Hello!
Yesterday, July 9th, my family and I started our trip down to Aspen, Colorado, with a short flight with Sun Country Airlines down to Denver. Enjoy!
FLIGHT INFO:
Flight Number: SY 651
Airline: Sun Country
Aircraft Type: Boeing 737-800
Aircraft Registration: N834SY
Flight Origin: Minneapolis/Saint Paul International Airport (KMSP)
Flight Destination: Denver International Airport (KDEN)
Flight Time: 1 hour, 33 minutes
ON TIME DEPARTURE AND ARRIVAL.
Menu & Safety Card
Outside of the safety card.
Inside of the safety card.
Inflight menu. They offer a fairly large selection of local drinks and snacks, either for free or a small charge.
Our flight to Denver left at 10:00 AM, so we showed up at MSP around 8:00. After checking our bag (which was close to being overweight- 49.5 pounds), and clearing security, we made our way down to Gate H1, at the far West end of the terminal.
Unfortunately, H1 is the only gate in Terminal 2 not to have an accessible view of the aircraft. Luckily, I could do some planespotting of departures, as aircraft were using runway 17 for departures,for the most part.
Soon enough, we began to board our flight. Being seated in 7F, one row behind the first class section, I was in Zone 1.
AFter taking my seat, I checked out my awesome engine view. Our ride down to Denver, N834SY was delivered new to FlyDubai in May of 2011, registered as A6-FDR. In May of 2019, the aircraft was sold to Sun Country and registered in the United States. The only relic of its FlyDubai days, given the entire cabin has been redone, was the emergency exit signs, which were in both English and Arabic.
We pushed right on schedule, started our engines, and headed over to Runway 17. Just after takeoff, I realized there was a deadheading United captain sitting behind me, who was saying the V speed callouts out loud behind me.
Up, up, and away! After a quick takeoff roll, we leapt into the skies, then banked over the Minnesota River to approximately heading 240. In the upper right hand corner, you can see the very edge of KMSP. Below us is the suburb of Burnsville.
Once airborne and climbing to FL380, I connected to Sun Country’s extensive network of in flight entertainment available to steam to your device. Tons of great TV shows, movies, documentaries, games, magazines, and promotional videos are available totally for free, which is a great way to occupy your time.
The city of Sioux Falls, South Dakota from 38,000 feet. Most of the scenery on our flight is what I call Generic Midwest- basically all fields. I’ve actually been to the Sioux Falls Airport (unintentionally). PM me if you want to hear that wild story involving severe weather, diversions, and even an unruly passenger.
They didn’t do the drink and snack service until a bit later in the flight (about mid Nebraska), because of some expected turbulence that never came to fruition. I just had some juice, as I purchased some snacks in the airport.
Already approaching Denver! This is just southeast of the capital of the land of @United403 , Cheyenne, Wyoming.
Big ‘ol lake, near North Platte. Google Maps says its called “ Lake Mcconaughy State Recreation Area And Wildlife Management Area.”
After banking a hard south, we got our first view of the Rocky Mountains! The flight was remarkably smooth, especially with the mountains being so nearby and Denver being notorious for turbulence.
On approach, we flew over this cool air park, which I later determined to be Platte Valley Airpark, near Fort Lupton. As we were passing over, a small aircraft (Cessna, I think) was taxiing in after landing.
Welcome to Denver! Our landing on Runway 16R was semi-butter, but to be expected. It felt kind of gusty on short final. I’m gonna chalk this up to the high altitude (this is the Mile High City, after all), but our landing roll was so long, even though the brakes were being applied hard.
I got to do some nice spotting on our lengthy taxi into the gate. I saw some JetBlue special liveries, Freedom One, Icelandair, and, of course, United.
Unfortunately, because we got in early, we had to hold short of the gate for about 20 minutes while an Allegiant flight to Knoxville vacated the stand. This was my first time in Denver, or Colorado for that matter, and I was blown away by the sheer size of that airport.
On the shuttle to Hertz, I did get to see Bluecifer, the creepy blue horse statue with the red eyes, fabled to have killed its artist. No lizard people though!
@Butter575 Flight Rating Scale
| Topic | Rating |
|---|---|
| Seat: | 7/10 |
| Food: | NA/10 |
| Service: | 9/10 |
| Landing: | 7/10 |
| Total: | 23/30 |
Alright, hope you enjoyed this trip report!
