Advantage: GA

[gismo]

Monday I flew commercially to Binghamton, NY with two co-workers. I've made this trip several times both in my own plane and on Northwest, and every time I fly the airline I regret it. We went commercial this time mostly because I needed to be back to Minneapolis for an important dental appointment today and the other two folks planned to return late this afternoon so they could continue the discussions with our customer. Of course it turned out that we got through everything Monday and the other guys rescheduled their flights to return with me this morning so we could have taken my plane after all.

Meanwhile, after getting up earlier than I wanted to in order to get to the airport in time for the security checks etc. we boarded the plane only to find that the flight was scrubbed when then couldn't close the main cabin door unless someone on the outside pushed. We got re-booked on the next flight to Detroit (the normal place to change planes between BGM and MSP) to meet a new connecting flight. Of course that departure was late which meant running from one end of DTW to the other where we learned that our connecting flight was also delayed by over an hour due to a different mechanical problem. I finally made it to MSP by 5PM which meant dealing with rush hour traffic and wasting another half hour getting home. Total elapsed time from our arrival at the Binghamton airport until I got home: eleven hours. Had I flown myself it would have been a little less than six hours, including 4:50 in the air.

Time to spare? Go by air. Got all day? Go the airline way.

 

[RobertGerace]

Oh....my....God....do I ever agree.

I just got back from the trip from hell. It was supposed to be first class, but it was not to be.

I used to fly Delta all the time...and I mean ALL the time. NEVER was I denied boarding for showing up 44 minutes before the flight. But NorthWest is different and I wasn't smart enough to figure that out. I showed up 44 minutes early and lost my flight.

The five of us (family in tow) settled for a coach ride on a 737 to Kansas City...then a CRJ to Salt Lake...then a CRJ to Kalispell. Coming back we took the CRJ to Salt Lake, and then a 767 to Atlanta.

I asked for, and was given, an exit row...but in my anger at 0630 after both losing my flight AND paying even more miles and money to be able to still make the trip coach...didn't realize they had given me the exit row seat that is NOT any more roomy (27F).

My daughter-in-law had a 1" nail file taken away from her, our luggage and dirty laundry were pulled out of the suitcases in Montana for all to see. The guy in 27G (with all the leg room) was up and down 20 times...and coughed on my FACE!!!! I was furious!

With all the stops and spoke-and-hub...it would not have been much longer to take my 310...except for the fact that with all the weight it would have taken longer with all the fuel stops.

So, who wants to buy a well maintained 310? It's time for a 340A...no...421C...no Conquest...no Cheyenne...no....Citation! BWAHAHAHAHA....Heaven help me!

 

[Toby]

This is not a horror story like both of yours, just a little ironic. My daughter just called me from Minneapolis. She's on a NWA flight from Buffalo, NY to Seattle, which was supposed to make one stop in Detroit. They stopped there, took off again, and then someone on the plane got sick. The flight attendants asked if there was a doctor on board. Anyway, they diverted to Minneapolis and have been sitting in the plane on the ground for about an hour so far, since deboarding the sick passenger. I heard the captain come on and say it would be another 30 minutes before takeoff....

 

[bbchien]

No. Not a 340A nor a Citation. A TBM 700.

Citation is a little long on most GA strips (bal length ~=5000).

The other ship that will do the ATL-Montana trip in reasonable time is the Twin Commander. Insurance for these ships run in the $30K+ range.

 

[gismo]

This is not a horror story like both of yours, just a little ironic. My daughter just called me from Minneapolis. She's on a NWA flight from Buffalo, NY to Seattle, which was supposed to make one stop in Detroit. They stopped there, took off again, and then someone on the plane got sick. The flight attendants asked if there was a doctor on board. Anyway, they diverted to Minneapolis and have been sitting in the plane on the ground for about an hour so far, since deboarding the sick passenger. I heard the captain come on and say it would be another 30 minutes before takeoff....

I wonder why they're stuck here? The weather is fine although there is a line of snow squals to the west. This sounds like a typical NW screwup where the right hand hasn't a clue what the left is up to.

 

[gismo]

Oh....my....God....do I ever agree.

I just got back from the trip from hell. It was supposed to be first class, but it was not to be.[\QUOTE]

Believe me, I feel your pain!

So, who wants to buy a well maintained 310? It's time for a 340A...no...421C...no Conquest...no Cheyenne...no....Citation! BWAHAHAHAHA....Heaven help me!

You know, it might be less expensive to operate and maintain than your 310.

 

[Toby]

I wonder why they're stuck here? The weather is fine although there is a line of snow squals to the west. This sounds like a typical NW screwup where the right hand hasn't a clue what the left is up to.

I am tracking the flight on their website. It says: Diversion/delay due to medical emergency. Flight left the gate at 8:55PM but has not taken off.

Who knows.....

 

[gismo]

No. Not a 340A nor a Citation. A TBM 700.

Depending on the purse when I win the lottery, a TBM 700C2 might be at the top of my list for a new airplane. I suspect I could probably afford to operate one now, but the purchase price is beyond my budget by about a factor of ten.

 

[bbchien]

One can get into a DLX Malibu for about 1 Million and the hourlies are only about $250. BUT, it can't carry anything. So it is.

 

[spiderweb]

Twin Commander

The other ship that will do the ATL-Montana trip in reasonable time is the Twin Commander. Insurance for these ships run in the $30K+ range.

Believe it or not, I have some time in a Twin Commander (680FL). That aircraft is sha-mo-kin!! My CFI has a student who owns it, on field. Unbelievably, it is available for renting and instruction--at a cool $400 per hour. LOL!

 

[Ghery]

You did say Northworst, didn't you? I had a 30 year streak (1969 - 1999) where they never, not ever!, got me anywhere on time. Not once! The largest unscheduled airline in the world. I will do almost anything to avoid that bunch.

 

[Don Jones]

Total elapsed time from our arrival at the Binghamton airport until I got home: eleven hours. Had I flown myself it would have been a little less than six hours, including 4:50 in the air.

Time to spare? Go by air. Got all day? Go the airline way.

I feel your pain Lance,
I went to California to check out the plane I bought. Flew SWorst out there, took 8 hours door to door. Bought the plane and flew it home in 5 the next week with a fuel stop. Then there was the time coming back from Midland Texas, took me 6 hours to fly, could have driven it in 5, go figure. (trucks were passing me on the freeway)
Don

 

[Arnold]

I feel your pain Lance,
Then there was the time coming back from Midland Texas, took me 6 hours to fly, could have driven it in 5, go figure. (trucks were passing me on the freeway)
Don

Ah, the old "trucks passing me" problem. I had that in the seaplane, flying down the Hudson river corridor and the trucks were passing me on NJ turnpike. It's not that I never expect to be moving slowly in the aircraft, its just that I never expect the NJ Turnpike to be moving quickly, it never is when I'm driving on it.

 

[Mark S]

I know exactly what you are saying Lance. There are times I must fly commercial (distance, weather, schedule, cost, etc.) but when I am able to fly my plane it sure beats the hell out of commercial air travel.

 

[Mark S]

Oh....my....God....do I ever agree.

SNIP

So, who wants to buy a well maintained 310? It's time for a 340A...no...421C...no Conquest...no Cheyenne...no....Citation! BWAHAHAHAHA....Heaven help me!

I get first dibs on Robert's 310!!! I claim it.

Probably can't afford it yet, but oh well.

 

[Ken Ibold]

I had to fly to Crossville, TN (between Nashville and Knoxville) one Christmas. We had just moved to Orlando and the Mooney was still in Nashville, so we decided to fly into Nashville, take the Mooney to Crossville, and then bring it to our new home. Left the temporary living accommodations at 10 a.m. on Christmas eve. Dropped one car at the little airport at 11 and headed to the big airport. Scheduled flight was at 1:30. At 2:30 they said the airplane was on the ground in Boston with a mechanical. At 3:30 they said the airplane hadn't left Ft. Lauderdale yet. At 5:30 they said there was a weather delay (but didn't say where). At 7:30 they put us on an airplane and buttoned it up. The pilot comes on the intercom and said "well, I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that my duty time just expired and I'm going on vacation. The bad news is that you guys don't have a pilot. But there's one at the airport and he's making his way to the gate now, so there'll be just a little delay." With that, the captain exited the airplane. We sat on it for another hour and a half before another pilot showed up. 2.5-hour flight to Nashville. Bottom line was that we arrived in Crossville 13 hours after arriving at the airport, for a 17-hour door-to-door time. Merry blankin Christmas! Oh, did I mention my wife was pregnant and we had our two kids, 1 1/2 and 3 1/2, with us?

By contrast, the flight from Crossville back to Orlando took about 5 hours door to door, including 3.8 flight time.

 

[Let'sgoflying!]

The only time I have seen cars pass my Viking was when we were flying cover for a local car race several yrs ago. The lead cars were really moving out on the flats! I was doing 180kts in a dive in order to keep up with them, and have to say I was a bit disgusted.
sadly we did have a useful purpose that day as someone wrecked and had to go to hospital.... everything seemed OK til that night - he died of a brain bleed.

 

[Ken Ibold]

The only time I have seen cars pass my Viking was when we were flying cover for a local car race several yrs ago.

I was flying my Citabria from Atlanta to Orlando in the teeth of a headwind that ranged from 35 to 50 knots the whole 400 nm. The cars on I-75 were passing me, heck, I even got passed by some old lady on a broom.

But at my intermediate fuel stop, the runway was right into the wind and I sort of hovered downward. I touched down on the numbers and rolled about 50 feet. The guy running the FBO said I should just take off from the ramp in front of his door. I didn't though.

 

[wsuffa]

I get first dibs on Robert's 310!!! I claim it.

Probably can't afford it yet, but oh well.

Have you asked permission from the boss yet?

 

[SJP]

The most bizarre bit for me recently was in LAX. Coming in on Quantas from Sydney, and transferring to NorthWorst - we were shuffled out of the plane, through immigration, collected our luggage, hit a small transfer check-in desk where our connections were confirmed, and then sent through another security check into a room the size of an average corporate conference room - had about 25 seats - and our luggage resent off to our connecting flights.

After about 2 hours with a 100 or so people sat in that room, unable to use the lavatory or vending machines the other side of the barrier because the security guys had left and there would be no way to rescreen anyone coming back in, we were finally loaded up on busses and moved to the other terminal, where we had to be rescreened again. Not sure where we could have gotten anything, having been prisoners in the room and bus since we were last screened.

Of course, by the time that farce was finished, I'd missed my connecting flight back to Detroit, and had to wait another couple of hours until the next flight. That was overbooked, and when I eventually got onto a flight back to DTW and I ended up in the back row, sat next to a guy who reeked of alchohol, kept drinking throughout the flight, and insisted on trying to have a conversation with me for the duration of the flight. Having not eaten since about 2 hours before we landed in LAX, the cold ham sandwich we were offered about 45 minutes out from Detroit lasted about 2 bites.

This was the culminating flight following a 5 hour drive from my family's place in SW Australia up to Perth, a 5 hour flight from Perth to Sydney, then a 16+ hour flight from Sydney to LAX and about 5 hours waiting in the airport at LAX. After the brief euphoric relief of getting away from Martini-Man, you can imagine my delight when my luggage failed to arrive on the carousel after an hour. After another 2 hours 'discussing' this situation with the Northwest people ("Yes, I am sure I had luggage..."), I finally got informed that it had been put onto the first flight out of LAX, but because I wasn't on it, had been removed, and now was with Security in LAX. They hadn't bothered to check that I had been put on another flight, so it was still languishing in the LA sunshine somewhere.

Of course, my big Eddie Bauer winter coat was in my luggage...so now I'm in Detroit, in December, on one of those thought-stoppingly cold nights, in dockers and a t-shirt, walking out to the yellow-lot to get my car... hoping it will start and get warm before I pass out from hypothermia.

So glad we have a modern transportation system

 

[drhunt]

Oh....my....God....do I ever agree.

<snip>...then a CRJ to Salt Lake...then a CRJ to Kalispell<snip>

Kalispell? What brought you to the area? I hope you didn't come for the skiing...bad year for that. I live 8 minutes from Glacier International and my plane is based there. Look me up if you are ever back in the area.

Cheers,

David

 

[RobertGerace]

Kalispell? What brought you to the area? I hope you didn't come for the skiing...bad year for that. I live 8 minutes from Glacier International and my plane is based there. Look me up if you are ever back in the area.

David

Hey David,

We had long ago booked tickets to Big Mountain and met my wife's family there. It was too much of a hassle to cancel the trip.

We did go there for skiing. Of course, it was the worst year for skiing in something like 100 years. However, there was enough to be able to ski some of the slopes; and we had fun doing what we could.

It was actually kind of challenging with all the ice and slush. We did get some fresh snow on Sunday...and that made it a little easier to stop

Sunday afternoon we took a nice drive to both East and West Glacier. They were beautiful despite the fact that they were closed.

I would have given my eye-teeth to get up and fly over those lakes and mountains! Next time I'll look you up for sure!

 

[gismo]

Have you asked permission from the boss yet?

I'll bet that won't be a problem as long as it comes with a matching 172.

 

[drhunt]

Sorry about the skiing but it sounds like you made the best of it. This was a record low for snow and I'm sure we'll be paying for it with fires this summer. I'll try to attach a picture to show you a reason to return back to Glacier during the summer. Since this is a first experience on this board, I may need a couple shots.

David

 

[RobertGerace]

David,

On the last CRJ into FCA I sat next to a pilot who commutes to California for work. It would be really weird if you were that pilot. Are you? Or if not, do you know him? He is based at FCA.

I didn't catch his name....we had a nice chat and talked about how easy it would be to decorate a mountain on the approach into FCA in hard IMC.

 

[Mark S]

I'll bet that won't be a problem as long as it comes with a matching 172.

Nah, for a 310 I'd have to provide her with a Extra 300L. And a new one at that...

 

[Mark S]

Have you asked permission from the boss yet?

Don't need it. The bonus check just came in and she doesn't know about it.






Yet

 

[drhunt]

Bob,

Sorry, it wasn't me. There are quite a few pilots based here and several who commute. I know one that flies a Bonanza, is in commercial real estate and does a lot of trips to the Bay area...ring any bells?

Yes, hard IMC approaches can be unforgiving around here. The ILS isn't too bad but check out the GPS 30 approach http://download.aopa.org/iap/20050217/NW-1/fca_rnav_gps_rwy_30.pdf Miss that 90 degree left turn and you have 2000 feet of granite above you to contend with real soon!

Blue skies,

David

 

[RobertGerace]

Wow! You're not kidding!

I didn't talk to the RE guy. The guy I talked to flies an Alarus. He commutes via Delta.

 

[drhunt]

I don't know any Alarus drivers but maybe I'll meet him someday. By the way, I won't tell you about the 7 inches of new snow last night and forecasts for more daily through Sunday...