Time For A Change

So after 15 years in the left seat of the MD-80, the time has come for a change.

My final trip was a 3 day affair with stops in Columbus, Mexico City, and Baltimore.


Day one began with a leg to Columbus, back to DFW, and then on to Mexico City. The descent to Columbus took us right over downtown Cincinnati and a very muddy Ohio River.




Clear skies prevailed over Columbus also.


Arrival at MEX was just past midnight and included a non-precision approach to runway 5L. Their ILS was out of service so we had to fly a VOR approach. No problem though....we made it OK.

The next day we saw this Mexican 727 passing by. The Federales fly some pretty old equipment down there. Sorry about the nose being cut off.....the First Officer took the photo!
So back to DFW and then on to Baltimore for the night.
One leg back to DFW the next morning and that was it. No more MD-80 time will be going in the logbook. 11,000 hours in the left seat and almost 3000 hours in the right seat and I still can't make a decent landing! Well, maybe once in a while....

So what's my next plane at AA?

This streamlined beauty?



Or maybe this three engined trans oceanic luxury liner? It even has curtains!








How about this deluxe wide body cruiser?



Nope. None of those.


All good choices I'm sure, but the 767 will have to suffice for now.

Training starts next week so the blogging will be taking a back seat for a while until school is over with.

Here's a few more photos from my time spent on the line.


So the sun has set on the MD-80. But more adventures await on the 767.It should be fun!
Thanks for reading.



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

Who Says It's Hot In Phoenix?

In keeping with the West is Best theme....Another recent trip of mine took me out to Phoenix. By June of any given year, Phoenix is already well into the 100 degree days, but this day was an unusual exception. It was only 88 when we landed at 4 PM and very clear. No global warming here....

The arrivals from points East are routed either from the Northeast or the Southeast. Nothing is allowed to come straight in from the East due to restricted airspace. Today we flew the Northeast arrival over Payson, Fountain Hills, and then Mesa and Tempe.

The Superstition Mountains were well in view today as was the Salt River where I spent many hours over the years tubing down the river. Those were fun times.


Here's a shot of a long final approach to the West.On short final you pass just slightly North of Arizona State University. This is a good look at the campus. Sun Devil Stadium is also visible.

Not long after landing it was time to head back to Texas. Like the arrivals, Eastbound departures from PHX are always routed to the Northeast or the Southeast. Today we flew the Southeast departure. It took us pretty close to White Sands missile range in New Mexico.
Once over Western Texas, we passed through a developing storm front. Lots of cumulonimbus clouds were building. They would soon be full blown thunderstorms. The hole in the middle is where we passed through. Down at the surface we could see the dust being blown up from all the fields. This was a West Texas dust storm in the making!


The tops on this cell were well in the 50,000 ft range. There would be no climbing above this one in our MD-80 today!

In less than an hour we were parked at the gate, packing up our stuff, and would soon be headed for our respective homes.


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