Flying high

Last night Lorree and I came home from our trip to Santa Fe. I promise that in the next day or two I will blog about the trip itself but this one is about our trip home, which was probably the most interesting plane trip I have ever had. Don’t get too excited while that statement is true the trip was still was more amusing than dangerous. (At least as far as I want to know.)

Albuquerque to Cincinnati
We are cruising along enjoying the view out the window which in this case is really the cloud cover. Overall the clouds look like a pretty smooth surface but there is this line of peeks and a valley running along side them. I thought that looked pretty cool and suggested to Lorree that she take a picture, which we did not. But I assume the picture comment might be why the pilot who was walking by stopped, leaned over and said “Are you the one who saw something on the wing?” Hmmmm, that is not really a question you want to hear at 10,000 feet or at any other height for that matter. We assured him that we were not the ones who saw something as we immediately shift our attention to intently searching the wing for anything out of the ordinary. The pilot moved back several rows and apparently found the right observer. After about a minute of looking out the window he casually wandered back to the front of the plane. I guess there was no significant problem since we were able to safely complete our flight. However the same plane was supposed to fly on to NYC but when we landed in Cincinnati they informed those that were staying on board to fly on to NYC that they would be switching planes.

Cincinnati to Roanoke
We climb aboard and met one of the most friendly and funny flight attendants I have ever had the pleasure of travelling with. He cracked jokes and made everyone laugh. He also told us that the flight would be about thirty five minutes long. We landed in Roanoke about over an hour later. I am not entirely sure where the extra thirty minutes went but I know how some of it was spent. The flight itself was fine and went without anything interesting to note. It was dark so looking out the window at the scenery was not really possible but we were able to tell when we were coming into Roanoke. Of course the lowering of the landing gear and decrease in altitude also lets you know you are landing. The landing seems to be going fine as we near the airport but then we start climbing again, the gear comes back up and we zoom off over Roanoke and beyond. We fly for sever minutes before turning back around to Roanoke where we have to go by Roanoke and turn around again for another try. As we are turning back to start our second attempt at landing the flight attendant comes on over the speaker system to let us in on the problem with out previous landing. Apparently our flaps and airbrakes are not working so we are going to land, then throw the engines in reverse and hope we stop in time. And oh by the way if he should yell out ‘brace yourself’ we should bend over and put our heads between our knees. We all tighten our seatbelts and get ready. The landing goes fine and in fact it seemed just as every other landing does on Roanoke’s short runways, a stong jolt as the wheels touch down and a sharp decease in speed. This time the main difference is the bright flashing lights of the fire trucks next to the runway waiting for something to happen. And apparently ‘as a precaution’ not only do the fire trucks watch us land they escort us to the gate. Lorree and I then get another chuckle as we over hear some of our fellow passengers telling others, over the phone or to those waiting for them, about our near death experience.

So all in all not a really scary set of flights but definitely some of the more interesting ones I have been on.