Beijing 2008 - The Summer Olympiad: Newark Liberty International, Newark NJ (EWR) to Baltimore/Washington Thurgood Marshall, Baltimore, MD (BWI)

CO3215/11AUG08 Newark Liberty International, Newark NJ (EWR) to Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall, Baltimore MD (BWI) DH4 8:30p 10:02p aircraft #782 operated by Colgan Air

Flight Tme: 0:32
Seat Map

I greeted the flight attendant as she told me to watch my head as I entered. The doorway is really short on this plane; shorter than the ERJ even.

This is a Bombardier Q-400 aircraft a quiet turbo prop they say. I had flown this type before from Horizon Air, but this was my first time on the Colgan Air-operated one. It has 74 leather seats in a 2-2 configuration and has two flight attendants as it is more than 50 seats but less than 100.

I made my way down to my seat and realized that the guy in the aisle had moved over to the window. He asked if I wanted him to move and I told no, it is fine and took the aisle after putting my stuff in the overhead which was too small for my backpack.

As we waited, the Captain came on and said it would be 0:32 to Baltimore and apologized for the delay due to Air Traffic slowdown. He continued saying that we would have a 15 minutes or so taxi and he was not expecting any additional delays.

The door was closed at 11:15p and the manual demo started to the automated instructions. After that was done, the flight attendants did their security checks and we waited.

The Captain came on the PA at 11:21p and announced that the gound crew had noticed a loose hatch by the entry door and had called maintenance to come over and take a look. He said he would keep us posted.

At 11:25p we had push back and the Cpatain said the panel was O.K. It was not until 11:32p, that we started our taxi out to the runway.

At 11:50p, the Captain said we were #3 for departure and asked the flight attendants to take their seats. Seven minutes later, we were airborne.

The flight attendant announced that there would be a beverage service which I thought was cool for such a short flight. That soon started with a pack of peanut handed plus your beverage of choice. Clean up was soon there after.

I fell asleep for a little bit and awoke to hear the Captain say that we were 39 miles out of the airport with 10 minutes to go and we would start our descent. He also advised the flight attendants to prepare the cabin for landing which they did.

Beijing 2008 - The Summer Olympiad: Arriving at Beijing Capital International from the city

11AUG08 Beijing Capital, Beijing People's Republic of China (PEK)
We arrived at Terminal 3 at about 5:42a. I alighted and headed towards the front of the terminal. I did not see Northwest Airlines there, so I went inside and asked. This terminal is alike a copy of the one in Hong Kong. It is absolutely beautiful.

As it turns out, it was not Northwest's terminal so I returned to the cab. My friend had already paid the cab, so we started the meter again (10 Yuan) and headed for Terminal 2.

Once there, we paid again and alighted then headed past security and into the Terminal. We found the check-in area, checked-in and then headed through Immigration and security and into the terminal.

After a little last minute shopping, we headed for the Lounge. Only my friend could use it, so I busied myself with some picture taking.










Soon , it was time to board as we met up with each other once more at the gate.

Beijing 2008 - The Summer Olympiad: Leaving The Olympic Area for the airport

A friend of mine joined me last night at about 10:30p. He had mis-connected the night before in Tokyo and had spent the night in the Narita area.

I went to meet him in the pouring rain and then we went out to the Village; by now it had stopped raining.

The next morning, we were up atom at 4:15a and was out of the hotel by 5:05a. it was smooth sailing to the airport except that all the other cabs were passing us out.

We did not know which terminal Northwest uses at the airport so we decided to go to Terminal 3 first. The lady at the hotel told the cabbie where to go before we left. The plan was that if we got there and it was the wrong terminal, we would just go to the next one.

We noticed that there was a turn off for Terminal 3 and there were no signs that told us which terminal was which.