{"id":1799,"date":"2016-07-18T04:35:36","date_gmt":"2016-07-17T20:35:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/?p=1799"},"modified":"2016-11-16T16:41:48","modified_gmt":"2016-11-16T08:41:48","slug":"20160711aa186","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/index.php\/2016\/07\/18\/20160711aa186\/","title":{"rendered":"Flight Log of American Airlines Flight 186 from Beijing Capital to Chicago O’Hare on July 11th, 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was a school-sponsored month-long summer program at Cornell University.
\nOriginally, given AsiaMiles\u2019 double mileage promotion for students residing in China Mainland, I was more than eager to persuade the travel agency to book me on Cathay Pacific to New York or Chicago, and then on a separate ticket to Ithaca. However, school regulations demanded that I must went through extra bureaucratic procedures for them to pay for my separate tickets.
\nSo that spelt the end of Cathay Pacific, leaving me only the choice of three major US carriers. Since AA\u2019s itinerary has a longer layover at Chicago O\u2019Hare, and it was a Boeing 787 which I haven\u2019t flown on before, I picked American Airlines.
\nBy the way, Ithaca airport was closed for runway maintenance, so we actually flown to Syracuse, where Cornell University arranged shuttle services for us.
\n
\nThe images in this post are hosted on Imgur. Email me should there be any display problems.<\/span><\/p>\n

So it\u2019s the morning of July 11th, 2016. We stayed up the whole night before, so as to accustom ourselves to the new time zone which is 12 hours apart. The good thing is that, as with most university students, usually we stayed up quite late (And I can safely blame that habit on the poor sound isolation for Tsinghua Dormitories). <\/p>\n

So, lots of packing and one thriller later, the sun\u2019s up and we headed for the airport. Flight AA186 departs at 10:10, however, since we didn\u2019t have many great ideas to kill time (one thriller movie is enough for me), and to avoid any possible traffic jam on the way to the Airport (since it\u2019s Beijing), we left Tsinghua Dormitory at 5 in the morning.
\nBy the way, the dormitories in Tsinghua are were going through fa\u00e7ade renovation, and I was more than pleased to leave the blinding scaffoldings and not-so-civilized Chinese construction workers behind.
\nOh, I remembered that air pollution was rampant during the days leading up to my departure, another benefit of leaving Beijing.<\/p>\n

There wasn\u2019t much difficulty in finding a free taxi. The taxi ride was smooth, I was surprised to find the traffic on Beijing\u2019s 4-th ring was quite considerable given it\u2019s only 5 in the morning. The only “traffic jam” was at Beijing Airport\u2019s toll booths, where I witnessed Chinese drivers showing off their skills at line cutting. Fortunately, that would be the last time I witness such barbarity in a month.<\/p>\n

\"Check-in<\/a>

<\/br>Check-in Counter at Beijing Capital Airport<\/p><\/div>\n

We arrived at Beijing Airport at 6 in the morning, which is four hours to departure time. AA’s check-in at Beijing is outsourced to Air China, which started exactly 3 hours before departure. Since passengers usually arrived early to avoid the morning traffic jam, there has been a constant queue at check-in.<\/p>\n

\"Boarding<\/a>

<\/br>Boarding Passes<\/p><\/div>\n

And there\u2019s more waiting in line at the Beijing Capital Airport Terminal 3\u2019s securities. Maybe Terminal 3\u2019s securities lines are too few too slow for the many gates that it accommodates.<\/p>\n

Then, as usual, I took a walking tour around the airport.<\/p>\n

\"All<\/a>

<\/br>All Nippon Airways B772(JA715A) Pushing Back<\/p><\/div>
\n

\"LoonAir<\/a>

<\/br>LoonAir A320(B-8146) Departing<\/p><\/div>
\nApparently, the HGH based upstart has found itself a better departing slot than 5:55AM. Yet, its reputation and local government support cannot afford it a jet bridge to spend the night. <\/p>\n

Then, I walked to the end of Terminal 3E, which faces runway 18L\/36R and Terminal 2, with some spectacular take-offs and landings and some comfortable beds.
\n

\"China<\/a>

<\/br>China Eastern Airline A332(B-5938) Taking Off<\/p><\/div>
\n

\"Beijing<\/a>

<\/br>(International Part of) Beijing Airport Terminal 2<\/p><\/div>
\n

\"All<\/a>

<\/br>All Nippon Airways B788(JA831A) At the Gate<\/p><\/div>
\n

\"Sichuan<\/a>

<\/br>Sichuan Airlines A320(B-1886) Taxiing, while China Eastern Airlines B320(B-2220) Taking Off. A rare chance to capture two planes in one shot.<\/p><\/div>
\n

\"Air<\/a>

<\/br>Air China A332(B-6072) Taking Off. There’s no national flag on the fuselage, which indicates this plane might server Taiwan routes.<\/p><\/div>
\n

\"Air<\/a>

<\/br>Air China A321(B-6596) Being Towed into Day’s Service. Guess it’s because Terminal 3’s jet bridges are usually not enough for Air China’s fleet, the surplus were towed all around the airport.<\/p><\/div>
\n

\"Air<\/a>

<\/br>Air Macau A321(B-MCD) Taking Off<\/p><\/div>
\n

\"American<\/a>

<\/br>American Airline B788(N808AN) At the Gate, The plane that would take me to the States.<\/p><\/div>
\n

\"Singapore<\/a>

<\/br>Singapore Airlines B772(9V-SQK) Pushing Back<\/p><\/div>
\n

\"Mongolian<\/a>

<\/br>Mongolian Airlines B738(JU-1015) At the Gate, something one doesn\u2019t see often.<\/p><\/div>
\n

\"Cathay<\/a>

<\/br>Cathay Pacific B772(B-GND) At the Gate, Serving as CX347<\/p><\/div>
\n

\"Two<\/a>

<\/br>Two 788’s At the Gate. The only two 787’s at the airport.<\/p><\/div>
\n

\"Finnair<\/a>

<\/br>Finnair A359(OH-LWC) At the Gate, Serving as AY52.<\/p><\/div>
\n

\"British<\/a>

<\/br>British Airways B744(G-BNLV) Arriving. Now BA 744’s nose just came out of AA’s tail. If I photoshopped ANA’s tail out, then it’s really AABA.<\/p><\/div>
\n

\"British<\/a>

<\/br>British Airways B744(G-BNLV) Taxiing<\/p><\/div>
\nI was excited to see the British Airways Boeing 744 Arriving, as that\u2019s my first flight out of Beijing Airport, my first international flight, my first wide-body flight, \u2026 So many firsts.
\n

\"China<\/a>

<\/br>China Southern Airline A388(B-6139) Arriving. A long way back from Amsterdam, then off to Chengdu.<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

Then it\u2019s boarding time for my flight. It seemed that the boarding groups did absolutely nothing at Beijing (and later at Chicago). It only mattered whether you have priority boarding or not, and that\u2019s it.
\n

\"Boarding<\/a>

<\/br>Boarding American Airlines Flight 186<\/p><\/div>
\n

\"B788's<\/a>

<\/br>B788’s Curvaceous Wing<\/p><\/div>
\n

\"AA<\/a>

<\/br>AA 788’s Dusty Ventilation Exit<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

Then there came the worse part of the flight. Usually, I preferred to track the whole flight with either my cell phone or my GPS recorder. The former one supports GLONASS, the latter one has better sensitivity. The bad thing is that, it seems the electronically dimmed windows of a Boeing 787 filter out all the GPS signals, even when they\u2019re switched to full open. I guess this has something to do with the internal structure of the windows, that the proportion of radiation transmitted declines with the incidence angle. Since most GPS satellites are high up in the sky, which makes for the terrible signal strength. Or, the engineers at Boeing thought only visible radiation is important. So, I had to refer to FlightRader24 to geo-tag all my photos.<\/p>\n

\"Asiana<\/a>

<\/br>Asiana Airlines A321(HL8059) At the Gate<\/p><\/div>
\n

\"Air<\/a>

<\/br>Air China’s Maintenance Hangar, B77W, B744, B789 and more.<\/p><\/div>
\n

\"Climbing<\/a>

<\/br>Climbing Above China’s Air Pollution. 787’s electronically dimmed windows haven’t turned to full open at this time, so the color is still a little bit bluish. <\/span><\/p><\/div>
\n

\"Clusters<\/a>

<\/br>Clusters of Clouds Below<\/p><\/div>
\nThe plane made a turn here into Mongolian Airspace.
\n

\"First<\/a>

<\/br>First Meal Services<\/p><\/div>
\n

\"First<\/a>

<\/br>First Meal Services<\/p><\/div>
\nThe whole meal setup looks really nice compared to what Chinese carriers would usually do on domestic routes, the only disappointment is that cheap bottled water, ruining what I would otherwise call a “delicate” lunch.
\nI picked beef for lunch. AA mixed those little corn in the rice, bringing flavor to an otherwise cheap and mundane staple food.
\n

\"Sun<\/a>

<\/br>Sun and Cloud over Arctic<\/p><\/div>
\nI tried to snap a few shots of the sun over the Arctic Sea. However, this is ruined by the layers of the window, leaving beautiful flares on the photos, though.<\/p>\n

Then it\u2019s the on-board entertainment, which is, just OK.
\n

\"Entertainment<\/a>

<\/br>Entertainment on AA’s 788, Rally racing game. The car was barely maneuverable. Anyway, since I played it on a handle, there’s little expectation.<\/p><\/div>
\n

\"Route<\/a>

<\/br>Route from Beijing to Chicago<\/p><\/div>
\n

\"Front<\/a>

<\/br>Front Window View from AA’s Entertainment Pad<\/p><\/div>
\nHowever, this view is literally useless unless you really have nothing to do, which is the case for the majority of travellers.
\n

\"Breakfast<\/a>

<\/br>Breakfast Service on AA186, I picked chicken and rice.<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

AA\u2019s cabin crew dimmed all the windows not long after the first meal services, and they have stayed dark ever since. It\u2019s until we entered United States Airspace that the windows were switched to the second brightest level, which means all the photos were kind of bluish.
\n

\"Clouds<\/a>

<\/br>Clouds over Wisconsin<\/p><\/div>
\n

\"Shorelines<\/a>

<\/br>Shorelines of Lake Winnebago, Beautiful reflections of clouds on the lake.<\/p><\/div>
\n

\"Fond<\/a>

<\/br>Fond Du Lac on Lake Winnebago<\/p><\/div>
\n

\"Watertown<\/a>

<\/br>Watertown from Above<\/p><\/div>
\n

\"Lake<\/a>

<\/br>Lake Koshkonong<\/p><\/div>
\n

\"River<\/a>

<\/br>River Fox Flowing through the Town of Algonquin<\/p><\/div>
\n

\"Shorelines<\/a>

<\/br>Shorelines of Lake Michigan<\/p><\/div>
\n

\"O'Hare<\/a>

<\/br>O’Hare airport North<\/p><\/div>
\n

\"O'Hare<\/a>

<\/br>O’Hare Airport Terminal 1\/2\/3<\/p><\/div>
\n

\"O'Hare<\/a>

<\/br>O’Hare Airport Terminals<\/p><\/div>
\n

\"Chicago<\/a>

<\/br>Chicago Suburb, near Belmont<\/p><\/div>
\nIt was a very deep descent as the spoilers were fully open, which was very rare as the plane’s still in the air.
\nBefore the trip, I have heard of some US Air Traffic Control\u2019s preference of flying the plane over the airport at high altitude, then descending quickly and turning around for landing, while leaving lower altitudes for departing planes. Although this sounds riskier, if properly executed, maneuvers like this would be much more efficient than their Chinese equivalence\u2019s way of going through long detours.<\/p>\n

\"Chicago<\/a>

<\/br>Chicago Downtown<\/p><\/div>
\n

\"Chicago<\/a>

<\/br>Chicago Downtown<\/p><\/div>
\n

\"Chicago<\/a>

<\/br>Chicago Downtown<\/p><\/div>
\n

\"Chicago<\/a>

<\/br>Chicago Downtown<\/p><\/div>
\n

\"Chicago<\/a>

<\/br>Chicago Downtown<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

At this point the windows were switched to the brightest level by the crew.<\/p>\n

\"City<\/a>

<\/br>City of Chicago, from Above<\/p><\/div>
\n

\"Flaps<\/a>

<\/br>Flaps and Spoilers<\/p><\/div>
\n

\"Schiller<\/a>

<\/br>Schiller Woods in Final Approach<\/p><\/div>
\n

\"United<\/a>

<\/br>United Airlines B753(N57855) Taxiing<\/p><\/div>
\n

\"Planes<\/a>

<\/br>Planes Lining up in Chicago O’Hare Airport<\/p><\/div>
\n

\"Spirit<\/a>

<\/br>Spirit Airlines A320 Taxiing<\/p><\/div>
\n

\"American<\/a>

<\/br>American Airlines MD82(N555AN) Taxiing<\/p><\/div>
\n

\"Land<\/a>

<\/br>Land of the Free as my first (and second) step on United States ground.<\/p><\/div>
\n

\"Hallway<\/a>

<\/br>Hallway of O’Hare Airport Terminal 5<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

Since I preferred window seats with unhindered view of the ground, I sat relatively at the back of the plane. That plus a visit to the bathroom after landing meant windy lines before immigration. What\u2019s worse, I ended up among groups of Chinese visitors who were excellent at utilizing the 2-person width of immigration lines as a means of cutting ahead of people. (At Beijing Airport toll booth, I thought that was the last of line-cutting I would witness in a month, no that\u2019s not. I hope O\u2019Hare Airport was the last.) With only a few immigration officer on the beat, I recalled why they recommended extra-long connection times at US airports. <\/p>\n

Traveling on the same plane was a Chinese tour group. Usually, Chinese tour groups are for people that want to visit places, but don\u2019t bother to go down to details. That trouble-free concept definitely didn\u2019t find favor in the US immigration officer in front of me, as I had to interpret for three non-English-speaking elderlies who had little more than a printed itinerary that they knew nothing about plus 1000 CNY to prove they were really tourists. Thankfully, they got the plane tickets and they were through.<\/p>\n

AA3627 ORD-SYR will be on another post.
\nEND<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was a school-sponsored month-long summer program at Cornell University. Originally, given AsiaMiles\u2019 double mileage promotion for students residing in China Mainland, I was more than eager to persuade the travel agency to book me on Cathay Pacific… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,166,2],"tags":[188,176,189],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1799"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1799"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1871,"href":"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1799\/revisions\/1871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}