Next leg of the Journey.. ATL-ILM!

By: manchestersam - 20th September 2006 at 11:57

Finally caught some spare time to write out this leg of the journey!

Airline: ASA/DL
Aircraft: CRJ-200
ETD: 22:55
ETA: 00:05

Our journey started to get very tiring at this point, and the time difference was very effective on my energy levels! :rolleyes: The wait seemed to last forever for this little hop over to Wilmington (North Carolina), which consisted of walking up and down ATL's Concourse E and browsing in many of the shops. One good point about the wait was the lovely Ben and Jerry's Ice-cream which cost a shocking $5, but it was VERY nice indeed.

At around 21:40, the gate for our aircraft was announced and we made our way down the stairs and waited patiently. The area started to fill up as their was a flight to Milwaukee on the gate next to us. I was clock-watching, so it seemed to last a life-time before the aircraft arrived. Many times I nodded off but was interrupted by the stupid alarm on one of the doors, which cabin crew were trying to enter from outside, with not much luck! :diablo:

Finallly, to my delight, a DL CRJ-200 pulled up at the gate, which was bound to be our flight because at this stage it had reached 22:40, with only 15 minutes until the scheduled ETD. To the credit of groundstaff, the plane was cleaned and checked fairly promptly, and it was only 20 minutes until boarding commenced. We walked outside, after being in the air-conditioned departure lounge which was absolutely freezing, and were hit by the very warm air which was a shock to the system seeing as it was 23:00!

After walking through a maze of canvas corridors, we emerged at the nose of the aircraft and waited for clearence to board the aircraft. After a short wait, we made our way up the stairs onto the aircraft, which was immaculately clean :D . We took our seats, 4A and 4B, with me sitting at the window, but it was too dark outside to see anything apart from the beacon reflecting off the wing. For such a small aircraft, the plane was incredibly comfertable and the air stewardess (called Jordyn, very good looking :D ) was welcoming.

The pilot commenced the long taxi to the runway (can't remember which runway as it was dark and I lost my bearings :rolleyes: ) and passed many DL long-haulers which were about to depart out towards Europe. After the extensive taxi, we arrived at the holding point, and waited for an AirTran 717 and a DL 772 to depart. Then it was our turn to line up, and we began a rolling take-off and spooled up the engines as we were turning. We began our climb and departed east-bound. It was dark outside, but we got a lovely overview of ATL's runways as we turned. Beside us there was a DL 763 on the same heading, presumably off to Europe.

We reached 22,000ft and I tried to nod off, but as usual, I couldn't get to sleep. By this point my eyelids were working very hard to stay open, and it wasnt helped by the pilot dimming the lights for people to go to sleep :rolleyes: The lovely stewardess handed out shortbread, which reminded me of home due to the Tartan packaging :D . After about 50 minutes airborne, we started to descend and the little lights on the floor started to become alot closer. The approach was very smooth as was the flight! We headed over Carolina Beach and the estuaries, and the runway was visible to our left. All of a sudden, the pilot began a sudden sharp left bank to line up which awakened all of the sleepy passengers :diablo:

Our final approach was short and we soon touched down, rolling out to the end of the short runway. The taxi back to the Terminal was long due to the fact that it was tucked away in the corner of the airport! We arrived at the gate and lethargicly clambered down the stairs then walked into the little pleasent terminal. The only other traffic at the airport was a US 733 and a US CRJ-700 nightstopping.

Overall, very pleasent little flight, even though I was VERY tired! Keep up the good work DL! :D