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Summertime in the States (7): Southwest to LAX! (many pics)

 
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jbalonso777
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PostPosted: Sat Apr 30, 2016 6:03 pm    Post subject: Summertime in the States (7): Southwest to LAX! (many pics) Reply with quote

The day started off with, well, nothing basically. I just sat on the chair spotting a couple of planes because there was a pretty good of all heavies taking off. Always a joy to see! Since we had so long to wait anyway, we thought, why not go on an earlier flight? That didn't go down very well with me internally because not only does it mean a chance at a Boeing 737-300 flight is gone, my boarding position of A32 goes down the drain and a late boarding position for the earlier flight (boarding group C basically means that all window seats are more or less gone, and only a few aisles here and there remain). With this scary proposition going about in my head, we headed to the San Francisco International Airport. Once there, we used the kiosks to see how much of a penalty we'd take in order to change to an earlier flight. Quite a bit, as it turned out!

We arrived at the airport way too early and so we had to wait half an hour before we could check our luggage in. Free luggage, would you believe it! Southwest remains the only airline in the USA to offer free luggage check in.





Hung around for a bit before checking in again, that was nice and quick with no fuss. No luck with the TSA this time as Southwest didn't give us the PreCheck clearence (or maybe we weren't randomly selected? Sad ) Security took a while, as a result of this.



The concourse itself wasn't as crowded, since the quick turnarounds at Southwest ensure that passenger movement is quick and efficient. Unless, of course, there's passengers like us who have a lot of time on their hands and spend it at the airport. Being one of the busier airports in the United States, you’re treated to a lot of airplane activity, big or small. We found a nice spot to sit around looking at the tarmac in the vicinity of gates 28-30 (WN2002 was from Gate 30 anyway). The next couple of hours had some pretty epic spotting, let the pictures do the talking!





Delta's lovely flying pencil!


Southwest 737-300: how can you distinguish between a classic and NG 737 on Southwest? Just look at the wing fairings - red: NG, wing color: classic


A Delta 737-900ER. I would later fly on a similar bird, except with something better!


Quite a bit of traffic!







A321T



747 line astern! Very Happy






Air China B748i!



A unique livery...





Land of the Scimitars indeed!






I'm starting to like the looks of the 757s, slowly but surely....!





Boeing 717. I would be on one in a few days!







A Minneapolis based holiday airline




United time! Including the parallel take offs!



One of many LA shuttles!



Delta 757-200. Sleek!


QUEEN!


WHALE!!


CRANE!!!










Many flights were departing in the hours we killed at San Francisco’s terminal 1. Some really quick turnaround times for all the Boeing 737 that came, and sent back. Most of the planes were -300s and -700s, with the odd -800 making its presence, too. I couldn’t see a -500 though. To ensure on time departures for all flights, the ground staff would make a few quips here and there: Mr. John Doe on flight twenty six eighty four to Orange County, you are requested to board the aircraft from gate 29. We love you, but we will leave you!

6pm, we decided to head for the gate just across, Gate 30. N968WN occupied the gate, and some passengers were getting off. For the second time this trip, a Boeing 737 Classic got swapped for a Boeing 737NG. Except that this time it was a Boeing 737-700W. This kinda bummed me off a little bit to be honest. N968WN was a 3.5 year old Boeing 737-700W.


WHY NOT A -300?!?!?!?!





Boarding started on time at 1805 hours, some priority members first, and then group wise (A, B, C). These groups are further divided into numbers 1-30 and 31-60, so essentially there are 6 groups of passengers boarding. I waited in my spot, A32, being in the second group.



There was this tiny girl who was visibly annoying the ground staff (who’d also be on my flight to LA), but this kept them unfazed. After scanning the boarding pass…or the shopping mall receipt they call ‘boarding document, they take it away. I was surprised! There went one boarding pass…..shopping mall receipt. Once again, it wasn’t a very warm welcome onboard. Third airline in the USA, not a very good first impression again. Many seats were empty, of course. I had all these choices…I settled for seat 6F, right by the CFM56 engine. The parents joined me on 6D and the unfortunate IndiGo seat 6E. Passengers quickly filled up the cabin, it was going to be a fully packed interstate flight. Captain gave us his briefing, we’d be flying at an altitude of 36000 feet for the quick 55 minute encounter.







White lights - the same used on planes with Boeing Sky Interior. This plane had no BSI, sadly!



Pushback was at 1834 hours, a minute before STD. Engines fired up, we made a quick taxi to the runway as we waited for two planes to land (at the same time, of course!). Blasted down the runway and into the sunny skies of California! The engines didn’t sound particularly impressive for some reason, but my God was the B737-700’s climb a mighty impressive one! Very Happy





We soon leveled off as I checked out some of the wifi stuff - the flight information is provided in the free wifi, there was quite a bit to keep you entertained! Flight attendants took orders for beverages, I ordered a hot chocolate. Southwest attendants use trays that are custom built to hold many cups instead of trays. Saves space, weight (hence money) and makes it easier if passengers have to walk down the aisles to the washroom, which they would. The setting sun made it just a wee bit tricky to get images, but we did fly over some pretty interesting red deserts and some circles on it (probably agricultural stuff, but conspiracy theorists will go mad!).









How can I forget the obligatory winglet shot? Very Happy









We soon began a rapid decent into Los Angeles.

We flew in from over the Pacific Ocean, flying downwind to the airport. Its always so interesting not only to see the airport, but the planes those are taking off and landing, especially in an airport like LAX! It wasn’t too long of a hold for us, as we were soon on final approach.



LAX!







A smooth landing followed by hard braking was executed at 1946 hours, we started an interesting taxi towards the Southwest concourse. Along the way were some Australian birds, including two Qantas A380s, I think there was a Boeing 747-400ER in there as well, and two Virgin Australia Boeing 777-300ERs. Then followed the Canadian end of things, including WestJet, Air Canada, Air Canada Rogue, and an Icelandair plane.











We docked in gate at 1954 hours, engines cut out. I thanked the crew for the flight on the way to a very busy and congested Southwest terminal at Los Angeles. It was a long walk to pick up luggage, and then into the traffic jams of LAX airport. I honestly didn’t know what was worse, the traffic jam at LAX or at Howrah station? Perhaps the latter, but this was quite a nightmare. On the highway towards Hollywood, I saw all those planes coming in to land line astern. It was a great sight. Checked in to the hotel, it was going to be a big day next day….


Regards
Jish
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sumantra
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PostPosted: Sun May 01, 2016 9:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Aha, I love the way there are coming. Long trip reports, lovely photos, and coming at a fast clip!
- A beautiful spotting panorama of heavies (Whales, two types of Jumbos, Dream)liners, A332s, B77Ws, and many types of narrow-bodies, and the smaller kinds as well), and many in some rather exotic liveries: Sun County, Frontier, Spirit, Icelandair, and so many more.
- Typical SouthWest boarding gate, and procedure...lots of power-ports to charge one's battery-operated devices.
- Thanks for the information about how to tell a classic B737 from an NG, in SouthWest colours!
- The Shopping Mall receipt/Boarding pass: if you request for it, they will give it back. I needed them for my travel expenditure reimbursement, hence I made the `outlandish' request, which surprised the agent, but she gave it back.
- Indigo seat Smile
-Lovely engine shots: both in the evening, as well as close to sunset
- nice ground shots...the Golden Gate bridge, and the crop circles!
Thank you for a lovely trip report!
Cheers, Sumantra.
- LAX in the sunset looks beautiful...did you fly over the most famous spotting Burger joint? Did you get clicked by someone?
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Akshay
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PostPosted: Wed May 04, 2016 10:41 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Lovely trip reports, Jishnu,,, All of them!
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jbalonso777
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Joined: 05 Jul 2012
Posts: 1501
Location: Never, never land

PostPosted: Tue Jun 07, 2016 8:46 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

sumantra wrote:
Aha, I love the way there are coming. Long trip reports, lovely photos, and coming at a fast clip!
- A beautiful spotting panorama of heavies (Whales, two types of Jumbos, Dream)liners, A332s, B77Ws, and many types of narrow-bodies, and the smaller kinds as well), and many in some rather exotic liveries: Sun County, Frontier, Spirit, Icelandair, and so many more.
- Typical SouthWest boarding gate, and procedure...lots of power-ports to charge one's battery-operated devices.
- Thanks for the information about how to tell a classic B737 from an NG, in SouthWest colours!
- The Shopping Mall receipt/Boarding pass: if you request for it, they will give it back. I needed them for my travel expenditure reimbursement, hence I made the `outlandish' request, which surprised the agent, but she gave it back.
- Indigo seat Smile
-Lovely engine shots: both in the evening, as well as close to sunset
- nice ground shots...the Golden Gate bridge, and the crop circles!
Thank you for a lovely trip report!
Cheers, Sumantra.
- LAX in the sunset looks beautiful...did you fly over the most famous spotting Burger joint? Did you get clicked by someone?

Thanks so much, sir!
I remember this flight because of all the spotting that happened before, but then with tiredness kicking in, it was tricky to spot Razz
Unfortunately, no one clicked my plane on the day Sad

Thank you, Akshay!

Regards
Jishnu
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jbalonso777
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 07, 2016 8:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Videos from this flight:

Start up: https://youtu.be/XnpCNWShIAI
Take off: https://youtu.be/gX0Nzw8pFsk
Landing: https://youtu.be/9Ag4s9jLq50
Lots of spotting video trip report: https://youtu.be/0h-zw96_00E

Regards
Jishnu
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