And I do mean plane, as in airplane. I was talking to a co-worker today telling stories about some of the times I’ve flown. I have some pretty scary stories!!
Story #1: I few out to California to visit my oldest sister and my niece about…oh…8 years ago probably. I flew by myself and I was already somewhat nervous. My return flight had a layover in Chicago. The flight from Chicago to Detroit is only about 45 minutes so I figured it wouldn’t be that big of a deal. Well…it was storming. If you don’t yet know my feelings on storms, look at the post from Monday. So anyways…we’re getting ready to take off from Chicago and the pilot comes on saying “We’ll be cruising at XX,XXX feet for a total of about 45 minutes. Unfortunately, we may experience some turbulence for the duration of the flight.” I thought it wouldn’t be a big deal. Boy, was I wrong!!! I had a window seat which just so happened to be behind the wing. I LOVE window seats by the way, except when it looks like the wings on the plane are flapping like birds wings…ok, so maybe it wasn’t that bad, and I’m not by any means a white knuckle flyer, but I didn’t let go of the armrests for the whole flight.
Story #2: Cancun – January 2007. The flight there was peachy. No turbulence, no delays, nothing. Even seeing the Gulf of Mexico below us was really cool. The fun part comes in when leaving Cancun…the plane was sitting waiting to get the ok to enter the runway. I looked out the window and noticed 2 airplanes coming in for a landing on the runway we were waiting for. No big deal right! Well, I watched the first one come in, heard it go by, then all of the sudden…wait…why are we moving??? There’s another plane coming in!!! Next thing I know there’s the very loud sound of jet engines directly above us. Yes, the second plane just landed right over top of us…
Story #3: My mom and I went to Ireland in October 2007. Let me just say the trip was FANTASTIC…aside from the fact that we couldn’t get a rental car…that’s a whole other subject though… Our tickets were scheduled Detroit-New York-Dublin, Dublin-Chicago-Detroit (yeah, explain that one…) I don’t remember exactly which flight this was, but I think it was coming into Chicago, a.k.a. the Windy City. It was windy alright!!! The plane was lurching and shifting and swaying like crazy on the approach. I was sitting in the window seat again, and I could see the landscape rising and lowering. Oh! There’s the ground, oh it’s gone again…etc. It was bad. The landing was no better by any means! I was honestly scared that the plane was going to flip over or something (far fetched I know). Left rear tire-touchdown. Left rear tire-back in the air. Right rear tire-touchdown. Right rear tire-in the air. Left rear tire-touchdown, right rear tire-touchdown, front tires-touchdown. Ok, it doesn’t sound so bad on paper, but the amount of “air” we were getting when the tires came back off the ground…UGH!!! I still remember how it felt in my stomach!!!
Now, the majority of the times that I fly, everything is a-ok. These are just the most entertaining stories I have. Hope you enjoyed them!
~Peanut
"Both optimists and pessimists contribute to our society. The optimist invents the airplane and the pessimist the parachute."
-Gil Stern
Don't ever fly into Dubrovnik, Croatia.
ReplyDeleteI'm serious. Dubrovnik is this awesome little city that's squeezed right between the mountains and the Adriatic Sea - really gorgeous, and I highly recommend a visit there, BUT -
because the terrain around there is so mountainous, you seriously are making your descent and cannot see the airport or runways until you are practically on the ground. Which is really freaky - you think you're going to crash for sure!
But the thing is, riding through that area on a bus or in a taxi is really not any less scary, because again, you are driving through mountains and there are a zillion hairpin turns, but the driver is a local and is used to it, so he's taking it about three times faster than you think he should...
But still - absolutely breathtaking!
My Second Plane Ride (in a big plane, anyway):
ReplyDeleteOkay, so it was just after I graduated from Boot Camp and was being flown from Chicago to Orlando, via Miami.
Things were fine until about half-way through our flight, when our captain came over the loudspeaker, letting us know that during the mid-flight check, it looked as if we would not be able to lock our landing gear in place. So, when we landed, the wheels would essentially collapse and we would then be skidding on our belly. With, of course, the unsaid but real possibility that if we didn't land perfectly evenly, or if the wheels didn't give out at exactly the same time, we could be cartwheeling down the runway.
So, they had us all take crash precautions and get into crash positions and went over the emergency procedures once again.
Then, it was time for us to land. We landed...just fine. As we taxied down the runway, I remember looking out the window and seeing hundreds of police cars, fire trucks and ambulances lining the runway, waiting for us.
Turns out that it was just an indicator light failure, and not a failure of the actual equipment.
Then, because we were late getting in, we had to *run* through the airport to catch our connecting flight.
Never say life in the military is boring.... :)