2023 Oklahoma City Aviation Thread

[Plutonic Panda]

Uh, he explained what he does there in his first post. Read before you come in with snark, c'mon, man.

So asking a question is snark? I don’t see where he explained it but okay.

[TheTravellers]

So asking a question is snark? I don’t see where he explained it but okay.

https://www.okctalk.com/showthread.p...09#post1243509

[amocore]

There is so little news to report in this forum, I feel people just bicker at each other to fill the void.

Anyway, disappointing numbers from Delta, surprisingly good from United ( Catch will check that out, i am sure)
I am not sure why there are not Allegiant numbers. They still fly from OKC, I think.

https://flyokc.com/sites/default/fil...nplanement.pdf

[Richard at Remax]

There is so little news to report in this forum, I feel people just bicker at each other to fill the void.

Anyway, disappointing numbers from Delta, surprisingly good from United ( Catch will check that out, i am sure)
I am not sure why there are not Allegiant numbers. They still fly from OKC, I think.

https://flyokc.com/sites/default/fil...nplanement.pdf

Not surprised at Delta. I think the business travelers have slowly shifted away to WN or AA over the last year due to frequencies, time schedules, and better prices.

[warreng88]

You just drive to the airport for no reason and walk around or what?

I did the same with my kid when she was younger. She loves airplanes and we would go to the airport, sometimes park in the cell phone parking lot, sometimes on the short term parking and look at the airplanes coming in and going out. It's not completely uncommon and now with a viewing deck and not having to go through security, you can look out at the planes and people traveling. You could spend a lot of time with a four year old answering all the questions they have about the airport, more than you would initially think.

[Richard at Remax]

Also, where are Allegiants numbers?

[amocore]

I did the same with my kid when she was younger. She loves airplanes and we would go to the airport, sometimes park in the cell phone parking lot, sometimes on the short term parking and look at the airplanes coming in and going out. It's not completely uncommon and now with a viewing deck and not having to go through security, you can look out at the planes and people traveling. You could spend a lot of time with a four year old answering all the questions they have about the airport, more than you would initially think.

I did it several time with my kid too. I parked by the Police building on the NE corner. Good view of the East Runaway.

[HangryHippo]

Not surprised at Delta. I think the business travelers have slowly shifted away to WN or AA over the last year due to frequencies, time schedules, and better prices.

This. Their schedule absolutely sucks here.

[Celebrator]

Not surprised at Delta. I think the business travelers have slowly shifted away to WN or AA over the last year due to frequencies, time schedules, and better prices.

Which is too bad, because I know DL corporate strategy for a few years now has been to capture the business traveler with, primarily, a focus on punctuality. I just heard about this on the Airlines Confidential podcast (which is great, btw, for any avgeeks out there) that they have sensors on their fleet (which is quite old but kept in great shape) on different components that tells them when they reach 80% of useful life and then DL replaces them no matter if needed or not, just so there are fewer unforseen equipment failures which lead to delays, which lead to unhappy business flyers. An interesting strategy that seems to work overall as they are highly regarded by frequent business travelers. However, their service to OKC, as we all know, is less than stellar. I do have to give it up though for what seems to be less 717s in the mix from ATL lately. We are booked in a few weeks on a business trip to EWR, and the OKC-ATL segments are A320s and the ATL-EWR segments are actually on 717s! Now service to LGA and JFK from ATL would NOT be 717s given those airports importance in the DL network. EWR is an afterthought for them in NYC, understandably.

[Plutonic Panda]

I did the same with my kid when she was younger. She loves airplanes and we would go to the airport, sometimes park in the cell phone parking lot, sometimes on the short term parking and look at the airplanes coming in and going out. It's not completely uncommon and now with a viewing deck and not having to go through security, you can look out at the planes and people traveling. You could spend a lot of time with a four year old answering all the questions they have about the airport, more than you would initially think.

Yeah, I read the link the travelers sent me. I did not know this was a thing. Interesting.

[Celebrator]

Yeah, I read the link the travelers sent me. I did not know this was a thing. Interesting.

Plane spotting is awesome (for some of us). I grew up in Glendale/Burbank and used to have my mom take me to the top of the parking garage at BUR in the late 80s/early 90s to watch planes. She would sit in our minivan and read and I would listen to the ATC on a radio and watch all of the action close up there where the runway is just a 100 feet from the old school terminal building. And I just saw a news story about the huge phenomenon that Airline Videos LIVE is now. They run a YouTube channel with shows lasting for several hours just of live plane spotting at LAX like a couple of times a week and have a HUGE following apparently. So, yeah, plane spotting is a thing.

[scottk]

When you have a 4 year old, free stuff to do on a whim is worth more than gold. All I had to do was pay for the gas to drive to the airport.

+1, loved the new observation deck and would venture out to plane spot at WRWA and took advantage plenty of the free first hour.

Also, when we would pick up family and friends from the airport, preference was always to park in the hourly parking, take the tunnel to the terminal and greet in-person at the security gate. Much easier for us to do that and not have to worry about hitting the exact time to navigate from a cell phone lot to arrival/baggage claim pick up.

[oktxatty]

You just drive to the airport for no reason and walk around or what?

Read for comprehension.

4 year-olds and kids in general love to watch airplanes sometimes. And suppose he did just like to walk around? What business is it of yours?

[Plutonic Panda]

Read for comprehension.

4 year-olds and kids in general love to watch airplanes sometimes. And suppose he did just like to walk around? What business is it of yours?

Unlike this moronic response I appreciate everyone else’s helpfully reply to help my me understand something I’ve never heard of before.

[Plutonic Panda]

Plane spotting is awesome (for some of us). I grew up in Glendale/Burbank and used to have my mom take me to the top of the parking garage at BUR in the late 80s/early 90s to watch planes. She would sit in our minivan and read and I would listen to the ATC on a radio and watch all of the action close up there where the runway is just a 100 feet from the old school terminal building. And I just saw a news story about the huge phenomenon that Airline Videos LIVE is now. They run a YouTube channel with shows lasting for several hours just of live plane spotting at LAX like a couple of times a week and have a HUGE following apparently. So, yeah, plane spotting is a thing.

Interesting. Thank you for the explanation. I hope I didn’t come off as snarky was just curious as I’ve never heard of it before. Sounds like a cool thing. I did have an idea for a bar along the airport that had a viewing area for planes and plane traffic. I guess that’s kind of the same thing but never thought it had that much of a following.

The airport should install its own bar with an overlook area in front of the security gates for people that just want to go watch planes. That would seem to be pretty popular then.

[scottk]

Interesting. Thank you for the explanation. I hope I didn’t come off as snarky was just curious as I’ve never heard of it before. Sounds like a cool thing. I did have an idea for a bar along the airport that had a viewing area for planes and plane traffic. I guess that’s kind of the same thing but never thought it had that much of a following.

The airport should install its own bar with an overlook area in front of the security gates for people that just want to go watch planes. That would seem to be pretty popular then.

One of the problems of plane spotting in OKC from the terminal, you are looking south onto the tarmac and with the curve of the terminal, you miss out on a lot of the approaches, especially those on the west side coming in on Runway 17R. Under most weather conditions in OKC, planes land on 17R and 17L from the north, and typically take off towards the south. The top level of the parking garage is great because you can really get a good 360 degrees of approaches.

[unfundedrick]

Interesting. Thank you for the explanation. I hope I didn’t come off as snarky was just curious as I’ve never heard of it before. Sounds like a cool thing. I did have an idea for a bar along the airport that had a viewing area for planes and plane traffic. I guess that’s kind of the same thing but never thought it had that much of a following.

The airport should install its own bar with an overlook area in front of the security gates for people that just want to go watch planes. That would seem to be pretty popular then.

This is probably before your time, but the old Stapleton airport in Denver had a restaurant right next to it (not on the airport grounds) that was an ideal area for viewing planes.

[Richard at Remax]

Speaking of Delta
https://thepointsguy.com/news/delta-skymiles-changes/

https://thepointsguy.com/news/delta-...ccess-changes/

[Celebrator]

This is probably before your time, but the old Stapleton airport in Denver had a restaurant right next to it (not on the airport grounds) that was an ideal area for viewing planes.

I think you might be referring to 94th Aero Squadron, which was part of a chain of WWI-themed restaurants across the country which positioned themselves strategically so diners had runway views. I remember the one at STL growing up (there's a photo of the one at Stapleton here, too (tinyUrl): https://rb.gy/10t8x

[PaddyShack]

I think you might be referring to 94th Aero Squadron, which was part of a chain of WWI-themed restaurants across the country which positioned themselves strategically so diners had runway views. I remember the one at STL growing up (there's a photo of the one at Stapleton here, too (tinyUrl): https://rb.gy/10t8x

That sound like my kind of place! WWI themed with views of the runway... Haha, I don't consider myself a hardocre plane spotter, but I can't help but watch planes on approach and what not. Especially when we get those larger aircraft that one normally does not see above OKC.

[PaddyShack]

My 4 year old knows how to get YouTube going from our Google Nest Hub and he asks Google to play the Airline Videos LIVE channel. I have woken up in the early morning hours to him asleep on the couch with those hours long videos playing.

We have been fortunate enough to take him on two trips recently and he is always asking to go for another ride. Whenever a WRWA approach flies over our house he goes nuts and wants to drive to the airport to watch it land. He also is really big into helicopters, so we are looking for any outfits that offer helicopter tours.

There used to be a cafe at Wiley Post that was in the terminal building with great runway views, sadly I believe they have closed since the pandemic.

[PoliSciGuy]

My 4 year old knows how to get YouTube going from our Google Nest Hub and he asks Google to play the Airline Videos LIVE channel. I have woken up in the early morning hours to him asleep on the couch with those hours long videos playing.

We have been fortunate enough to take him on two trips recently and he is always asking to go for another ride. Whenever a WRWA approach flies over our house he goes nuts and wants to drive to the airport to watch it land. He also is really big into helicopters, so we are looking for any outfits that offer helicopter tours.

There used to be a cafe at Wiley Post that was in the terminal building with great runway views, sadly I believe they have closed since the pandemic.

Aww man I'm bummed to hear about the restaurant at Wiley Post. I loved taking my boys there to watch the general aviation planes there. Also I hope all you semi-avid plane nerds use ADSB or FlightRadar to track what all is going on overhead. We definitely get some occasional surprises at Tinker or whenever DFW has to divert planes.

[Celebrator]

Aww man I'm bummed to hear about the restaurant at Wiley Post. I loved taking my boys there to watch the general aviation planes there. Also I hope all you semi-avid plane nerds use ADSB or FlightRadar to track what all is going on overhead. We definitely get some occasional surprises at Tinker or whenever DFW has to divert planes.

FR24 app is on the homepage of my phone for quick access! I love it. Use it multiple times per day and have even considered signing up for the paid version. Sometimes we get some pretty cool, long-haul stuff flying right overhead here. Probably the coolest one recently was a KLM 777 going from AMS-MEX at about 41k feet. WAAAY up there. But I heard it and looked it up. I just get a charge out of that, I don't know why. Always have, always will. Used it with great interest in Europe this summer, too! Terrific app.

[Richard at Remax]

I got binoculars out and saw a Emirates A380 headed to IAH a few months back. Pretty neat

[warreng88]

My 4 year old knows how to get YouTube going from our Google Nest Hub and he asks Google to play the Airline Videos LIVE channel. I have woken up in the early morning hours to him asleep on the couch with those hours long videos playing.

We have been fortunate enough to take him on two trips recently and he is always asking to go for another ride. Whenever a WRWA approach flies over our house he goes nuts and wants to drive to the airport to watch it land. He also is really big into helicopters, so we are looking for any outfits that offer helicopter tours.

There used to be a cafe at Wiley Post that was in the terminal building with great runway views, sadly I believe they have closed since the pandemic.

I was about the bring this one up, but read that it closed. As did Ozzie's in Norman next to the airport in Norman. Would go down and watch planes take off and land. Hope something opens up in this space and at Wiley Post and really leans into the airport vibe.