"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return."
The primary purpose of this blog is to showcase the best of my aviation photography. As such, you will find links to my main aviation gallery on Facebook containing photos from aircraft spotting, some kind of aviation event such as air shows and fly-in events, as well as aviation museums. I also critique my flights on commercial airlines and the services they provide. Occassionally, you'll find personally written, independent articles based on news and current events involving aviation. And of course, I'll put up links to official and unofficial aviation-related websites when I find them. And when time permits, I'll talk and discuss about anything involving aviation. But most importantly, this is my way to document my journey into the aviation industry!
Friday, June 5, 2015
A Sight No More: American Airlines MD-80s at PDX
On Wednesday, June 3, 2015, American Airlines flew their venerable McDonnell Douglas MD-80 to/from Portland International Airport (PDX) for the last time. This revelation came to me as a surprise because I had no idea this would happen as it wasn't really announced or made known; it just happened rather quietly (which is ironic, considering how loud MD-80s are!)... American's "Mad Dogs" are slated to be phased out of their fleet in the next few years, but they will continue to soldier on elsewhere for the time being. The American MD-80s flew mainly on the Dallas/Fort Worth route while serving Portland, Oregon. This route has since been taken over by the Boeing 737-800. Out of all the carriers that currently fly to Portland, American was pretty much the only one to fly MD-80s there on a daily basis. Allegiant still does occasional charters with their MD-80s and there are other charter MD-80s that fly in from time to time. Delta has a pretty decent presence at PDX and they have MD-88s in their fleet, but they rarely bring them out to PDX to begin with; instead they bring in MD-90s and just recently, Boeing 717s (a.k.a the MD-95).
After having been at PDX so many times planespotting, I thought I'd look back at all the times I've spotted the "Mad Dog" in American Airlines colors and create a montage out of it. From the earliest to the most recent, here are all my photos of American Airlines' MD-80s at Portland:
April 2012: Former TWA MD-83 (N973TW).
July 2013: Former TWA MD-83 (N9628W).
November 2013: Former TWA MD-83 (N971TW).
November 2014: Legacy-American MD-82 (N70504).
April 2015: Former TWA MD-83 (N9618A).
May 2015: Former TWA MD-83 (N9403W).
The last time I would have this sight at PDX.
As luck would have it, I spotted an American MD-80 with a different tail-number on each of these occasions. The majority I've seen were mainly MD-83s, all of which were inherited from Trans World Airlines (TWA) with only one legacy-American MD-82. From PDX, I bid a fond farewell to the American Mad Dog! Hope to see it elsewhere in my travels...
...Oh wait! I did!
September 2013: Legacy-American MD-82 (N499AA) at Reno-Tahoe International (RNO).
April 2014: Overflying West Jordan, UT on final approach into Salt Lake City International (SLC).
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