Flight 3 of 4 - Delta 176 - Sunday August 8th 2010


Airline: Delta Air Lines
Flight: 176 (Sector 1: Orlando - Atlanta)
Aircraft: Boeing 757-232 (Non winglets)
Registration: N628DL, new colours.
Statistics: 5th on this type, 1st on this aircraft.
Cabin Class: Economy - Y
Seat: 40F (Window, near the rear of the A/C)
Departs (Schd/Act): 4:30pm/5:00pm
Arrives (Schd/Act): 6:15pm/6:00pm
Flying time (Announced/Act): 1 hour 2 minutes / 1 hour

I looked into it a bit when before I left, and DL 176 seems to be a very unfortunate flight, with regards to delay. It's plagued by long 2-4 hours long delays, in Orlando, for some reason. The next segment of 176 is at 7:25pm, so we didn't have long to connect and we hoped for an ontime departure. We got to MCO at 1pm, and saw the plane coming from ATL as flight 2369 (I think) was delayed by 10 minutes. I thought “Oh here we go” and prepared to be delayed further. I checked in at the self service counter, as is the norm now at MCO for DL pax. Now. I went onto the tram as soon as I got through security which had a lane for “experienced flyers” which I was so tempted to go through, but apparently it's for people with elite FF status, and me with my humble 5000 SkyMiles was just not adequite so I didn't bother. I knew what I wanted to see, where it was and I headed there. The VS gates to see the 744s coming in. I flew on them in 2008 to MCO and I had mixed feelings about them. I felt the cabins were dated and the IFE was not good enough for the market they were in. The crew and service made up for it in a way, but still, something was keeping them behind the competition. The first one came in on time, G-VXLG, Ruby Tuesday (not one of the two I was on) in old, old VS colours. The GE engines could be heard through out the concourse wing. It was magnificent. I then had a wander around, to kill time.


AeroMexico flight to Mexico City, almost ready to go.


One of the many, many DL 752s, probably to ATL


DL A320 to either DTW or MSP, can't remember which. I do remember it continued on to Omaha, Nebraska.


FIDS. I like that they have Arrivals displayed too.


Shamu One, WN 733 painted in Special SeaWorld Colours. There's a model of this on display in SeaWorld itself., along with a route map. Keep an eye out for it, it's in the penguin enclosure.


Remember the “No way BA/AA” 346 in JFK? Now we have this. BA's special 772 with a special “Keep the flag flying” sticker to assure customers that BA will continue on even with the crew problems....


I lost track of time, so I headed to my parents at gate 73.


Our 752 was waiting to pull in.


Very nice weather....


We boarded at 3:55pm and was greeted by a friendly female crew member and was directed towards the rear of the plane, where a young male crew member was standing in the aisle helping people.


This was an old plane. Delivered in 1987 and was showing signs of age. It had the new overhead bins but the seats were worn out, the panneling too and it had the old tvs. Mind you, it's only a 90 minute flight at most so it wasn't an issue but the renevation couldn't come soon enough if they're keeping it in the fleet.


We sat there and there was a problem with people not in their assigned seats and that issue took all 5 crew members, the three dispachers and about 15 pax to sort out. We pushed back at 4:40pm and headed to runway 35L. The rain messed up my focus so apologies for the lack of ground photos. We heard from the cockpit and were informed the flying time was a brisk 1 hour and 2 minutes. He told us we'd be taking off and heading north, past Jacksonville, Daytona Beach, then turning back Northwest towards Macon and Atlanta. At 4:50pm, 20 minutes late, we pushed back and the two Pratt & Whitney engines got going. Having only ever flown on RR powered 757s before, this was a whole different experience to me. We taxied behind a WN 73G and before you know it we were number 1 for departure. The crew took their seats and we turned around onto the runway. I love, I mean really love powerful takeoffs. My most powerful to date was on an ASA CR7 last year. He spooled up to around 70% N1, then put TOGA on and took the brakes off at the same time. I was literally slammed into my seat. I was hoping for one like this again, and boy was I impressed. The 757s I were on previously were very powerful, but not on par with that little CRJ. I was at the rear of the aircraft, which seems to exxagerate the feeling of acceleration in my head. After what seemed like a lifetime of anticipation for me, I heard the deep bellowing noise of the engines and felt us starting to speed up. Then all of a sudden he put on full power and I was slammed into my seat once again. We rocketed down the runway and we rotated very quickly. The climb was steep, I'd guess the AOA was around...19 degrees, give or take. We turned right immediately and made for Atlanta.


Take off video - 720p HD

The seatbelt signs were turned off just after passing 10,000 feet. Soon enough, the wi-fi was enabled and I checked the status of our next flight, to Dublin. I like that it's free to use Delta's website and the NY Times site too. We were scheduled to depart from gate E3, and we were arriving into B13. Not too bad, could be worse. We could be arriving into E35 and departing from T1 like! The flight itself was relatively smooth, the odd bump here or there. We climbed up to FL350 and headed along the coast. We passed Sanford Airport (A place I have NO intention of returning to!), Jacksonville Airport, and we were joined by FL aircraft. I couldn't find him in my camera in time to take a photo. Service was identical to the flight from JFK, a free drink of choice and a snack. I chose the Bischoff cookie, which I had before and was nice. The crew were very cheerful and friendly today.


Soon enough we began to point back towards terra ferma and began the long decent towards Atlanta.


We passed ATL on the right, I thought we were making course for 9R. It was too foggy and misty to get a clear photo. I have some good ones from a previous trip, which I'll be reporting on another time. We headed west, and the flaps were deployed and the spoilers extended until we did a complete 180 turn facing Atlanta. We began our final decent, and I was regretting picking a seat on the right side of the plane, as we were on finals with a distant 777.



I noticed soon that there was no runway to our right, where 10/28 should be. Then it hit me that we were heading for 10/28 which gave me even more of a kick. The gear was lowered and the flaps full, we slowed right down to a crawl and slowly drifted in over the threshold only to bounce once and brake extremely hard.


Landing video - 720p HD

We vacated the runway as there was a CR2 coming in close. We began the long taxi back towards the terminal and we made it across the runways rather quickly. We passed the 'Salvador Dali' plane waiting in the queue for 9L.


Soon enough, we arrived at B13 and the doors were opened. Another great flight by Delta, and I eventually deplaned, not without the new Sky magazine and a safety card...oops. We had exactly 1 hour until the scheduled departure of our connection. We sprinted to the train and headed for Concourse E.

Thanks for reading part 3. The final installment will cover the last flight, DL 176 to Dublin on a 767-300ER.