[i]Delta 767-300ER


Delta A319


TK 777-300ER

The crown jewel of the night was my last spot of the night: Air China’s A380. Unfortunately, the sun had almost set by the time the China Southern flight arrived so my camera was nearly worthless. However, I was able to get a passable quality video of it on my iPhone. Here are some screen shots from that video.





It was certinaly an impressive sight. What was even more impressive was the pungent smell of burnt rubber permeating through the air after the huge jet touched down on the runway. I left to return my rental car after that as I wanted to make it to terminal in time to shower and grab a snack at the LAX Admirals Club before my redeye to Chicago. At this point, I was a bit worried about my upgrade as it hadn’t cleared yet and there was only one open seat left. But I got notification that it had cleared just as stepped onto the terminal bus, so my angst was for naught.

There was nothing noteworthy about my flight to Chicago. I fell asleep shortly after take off and woke up just before we landed at 4:30 bloody AM or 20 minutes ahead of schedule. I made a beeline to the Admiral’s Club as soon as deplaned only to find it opened at 4:45. No big deal. Just. Need. Caffiene. Once inside I freshened up and grabbed a latte. One nice thing about being in the club that early are photo ops as there are very few patrons at that time.









20 minutes before scheduled departure, I made my way to the gate through the deserted terminal.
It just so happened that the same aircraft that brought to Chicago from LAX would operating this next leg of my journey as well.



American Airlines 956
Chicago O’Hare (ORD) - Washington Reagan (DCA)
Depart: 6:10 AM
Arrive: 8:55 AM
Aircraft: Boeing 737-800
Seat: 5A (First Class)

Although this aircraft was in the old livery, it was equipped with the attractive Boeing Sky Interior. Interestingly until that weekend, I had logged exactly 0 flights on BSI equipped 737-800s out of 78 flights on AA 737s since 2011. That weekend, I had all three of my 737 flights were equipped with the BSI.



The load was very light in First and in the economy. Open bar PDBs were offered by our friendly FA, who also invited us to move around as we wished given the light loads. I wish I took him up on the offer because I missed a beautiful view of Chicago skyline as I chose to remain on the AB side of the aircraft. As with nearly all my flights out of O’Hare, we took off to the north climbing over Lake Michigan for a while before setting course to our destination.

Though I’d missed out on the shot of the Chicago, I did have a great view of yet another sunrise, after we climbed above the cloud layer which seemed to the theme for this weekend.



A continental breakfast consisting of a fruit plate, a small thimble of yogurt, and choice of a bagel or biscuit was offered. I requested and was granted a bagel and a biscuit. While the I preferred the cereal offering of just last year, this was plenty filling.



Trays were promptly cleared, and refills were repeatedly offered throughout the flight. We soon began our gradual descent into Washington passing over Dulles which meant a Runway 1 approach.


Flying over Dulles

Our excellent FA collected cups and mugs literally seconds before out landing gear dropped, and we turned to line up with Runway 1.


The Key Bridge and Reagan National Airport in the distance

Touchdown was bit firm, and the taxi to out gate was very quickly. I burned a $35 Uber credit to get me back to Arlington as I was too cheap to pay for a cab and too lazy to brave the Metro. Another week training to go before I headed home next weekend…