RETRO FLYER AA Detroit to Honolulu , June 1982
AERO ICARUS
at the outer end of the 727-200 ’ s range , the cool weather meant that our takeoff was brisk . Soon after rotation , we turned right and began our southwestward journey . The first few hundred miles of our flight took us over the lush green farmland of Michigan , Illinois , and Iowa , interrupted only by the blue waters of Lake Michigan and the spires of Chicago ; it was so clear that I could even see aircraft on the ground at O ’ Hare far below . The fields gave way first to the barren ranch land of Nebraska , then to the Rocky Mountains .
Lunch on our flight was chicken Kiev , which tasted surprisingly good . After the meal service ended , Mom went to the galley for ‘ girl talk ’ with the Flight Attendants , but Dad stayed next to me , peering over my shoulder at the scenery from time to time . As the flight neared its end , we flew just south of the Grand Canyon , which I had never seen before . Dad had seen the Grand Canyon from the air often from TWA Constellations in the 1950s , but he enjoyed it that day just as much as I did . We started descending after we crossed the Colorado River . Our descent intensified after we had crossed the San Gabriel Mountains and begun the Downey approach to LAX . The skies had been clear the entire flight from Detroit , but California ’ s notorious ‘ June Gloom ’ had filled the Los Angeles basin with thick clouds and smog , which we did not break out of until we were just a couple of miles from the airport . After landing on LAX ’ s Runway 25R , we just briefly taxied to Gate 45 in American ’ s Satellite 4 . We were at the gate at 11:40 , still half an hour late .
American Flight 1 , our onward 747 to Honolulu , was scheduled to depart at 12:50 , but it had originated in New York ( at Kennedy , not LaGuardia ) and it , too , was running late . Mom chose to stay in the gate area , but Dad and I left the American satellite and explored LAX , picking up timetables for my collection from airlines — like Western , Capitol , PSA , and Air Cal — that did not serve Detroit . LAX was being modernized for the 1984 Olympics . One of the improvements was a second-
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