Anywhere and Everywhere

A tremendous amount of things have been evolving and unfolding over the past few weeks. Hanscom once again has an organized flight schedule despite having on-demand jet charters account for one sixth of the overall traffic. Logan Airport is flipping around all sorts of configurations as Continental's United will be moving to Terminal A and freeing up space for jetBlue after very thorough renovations are completed. Going home for spring break I flew US Airways for the first time in a while and my Republic E-175 flight actually topped my A320 leg out of O'Hare. The Embraers are outfitted to all economy, so services are equally distributed for everyone onboard those shorter flights. On the other hand, returining nonstop on United's Shuttle America the six first class passengers in "ExPlus" were the only ones offered food of any sort on this 2 hour 38 minute flight. Upon further communication with the ones in power to make decisions the economy cabins will likely be getting mainline-style service for longer routes such as BOS-ORD to open up a new revenue stream with buy-on-board; a smart move.

I am now searching for how to get from the east coast of Florida to Boston in the May off-peak travel time. As incentives go, I find that one way fares are no higher than each portion of a round trip, however the early morning departures are at a fraction of what afternoon flights are costing. I may be using this opportunity to try out Melbourne Airport on Delta, but Palm Beach and Ft. Lauderdale are low balling me. It appears this graduation trip will be the only flying I do all summer, and I will be observing most activity in the air from the ground, with the exception of some possible comped Streamline flights for examination of the new Trenton operation. Also I want to throw out there that the Embraer 120 registers a decibel readout of 81, which is the equivilent of a Cessna 182 on final.

I requested a very nice brithday gift last month and I think I will be using it today since grand prix has been monsooned thus far. It's a World Air Routes DVD of Canada's WestJet containing about 3 hour's worth of footage. It is one of the only modern North American airlines to sanction having the inside perspective while conducting their flights and I think I will get a good glimpse at many airports in Canada I know little about. All in all WestJet is a mix between Southwest and jetBlue and boasts being the second largest carrier in that country right now with such high LCC demand. However they don't accept reservations going from a US city through a Canadian hub to a US destination; so I doubt I will have the chance to fly them anytime soon.

Finals are fast approaching and I am trying to do my studying and chilling outside whenever I can. The harsh wind can ruin a nice looking day, but there have been a few recent days with conditions that have kept me away from the keyboard. I have a market-research project to present in my English course and a review of Pratt & Whitney turboprop engines to work on for my Powerplant course, so there are fun activities and not-so fun activities in the academic arena to tackle as the final days apprach fast. I also look forward to plotting out my extended routing on the highways to get home with the delicate fuel managemnt mapping of where are the best areas to approach fuel starvation on my long haul with each state's policies making the prices at the pump so incredibly variable.