HiFlyerAS

I still remember my very first take-off when we bought the MD's. It was quite a shock after years of flying the 27's with that lumbering take-off. I timed us once taking off with a full load from Stapleton back when I flew for Wien Air Alaska and I swear it took nearly 2 minutes to get off the ground! Anyway, that first take-off on an MD I nearly crapped my pants! The nose was at such a steep attitude it felt like we were shooting for earth orbit! I'm going to miss them as a passenger...love the two-seater side. Working them is another story. Boarding in FC is a nightmare with no closet and those tiny bins. Love getting those FC customers all aggravated before we've even left the ground! I always make sure I've got plenty of Claim at Gate tags whenever I fly it. And those stinky lavs...won't miss them! Pilots say it handles beautifully and makes the 37's feel like a tank in comparison.

dgwright99

But with 4 rows in F, and a tighter UG policy, much easier to get the UG, and it sure is nice and quiet up front

dgwright99

surely it's airspeed that you have to worry about, not groundspeed

ANC

I havent seen 1 in ANC in a long time. I think theyve all but quit bringing those things here. I know that they have been using them on the SEA-DEN trips like flt 542 but Ive been noticing recently a lot of 734 and even some 73H's on those routes

Valveman

I had an oldie last night PDX / SMF. Pinstripe 'wallpaper' was very retro looking in F!

The MD80's remaining in the fleet are showing their age, but they certainly hold fond memories for me - when the days of a full F Cabin were far and few between. It was either certs or pay, which kept the cabin quite empty and quiet.

Good Bye MD's!

doog

I've grown to love the MD-80, having flown it my fair share of times on AA. The 3-2 seating is really nice, and it's pretty quiet up front because the engines are so far back. I agree the bad seats are bad, but as a frequent flier the worst I ever do is an exit row seat, so usually my trips on the MadDog are fairly enjoyable.

tusphotog

I'm glad I got my MD-80 fix last summer with a retiring captain, pinstripe wall panels and incredibly small overheads. I love flying on the plane--it brings back lots of memories for me of the empty FC on a PDX-SJC route, with a full dinner of salmon or pasta and jumbo prawns. Oh how I miss 1994!

Every time takeoff thrust is reached, I'm in awe at how quiet they are. The pilots I know who fly them really love them too.

Bowgie

I flew Aerolineas Argentinas' MD-80 from AEP to El Calafate (and return) this month. Two versions -- one with and one without a biz-class cabin. 2 + 3 across seating in coach. I sat in row two on the one w/o the biz class section and could see right into the cockpit thru a third of the flight until the FA got tired of chatting with the pilot and bringing him coffee. As a bonus, any of the pax using the forward toilet could get a close-up look at the flight controls and touch the pilots if they had wanted to.

It was all so innocent and pre-9/11

sigueugis

Had the joy on Monday of a last minute re-route LAX-DFW on a Super80. Guess where I had to sit?

Good ol' row 32 seat D. Yes, last row with a nice view of the Engines, rouring noise, and of course my seat as honary bathroom lounge as waitees naturally lean on the seat back until a vacancy is made. Not to mention the fear every time the lavatory door opens that the previous patron blessed us with some serious damage that will soon linger. Row 31 AB, now those are great bulkhead seats - I cherish those but I thought AA was going to dump that mid-kitchette area on the 80s.

Duckouttahere

I am scheduled to fly up to PDX from OAK this Friday on an MD-80. I hope it doesn't have mechanical issues. I saw one a few months ago that they had to tow away from the gate because they couldn't fix it before the next plane arrived. I'm sure there were some really TO'd people that day. I have noticed like a previous poster that they certainly do appear to take off at a higher angle than the 737's and that can be exciting. The one nice part of flying on them is that it creates a little variety when it comes to flying. I mean how many 737's are out there? It would be interesting to see the statistics for non weather delays out of Alaska pre and post MD-80 flights from there. With the age of the aircraft and the lack of bin space for roller bags, I can't imagine they were on time that much.

EIPremier

The biggest change in Alaska has been the retirement of the 737-200 Combis and subsequent transfer of those routes to the 737-400 Combis. I'd expect reliability within Alaska has improved a bit within the past 18 months, mostly due to retiring the 737-200s. The MD-80s generally only flew routes from the lower 48 to Anchorage and Fairbanks, as well as anc-fai.

The current AS fleet (per wikipedia) is 40 737-400s, 62 737 Next Generation, and 12 MD-83s. So, the MD-80s only make up about 10% of the fleet. In the late 90s, they made up about 50% of the fleet.