flying tidbits

  • A few weeks ago I had such a rough flight that I thought I could barf. I've never felt that way on a plane, in a car, on a boat. It was on a Saab (which means prop plane, which means pretty darn small, which means even smaller lavoratories). For once, the plane was full. Seriously, if I have 6 other people on there with me I'm shocked. This one? Full. Thankfully, the feeling passed and I did not end up barfing on my smuggled-to-Texas-from-Louisiana super-awesome King Cake. Nor did I have to try to throw up in the general direction of the tiny bathroom because, let's face it, I think that's the best aim one could hope for...

  • Weather has been weird and flights have not been smooth. When leaving Dallas last Friday, it was awfully windy. The take-off was a little, I don't know, unsteady? There was swaying from side-to-side. No big deal. I find that if I know the reason for the turbulence or whatever, I'm less likely to become concerned about it. A little bumpy on the descent before the pilot slammed us into the ground. I admit it. It was a hard landing. At least #2 in my list of hard landings. This maybe 19-year-old girl gets on her cell phone and is crying about how this was the Worst. Flight. Ever. And that the flight attendants were joking about it. The nerve. Suck it up, girlfriend. You wanna talk worst flight ever? How about circling until almost out of fuel because the weather is so bad, not being sure in what city you're landing, having the pilots decide to take a chance and land where we're supposed to while being surrounded by rain and lightning and lots of turbulence, and thinking you're going to probably die here right next to a guy who is a bodyguard for a stripper? THAT, my friend, was the worst flight ever. Worst landing? When the landing gear breaks and you get stuck on the plane while waiting for someone to "tug" you in to the terminal.

  • And yesterday... I flew to Oklahoma City in the morning and was supposed to stay until this evening. I (miraculously!) finished by about 4:20 and was able to convince the B&B proprietor not to charge me for cancelling at the last minute and got the (direct) 6:15 flight back home. So I book it to the airport and it says my flight is delayed 15 minutes. I overhear that the plane is coming from Chicago (not good). It ends up being almost 7:00 before we board and then we had to be de-iced (because Oklahoma is crazy cold AND wet--everytime I go). The flight is only about an hour and 15 minutes door-to-door. Well, because of the weather in Texas, we end up circling for about an hour (in blissfully smooth air, thank goodness). Then you can tell we're descending. No one tells us anything until we've gotten down to about 10,ooo feet that we are about to land. In San Antonio. This is not where I'm headed. We needed fuel and San Antonio was the plane's stop after my stop so those people had a lucky-ish night. We refueled, gave the lucky people their luggage, sat around a bit, and came home. We didn't land here until about 11. After paying for parking and getting a Whataburger taquito (I hadn't eaten since lunch…not even a peanut), I made it home at about 11:50. Ah, the glamorous life of a business traveler...

Comments

StaceyG said…
I've had a flight or 2 like that last point. Not fun.
Katie Lady said…
Yuck. That's all I can say about that last bit.
And THAT is why I don't fly.

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