Airbus A320

Janice and I flew home from Florida this morning.  We had an early morning flight from Tampa to Memphis on an Airbus A320 with Northwest Airlines.  I've only flown on an Airbus a couple of times, and me being the aviation enthusiast that I am, I asked the captain for a cockpit tour once we arrived in Memphis.  He was very accommodating and even offered me a seat in the first officer's chair.  I was able to grill him pretty hard on Airbus A320 details.  He told me it has been his favorite airplane to fly by far.  He said he has flown just about every Boeing airliner there is, and he said nothing Boeing has can beat the fly-by-wire system that Airbus has.  He said he also never wants to go back to a yoke after using the side joystick that Airbus uses.

I was very impressed with the quietness and roominess of the Airbus. It seemed the aisle was wider than any other plane I've been on, and there was also a lot of overhead room, even under the overhead compartments.  We got lucky on this flight also by getting to sit in an exit row, so we had plenty of legroom.

We also flew in and out of Columbia for the first time.  Northwest recently started service from Columbia to Memphis with Saab 340 turboprop aircraft.  These are 34 passenger planes and they are also a pretty comfortable ride.  Our flights both coming and going were pretty full, and with Northwest offering competitive pricing, it sure beats driving 2 hours to St. Louis or Kansas City.