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 ;)