FNS
Voyager
The Empire Builder train of yesteryear in HO scale
Posts: 4,948
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Post by FNS on May 19, 2017 21:34:42 GMT -8
Puget Sound is getting a new commercial airport. According to the article here, Alaska Airlines will start limited service from Everett's Paine Field in the fall of 2018. The powers-that-be have been wanting to start commercial service there for a long time, so this is a pretty big win. If they start building Paine Field up, it may help to alleviate some congestion at Sea-Tac. komonews.com/news/local/alaska-airlines-will-start-daily-flights-from-everetts-paine-fieldGreat news, indeed. 9 flights are alright for me living near KPAE, plus Boeing's test flights and the always exciting approaches and takeoffs of the massive Dreamlifter giants. KSEA will still have its flight offerings. Looking forward to see what KPAE will have to offer destination-wise when announced by Alaska Airlines in 2018. It would be interesting to see if they will have shuttle flights between KPAE and KSEA for those who would need to connect with flights beyond Alaska's flight system, or if KPAE will mostly be an originating/final destination for the folks living in the north sound.
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Post by Kahloke on Apr 23, 2018 17:02:20 GMT -8
Last week I was in Hawaii. It turns out Honolulu is another great plane spotting airport. What Makes HNL unique to other large airports are the open-air walkways between the terminals, which not only afford you good views of the field, but also no glass to get in the way of picture-taking. Here are some aviation pics from Honolulu and Lihue on Kauai: First up is the Boeing 717-200 we took from Lihue to Honolulu. Hawaiian Air loves the 128 passenger 717 for the short inter-island flights. I suspect the economics of the aircraft works well for Hawaiian's needs. It's kind of a unique situation in that they require planes that can carry a fairly high number of passengers for very short flights. They turn them around quickly, too. Our plane was on the ground at Lihue for 20 minutes. That was 20 minutes to completely de-plane, unload bags, then re-load a new passenger compliment and their bags - not bad. Next up is actually not a plane, but a Blue Hawaiian helicopter. This was the chopper that took us on our Kauai flightseeing tour. That was an amazing experience and my first time in a helicopter. Now we are at Honolulu. Not all inter-island flights are handled by Boeing 717's. Ohana is Hawaiian Air's feeder airline to the smaller islands like Molokai. They primarily use ATR-42 turboprops like this one seen here One of the open-air walkways at Honolulu with a garden courtyard on the landside of the walkway. I thought that was a nice touch, and a great place to escape to if you have extra time at the airport One of the international Heavies at HNL - this one is a 777 from Korea's Asiana Airlines A local in paradise: I really do like Alaska's newest livery This was our ride back to Seattle - a Hawaiian Air Airbus A330-200 View of Diamond Head from my seat as we climbed out of Honolulu Lastly, the airlines seem to like mood lighting these days. This is Hawaiian Air's interpretation of it on the A330 we were flying on
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Post by Kahloke on Jun 2, 2018 5:27:03 GMT -8
I think I may have discovered my new favorite thing to do when flying: filming the takeoff and landing. I don't know why I never thought of this before, but I tried it out on my flights last weekend, and I must admit, the iPhone doesn't do a bad job with video.
First up is a United Airlines 737-900 landing at Sea-Tac (SEA) on Sunday at sunset
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Post by Kahloke on Jun 2, 2018 5:31:23 GMT -8
A bit out of sequence here, but this is us taking off from Washington Dulles (IAD) about 5 hours prior:
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Post by Kahloke on Nov 1, 2018 9:29:36 GMT -8
The Emerald City is getting another international carrier; Singapore Airlines is scheduled to start service between SIN and SEA next fall with Airbus A350-900 as the equipment. Sea-Tac really has been building up as an international destination in recent years - pity the international terminal (South Satellite) is such a dump. True, they are building a new international arrivals hall which should help increase throughput on arriving flights, but that does nothing to address the airside facilities, or lack thereof. I would love Seattle to get a proper international terminal to be able to compete better with LAX, SFO, and YVR. komonews.com/news/local/singapore-airlines-to-begin-flying-nonstop-to-seattle
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grk
Chief Steward
Posts: 227
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Post by grk on Nov 1, 2018 12:24:43 GMT -8
Singapore Airline flew into YVR about 15 years ago with Boeing 777-200 aircraft. The flight had a two hour enroute stop in Seoul Korea which was a pain in the butt, as everyone had to get off the aircraft with all their carry on items and go through an immigration and security check, resulting in an hour or so standing around waiting to reboard the aircraft. The fares were great for travel to Bali, but the Korea situation was a major deterrent!
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Post by Kahloke on Apr 26, 2019 6:53:07 GMT -8
United unveiled their new livery this week: www.airliners.net/photo/United-Airlines/Boeing-737-824/5505417/LMy opinion: it's a bit boring, but I think it looks better than the adopted Continental livery they've been using. Yes, this is an evolution of that Continental livery - I mean, they're still using Continental's globe - but getting rid of the yellow, increasing the font size, and introducing the swooping cheat line, gives it a fresher look. They could have done worse (ahem...looking at you, American). Sorry UA fanboys - it doesn't look like Saul Bass's iconic "Tulip" logo is coming back. Oh well.
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Post by Mike C on Apr 27, 2019 7:57:59 GMT -8
United unveiled their new livery this week: www.airliners.net/photo/United-Airlines/Boeing-737-824/5505417/LMy opinion: it's a bit boring, but I think it looks better than the adopted Continental livery they've been using. Yes, this is an evolution of that Continental livery - I mean, they're still using Continental's globe - but getting rid of the yellow, increasing the font size, and introducing the swooping cheat line, gives it a fresher look. They could have done worse (ahem...looking at you, American). Sorry UA fanboys - it doesn't look like Saul Bass's iconic "Tulip" logo is coming back. Oh well. Agreed... it kind of left something to be desired. More of a brand “refresh” than anything. Note that YVR’s Instagram recently had a March Madness bracket for best livery that flies in/out of that airport. After weeks of voting and various brackets involving all airlines, Air Canada’s recently adopted livery won handily. United (with their old livery) was eliminated in the early rounds.
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Post by Starsteward on Apr 27, 2019 11:17:47 GMT -8
United unveiled their new livery this week: www.airliners.net/photo/United-Airlines/Boeing-737-824/5505417/LMy opinion: it's a bit boring, but I think it looks better than the adopted Continental livery they've been using. Yes, this is an evolution of that Continental livery - I mean, they're still using Continental's globe - but getting rid of the yellow, increasing the font size, and introducing the swooping cheat line, gives it a fresher look. They could have done worse (ahem...looking at you, American). Sorry UA fanboys - it doesn't look like Saul Bass's iconic "Tulip" logo is coming back. Oh well. Agreed... it kind of left something to be desired. More of a brand “refresh” than anything. Note that YVR’s Instagram recently had a March Madness bracket for best livery that flies in/out of that airport. After weeks of voting and various brackets involving all airlines, Air Canada’s recently adopted livery won handily. United (with their old livery) was eliminated in the early rounds. There are detractors out there that don't like the new Air Canada livery but I'm not one of them. Yes, the 'Air Canada' is black script but the most striking feature of an aircraft's livery is what's on the tail. I was really pleased to see Air Canada bring back the elegant red Maple Leaf enclosed in a circle! The message is clear, bold and unmistakable! We should be proud to see that logo wherever we travel and remember that the logo represents much more than just an 'airline'.
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Post by Kahloke on Sept 21, 2019 10:06:06 GMT -8
A little Labor Day flying action - video I shot of us landing in Seattle (firmly as you will hear the FA say). This was a 737-900 series aircraft, Delta Airlines, Detroit to Seattle.
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Post by Kahloke on Mar 11, 2020 19:18:46 GMT -8
Another Seattle landing video, this one from last month. What's interesting in this video is the low cloud deck we flew through, and that we flew over downtown Seattle on the approach. There's even a pretty good view of Colman Dock.
Alaska Airlines 737-900: SFO-SEA
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Post by Olympic Ferries on Jun 1, 2020 11:44:30 GMT -8
Definitely sad to have to share this so soon, but by day's end tomorrow, June 2, all the MD-88 and MD-90-30 aircraft in the Delta fleet will be ferried from Atlanta to retirement. Sucks since these were the second-best aircraft type in the collective Delta fleet, and it breaks my heart to see them go. Some of them having served for 30 years or more, I am honored by the service all these planes have done for Delta and how they helped shape the future of the aviation industry. The final flights, Delta 88 from IAD to ATL, and Delta 90 from IAH to ATL, will depart tomorrow morning and the remaining planes will complete service and exit the fleet as a rolling departure. You will be missed.
On another note, I was definitely lucky to see a few of these beautiful birds in Atlanta back in December and January and felt it appropriate to share some of my final memories of them with everyone. Funny enough, the plane on the bottom, N925DN, is the only remaining MD-90 in the fleet as of 115PM PST, and will be the aircraft to operate Delta 90 from IAH in the morning.
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Post by Kahloke on Jun 1, 2020 12:19:42 GMT -8
Kinda sad, indeed. It's been years since I've flown on an MD-80 series aircraft, but I saw a bunch of them in Atlanta last year. American Airlines already retired the last of their "Mad Dogs", and now Delta is getting rid of theirs. That makes the Boeing 717 the last of the McDonnell Douglas designed t-tail jets still in service.
On another note, Delta is also retiring their 777-200's by the end of the year. there's only 18 of them, so it's not like they have a large fleet, but still significant. We're starting to see the end of the line for the 777's, too. I don't see the new 777x program having much of a future. No one wants very large airplanes anymore. The economics aren't favorable. I think most airlines with wide body fleets will be concentrating on the Airbus A350 and Boeing 787 lines.
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Post by princessofvanfan on Jun 1, 2020 14:08:28 GMT -8
Definitely sad to have to share this so soon, but by day's end tomorrow, June 2, all the MD-88 and MD-90-30 aircraft in the Delta fleet will be ferried from Atlanta to retirement. Sucks since these were the second-best aircraft type in the collective Delta fleet, and it breaks my heart to see them go. Some of them having served for 30 years or more, I am honored by the service all these planes have done for Delta and how they helped shape the future of the aviation industry. The final flights, Delta 88 from IAD to ATL, and Delta 90 from IAH to ATL, will depart tomorrow morning and the remaining planes will complete service and exit the fleet as a rolling departure. You will be missed.
On another note, I was definitely lucky to see a few of these beautiful birds in Atlanta back in December and January and felt it appropriate to share some of my final memories of them with everyone. Funny enough, the plane on the bottom, N925DN, is the only remaining MD-90 in the fleet as of 115PM PST, and will be the aircraft to operate Delta 90 from IAH in the morning. Hawaiian will be operating their 717's for many more years, so definitely check them out if you're ever over there. We hopped over to Honolulu for a day on our first trip to Maui six years ago on a 717 - nice little jet.
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Post by Kahloke on Jun 1, 2020 14:30:54 GMT -8
Hawaiian will be operating their 717's for many more years, so definitely check them out if you're ever over there. We hopped over to Honolulu for a day on our first trip to Maui six years ago on a 717 - nice little jet. We did as well, a couple of years ago, from Honolulu to Lihue on Kauai and back to Honolulu. Yes, Hawaiian will likely keep the 717 for awhile. There isn't any other jet plane on the market that can do the short hops and quick turnarounds as well as the 717. Larger planes, like the 737's, need more time on the ground for their engines to cool down between flights, and as such, are not well suited for the short inter-island flights. It's kind of a niche market for the 717, actually. On another note, Delta still has a large fleet of the 717-200's - about 91 of them, mostly acquired from AirTran after Southwest purchased that airline. They're getting up there in age, too, but there's a lot of them and likely won't be retired for at least a few more years. I wonder if Hawaiian Air would be interested in purchasing some of the younger 717's from Delta as a stop-gap measure to delay the need for new aircraft? I have to think the tropical climate and short hops wreaks havoc on air frames and likely shortens the number of cycles they can get out of an airplane. Long term, I think Hawaiian may be looking at the Airbus A220-100 and possibly the Embraer ERJ-195E2 as a possible replacement for the 717, but that's several years out, and the A220 and/or E195 would also need to have engines that can cool down quickly for the short turnarounds Hawaii requires.
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Post by paulvanb on Jun 1, 2020 20:20:27 GMT -8
I rode on the Boeing 717 variant in Italy. Volotea was the airline, boy had this plane seen better days! Flown the ones Allegient a few times. Nasty!
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Post by Kahloke on Jun 2, 2020 12:44:54 GMT -8
Found this on YouTube: someone filmed the final MD-88 flight from IAD (Washington Dulles) to ATL (Atlanta).
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Post by Olympic Ferries on Oct 27, 2020 20:09:33 GMT -8
This coming weekend will officially see the end of passenger services onboard the 777 for Delta Air Lines, with them opting to move to an all-Airbus long-haul fleet comprised of Airbus A330 and A350 jets. The last two flights are scheduled for this Friday and Saturday, from ATL and JFK, respectively, with both flights terminating in Los Angeles operating as DL8777. Both of these flights will be operated by the 777-200LR variant, N701DN and N703DN, respectively. Most of the 777s, both the -ER and -LR variant, have already been parked in Victorville, CA, and a select few will continue to fly cargo to Chicago, Atlanta and New York-JFK through the end of 2020.
Definitely a disappointing decision, given the almost $125 million spent on refurbishing all 18 777s with new cabins, the most recent of which was completed in February 2020. The A350 does rival the 777 in comfort but not in capabilities (for the moment), so it'll be interesting to see how Delta moves forward following this decision, especially with the move to invest in and then retire such young jets.
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Post by Kahloke on Oct 28, 2020 7:20:16 GMT -8
This coming weekend will officially see the end of passenger services onboard the 777 for Delta Air Lines, with them opting to move to an all-Airbus long-haul fleet comprised of Airbus A330 and A350 jets. The last two flights are scheduled for this Friday and Saturday, from ATL and JFK, respectively, with both flights terminating in Los Angeles operating as DL8777. Both of these flights will be operated by the 777-200LR variant, N701DN and N703DN, respectively. Most of the 777s, both the -ER and -LR variant, have already been parked in Victorville, CA, and a select few will continue to fly cargo to Chicago, Atlanta and New York-JFK through the end of 2020.
Definitely a disappointing decision, given the almost $125 million spent on refurbishing all 18 777s with new cabins, the most recent of which was completed in February 2020. The A350 does rival the 777 in comfort but not in capabilities (for the moment), so it'll be interesting to see how Delta moves forward following this decision, especially with the move to invest in and then retire such young jets.
They had said they were going to retire the 777's by the end of the year. I guess that means now; sooner than I had thought. This was eventually going to happen as Delta seems to be moving in the direction of having an all Airbus fleet, but without COVID, the retirements probably would have been spread out over the next several years. The average age of the 12 777's remaining in service is 14.6 years, according to Planespotters.net. So yes, it is a fairly young fleet, especially compared to the 23 years the 757 and 767 fleets are , and the 25.2 average years of the A320-200. It will be interesting to see how Delta's fleet changes over the years. They appear to be happy with Airbus at the moment, so I see them continuing along that path with future Airbus orders. That said, they have a huge fleet (208) of pretty young 737-900's, some of which are brand new. I can see those replacing older Airbus A320's as they cycle out, especially with the downturn in traffic, so those Boeings will be in the fleet for a long time. Outside of that, I think Delta will be mostly Airbus. I can see the A321-NEO/LR/XLR replacing the 757's. They already have 104 A321-200's. Here's a link to the Delta page on Planespotters. It's interesting to see if you like this sort of thing. www.planespotters.net/airline/Delta-Air-Lines
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Post by Kahloke on Oct 28, 2020 9:18:37 GMT -8
I combined the two Delta threads. Didn't seem like we needed two threads going.
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Post by Olympic Ferries on Nov 1, 2020 18:30:29 GMT -8
The festivities weren't as over the top as I was expecting at JFK and onboard DL8777 yesterday afternoon, but the flight itself was still an absolute blast. At 5hrs 21mins, its one of the longest domestic flights I've ever been on, and it was my first time onboard a 777 in my life, how ironic I know. Since I first shared the retirement info here, I thought I'd follow up with a few photos onboard. Hope you enjoy, and farewell, Delta 777. Bless you for all you helped Delta achieve in the last 20 years.
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Post by Kahloke on Nov 2, 2020 7:49:14 GMT -8
The festivities weren't as over the top as I was expecting at JFK and onboard DL8777 yesterday afternoon, but the flight itself was still an absolute blast. At 5hrs 21mins, its one of the longest domestic flights I've ever been on, and it was my first time onboard a 777 in my life, how ironic I know. Since I first shared the retirement info here, I thought I'd follow up with a few photos onboard. Hope you enjoy, and farewell, Delta 777. Bless you for all you helped Delta achieve in the last 20 years. Pretty amazing you got to go on a retirement flight. I've never been on a 777, and at this point, may never get on one, so nice to see some photos, particularly of the cabin.
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Post by Olympic Ferries on Nov 2, 2020 11:44:05 GMT -8
The festivities weren't as over the top as I was expecting at JFK and onboard DL8777 yesterday afternoon, but the flight itself was still an absolute blast. At 5hrs 21mins, its one of the longest domestic flights I've ever been on, and it was my first time onboard a 777 in my life, how ironic I know. Since I first shared the retirement info here, I thought I'd follow up with a few photos onboard. Hope you enjoy, and farewell, Delta 777. Bless you for all you helped Delta achieve in the last 20 years. Pretty amazing you got to go on a retirement flight. I've never been on a 777, and at this point, may never get on one, so nice to see some photos, particularly of the cabin. The cabin was truly stunning, they spent $125 million refurbishing all 18 777s with the program finishing in February 2020, only to announce retirement of all of them in May, so that's a big disappointment. Otherwise, it was a good experience, COVID precautions were in full swing onboard, with blocked middle seats and mask requirements so I definitely appreciate Delta for stepping up in the passenger safety department... *cough* American *cough*.
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grk2
Deckhand
Posts: 91
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Post by grk2 on Nov 3, 2020 22:25:01 GMT -8
I’ve got many trans Pacific and trans Atlantic flights on the 777. I found that the 10 seats across modification from the original 9 across significantly dismissed the appeal of the aircraft when travelling in economy. Premium economy and Business are great when the budget allows. The “tail wag” issue in the aircraft’s early years could be uncomfortable but modifications solved that issue. I like the A350 the most now.
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Post by Blue Bus Fan on Feb 18, 2021 19:07:17 GMT -8
United Airlines as 2019 has introduced a revised version of Continental Airlines; which, I personally hate because it’s way to blue. I am posting this photo because the new livery is not common yet on the AirBus A319 fleet. United Airlines N831UA by Blue Bus Fan, on Flickr
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