pt360

Was in LAX skyclub waiting for a flight to YYC - guy comes into the lounge at 4:30p, turns out he was on a flight to SFO from LAX, had been there since 9a, and they couldn't land due to microbursts and windshear. Don't envy anyone trying to get into SFO.

Takeoff (around 6:30p) from LAX was one of the most turbulent I have ever felt (737-8). I don't mind it but I felt bad for the poor souls who are not as travelled as I. Plane was rattling and shaking probably until we reached 20k+ altitude. Wild weather to be sure on the coast yesterday.

findark

10R/28L definitely closed for construction. I highly doubt they somehow cleared the work for a single day, and playing back ATC they are using 10L only.

Did you actually observe a specific flight/time on 10R?

ND76

Weather must have been awful throughout northern California on Sunday. They postponed the Sunday play at the AT&T Pebble Beach PGA tournament, and then decided to truncate the tournament to the 54 holes which they managed to get in and declare Wyndham Clark the winner.

FlyinHawaiian

I was at the T3 club sitting on the SkyDeck from 0900 to 1100 and was listening to the livestream by the spotters on YouTube. They called out the diverted flights landing including a Delta 752 doing JFK-SFO. At least there were open gates and SkyClubs at LAX for the diverted passengers who could access it. Better that sitting on a plane or stuck in an outstation like SMF or ONT.

The wind was pretty constant easterly in the morning but by 1000 the windsock I could see was showing a pretty bad crosswind vector and as we became airborne, the 764 I was on did some serious wing-waggling as we took of from 7L over Inglewood.

WyomingBound

DL 1870 today, scheduled flight GCM to ATL......once the inbound flight landed app automatically updated that the flight would be diverting to MCO on the return......is it a crew issue? I don't think DL has a crew base in MCO so did not figure that would be normal and surely they would not schedule a diversion that far away from ATL. It surely is not a fuel issue either because the 737-800 range is much longer than even the GCM to ATL.

Would appreciate anyone's thought or input.

sydneyracquelle

Weather here in ATL was pretty nasty mid-morning with tornado warnings.

turkeyRIOO

Most likely a weight limitation on takeoff that would not allow enough fuel for a divert with ATL forecasting IFR conditions

The Situation

Guessing weather related due to the heavy t'storms moving across the South. Looking at all of the posted delays, they are expecting to not be able to go around the storm, so they will get the flight as close as they can to ATL and continue on when t'storms pass.

Jeff767

The crew had a 2:20 minute taxi time outbound from ATL due to weather. This likely put them over the hard time FAA block hour limit If they flew the return to ATL. Scheduled into MCO which would keep them under the limit. Crew likely sent to MCO from Atlanta to swap out. There would be no weight issues on that length flight.

Intl359Widget

Ding Ding Winner Chicken Dinner! Crew is most likely over the max block time but not necessarily the FDP.

WyomingBound

Well said Jeff......that is gonna exactly be it! Just strange....fly the flight often (currently in GCM but not on the particular flight) and NEVER seen anything like that happen before.....yes during the summertime there are diversions due to storms, however not a "scheduled" diversion such as this and if they could get a flight crew there probably is plenty of gate space mid day. LIkely the original crew even would fly back. I know when I flew ATL to GCM the flight attendant crew (ATL based) crew lead said he didn't even have a bag with him.....the crew flew ATl-GCM-ATL.......he said "I got nothing on me but my wallet, car keys, and passport" so if I get stranded in GCM I am gonna have to go buy some clothes.

Jeff767

The actual flight time if the crew originated in ATL that morning would have been under the limit even with the delay. The pilot contract however requires a minimum pay per day worked that would exceed the pay flying it as a turn. The company does not like this as they are paying what is referred to as credit time which is pay without revenue. As a result the trip is normally tacked onto the back side of a multi day trip often referred to as a penalty lap by pilots. They might start their morning in DTW going to ATL and then fly the GCM turn before release. Longer island flights are often flown as simply a straight 1 day turn since they don’t generate credit. The FAA limit on daily block time is 9 hours. Delta generally leaves a 1 hour buffer to handle delays. 2:20 minutes however pushed them over.
MCO is the logical place to recrew since there is hourly service from ATL and the further North they can get the flight legally the more time they have to position a crew. It’s also possibly they covered the MCO-ATL leg with a crew already in MCO via reroute. Not the preferred solution as it leads to another uncovered flight which can snowball but sometimes allows them to keep all flights ontime.
The 9 hour rule is a hard limit that can’t be waived. If on arrival into GCM the flight time already flown that day plus the scheduled time home was 9:01 or greater they could not fly to ATL and the flight had to be short stopped. If it’s going to be close they will wait until they get the exact block time. Once the aircraft blocks in they will implement plan B if needed. Note that if they would have been under 9 hours say 8:55 they could depart for ATL and once airborne could continue even if airborne delays occurred.
The flight attendants have a shorter minimum day so they normally fly GCM as a turn out of ATL.

kmersh

I cannot speak to much of what you wrote, but
MCO is a crew base for DL.

Jeff767

MCO is not a pilot crew base. It is a flight attendant base.

emma dog

Does anyone know the logic behind non-hub flight attendant bases? What's the benefit to DL to have bases outside their hubs? Thinking of MCO and FLL for this example...

CVG makes sense that it was a hub once upon a time and there might be internal politics behind keeping it open.