This.

From the pedestal back it's 1960. The cockpit interphone handset is from "I Love Lucy."

It's a Douglas product, complete with Rube Goldberg build-a-better-mousetrap flight controls. The landing gear is made of concrete. Even the speedbrakes extend asymmetrically causing a wing to dip on descent.

Cockpit windows: They're are awful. Think DC8 (they're interchangeable.) There's even a nice "skin cancer" window over your head. Don't get me started on the wipers. All they do is make noise like a washing machine from -- you guessed it: 1960. The defog is useless. I've had to open the side window on more than one occasion to park the aircraft at night in the rain because it's basically opaque in that scenario. You need a mirror to look at the standby compass.

But PROF works fairly well. And the AP is more capable than the Boeing. And it's got the quietest cockpit in the fleet -- at the gate anyway. So there's that.

 

My first landing in the rain went something like this:

Captain: "Do you want the wipers"

Me: "Sure"

Click... (sound equivalent to a jack hammer)

Me: "Turn them off, turn them off!"

Captain: "Gear down?... ok"

The next time it was raining, I spent about 30 seconds trying to make up my mind if I would rather see the runway or hear the captain.

 

It has to be a monsoon before I turn mine on. And then there's a 50-50 chance "PARK" will stop in right in front of your nose (the plane has a sense of humor, at least.)

 

Does the 717 give you the glycol shower during deice like the 88?

 

It can.....depends on your "friendly" de-ice dudes and their aim. 😁

 

I remember when we had the RainBoe rain repellent still installed on the fleets. That stuff turned a tropical storm into a VFR day with a press of a button. The wipers were for taxiing or smearing off bird guts. I was shocked and appalled the first time I had to land without the repellent. Some desk jockey at the EPA decided it was the reason we had a hole in the ozone.

 

I thought it was because it caused testicular cancer, or made you want to listen to Justin Bieber songs....or something like that.

 

After landing, the PARK function actually worked. I made a comment that my wiper was broken because it WAS in the parked. Prior to that flight, I thought the wiper was supposed to be in the middle of your landing sight picture.

 

Ha. Who knows. I suspect it was cost driven to remove the system. How hard would it have been to develop a replacement solution that wasn't as toxic? It really was a great safety enhancement.

My first landing without the system in the mad dog was memorable, because it was like looking through a glass block window at the runway lights. I must have flared 100 feet high. Thank goodness it was a long strip!

 

The 717 was set up to replace some of the E170 and CRJ-900 flying with a few more seats. For example it is used on the BOS-LGA or LAX-SFO shuttle...so for the most part it does more legs per trip on avg than the Mad Dogs. It also has layovers in RJ towns like= jacksonville S.C., Lafayette LA., Traverse city, allentown, burlington