Original flight from Flyover to KPHX was delayed 1 hour and planned connection was impossible…We were automatically rebooked to fly through DFW.
This resulted in:
-A 30 minute-later departure- but we were informed too late to change the alarm clock to avoid oh-dark-thirty wake up.
-Learning that AA zone 5 is the old Zone 1 after Platinum, Gold, Diamond, and Spent-Uranium levels, but there’s still Concierge-somethingorother level.
-An MD-80 Ride (Good) (Those things are amazingly quiet towards the front.)
-A flight over the Ozarks with relatively few clouds (Good)
-A visit to DFW (which I now consider a slightly nasty place)
-We landed on 17L and did an end-around taxi below the big checkered walls
-Encountered some wake turbulence- a very brief, but slightly intense roll motion.
-A 777 Ride (Good IFE, AND a meal that the PHX route didn’t have, but the wing is too damn big on that -thing and I could not see downward or even laterally due to the dihederal).
Arrival about 3 minutes earlier. (Good)
In Hoowaii, I was reminded how much I want to be a meteorologist in my next life (Airline pilot will have to wait for my third reincarnation). Hurricane Lane was hitting and while Hilo had 30” of rain, Kona had 0.5”. We experienced a 20 MPH wind gust one afternoon and saw a thundershower one evening. As opposed to “upslope effect”, I learned the $20.00 word of “Orthographic effect”. The hurricane still sucked because they closed a ton of stuff down and it was kind of cloudy. But it sucked more that the volcano quit 2 weeks before our arrival AND closed Volcanoes park.
Return:
Nasty 757 from PHKO to KPHX…about froze my arm off leaning on the wall and window.
Then a horribly scary ride in an A319…We flew right by a Circuit Breaker cloud- the pilot probably asked “what’s it doing now?” as he unsuccessfully tried to have a wider separation from the storm after reading Boeing Bobby’s comments about respecting circuit-breaker clouds.
The pilots three-nine-oh’d it (ATC probably helped).
Then on the way into Flyover, at those near-coffin-corner altitudes, we did some slightly impressive “high-speed dives” from a late descent. My Parlour Talking self was aware of the “sinking feeling” as we initiated “steep” descents and the significant nose down inputs and drag feelings and increased wind noise. Flightaware confirms a reasonably expeditious descent at times, and maybe exceeding 250 knots below 10,000 feet…maybe?
Fortunately, the cheap composite crackerbox did not delaminate during the diving descent.
Near FTZ (or maybe before) we were given a halfway significant Northern heading and a good LONG final to Runway 11…(what the hell?- this was American Airlines where it’s a somewhat longer taxi (6 min)).
I didn’t died and did not photograph the drink service.
- Circit Breaker.JPG (47.48 KiB) Viewed 3184 times
- KPHX KFIA.JPG (171.71 KiB) Viewed 3183 times
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