Snow
'Not a new member'
Hey all, I haven't posted recently cause I have been packing/in transit / no computer access. But I finally got a comp I can use now.
Just thought I'd chrip in and say that I'm now in this fine country of yours, however I did catch myself turning onto the wrong side of the road on a few occasions when I wasn't paying attention, no traffic around or traffic islands thankfully!
LEAVING AUSTRALIA
I'll give you all a little rundown on my trip to the other side of the planet for those of you who are interested. Flight was a 7am Monday departure and you need to check in 2hrs early for international flights, so that meant arriving at the airport at 5am and waking up at 4am. The flight was from Sydney so that also meant driving 3hrs through fog and rain the night before to stay in a hotel for the night.
When I got to the airport everything but the check-in was closed, even the duty free stores and $ exchange. Checked in bags, after a little swaping around to get both bags under the 32kg limit. Sat around for a bit, then got few stuffed toys for gifts and made my way to the gate, being an international flight I was expecting a 747 but we actually got a 737 for the 2.5hr trip to New Zealand, I'll have to say that was the first international flight I've done on a 737!
NEW ZEALAND STOPOVER & 11HR TRIP TO USA
After a bit of walking around the rather small airport in Auckland I finally get to board the flight I was waiting for, a 11hr 11,000km ride on Qantas 747-400ER. It was really cool cause it had those tv entertainment systems in back of all the seats, getting to choose the movies you see was nice for a change! The 747 is huge, the wing at it's widest point streches like 20 - 30 feet! (i'm not talking wingspan here) now that's big, you could like have a house party out on the wing
Watching the flight progress on the moving map was also a bonus, and being able to see the step climb in progress over 8hrs or so, starting at FL310 and working upto FL390. Finally touch down in LAX 7:30am Monday (30min after I left Sydney
There was a lot of low overcast, I'd estimate a 100-300 ft celling, we pretty much poped out of the clouds as we were passing over the threshold.
LAX LAYOVER
Well got off the plane, probably the first international flight of the day cause there were only people from our flight in customs, that process took about 10-15mins, then found out my America West flight departed from terminal 1 and I was in terminal 4, go out the door and turn left the guy says. That little direction was about a 15min walk and at least a mile, heck that's a big airport! I then proceeded to wait 30mins in line to check-in and fortunataly my bags were being transfered from the other flight so no baggage inspection for me. I then was pointed to the 200 yard long line along the sidewalk and told that was the security line, oh boy I thought is this a taste of things to come!? So customs took me a measly 10mins and security and check-in took me an hour! Luckly it was a 5hr layover. I then found my gate, changed some money, went into the bar and bought this beer you call 'budweiser' and bought a super-prezzel. About 1/2 way through the beer I realised it probabaly wasn't the smartest decision since I had gotten about 4-5hrs of non-consecutive sleep in the past 35hrs and it went streight to my head. I then sat in the waiting lounge for the next 3hrs in state of semi-consinous, depsite the fact there were simulationous take offs and landings going on just outside the window, of what I saw it was rather impressive. I also heard at least 5 or 6 overbooked annoucements from both Southwest and America west with offers of flight vouchers and a 1st class ticket on the next avaiable flight.
LAX -> PHEONIX
The flight was only about an hour, hardly enough time to distrubite penauts, the crew didn't even do the safty demo, just a safety video to watch and rather unhappy sounding PA announcements, also the first trip on a Airbus I can remember for some time, an A319 I think. It was making funny noises I've never heard a Boeing make and immages of that airbus flying into the trees at that airshow were poping up in my head. We pulled (well was pulled by a tug rather, that typical for Pheonix? what's the deal with that?) into the gate a few mins after my connecting flight had started boarding. Walk out onto a rather poorly cooled airstairs and was greeted with 100deg weather, quite a shock from the rainy 40deg I was in only the day before! I made a quick dash to the other flight getting there before it departed, more concerned that my luggage wouldn't be as fortunate.
PHEONIX - ALBUQUERQUE
Boarded a rather hot 737-200 on the very last row with only 2 seats, non reclining chairs and no fold down trays. Was rather noisey on take off but I was loving it. Dodged some rather feirce looking thunderstorms on the way out and was greeted with some nice turbulance coming into ABQ (figures last segiment of a round the planet trip and I get turbulence). Landing was faily nornal excipt the pilot seemed to have forgotten to arm the spoliers or use the reverse thrusters until we had reached about 60kts, when be abruptly stopped and exited the rwy, go figure.
Well that's about it, I'm here for 3 wks visting family before going onto the next destination, there's still about 5-6 airline flights to go before I get to Florida. If I get time I'll fill you in on those too, or at least if somthing out of the ordanary happens. I'll keep you posted...
Just thought I'd chrip in and say that I'm now in this fine country of yours, however I did catch myself turning onto the wrong side of the road on a few occasions when I wasn't paying attention, no traffic around or traffic islands thankfully!
![grin.gif](http://jetcareers.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif)
LEAVING AUSTRALIA
I'll give you all a little rundown on my trip to the other side of the planet for those of you who are interested. Flight was a 7am Monday departure and you need to check in 2hrs early for international flights, so that meant arriving at the airport at 5am and waking up at 4am. The flight was from Sydney so that also meant driving 3hrs through fog and rain the night before to stay in a hotel for the night.
When I got to the airport everything but the check-in was closed, even the duty free stores and $ exchange. Checked in bags, after a little swaping around to get both bags under the 32kg limit. Sat around for a bit, then got few stuffed toys for gifts and made my way to the gate, being an international flight I was expecting a 747 but we actually got a 737 for the 2.5hr trip to New Zealand, I'll have to say that was the first international flight I've done on a 737!
NEW ZEALAND STOPOVER & 11HR TRIP TO USA
After a bit of walking around the rather small airport in Auckland I finally get to board the flight I was waiting for, a 11hr 11,000km ride on Qantas 747-400ER. It was really cool cause it had those tv entertainment systems in back of all the seats, getting to choose the movies you see was nice for a change! The 747 is huge, the wing at it's widest point streches like 20 - 30 feet! (i'm not talking wingspan here) now that's big, you could like have a house party out on the wing
![laugh.gif](http://jetcareers.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif)
![smile.gif](http://jetcareers.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif)
LAX LAYOVER
Well got off the plane, probably the first international flight of the day cause there were only people from our flight in customs, that process took about 10-15mins, then found out my America West flight departed from terminal 1 and I was in terminal 4, go out the door and turn left the guy says. That little direction was about a 15min walk and at least a mile, heck that's a big airport! I then proceeded to wait 30mins in line to check-in and fortunataly my bags were being transfered from the other flight so no baggage inspection for me. I then was pointed to the 200 yard long line along the sidewalk and told that was the security line, oh boy I thought is this a taste of things to come!? So customs took me a measly 10mins and security and check-in took me an hour! Luckly it was a 5hr layover. I then found my gate, changed some money, went into the bar and bought this beer you call 'budweiser' and bought a super-prezzel. About 1/2 way through the beer I realised it probabaly wasn't the smartest decision since I had gotten about 4-5hrs of non-consecutive sleep in the past 35hrs and it went streight to my head. I then sat in the waiting lounge for the next 3hrs in state of semi-consinous, depsite the fact there were simulationous take offs and landings going on just outside the window, of what I saw it was rather impressive. I also heard at least 5 or 6 overbooked annoucements from both Southwest and America west with offers of flight vouchers and a 1st class ticket on the next avaiable flight.
LAX -> PHEONIX
The flight was only about an hour, hardly enough time to distrubite penauts, the crew didn't even do the safty demo, just a safety video to watch and rather unhappy sounding PA announcements, also the first trip on a Airbus I can remember for some time, an A319 I think. It was making funny noises I've never heard a Boeing make and immages of that airbus flying into the trees at that airshow were poping up in my head. We pulled (well was pulled by a tug rather, that typical for Pheonix? what's the deal with that?) into the gate a few mins after my connecting flight had started boarding. Walk out onto a rather poorly cooled airstairs and was greeted with 100deg weather, quite a shock from the rainy 40deg I was in only the day before! I made a quick dash to the other flight getting there before it departed, more concerned that my luggage wouldn't be as fortunate.
PHEONIX - ALBUQUERQUE
Boarded a rather hot 737-200 on the very last row with only 2 seats, non reclining chairs and no fold down trays. Was rather noisey on take off but I was loving it. Dodged some rather feirce looking thunderstorms on the way out and was greeted with some nice turbulance coming into ABQ (figures last segiment of a round the planet trip and I get turbulence). Landing was faily nornal excipt the pilot seemed to have forgotten to arm the spoliers or use the reverse thrusters until we had reached about 60kts, when be abruptly stopped and exited the rwy, go figure.
Well that's about it, I'm here for 3 wks visting family before going onto the next destination, there's still about 5-6 airline flights to go before I get to Florida. If I get time I'll fill you in on those too, or at least if somthing out of the ordanary happens. I'll keep you posted...