A swing through South America

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For completeness, this is 2-2-2 J seat on the NH B787-8 which does the CGK-HND route:





The more modern B787-9 is 1-2-1, but I believe this is still considered a ‘regional J’ config. Certainly the B773 suite up next flight should be a further step up.

 

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Arrival into NRT was rainy with low clouds so no real views of, anything.


Transit was very simple for NH to NH. Alight, walk for a couple of hundred metres, have onward boarding pass scanned and then immediately through dedicated transfer security. Almost adjacent to security was the ANA Suite Lounge entry so straight in there I went.

Unfortunately it was rammed, with plenty of late afternoon departures including I think about 4 or 5 UA wide-bodies departing for various points in North America. I stayed long enough to use the facilities and then walked around the terminal.

The original doge (before the term was corrupted) featured at one shop.



My inbound aircraft

was parked beside this A380, which for the longest time I figured was a whale, but guess it must be a turtle livery having now seen the side a little better



Then my B773 for the next flight was parked beside it. Easiest transit ever.

 

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NRT-ORD NH12
B777-300 J
JA794A
Departed 40mins late.
Arrived notionally 45 minutes early, but that was just landing. The taxi and waiting for a gate took 55 minutes so actually off the aircraft about 10-15 minutes late.

The B773 has the best fit out NH offers in premium classes. The J suite is large with two privacy elements; a door and a screen. The seat itself is like a bench seat that could realistically seat two people. You sit on one half for take off/landing due to the position of the sash belt, but can lie effectively diagonally from the other half when in bed mode.



The seat wasn’t exactly soft, the footwell fabric was showing wear and there were chips of paint off in multiple areas with the suite showing maybe premature aging. The first ones flew in the second half of 2019 so I guess this could be the result of 7 years of use.


Certainly a very spacious feel and the setup is 1-2-1 across the aisles. The suites alternate facing forward and then facing backward to allow the leg footwells to be side by side. I was in a backwards facing position, which from row 11 meant a view of the engine nacelle and the wing.





As mentioned above there was a slight delay to boarding and then delayed taxiing out. NRT was busy in the late afternoon so that left some time for some AFF style ‘twitching’.

Zipair B787 with the revised (no Z) tail. It’s a crosshatch or almost tartan effect now.


Queen of the skies in China Airlines Cargo form.


Then the taxiing-to-lineup view back to the queue. There was a TG B777 that pushed back about the same time as our aircraft but must have been number 7 or 8 in that queue.

 

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After getting airborne I could see the runway we had landed and taxied in beside previously. Not the best image but look above the engine and you can see the taxiway curves in toward the piano keys. It’s I guess the normal recommended safe distance away from the runway for most of its length, except that part there where it gets closer.



The taxiway had to curve around one of the ‘hold out’ landowners that NRT has been built around. There’s still active farm land owned by someone whose land wasn’t compulsorily acquired when the airport was built.


Here’s a better view from Google maps.

Whilst taxiing in from the previous flight and through the rain drops I could also see some high walls with what just looked like a small square of trees growing in it. Seems like it is also a hold out piece of land for a shrine and is almost beside the start of runway asphalt.


People go to visit the shrine but it seems most go for plane spotting when the wind is from the appropriate direction.


I’d say it’s a must for South African rugby fans and Airlink planners! Much safer too.

 

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On climb out through the moisture laden atmosphere there was plenty of aerodynamic condensation appearing around the wing. It stopped after what I figured must be a high enough altitude for there to not be much moisture left. But then there was this effect which started around FL280.


Really noticeable and interesting with the ‘live’ mode I used to capture it. Unfortunately doesn’t seem to post like that showing the movement.

The bedding that came with the seat was pretty good and included a mini mattress. As I wanted to get closer to US time zones I went to sleep straight away (helped by feeling tired from the early start). It was supposed to be an 11hr 30min flight time but we clearly had a tail wind. I got pretty close to seven hours decent sleep and woke to this for flight time remaining, which was quite surprising.


I didn’t feel like having the allocated first meal I’d slept through so ordered a cup of tea and then the ANA special ramen and a smoked chicken sandwich.



The lovely crew member then brought me a chestnut cake that was delicious and some fruit.

As noted previously, the arrival was very early into ORD. We landed to grey overcast conditions and then went on a taxiing magical mystery tour of the entire airfield.



Eventually we pulled up near Terminal 5 to wait for our bay to clear; which was not going to be easy. It was busier than NRT.


These are just the jets active.

The view from our temporary parking position on a taxiway.

Note the blue sky, as this was about 45 minutes after landing.


We had taxied onto the T5 ramp but then gone around to make it three sides of a rectangle at a waiting point. Were there for 10-15 minutes waiting.

Eventually the path cleared just enough to get onto a bay.

The amount of time most aircraft spent waiting for others to clear was significant. There was also vehicle traffic everywhere stuck waiting. They clearly don’t like doing that so as soon as an aircraft clears from in front of a road holding point two or three vehicles will dart across in front of the next aircraft. If you saw it elsewhere you’d probably expect safety notices being raised or drivers having their airside accreditation being removed, but I guess this is just another example of US aviation and ‘creeping normalcy’ away from best practice.

 

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ORD-DCA UA2160
B737-700 F (not really - US domestic F…)
N15710
Departed 25mins late - arrived 15 early
(schedule padding much?)

US domestic RPT travel. It is mostly to be endured rather than enjoyed.
Terminal - functional
Queues - shouty
People - harried
UA lounge - basic and busy
(but they had choc chip cookies to go with the ‘coffee’)
Gate lounges - depressing
First class - a more comfortable seat (and a small pack of almonds and some water)
UA domestic - mediocre

Was organising some pics and the guy beside asked if I was in the aviation industry. We chatted a bit as he was an aviation lawyer. We were flying into DCA at night. His company is representing AA from the accident 20 months ago.

No pics as it was a full flight and at night and the window was smudged and scratched so no pics of lit up cities.

Luggage came out pretty quickly then just out front of the terminal to hotel shuttles, check in, shower, sleep.

DC is pretty warm - 27 degrees today.
Everything seems more expensive too.

 

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For a couple of days in North America, before heading to South America, I got some swings in and enjoyed the warm weather.
Golf in DC was employing my standard method for avoiding jet lag: an afternoon walking a links. It worked a treat.
The game was at East Potomac Links, a large public facility close to the centre of DC but actually on an island in the Potomac River.


It had rained in the morning and the course is very low lying and surrounded by water, so plenty of it still lying around with nowhere to really drain away, especially in the bunkers. I used Uber to and from and it was very easy.

They use the Washington Monument as an aim point on a couple of the holes.


A pleasant afternoon was had, but the fast food available in the course facilities was not particularly appealing, so I headed back to my hotel, had a shower and then found a sports bar in Crystal City for a nice steak.

 

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I posted more in the golf thread but for the purposes of this trip report, I stayed in Frederick, MD for two nights and went and played golf at Maryland National, in of course Maryland and then the next day at The Woods, in West Virginia.

To get out there I found a one-way hire car rental through CarFlexi (a consolidator I've used a couple of times because they're cheap and I've had no problems) which allowed me to collect at DCA and return at IAD. The booking was for a compact Thrifty vehicle. Thrifty at DCA was a bit slow because at 1030 on a Saturday morning, they had no cars. Should also note that Thrifty is part of the Hertz/Thrifty/Dollar group and they all have adjacent desks at DCA and the employees work across all three. All had the issue. I had to wait about 20 minutes for any sedan (told them I'd be happy to accept a smaller car, but small cars isn't really a concept in LOTFAP). Eventually got allocated a 2026 Elantra which was what I'd call a full-size sedan in the guise of its American model. CarPlay worked easily and I navigated out to Frederick.

Quick check-in there, even though I'd arrived just after 1200 and was told it would be USD50 for early check in. Not sure why this worked but said I just want to drop off my bags and then go play golf and the lady coded up a room card for me. Nice and I thanked her. Dropped bags, filled up my water bottle, put sunscreen on and headed for the golf course.

 

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Like actually quite a number of courses in the US, Maryland National allowed public access on a Saturday afternoon. US courses and clubs don't have the same 'members' nature as clubs in Australia (well all the private ones do and they tend to be almost impossible to access) and getting a game on the weekend is generally pretty easy. (I think Australia is noted as having about 1200 golf courses in the country - the US has ~16000 courses, so they have plenty of supply!)

Maryland National is considered a high end course set over rolling rural terrain and covers a fairly expansive site. Unfortunately it's cart only so even when I asked about walking (even noting carts are included in the price) they wouldn't allow it. Another annoying thing was that there was no way to book online for a single player: minimum booking was for two. I'd emailed to confirm I could get on showing up as a single and that was no problem, just meant I'd be paying full rate rather than being able to book at cheaper online rates.



I was paired up with two other guys who were also visitors. One of them was pretty ordinary and had no concept of being ready to play so it was a slow round (he was an older Chinese doctor living in the US and had a really difficult to understand accent). The third guy and I were playing from Gold tee boxes which were the second longest. Our Chinese friend wanted to go forward and hit off from shorter tees, which was a good idea, but still didn't help him much.





Anyway, a nice enough course, but let down by being overly soft (many US courses are overwatered and soft because they absolutely have to keep it green and lush because that's apparently what golf courses look like... costs them way too much for watering and fertiliser but that's apparently what the market wants), especially the greens. It was a grey and overcast day with occasional short periods of light rain.

 

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The next day it was about an hour and bit driving into rural West Virginia. I'm not saying I saw them playing banjos but you could hear them over the hill! Small town America is a good description, where the utes were large and revving your engine like a westie bogan was something to be done at every opportunity.



Nicely however, The Woods was a really expansive community set over mostly forested and hilly land. Large blocks of land were the feature, filled with trees and all pretty nice houses. There are 36 holes of golf which wind through part of the community and I played their main course, called Mountain View. It was a very pleasant set up and the golf cost a third of the green fee the day before. They allowed me to walk but due to the aforementioned hills seemed to think I was insane. At what I guess was about 30 deg C and with decent humidity, they might have been right.





It was a splendid day for golf with the sun shining and occasional light breezes through the trees. Actually, some more breeze might have been nice.



These two images are of the same par 3.

The mostly sizeable houses were discreetly located around the course and complemented it rather than being a distraction. Had deer go bounding across fairways a couple of times. Overall, just a lovely day.