I bought my ticket with AirMiles, so it was essentialy free, but I still had to pay $120US(180CDN) in taxes, not to mention another $10CDN airport improvement fee. I phoned days in advance to confirm my seat, as I didn't exactly trust getting everything with a "free" ticket, and not only that, the flight was booked with a Canadian Airlines flight #, on an Air Canada plane.
Got to the airport at about 5:30am (for a 6:45am departure, Aug24th'00) and checked-in. I was travelling extremely light (just my photo bag and a back-pack, no luggage). Surprisingly I had no hassles with a different ticket. I boarded the plane about a half-hour prior to departure, and for those who care, it was an A320 (C-FKPO).
Departure was a little late at 6:56am, but the captain welcomed us aboard and mentioned he would point out the various mountains on the downward journey to LAX. The plane took off from 08R right in the middle of YVR's busy morning rush. Since I was sitting in seat 26A, facing the sun, I didn't really bother with many pictures, but we did fly over Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Hood, Mt. Rainier, and a few of the other cascade mountains in beautiful weather.
The meal on board flight 524 was rather small, and I even ate breakfast before I left for the airport, and I still found it quite petite. I don't think I need to comment on food-quality, we all know it isn't great, but to this day I'm puzzled as to what the two little brown clumps were beside my eggs... whatever it was tasted ok, but it wasn't like something I've had before.
Weather was great... right up until LAX - haze for miles around, especially right near the coastline. We flew right over Hollywood, and it almost seemed like we backtracked for a bit. Pretty soon we were turning finals for rwy 24R where we did a simultaneous approach with a Continental 738... LAX touch-down occured at 9:40, 6 minutes behind schedule. We arrived at gate 25 or 26 at Terminal 2, right beside the Hawaiian DC-10 "70th".
It was great to not have luggage... simply walked off the plane, and headed for Tom Bradley Terminal for a bit, then shortly afterwards to the Impound Parking Lot near RW24L/R.
I'm not going to get into detail about everything, but I must say, I was pleased to hammer, destroy - whatever the hell word you want to use to describe shooting a certain plane - the Air Tahiti Nui A340 on 3 different occasions. I probably amassed 35-40 slides of it.
I was pleased to meet Michael Carter, Richard Silagi, Mark Abbott, and many other avid photographers at LAX at "Big Cargo". Was a pity the main ramp tour was not to be, but I must thank Mike once again for arranging that little walk-around of Terminal One and for the cockpit shots onboard a SW737NG.
A thanks to Mark for driving me to "The Hill" in El Segundo, a place I'm longing to visit in the winter time.
What else can I say about LAX? It's nerve racking waiting for something on the north only to see it land on the south and vice-versa, but I'm pleased to have shot almost all my 25 rolls.
The flight home was delayed somewhat from the already late arrival from YVR. They must've turned the plane around in about 25 mintues (another A320, C-FKCR)which was impressive. Departure was late by a half-hour at 8:15pm instead of 7:45pm (28th Aug'00). I sat in seat 21A on the way up, and it was cool to fly over PDX and SEA at night.
The food on this flight absolutely sucked. I don't even want to elaborate, 'cause what more can I say about cold rice and cold chicken legs... then again, maybe that's why it only took 25 minutes for a turn-around... they served us the last flight's left-overs !
As some may know, night-time operations at YVR allow the use of rwy 26L/08R only. Normal landings occur on 26R during the day, but at 10:30pm-5:30am, operations completely switch. Therefore, we landed on 26L, and taxied all the way around to gate E71.
I met the "crew" after landing, and tried to take some cockpit shots, but unfortunately the flash that worked so well earlier that day in the SW cockpit wasn't working in the 320 'pit. $^?^#$*^! :-( I got home, and it worked just fine. It's always that way, isn't it?
It was a great trip despite the minor flaws (such as food and a quarrel with a fellow passenger on the way home) but I'm not gonna rehash that. It's too bad that I don't get my KR64 film back for 2 weeks unlike my good old American counterparts... nice shots guys (Mark, Richard, Mike)... you'll be seeing my stuff in another week or so
