I'm sitting in Detroit Metro again this morning, after another quick jaunt to WV to see the sites. I'm becoming quite an expert on Northwest's fleet of small planes. Here's what you can expect if you're doing the Lansing to Canton/Dayton/Columbus/Charleston shuffle...on the planes that are, I believe, referred to as puddle-jumpers.
The Saab S340. A prop jet (a jet engine turns the propellers) and the smallest of the Northwest fleet. Suprisingly roomy on the inside, one seat on one side of the aisle, two on the other. Lots of head room, and the seats feel pretty large. Good windows. Like all small planes, this model suffers from a lack of sufficient airflow from the vents. Lack of air flow sucks in a stale overheated cabin, especially when the woman or man next to you has really loaded on the perfume or aftershave (like this morning, for example). I always find it pretty amusing that landing speed is the same as flying speed; there's no noticeable throttling back of the engines as we come in to land.
The CRJ100 or CRJ200. 2 seats on each side of the aisle. Not a lot of head room, not a lot of air flow. Windows that are impossible to look out of while you are on the ground (unless you stoop). Sadly, I'm stuck on these a lot now, and they suck.
The CRJ900. For everything that is sucky about the CRJ, this model from the engineers at Bombardier is awesome. It's newer, so, it has lots of head room and seat space. Has a first class cabin (so, there's a chance I can get out of steerage). Only been on this thing once (on a DTW-LAN hop) and hope I get to see it on more of these smaller flights.
Once upon a time I looked at a flight on a DC-9 as an unavoidable alternative; now, I'm excited to be on one. Full-size jet, but it's old...the last one ever was built in 1982. Decent seat room, awesome air flow, good windows. Used to get these a lot on the Lansing-Detroit hops, now, with all the cutbacks, they've been mostly replaced by those sucky CRJ's. But, I fly one home today.
