Well, to be honest, we never really left. But for the moment, the U.S. government is officially back open for business. At least until next weekend, when the next budget deadline arrives and we face the possibility of yet another shutdown. While our pay has yet to be caught up, they keep assuring us that it will be eventually - although the date for that to happen is now beyond the next shutdown deadline.
I would like to thank everyone for their support during the shutdown last month. The calls, letters, and emails to Washington are appreciated, and thanks also to all of those who sent pizzas, sandwiches, coffee, and other treats.
In the meantime, there's been a little bit of weather here in Southern California. While the rest of the nation endured the polar vortex, we had rain. Days and days of it. LAX ran east traffic several times, which was a great training opportunity for those in training who were allowed to come in during the shut down (not all of them were). Here are some east traffic shots:
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| A Hong Kong A350-900 arriving on Ry 6L as a Qantas A380 taxies in |
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| Another shot of the A380, showing the slightly revised Qantas livery |
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| Hong Kong was the first carrier to bring the A350 to LAX; now Delta and Singapore bring them in also |
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| Air China Dreamliner |
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| I think this is going to be the new Sun Country paint scheme. Sun Country had an internal contest for employees to help select the new livery; this was the first time I've seen it at LAX |
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| United is the first carrier to bring all three models of the Dreamliner to LAX. This is a new B787-10 |
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| Not east traffic, but a nice shot of an Emirates A380 touching down on Ry24R on a sunnier and drier day |
My husband was driving down Pershing on his way to a job in PDR (security locksmith) and an A380 glided over him. He said it took his breath away. I enjoy watching them shoot into the sky from my house....
ReplyDeleteWish UA would throw a dreamliner into rotation to ORD one of these days. The 753 is not their best product.
Seeing the A380 in the air is amazing. It's rather quiet for its size, and it seems to float through the air despite being the largest airliner around. It's also impressive to consider that Airbus had preliminary plans to build an even longer stretched version.
DeleteI imagine that United will eventually put the Dreamliner on the ORD run; they've already put them on flights to EWR, and we also see them on runs to SFO and IAH. AAL also does some domestic stuff with their Dreamliners, mostly to DFW. Meanwhile I just read that Delta is planning to make their LAX-JFK service all widebody, using B767-300s in place of the assorted single-aisle aircraft that are doing it now. That will make them the only all-widebody service between LAX and JFK. American used to use B767-200s on that route, but I think they've parked all those aircraft in favor of the A321s.
Oh, and of course the B757-300 wasn't originally a United airplane at all; they got those from Continental, just as Delta's B753s came over from Northwest. The last B757 of any sort was built in 2004, so those planes are getting pretty long in the tooth.
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