Part 1 – Introduction
Part 2 – Seattle to Dayton
Part 3 – Dayton
Part 4 – National Museum of the United States Air Force
Part 5 – Dayton to Seattle
Part 6 – Conclusion

Monday 3rd September 2012

OMFG, way to early for this stuff, considering its Eastern Time and i am up at 3am for a quick work out and then head to the airport, this is totally the wrong time to be doing things as my body has been used to Pacific time for so long. God damn. But the work out was worth it, the few little things I had to do at the hotel and I was out of there early, which was good because I couldn’t find a gas station near the Airport and ended up almost having to backtrack to the hotel to find one (took a guess and figured, Car Parks & Car Yards should lead to a Gas station.. I was right).

I waved good bye to the Camaro, I was sad to see it go and dropped it back at the Terminal and within moments I was scanned back out, receipt emailed (have I said how much I love National Car yet?) and bag in hand, on my way to check in. The terminal was desolate, there was a handful of people around and not much else to see, but I checked in and thought I would try for my upgrade. I was told by the person checking me in, that she had added me to the Upgrade List, and after reassurances I was on it and that it will be fine as there are plenty of seats available for me to buy up to, I headed off to security. Security itself had no line at all, the TSA people were nice, but I was nude o scoped… 3 times! Apparently they didn’t like the fact I was wearing pants and told me to try it again after pulling them up (not that I would have that problem If I could wear my belt). But apparently even that wasn’t going to please these guys so I didn’t even have to opt out before getting a TSA grope, sadly he wasn’t in the mood for a cuddle after and just sent me on my way, like a cheap hooker.

The terminal was even emptier than check in (or so it felt anyway) and with out a lounge to head to and get a coffee and totally in the mood to do nothing at all, I found a seat by the gate and started playing with the United App. I then noticed that somehow my seat allocation for my first flight had changed to 1A, oo0o0 maybe the upgrade waitlist had worked, but my 2nd flight was still showing the same seat, maybe not. I got the boarding pass issue resolved (After then seeing another one where it told me the wrong gate, which caused even more dramas for other people). To be honest, I was just about ready to kill someone if I didn’t get coffee soon.

United Airlines
UA5766 (Operated by Expressjet)
Dayton to Washington D.C. Dulles
0555-0715
Canadair – CRJ-200 (N836AS)
Economy Class – Seat 1A

Boarding: 0534 (Gate B17)
Push Back: 0554
Take Off Roll: 0602 (Runway 06R)
Top of Descent: 0640
Touch Down: 0707 (Runway 19C)
Shut Down: 0712 (Gate A3)

Boarding was called once pretty much all the people heading to Chicago were boarded to help clear up the mess, but it didn’t look to be a full flight. I was first through the door onto the Aircraft and then had to jump back out and leave my bag on the jetway to be gate checked as there was no way my bag was going to fit in the overheads. So much for travelling light. I was assured that I would be able to collect it Jetside at Dulles and not have to go to baggage claim as that would of made things totally screwed for my connection (I was cutting it fine as it was). There was 3 crew on board… total… including the pilot and copilot. However the Flight Attendant (Martha) had the strongest Southern Accent I had heard in ages. However she just kept ranting! She was nice and all but at 6am, still dark outside and without coffee in me, there is just so much you can take.

The flight was going to be non eventful for me. I just wanted to tune out and I pretty much did. We took off, we went up, we came down. I read my magazine, listened to my ipod, got 1 cup of coffee and that is about it really. Not much more I can say cause I didn’t pay all that much attention. I did snap a few pictures at one point when the sun outside looked amazing, but they all didnt turn out unfortunately.

We landed in Dulles roughly about when we should have and I expected a long taxi, wrong side of the aircraft to get all the good photos but I did get to see the moon buggies. I’ve only had one ride on them in the past and that may well be my last possibly. After we got to the gate in Dulles I held back a little bit, but not all that much. We had to wait by the side of the plane in the open (which made for a couple of good aircraft shots) before the speed walking began. Probably had to walk almost a kilometre all told by the time I got through all the different tunnels etc, add on a train ride between gates (missed the train by mere seconds) and I made it to the gate pretty much on time.

I had passed the United Club on the way as I figured, if im going first class, no point in getting some breakfast at the lounge. This was my mistake. I got to the gate and it looked horrendous, there were people everywhere. But probably come off connections from Europe or Whatnot, I wasn’t going to judge. This is where things started breaking down. After waiting in line and was then greeted with “what question do you have” it went down hill from here. After 20 minutes of “I don’t see you on the list” and “We don’t have seats available in first” and “the screen is wrong” I should of just walked away, instead I wasted 20 minutes at the counter (time i could of sprinted back to the lounge and got some breakfast) but no, I stood at the counter like an idiot. I am not blaming united entirely for this, I blame myself for it. In the end after she purposefully cleared people who were not on the list with me standing right infront of her ready to buy up. Stuff it. She handed back my boarding pass and said “sorry can’t help” to which she elicited a dirty look from me and a snarkily put comment of “why make me wait then, the least you can do is give me a better seat, since I probably won’t get any space onboard now that boarding is almost over” She reluctantly gave me 7A (which probably would of gone out empty and I walked onboard.

United Airlines
UA194
Washington D.C. Dulles to Seattle
0810-1058
Boeing 737-800 (N39297)
Economy Class – Seat 7A

Boarding: 0740 (Gate C27)
Push Back: 0817
Take Off Roll: 0829 (Runway 30)
Top of Descent: 1033
Touch Down: 1105 (Runway 16R)
Shut Down: 1110 (Gate B11)

By the time I got on board, I was just frustrated, no food, barely anything to drink, 1 tiny cup of coffee. I was not in the mood to put up with crap. As soon as i passed the first class cabin I saw my bulkhead seat and saw the legroom, if I couldn’t have first class it was the next best thing. Then I saw someone sitting in my seat. Just fucking dandy. I was livid, but controlled. I started walking back out and the flight attendant saw me and said “is something wrong”. She resolved the situation quickly as the guy in my seat apparently couldnt tell the difference between a 7 and an 8… probably on purpose.

I totally didn’t even notice the speech about electronic devices to be switched off till I was chastised for using my phone. In my defence I was trying to work out the aircraft registration… hah. I switched the phone off and settled into the seat and just tried to calm the hell down. Which I was by the time I had decided that today was just not going to be my day. I got my first cup of coffee after we were airborne but for some reason they didn’t offer to sell us any food. They didn’t even have it out. Then I saw a deadheading captain with the Breakfast sandwhich (aka sausage and egg muffin) and I was puzzled. So i pushed the button. They never came. I turned it off, she came, but I was reading at this point, so she only spoke to the two young girls I was sitting next to, and by the time i looked up, she was walking away. Eventually I managed to get someone to stick around long enough to ask them if they were selling food, but apparently my accent again caused hassles. I had to point in the magazine at the Yoghurt Parfait and say very slowly. “Me Want One of These Please” which got a “o you want a yoghurt, sure I’ll see if they have any left” I was about ready to break the cabin door open and jump out. But I held back.

After this little incident, I just turned a movie on my ipod on and tuned out. After that finished, I may have fallen asleep for a bit, then I awoke to a failed screen on my ipod, same issue as what happened in Japan last year. So at least i knew how to fix it, aka.. take it to the apple store. But it still played music, I just couldn’t tell what it was. This did not worry me as I got stuck into my book, followed by bouts of photos out the window as we passed random towns I had no idea where we were, bouts of lumpy bits with no seat belt sign, smooth air with a seat belt sign (again no sense here) and just wanting to die as my back was killing me.

Eventually we started descending into Seattle with the most beautiful view of Mt Ranier and it meant that I could be back in my truck soon. I swear I took dozens of photos (After a panic that I had lost my camera but it had fallen under the seat) of the Mountain and Seattle as we approached from the North over Kirkland and Kenmore (sadly wrong side of the plane to see my house or Downtown Seattle) and came in onto the Right of the Tri Runways. Sitting at the South Satelite was ANA’s 777, the United Star Alliance 777 and other goodies, all on the wrong side! Just my luck. But I didn’t let it both me as I would be back in the air in a few weeks for a day trip, so I can’t complain I guess.

We disembarked and before I had even walked out of the terminal I had an appointment at the Apple Store booked for within the hour and was heading for the car park where I was driving out of the lot within 15 minutes of leaving the airport door. I can’t complain about that really!!