SFO-ATL and a Few Extras!

I will be away on vacation in Michigan through August. I will be back then, but please visit Captain Rand Peck's blog in the meantime at http://randpeck.blogspot.com/

I have fallen slightly behind behind in my posts, now I have DL46 and several extras! I recently flew DAL46 from San Francisco to Atlanta. The flight was operated by a 767-300ER. I was originally scheduled for a NWA 757 SFO-MSP, but a crew rest contigency made us go through ATL. I got to the airport at 0500 for our 0600 flight out. We loaded up and waited for our company 737 push back out of our alleyway. Shortly after, we pushed back and taxiied out and around to 1R. Here we are climbing out with traffic directly below us, a US Airways 737 I believe.

Here we are shortly after completing our climb, cruising over the Sierra Nevadas.

Due to thunderstorms over the plains, we flew a more southerly route to avoid them. This took us through Texas as pictured here, with traffic heading southbound under us (bound for DFW or IAH I would assume).

We are now completing our four hour journey from the west coast. Here we are now on our downwind leg for approach into Atlanta's 26R.

After my First Officer made a rather firm landing, we taxiied in to the gate.

Here is a shot from flying NWA217 on the 757-300 from MSP-PDX. I took this shot a while before takeoff, but just after this was taken, the snow started really coming down! We had about a 45 minute delay due to de-icing.

The long-hauls are fun in themselves, but I also love the chance to get out on the light aircraft in the midwest. I took this shot from Pinnacle 2472 from Minneapolis to Hancock, Michigan. Hancock is a small, uncontrolled airport in the upper peninsula of Michigan. To put it into perspective, Hancock is about 100 miles northwest of Marquette. This was a beautiful afternoon shot of the cirrus clouds in the sunny, spring, Michigan sky!

Here are a few US Airways shots. In this shot we are prepping in Ft. Myers for our flight to Charlotte. The flight attendants have the rear doors open to cool the aircraft.

Here is a shot from the tower as AWE1126 prepares for its trip up to CLT.

Here is my last shot. This is of AWE1461 from CLT-RSW.

Stay tuned for my 100th flight with Delta Virtual! I also have a few pictures from Alaska coming up. I also just got my bid back for June, and I was able to get a 5-day Japan trip!

Until next time, keep the blue skies up and the engines rumblin'.

My First Trip to Hawaii!

Here is my long awaited trip to Hawaii. It certainly was a tough fun trip, and I'm glad I got the opportunity to fly it. As we near the summer transatlantic season, I will be looking forward to my Glasgow trip on US Airways over Memorial Day weekend. It will be my first time flying to Glasgow. Anyway, back to the South Pacific! We took off out of San Francisco at 3:46 local time on runway 28L. Due to our weight, we needed the longer 28L rather than 1L/R. Here we are on our climb out over the Pacific, direct to BEBOP, our oceanic entry point.



After making our way across the Pacific, we are now on our initial descent into Honolulu to complete our 4 hour 51 minute flight. We also have some traffic to our 4 o'clock heading to the northern part of the Hawaiian chain. Throughout the cruise of our flight Michigan State basketball has been playing in the final four against UCONN I believe. I was flying this on 3/27, and if someone could confirm that, that would be great. I was getting ACARS updates constantly in-flight. As we descend there was about 12 minutes left in the 2nd half with MSU up!

After descending via the MAGGI3 arrival we have arrived on 8L in Honolulu/Hickham AFB. I love the close in downwind, and flying final with Pearl Harbor off our left side.

I quickly taxied into the ramp at Honolulu and ran up the jetway to see the final seconds of the MSU game!! WE WON!! Yes! What better way to top off my first Hawaiian trip? AND... I was flying the "Bernie Epple," our first 757-300 named after a long-standing and loyal Northwest flight attendant. I had to venture back onto the plane after the game to finish the shutdown checks, and then snapped a quick picture on the ramp as we waited for the crew bus.

After learning about the island of Oahu, and resting up, I was ready to head back to the lower 48. We checked the latest winds aloft (which we later learned weren't accurate), and loaded our fuel for Northwest 222 Heavy back to San Francisco. Here we are taxiing towards 8R, the "reef runway."

Here we are again taxiing to 8R, with water on both sides of the taxiway. Mind you, I had to get up at 2:50AM EDT for this flight, so ACARS traffic and talk was very light this evening. And to think, I would get up at midnight for a double-leg flight going inter-island then on to Seattle. I am glad I declined that routing! (I would have to get up at mid-night!)

Here we are climbing out past Waikiki beach on the MKK4 departure to CLUTS.

Here we are at cruise about 92nm from CLUTS, our oceanic entry point.

As we check up on things halfway across the Pacific, we realize that the winds are a LOT stronger than reported/forecasted. We report then to San Francisco radio that we will be a little lower on fuel than we normally like to be. At this point, there is no other choice other than to continue on to San Francisco. Our fuel exhaustion point is only going to be about 30 minutes beyond SFO. We kept a very constant watch on fuel consumption, and were able to eventually land in SFO with about 55 minutes of fuel left on board.

Thank you for joining me on my first Hawaiian journey. Stay tuned, as I have a brand new 757 that I look forward to sharing with you all!!

Thanks for visiting,

Joe