Friday, October 21, 2011

As we dropped out of the sky...
....the sun had just popped out between the dark and rain-laden clouds. It was about time that the journey would come to an end. After all I had been up from 3am MDST and now it was past 6pm ADST, and since there are 3hrs difference it means I'd be up for 12hrs straight after sleeping a mere 5hrs the previous night. 

Some Airbus-type-of plane had brought me via Toronto to Montreal, but then there was a surprise coming up. As I walked towards the gate exit I glanced out the window and saw a Turboprop DASH 8-100 standing at the ready for us. This was going to be crampy... and it was.
Seat #8c would normally be way up the front in any decent airliner, not so here. Seat 8c was in the second last row.



Since I like to have an aisle seat, (easy to get to the JOHN) the view out the window was limited but I could kinda glimpse the mighty turboprop engines hanging out there.

Another difference between this fly-box and a real airliner was that the pilots are sitting on a "Flight Deck" in the Airbus but in a "Cockpit" in the DASH. Oh ja and while there are 3 stewards onboard the Jet, the DASH had only one blondie taking care of us.
Boarding in Montreal was scheduled at 2.35pm but that never happened as they announced a "maintenance issue" to be taken care of and we should sit tight and be patient.


Thanks!


The delayed boarding took place about an hour later and when the DASH 8-100 finally dashed along the runway, we had to shut up as it was pretty meaningless to raise your voice against the turboprop-drone.


At a 20,000ft cruise height the drone became somewhat bearable, and I must have dozed off for a while because the hands on my clock had made a big jump meanwhile and we were actually descending towards Saint John. The fly-box had made up about 30 minutes of the lost time, so that the total delay wasn't too bad. And who would want to fly with a maintenance issue hanging about?


REALLY??                 
Bea was standing right there in the middle of a crowd, in a red coat and boy was I glad to see her.


She could tell a magnificent rain storm had just passed and that she'd almost expected the flight to be directed to Moncton or Fredericton for landing.
Molly was utterly pleased to see the ole bugger again as well and threw me a big grin.


While Bea was heading down Hwy 1 I received a short run-down about all the crazy and not-so-crazy things which had happened over the last 10 days.
From the trip: Sunrise over Illinois


Thanks for visiting!

3 comments:

  1. Glad to hear you're home and Bea doesn't have to eat alone any more. I've flown on those prop jobs and was sure glad my legs were short.

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  2. Glad to see your home safe and sound had you been diverted to Moncton we would have picked you up and took very good care of you!!!

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