Flight report Feb 2019

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Not_Karl
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Re: Flight report Feb 2019

Postby Not_Karl » Thu Feb 07, 2019 8:06 pm

Hey, 3WE, every aeroplanie you get in immediately explodes in one way or another (OK, not always immediately, shimmy dampers tend to explode on landing) or gets covered in 50M of snow. Have you considered to stop flying as to Not_affect other passengers?
pink stuff- and still ice cycles on wing.
Aeroplanie Nair! :insert_aroused_smiley_here:. Maybe they should use a razor or tweezers to finish the job.
Of note are pax getting up to use lav on an active taxiway with the seatbelt sign on. I wonder if I should inform the crew of my PPL and willingness to zip tie these near rioting passengers?
YES.
-6.6666666666666666666666666666666666666666etc.°C
Fixed.
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Gabriel
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Re: Flight report Feb 2019

Postby Gabriel » Fri Feb 08, 2019 4:52 am

Oh yeah- I bought a second class ticket- but somehow, that gets me group 8?
Be thankful that your group number is smaller than the number of rows.

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3WE
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Re: Flight report Feb 2019

Postby 3WE » Fri Feb 08, 2019 12:51 pm

Hey, 3WE, every aeroplanie you get in immediately explodes in one way or another (OK, not always immediately, shimmy dampers tend to explode on landing) or gets covered in 50M of snow. Have you considered to stop flying as to Not_affect other passengers?
No- I had three prior trips that went pretty much according to plan...Dummy and Flyboy have done much to remind us to be a little bit factual.

And I arrived yesterday PM (without did dieing) 11 hours after starting (9 hours after starting on Sunday) for what would have been an 8 hour drive and I didn't died and got cookies and beverages and got to make a really long thread comprised mostly of my own posts and got to look out the window and check flap deployment and all that...

That being said, this trip was pretty crappy on multiple occasions and [blue-font-except-it's-kind-of-true] I feel like we need to do something about it and have more regulations.[/pontification]
What flyboy might say: What?
Yes.

I don't know what.

PS: Thanks for the conversion to the temperature units used by societies that play fake football as opposed to real football where hand use is very significant.
Last edited by 3WE on Fri Feb 08, 2019 1:12 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Flight report Feb 2019

Postby elaw » Fri Feb 08, 2019 1:06 pm

Look on the bright side... although customer service, comfort, and convenience would have been better, a donkey cart would most likely have taken even longer.
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Gabriel
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Re: Flight report Feb 2019

Postby Gabriel » Fri Feb 08, 2019 5:36 pm

PS: Thanks for the conversion to the temperature units used by societies that play fake football as opposed to real football where hand use is very significant.
Don't worry. Degrees Fahrenheit (and letter-size paper, and hand-football, and pay-per-ride public ambulances) is standard everywhere in the known universe except outside USA.

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Re: Flight report Feb 2019

Postby 3WE » Fri Feb 08, 2019 8:12 pm

...temperature units...[/size].
..Degrees Fahrenheit...everywhere in the known universe except outside USA...
Your and Not-Karl's temperature units suck.
Temp Units.JPG
Temp Units.JPG (59.27 KiB) Viewed 8963 times
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Not_Karl
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Re: Flight report Feb 2019

Postby Not_Karl » Fri Feb 08, 2019 9:41 pm

...temperature units...[/size].
..Degrees Fahrenheit...everywhere in the known universe except outside USA...
Your and Not-Karl's temperature units suck.
Some minor fixes:
Temp Units FIXED.JPG
Temp Units FIXED.JPG (84.67 KiB) Viewed 8962 times
(Please excuse the clearly visible compression artifacts, this picture will Not_be uploaded to TemperatureTablePhotos.net).
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Gabriel
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Re: Flight report Feb 2019

Postby Gabriel » Sat Feb 09, 2019 4:59 am

Your and Not-Karl's temperature units suck.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHeo62B0d0E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7x-RGfd0Yk

I would recommend watch in that order but if you are going to watch only one, watch the 2nd one.

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3WE
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Re: Flight report Feb 2019

Postby 3WE » Sat Feb 09, 2019 12:39 pm

Your and Not-Karl's temperature units suck.
watch the 2nd one.
I am now more enlightened about both your dumb paper classifications and the wonderfully adaptable Imperial system. I watched some of the first video but tired of Sickbag's buddy's rantings- I can see where you'd like the somewhat lengthy statement.

I do know that 8-Ft ceilings are comfortable, and must assume that your ERJ 140 is uncomfortable since you chose to make it 2 meters or something.

I do worry though, that a well-fertilized barley corn might be bigger in size.
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Gabriel
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Re: Flight report Feb 2019

Postby Gabriel » Sun Feb 10, 2019 12:32 am

I do worry though, that a well-fertilized barley corn might be bigger in size.
Actually, that's the dead king's definition.
Modern engineers, technicians and even governments realized that the SI system was much superior.
So they legislated the following new definition for the basic imperial units (the ones from where every other imperil unit derives from):

Yard: Defined as exactly 0.9144 ... meters
Pound: Defined as exactly 0.45359237 ... kilograms
Second: Well, we agree on that one, you ave been following the definition of the SI since... there was an SI.

That was smart, you can keep your crappy units and not even take care of having a standard for them. You can use the French-kept standards (although the meter since several years, and now the kilogram too, are not based on a physical standard anymore but a definition in relation with a constant of nature, that hopefully is constant, something we really don't know since we've been observing these constants only for the last 150 years or about 0,00000001% of the time these "constants" have been around)

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Re: Flight report Feb 2019

Postby monchavo » Sun Feb 10, 2019 9:52 am

Your recent flying experiences have been traumatic.
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Re: Flight report Feb 2019

Postby 3WE » Sun Feb 10, 2019 4:30 pm

Your recent flying experiences have been tarmactic.
Fixed.
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Gabriel
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Re: Flight report Feb 2019

Postby Gabriel » Sun Feb 10, 2019 9:57 pm

ELP-DFW-MEX
Sitting in the boarding area. Flight should have departed 10 minutes ago. We called the mech to fix a tech glitch in the Mad Dog. Looks like I am going to miss my connection in DFW and my meeting in MEX tomorrow 8 am.

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Re: Flight report Feb 2019

Postby 3WE » Sun Feb 10, 2019 11:55 pm

Deja Vu all over again.
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Re: Flight report Feb 2019

Postby 3WE » Mon Feb 11, 2019 1:54 am

Given no further posts from Gabriel, I speculate he is on his way. Checking flap movement and autopilot technique...
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Re: Flight report Feb 2019

Postby Gabriel » Mon Feb 11, 2019 10:16 am

Correct. After 1+ hour of delay fixing whatever technical glitch showed up, we could board.

You can see the picture of me sitting in 22A, this is what I mean that it is not a matter of comfort but of torture, pain, and geometry. My femur just doesn't fit there. Oh, and the picture was before the guy in front reclined his seat.
22A.JPG
22A.JPG (65.29 KiB) Viewed 8905 times
After pushback, engines were started and flaps and slats were set for take-off. I cross-checked them and, with my blessing, taxi could start.
Flaps.JPG
Flaps.JPG (32.78 KiB) Viewed 8905 times
We taxied to 26L (which means taxiing the whole length of the runway and then some), throttles were advanced, we lined up (in that order, it was a rolling take-off), throttles were advanced some more and the MD-80 took off and climbed beautifully as it always does.

Immediate turn left, crossed the Rio Grande into Mexico a little bit, and established a heading parallel to the runway (a "climbing downwind").
Flaps were retracted quite quickly, in the middle of the turn. Slats remained extended for what seemed to be too much, to the point that I was concerned that they forgot to retract them and we were going to overspeed them. I don't know why they remained extended so long. For sure the MD-80 doesn't need to keep the lats extended to keep 250 kts.

Anyway, shortly after the slats were retreated we entered solid IMC and remained in solid IMC until maybe 200 AGL arriving to DFW.
IFE was bad (nothing to see out the window, no IFE, no BYOD), diet Coke was diet Coke, and mini pretzels were few.

Landing was not greaser but smooth, yet we bounced a little bit. I don't know if it is my just impression but it seems like the MD-80 has a tendency to bounce even in nice landings.

The bird looked old as it was, with deteriorated cosmetics, exterior and interior. But still my favorite plane. A pity that AA (and all) destroys the experience with a torturing seat pitch.

The glad surprise arriving to DFW was that the next flight,, to MEX, was only 6 gates away in the same terminal. I arrived when they were already boarding, but my group number (still 8) had not been called yet.

The 737-800 was really nice, disguised as a 787 (short-back seats with extendable head rest, new bins where the carry-on luggage fits on its edge, mood lighting, etc...). So screens in the back of the seats but good BYOD.

I sat in 10B and here came the best part: the seat pitch was some 2 inches longer than in the previous flight. Not sure if that's because of row 10 or it is the standard seat pitch in this plane, but these 2 inches makes all the difference between being a painful torture and just uncomfortable.

I could not see the wings from my seat so I waived the flaps check requirement.

We were taxing to some runway when the crew pulled over and announced that one of the fuel indicators had just stopped working and was showing nothing whatsoever and they would troubleshoot. After 10 minutes sitting there we returned to the gate. The captain announced that they called the mechanics and that they would give us more information when they had their verdict. 1/2 hour later, they said that the mechanics had not shown up yet because they were all busy. I can imagine the situation, the pilot calling maintenance and a recorded voice answering "all our mechanics are currently busy repairing other planes, please wait at the gate for the next available mechanic".

After another 1/2 hour, the captain announced that the fuel indicator would be placarded and that they needed to remove all the fuel from the affected tank and fill it up again to measure the exact amount of fuel in that tank, and then they needed to do a lot of paperwork, and that all that would easily take 2 hours, and that if any of us felt that they needed to leave the plane they could deplane into the terminal and AA would do their best to get them into the plane again with no guarantees (?). If there was any doubt, he insisted: " You can deplane but you may be not able to get on broad again". and then, like 5 minutes later, the flight attendant said "all out, take all your stuff, go eat something close to the gate, we'll let you know when you are ready to board again, expect more than 1 hour. So all got off the plane, many headed to different restaurants close to the gate. I had some work to do in my computer so just went for a bagel at Einstein's and sat at those sort of counters with USB and AC connectors. I had not yet taken my bagel out of the bag (or my computer) when they announced "change of plane, change of gate, boarding in a few minutes". Those few minutes where 2 hours and I wondered if it wouldn't have been faster to stick with the plane with the placarded fuel gauge.

But we boarded and the plane looked identical. If they had not said that it was going to be a different plane, I would have thought that they just moved the same plane to a different gate. The crew (flight and cabin) was also the same. Which was a bit surprising (I was already expecting the announcement that the flight was cancelled because the crew would exceed the duty time limits, but no)

3:20 after the original departure time, we departed to Mexico. We took off, got into the clouds soon, and entered a zone of very heavy rain but no turbulence whatsoever. The menu was Coke Zero and those 2 coffee cookies that I forgot the brand. I watched Wonder Woman. Almost. Did not finish it because the movie was longer than the flight. Will see the rest in the return flight. Flight, approach and landing was, now yes, uneventful.

I arrived at the hotel extremely late. I don't know what the heck I am doing writing this flight report. I need to get up in 2:30.
But all in all, it could have been worse. I could have lost my connection or the flight to MX could have been cancelled and I would have missed the Monday morning meeting in Mexico which would have then delayed a series of things that, with almost total certainty, would have meant that I would have needed to extend my stay in MX. Which would have not been nice since I am already returning Friday night.

Stay tuned (or not) for the report on the return trip.

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Gabriel
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Re: Flight report Feb 2019

Postby Gabriel » Mon Feb 11, 2019 10:17 am

Was it Biscoff or something like that?

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Re: Flight report Feb 2019

Postby monchavo » Mon Feb 11, 2019 6:42 pm

Thanks for your contribution.
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3WE
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Re: Flight report Feb 2019

Postby 3WE » Mon Feb 11, 2019 8:04 pm

Lengthy Gabrielian flight report
That’s six for six...amongst the licensed self proclaimed insider (in our minds, anyway) experts.

Donkey carts improve their relative standards.

Good job on the photos- which I’ve become lazy about posting.
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Not_Karl
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Re: Flight report Feb 2019

Postby Not_Karl » Mon Feb 11, 2019 11:40 pm

I don't remember ever reading of a journey delayed by a malfunctioning fuel indicator in a donkey cart... :roll: :roll:
I can imagine the situation, the pilot calling maintenance and a recorded voice answering "all our mechanics are currently busy repairing 3WE's planes, please wait at the gate for the next available mechanic".
Fixed.
But we boarded and the plane looked identical. If they had not said that it was going to be a different plane, I would have thought that they just moved the same plane to a different gate. The crew (flight and cabin) was also the same. Which was a bit surprising (I was already expecting the announcement that the flight was cancelled because the crew would exceed the duty time limits, but no)
Maybe it was the same plane; they made the self-loading cargo to get off so they could move the plane and make it look like it was another 8-) .
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Gabriel
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Re: Flight report Feb 2019

Postby Gabriel » Tue Feb 12, 2019 10:29 pm

Neat uh? And it was proactive. I didn't file a complaint or anything.
I know, not much, it buys me 10% of a domestic flight. But still, I appreciate this automated (literally) gesture. Some human at management level had at least to take the decision to put this system in place.
Hello Gabriel:

It was important to us to touch base with you to personally apologize for your frustrating travel day. Clearly you were inconvenienced when your flight was delayed. Under the circumstances, we didn't have a lot of options. However, we'll continue to work hard to ensure that our flights depart and arrive as scheduled. We know you count on the on-time operation of our flights when you make your travel plans.

Our apology wouldn't be complete without a tangible gesture of regret and concern. Since you are one of our frequent flyers, we'd like to reward your loyalty with 3000 bonus miles added to your AAdvantage® account. This mileage adjustment will appear in your account in a few days. You can manage your account and review activity via AA.com at http://www.aa.com/AAdvantage.

Again, we are committed to a competitive on-time record and examining the details surrounding the delay of your flight help us improve our overall operation. Thank you for flying with American and American Eagle. Please do so again soon – we'll do our best to get you to your destination as scheduled.

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Gabriel
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Re: Flight report Feb 2019

Postby Gabriel » Tue Feb 12, 2019 10:32 pm

Oh, and that was only for the DFW-MEX flight. The automated system doesn't know about my anxiety and suffering for the 1-hour delay out of ELP thinking that I would miss my connection and important meetings, and even less about my even bigger suffering in the torture bench...er... economic-class seat.

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Re: Flight report Feb 2019

Postby ocelot » Tue Feb 12, 2019 11:24 pm

-1

American units are not the same as Imperial units; quite a few of the latter are different; gallons for example.

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Gabriel
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Re: Flight report Feb 2019

Postby Gabriel » Wed Feb 13, 2019 12:39 am

-1

American units are not the same as Imperial units; quite a few of the latter are different; gallons for example.
Correct, I forgot this other feature of the British-based units that contrasts with the metric system.
You say 20 miles and then need to clarify if they are the statue, survey, nautical, international or radar miles. Sweet!!!

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Not_Karl
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Re: Flight report Feb 2019

Postby Not_Karl » Wed Feb 13, 2019 1:22 am

The automated system doesn't know about my anxiety and suffering... torture...
Maybe you should let it know... With TeeVee's help :D
International Ban ALL Aeroplanies Association, founder and president.

"I think, based on the types of aircraft listed, you're pretty much guaranteed a fiery death."
- Contemporary Poet flyboy2548m to a Foffie.


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