After my week in Dubois it’s time to head home. I made the drive back to State College. I’d not ever been to Penn State before and I had a few minutes to kill so I took a driving lap through campus. Got to see the stadium and a few other landmarks.
In This Trip
1: Lots of CRJs: United CRJ200 Review GSP-IAD-SCE
2: Review: Fairfield Inn and Suites DuBois, PA
3 :More CRJs: Delta SCE-DTW-GSP CRJ200 and CRJ900 Economy Review
3.1: State College Airport
3.2: SCE-DTW Delta CRJ200 Exit Row Review
3.3: DTW Airport Layover and Skyclub
3.4: DTW-GSP Delta CRJ900 Exit Row Review
3.5: Final Thoughts
State College Airport
The SCE airport is very small, not Gainesville small, but still has that same feel.
The rental car return is just next to the SCE Airport Tower. There’s also a good amount of light construction going on at the airport, but the roads are in good shape.
Let’s just say the entrance from the rental car lot is less than glamorous.
I returned my rental car keys and headed through security here at SCE Airport. It’s a damn small airport. Not quite CDC Airport but still very small. They do a PreCheck light and that works for me.
After getting through security I noticed there was a collection of books and magazines. I’d not seen a public area in an airport have that in several years.
I settled into The Encyclopedia Of Civil Aircraft and did a little reading about the original Canadair Challenger that the CRJ is based on.
It talked about how Lear pitched the idea to several companies but Canadair was the only one to bite. Fun to read about the history of the plane I was about to fly on. Also a little funny to think that the original CL-600 was designed for 14 people, and now they stuff 50 into it. Granted it is longer, but it’s a similar sized tube.
I was still pretty early and a United flight to IAD departed. But it was soon our time to board.
SCE-DTW Delta CRJ200 Exit Row Review
Boarding here is done by ramp, I always love boarding by stairs or ramp.
Another interesting thing is that there is no tug to push the plane back. They do a U-turn just like at LCY, but after boarding not before.
Jet bridges suck.
Today I’m in am exit row, I don’t usually don’t like these seats on this plane, but I have an empty seat next to me so I’ll make that trade.
Fortunately today they have the ground AC unit cranked to double winter. For the first time all summer, I’m not uncomfortably hot in a CRJ200.
The pilot and flight attendants gave their normal announcements and of course came by and asked me the normal exit row questions. These exit row seats on the Delta CRJ200 don’t really have any extra leg room over the regular seats. There’s also less padding in the seat cushions.
Doesn’t seem to be a partially full flight, not sure what the usually loads are like out of State College. But our Delta CRJ200 was not heavy today.
We soon took off from the relatively short runway. We then pointed out nose towards Detroit as I relaxed to another episode of CarTalk.
It was a little rough during our climb out, we’re passing through clouds. It’s been raining all week here in central PA and today is no difference.
We hit a few pretty good bumps on the way up but once we were above the clouds it was a nice ride.
Very quickly the flight attendant came around offering Biscoff and a choice if coffee or water. I like these abbreviated serviced. On a short flight it makes it feel like nature is healing. As usual, I’m waiting to take off my mask and have a snack. I’d rather not have my mask off when the entire plane does as well.
As our Delta CRJ200 crossed over the Lake Erie shore line the flight attendant came through to collect trash from the service. I wasn’t quite done yet, but seemed like most of the plane was. The lake looks very calm today, I haven’t flown over lake Erie in several years, when I lived in Cleveland it was a very common occurrence for me.
As we crossed over the northern shore of the lake into Ontario the pilot made his pre-landing announcements. Usually stuff about wind speed, direction, temperature, and that we would be landed a few minutes early. The flight attendant then made her announcement and started a final garbage pickup.
We started to decend as we crossed back over the US-Canada boarder to the North of Detroit.
Got some great views of downtown and then Dearborn on our way to DTW.
We landed a few minutes early, works for me.
We came into the C gates here at DTW. The B/C concourse here at DTW are exclusively used by Delta Connection flights.
DTW Airport Layover and Skyclub
After landed I made my way to the B/C concourse Skyclub. It’s directly in the middle of the concourse right next to the escalators that can take you down to the tunnel to the A Concourse.
I have a longer than comfortable layover, just about two hours. I’d much rather be closer to one but I’ll take what I can get coming from SCE.
This lounge still feels very Northwest, because it was. I liked Northwest and as a Michigan native, my first intern flight was. NW 747 to Tokyo. My ineragual first class flight was a NW DC9. My first flight alone at age 10 was Northwest. Lots of good memories.
Anyway, the Delta Skyclub is back to pretty normal menus here in the lounges. I kinda over did it, but it’s Friday so whatever.
No tunnel today as I arrived into C and I’m heading to B. Lots of good looking planes around this evening. The lounge is pretty quiet tonight, as is the rest of the airport. I’ll need to check, but I don’t think I’ve been to DTW since 2019. Covid really has sucked.
DTW-GSP Delta CRJ900 Exit Row Review
On my walk to the gate I got the boarding notification. When I arrived they were calling all passengers. It’s a very light load tonight on this Delta CRJ900.
This isn’t a stairs boarding gate. They just have the rain hood retracted on the jet-bridge tonight. Gives me a nice view of our Delta CRJ900.
The Delta CRJ900 is a pretty comfortable aircraft. It’s not as good as the Delta ERJ-175, but it’s much better than the CRJ200. At least on these the exit rows are great seats.
One thing I love about my pelican luggage is that it always fits. Even on a CRJ900 it will go right into the overhead. The gate agents always want to tag it, I won’t put up a flight, but I won’t put it in the rack. I’d much rather just carry it on so I don’t have to wait when I get back to GSP.
Boarding was fast at first, then slowed to a trickle. We’re still a good 20 minutes from departure time so who am I to judge. Man am I ready to be home. It’s been a long week.
The second row in particular has a pile of leg room and still reclines. The only downside is the arm rests are solid as they hold the tray table.
I’m still always amazing at how loud flights to Greenville are. People just love to fucking talk. Like I get it, but come on it’s late, I’m tired, and can hear you though my noise cancelling Sony’s. You’re too damn loud.
This particular Delta CRJ900 is starting to show it’s age. There’s quite a few of these in a fleet, the new ones are great, the older ones are ready for some love.
The door closed about 10 minutes early and the flight attendants begin their announcement. They did the standard safety announcement and then said once airborne, if the weather allowed, they would have a service on our Delta CRJ900 flight.
We then pushed back and on our way home to GSP. The pilot told us we’d have a 1:10 flight once we’re airborne. That the flight might be a little bumpy as there’s some weather to deal with. I settled into a ClearStory podcast from This Old House.
It was a mostly clear night on our climb out but we hit a few clouds and rough spots. I’ve flown this route a lot. For a year Val and I were long distance and the DTW-GSP flight was a very common occurrence in my life.
As we crossed over Toledo the flight attendants made the service announcements with the offerings this evening. I’m tired and just don’t feel like having anything this evening. They are offering a full drink service so that’s nice for the people who what to partake.
As we crossed over the boarder into North Carolina the pilot made his arrival announcement and asked the flight attendants to ready the cabin for arrival.
Our Delta CRJ900 soon began descending and the flight attendants came through the cabin to collect garbage.
I know there have been flights that I didn’t really care if they ended. This is not one of those flights, I want this flight to end. Not because it’s uncomfortable or unpleasant, I’m just tired and ready to be home. As we passed over Ashville I started to get a little restless and inpatient. Nothing I can do, but wait.
Soon enough we landed into GSP, the good thing was that we were about 20 minutes early. I love that especially after a long week.
Final Thoughts
SCE is a perfectly pleasant little airport. I really like the little library selection along with boarding via stairs. It feels like a small version of the old CVG Concourse C. Lots of gates with only a few doors. You then exit the building and walk outside to the plane. The lack of pushback tugs is exactly like London City. LCY is such a fun experience, Central Pennsylvania isn’t exactly as great.
The problem with SCE is that it’s just not well connected. UA has flights to IAD and ORD, AA to ORD, and DL to DTW. So expect a few ill-timed layovers if you end up using this airport.
DTW is a great airport, I will gladly route via Detroit and chance I can. It’s not particularly on the way to most places from GSP, but for Asia, Europe, or Canada it’s great.
The Delta CRJ200 is about what you would expect, it’s a CRJ. Some Delta CRJ900s are starting to show their age, but are still a great ride. Second best regional jet and I might even prefer it to some full sized narrow body jets.
Anyway, after a week long trip, I’m ready to take the weekend to relax.