A Side-Visit to Seattle

Last weekend I took a trip with the Delta codeshare partner Alaska Airlines. I enjoyed flying the 737-700 for a change. I will have to admit, the landing was less than perfect, but I guess that comes with being used to the 757 series aircraft. We boarding Alaska flight 311 (ASA311) to Seattle. I always enjoy laying over in Seattle, with all of its sites.


We boarded, and pushed off of the gate in San Francisco. The winds were coming out of the south fairly strong which closed the parallel runways 1/19 Left and Right. Here we are pulling out of the ramp on Hotel.

Ground then cleared us to taxi immediately across 1Left and Right, towards 28L for departure. On this shot we are parallel to 1R and taxiing abeam a British Airways 747-400 west of 1L. They are taxiing out, bound for London's Heathrow Airport.

As soon as we reached 28L we were cleared to position and hold, and promptly after cleared for takeoff. We lift off at 134 knots and rocket past the north side of the terminal.

We have been cleared along the San Francisco 8 departure via the Red Bull transition (SFO8.RBL). Here we are climbing in between cloud layers for NORMM intersection. There are numerous thunderstorms out here today, that we will have to dodge on climbout. The cruise today will be at flight level 400 (40,000 feet), keeping us well clear of the weather at cruise.

At this point NORCAL departure clears us to a radar vector of 010 to avoid thunderstorms on route before NORMM intersection.

We have finally climbed past, and dodged the thunderstorms in the Bay Area. Oakland Center now clears us on course for Red Bull VOR.

After a beautiful flight, we are beginning our descent into a cloudy Seattle. We are using the Olympia 6 arrival, and landing on 16L.

Here is a shot from the flight deck on our descent again. We are just about to head into the first cloud layer.

Alaska 311 is now on our downwind leg for runway 16L to Sea-Tac Airport.

Seattle Final Approach just cleared us down to 4,000 feet and turned us on our base leg well north of the city.

Seattle Final turned us through the Localizer for 16L due to some spacing issues, but here we are re-aligned for the left side. The Space Needle is in view on the right side of this photo. The area in its immediate vicinity is called Seattle Center, and is a beautiful area to stay in Seattle. The Puget Sound is a large part of Seattle's business. There are hundreds of piers in the harbor, and hundreds of fishing and crabbing vessels based in Seattle.

Here we are turning into the ramp after arrival.

ASA311 has now arrived. We are parked at the north satellite. This is my first visit to this side of the airport. Northwest uses the South Satellite which is very easy to get around.

The next day I was scheduled to fly ASA312, but the flight was cancelled, so my first officer and I caught a Virgin America A320 back to San Francisco. Stay tuned for that story!

Keeping Current With US Airways Virtual

I am required to fly once a month for US Airways Virtual Airlines, and I was sick last weekend which was my planned trip with them. I was able to head up to Charlottesville, Virginia (CHO) from Charlotte on Thursday. This morning I am flying the Dash 8-300 to Philly. I have never flown the Dash 8 before, so I was looking forward to a new airframe for a flight.

Here were are walking out to the aircraft on the ramp in Charlottesville. Charlottesville owes it's airline service to it's college, and largely to US Airways Express' service from New York, Charlotte, and Philadelphia.

Click on pictures for a larger view.

We took off on runway 23 out of CHO with a quick right turn to due east. The Dash 8 climbed like a rocket with the minimal 4000lbs of fuel onboard.

Here is the wingview as we bank left and climb. I really like the view out the passenger window with the high-wing.



We are now leveled off at 13,000 feet, and this is the view out my window looking up the Patomac River towards Washington D.C.


Here we are turning over the Patuxent VOR (PXT), heading now to the northeast, with the Chesapeake Bay out the window.

We are now starting our slow descent into Philly. We were in the clouds for probably 15 minutes while Philadelphia Approach vectored us for the visual to 35.

He we are turning to line up for the approach to 35 from the Cedar Lake (VCN) VOR.

We are now on final approach and just about to approach the river on our way in.

We are now parked at gate F23 in Philly after a very smooth touchdown. The great thing about many props is it gives the passengers the older feel of walking out onto a ramp!

Today I will leave you with some pictures of leaving Seattle a couple months ago, with Mt. Rainer in view.

Here we have a great overall view of our 757-200 and Mt. Rainer while climbing out of Seattle to Minneapolis.

Here is an edited wingview shot, again, with Mt. Rainier in view.


Until next time, keep the blue skies up!

My First Post: Minneapolis to San Francisco!

This is my first post, and I look forward to many more!

This weekend I am preparing for a trip to Hawaii next weekend. This will be my first journey across the Pacific. I have many hours built up over the North Atlantic, but I am looking forward to something a little different. Tonight, we are flying NW357 from Minneapolis (MSP) to San Francisco (SFO). The weather is a little soggy in the Minnesota region as we prepare to METAR and push off of F12. Here is a shot from the ramp crew, just after pushing us back onto the tarmac.

Shortly after this we taxi across 12R then to 17 for departure. After a slight wait to cross 12R, we're ready and in position on 17. Tower clears us for takeoff, and just prior to clearing us over to departure turns us right to a heading of 215. Here we have just been cleared direct to our first waypoint, HUGIR on the SCHEP2 Departure. As we are climbing, we are finally peaking out on top of the cloud layer with the sun straight ahead.

We have now completed our climbout and are at 36000ft. We are turning over our SID transition of O'neill VOR (ONL). We have passed beyond the weather over MSP, and have a beautiful view of Nebraska and Colorado.

We are now somewhere over Nebraska. We requested 38000ft moments before I took this shot, but it was denied due to this cargo 747 at that altitude. This is perfectly legal, as we are at 36000 and they are at 38000. This is always great to get a nice picture of an aircraft going the same direction.

Here is a beautiful shot as we cruise along the Wyoming/Colorado border just north of Steamboat Springs, Colorado. The cloud formations make a great foreground with the rocky mountains!

We are now cruising at 38000 over Utah. The sun is getting close to setting, as we race it to the west coast.


Here were are now on the Modesto3 (MOD3.OAL) arrival via the Coaldale VOR. We just finished our approach briefing. It may be beautiful now over the San Bernandino mountains, but earlier in the bay area, they had 800foot ceilings, which has caused the Close Parallel LDA 28R approach to be what we will be using tonight. Typically, we use the Quiet Bridge Visual that brings us in over the San Mateo bridge over the bay.


A beautiful shot with the sun a little lower. Here we are over the Modesto VOR (MOD). You can see the Modesto Airport and city down below.


Here we are with a view view of the Bay, but I am looking out my window to see a company A319 from MSP inbound for San Jose (SJC).


We are now on short final into SFO and have broken out of the clouds. Just ahead a company 757 just took off, before our arrival. The sunset is making the bay look very shinny and white at 7:30 this evening local time. You can also see a FedEx DC-10 holding short of our runway, as well as a line short of 28L.

We have vacated the runway, and waited to cross the parallel, and are finally on our way into the ramp for gate 45B.


Here is a shot from the main terminal after we shut the aircraft down and were on our way to the hotel for some shut-eye. This aircraft will be leaving in about 2 hours on the red-eye back to MSP.

I will leave you with some pictures of a trip I took last June from Anchorage- Minneapolis- Baltimore (ANC-MSP-BWI). Coast to coast in one day!

Taking off on 30R out of Minneapolis/St. Paul (MSP) over the city as we are bound for Baltimore.

Here is the view as we are cleaning and re-boarding the aircraft in Minneapolis after arriving from Anchorage. We are getting ready to go to Baltimore for the continuation of Northwest flight 846.

Feel free to post comments and suggestions.
Have a good day, I'll be in the skies again shortly!
Joe

Also, if anyone knows how to allow you to click on the pictures and enlarge them, your help would be much appreciated. Thanks, Joe.