US Airways was the chosen carrier this time, with relatively new Airbus A330-200 N287AY delivering us to Philadelphia International airport (PHL) in just over 7 hours, after an on-time departure from Ringway’s Terminal 3.
Not having flown with them before, we weren’t sure what to expect but the seat pitch in steerage wasn’t bad, the flight was smooth and the service on-board was good - in our experience, American carriers seem to put their more senior cabin staff on the transatlantic runs.
We had four hours to make the connection to Denver and that was just about long enough! After landing, we had to clear immigration (the grilling as to why we were visiting the USA was very intrusive this time round), collect our cases from the baggage-hall then re-check them in for the domestic leg, go through security again, get something to eat and, finally, find the gate for the next flight.
There was also the small matter of finding somewhere to do a bit of photography. I’m always wary of taking pictures at American airports – our hobby is not well understood or widely practiced in the States – so I’ve always made a point of letting anyone close by know what I’m doing.
We eventually found an area between ‘B’ and ‘C’ piers that overlooked the apron and where there were rocking chairs for passenger use, so we settled down to watch proceedings and discreetly use the camera.
Philadelphia is a major hub for US Airways and their aircraft make up the vast majority of the movements. US Airways Express also have a big presence, but their aircraft mostly use Terminal F, ‘around the corner’ so to speak, and I couldn’t see what was going on there from where we were sat.
The arrival of Airbus A321 N538UW at gate C25 was the signal for us to leave our vantage point, as this aircraft would be operating the flight to Denver International Airport (DEN). Before too long, we were called to board the flight and after a short delay due to the amount of aircraft waiting to depart ahead of us, we were airborne on the three-hour flight to Colorado’s capitol city and, more significantly, a reunion with our son.
Airbus A319 N812AW is pushed-back from ‘C’ Pier.
Embraer E-jets are used in sizeable numbers by US Airways. Republic Airlines fly the E170 and E175 on behalf of US Airways Express, while the larger E190 is used as part of the mainline fleet.
E170 N804MD
E175 N110HQ
E190s N957UW and N961UW
Air Wisconsin is one of the carriers that fly the smallest of the Canadair Regional Jet series, the 200, on US Airways Express routes. Their N471ZW was photographed through the heat haze.
Our ride to Denver, Airbus A321 N538UW, arriving on stand.
Our stay in Denver was relatively aviation-free, however, there were a couple of aircraft towing banners over the city while we were there and one I did manage to capture in pixels was Eagle DW1 biplane N8810T.
This is one of two aircraft operated by Dragonfly Banners out of Larkspur-Perry Park airstrip; I say ‘is’ advisedly, as there was a news item not long after we got back to the UK, showing the aftermath of a banner-towing aircraft that had suffered engine failure and crashed into a house in north Denver – from the news photos it looked as though the Eagle may have been the aircraft involved. Thankfully, the pilot was uninjured.
The banner’s message, incidentally, was aimed at those attending the ‘420 Festival’ in one of Denver’s many parks. Colorado has recently legalised the sale and use of marijuana, and thousands of devotees of the wacky weed were gathered at the festival to mark this.
After twelve days in Colorado, it was time to head off back to the UK and we once again found ourselves at DIA. After check-in and security screening, we settled down at the gate in Terminal B for some discreet plane watching and photography.
United is probably the biggest player at Denver, more so since the takeover of Continental a couple of years ago, and many of the mainline types can be seen there.
Shown below are Airbus A319 N834UA, A320 N422UA, Boeing 737-900 N68452 and Boeing 757-200 N544UA.
United’s feeder/commuter services, branded as United Express are, like their US Airways counterparts, operated by a variety of aircraft types and airlines.
SkyWest Airlines fly various marks of the Canadair Regional Jet in the livery of United Express. They also have a few aircraft that are painted in their own colours that can be used to support the short-notice requirements of other airlines such as Delta.
N936SW and N699BR are CRJ-200s while N706SK is a CRJ-700.
The Embraer 145, too, is heavily used and this particular airframe, N33182, is part of the ExpressJet fleet.
The Bombardier Dash 8-400 also features in routes from Denver. Colgan Air fly N196WQ in full United Express colours, while N510LX is an ex-Alaskan Airlines/Frontier Express machine, whose all-white scheme gives no clues as to who actually operates it.
The only Delta aircraft I had a chance of photographing while we were waiting was Douglas MD90 N952DN.
Leading the LO-COs at Denver is, perhaps inevitably, the daddy of them all, Southwest Airlines. N7713A is a Boeing 737-700.
The US Airways Airbus A321 due to operate our flight back to Philadelphia had become unserviceable so an A320, N114UW, had been sent in its place. This meant that there were now more passengers booked on the flight than available seats, so an appeal was made by the gate staff for volunteers to catch a later flight, with the added sweetener of a $350 voucher towards future travel for willing participants.
Airbus A320 N114UW arriving on the inbound service from PHL.
We were told that as international passengers, we would be guaranteed a seat and there was no danger of us being ‘bumped’ off the flight; eventually, enough volunteers came forward and boarding began.
Push-back from the gate was on-time but the aircraft then taxied to a remote stand, parked into wind and the engines were shut-down. The captain announced that because of the severe weather affecting eastern America at the time, air traffic control on that side of the country had imposed a flow-control system and services to places on the eastern seaboard, such as Philadelphia, were subject to delay. Nice to be told AFTER we’d got on the plane!
As it was, the flight-operations department of US Airways must have been very persuasive in their discussions with their ATC colleagues as the predicted delay of over an hour ended up as lasting only ten minutes: the engines were re-started, we taxied to runway 34R for an immediate departure and just over three hours later, we landed more-or-less on time at a rain-lashed Philadelphia.
I’d put my DSLR camera in the overhead locker but had my compact camera in my pocket and took these photos through the cabin window as we waited.
SkyWest has a small fleet of Embraer 120 Brasilias in its own markings that, like the CRJs, can be to used to support commuter operations for either United or Delta. N301YV is one of the fleet.
Frontier Airlines is another major tenant at Denver, and the majority of their aircraft have a picture of an animal on the tail fin. N933FR and N949FR are Airbus A319s and are suitably adorned with an arctic fox and white ermine respectively.
Air Canada often uses Embraer 190s on its routes to and from Denver. C-FGMF was being used on the Montreal rotation when photographed.
Take-off from Denver’s 34R. The eagle-eyed will note a Canadair CRJ700 in the distance just slightly above and behind the Airbus's wing tip. The Canadair has just departed from the parallel runway, 34L.
On finals at Philadelphia. The Boeing factory that produces the CH47 Chinook helicopter is below.
The one that nearly got away.
As we taxied in at Philadelphia, I noticed that one of US Airways’ A319s in special markings was on-stand. We went to the previous vantage point to see if I could get a photo when the aircraft was pushed-back. Unfortunately for me, it did push-back before I could get my camera out of the bag, and this was the best shot I could get. N733UW wears the colours of the Pittsburgh Steelers American football team.
N287AY was once again the transport over the pond and, thanks to favourable winds, we arrived in Manchester ahead of schedule. Thoughts of getting home early were dashed, however, by the queues at immigration in Terminal 3. Two other transatlantic flights had landed just before us and the number of passengers had apparently overwhelmed the number of staff available to deal with them.
Hey ho, welcome back to Britain!
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