Victorville boneyard

Aircraft boneyard at Victorville

Today we make a day-trip to Victorville before I hopefully fly back to New Zealand.  Victorville had been on the plan all along, with us meant to fly from Colombia to Las Vegas originally.  Victorville would be a stop on the drive from Las Vegas to Los Angeles.

But due to several itinerary changes by the airline, we ended up flying to Los Angeles instead.  And Victorville isn’t too arduous as a daytrip.

We departed our hotel around 0815 for the easy drive to Victorville, getting to the old town centre before 1000.  It was sad to see the old town dead and largely closed up, having been overtaken by the newer shopping centres around.

Breakfast at McDonald’s was great value with 2 sasuage McMuffins for USD5!  They seemed freshly made and weren’t mangled at all and we felt obliged to have seconds.  It wasn’t necessary but never mind.

We continued to Southern California Logistics Airport around 1100 to look at parked and retired aircraft from outside the fence.  In normal times this is an aircraft boneyard where old aircraft get parted out for spares.  But with the pandemic, it also serves as temporary storage in dry climate.

I had found various viewpoints from the internet and marked them on Google Maps so we wouldn’t miss anything. With patchy mobile data connection, this was still manageable.

Most of the viewpoints were located along a stretch on the south-east perimeter fence, some between buildings.  A couple were on the western side, with one on unsealed road.

The number of planes stored here stretched for as far as the eyes could see.  While many were older, I was surprised to see a large number of 787 Dreamliners here when the same airlines have older model jets operating through the pandemic.

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Yanks Air Museum

Kim wanted to go to Chino Airport, kinda on the way back to Los Angeles, where there were at least two air museums of interest.  He had been to them before and let me choose between them.  I wasn’t interested in any but chose the one that looked more indoors as it was 38 degC outside!

At the Yanks Air Museum, their USD1 diet cokes were perfect for the hot weather.  We spent about 45 mins looking though the inside displays of old aircraft, the workshop and finally the boneyard where complete planes, parts and wrecks were stacked up awaiting restoration or rebuild one day.

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Departing Los Angeles

We returned to Los Angeles around 1500, making a stop at Costco first.  The temperature back on the coast was a more pleasant 25 degC.  At Costco, I got some chocolates for the crew on my flight and we grabbed a snack of chicken bake as I wouldn’t have time for dinner.

I had an hour’s rest at the hotel before taking the Hertz shuttle to the airport around 1800.  At Tom Bradley International Terminal, I couldn’t find a way from the arrivals level to departures due to a broken escalator.  I went back out in case there was another entry and ended up Terminal 4 where there wasn’t a way upstairs either.  I then returned to Tom Bradley and after trying harder, I found the elevator.  The airport really doesn’t compare to even some of the poorer Asian airports.

Three hours prior to my 2155 departure, there was no queue at check-in.  I’m guessing many people connect from other cities within the USA onto this flight.

Check-in took a while as my Malaysian passport didn’t distinguish between name and surname.  Air New Zealand’s system required a supervisor to fix the name whereas many other airlines allow the agent to do this.  Once sorted I was given a standby boarding pass to wait at the gate for hopefully a seat on the flight to Auckland.

The name issue problem carried through to TSA when they scanned my passport (no boarding pass scan required).  They directed me back to check-in to try fix the issue.  A staff member heading airside accompanied me through to TSA and when the passport scan failed again, she said something to them and they scanned my boarding pass instead to let me through.

It had taken me about 40 mins from entering the terminal, to get airside.  About 50 mins after having been dropped off by the bus.  And that’s with no queues.

I had over an hour to kill before I would hopefully be given a seat.  An hour prior to the 2155 departure, well after check-in had closed, I still had no luck.  I was eventually called 30 mins before departure and given an economy aisle seat.

While I had paid for a space-available upgrade, it wasn’t available to night and I would be refunded tomorrow.  On staff standby, any seat is a blessing.  An aisle seat is a bonus!

Onboard, I found the legroom on the Air New Zealand B777-300 to be surprisingly generous. I later realised when I looked online that my row had 88cm of pitch whereas it was 78cm further down the back.  Very lucky!

The flight left about 20 mins late and took off an hour after the scheduled departure time.  With the help of two half tablets of sleeping pill, I slept for nearly 6h between the two meals.