Sad as I was to leave my new favorite city, had a great flight from Austin, TX to JFK on 3/12. It started out with a serendipitous ride to the airport: the SXSW Interactive & Film Festivals had wrapped up the night before, and I ended up splitting a cab with an Australian stunt woman who makes zombie/horror films for a small production company in Atlanta. Had a good chat about a recent scene in which she was one of 40 zombies simultaneously ‘grave-popping’ and chasing down some unfortunate small-town innocents.
Austin-Bergstrom International tops my list of domestic airports: I’ve found it to be an oasis of calm, cleanliness and on-time flights. Plus, it has some pretty interesting displays about its former life as a WWII and Cold War Air Force base. And the coffee’s not bad, either — truly an exception to the rule of air travel in 2008.
I sipped my brew for a few minutes in the quiet and sunlit terminal before boarding JetBlue flight 1062 to New York. Rollback and takeoff were uneventful, and we climbed into clear skies with excellent visibility; a little turbulence, but nothing too severe. I really enjoy flying in JetBlue’s E-190, as it’s a new, small-ish and somewhat sporty machine. The pilot seemed to be in a flying mood, and we banked quite steeply as we egressed the airport zone — maybe not a crowd-pleaser (actually, noticed some nervous glances), but I always enjoy a good demonstration of an aircraft’s flight dynamics.
banking north over Norfolk, VA
The remainder of the 3+ hours flight to JFK was split between reading the paper, a couple caffeine naps and watching the American South drift by below. Caught a couple brush fires, Raleigh, NC and got a good view of the naval base at Norfolk. Things clouded up as we headed north, and we finally broke out a couple thousand feet above Long Island Sound as we made our final approach to JFK. The waters below were wind-whipped and choppy, and the Manhattan skyline loomed cold and gray in the distance, but after two weeks on the road, it felt good to finally be home.
March 19, 2008 at 11:22 am |
If you are looking for a sporty turn out on take-off, try the departure to the north from St. Maarten. The pilot must initiate the turn before the end of the runway.