Home For The Holidays - KTYS-KIAH Trip Report 25DEC18

[DiamondGaming4]

Good evening and Merry Christmas! Today, I flew back to Houston from Knoxville Tennessee. The reason I’m traveling on this Holiday is because I have encampment for Civil Air Patrol tomorrow, so I have to be in Houston to ship out by then. Since my family wanted to visit my grandmother for Christmas, I was booked on a one way ticket to Houston so I could be back on time. Without further ado, here’s my experience on United Flight 4342 (Operated by Express Jet, Embraer E145)

---

Waiting At The Gate, Terminal Pictures

I arrived about an hour before departure, and waited at the gate. Security was quick and easy. I tried playing IF a little, but by that time, the boarding process began. Waiting at the terminal was pretty uneventful actually.

My aircraft taxiing to the gate

My aircraft sitting at the gate

---

The Flight

After boarding, I quickly realized the plane was probably too small for me. I’m 6’1 and my head barely cleared the ceiling. The leg room was cramped, and I accidentally woke up the woman infront of me by kicking the seat twice. The flight took around 2 hours 40 minutes. I was in seat 9A which had a nice view of the wing. We waited at the gate for a few minutes, and departed the gate around 11:55am (EST). We held short of the runway for PDT4932, took off, made an immediate left turn, and were on our way. I snapped a few pictures of the airport with the Smokey mountains behind it.

Whilst enroute, I played some Unmatched ATC, listened to music, ate some complimentary pretzel sticks and tried to look out the window (which I was unsuccessful at since the clouds made it incredibly bright). After descending into Houston, we made right traffic for RWY 09. Once turning to final, I spotted another plane in the distance which I assume was landing either 16R or 16L. At about 3nm out I saw another plane which we made a parallel landing with.

My mediocre legroom

Tiny cabin space

TYS and Smokey Mountains

Flying over KCHA

Mini pretzels

Parallel landing

---

Overall Experience

Though the leg room wasn’t up to par, and the plane was small, I enjoyed my experience. The crew members were friendly, the pilot wished us merry Christmas, and I didn’t get kicked off the plane. I give this flight a B+

---

Tomorrow, I travel to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. Wish me luck, as this next week will be both physically and mentally straining. I’m excited and scared, but hey, that’s probably normal ;)

[anon31652286]

That tiny cabin probably means you save a dollar or two on fuel-related costs. I’ve never been in an Embraer or aircraft with less than 6 across seating so that looks quite interesting. Nice pictures.

[JeromeJ]

You’ll be going to Lackland, no doubt it’ll be physically and mentally straining but don’t fear it , just educate yourself and know what to expect. This is a beginning to a career that I can only dream of, Good luck

[Elliott]

You don’t expect smaller planes to have too much room I have been long haul and medium haul but not on short haul jets I have been inside the cabin of one but not on a full flight or a flight in general with one I have boarded a shor haul jet but then we had to de-board for safety reasons as the plane was broken and then we went on a bigger jet 😂😂