A nifty airline that didn’t survive
deregulation. Was merged with Delta. Gave me a ride I’ll never forget.
1970’s, Salt Lake City to Denver
(Stapleton) on a 727-200. Hot summer day in both SLC and Denver. We were an
hour late leaving SLC while the mechanics worked on #3. My seat was in the
extreme rear, aisle, starboard side where I could smoke.
Right about the Meeker VOR, the pilots
shut down #3.
( I knew the area well as the Meeker VOR
was the closest to where I learned to fly. I took my Private check ride in Meeker)
No problem, we still had two, correct?
Coming into Stapleton I was mildly worried because we were using 26L which was
unusual. Between Colorado Boulevard and Syracuse Avenue, the crew shut down #2
(centerline) and went full power on the remaining engine. One engine at a
density altitude of around 10,000’ ain’t keeping a fully loaded 727-200 in
anything but a controlled descent.
We landed in the pea gravel just short of
the runway. The noise was very loud. When we hit the end of the runway we
bounced abruptly then came down hard.
After that it was just a taxi into the
terminal.
In the final minute of the approach, I
had bent over and wrapped my hands around my knees. To my rear I could see one
of the cabin attendants in the exit door jump seat doing the same.
Two days later flew Western back to SLC.
Hey, shit happens, and any one you can walk away from……..
One other unpleasant Western memory. Before overhead enclosed bins
most airliners had open shelving. Only soft goods were allowed. We were boarding
and I put my heavy briefcase on the shelf (knowing it had to go under the seat
in front of me) and sat down in my aisle seat so others around me could get
settled in. The cabin attendant came by
and said heatedly,
“That has to go under the seat,”
as she dropped it from head height
directly on my crotch. Guess she was having a bad day. Probably didn’t get
better. When I got off the plane in Denver I went directly to the station
manager, who I knew personally, and had a wee chat with him.
I always liked Western and, with these
two exceptions, had generally good experiences. Hate to be negative but my best
experience with Delta is one notch above mediocre.
7 comments:
All commercial airlines are the same. They have good days and bad days, good stewardesses and bad stewardesses, sober pilots and drunk pilots. The brand name on the side of the aircraft is virtually irrelevant.
I have had bad experiences on almost all airlines except one: Lufthansa. Flew them about 10 times, give or take, all of them were flawless, polite personnel and timely.
Never flown Quantas, just like Rain Man.
Never had the pleasure of Western, but Delta sucks rocks!!!
Back in the 70's I flew around the Pacific NW on Hughes Air West (the yellow banas). Great little airline. I find Alaska tolerable. For whatever reason have never flown Southwest.
I avoid Delta, and I avoid Atlanta. My big butt requires a seat belt extender on Airbus' so I try to fly on a Boeing or the MD-80 family.
90% of my trips in recent years have been three hours or less. The trips you had to take would have crippled me.
Delta used to be the No 1 airline in the world. Then they got an ego and wend downhill faster than the Hindenburg gas bag.
Sad.
Yep, Airbus' seats aren't built for anything but Eurobutts... :-)
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