Ah, after a month and half long hiatus to get adjusted to school, I finally have the opportunity to do some real flying this weekend! I’ll have more details on the trip later, specifically, a most on the idea behind the crazy thing called, “mileage running,” but, essentially, the trip is a very quick one day run across the United States, with the express purpose of gather frequent flier miles, called a mileage run. While mileage runs are usually a solo activity (most people do not have any interest of simply flying for the miles), this particular trip is quite special, because I will be flying down to Washington Dulles and meeting  about 30 members of the extremely popular airline/airplane nerd community, FlyerTalk. Our routing will take us from Washington Dulles to Richmond Virginia, and then on to Chicago (ORD), and finally to San Francisco (SFO). After a brief stop in San Francisco, some of us will be turning around and red-eyeing to New York.

While we won’t mind collecting the miles, for this trip, our flights come with a special purpose, particularly the flight from ORD – SFO. The ORD – SFO flight will be flown by exalted and famous United captain Denny Flanagan, renowned by colleagues and frequent fliers alike for his exceptional customer service, treatment of passengers, in flight announcements, and his on-board raffle. I’ve heard he’s not bad at flying a plane, too. Moreover, in a veritable lotto-winning of good fortune, Captain Flanagan has also arranged a behind-the-scenes tour at ORD, for FlyerTalkers to gawk at ramp and flight planning operations. I’ve never flown with The Flan before, but, I have heard excellent stories – mostly, the kind that take you back to the halcyon days of flying where people were cheerful, service was friendly, and pilots pointed out geographical formations on the ground. Speaking of halcyon days of flying – The Flan is promising extra prizes for those who dress up in a suit and tie for the tour and flights, a wonderful hearkening back to the days when every good distinguished couple dressed in their finest attire and boarded a PanAm flying boat for the 47 day flight cross country from New York’s Idlewild Airport to the San Francisco Bay, with 200 stops for fuel in between dining on game hen and spongecake. What a guy – trying to preserve the sartorial best of aviation, especially in an age when most people fly in triple-XL Big Dogs t-shirts and jean shorts, or a velour jumpsuit from Juicy Couture with exposed thong. Classy!

I’ll sure as hell be wearing a suit, most likely my somewhat-retro gray one. I wish I had a briefcase and a fedora.

Expect a full-blown trip report (yes, a post on the ‘trip report’ is coming later this week), with pictures!