San Francisco - Los Angeles / Boeing 737-800 (SWA180) / IFR

This was a comfy flight from San Francisco to Los Angeles, a route I've flown many times. I flew as Southwest Flight 180.

I got a late start from KSFO, and for the first time I landed after the real flight, instead of before it. I arrived at the gate 14 minutes late, compared to the schedule. I'm not sure exactly why it took me so long.

There wasn't much ATC along the way, but LAX Tower was online. On my way in, I checked the ATIS, and it said 24R and 25L in use for landing, as usual, so I configured for that. Then, the next time I checked, after intercepting the localizer on my turn to final, there was a new ATIS, and it gave 24L, so I reconfigured for that, and managed to get established on 24L. Then, when I checked in, the tower told me to go for 24R again, so I had to reconfigure again five miles from the threshold—and I just skipped the ILS and flew it by hand. I was not happy. Fortunately the weather was clear, so I could make a last-minute visual approach.

I also had trouble finding the gate. I found gates 1 and 3, but not gate 2, which I presumed would be between them. I'll have to look into that further. I parked at gate 3 (the real flight parked at the elusive gate 2).