Detroit Meltdown

Like I said, getting home is a story in and of itself. I picked up a taxi from CAE to the international terminal at Pearson. CAE is just on the other side of the aiport, so it's only a 10-15 minute taxi ride. It took a while for my taxi to pick me up and I was beginning to worry about missing my flight, which connected through Detroit.

When he picked me up, I had exactly one hour to departure and was extremely nervous about not getting to the gate on time. I asked the driver to get there as fast as he could. As we were heading down Derry Rd. on the West side of the airport, the driver suddenly slammed on the brakes. Out in front of him was a police officer, pointing at cars that had been caught speeding. Luckily he didn't point at my taxi. Apparently, that's how they pull you over. You Canadians are so civilized...wait...civilised.

I made it to the terminal 45 minutes prior to departure. I made it the gate 5 minutes prior to departure only to find that the flight was delayed by 90 minutes. No problem making it. The late departure would make me miss my departure to Cincinnati.

When I got to Detroit, I made my way to the gate area and found that there was one more flight departing to Cincinnati. It was sold out, but there was a Comair pilot flying on company business back to Cincinnati, so I approached him and asked if he'd take the jumpseat so I could get a seat in the cabin. He agreed and told the captain. The captain came down and asked told the gate agent there would be one more seat in the cabin. The gate agent had already closed the flight and wouldn't let me on board the aircraft. It's not good to argue when you travel on pass privileges, so I graciously (on the outside) bowed out and started looking for other options.

The only other option was to go through Ft. Wayne. I was ticketed and about to board when a family of non-revenue passengers with higher priority came and took all of the remaining seats. I was bumped. Faced with the prospect of a night in Detroit was not very appealing. Money was very tight and anxiety was building.

Just as I thought a good day had turned bad, a couple approached me. The husband said, "Sounds like you need to be in Cincinnati tonight." I nodded and indicated that I had been bumped from my last flight option. I introduced myself and we all got to chatting. We got to know each other a bit and found that we lived within 10 miles of one another. Their son was a pilot with Delta and they too had been bumped from the Cincinnati flight. They too wanted to be home that night, but didn't feel like driving. They said if I drove, they'd pay for the rental car.

They said that since I was a pilot, they figured I could drive a car safely too. Umm...ok. I'm in. They had no luck finding a rental car, but I was able to get a one way rental from Enterprise for a very reasonable rate. Withing 30 minutes, we were on our way to Cincinnati which is about 250 miles away.

It was a very enjoyable drive. The husband is a petro-chemical engineer with Ashland and the wife a physician. I stopped and bought burgers for everyone along the way and we had a nice time. I appreciated their generosity and hope to be able to do the same for someone else in their time of need. We made it back to Northern Kentucky by 9 p.m., I dropped them off at their lovely home and met my wife at Enterprise. Pure serendipity.

It was a good ending to a long weekend and a very long day. Storm clouds were on the horizon.

Fast Forward

I have a lot of holes to fill and have been remiss about posting. Although mindful of the personal importance of keeping up with writing, several challenges and obstacles had taken my heart out of it.

I used to have a link to some of my favorite aviation blogs through Blogrolling, but they have ceased operation and all links were lost. I've added a few. If you have an aviation related blog and would like me to add it to Great Gig In The Sky, please let me know.

In twenty five years, I want to have something to look back on that can be shared with my children and grandchildren.

Back to blogging. It's going to be out of sequence for a while, but I will try to fill the gaps as time goes by.

Where am I now? West Africa. Abuja, Nigeria to be exact. Abuja is the capitol city of Nigeria, created the 1970's from scratch as a master planned government city along the same lines as Brasilia, Brazil.

Today is presidential election day. Nigerian law dictates that election days are strictly enforced non-movement days. The night before from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., there is a curfew. Everyone is to be off the streets except for essential personnel. Coming back from the airport last night at 10 p.m., we had a police escort and encountered several road blocks where citizens were being questioned for their reason for being out past curfew. Election day non-movement is from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. People are only allowed outside of their home to vote at their local polling station. Needless to say, I am sitting in the Sheraton with plenty of time to kill. Time to blog.

Last August I was invited to interview with my new airline in Toronto. The interview was to include a face to face and simulator assessment. Having been out of an aircraft for almost 10 months, I was rusty and feeling more than a little nervous. I needed this job.

Luckily, the guy that interviewed me is a caliber guy. He made me feel relaxed from the beginning and my nerves settle by the time the simulator was open. I had the earliest flight of the interviewees and took the first slot. Might as well get it over with, right?

It was a straight forward assessment. We began with a standard take off where I climbed to 10,000 feet. He then had me demonstrate some steep turns. A steep turn consists of a 45 degree banked turn, usually 180 degrees in one direction and then 180 degrees back to the original heading. ATP standards are +/- 100 feet and +/- 10 knots. My first one was a disaster, so I asked for another. The second one was within ATP standards and he said he was satisfied.

Next we returned to the airport for a standard ILS approach. It was down to minimums and required a missed approach. After the missed, did a hand flown VOR approach to a landing. He re-positioned me for a low visibility takeoff and gave me a V1 cut (engine failure at the most critical phase of takeoff). The V1 cut worked out fine. It was due to severe engine damage. I did the emergency items for it, stayed on single engine and did a hand flown, single engine ILS to a full stop. One last normal takeoff, he failed the flaps and I did a visual approach with flaps zero back to 31L at JFK.

Whew! It was over. He said, "Good job. We'll see you in a few weeks for training and then in Lagos, but the official word will come from our office in London." It sounded like I was hired, but not hired. He saw the confused look on my face and said, "I'm the one that makes the decision. You just have to get the confirmation from the London office." That made me feel a lot better.

I shakily got out of my seat in the sim and headed back to the lounge area where the other guys were waiting their turn. They were all anxious to hear the gouge so they'd know what to expect in their ride. That's the downside of going first. You don't know what to expect. I spent about 20 minutes telling them all about it, wondering which of them I'd be seeing in Africa. Then it was time to get to Pearson airport so I could get back home.

That's another story in and of itself...

The outside of the Sheraton Hotel in Abuja. It's a large hotel with resort
style amenities like a steakhouse, Italian restaurant, casino, large pool area,
tennis, conference facilities and spa facilities.

This is the view from outside of my room.
Each tower is pyramid shaped with an open atrium.

Long delays between posts

Although this blog was created purely for personal reasons, I feel fortunate to have made many friends through it and am honored that it has many followers.

Life has been very hectic and that is the reason for the delays. Lots to say, stories to share, promise to be back very soon.