RETRO FLYER
Joe Wolf CONTRIBUTOR
Coach Flyer : AA Detroit to Honolulu , June 1982
Many of us treasure the memories of a few favorite flights . Mine go back to June 17 , 1982 , when my parents and I flew Detroit- Los Angeles-Honolulu on American Airlines ( AA ).
FEW PEOPLE ARE HAPPY when they are 13 years old . That year was especially tough for me because my best friend Stuart and his family moved from my hometown in Michigan to Hawaii . Although money was tight , my parents and I agreed that we would spend as little as possible in 1982 and put the money aside toward a vacation in Hawaii , after the school year ended , so we could see my friend and his family , as well as my aunt and cousins who also lived in Hawaii . My aunt is a retired American Airlines Flight Attendant , and a close family friend was an American Pilot . So there was no question we would be flying on American to Hawaii .
Thursday , June 17 , 1982 , dawned clear but chilly ‚ a reminder that warm weather comes late to the Great Lakes State . We got to American Airlines ’ concourse in DTW ’ s Smith Terminal around 08:45 , about an hour before American Flight 41 to Los Angeles was due to depart . Before the 1980- 82 recession , American 41 had been AA ’ s evening nonstop from Detroit to Los Angeles and was flown with a DC-10 . However , the shutdown of General Motors and Ford assembly plants in the Los Angeles area during the recession cost American so many passengers and belly cargo shipments of auto parts that the carrier reduced the Detroit-Los Angeles schedule from three DC-10 nonstops a day in 1979 ( plus a 747 freighter ) to just Flight 41 , which had been moved to a 09:45 departure time and downgauged to a 727-200 .
Flight 41 had originated at New York LaGuardia ( LGA ) and arrived at Gate 14 around 09:40 , 25 minutes late . As the inbound passengers deplaned , clad in business suits for their meetings at Detroit ’ s auto companies and banks , I ’ m sure a few of them glanced wistfully at the vacationers waiting to board their connecting flight . After they had gotten off and our aircraft had been refueled and catered , it was our turn to board . We pushed back around 10:15 , half an hour late , then began the long taxi around DTW ’ s terminals to Runway 21R ( now 21L ). Although the 1,979-mile flight to Los Angeles was
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