Short Trip to Seattle

This week, I am in the Seattle/Tacoma area from Monday to Thursday. I will be joining the Aircraft Programs team for the inspection of our 19th and last Boeing 777 to be delivered from Everett, Washington next week. It was the first time I was flying as a non-revenue passenger.

Beautiful sunset over the SeaTac area.

Beautiful sunset over the SeaTac area.

One of the perk of working as a summer intern for an airline are the travel privileges. Some airlines allow you to fly on standby on all of their flights if seats are available. Employees only have to pay taxes and other related fees. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to discover Air Canada’s network this summer since the air carrier requires its employees to work for six months before being granted flight benefits.

My first flight was from Montreal to Toronto. I then flew from Toronto to Seattle.  I was upgraded on both of my flights! For the short 53-minute flight to Toronto, I was flying on an Airbus A330 featuring fully lie-flat beds. The aircraft was completely empty. Only 10 of the 37 upfront premium seats were occupied. On the second flight I was onboard an Embraer 190, the smallest mainline aircraft in our fleet.

Cheese plate and nuts offered in Business Class from Montreal to Toronto.

Cheese plate and nuts offered in Business Class from Montreal to Toronto.

Chicken or pasta was served as the main course on the flight to Seattle.

Chicken or pasta was served as the main course on the flight to Seattle.

Paine Field is where I will spend the next couple of days. The airport is home of Boeing where it completes the assembly of the 747s, 767s, 777s, and 787s aircraft. The Boeing 737 family of aircraft is made in Renton, WA. Our team will be inspecting the aircraft because it wants to makes sure everything works well on the aircraft before delivery. I will write a story about this exciting trip very soon.

Until next time!

Nicolas


Contact the author at berniern@my.erau.edu

Flying All Over America – Part 1

Hello!

This past Saturday, I flew over 21 states over the United States in less than 24 hours. I did this long trip with my friend Jack, who is also a student journal writer for Embry-Riddle. What was the purpose of this trip? We wanted to fly together just for fun. We would also accumulate more than 5,000 miles on this long journey.

Here was our planned itinerary: Orlando (MCO) – Atlanta (ATL) – San Francisco (SFO) – Minneapolis (MSP) – Orlando (MCO). In Part 1 of this exciting story, I will cover the flight segments until SFO. The remaining two flights until we land in MCO will be covered in Part 2.

Long flight ahead: ATL to SFO.

Long flight ahead: ATL to SFO.

Our day started very early has we had to drive to catch a 6:00AM flight in Orlando. The first flight to Atlanta was just over an hour from wheels up to touchdown. The thing I like about early morning flights is that you can see the sunrise from above.

When we arrived at the busiest airport of the world, we did not have much time to connect to for our next flight. Fortunately, our arriving flight and our departing flight were in the same concourse, so we did not have to take the Plane Train.

For the transcontinental flight to San Francisco, we were onboard a Boeing 767-300ER with one of Delta’s international configuration featuring lie-flat beds. I wished we got upgraded to the front cabin! We were seated in the first row of Comfort+ at an exit row, so we had plenty of legroom and space to walk around during the duration of the flight.

Delta has a crew base in SFO and uses this aircraft (B767-300ER) for transcontinental flights to New York-JFK and Atlanta.

Delta has a crew base in SFO and uses this aircraft (B767-300ER) for transcontinental flights to New York-JFK and Atlanta.

All the passengers were settled in their seat for an on-time departure when the captain announced a delay due to a problem with the main door. The door could not close and maintenance had to replace a part. The missing part of the door took a long time to arrive at the aircraft and it lead to a delay of about an hour before we got cleared for pushback.

My friend Jack and I are discussing with the flight crew while we were waiting for maintenance to repair a part on the main door.

My friend Jack and I are discussing with the flight crew while we were waiting for maintenance to repair a part on the main door.

In the mean time, we were granted permission by one of the flight attendants to go check out the flight deck. We spent about 45 minute talking with the first officer about aviation. The time went by fast and we returned to our seats because the airplane was ready to leave the gate.

The first officer's notes before the flight.

The first officer’s notes before the flight.

During the flight, we worked on a project for our Airline-Airport Operations class. We had to select an airport or airline and write a report on it. We were actually productive on that flight and did homework! As we approached the state of California, the flight attendants made a trivia to the passengers asking four questions related to the Super Bowl. The folks who got the most right answers would win a bottle of wine (I wished the question would be related on Delta!).

The attendants on our flight to SFO made a trivia with questions related to the Super Bowl. The passengers who got the correct answers got a bottle of wine!

The flight attendants on our flight to SFO made a trivia with questions related to the Super Bowl.

When we booked the trip at the beginning of the semester, we did not know it was during the Super Bowl weekend. At first, we thought the airport in San Francisco would be crowded, but it was not! At least for the time we were there.

Story to follow in Part 2!

Nicolas


Contact the author at berniern@my.erau.edu

The End of Summer

Once I completed my internship at Aéroports de Montréal at the end of July, I had about two weeks of vacation left before heading to Daytona Beach. My brother and I welcomed some of our friends from Texas that came to visit us for the weekend.

During their visit, we went to the Osheaga Art and Music Festival in Montreal. The festival takes place over a period of three days where more than 100 artists performed. We were there on the last day of the show and saw The Black Keys, ALT-J, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Charli XCX, and Tove Lo. It is not possible to see all of the artists because they perform on six different scenes simultaneously. It is fun because you don’t have to stay at one scene and watch the whole show; you can walk around and see different things.

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Group picture in front of the Osheaga splatter paint wall!

After a great weekend filled with music, we all headed to the airport at 4:30AM  to catch early morning flights. Some of the friends were heading back home in the Lone Star State while another was flying back to school in Boston. My family and I were flying to Jacksonville (JAX) with a connection in Atlanta (I don’t think I can count how many times I have been through ATL!).

When we landed in JAX, I almost felt like it was home since Daytona was only 100 miles south. We drove for about an hour north following the East Coast of Florida and Georgia. Our final destination was Sea Island, GA. We decided to make this trip because the area was reputed for its golf courses. There are also many other activities to do there since the ocean is a few steps away. Other than playing a few rounds of golf, we went paddle boarding, and skeet shooting.

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Sea Island, GA

The few days spent in Sea Island went by so fast, as we were already seated in the plane on our way back to Canada. My brother and I spent the last the week home so we could prepare and pack all the baggage we had to bring for our upcoming Sophomore year of college.

View from the Delta SkyClub Sky Deck in Concourse F. Hartsfield-Jackson has the largest control tower in North America, and 4th in the world.

View from the Delta SkyClub Sky Deck in Concourse F. Hartsfield-Jackson has the largest control tower in North America, and 4th in the world.

Next week, I will go over my arrival in the Daytona Beach area before classes started! Enjoy the extra pictures of Osheaga below.

Nicolas

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