Today’s flight is yet another entry in the “Seen While Planespotting” category. While I was at the famous LAX In-N-Out a week and a half ago, I got to see an increasingly rare sight, a transcontinental-configured 757-200 of Delta Air Lines (N727TW) arriving from Washington D.C. Originally inherited by American Airlines in the TWA merger, these 757s passed to Delta in the mid-to-late 2000s as AA standardized its Pencil fleet around the Rolls-Royce RB.211, as the ex-TWA examples had Pratt and Whitney PW2000 engines. With just over a dozen active airframes in the fleet, these aircraft have the lowest-density seating of Delta 757-200s in commercial service. Equipped with lie-flat seats in business class, these jets are always a treat to see.
Server: Solo
Airline: Delta Air Lines
Aircraft: Boeing 757-200
Origin: Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Arlington, Virginia (DCA)
Destination: Los Angeles International Airport, Los Angeles, California (LAX)
Flight Number: DL392
Route: KDCA-KLAX
Seat: 3A (Delta One)
Time En Route:
Nose-to-nose with our aircraft at Gate B21 as we watch the ground crew load baggage. Delta has had a fairly sizeable operation at DCA for a number of years now, with non-stop mainline service to Atlanta, Detroit, Los Angeles, Minneapolis/Saint Paul, Miami, Orlando, Salt Lake City, and Seattle. Currently, LAX is the only one of these destinations to get the 757-200, owing to the high amount of business traffic between Los Angeles and Washington D.C., particularly in the aerospace industry.
Taxiing behind several American Eagle CRJ and E-Jets to Runway 01/19, while a Southwest 737-700 touches down on 01. We’ve got a full flight to the West Coast this afternoon, with all 168 seats being occupied. Fortunately, the Delta One seats on this aircraft are extremely spacious, allowing for both us and the guy in the aisle seat to extend our elbows without brushing awkwardly against one another.
Lifting airborne from Runway 01 with a flock of American Airlines and American Eagle birds in the background. Due to its generous capacity and blistering takeoff and landing performance, the 757-200 has long been a favorite of airlines flying into DCA. Besides Delta, the Atari Ferraris of American Airlines and U.S. Airways were also frequent sights here. However, U.S. Airways is no more, and American retired its 757 fleet in 2020 due to the near-stoppage of air traffic due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, leaving DL as the last 757 operator at Washington-National.
Climbing steeply out of the D.C. area with the Potomac River about to disappear behind us. As we climb directly to our cruising altitude of 34,000 feet, we’re not listening to music or watching TV or a movie on the IFE screen. Sitting in front of a pair of PW2000s in climb thrust is a concert in its own right.
Cruising over southern Illinois just east of St. Louis. We’re finishing up a Sprite while we watch the eighth episode of the second season of HBO’s The Sopranos, “Full Leather Jacket”. Delta always has had good IFE options, at least in our experience, which makes passing the time on long flights easy. While our flight has been pretty smooth so far, the seatbelt sign will be coming back on in about 15 minutes or so due to a reported patch of turbulence.
The bumpy air has continued on and off for the past hour and a half of so as we cross the high desert of New Mexico. It’s mostly small bumps here and there, but occasionally we’ll hit a sizeable one that makes the wingtips bounce. We’re lucky we haven’t had to go to the lav so far, because the occupant of the aisle seat has been asleep for the past hour. Trying to finagle ourselves in and out of the aisle in turbulence without waking our neighbor would be extremely difficult to say the least.
Final descent into LAX over East L.A. with Orange County off in the distance. The on-and-off turbulence dissipated over the middle of Arizona, leaving us with a smooth last hour or so of our trip. As we near the airport, we’re packing our stuff to get deplaned swiftlywhen we reach the gate.
Arriving in the evening light on Runway 24R. Both the main Tom Bradley International Terminal and the Midfield Concourse are mostly full this evening with flights to Europe. One of them, a French Bee A350-900, is currently pushing back from the Midfield for its flight to Paris-Orly as BF731.
Taxiing to Terminal 2 as the Sun goes down. Despite our 757-200’s fantastic short-field capability, we had a pretty long ground roll, taking the second-to-last turn-off from 24R. Hopefully we won’t have to wait for a gate this evening.
Looking back at our aircraft at Gate 24 as it’s readied for the return journey to DCA. Flying in Delta One is pretty much always a good experience, especially on an aircraft that it’s rapidly vanishing from, with only a fraction of Delta’s 757 fleet still having it. The seat, food, drinks, and service were all up to the company’s standards, but we’re hankering for something a bit more substantial than airline food. Off to the baggage claim and then off to dinner!
