This trip starts as many will this semester…getting off work at 0500 and driving to DIA. While many Monsters have been had and many more will be had…this drive really isn’t too bad. As many commuters are painfully aware, I-25 is a disaster between Longmont and Fort Collins, there should have been three lanes each direction years ago, but I digress. Few cars and a beautiful sunrise make this early Sunday drive quite pleasant. I didn’t encounter any significant issues or, more shockingly, aggressive drivers then entire way down. Amazing.

I arrived in the DIA Pikes Peak parking lot at around 0619 for my 0758 flight to OMA. This lot is nice because of its relative proximity to DIA, the free shuttle bus, and the not terrible price ($8/day). They also offer services that I have, fortunately, never had to utilize, including vehicle location, jump starts, lockout assistance, and flat tire help. I am fairly confident that there are other, cheaper, lots around DIA run by private companies but I am 1) too lazy to look them up and 2) have yet to have a bad experience with this lot. Why fix what’s not broken? The lot has several buses that run a continuous circuit around the lot, to DIA, and back. There are two main east-west stretches that the buses run between, with pick up and drop off stations located every few rows on those stretches. Row are marked with letters (double letters the farther back you go) to quickly designate where you parked. While waiting for the bus (a mere minute), I was able to get a photo of this take-off from either 17L or 17R (yes, I actually took photos this time…).

After the brief drive to the terminal (5 minutes or so), I proceeded directly to the security line. I don’t know about anyone else, but I rarely check a bag anymore. To me, it is just not worth the hassle. As a Silver member and a Mileage Plus credit card holder, I get fees waived on my first bag, but it is still not worth it to me. You have to get to the airport earlier, to wait in a line, to speak with a person (introverts unite!), to drop your bag, to wait even longer at your destination for it to (hopefully) come out at baggage claim. And if it gets lost…that’s always a nightmare. I consider myself a fairly efficient traveler and checking a bag, to me, seems to be the epitome of inefficiency.

Security at DIA is always an interesting affair, and this time was no different. The lines are usually out of control, but Sundays mornings are sometimes a reprieve. It seems like Sunday mornings that I fly out of DIA alternate between no line at all and lines out of the terminal, this morning was, fortunately, the former.

This was due, in part, to the strangest security screening I can remember. As I entered the main line, I was greeted by a TSA agent telling everyone to walk “single file on the left, single file on the left, single file on the left.” Mind numbing work. There was also a TSA explosives ordinance K9 walking the line, on the right. This was my first clue that this would be a different type of screening. As I was getting into line, I was getting ready to get my computer out of my bag and put my phone and wallet into the bin. However, there was not a bin to be seen.

Lately at DIA, the TSA agents have had issues restocking the bins and I have, several times, had to dart, shoeless, to another line to steal their bins. Believing this to be, once again, the case, I looked around for some spare bins. But there were none to be seen. None of the other lines had the carts that the bins are normally found on, much less the bins themselves. As I was attempting to figure out whether I had fallen asleep on E-470 and was getting one last aviation-related dream in before rocketing my Kia up and off embankment, I heard the TSA agent in charge of our line telling us to keep our shoes on. Excuse me, what..? Did I accidentally get into the Pre-Check line? How did the agent checking my boarding pass not notice? Am I going to get in trouble? My introverted, can’t stand even the thought of breaking a rule or doing something that would put me in an awkward situation-self, raced. However, I quickly, mentally, slapped and collected myself. No, this was the line I always get in, Pre-Check is over there, calm down you lunatic.

As I was chastising myself, I heard the agent telling everyone to keep put everything in their pockets into their bags and reciting the “less than 3 ounces” liquid rule, but not saying to remove liquids. So I was able to proceed through the metal detector having removed nothing, sans my belt.

Some further research revealed that TSA tends to revert to this type of screening with no real rhyme or reason. An article I found detailed this type of screening having occurred at Washington-Dulles last year. The TSA explained that many of the procedures have to do with explosives detection and, by having a K9 trained in explosives, they are able to side step some of these more cumbersome procedures. I think this is great, having worked closely with K9 units. K9s are reliable and it drastically cuts down on the amount of time spent in line and some of the more annoying procedures, such as having to remove one’s shoes. I have seen the K9 units several times before in several different airports, but never been a part of this stripped down security screening. However, I would welcome more like this in the future.

I then proceeded to my gate, B60. While waiting, I decided to head to the farthest east point of the main terminal and was able to get a seat with a decent view of the ‘extension’ of the terminal that houses many of the United regional jets. The sun was rising and several CRJ-200s and ERJ-145 were just arriving from their first departures of the day. It was quite a sight.

While waiting, I was constantly updating my United app, hoping for the ever elusive upgrade. According to the Upgrades screen, there were two open seats left in United First. I was currently fourth on that list. However, the Seat Map showed four open seats, could it be?? It was not to be. I knew, deep down, there was an error on the Seat Map, but I kept hope alive. I kept it alive until I was firmly seated on the plane. Not in United First.

Anyway, onto the plane itself! It was an ERJ-175, registry #N120SY. It was delivered to Skywest Airlines Inc. on 09/25/2014, where it has remained ever since. I know that a lot has been made about the differences between these new 175s and the older regional jets (RJ145 and 200s), but they really are amazing. The difference is night and day. The overhead bin space is larger, the seats are less cramped, the lighting is better, and the ceilings are taller. The ERJ-175 is arranged in 24 row with two seat on either side. This really is the plane to try and book if you have to take an RJ, it really feels no different than a 737 or A-320 (except that there are no middle seats…so it might actually be better…?).

Eventually, it was time to board. B-60 was one of those United gates that does not separate out Groups 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 into separate lanes, instead using one lane for Groups 1 and 2 and another for Groups 3, 4, and 5.

Side note about United’s attempts at standardization, especially during boarding. I can only assume that United has given the gate agents a standardized speech to give and designated steps to take during each boarding process to ensure uniformity. It strikes me as odd which steps the gate agents seem to follow and which to ignore, however. For example; I can not remember the last time an agent did not begin their service with, “My name is…..give me an minute for get ready and we’ll get the process underway.” Or something very similar. It is almost verbatim every time. However, the actual boarding process seems to change every time I go through it. The initial calls (for uniformed military, those with disabilities, families with children under 2, and Global Service members) are always identical, but from there it ranges from order to chaos. Sometimes the agent will call for the groups to board separately. Sometimes, as was the case this time, she called for Groups 1 and 2 to board together. I can only imagine the same happened with the subsequent groups. It is just odd to me that such an emphasis is placed on giving the same speech every time, but the actual boarding process (where chaos reigns supreme if gate agents don’t control the unruly masses) seems to be up to the individual agent’s preference.

Anyway, knowing my place, I got in line at the very end of the Group 1/2 line, not wanting to deprive those who stole an upgrade right out from under me from their rightful position in line.  Fortunaltely, I was able to upgrade to an Economy Plus seat due to my Silver status and was able to grab seat 8D instead of 17D. As I talked about in my last blog post, I just had a small backpack with me and was able to store it under the seat in front of me. I was on in the window seat on the right side of the plane. Boarding was completed relatively quickly and soon we were on our way.

Apparently 0800 is the time for departures at DIA. As we were taxiing out to 34L for departure, the airport came alive. I saw several American Airlines planes, a few Southwest 737s, and a few Frontier Airbuses all taxiing out to our same runway. Looking at FlightRadar24 later, I noticed DIA seemed to be a relative ghost town until our taxi, at which point everything seemed to spring alive.

After a very short wait, the air traffic controllers at DIA are experts, we began our roll and had a smooth rotation and climb to our eventual cruising altitude of FL350. As the sun was still rising, it was a beautiful climb. Much of the sky seemed rather hazy, however, due in part I believe, to the wildfires in Montana.

After reaching our cruising altitude, the pilot came over the intercom to tell us of the weather we would be expecting after our short (1 hour and 5 minute) flight. He stated there were some thunderstorms in and around Omaha, but he expected them to mostly dissipate before our arrival.

The rest of the flight as mostly uneventful. The flight attendants seemed pleasant, although I admittedly did not interact with them very often. I declined any drinks, but did take them up on the Stroopwafel, their delicious morning snack. My wife loves them, so it is always good to get some bonus points by giving her snacks. I’ve only been married a year, but I’ve learned that keeping a constant flow of snacks to her is necessary to ensure our successful marriage.

As we began our initial decent, we began clearing some clouds that were actually quite beautiful. It never ceases to amaze me when I look out and can only see the tops of clouds. It is crazy to think that the most powerful man alive only 200 years ago could never have seen what I am looking at now. Wild.

As we descended even lower, we began to hit some of the thunderstorms that had not quite dissipated yet. The turbulence never got anywhere near uncomfortable. It was a fairly continuous light shaking, the only negative effect was lulling me to sleep.

The strangest part of the flight came on, what I believe, was when we were on final (later discovered to be when we were at about 4000’ and 139 kts).

As we were approaching OMA, we rapidly accelerated (to 250 kts) and began a steep turn to the left. Initially, I believed we were simply following the pattern assigned to us and were lining up. However, as the turn continued, I could seen OMA from my window and knew that it was far too close and that we must have had a missed approach for some reason. We completed two more steep turns came back onto the same pattern, but as, what appeared to be a much lower altitude (about 1000’ at 135 kts).

We proceeded in to land runway 14R without any other issues. Curious about what had caused the missed approach, I intended to ask the captain and hopefully learn something. However, by the time I was disembarking, the cockpit door was still closed and I was unable to see the captain.

However, thanks to the magic of the internet, I was able to piece together what happened. Based on trackings from FlightRadar24 and ATC recordings from LiveATC, I was able to find out that our approach was much too high and the pilot was unable to get the plane to a lower altitude in time. He then asked to go around for another try. I have included the ATC recordings below for anyone curious as to what it sounded like (it is edited for time and credit to LiveATC).

 

Does anyone know what might cause this issue? My knowledge is, admittedly, limited in this realm, but I was under the impression that the glidescope kept the plane on an appropriate decent. Was the pilot flying manually? If so, that’s great, good for him for keeping his skills sharp. Just curious.

That was basically it for this trip! I should have my trip report for my return flight (A-320) out sometime next week!

Thanks for reading!