I like Ohio. I don't like regional jets.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Well I flew out to Ohio last night for an offsite meeting in Columbus. It was me and 2 other women, so it was a nice evening out. We ate at the Fish Market near the hotel, which was absolutely phenomenal (hands down, the best mussels I’ve ever had in my life. And they were free, since the appetizers took about 4 years to come to the table.) And then the hotel was excellent, and I slept like a rock. So that’s all wonderful, and I’m looking forward to my next trip (probably in a couple weeks.)

I’m not a nervous flier, but I’ve never been on such a small plane. I’m used to big 747s and Airbuses etc. This was an Embraer 140. 18 rows, I think, 3 seats across. Cramped to say the least. And I had my huge laptop bag/briefcase, stowed on my lap (because I didn’t realize I couldn’t do that, and it would fit neither below my seat nor in the overhead compartment.) And of course, I had the window seat on the right side of the plane, and halfway through I had to use the restroom, which meant waking up the poor guy next to me.

All that was fine, but the turbulence was a little bit of an experience for me. I’ve flown some long, turbulent flights before, but in such a small aircraft, it’s an entirely different experience. It seemed to me that I could feel every sideways scuttle and skid the plane made, which I really didn’t care for too much. And then, as we were coming in for a landing, I was caught off guard because I didn’t see the runway in advance. All I knew was that suddenly it felt as if the pilot had jammed on the brakes and we were hanging in the air. Felt like we were going way too slow to actually stay aloft, and I was looking at the houses below, wondering whose living room I would end up in, and did they have a cushy couch for me to land on?

Of course, I survived, though I am not sure I can say the same for the thigh of the guy sitting next to me. If anyone ever needs my DNA for something, just track the guy in 4B down and I’m sure you will be able to lift bits of fingernail from his femur.

But the prices here softened the blow quite a bit. Moving to Columbus is looking a lot more appealing every day. (And the office building is amazing! It’s like working in a mall.)

Anway, off to another meeting, done babbling.

2

My favorite ride is the little ATA puddle-jumpers between Chicago and Indy. They’re not even jets. And they feel like they’re falling apart at the seems.

3

You grabbed the thigh of a guy you didn’t know? What did he say? lol

4

I like regional jets. I don’t like Ohio. So there.

5

I don’t like either.

But what I really dislike is carriers using RJs for flights that really need to be done with a 737 or larger. A while back, I was going from Minneapolis to Phoenix, and that three-hour flight was on a Brasilia RJ. A perfectly competent aircaft, to be sure, but NOT BIG ENOUGH! The overhead bins are all to small for any roll-aboard bag, so 80% of the pax have to gate-check their bags, making for a long boarding.

All I ever board with is a laptop case, so it was at least a little fun looking at the faces of the self-important as they were being told No.your.bag.won’t.fit.in.the.cabin.if.it.has.wheels.you.have.to.check.it.and.you’ll.get.it.back.when.we.land.

6

The smallest plane I was ever on as a commercial passenger was a dinky thing from Boston to Portland, ME. It seated 7 or 8 passengers and had fixed landing gear.

I’ve almost always been on little planes - when I’ve been on the larger jets, it feels like the plane is too big to make it up in the air.

7

I like Ohio and regional jets. Living in Lexington, most planes outta here are regional jets. I like to book itineraries which use regional jets exclusively, because I can lug some big bag to planeside, gate check it, grab it when I leave, and not have to wait at the baggage claim for it. But if I’m flying a larger jet it’s a crapshoot whether there would be enough room for a larger bag - and my legs are simply too long to accommodate putting it under the seat in front of me. So I generally have to check it in.

8

Probably a Twin Otter (though it actually seats a dozen or so). I’ve jumped out of those things.

9

I’m starting to make long-range plans for a trip from the NYC area to Key West - me and about 9 or 10 of my closest friends. When it dawned on me that we’d have to take an RJ from Orlando/Miami/Atlanta, I was none too thrilled.

I was concerned that our 4 wheelchairs wouldn’t fit in the cargo space I imagine these planes have. That turned out fine - now my concern is turbulence & one friend who’s a nervous flier; I hope he won’t take skin samples from anyone while in flight!

10

Feh, had the flight been on a Dash-8 or SAAB-340 t-prop (and never mind a Twin Otter, we would have probably read about you in the papers!) you could have severed the poor guy’s leg – the turbulence would have been felt harder and for longer, since you’d be travelling much slower. On the plus side, landing the t-prop doesn’t require such hard speedbraking since their lower flight speed means they need much less runway.

Me, I like the Jungle Jet (nick for the Embraer RJ line, due to its Brazilian origin). Other people like its biggest competitor, the Bombardier-Canada RJ series (“Flying Skidoo”, don’t ask me why). It’s wider, allowing 4-abreast (but still tight, compared with a Boeing) seating.

11

Not sure, it sounded something like “Yurrgggh ouch!”

(In my defense, it was accidental - I meant to grab the arm rest, and missed)

12

On ATA-Chicago Express? Are those SAAB 340?. Not a bad plane for a 30-seater class.

13

Because Skidoo and Canadair are both divisions of Bombardier.

14

Yes, Bombardier was started by J. Armand Bombardier, who invented the snowmobile. Now they make everything from aircraft to monorail trains. :slight_smile:

The smallest plane I’ve ever been in as a commercial passenger was a six-seater Learjet. :smiley: It was a flight from Windsor to Oshawa on Skycraft Airline (“your non-IATA carrier”), which everyone called “Skycrash”. The airline catered mostly to General Motors personnel travelling between Oshawa and Detroit; they’d land at Windosr and someone would drive across the border to pick you up. I worked for a supplier to GM and was spending three months at their headquarters in Detroit.

The Learjet was cool. The inflight refreshments were cans of pop in a cooler. There was no door to the cockpit; all four of the passengers could look forward, see all the switches and dials and glowing numbers, and look out the front windows. Passing south of Toronto at dusk, we flew between great puffy clouds, all lit from below by the glow of the city. Being able to see forward was extremely cool.

15

Actually I’d love me some small regional airplane time. But the problem is, I never fly to or from anywhere small enough that the airline would need to use such a small plane.

The pilots who fly these planes are generally young pilots starting out in the profession. According to what someone told me just yesterday, around 20K/year is a typical salary for these people, but they put up with it so they can log hours and hopefully move up to bigger aircraft and salaries.

16

My mate recently qualified as a pilot, and celebrated by hiring a small plane to give me a flight.

Wonderful.

Imagine sitting up front, with headphones on hearing the real dialogue:

“Tango Bravo 234, this is Giggleswick Control. You are cleared to land here on Runway 2. There is a crosswind of 5 knots.” :cool: