Monday, March 29, 2010

How High can you Fly????


I have flown for years. The first time I was on an airplane was just after I was invited to join the US Army in 1967. I flew from Milwaukee to Columbia, SC to go to Fort Jackson. Over the years I have racked up hundreds of thousands of miles in the air, but not until last week did I get a new first..........

Now I must start by saying that when I go to Estevan, SK I have to fly through Minot, ND. To return home there are 3 flights out of Minot. The earliest if at 5:00 am, and on that flight I get home about 5:30 pm. The second flight wouldn't get me home until midnight.


So, aside from doing some serious thinking about my career, at 4:00 am on a cold, windy, bleak morning in Minot friggin North Dakota, I got a pleasent suprise...I got upgraded to First Class on the 30 minute flight to Minneaplois.


As we took off it felt like we hit a pot hole on the runway..did I mention, Minot, friggin North Dakota, yes it is very possible they have pot holes.


We were in the air about 10 minutes when the pilot came on the radio to tell us that he felt we blew our main landing gear on take off, and he is asking the Flight Attendants to prepare for an emergency landing. I truely have t-shirts older than those two. Each FA took turns going to the restroom to empty their pants, and then they started to prepare us.


We had to remove our seatbelts, then re-belt, then remove and re-belt. They watched intently to make sure we could get out if we had to. We were trained in the "brace" position. We were given the secret code in case we were going to crash. I'm going to share that code with you....when the FA screams "brace, brace, brace" you should brace. Military, police, and firefighters were asked to ID themselves. We had plenty,because of the Air Force base in Minot. Four were taken to each of the front and rear doors and recieved written instructions on escape plans, and then they were reseated next to the doors. We flew for an additional 45 mins to burn fuel. As we circled the airport it was like Hollywood...Emergency vehicles lined the runway.


As we came in the pilot lowered some flap or something to help slow us, and the plane started to shake pretty bad. We went into the brace position...the right landing gear hit first, and the plane rocked to the left and .....................the landing gear was fine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


We stopped and the Emergency vehicles surrounded us on the runway and people were running around the plane. We were in the middle of the runway, and deemed safe to be towed in. It took 15 minutes to get to the gate. When we stopped we cheered the pilots.


So that was my newest experience in the air.........First Class and I didn't even get a cup of coffee!!!