I started my first post-OE trip a couple days ago. It’s been a typical World adventure so far. Tuesday, I went to the airport for a 6:00 p.m. departure from Manchester to Philadelphia to Norfolk. On the way to Philly, we diverted to Allentown for weather (to get more fuel). Consequently, I missed my connection. I wound up lucky enough to get on the last flight to Norfolk, but my bag, which they had plenty of time to transfer, didn’t.
I think this is the 3rd or 4th time that USAirways has failed to deliver my bags with me. I’ve had other airlines lose my bags, some more than once (United, who, in all fairness, I ride a lot). But USAir takes the award for most frequent offender. Even so, I’ve learned how to deal with it. Go shopping! Fortunately, I had a limo (okay, it was a guy in an expedition) picking me up at that late hour and I was able to talk him into a side-trip to the 24-hour WalMart. This wound up being one of the cheaper full-fledged shopping trips, coming in at just under $150.
I would have gone with less, but when I filed my claim, they said they couldn’t guarantee me that I’d have my bag by the time that I needed it to leave the next day. I’ve had my bags follow me around for extended periods of time before and didn’t want that to happen again. So, I had them ship the bag to Baltimore, where I was going next and I bought both street clothes and a shirt to fly in. It was almost good.
Yesterday, I met up with the crew and we picked up our airplane and took it allllll the way to Baltimore. It was 36 minutes enroute. I hand flew the whole leg. We made it up to 16,000 ft., and the weather was beautiful. I’m still not entirely comfortable in the airplane (not like I was in the MD-11 after 7 years), but I’m getting used to it. I made another awful landing… we were really light again. The engineer tried to make me feel better about it (he’s been around quite a while) saying it’s really hard to land light airplanes. He’s right, and I wasn’t all down about it, but it’d be nice to actually get a good one in. The next couple legs (Leipzig to Kuwait and back) we’ll have a load on the airplane, so maybe I’ll get at least one good one in.
My line for June has the first 12 days off but I volunteered to work the first 4 of them (extra $$$). They’re already planning to use me for the first 3, having added on a Leipzig – Bangor trip after I do this Kuwait turn. Angel and her son, Ian, are coming out for Porc Fest (plus a bit) and arrive the 4th. Porc Fest runs the 9th through 15th, but I’ll have to leave the 13th to go back to work. Angel is sticking around through the 17th. My June line consists of about a half dozen round trips (with layovers) from Leipzig to Tbilisi, Georgia (the Republic, not the State). Haven’t been to Georgia before, so that’ll make for a blog or two, I’m sure.
I think that about catches things up. Whew…
V-