Flying

Many years ago I loved to fly. The adventure, seeing all those new places, I would wake up the morning of a flight so excited that I couldn’t even eat. That all changed when I had several BAD flights through Denver.

Denver is surrounded by mountains which makes for bumpy take offs and landings. Sadly I have experienced more than one as I have family on the US East coast. Most flights (at least back then) used to stop in Denver.

Did you know – that a plane can bunny hop down the runway or that the ceiling panels in a plane can fall out and smack people in the head if the landing is particularly hard???? The final straw was flying out of Denver after my honeymoon (in Vail Colorado) There was a thunder storm that we had to fly through (not around!!!) So the take off was pretty bumpy. The plane is jostling to and fro – so bumpy that the flight attendants are sitting strapped in! Now if you ever want to know if things are not good – look at the staff!

I am reading a book trying to remain calm. The lady beside me is gripping onto her seat. Now the fun really began. We started doing dives to get out of the turbulence. The problem here is that the Captain never mentioned he was going to do this before he started! Finally after a few dives he comes over the intercom and says they are trying different altitudes to try and find a pocket of calm air (no really?? I thought we were on a roller coaster!) But since they haven’t been successful they are going to do some steep dives as they needed (I never want to hear a pilot say this) to get out of the storm.

So the other dives seem like child’s play compared to this one. The plane is rattling (it is a DC-10 – big plane). It is diving and shaking so bad that the overhead compartments are coming open and things are flying through the cabin. And that is the beginning of my lack of desire to fly. Once we got some good air the rest of the flight was fairly uneventful. I got off the plane in Seattle and kissed the ground!

This rather long post leads to our trip to Calgary – not too bumpy going there but BUMPY on the way back. I asked the flight attendant if we’d have a smooth flight and she looked at me a little funny. “Do you want the truth?” She asked ever so sweetly. “Yes.” I replied. “It is spring time in the Rockies, there are no smooth flights but so far there have been no reports of bad turbulence.” was the reply. So the flight back wasn’t exactly fun but as I was prepared it didn’t bother me too much. I still sat stiff as a board in my seat, but was actually pretty calm.

So if you are ever on a flight and see a person looking green in the seat a few aisles down – take pity on them. It could just be me!