Hello and welcome to my second trip report! I recently completed a trip with my friend and fellow a.net member, super80dfw, and I figured it would be a very unique trip that fellow a.netters will appreciate. Being from Kansas and coming from a town that directly benefited from small-carrier, Essential Air Service airlines like Great Lakes, sometimes I forget the rarity and relative difficulty flying with a carrier like Lakes is for lots of aviation buffs around the world. I hope you enjoy my account of my trip, and I apologize in advance for the lack of HYS ground pictures. I realized too late after takeoff this would certainly be one to report on.

Another disclaimer: I generally don't do trip reports for non revenue trips like this one because I don't quite feel that non revs get the same level of service at an airline comparable to a revenue passenger, for better or for worse, and I wouldn't want any of my experiences as a non-revver (again, for better or worse) to be a reflection of that company. The entire aviation industry has, in my relatively short time in it, has been incredibly family-like throughout my travels and I am extremely grateful to every gate agent, flight crewmember, and ramp staff that have made all my trips so enjoyable and keep passengers flying our friendly skies, giving us all jobs.

Now, to the report!



Background
The end of the school year is approaching and I really wanted to go visit a friend out in Hays before the semester ends. In the fall, he'll be moving back to MHK so this is the last chance I would have to go see how life really has been out on the high plains. Kansas is broken into many distinct parts, and my hometown, Manhattan, is so very different from Hays and the rest of Western Kansas that I sometimes forget this beautiful space is part of my own state. Regardless, I was excited to finally go and visit the FHSU campus when school was in session. Given the opportunity to fly lakes, another friend and recent re-transplant to Kansas, super80dfw, was also excited to come along. We had a great drive out to Hays, got a great tour of the Fort Hays State University Campus, and were excited to fly the Great Lakes Airlines again!

We made our reservations and listings on Great Lakes' reservations line. Calling them got us to very friendly operators who told us the flight was booked to four and our listing was A-OK! Our ZEDs were ticketed at the American Eagle ticket counter in Manhattan. We were all set and very excited!

Pre-departure and Check-in
We arrived at the Hays Airport about an hour early. My friend had a class to catch after we met for lunch before departing. The Hays Terminal is very spacious and consists of two large, square waiting areas, a small ticketing and rental car (Hertz) area, and space for airport administration. The terminal also includes a small drink and snack vending area with a few tables for dining, a pilots lounge, and the airport FBO, albeit in another wing. A small TSA checkpoint opens onto a much smaller passenger hold room with room for only about 25 people. Luckily, the Beechcraft only seats 19!

When we arrived, the inbound flight had just arrived and was being prepped for its short flight over to Great Bend, Kansas (GBD) where it would turn around again and operate our HYS-DEN leg. The waiting area offers an unobstructed view of the ramp and it was fun to watch the three agents maneuver the small GPU around the plane and marshal the plane out. From the ground, the departure to GBD looked like a very impressive takeoff and you could tell the plane was incredibly light.



Our aircraft being prepped for the HYS-GBD flight, N153GL, The aircraft operates DEN-HYS-GBD and return.

We went over to check in at the counter, I guess the reservations computers were down. The agent took our ZEDs and said that while the system was down, all the computer-work was being completed in GBD and the boarding passes were to be sent up on the inbound flight. In the mean time, she was going to write us some handwritten boarding passes and deliver them to the waiting area. Both the agents we talked to were very friendly and professional and were interested in how operations were at MQ in MHK. Did you know? - Great Lakes has scheduled 10-minute turns at almost all Beechcraft outstations? The crew will not even shut down the #2 engine to save pulling out a GPU and, according to the staff, its often easier to do it much quicker than that. -- At a company where it is sometimes a struggles to turn 50 seat jets in 30 minutes, I am impressed.

We requested seats 2A and 2C and the agent agreed to put us there. These are the best seats in the house, right next to the jets and with a great view of the cockpit. On the 19 seaters there is no flight attendant and the cockpit door is left wide open for the flight, giving passengers up front a great view of whats ahead and what the crew are up too!

Super80dfw and I took advantage of the free wifi offered by Hays-headquarted NexTech, a rural telephone and ISP company. The wifi was very fast and allowed us to watch the HYS-GBD flight land and turn around in GBD very quick on Flightaware! Sure enough, in a few minutes the agent brought us our true, hand written boarding passes!



There were four others in the terminal area, and about at the posted boarding time for our flight, we were invited to go through TSA screening. Four friendly TSA agents screened us and our bags, and had all sorts of questions about where we worked and how the operation works at MHK. This piqued a passenger's interest, too - He didn't know about the MHK-DFW/ORD service and sounded legitimately excited about it. I feel a little bad explaining MQ's service to him, as folks need to support Lakes and other local airline service so it doesn't disappear. There was also another nonrev, an ex-UA&TWA flight attendant on her way to Chicago. She was interested in the MHK flights too, as an alternative to MCI if the flights were full! There were three local revenue pax and three nonrevs and nineteen seats on our flight 7275. Soon, we'd meet pax #7, who was the only GBD-DEN passenger who was already on board our aircraft when it landed. An abysmal 37% loadfactor. Even more surprising that we knew the first flight in the morning left 100% full!

There was free bottled water (again provided by NexTech) in the gate holdroom. The agent went around the room putting gate-checked tags on all carry-on bags that couldn't be taken on board the airplane as there are no overhead bins. The Beechcraft does, however, have a small closet many passengers can stow bags in. A few minutes later, the agent came around again and collected our boarding passes, all before the plane had even arrived.

Super80dfw and I were keeping a keen eye out for the inbound flight. I noticed it taxiing out of the corner of my eye - it had landed on HYS' remote crosswind runway without us noticing! The plane pulled up to the gate and both engines were stopped and the small pull-behind GPU was attached behind the #1 engine. The FO later told us the aircraft had some sort of MEL item preventing them from keeping #2 running during the turn, and thus the reason the flight was running a little late.

Now it was time to board!

The flight - Great Lakes 7275 service to Denver

HYS-DEN
(7275 operates the continuing GBD-HYS-DEN service also)
Aircraft is N153GL
My eighth time on a Beechcraft 1900D,
and my sixth time (or segment, at least) on Great Lakes Airlines
Seat 2A




View of the cockpit from 2A




Me(top) in 2A and Super80dfw in 2C! (The only "B" seat is the back row, where three seats make a nice bench. One passenger made this her bed on this particular flight!


The first officer came out and gave a brief safety demonstration. I asked him (after he had completed the demonstration) if we could get a nice powerful takeoff. He said of course! He didn't let us down! We taxied out to runway 16 and held short while final takeoff preparations were underway in the cockpit.

Soon, the captain reached down and throttled the aircraft up some, turned South on to the runway, and pushed the throttles fully open. In less than 2,000 feet we were airborne and climbing fast, then banking to the right, giving Super80dfw a great view of the FHSU campus and the South side of Hays.

---Once we were airborne, I captured a brief video of the interior of the BE1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HulVzAS9Nvs








Oakley, Kansas - We followed I-70 the whole way!



As stable as I can be in this weather!



Limon, Colorado - Still following I-70.


Watching the clouds go by at 24,000 feet in a Beechcraft is really great. Its such a fun and beautiful little airplane to fly in, and while slower than a jet, we cruised quickly and with power!



Mountains are in the distance.



More Eastern Colorado.

We began descending quickly (we were watching the cockpit crew most of the time) and soon it was time to land in Denver.

Like seemingly all Denver approaches/landings/takeoffs/operations, it was exceptionally bumpy. Which is absolutely amazing, especially in a tank like the Beech!

What would you know that I catch a view of a United 757-200 on final for a parallel runway. Well, we began to close on it! I had to get my camera out to catch this spectacle -- A little, slow Beechcraft BEATING **THE** over-powered Boeing 757 in a race!? No way!!

I caught it on video. It also includes our landing, and a poor attempt to illustrate our view out the front window.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVovkZRG_mU

We taxied over to the ZK ramp, passing the slowly-taxiing and slowly flying UA 757 on our way, and deplaned.





Who doesn't fit in this picture! F9, you're not doing very well at hiding!



Chad spotted our company 75W pushing back for DFW. So glad they decided to bring it back to DEN now that the EGE seasonal stuff is done.



The FO posed for a picture with N153GL as we deplaned.



Thanks for the great ride 153!!





This is the Garden City, Kansas airplane - Ironic as MQ took over the EAS contract there in April. We've been doing alright there whenever I check, though it certainly hasn't been a runaway success a la MHK - as I predicted.

Conclusions
Great Lakes is awesome. I really miss having the opportunity to fly them DEN-MCK-MHK like I used to when returning from visiting family in Denver. ZK provides a basic service that is certainly unique among pretty much all other airlines in the US except for the odd Gulfstream (or is it Silver Airways) or Cape Air, and can take you to some pretty interesting places like Visalia, CA; Telluride, CO; and Hays, KS. Those are certainly not places you can take a vanilla A319 on United too, and many of these places depend on a reliable airline like ZK to provide basic airline -or rather- basic transportation services to their communities.

And regardless of what your feelings on EAS are, ZK is a great experience and the mighty Beech is a wonderful plane - truly an experience that shouldn't be passed up! Its one awesome ride.

Return

We made it interesting. After spending some time with my sister in DEN, the next day we flew back to Chicago on F9 on Grizwald, the A318!! It was great to finally get the baby bus! The F9 people were awesome. One of our FAs used to work for the old Frontier and flew the Convairliners in/out of MHK!!



Alas, not near as exciting as the mighty Beechcraft 1900D!

[Edited 2012-05-01 01:13:08]