Took a trip to visit relatives in Southern California over the Christmas holiday. Abbreviations at end 25 Dec OAK-ONT WN2821 N657SW B737-3L9 cn23331/1111 Got to the airport about 1000 for a 1355 departure. Way too early for Christmas day. No long lines at security. Took about 15-20 minutes to check in at curbside (Long line inside to check in, though). Went to Terminal 1 to see if I could get a Jet Blue timetable (no luck). Went through security with no problem. Grabbed a bite to eat then went out of security. Went back into security through Terminal 2. This time, I beeped and had to remove my shoes. It seems that each scanner is different - similar thing happened at ONT. Saw an airline I couldn't identify but think it may be Allegro. It was a 727 with a "A" on the blue tail and a red dash forming the straight part of the "A". Smooth flight. The pilot said we would be cruising at FL290 which seemed low to me, although if he said FL390 then that would have been too hight for a 737-300. Had planned on visiting the old George AFB where many airliners are stored but changed my mind. Instead, I decided to go to a naturist resort to do some hot tubbing then visited SBD and CNO. Not much at SBD: a white, engineless 727 (N252RL) Anybody know anything about this aircraft? Here's what the landings.com database has on it: N-number : N252RL Aircraft Serial Number : 21456 Aircraft Manufacturer : BOEING Model : 727-200 Engine Manufacturer : P & W Model : JT8D-17 SER Aircraft Year : 1978 Owner Name : TRANS PACIFIC LEASING CORP Owner Address : 4790 CAUGHLIN PKWY # 710 RENO, NV, 89509-0907 Registration Date : 02-Oct-1996 Airworthiness Certificate Type : Standard Approved Operations : Transport Other than 252RL, the only other aircraft at the ghost town called SBD was a couple of blimbs (monster.com and don't remember the name on the other one). CNO was great. Found the following aircraft: Beech D18S cnA85 N121SC (All American Airfreight is the registered owner,although there was no titles on the aircraft) These 3 aircraft were near the Chino Planes of Fame Air Museum Fairchild F-27J N274PH with Fresh Air titles (landings.com shows it regeisterd to Cannon Industries of SLC) Pacific Southwest DC3 (picture doesn't show the registration) Convair 240 cn 47 N240HH Coast Guard VC-3A (Martin 404) N404CG (shown on aircraft as N 404 CG) - registered to Samuel Thomas Stewart of Tennessee Beech C-45H N2833G in USAF color scheme with AF serial of 51-11602 The next two aircraft were by a museum at CNO. Unfortunately, I didn't catch the name of the museum (it wasn't Planes of Fame, though) C-46 N74173 cn 289 no titles DC-3 (C-47?) with serial 0-23668 (didn't see a civilian registration number) - anyone know anything about this aircraft? The following aircraft were at a mysterious spot on the southeastern corner of CNO. It was fenced in and said "no loitering, no photography and no (something else). Fairchild SA227-AT N9UA cn AT-495 (registered to Global Aircraft Sales) C-47B N103NA cn 33569 with Classic Express airlines titles - couldn't find this in JP. The aircraft is registered to Newport Signal Air 2 B727's with "Charter America" titles on them. Again, can't find this airline in the latest JP. Couldn't make out the registrations on these aircraft 29 Dec ONT-OAK WN573 N638SW B737-3H4 cn27711/2820 Go to the airport about 0445 to drop off the rental car. Got to terminal about 0510 and was checked in (curbside) by 0515. Entered the secured area to find a place to eat. No luck - most everything was either closed or had a long line/expensive prices. Left the secured area and reentered a few minutes later. This time, I went through a different machine and was beeped. ONT airport, compared to what it was like when I was there about 4 or 5 years ago, sucks! It went from a basically open air terminal to a sterile, might-as-well-be-inside-a-shopping-mall building. Even had to use the damn jetways to board the aircraft. This was another low altitude flight - FL280. Choppy all the way until the last few minutes of the flight due to the front along the California coast. At both OAK and ONT I kept thinking of George Orwell's 1984. The loudspeaker kept repeating over and over "no smoking", "watch your luggage", etc. What I thought was funny and stupid was at ONT when the announcement included the fact that passengers only were allowed in the secured area. This announcement should have been made in the main lobby! Noticed a long line for going through security at terminal 2 at OAK when I returned, although it didn't go out to the parking lot like the news reports have indicated. OAK: Oakland, California ONT: Ontario, California CNO: Chino, California SBD: San Bernardino International (formerly Norton AFB), California SLC: Salt Lake City, Utah WN: Southwest Airlines cn: construction number FL: Flight level (altitude in hundreds of feet) David Ross http://damiross.go.cc http://home.earthlink.net/~damiross/airlines.html http://home.earthlink.net/~damiross/books.html