Happy Retirement (Delta Mad Dogs)

RyanB

RyanB

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They flew the final revenue flight this morning from IAD to ATL with an appropriate flight number (88).

https://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL88

Sad to see these beasts go... the last flight I flew on one, was from ATL to CHA back in 2017. Always loved to hear those mighty JT8D’s spool up. Definitely true workhorses! Now they can get adopted by some other owner and fly coke or something else productive!
 
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Hated taking them apart and then putting them back together. I'd rather do the heavy check on a '37-Combi, than any of the DC-9/MD80 variants.
 
Most of our flights from here to the ATL hub have been mad dogs for the last five years or so. I wonder what they'll replace them with? I hope we don'g go back to riding in the CRJ's. Ugh.
 
Bill Jennings said:
Most of our flights from here to the ATL hub have been mad dogs for the last five years or so. I wonder what they'll replace them with? I hope we don'g go back to riding in the CRJ's. Ugh.
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If I had to guess, it will be a combination of regional jets (CRJ/ERJ) and 737s/A319s.

As to the MD8x series, it's always nostalgic for us as pilots and aircraft lovers to see an airframe such as this get retired. On the other hand, the plane is an older gas guzzler that doesn't meet the current needs of the industry. It surprised me when Delta updated the avionics on their MD8x fleet 5-10 years ago. I would've made the same decision in their shoes to retire the things now, if I hadn't done so earlier.
 
FWIW.. I always avoided the dc-9 series aircraft when booking.. I know this plane has a bit of a cult following but I never totally understood why

Narrow cabin and remarkably noisy in the back, and windowless. Plus an uncontained failure may end up decapitating people, as did happen at least once before. Performance-wise it's also relatively average..

The A320/737 fleet is boring as hell now, but to be honest I won't miss this plane
 
The maintenance increases on this old airframes with all of the corrosion inspections and Aging Aircraft Inspection criteria are putting them in the boneyard.
 
The vast majority of my flights (rides) over the past several years have been on Mad Dogs. I end up going to smaller spots which don't need the big boys.

I read somewhere that the new A220 was going to take the majority of the old MD traffic. Sadly, I haven't had a ride on the new rig yet.
 
Bill Jennings said:
Most of our flights from here to the ATL hub have been mad dogs for the last five years or so. I wonder what they'll replace them with? I hope we don'g go back to riding in the CRJ's. Ugh.
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Ted DuPuis said:
If I had to guess, it will be a combination of regional jets (CRJ/ERJ) and 737s/A319s.
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Seems I recall hearing the 717 will replace it on some of the shorter routes (like ours) along with the CRJ9.
 
Guess I hadn't been following things very closely - I probably would have paid for a ride on the last flight. I flew on one of Delta's very first -88 flights way back when (DFW-DCA when they still had a hub at DFW). Plane was brand new with the "new airplane smell" and the captain insisted on verifying the numbers from dispatch as it was so new. Flew them many times, usually in F, but some bulkhead and exit-row when I had to sit in back.

Would have been nice to fly one of the first and one of the last flights on DL of the plane.

The one I'll miss really miss the 757 and its rocket-takeoff.
 
Also, with Delta scaling back, they won’t need to do certain routes 7-8 times a day out of ATL like BHM, and some of the small southern cities. So, like stated above it will be a mixture of 717, 320’s and 73’s. Before COVID Delta already began serving smaller routes with even 321’s and 737’s. Turns out customers want TV’s no matter how quick the flight is.
 
Tantalum said:
FWIW.. I always avoided the dc-9 series aircraft when booking.. I know this plane has a bit of a cult following but I never totally understood why

Narrow cabin and remarkably noisy in the back, and windowless. Plus an uncontained failure may end up decapitating people, as did happen at least once before. Performance-wise it's also relatively average..

The A320/737 fleet is boring as hell now, but to be honest I won't miss this plane
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I'm the opposite, we preferred the Mad dog series of aircraft when we fly commercial. Since its usually just the wife and I, we enjoyed the 2-3 seating and having one side of the aisle to ourselves with no awkward stranger having to sit next to one of us. Just make sure you don't sit in the back row to avoid the nose and windowless seats.
 
midwestpa24 said:
2-3 seating
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Yeah I can see that.. many of the flights I took the last 5 years were for work and booked fairly last minute so I had little say over where I sat. Oddly enough, I do like the 767 seating for that same reason though.. you have a very high likelihood of NOT getting a middle seat when booking that plane
 
Absolutely hated loading the bins. Probably the cause of most of my lower back problems today. Long and low. Total pain in the back.
 
I have about 2.5 million butt-in-seat miles on Delta, I'd say 90% of the domestic miles in MD88's. I got upgraded most of the time, so I kind of enjoyed them. Not too noisy or cramped in front. I got picky about the roll-aboards I owned as the row 1 overheads were just a hair smaller than the rest as the nose started to curve in. Needed 2" shorter than standard and to be against the aft wall of that particular compartment. I had fun when the FA's would try to tell me it wouldn't fit. BTW, this might be the definition of not having a life :).
 
Hang 4 said:
I got picky about the roll-aboards I owned as the row 1 overheads were just a hair smaller than the rest as the nose started to curve in. Needed 2" shorter than standard and to be against the aft wall of that particular compartment. I had fun when the FA's would try to tell me it wouldn't fit. BTW, this might be the definition of not having a life :).
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Lol. Oh the small victories we savor. I bought a crew rollaboard that is specifically made to fit into the overhead on the CRJ200. And its like the FAs on the regionals started their job last week, a good number of them were utterly convinced that this 'large' rollaboard cant possibly fit into their precious overhead Me: 'Mam, it fits every week...'
FA: 'We'll see about THAT!'


As for the MD, I have spent a lot of time somewhere in the front 1/3 of those. In the later years, they were getting a bit worn and I was happy when I noticed an A321 instead.
 
I’m not that old, but I remember a time in the nineties that at the international airport you’d see underwing twins (-37,-57,-67), fuselage mounted twins (DC-9, Fokker 100) fuselage mounted tri-jets (727) big tri jets like the DC-10 and L1011, 747s various size, four engined commuters (BAE-146), the Concorde, big and small turbo props, etc.

Nowadays it’s just a bunch of variants of a handful of underwing mounted twin-engined Boeings and Airbuses, with a bunch of CRJs and ERJs that I can’t really tell apart. Plane spotting sure has gotten boring from its heyday. RIP mad dog.
 
weilke said:
As for the MD, I have spent a lot of time somewhere in the front 1/3 of those. In the later years, they were getting a bit worn and I was happy when I noticed an A321 instead.
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I had a multi-city round robin trip last year and every leg was on a MD.... and on every leg, my seat wouldn't stay inclined. Drove me up the wall! 1. I hate being 'that guy' that reclines his seat into somebody's lap and 2. It's not really comfortable to recline for me and then 3. It gets really annoying have the FA come by every 30 seconds and tell you "Sir, you need to return your seatback to its upright position.". On the last leg, I finally got snippy with the lady (she wasn't friendly to begin with and I had just had it) and told her if they would spend a little less time pushing their credit card offers on me and a little more time maintaining their planes, maybe my seat would stay up where it's supposed to. Yeah.... I was tired.. It had been a long week... She didn't come check on me again. :)
 
Glad to see it go. Hated airlining on the DAL MD’s.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Brad Z said:
Fokker 100
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..actually probably one of my favorite planes to fly on. There were never too many of them in the US, but I had probably a half a dozen or so flights on them, I remember my initial disappointment at how small it was, but ultimately really enjoying the ride.. the cabin was quiet, very comfortable and it just felt like an all around pleasant plane. On one flight I was seated right in front of the engine, cool view, and it was nowhere near as load as any of the DC-9 variants

Brad Z said:
L1011
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Only got to fly on it twice.. really cool plane, felt *huge* inside

In general though, the "Mad Dog" (why the name by the way?) is not something I'm sad to see go. Tiny bins, cramped cabins, and loud as hell if you were sat anywhere near the the rear 1/4 of the plane

Plane spotting though has become *remarkably* boring though. Which sucks.
 
weilke said:
In a windowless row that has a 1in shorter pitch and a backrest that doesn't recline. The only thing missing are locusts or painful boils.
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There's the sounds and smells of the lav to add to the experience. And having everyone waiting for the lav use your headrest as a cane so your sleeping head gets bounced every minute or so.
 
Hang 4 said:
There's the sounds and smells of the lav to add to the experience. And having everyone waiting for the lav use your headrest as a cane so your sleeping head gets bounced every minute or so.
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Or 'pasengers of size' who squeeze their mass into your row to let someone out of the lav.
Good times !


(I had one regular connection at MSP where I was sometimes able to hop on the earlier flight home. The downside of going standby was that it frequently involved the seat in the torture row.)
 
Brad Z said:
Unless you sat in the far back sandwiched between a screaming turbofan and a lav.
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Exactly. And this was always my experience on them. I was never comfortable and it was so loud all the way in the back.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
weilke said:
In a windowless row that has a 1in shorter pitch and a backrest that doesn't recline. The only thing missing are locusts or painful boils.
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Worst flight of my life.

A package tour to Cancun back in my cheap/single/dating days. Asked for a window seat. Got the window against the engine and which backed up to the lav. It got better. This was back in the days of the smoking section. I have always abhorred smoking. The gate attendant didn't bother to ask if I wanted smoking or non, and I didn't think to ask, so my seat was also in the smoking section. So, smoking section, engine view, convenience and fragrance of a lav 3 feet away on a worn out DC-9/MD-something.

Awesome.
 
Brad Z said:
I’m not that old, but I remember a time in the nineties that at the international airport you’d see underwing twins (-37,-57,-67), fuselage mounted twins (DC-9, Fokker 100) fuselage mounted tri-jets (727) big tri jets like the DC-10 and L1011, 747s various size, four engined commuters (BAE-146), the Concorde, big and small turbo props, etc.

Nowadays it’s just a bunch of variants of a handful of underwing mounted twin-engined Boeings and Airbuses, with a bunch of CRJs and ERJs that I can’t really tell apart. Plane spotting sure has gotten boring from its heyday. RIP mad dog.
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I loved th L10s. Wonderful ride, comfortable. And a very advanced control system. I remember riding in the back on one into ZRH in something very close to 0-0 (we couldn't see the sides of the runway, and they had to send out a follow-me truck to lead us in. They may have been one of my favorite aircraft ever.
 
I’m a sucker for any airplane, particularly whatever one I’m currently flying. That said, I’d love to fly the 80 again for a month. I may be too spoiled on the modern cockpits to switch to the old school 80 (if that were even possible) but the memories, and that video, make me nostalgic.
 
Last flight I had on one was coming back from the Delta CTP class, ATL to ORF. Snapped some pictures for history sake of the McDonnell Douglas stamp on the window shade and those nice sleek wings. That was a few years ago but guess I will never ride her again. It does make me laugh that a high lot F/A-18E/F or EA-18G still bears Mac Air placards next to the leading edge flap/fuselage interface as well as a couple places in the cockpit. I thought, ya know, before any of those jets were built, Boeing became the manufacturer? :)
 
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