A Tale Of Two Tails

Back at it again today for another two day trip. This time I would be northbound to start off.

DFW to Minneapolis, back to DFW and then on to Louisville, Kentucky for the night.

Christmas is approaching quickly and the planes are all full these days. Today we had a jumpseater in the cockpit with us. He is a pilot with us but currently on military leave and was traveling with his family of four trying to reach Minot, North Dakota. They had started last night in Birmingham, Alabama and had to spend the night at DFW. They were lucky enough to get on the flight to MSP with us but their next hurdle was to try to standby on a Northwest Airlines flight over to Minot. I don't know if they made it or not. He told us that the odds of getting four seats weren't too good and that they might end up driving eight hours to get there from MSP.



Speaking of Northwest Airlines, their most recent paint scheme on their airplanes has a flaw. Look at the photos of these tails and see if you can find it. The answer will be revealed in my next post.













Hmmm, What could it be?













The flight up to MSP was fine and the airport was in good shape despite a recent large snowfall. It was 20 degrees outside. The snowbanks along the runways and taxiways were pretty high. A quick servicing of the plane and we were southbound again for a warmer DFW that was reporting 70 degree temps.


A change of planes, change of terminals, and off to Louisville with another full flight. Takeoff was on runway 35L at DFW behind this American Airlines MD-80.


Louisville is the home of United Parcel Service (UPS). They have an enormous operation at the airport there. But it only gets busy in the middle of the night when all the planes come in, unload, sort packages, load up again, and then take off for points worldwide. Federal Express has the same thing going on but they're located in Memphis.



We landed in a light rain, taxied to the gate, found the crew van, and headed for the hotel. Our hotel was built in 1923 and is located downtown. A beautiful place...the reception area looked like an old bank lobby. That's Eric the FO checking us in.

Dinner with Eric at a small brew pub across the street. He had pizza....buffalo chicken for me. Then back to the hotel for a snooze.



For a look at some more of my photos, please aviate over to Plane & Simple