Minneapolis - Tampa

I finished the work in Osage, Iowa, and drove the 2 plus hours up to MSP.  And didn't get pulled over this time - I stayed on I 35 most of the way.

I don't think I've mentioned the new TSA Pre service.  All I remember is that months ago Delta asked me if I wanted to opt into this and I said yes.  And for a long time nothing happened.

But lately, I'm getting through the PRE line.  Did it out of TPA on Sunday and out of MSP yesterday.  I don't think I need to tell the high mileage community how wonderful the PRE concept is.  But I'm running about 80% there, meaning, I don't always get through, and sometimes have to go through general security.

When I do get accepted at a PRE point, it's so weird not taking off the shoes, taking out the laptop, etc.  We've gotten so accustomed to the full check that it's like second nature now.

The Sky Club in MSP is nice.  I'm sure there's more than one there, but if you are familiar with the place you know it all comes together in one big central concourse, and that's where I spent a couple of hours last night.

The A319 left the gate 10 minutes early and landed here in TPA 20 minutes early.  Thanks guys!

Nice long holiday weekend here on the island and I intend to enjoy it all.

Next week?  One day in Indy and one day all the way out to San Francisco and back.  That's kinda hard.

96,862 miles so far through August.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL2229/history/20120831/0045Z/KMSP/KTPA

Tampa - Minneapolis (actually Osage, IA)

I had the usual two days to unwind before hitting the road again.  Saturday was fabulous.  One thing I'm learning about living at the beach, when the weather threatens the locals say "what the hell".  I'd love to know how much alcohol gets consumed in the TI/Mad Beach/Reddington/St Pete Beach area.  I had my fair share.

My flight to MSP didn't leave until 6:10 pm, but I woke up to a lot of wind and it just got worse all day.  This is the front end of Isaac.  Then the rain bands hit, but we departed TPA before things got bad.  And as of right now, slightly after midnight, it doesn't look like Tampa Bay is gonna get hit badly.  The Weather Channel is now talking strictly about evacuating parts of the Gulf coast and New Orleans.

I've been here to Osage a few times and tonight I took some backroads once I got off I 35.  So I set the cruise to 75 and the GPS getting me here, and sure enough, the blue lights appear .  To the officer's credit he was very professional, and let me off with a warning.  I've learned when you're an old guy like me, you are treated with a little more respect.  But he had me dead to rights.  Thank you officer, I was going too fast.

Delta is flying a lot of MD 90s out of TPA now (not sure I like the reduction in first class availability), but these things are very comfortable in first.  Sure better than MD 88s.

Here through Thursday.  Hope my little island is safe in St. Pete.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL1712/history/20120826/2210Z/KTPA/KMSP

Chicago Midway - Tampa

Back home, by 9 pm on Thursday night from Chicago.  No complaints about Southwest here, EXCEPT, I was not aware of gate "24B" (I could be wrong) but it's down a very long hallway and very narrow.

It's chaos when the inbound offloads while we line up to board.  I know Southwest doesn't own the airport, but this was one of the worst gate arrangements I've ever seen.

Beyond that, and a couple of typical dumbass passenger issues (bag stuck in overhead bin, can't get it in or out, multiple dumbasses lined up for front lav when the announcement about lining up had been made at 3 three times, I'm home.

But

Tropical storm (hurricane) Isaac is down south over Haiti now.  Up here in the TPA area, no one seems real sure as to where this thing will land.  All I know, is that I've never seen one of these things and of course, I"ll be out on the road when it hits here or nearby.

Couple that with the political convention that's going to be here next week, and I'm kinda glad I'll be up in Osage, Iowa!

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/SWA295/history/20120823/2240Z/KMDW/KTPA

Louisville - Chicago Midway

Left SDF at 7:10 pm for MDW with Southwest.  When I travel during the middle of the week, I don't want to mess with connections and hubs, and even though AA and UA fly to ORD right out of Louisville, well, I'll let their on time stats speak for themselves.  This one was a no brainer.

Here in Chicago for just one day, then back to MDW for a Southwest nonstop home to Tampa.  The big word there is that we're gonna get hit by a hurricane (Isaac) next week.  I've never seen one of those.  And I won't see this one either as I'll leave for Osage, Iowa on Sunday and won't get back until late Thursday night.

But the projected track has it passing right over Treasure Island, FL where I live now.  I won't get nervous until everybody else I know there does.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/SWA3922/history/20120822/2310Z/KSDF/KMDW

Tampa to Lousiville - The Grind Continues

After less than 48 hours on my little Gulf island near St. Pete, it's on to Louisville.

Delta, through Atlanta, with a 40 minute delay out of TPA due to wx, but I had 90 minutes in ATL.  I made the connection nicely, and since all my upgrades had cleared I was quite happy.

Let's see if the luck continues as I have to fly to Midway on Wednesday night.  My old stomping ground, Chicago.  Thank God I live in St. Pete now.  I know that criticizing Chicago brings a lot of flaming, but seriously, I've only turned my heat on once since I moved to Florida.

Tonight at Fridays, while having refreshments, the bartender asked me about my job and I told him of the travel.  He says he would love to do that.  I just say, not so fast, lol!

OK, it's a nice night here in SDF, very little humidity, think I'll sit back and keep reading on my Kindle.

By the way, when you look at these tracks, the TPA-ATL segment meant penetrating that line of thunderstorms.  And for about 3 minutes, the chop was terrible.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL2172/history/20120819/2115Z/KTPA/KATL

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL2172/history/20120819/2115Z/KTPA/KATL

93,380 miles so far this year

Newark to Tampa - Leave Early if Possible

I got finished in New Brunswick, NJ quickly on Friday and hustled to get to EWR.  I will give Delta credit for having one agent at the SMS number who really knows the procedure for same day confirmed work.

She got me out of EWR at 2:15 pm (I was holding 6:15) and got the segment to TPA changed earlier and got first on both segments!

I told her she was the best and now I'm kicking myself for not getting her name so I could sing her praises to DL in an email.

But the most important rule of flying carried this day - get out of town as early as you can during the day before the meltdowns start.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL935/history/20120817/1815Z/KEWR/KATL

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL2208/history/20120817/2004Z/KATL/KTPA

Tampa to Newark - All the Luck Used on One Trip?

Off to EWR and I can't believe that we got up here 20 minutes early!  How often will that happen?  Rarely.  You have to have a lot of things happening, no MTC issues, great WX, crew shows up healthy, no running out of crew time, etc.

At the risk of really irritating anybody from New Jersey who might ever read this post, let me introduce Jim Morris, and his Big Bamboo Band.

Take a look at:

http://jim-morrismusic.com

The music is great and I had never heard of this until I moved to St. Pete.  I love it.  Of particular interest are his lyrics.  As in:

"A flight to Jersey, full of sunburned tourists
How much of my seat, does the lady need?
I lean in the aisle
I try not to crowd her
She talks like Jersey
Just a little bit louder"
 
Going to see him in Key West in November.

So the week is starting off well, but Friday will be interesting, back to TPA and on the last flights of the night out of EWR and ATL.  What are the chances I'll be on time then?

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL2372/history/20120812/2000Z/KTPA/KATL

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL504/history/20120812/2318Z/KATL/KEWR

Richmond to Tampa

I got lucky last night, as thunderstorms have dominated the southeast each afternoon this week.

The MD 88 was 20 minutes late on arrival, and of course departed 35 minutes late to ATL.  Note from the link of the flight path the irregular route.

The arrival gate in ATL was E36, the last gate in the former international terminal.  I had to hustle to B23 for the 752 to Tampa, but the timing was perfect.

We landed in TPA one minute early.

I'll need every bit of luck I can get on Sunday, going to Newark. EWR has had delays every night for the last 10 nights.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL1307/history/20120810/2126Z/KRIC/KATL

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL2273/history/20120811/0034Z/KATL/KTPA

The Aviation Herald

Now that I'm blogging again, I think about all the resources that are now available to the traveler.  Many of these did not exist three years ago.

I'm a huge fan of The Aviation Herald.

While not providing advice to the flyer, this is amazing reading.  It illustrates the types of things that happen all over the world in a given day.

Reading this never upsets me.  Some of the posts are almost funny.  You may not agree if you have to sit through an explosive decompression.  I get that.

I find this site to be informative, credible, and quite authoritative.

I have worked in the aviation field my entire life.

Take a look, it's amazing.

Still in LYH by the way.

Lynchburg, Virginia

I'm in Lynchburg, which is very near where I was born and raised.  I was here during the first week of July as well.  It's almost like being home again.

Except home now is St. Petersburg, which is served by TPA, with PIE and SRQ just down the road.

LYH has only one carrier, US Air.

I flew them to here a month ago, and although I was bracing for the worst, the flights were ontime.  I'm not a fan of that Dash 8 they fly in and out of here, but it worked.

Today I did Delta, to ATL and then to RIC with the two hour drive up here.  I just don't trust US Air into LYH, and when this job is over on Friday, I want to get home since next week involves EWR, still the delay capital of America.

Here are the links for today's trips:

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL1991/history/20120806/1615Z/KTPA/KATL

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL1307/history/20120806/1900Z/KATL/KRIC

I do like what DL has done with the MD 90 first class cabin.  The seats are nice.  The 88 to RIC is another story.  They've put in new leather, but I'll never be a big fan of them.

Almost 3 Years Without a Post!

I don't know where to start!

I stopped writing this blog in September of 2009 and there were a lot of reasons, the biggest being I got bored with it.

Then a lot of other things happened.

Like:

I left Chicago

I moved to the Tampa Bay area, St. Petersburg to be precise.


But I did not stop flying. In 2009 I flew 106,813 miles.

The beat went on:

2010 - 107,269 miles

2011 - 158,603 miles, the most ever in one year.

And so far, in 2012 as of right now, 85,399 miles, and it's just the first of August.

So much has happened, both personally and professionally. And the travel world has gotten much colder.

I had actually forgotten about this blog and then yesterday, while on a trip (of course) to Saginaw, MI, I did a Google search on it and was shocked it's still here.

Reading my old posts was very weird. I might have been a better writer then.

Personally, I have a beautiful 2 year old granddaughter living in Knoxville. She's so special.

So I'm sitting in what is now called the Delta Sky Club in Detroit, killing three hours before boarding an MD90 for TPA, nonstop.

So many things to say, and I can't say them all now, but living in the Tampa Bay area is heaven on earth, for a LOT of reasons. Less than a quarter of a mile from the Gulf of Mexico.

But I'll just start by saying it's so nice to fly in and out of a city that has so many flight choices and plenty of backup. Included are all the low cost guys like Jet Blue, AirTran and Southwest.

I'm still doing Delta and enough of it to stay at Diamond status. But I do a lot of Southwest as well.

Plenty of catching up to do on this blog now!

Stay tuned!