On The Job Observations

This post isn't really aviation related, more a day in the life kind of thing.

One of the things that pilots do when not flying is spend a lot of time at airports. We like to call it "airport appreciation". Last week, I spend some "airport appreciation" time in New York at LaGuardia. This post is about that experience.

When killing time at the airport, there are several options.

1. Go to the crew lounge. (if available)
2. Sit in the gate area and wait for your next leg.
3. Go to the food court.
4. Stay on your aircraft (if available) and sleep.
5. Find a comfortable spot and people watch.

I don't usually like to hang out in the crew lounge. With everyone coming and going all the time, it's noisy. Also, there tends to be a lot of complaining. Every job has its positives and negatives, but dwelling on the downs just doesn't appeal to me.

The gate area gets a little crowded and you get asked a lot of questions that you don't have the answer to.

The food court is ok if you're hungry, but otherwise not so much.

So the other day in LaGuardia, I decided to do some people watching. In the terminal, there is a ramp up that leads to the shopping/food court/security screening area. It is carpeted and becomes marble tile at the top.

I was standing by the rail next to Brooks Brothers chatting with a Port Authority K-9 Officer. A man in a matching outfit with matching roller slowly went by and stopped at the top of the ramp on the first tile, right in the middle of the walkway.

I thought maybe he forgot something or was looking for keys, wallet etc. as he split the flow of people like a rock in a stream. I went back to my conversation with the PA cop. A few minutes later, I noticed that he was still standing still, a few tiles ahead. He was standing perfectly still, shoulders squared with his roll aboard at his side.

Now I was intrigued. I set my watch to stop watch mode and waited. A moment later he picked up and moved forward ONE tile, set down his roller and went back to the same posture. I started my stopwatch. 1:05 later, he did the same thing. Another 1:05 and he moved forward one more, repeating until he reached the exit where he snapped out of his OCD routine, picked up the pace and walked out.

It was one of the strangest things I had seen at an airport and strange people are not a rare occurrence at airports. I walked over to the security personnel at the exit and asked if they noticed his strange behavior. Apparently, he goes to LaGuardia every morning and takes a flight out and returns. When he reaches the top of the ramp, he does the same thing. They said that he then returns at noon and does it all over again.

When I was watching him, nobody accidentally bumped in to him or his roll aboard. I wonder what would happen if someone did?

Next time I spend some appreciation time at LGA, I'm going to look for him.