I thought that we were in a holding pattern but once we landed I went in the cockpit and talked to the pilots and they said there was a lot of traffic and it was just for spacing why we flew so far to the left of JFK.

On the visual for 13L

Video of our Landing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40H8gvji0T4
We made a decent landing on 13L and made a quick taxi in and parked at gate 25 next to N510JB headed to SDQ as flight 9. Gate 25 also turned out to be the same gate that our flight to PHX left from. Once they opened the door I went in the cockpit and talked to the pilots. After our flight they would fly flight 1734 to BTV. Once we got in the terminal we wanted to find out what gate the PHX flight was leaving from and found out it was the same gate but they are opening a new international part of the terminal and there wasn’t a lot of area to sit, because there were a lot of flights leaving so we split up and my mom and sister walked around and my grandma went to get her bag and head home and I went to a couple places In the airport and went plane spotting.

N324JB flightdeck




Our plane from the terminal

FIDS



T5
Pictures from Plane at JFK:
ANA 777 Star Alliance

Aer Lingus 110 the 757 to SNN at gate 14 preparing for departure


A330

New AA A321

N903JB new a321 as flight 703 pushing back from gate 21 to SJU

N651JB as flight 669 to SJC at gate 9

VX 22 from SFO rolling out on 13L

N590JB headed to SAN as flight 89 beginning its taxi

N353JB as flight 1734 to BTV departing gate 8. The pilots of my flight from SYR were flying this flight.

N729JB as flight 788 from SXM arriving 13L, hopefully it gave the folks at Maho Beach some good jetblast when it left

Flight 946 from SDQ

UPS 2112 from SDF


JAL 787
Flight 201 to FLL preparing for departure from gate 21

N705TW SkyTeam 757 as flight 1841 from BOS

As we were waiting to board. Our captain came up to the gate and made an announcement that there was an instrument that they needed to reset every so many flights and that before we could leave they had to check it so this delayed boarding about 15-20 minutes and around 6:40 we began boarding with extra legroom and since this was an airbus it is rows 1-5 and 10-11(the emergency exit rows). This time I boarded where I was supposed to with row 9 my seat. Since I was between the middle and ¾ of the people on the plane had already boarded there was a short wait in the jetway and to get back to my seat. Once we sat down they finished u boarding and the captain came out to make the usual preflight announcement and then we were closed up and pushed back. We then started our engines and lowered our flaps and began the long 40-45 minute taxi to runway 13R. We taxied out of terminal which is B6 then left past terminal 7 which is mainly UA and BA and then past 8 which is AA/US then past the international terminal and saw the LOT 787( which would take off right after us) and a few others we then made a right turn and continued straight to 13R. As we were taxing a DL 737-800 to SAN and another one to DEN went by as well as B6, AA, Dl, BA and LX. Shortly before 8PM we made a not so powerful takeoff and made a quick right turn to a 185 heading and then from there to RBV (Robbinsville) and up to 30,000 feet which we cruised at for the majority of the flight.

JetBlue Airways 135
Thursday April 17, 2014
New York, NY (JFK) - Phoenix, AZ (PHX)
Airbus A320 N659JB Delivered Jul.2007
Seat 9A
Scheduled Departure Time- 6:59PM
Actual Departure Time-7:59PM 1 hour late
Scheduled Arrival Time-9:24PM
Actual Arrival Time-9:36PM
Flying Time- 4 hours 37 minutes
Departure Runway- 13R
Arrival Runway- 26
Departure Gate- 25
Arrival gate-26
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N...B/history/20140417/2259Z/KJFK/KPHX

Our plane at gate 25 after arriving as flight 1202 from FLL

Our flight



About to board



View out my window


Getting ready to leave

The Captain returning to the flight deck after doing the preflight announcement

Starting our taxi

Passing the international terminal


Following a DL 737-800




Following this triple 7 to the runway

“Jetblue 135, caution jetblast runway 13R line up and wait”

Video of our Departure:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtsDy-Bht0E
Rolling past an EL Al 747

Airborne

“JetBlue 135, fly heading 185 contact NY departure. Goodnight.


Right after the pilots retracted the flaps and climbing out over the dark ocean


As we climbed through 15,000 feet we were over NJ and the sun was starting to set and it was starting to go dark out. I was surprised how quickly the service started within 15 minutes of takeoff they first came through with the Buy on Board snack “meal boxes” and headsets and pillows and blankets all for a charge with credit card only. Then the flight attendants came through with drinks and they had everything from soda to juice to seltzer and alcoholic beverages for purchase. I got a sprite and iced tea (it turned out it was Arizona iced tea and we were on the way there) Following that they came through with snacks. They had cookies, popcorn chips, Blue chips and also Cheetos and Chex Mix. After this they came through with trash bags and this all happened within the first 50 minutes of the flight. Once it got dark out I plugged my phone into my laptop to charge it then watched some TV. After watching a little of my favorite show law and order SVU I went to the back and talked to the flight attendants for a little bit. They said that the following Tuesday was the deadline for the pilots to vote if they wanted to become unionized. She also said that if they did she was pretty sure the B6 CEO would be kicked out because the pilots were not happy with him. She also said a lot of the flight attendants didn’t like him either. She said he was looking at going to UA, but she also said that the ASPCA could have him for there CEO that’s how much he isn’t liked at B6. I checked from PHX the day the vote closed and sure enough with a 71% vote B6 pilots will join ALPA (Air Line Pilots Association). Since this happened the B6 COO has announced he is leaving and in a few of the online articles it says the CEO is contemplating leaving next year in 2015 when his current contract expires. Between talking to them and watching flight TV the flight went by very fast and before long we were already descending over western New Mexico. It was a very fast descent, we had descended from 30,000 to 10,000 feet 13 minutes. Once we reached 10,000 there was the standard Ding and the landing lights came on. Being in seat 9A directly over the wing the whole engine was lit up once the landing lights were turned on and it made a glare so it was hard to take pictures. We made a pretty straight in approach besides a few small turns and within a few minutes the lights in the cabin were turned on, the flight attendants came through for the final time to collect trash and make sure all seat backs were up and seats belts fastened. They then turned off the lights and we made one more right turn and we were lined up for runway 26. We then flew straight in and made a very smooth landing on runway 26 at 9:36PM. We exited left made another left turn and taxied to gate 26 at terminal 3. Once they connected the jetway and opened the door people started to deplane and I asked the flight attendant I was talking to if I could talk to the pilots and she asked them and they said sure. The captain was Michael and the first officer was Troy. The captain Michael was on reserve and only found out he was flying our flight the day before. Same thing with two of the three flight attendan

attendants. The pilots would spend the night in Scottsdale and the next night fly the redeye back to JFK. I sat in the first officer seat and I got to touch the sidestick and he showed me about the auto braking system of the A320. After talking for a few minutes I thanked him and then walked down to meet my mom and sister at the baggage claim. Our bags came out pretty quickly and we had to take our shuttle to a different building were they had the rental cars. After checking in with a guy from Hertz he gave us our keys to our Nissan Rouge the same car we have at home and after going to the spot where it was, I plugged in the address of our hotel into my phones GPS and within 20 minutes we were there checked in and at our room. Once we got to our room about 30 minutes later i fell asleep for the night.

Climbing out
They kept saying that our flight had Wifi and that we had to look for FLY FI on our wifi conenctions but it wasn’t there and then they made an announcement that it wasn’t working.

Sunset




The flight attendants coming through with buy on board



Over PA

My sprite and iced tea

My popcorn chips and my sisters blue chips

Eastern Ohio


Near STL

Looking forward

Looking back

From my seat row 9 looking back

Starting our descent

15,000 feet

Passing through 10,000 as the landing lights were switched on

Lowering the flaps

Cabin during the final descent

On final


Video of our landing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dr0bYXayCGk
Pulling into gate 26

Here are some of the pictures from the cockpit







Our plane from the terminal

Simply Blue


Headed towards the baggage claim

Bags

Hertz Rent a Car

We stayed at the Hilton Squaw Peak. It was a nice hotel, it had a few pools and a water slide and it was nice to be able to sit outside in the sun next to the pool. It was really hot out, this was awesome after being in SYR all winter. Also from the main pool I had a good view of planes descending towards sky harbor. I saw a lot of US Airbus and WN 737’s.
Pictures from the hotel










A cactus at the hotel



We got there on Thursday night and we spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the hotel and we went to a few places near the hotel. Sunday was Easter so not too many places were open. On Monday my friend was going to fly the same flights I did and was going to come see the Embry Riddle Campus with us because he is also going to be a pilot then fly home with us Thursday. So he was going to be getting in around 930PM Monday night so during the day Monday we drove to Sedona. It was a pretty cool town. We talked around went in some stores, bought a little cactus and then drove up near these red rocks and then drove to this place to eat lunch right on Sedona Airport. As we were eating a few small planes left it was pretty cool. We drove the two hours back to the hotel Monday afternoon then had dinner then left around 830PM for Sky Harbor. During the day I was tracking the flight he was supposed to come on and I listened to it on liveatc. His flight took off the exact same runway as mine 13R at JFK then I checked flightaware every so often and about 50 minutes before his plane was supposed to land we left for the airport. My mom dropped me off at terminal 3 were B6 is and her and my sister went to a cell phone lot and I went up to the roof to go planespotting until his plane landed. I was watching the planes takeoff 25L and land 25R and about 5 minutes before his plane landed I walked across the parking garage to the other side were runway 26 is to watch his plane land. I was watching a new Delta 737-900 that just arrived from DTW pull in to the gate right below me and I looked up and I saw the B6 A320 N705JB flaring right before it touched down. It rolled out past the gate then taxied past the gate were the flight to BOS was getting ready to push back then it taxied straight towards me then made a right turn past the boston flight then taxied down a little bit and waited for the other flight to push. Once it cleared it taxied to the gate. I waited for a few more minutes because I knew he was in the back of the plane and was going to go in the cockpit to talk to the pilots and it was only about a 2 minute walk to were people were coming out of security. After a few minutes I headed down met up with him got his bags then we drove back to our hotel. Early the next morning we left for Prescott were Embry Riddle is and got a tour of that. After that we headed back to PHX and my mom and sister went to the pool and we went to the same parking garage I was the night before to go planespotting. We got there around 2PM and waited for the SpeedBird 747 form LHR to land a few hours later. We also went back there two other days to plane spot. PHX has to have the most laid back security because there were 2 or 3 times PHX employees were outside smoking and didn’t say anything to us. Also a DL employee asked us once if we were doing a school project and we said how we are going to be pilot and she said “come work for DL.” We got to see lots of planes that we don’t get to see at SYR and also got to see the 747.
Snake on the highway to Sedona



75 speed limit

Desert on the highway to Sedona


IN Sedona


Sedona

Were we went to lunch

From our table were we sat outside



After we eat lunch on the drive back down there was this cliff were you could see all of Sedona. It was a good view.





From the drive home

N705JB my friends flight arriving from JFK as flight 135

The next morning on the way to Prescott

Having seen the DAB campus as well, there were some obvious differences including the size of it. The one at DAB was much larger and had more kids/staff. The tours were similar including flightline, dorms, classes, cafeterias ETC. This one I met with an admissions counselor at the one at DAB she just gave us a presentation and didn’t really want to answer any questions, this one was very nice and informative. Overall I liked it a lot (except the price).
Pictures of the Embry Riddle Prescott, AZ campus




]









Over the next couple days, we went back to the terminal 3 parking garage to go plane spotting. Here are some pictures of some of the planes.



Two UA E170 they were there for a few days and never really moved from the same spot


N204UW i took this plane to MBJ in Jan 2010

DL 739



DL 757-300 with winglets touching down runway 26



Touching down 25L
SpeedBird



US CRJ-900

Double Beacon F9


UA 752

AA CRJ200

Old Colors WN







AS











I was not sure where this was going a UA ERJ-145XR







WN 737-800

3 US




The night that we left we were spotting at PHX in the afternoon, then we went out to dinner at Red Lobster. After that we went back to our rental car return place. Once returned it we took a bus to our terminal and had to wait on a short line at the B6 counter. The people in front of us were mixed going to BOS and the rest on the JFK flight. Before we went through security we went back up to the roof once more and then we went through security and headed to our gate. We saw the two pilots of the BOS flight at the gate. We talked to them about flying and flight school and the FO was Chad, He looked really familiar and I am pretty sure I have had him as a pilot before but still can’t remember on what flight. Once the BOS flight pushed out and before our plane from JFK arrived I went to go get a drink and some gum for our flight from the gift shop. The person doing the checkout had to have done cocaine or something before coming to the airport because he was doing everything really fast and was really hyper and offering everyone gum and he just had to be on something. On the way back to gate 26 I stopped at a DL gate for flight 1206 a 737-800 to JFK. The woman who was talking to the agent had been sitting down by the B6 gate but it was also a DL gate and she had missed the flight and asked me where I was going. I said SYR stopping in JFK and she said what airline I said JetBlue and she said “oh, I have heard good things about them I guess I will take them instead. She was going somewhere in Florida. I think maybe FLL or PBI. I laughed in my head because our flight was full and she though DL would transfer her ticket. Maybe they rebooked her to ATL or through DTW. Our flight pulled in a little late and once everyone was off they cleaned the plane. There were a lot of wheel chairs coming off the plane and one old guy in a wheel chair was yelling at someone on the phone about a refund or something for about 5 minutes before he just hung up on the person. Once they moved about 5 or 6 wheel chairs out of the way they began boarding with extra legroom which we had for this flight then since I was on the plane being one of the first to board I don’t know what they did with the rest of the plane. Boarding took longer than on the JFK-PHX flight and there was a woman who at the last minute came on with a dog and the person sitting next to her was allergic to dogs so she had to move seats with someone else and that took a while. She ended up switch with a Non rev flight attendant. Bummer for her she had an aisle seat then had to be switched to a middle seat across the aisle. Once that was done they closed the door and we pushed back and started up the engines while the flight attendants did the safety demo. Once we started our taxi I thought we would be going to 25R the runway I saw most of the planes leave from, but instead of turning right we went straight and taxied down to runway 26. That was the same runway I arrived on and we took off and made a right turn towards ABQ as it was part of our flight plane then climbed up 35,000. Once we reached our cruising altitude the flight attendants came through with buy on board drinks and snacks. This flight they did it with the lights off. The last 3 redeye flights I have been on besides 1 all did the drink and snack service with the lights on for about an hour. It wasn’t a big deal for me since I don’t like to sleep but for someone who would this might make getting to sleep difficult. On this flight I got a sprite and popcorn chips again. I feel asleep for about 15-20 minutes which I was surprised because I didn’t feel very tired and was not planning on sleeping but overall it made it better because I stayed up the whole next day until around 11PM and then slept for about 12 hours after being up for like 30 hours besides about 20 minutes. The fight went by at a good rate and before long the dark black sky had some dark blue shades in the horizon that slowly got a little lighter blue then some orange and pink and purple. As we started out descent it looked like a 737 or 757 up ahead like 3 or 4 thousand feet above us its contrail was a purple in the early morning sky. This morning they were using runway 31L for arrival and 31R for departures. We flew over the long island sound then past JFK out over the water then made a few left turns and flying right over a lot of ships then we flew over jones beach and made one last left turn and were lined up for 31R. I turned on liveatc on my phone and didn’t think it would work because we were still around 3000 feet. Once I turned it to JFK tower it came right up and heard “UPS 9711 thirty one cleared for takeoff your cleared to go”. At 6:26AM we touched down after a 4 hour 7 minute 2,248 mile cross country flight. As we were rolling out I heard “UPS 9711 left for the Canarsie Climb contact NY Departure” and with that the UPS 757 began its 27 minute hop to EWR. We then taxied left off the runway and left onto Alpha (A) and were then told to monitor ground on the way in we then taxied to gate 18 next to N805JB with sharklets. I flew this plane MCO-SYR in March 2013 before it had sharklets. Once most of the passengers deplaned and they opened the cockpit door we went in and talked to the pilots. After a little bit of time in there the captain who had a British accent said that the flight attendants could not leave until all passengers were off and they wanted to leave so we got off the plane. Once in the terminal I checked and on the monitor it said the plane we just off of N597JB would be going to CHS as flight 1273. This layover went by quicker than the one going to PHX. I got some breakfast at dunkin donuts and before long it was time to board the flight to SYR. This was a quick flight compared to the overnight one. We boarded pushed back and then started the engines. They had switched from using runway 31L and R when we landed from PHX to using 13L and 13R. It is rare for a plane to leave 13L I have only seen it once before and this morning I saw a Fed Ex DC10 and Speed bird 747 us it for departure and I was surprised when we taxied to it then were told to hold short for a DL MadDog on final then we were told to line up and wait and took off and made a left turn to heading 110 then climbed up to cruising altitude. There really was not much of anything on this flight a quick service and before long we were descending into SYR. This flight went by really fast and before long we were on base for runway 10 at SYR. We then made one left turn and lowered the flaps and touched down on runway 10 at 10:23AM we rolled made the left on Mike (M) and left onto Alpha (A) then taxied straight into the JetBlue gate ….gate 15. We then deplaned and the bags came out pretty quick and once we got each of our bags, we had a ride home so we didn’t have to pay to park for the week and once we got picked up we had a quick drive home.
It was a nice night for flying before heading to sky harbor

Car Rental Return

Waiting for the shuttle


Heading inside


B6 counter





Headed for security

TSA Checkpoint
N634JB B6 602 to BOS

B*L*U*E

“All rows, All passengers for flight 602 to Boston through door marked 26.”

Once the BOS flight was pushed back and taxing away they made the announcement about our flight and switched the gate info to our flight


Our plane pulling in

N597JB at the gate

For the Love of Blue

Agent headed down with our two pilots and one of the two pilots deadheading one of them flew in on the inbound BOS flight bringing down people in wheel chairs. This was the same agent that checked us in at the ticket counter.


JetBlue Airways 1515
Thursday April 17, 2014
Phoenix, AZ (PHX)-New York, NY (JFK)
Airbus A320 N597JB my 4th time on this plane Delivered Nov.2004
Seat 3A
Scheduled Departure Time- 10:49PM
Actual Departure Time-11:19PM
Scheduled Arrival Time-6:22AM +1 day arrival Friday April 25, 2014
Actual Arrival Time-6:26AM +1 day arrival Friday April 25, 2014
Flying Time- 4 hours 7 minutes
Departure Runway- 26
Arrival Runway- 31R
Departure Gate- 26
Arrival gate-18
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N...B/history/20140425/0549Z/KPHX/KJFK
Boarding began about 10-15 minutes late and since we were extra legroom and up in the front we were one of the first to board




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