Finally home from my trip.

Ned Bulken

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Lakeport NY and/or the nearest hotel
well, my trip to Bethesda was pretty uneventful, until the trip home. I suppose road warriors who fly all the time would think it wasn't a big deal, but I'm not a veteran flier by any means.

took a cab to the airport, which went very well. I walk over to a video listing of flights and see my flight has been cancelled. :eek:

hmmm, ok this doesn't look good, but let's see what the ticket folks say. Weather was the culprit, not in baltimore, but north of there. SO I now had a flight on another airline, leaving later than my original flight. and Oh, by the way, it goes via charlotte. (BWI to charlotte to syracuse) seemed inefficient to me, but that's just air travel I suppose.

flight 1 was delayed, the plane was delayed inbound, so we took off an hour late. I had a 45 minute layover originally, and I fully expected to be in charlotte typing this, but when I landed, got my carryon items and found my gate, the Syracuse plane was still there! I checked in, put my stuff in the overhead (which was empty. had the whole thing to myself, amazing) sat down and two minutes later we were rolling. No they didn't hold the plane for me, but it sure was nice for something to go right.


On the job front, things look good, have a bit of learning to do, and to develop my work habits on the new tasks, but I expect that I'll catch on pretty quickly.

Now I have to go pick up my car and a router to set up a LAN .
 
well ned you ned to take break away from work and think about your new shop:D glad you made it back safly and airline delays are definatly a drag, had 6hr flight take 23 hrs one time with the delays incurred:eek: not a happy camper that day..
 
It wasn't 'bad' just annoying at BWI. Charlotte more than made up for it, and in the end I got home only 3 hours later than originally scheduled.

it was raining today, so I didn't take pics, but I've got my mobile office in the driveway now. Tomorrow I go buy the router and get the home LAN running. I had to do a little war-driving today to access the company VPN, didn't have a phone number I needed and it was on the email server. Now that I have the car I won't need to do that again. yep, mobile office indeed. no printer, but that's something I can live without until I get back home at the end of the day.
 
well, my trip to Bethesda was pretty uneventful, until the trip home. I suppose road warriors who fly all the time would think it wasn't a big deal, but I'm not a veteran flier by any means.

Ned,

I was a commerical airline pilot for thirty one years and I always hated all of the non routine stuff. Believe me, the crews (road warriors for sure) hate it more than anyone else except maybe the agents that catch the anger of the passengers. As they say, time is money. I think that the passengers that seem so calm and seem to never be bothered are just very good at covering up their emotions. That is one way to get some help from the agents, remain calm and do not screem as they do no like what is going on any more than you do. I wish that I could follow my own advice but I am not that calm. Just hurts me in the long run.

Congratulations on your new job! Sounds like that you are going to like it.

Allen
 
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Allen....I worked air traffic control maintenance for 6 years in the Navy at joint FAA/Navy facilities.....I have a totally different attitude than some passengers. I was standing in line in Minneapolis waiting to reschedule a flight...everyone around me was fussing about the delay.......mechanical problem.....finally one guy next to me said....You don't seem too upset about this....."Nope"....."If they're going to have a mechanical problem with an airplane...this is where I want them to find it.....not in the air" was my response.......The folks around hesitated...and then quieted down while we each found out what our alternatives were.........I personally saw the results of too many mechanical failures while working ATC at two of the Navy Pilot Pipelines during "Nam........
 
Allen....I worked air traffic control maintenance for 6 years in the Navy at joint FAA/Navy facilities.....I have a totally different attitude than some passengers. I was standing in line in Minneapolis waiting to reschedule a flight...everyone around me was fussing about the delay.......mechanical problem.....finally one guy next to me said....You don't seem too upset about this....."Nope"....."If they're going to have a mechanical problem with an airplane...this is where I want them to find it.....not in the air" was my response.......The folks around hesitated...and then quieted down while we each found out what our alternatives were.........I personally saw the results of too many mechanical failures while working ATC at two of the Navy Pilot Pipelines during "Nam........

Ken,
amen to that. I was on a puddle jumper on a flight from Weyer's Cave VA to Pittsburgh one time when it developed some malfunction. We took off and got about 20 minutes out from the airport, when the crew came on the loudspeaker and said something( All I heard was the teacher from the charlie brown cartoons) and we turned around and landed again back at Weyer's Cave. THey said I had a choice, wait for repairs or take another flight in the morning on a different airplane. I opted to wait and called my parents who hadn't even made it back to the house yet.

Allen,
I think the poor folks at the desk were just overwhelmed that day, my flight was the third or fourth which had gone off schedule and they were just worn out from dealing with concerned passengers. I was in line to see about alternative flights when boarding started, I just got on the plane and figured I would figure things out in charlotte, and things went smoothly from there.

I really do think I'll have a blast, I'll be out in my mobile office every day, doing lots of walking and taking loads of photos. I've got a snazzy new 10 megapixel Sony to play with, and even mobile connectivity for my computer in the car. And the car is Very comfortable. 2006 Prius Fully loaded: 6 disc cd changer/dvd navigation system, Bluetooth hands free system and leather interior. I'm going to want a Prius of my own if I ever move on from my current position.
 
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