Trip Report: IAD-DTW March, 26th, 2008 -Northwest

NWA 1409
IAD-DTW(-ORD)
DC-9-30 N9337
Seat 18A

Sched. Departure: 4:18 PM
Actual Departure: 4:12 PM
Departure Gate: B23

Sched. Arrival: 5:59 PM
Actual Arrival: 5:50 PM
Arrival gate: A71

Sadly, our trip to Dulles was at an end. After a nice breakfast at the hotel, we went upstairs to pack and get ready. We finally made our way to Dulles Airport and got through security. The TSA agents at Dulles were a bit rude, that was disappointing. After making our way into the terminal and taking one of the cool people movers to the B terminal, we went to go get lunch at Potbelly’s Sandwich Works (HIGHLY recommended!!!). After a great lunch and a trip to Starbucks, we were off to our gate. I talked to the gate agent, but unfortunately there was 3 open in first and 11 in coach so no dice there.

After waiting around for a bit, we finally made our way to the flight. It was great getting on another Diesel-9, and this time it was the -30. I took my seat in 18A and after a swift pushback (a few minutes early) we were on our way. We taxied far out to runway 30 and finally departed. A slightly bumpy climb-out and we were at our cruise level of FL320.

The crew did the drink service very swift, and I enjoyed my full can of Sierra Mist. Again, the normal good attitude of the crew helped brighten the mood. A fairly normal cruise and we made our decent into DTW.

We flew down the Detroit River and into Canada airspace for quite a while before turning to line up with the 22’s/21’s. I got a great overview of YIP and 1D2 as we were on approach, and when we lined up I noticed we were exactly in line with another DC-9 landing on parallel runway 21L (we were on approach to 22R). The pilot was fighting a bit of wind but pulled it out to make a pretty good landing. Because 22R is the farthest runway from the terminal, it took us a while to taxi back. Finally, we pull into gate A71 and Nick and I make our way up to the flight deck to take a few pictures. The crew couldn’t hang around too much because they had to run to another gate to continue the flight to ORD (Different aircraft).

Overall, a very good flight, plus it was great to get on the -9 again!