Tweet
FLIGHT-Alaska 508
DATE- 11/27/03 (Thanksgiving Day)
AIRCRAFT- Boeing 737-790
REGISTRATION- N649AS
SEAT- 10F
DEPARTURE AIRPORT- PDX - Portland International Airport
ARRIVAL AIRPORT- DEN - Denver International Airport
SCHEDULED DEPARTURE- 1:15 PM PST
DEPARTURE GATE- C3
ACTUAL DEPARTURE- 1:20 PM PST
ACTUAL TIME WHEELS OFF GROUND- 1:27 PM PST
TAKEOFF RUNWAY- 10L
CRUISING ALTITUDE- 41,000
SCHEDULED ARRIVAL- 4:30 PM MST
ARRIVAL GATE- C32
ACTUAL ARRIVAL- 4:26 PM MST
ACTUAL TIME WHEELS ON GROUND- 4:21 PM MST
LANDING RUNWAY- 35L
My trip started at 10:00AM, where I caught the MAX Light Rail at the Beaverton Transit Center for the ride to PDX. The MAX ride arrived at PDX at 11:00AM, where the PDX terminal was fairly quiet. The only airlines that were busy at the ticket counters and also at their respective gates were Alaska Airlines and Southwest. Check-in at the Alaska Airlines counter was quick and getting through security for concourse C was also quick, so I was left with lots of time to walk around concourse C taking aircraft pictures and also to have lunch at the Wendy’s in the concourse. I finally arrived at gate C3 before our scheduled boarding time of 12:45. When our scheduled boarding time arrived, we were told there would be a 15 minute delay in boarding so maintenance could take care of a rear lavatory problem. We started a quick boarding process at 1:00 PST and ended up only being 5 minutes later than our scheduled departure time. By 1:45 PST we were already at our cruise altitude of 41,000 with some occasional light turbulence. Our meal service consisted of a turkey sandwich, which was appropriate for Thanksgiving Day. At 3:30 MST, the cockpit crew announced that we were flying over Idaho Falls and we had a 90 knot tailwind that may get us into Denver a little early. At 4:00 MST, we started our descent and were told that turbulence was likely. The descent over the Colorado Rockies continued to be quite smooth and I was beginning to think we would not experience the turbulence. Finally as we got east of the Rockies and somewhere east of Loveland, CO we hit the turbulence. This turbulence continued for the remainder of the flight, until we turned onto final for runway 35L.
RETURN FLIGHT
FLIGHT-Alaska 507
DATE- 11/30/03
AIRCRAFT- Boeing 737-400
REGISTRATION- N705AS
SEAT- 8A
DEPARTURE AIRPORT- DEN - Denver International Airport
ARRIVAL AIRPORT- PDX - Portland International Airport
SCHEDULED DEPARTURE- 11:15 AM MST
DEPARTURE GATE- C33
ACTUAL DEPARTURE- 11:30 AM MST
ACTUAL TIME WHEELS OFF GROUND- 11:45 AM MST
TAKEOFF RUNWAY- 8
CRUISING ALTITUDE- 31,000 initial, then up to 35,000 later in flight
SCHEDULED ARRIVAL- 1:00 PM PST
ARRIVAL GATE- C7
ACTUAL ARRIVAL- 1:25 PM PST
ACTUAL TIME WHEELS ON GROUND- 1:21 PM PST
LANDING RUNWAY- 10R
I arrived at the DIA Jeppeson Terminal at 7:30 AM, allowing lots of extra time for the expected crowd on this busy travel day. I arrived at the Alaska Airlines counter about 7:45 for check-in. The sign at the counter stated their open hours started at 6:00 AM, but no one was at their counter yet. I continued to wait for someone to show up at the counter and others were also showing up for check-in. The crowd continued to grow and finally at 8:30 Alaska Airlines employees showed up to start the check-in process. I finally got up to one of the check-in kiosks when the kiosk started to malfunction. One of the Alaska employees started the reboot process, which I watched with interest. The reboot started with a typical PC startup screen, then much to my amazement and HORROR, it started to boot Windows NT 4. Now I knew the real problem, it was a Microsoft Windows based system!! The reboot attempt failed and yet a second reboot attempt failed, so I moved to another kiosk for check-in. After check-in, I quickly made my way through security and had lots of time to take more photographs. I first went to the walkway between concourse A and the terminal and took many pictures of the DIA Zoo (the Frontier Airlines aircraft with animal tails). Concourse A seemed to be fairly quiet. I then went to concourse B, which was very busy. Since concourse B was so busy, I kept my visit there short. I finally went out to concourse C, where I would board my flight. Once again the computer gremlins appeared at gate C33, where the display insisted on displaying a Northwest flight to Minneapolis and Washington DC instead of our flight information. Many attempts to change this display failed, so there were announcements made on the PA to ignore the display. We started boarding at 10:50 and appeared to be schedule for our 11:15 departure. At 11:15 it was discovered that a passenger was missing from the plane who had baggage on board. The ground crew started going through the baggage on the plane to remove the baggage for this missing person. Just as they found the baggage, the missing person showed up for the flight and the matter was now settled. The missing person sat in a seat across the aisle from me and claimed to be lost in the airport, causing her to be late for the flight. I was surprised the other passengers didn’t give her a bad time for causing the flight to be late. We took off from runway 8, which was a first for me. As we were taking off, I watched the distance markers go by and noticed we were at the 4 marker when we rotated, which meant we used up 8,000 ft of runway. Not too surprising since we were on a full 737-400. About the time we were over Rock Springs, WY the cockpit crew came on the PA and told us we had a 70 knot headwind and our groundspeed was only 400 knots, which would make us a little late arriving in PDX. Meal service consisted of a turkey and cheddar cheese sandwich. The flight was good, with only light turbulence when going through clouds on departure and again on approach to PDX,
NOTE: Photos will follow in a few days, once I get the pictures back from being developed.
DATE- 11/27/03 (Thanksgiving Day)
AIRCRAFT- Boeing 737-790
REGISTRATION- N649AS
SEAT- 10F
DEPARTURE AIRPORT- PDX - Portland International Airport
ARRIVAL AIRPORT- DEN - Denver International Airport
SCHEDULED DEPARTURE- 1:15 PM PST
DEPARTURE GATE- C3
ACTUAL DEPARTURE- 1:20 PM PST
ACTUAL TIME WHEELS OFF GROUND- 1:27 PM PST
TAKEOFF RUNWAY- 10L
CRUISING ALTITUDE- 41,000
SCHEDULED ARRIVAL- 4:30 PM MST
ARRIVAL GATE- C32
ACTUAL ARRIVAL- 4:26 PM MST
ACTUAL TIME WHEELS ON GROUND- 4:21 PM MST
LANDING RUNWAY- 35L
My trip started at 10:00AM, where I caught the MAX Light Rail at the Beaverton Transit Center for the ride to PDX. The MAX ride arrived at PDX at 11:00AM, where the PDX terminal was fairly quiet. The only airlines that were busy at the ticket counters and also at their respective gates were Alaska Airlines and Southwest. Check-in at the Alaska Airlines counter was quick and getting through security for concourse C was also quick, so I was left with lots of time to walk around concourse C taking aircraft pictures and also to have lunch at the Wendy’s in the concourse. I finally arrived at gate C3 before our scheduled boarding time of 12:45. When our scheduled boarding time arrived, we were told there would be a 15 minute delay in boarding so maintenance could take care of a rear lavatory problem. We started a quick boarding process at 1:00 PST and ended up only being 5 minutes later than our scheduled departure time. By 1:45 PST we were already at our cruise altitude of 41,000 with some occasional light turbulence. Our meal service consisted of a turkey sandwich, which was appropriate for Thanksgiving Day. At 3:30 MST, the cockpit crew announced that we were flying over Idaho Falls and we had a 90 knot tailwind that may get us into Denver a little early. At 4:00 MST, we started our descent and were told that turbulence was likely. The descent over the Colorado Rockies continued to be quite smooth and I was beginning to think we would not experience the turbulence. Finally as we got east of the Rockies and somewhere east of Loveland, CO we hit the turbulence. This turbulence continued for the remainder of the flight, until we turned onto final for runway 35L.
RETURN FLIGHT
FLIGHT-Alaska 507
DATE- 11/30/03
AIRCRAFT- Boeing 737-400
REGISTRATION- N705AS
SEAT- 8A
DEPARTURE AIRPORT- DEN - Denver International Airport
ARRIVAL AIRPORT- PDX - Portland International Airport
SCHEDULED DEPARTURE- 11:15 AM MST
DEPARTURE GATE- C33
ACTUAL DEPARTURE- 11:30 AM MST
ACTUAL TIME WHEELS OFF GROUND- 11:45 AM MST
TAKEOFF RUNWAY- 8
CRUISING ALTITUDE- 31,000 initial, then up to 35,000 later in flight
SCHEDULED ARRIVAL- 1:00 PM PST
ARRIVAL GATE- C7
ACTUAL ARRIVAL- 1:25 PM PST
ACTUAL TIME WHEELS ON GROUND- 1:21 PM PST
LANDING RUNWAY- 10R
I arrived at the DIA Jeppeson Terminal at 7:30 AM, allowing lots of extra time for the expected crowd on this busy travel day. I arrived at the Alaska Airlines counter about 7:45 for check-in. The sign at the counter stated their open hours started at 6:00 AM, but no one was at their counter yet. I continued to wait for someone to show up at the counter and others were also showing up for check-in. The crowd continued to grow and finally at 8:30 Alaska Airlines employees showed up to start the check-in process. I finally got up to one of the check-in kiosks when the kiosk started to malfunction. One of the Alaska employees started the reboot process, which I watched with interest. The reboot started with a typical PC startup screen, then much to my amazement and HORROR, it started to boot Windows NT 4. Now I knew the real problem, it was a Microsoft Windows based system!! The reboot attempt failed and yet a second reboot attempt failed, so I moved to another kiosk for check-in. After check-in, I quickly made my way through security and had lots of time to take more photographs. I first went to the walkway between concourse A and the terminal and took many pictures of the DIA Zoo (the Frontier Airlines aircraft with animal tails). Concourse A seemed to be fairly quiet. I then went to concourse B, which was very busy. Since concourse B was so busy, I kept my visit there short. I finally went out to concourse C, where I would board my flight. Once again the computer gremlins appeared at gate C33, where the display insisted on displaying a Northwest flight to Minneapolis and Washington DC instead of our flight information. Many attempts to change this display failed, so there were announcements made on the PA to ignore the display. We started boarding at 10:50 and appeared to be schedule for our 11:15 departure. At 11:15 it was discovered that a passenger was missing from the plane who had baggage on board. The ground crew started going through the baggage on the plane to remove the baggage for this missing person. Just as they found the baggage, the missing person showed up for the flight and the matter was now settled. The missing person sat in a seat across the aisle from me and claimed to be lost in the airport, causing her to be late for the flight. I was surprised the other passengers didn’t give her a bad time for causing the flight to be late. We took off from runway 8, which was a first for me. As we were taking off, I watched the distance markers go by and noticed we were at the 4 marker when we rotated, which meant we used up 8,000 ft of runway. Not too surprising since we were on a full 737-400. About the time we were over Rock Springs, WY the cockpit crew came on the PA and told us we had a 70 knot headwind and our groundspeed was only 400 knots, which would make us a little late arriving in PDX. Meal service consisted of a turkey and cheddar cheese sandwich. The flight was good, with only light turbulence when going through clouds on departure and again on approach to PDX,
NOTE: Photos will follow in a few days, once I get the pictures back from being developed.
Comment