Snow comes to the USA

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!
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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
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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
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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...
 
Welcome! I thought this post was going to be about some odd August weather phenomenon, but still pretty interesting!

Which airlines did you fly from LAX-PHX and PHX-ABQ? I remember flying U·S Airways' A319's and A320's with the LCD screens that flip down from the ceiling and play the safety video. There may have been a flight attendant also demonstrating along with the video, but I don't remember, it's been a while.

And one more thing.. don't forget to change your location in your profile!
 
mmmm Beer. Speaking of that, how are the batches coming along? I laughed (and cried) the other day when I was at the Super-duper-obnoxious Wal-Mart. They have a do-it-yourself beer kit (wine too). I has everything in one box including some plastic bottles with screw caps. I'm not sure where the fermentation takes place though, it was a pretty small box. Probably some sort of plastic bag I would guess.

Snow, enjoy the dryness while you can.
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Dave
 
That is a long flight with lots of stop overs - I have done 11 hour flights I have done 9 + 4 hour flights, etc, but 1 + 11 + 1 + 1 is pretty hardcore man.
 
Dave,

I have two batches bottled, about 4 cases, the first batch is just about ready to drink and the 2nd should be ready next week. The waiting is killing me. So, I brewed a third batch and have the supplies for a 4th, I think I'm a junkie! Sept 13th come on over.

Snow,

I feel your pain man, I fly from Orlando to Chicago to LA to Syd to Perth to visit the wifes folks. Its about 26 hrs in a plane.
 
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I feel your pain man, I fly from Orlando to Chicago to LA to Syd to Perth to visit the wifes folks. Its about 26 hrs in a plane.

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I know where you are coming from. I flew to New Zealand a couple of summers ago and it was so weird to fly from IAD to LAX and have that be the short leg of the flight! That's usually the longest flight I do.
 
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It was making funny noises I've never heard a boeing make.

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If it was a grinding noise towards the back of the plane, then it may have been something to do with the hydraulic system. I believe I saw this on US Airways website. I think it said this has something to do with equalizing pressure throughout the hydraulic system. I think that is it anyway.
 
Hum it was kinda a whiney noise, come to think of it, it kinda sounded like what you'd ecpect a business jet to make, I dunno weird, definatly not Boeing.

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Which airlines did you fly from LAX-PHX and PHX-ABQ?

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America West because they had the cheapest airfares, I'm poor, I can't afford to do otherwise.
 
yikes, 26 hours, as much as i love flying i hope you weren't in coach, i could barely stand the 5 to hawaii. but that may have been because i had been drinking caffinated drinks before and during the flight....
 
Snow comes to the USA (part 2)

Well after some more jetting around I thought I'd post about it, if only for the friends and family who might be reading this.

ALBUQUERQUE to TULSA

Well I arrived at the airport 1.5hrs early, which is quite a change because back at my local airport in Aust I could show up 30mins early and still have 15mins spare before having to board the plane. Again had all luggage inspected and 'wanded down' this time, must be all these one way tickets! My flight with 'Great Plains Airlines' was canceled due to 'technical problems' geez, how many planes do they have in their fleet? 5?! Anyhow I got put on a 30min earlier Delta flight only I had to go through Dallas instead of direct getting me there about 45mins after I would have otherwise, not a bad deal, same low price and another set of take offs and landings
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Got a CRJ to Dallas with Skywest Airlines (Delta Connection) flight was uneventful, luckly I took my CD player cause no enterinment on this flight. Touch down in Dallas and had to wait about 5mins inbetween the rwys as flights took off and landed all around us, and for some reason it seemed the a/c was turned off and the heater tuned on, eek. Got off, changed terminals and got a fruit shake thing while I waited for my flight.

I saw a pilot and a FA sitting down and having a conversation and decided to sit down near them, waiting for an opertunity to talk to them they got up and walked over by the gate to continue talking, I didn't follow to avoid apearing a stalker lol

Anyhoo it was interesting to see how they manage to fit 4 regional jets at the same gate with little plastic tunnels to walk through to suposdly keep you protected from the elements. I thought I was boarding another CRJ but the 1-2 seating arrangement and larger windows had me wondering, the safety brocure confirmed it was an Embrair 135, I actually liked it better than the CRJ, mainly cause the windows were larger and I could more easly take photos without having to sink down in my chair to get an outside view, I'd sware those CRJ windows were designed for childern! Another un-eventful flight, those leather seats are sure nice for a change too! Althoght from the time we started decending we were in the soup for the whole 15min approach, only poping out of the clouds a mile or so from touch-down with rain and 2mile vis in Tulsa. After a little confusion in getting a lift from the airport I reached my destination in Joplin without much trouble.

That's all for now, stay tuned for Joplin to Baltimore via St Louis and Chicago!
 
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