Travelogue: Day 5 - Houston, Texas to Miami, Florida

Today we move on from Houston to Miami. We will hug the Texas and Louisiana coasts for a while, then swing out over the Gulf of Mexico for a bit. We'll come back ashore south of Tampa, cross the Everglades, and land at Miami.

Here we taxi past a couple of American Airlines MD-80s. Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport is primarily a hub for Continental Airlines, but American does offer service from Houston to its major hubs, including DFW and Chicago O'Hare:



Here is a scene much more typical at Intercontinental: lots of Continental Airlines aircraft. mainline Continental is an all-Boeing shop, and you will see every type of modern Boeing in their fleet (except the 747) at Houston if you stick around long enough: 737, 757, 767, and 777. Looks like mostly just some 737s in this shot:



At Runway 27, we get ready to take off. I'm not sure if a 747 could pull this off in real life, as there is a large cargo terminal at the west end of 27. But in Flight Simulator, it's no problem. :)



We circle around to the southeast, and the impressive Houston skyline is visible below:



Here we head out to the Gulf of Mexico over Galveston Bay. Bolivar Peninsula and Galveston Island are the only things separating us from the Gulf at this point:



We are just over the Gulf now, hugging the shoreline for a while. At roughly the mouth of the Mississippi, we turn southeast toward Florida.



Water, water everywhere:



At least we have a nice tailwind to blow us along! Our bird gets up close to 600 kts KIAS at cruise. We'll be arriving there in hardly any time at all:



Sure enough, the Florida Gulf Coast appears ahead of us:



As we fly over the Everglades, we begin our descent into Miami. Looking over to our left, we see the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. (We will be paying this airport a visit later on in our tour.) Off in the distance, we see the Atlantic Ocean:



Interestingly, ATC has given us an approach on Runway 12, the crosswind runway at Miami. I am not sure how often this happens in real life, but what the hey!



We touch down effortlessly and taxi to parking:



Here are some of the passenger terminals at Miami. Miami is a major hub for American Airlines, which they acquired when they bought up some of the former assets of Eastern Airlines when that airline went under. Miami is an important gateway to the Caribbean and Latin America for American Airlines. Here, we actually see a varied assortment of airlines represented here, including Northwest, Continental, and AeroMexico:



We pull into a parking spot at the cargo terminal for now. Next to us is an ABX Air 767. A DC-10 freighter sits behind us, as well. Miami is also an import cargo gateway between the U.S. and Latin America:



Grab a Cuban sandwich and a mojito, and kick back for a while on South Beach! Tomorrow, we are off to Atlanta.