Trip Report: JetBlue JFK-BTV
Date: Sunday, Sept. 26, 2010
Route: New York (JFK) - Burlington, VT (BTV)
Flight: JetBlue Flight 128
Aircraft type: Embraer 190
Aircraft: N292JB "Parlez Blue?"
Seat: 16A
Departure time: 7:55AM (sched) / 8:06AM (actual)
Arrival time: 9:05AM (sched) / 8:48AM (actual)
Cruising altitude: 21,000 feet
Flight time: 42 minutes
There are a few interesting ways to get to White River Junction...
A. Driving: 5 hours
B. Greyhound or Amtrak: 7 hours
C. JetBlue to BTV, Greyhound to WRJ: About 5 hours including arriving early at airport, layover for bus
D. JFK/LGA-BOS on whoever, BOS-LEB on Cape Air (Lebanon is right across the river from WRJ): At least 6 hours and the most expensive option.
I chose to fly/bus one way and bus it back.
Got through security before sunrise thanks to a lift from Phil D...
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4085/...018f5cd2_o.jpg
...and headed to get some breakfast.
This was my first time using Terminal 5. (I know, about time.) It's great, but the food court needs to be completely overhauled...there is too much stuff crammed into a small space, and the Dunkin Donuts is chaos. They oughta remove at least one of the other food stands there and expand DD. Waiting on a second line to pay is also annoying.
After eating a bagel and OJ I began exploring. After the sun came up, crews had begun towing the Delta CRJ without gear that had landed the night before right past the windows! I already posted the best photo I got of this but here's another angle...
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4129/...6dacabc2_o.jpg
Once the CRJ passed, I headed to Gate 11 for my flight.
At gate 10, another plane with a famous landing gear problem was getting a walk-around prior to departure for Aruba...
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4108/...eca08d66_o.jpg
(Canyon Blue was the plane with faulty nosegear that landed at LAX on national TV a few years ago... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyiHRq-wX8U)
Aside from the food court, overall I like the terminal a lot...it is large but welcoming.
We boarded about 10 mins later, surprisingly full for the buttcrack of dawn, but it went very smoothly. The captain stood in the front galley to make a very friendly announcement detailing our flight plans, thanking us for flying jetBlue and apologizing profusely for the TVs being mostly out of service...the map, movies and XM worked but the live TV did not. The purser made a further announcement actually telling us to go to JetBlue.com to complain about the TV situation in order to get a credit. Nice.
We pushed back right on time and rolled to the newly repaved Runway 31L...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_nZM9NeWGA
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Snacks and beverages were served when we reached cruise and it wasn't long before we had begun our descent.
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With green mountains and Lake Champlain not too far away, we landed smoothly on Runway 33 at BTV.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8jLvhegEC4
Taxied to the gate and we deplaned pretty quickly. Now I had about three hours to kill before my bus left. D'oh.
Wandered around the terminal, which only took about 5 minutes to get from one end to the other. Found the Greyhound stop, where a couple of other people were already waiting. Wandered some more and found the One Flight Up restaurant, which overlooks the ramp. Yay! Good excuse to eat breakfast again.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4091/...b79f23ee_o.jpg
Not much action on a sleepy Sunday morning in Burlington, of course. The plane I flew in on turned for Orlando, and a Continental Express ERJ departed for Newark, and that's about it save a couple of Cessnas.
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Still had more time after eating so I did more exploring...
WHOA, look what I found!
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4087/...4cdabf70_o.jpg
So this used to be the control tower. Now it's a public observation deck, complete with seats and speakers broadcasting ATC. Sweet. Sadly there weren't any planes moving.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4127/...4da37b9a_o.jpg
The Vermont Air National Guard is based at BTV, but most of their planes must have been inside or out doing stuff. All I saw was a lonely visiting F/A-18 and an F-16 which appears to be on permanent display...
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4153/...69637e91_o.jpg
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4127/...47bff751_o.jpg
Not long after discovering the observation tower, it was time to get on the bus...a rusty, smelly MCI coach still wearing Vermont Transit livery. (Greyhound bought Vermont a couple of years ago). I'll get to that in a photo report later...
