We start off at Gen. Edward Lawrence Logan International Airport. As the largest city in New England, and an important financial and high-tech hub, Boston is well-connected to many destinations in both the U.S. and Europe. Logan is not considered a hub by any airline, but several airlines list Logan as a "focus city," including American Airlines, US Airways, JetBlue, and AirTran. Just the same, Logan remains one of the busiest airports in the United States. It sees extensive shuttle operations with many daily flights to New York. It is also well-served with direct flights to several major European cities, thanks to its location in the Northeast. Even Southwest Airlines recently announced that it will be expanding service into Logan in 2009, as part of their ongoing expansion strategy in the northeast. (They also bought up ATA's former slots at New York's LaGuardia Airport, but have yet to officially announce service there. Expect this in the not-too-distant future.) Sadly, Logan also featured prominently in the 9/11 tragedy, as two of the aircraft that were used to destroy the World Trade Center towers in New York took off from Logan.
Here is a sampling of some of the traffic we might see see at Logan: an Aer Lingus Airbus A330, and a Northwest Airlines Cargo 747-200 freighter. The reason for the 747 being parked at the terminal is a bit mystifying to me: perhaps they ran out of room at the cargo terminal? :-)
Looking behind us, we can see some Jet Blue and AirTran planes, among others:
We have been directed to Runway 33L for takeoff this time. Be careful not to taxi into the Harbor here!
Soon we are airborne. Here is a parting shot of the Boston skyline as we head southwest:
Flying southwest over Connecticut, we can see Long Island Sound and its namesake, Long Island off to the left:
Just for fun, here is Bradley International Airport as we fly directly overhead. Bradley is the largest airport in Connecticut, and is located between Hartford, Connecticut and Springfield, Massachusetts.
Here are the boroughs of New York City, including Manhattan:
We are moving over some cloudy weather, so the sights get harder to see from here on out. Looking off to the east, we can see Chesapeake Bay here:
Virginia is down there below the clouds somewhere:
Over North Carolina, we begin our descent into Charlotte:
There are lots of clouds here. It turns out Charlotte is getting pounded by a fierce snowstorm right now (gotta love FSX real-life weather!) and we are going to have a firsthand view of the action. Buckle your seat belts!
We have been cleared to land on Runway 23, the crosswind runway at Charlotte's Douglas International Airport. What is it with us and these crosswind runways we keep drawing lately? Anyway, we are lined up on final for Runway 23. No, really, we are! OK, you'll just have to trust me on this.
We land safely, although the weather conditions are terrible. Visibility is quite poor. Would they let you land in these conditions in real life? Probably not. Wow.
This flight was conducted at the same time a rather unusual March snowstorm was moving through the southern U.S. Charlotte was expected to get between 6-12 inches of the white stuff. It is always fun when your flight simulation activities coincide with notable events in the news, especially of a weather-related nature. Unfortunately, this also means that we didn't get much of a view of Charlotte on our way in. Hopefully tomorrow when we depart, the weather will be more cooperative!
Next stop: Fort Lauderdale. Time to fly south for the winter again?
Flight time: just under two hours
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