Running a decade behind to avoid the glitches

Ian Petchenik (0:07)

Hello, and welcome to Episode 390 of AvTalk. I am Ian Pechnik, here as always with Jason Rabinowitz.

Jason Rabinowitz (0:17)

Hello, Ian. We're both back home.

Ian Petchenik (0:19)

We're both back home. It's good to be home for a minute or two.

Jason Rabinowitz (0:23)

Are you planning another trip and haven't told me yet? You can't do that.

Ian Petchenik (0:26)

I did tell you, I eluded to it earlier today, I believe. Travel plans have fallen into my lap, and I actually get to join our good friend, Dan Russell.

Jason Rabinowitz (0:36)

I remember. Yeah, I'm not jealous. Next week.

Ian Petchenik (0:38)

Not at all.

Jason Rabinowitz (0:39)

Nope.

Ian Petchenik (0:40)

I wasn't planning on this, but Lufthansa is retiring the A340-600 next week.

And we will be on the final Lufthansa A340-600 flight from Dulles to Frankfurt. And then I am literally walking to a new gate and getting back on a plane to Chicago.

Jason Rabinowitz (1:01)

Well, maybe I'll move on by on a famous Dulles moon buggy, whatever you want to call it, as you push back and delay my moon buggy's transfer. I don't know. We'll see.

I am very familiar with that turn-and-burn kind of thing, especially with Lufthansa. I think I did JFK, Frankfurt, and then immediately turned around to San Jose on their A343.

Ian Petchenik (1:25)

I remember that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. When they offered that, was that like the tech service or something like that?

Jason Rabinowitz (1:30)

It was. I don't know why you remember that, but yeah. And then like I immediately turned around on the red eye from San Jose back to JFK on like JetBlue or something back when they still offered that. Those, I am not young enough to do that.

Ian Petchenik (1:42)

No.

Jason Rabinowitz (1:42)

It is not a possibility for me, but I think they've been letting you out of the house too much recently.

Ian Petchenik (1:49)

My wife would agree with that statement. But that will be a fun one. I'm really looking forward to that and some of the great footage and discussions that we're going to have. So listen for that, not next week's podcast, but the week after. We'll have some great conversations with some folks who are part of bringing that to life.

I'm back in Chicago, Jason's back in New York, and I have no idea what we're starting the show with. Jason, because you put a very cryptic note in the rundown, and now I'm at your mercy.

Jason Rabinowitz (2:24)

It just says, what did you finally see, the light? I have the light, no, not yet.

Unless I do another one of those Lufthansa turning back, no, not yet. But I have been to Seattle, I think, more times than any other city in the world. I think at this point, I'm looking at my flighty stats, and according to it, I have been to Seattle 17 times, just from JFK. So not even counting this most recent trip, because I went through O'Hare as a connecting passenger. That was weird. Yeah, I know, that was really weird. But I've probably been to Seattle maybe 20 plus times, and for the first time ever, I saw planes on a train.

Ian Petchenik (3:06)

Oh, yes.

Jason Rabinowitz (3:08)

Finally, after all these visits, I've always wanted to see the Boeing 737 Greenies, the fuselages that are on trains transported from Wichita, Kansas from, I guess, what was Spirit Aero Systems, whatever it is now, a Boeing subsidiary, to the facilities in Retton. But I saw it in Everett on its way to Retton, which is a fun twist. But in all my years of going to Seattle, I've never seen that, and I was so happy to finally see it, even though I was a little far away. Ironically, it was like 10 minutes after I had just gotten off an Amtrak train in Everett and kind of walked away from the station, and then just, you know, casually a bunch of 737 fuselages pulled through the station, no big deal.

Ian Petchenik (3:53)

Just coming through, don't mind us.

Jason Rabinowitz (3:56)

I guess they were going to Retton if they were going south from Everett, but the way railroads work, who knows? They could end up back in Everett.

Ian Petchenik (4:04)

They could end up back in Wichita.

Jason Rabinowitz (4:05)

That's also true, as long as they don't end up in a river again, that's not good for them.

Ian Petchenik (4:09)

Again, yes. Ooh.

For those that don't know, there was a derailment 2017-ish, something like that. And a bunch of 737 fusages ended up in a river, I think in Montana.