I wrote this in somewhat of a haste over the course of an afternoon, and I’m not the best proofreader. Forgive my errors if I made any

I’ve had the pleasure of utilizing Logan Airport in Boston quite a few times over the course of my life, upwards of half a dozen times. I’ve connected there as well as terminated, but I’ve never actually had the city of Boston be my final destination. Even when I stepped outside of the airport it was always quickly off somewhere else. This trip changed all that. Finally I was going to “do” Boston. This trip took place from Friday June 23 to Monday June 26.

Early day going up there. I was up at 4:40 and out the door not too much later. After breezing through everything including breakfast we went to gate A21 where a nearly brand new Airbus A321 was waiting for us.



Delta Air Lines Flight 2796
ATL-BOS
Depart ATL – 8:40 am (was actually 8:39)
Arrive BOS – 11:14 am (was actually 11:03)
Airbus A321
N320DN

This aircraft is so new there’s no photo in the database. It was delivered to Delta on May 18, so barely a month old.


I took my seat in peasantville in seat 23F. Nice views so far.
Somehow we got this plane boarded on time. We pushed and headed for runway 27R.

Another A321 arriving. I’m not sure where, probably Florida.

Barbie jet
https://youtu.be/WpzlujrxmwQ
Takeoff was promising from the start but then turned in to a floater really fast. Sad.

We went a little farther out than normal before making the left turn to the east

It didn’t take me long to start playing with my map.

Athens. Not a great shot. I was hoping to see more of it, but my window was very narrow with the clouds.


Eventually I started playing with my own tv.

Unfortunately there were clouds almost all the way up there and not much to see. That seems to be a recurring trend with me. It was probably the most routine flight in the history of routine flights.


Coming down through some clouds in Boston.


We took it out over the Atlantic and made a left turn for runway 27.
https://youtu.be/kt7nzwmFJqw
Video of landing. Nice views.


Pretty quickly we taxied in to gate A10 and it was off for 3 days in Boston.

Bakeries and stuff. So delicious.

Bunker Hill monument. They wouldn’t let us go up it because the heat index was over 87. Heck in Georgia we call that a cold front.

Paul Revere statue and the Old North Church

Hockey

Also I probably ate my weight in clam chowder this trip.

Ok this was seafood chowder, but it’s close right?

And some fried oysters.

This particular one was probably the best clam chowder I’ve ever had. So good.

We went to the top of the Prudential Center too. Pretty cool views. Shame the John Hancock Tower was in the way of the airport.

This one is just straight out of a magazine or something, but it was just taken by a lowly Samsung Galaxy S7. But really I’m happy how it turned out.



And as we found out Harvard just lets anyone walk right in the stadium. I know I couldn’t do that in college.
Monday morning brought us the time to go home. Our flight wasn’t until 11 so there was no big rush to wake up early. We were dropped off at Terminal A at 9:20, checked our bags, and breezed through the Precheck line.

N308DN was across the way waiting to take us home.


Delta Air Lines Flight 800
BOS-ATL
Depart BOS – 11:02 am (was actually 10:58)
Arrive ATL – 1:49 pm (was actually 1:42)
Airbus A321
N308DN

I question the use of flight 800 out of New England, but I guess in the 21 years since then the world has forgotten. I’m not superstitious myself so it didn’t matter to me.

I was sitting farther back today in 27F. Not as nice as row 23, but plenty fine.

We taxied toward runway 27. Lots of flap I notice. Makes sense given that runway 27 is only 7000 feet long.

Great view of the city before turning on to the runway.
https://youtu.be/LomzcgeEsQo
Video of takeoff. It was pretty solid. Listen near the very end. Man we back those throttles off quick and hard. There’s not some kind of daytime noise abatement procedure is there? That’s almost what it felt like.



I was sitting on the correct side for some excellent views of the city. Great way to depart.


Some suburbs as we continues heading west before turning south near Springfield, climbing up to 32,000, then 34,000, and eventually 36,000 feet.
Much like the flight up it was about as routine as routine can be, although at one point I felt a thunk in the floor almost like it feels when the landing gear is being deployed, but we were at altitude. Any Airbus A320 series drivers have some knowledge to drop? I know they do make some strange noises (barking dog, anyone?).

I think this is AVL. I haven’t cross referenced it with the map yet. We descended starting just after 1pm more or less paralleling I-85 and letting me get a look at some familiar territory.

Gainesville

Mall of Georgia (and my brother’s house!)

Spaghetti Junction.

Buckhead

And Downtown Atlanta. We were heading to runway 8L so again we were on the correct side for some good views of the city before making the 180 in to Hartsfield.
https://youtu.be/EMj7F2zwNF8
There’s a nice little video of landing on runway 8L. There was an MD-80/90 running parallel with us for 9R which made for some nice watching as well.

Hey look. It’s N685DA, the 757 I just flew last week (and also just 8 years ago).

And turning in to the ramp we passed N908DA, the MD-90 I flew back in April to ORF (and also 8 years ago).
We came in to gate A5. I was hoping some of the new renovations down on that end were done replacing the red-orange panels with walls of glass. Sadly they were not. I think that’s going to be great when it’s all finish. I’m sure it’ll feel more open and definitely brighter.
Much better experience with Delta than a week ago (but as I said in that report. I think it was a one off). The A321 is a sweet ride. 18 inch seats, PTVs. If it had satellite TV like the 737-900s it would be perfect. I’m flying with Delta again later this week to IAD, so more to come out of me soon.

Thanks for reading

Great report. I can't wait for Delta to get more Airbuses. I'm also anxiously waiting for the A321 to make their way more westward toward SEA and LAX. Got to see one in PDX while I was taking off, but they are really rare on the west coast.

N776AU wrote:

Video of takeoff. It was pretty solid. Listen near the very end. Man we back those throttles off quick and hard. There’s not some kind of daytime noise abatement procedure is there? That’s almost what it felt like.

With the Airbus auto thrust, there is a FLX detent and a CL detent used during the takeoff phase of flight. The FLX detent, used for the takeoff roll, uses the flex thrust setting that is calculated through the computer when they send for performance data for the runway that they intend to use, in this case runway 27 with 7,000 feet. Since the runway may be a bit shorter, its flex setting may be different so it may require a higher N1 thrust setting, especially one higher than what was used in ATL with the longer runways. At about 1,000 feet above ground level, the procedure is to reduce the auto thrust from FLX to CL, which is a slightly lower thrust setting to be used for an enroute climb and fuel economy, since the thrust to takeoff isn't necessarily needed at that point anymore.