It's funny how sometimes non aviation folks can interpret things completely different than they were originally intended.
For instance, my last post was titled "Down For Repairs". I was just trying to make a play on words that I am personally off of flying status temporarily while I go on vacation and then have some knee surgery. It never even occurred to me that someone could think that my blog site was down for repairs!
But I received several e-mails from people thinking that my site was being repaired and when could I expect to have it up and running again. I'm sure that the aviation related folks that read my stuff knew what I meant but for the regular type readers I can now understand how it might have been a little confusing. (No harm done in this case but it goes to show how a little thought before posting something online can be helpful).
My next few posts will be non-airline related stuff since I'm not flying the line right now so you'll have to endure my vacation stories. Sorry...
As I mentioned previously, we had a southern Caribbean cruise planned.
Our first day of vacation was a travel day from DFW to San Juan. We went via Orlando and had some sit time for shooting photos there before boarding a completely full Airbus 300 for SJU.
The weather was great at SJU. The approach is typically over the harbor and today it offered a nice view of San Juan. I could see our ship waiting for us.
A smooth landing followed by a cab ride to the cruise ship terminal and soon we were on board the Crown Princess. We'd had good luck with Princess Cruises before so our expectations were high for this trip.
So far so good....time to get in the buffet line!!
We sailed at just after 11:00 P.M.
Next stop, Barbados.
For a look at some more of my photos, please aviate over to Plane & Simple
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Headed Out To Sea
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2 comments:
Hi Len,
it always fascinated me that AA flies the A300, I think it is the only remaining US airline that does so. I know some of their A300's aren't very old, either.
One question I always had was, why does AA fly the A300 almost exclusively to Caribbean destinations? I can't fly it cross-country or to any other foreign city, just east coast/south to SJU or the Dominican Republic, it seems like. Do you know why?
Also, you mentioned some mad dog pilots are switching over to the 738 and 757/767.. Do you have the chance to switch over to the "scare bus" instead, and if so, would you consider that or are you a Boeing man? Why?
Hi Tom,
You're right about AA being the only ones to operate the "repair bus". I think either UPS or Fed Ex might have a few.
They are used exclusively in the Caribbean for their high density seating. They don't carry an enormous amount of cargo but they hold over 250 passengers so they're a good fit for AA's island routes that carry of bunch of passengers and not so much cargo.
It's interesting that AA's A300's all have control yokes instead of sidesticks like most of the rest of the world. AA wanted fleet commonality so they ordered them from Airbus that way.
AA tried the A300 briefly to Europe a few years ago but it didn't work out.
Yes, I could be flying the bus but I would have to transfer to Miami or New York and I don't want to be a commuter. The increase in pay wouldn't be enough to offset the commute for me. Just not worth it.
AA had a bunch of retirements just recently so I expect to be getting a 767 position before too long.
Take care,
Len
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