Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Friday, August 12, 2005
Thursday, August 11, 2005
I must be trippin'
It's been an interesting week or so.
My car is still inop...but as I type this, Mel is scoring the parts for me and it will hopefully be fixed by tonight. The peice of shit will FINALLY be paid off this coming week, but I'm gonna have to look into the possibility of having to get a new one. We'll see...having HORRIBLE credit isn't going to help me at all. :(
So yeah, non-rev'd all over the place the other day. 25 hours, 5 flights, 16 alcoholic drinks on said flights...a very interesting day. Routing of DFW-BWI-BOS-PHF-ATL-DFW.
I guess I should preface and say that I met a darlin' of an F/A a couple of weeks ago while covering someone's gate for them. She was scheduled to take one of our LAX flights out and I was a total smartass to her when they checked in. She was a smartass right back to me (something I'm inexplicably attracted to) and we kinda joked around about getting a beer when she came back to DFW that night. Well, I wasn't sure if she was joking, so I left her a note with my number for the gate agent to give to her when she returned to Dallas. She called...we hit it off over the course of her off days and the next thing I knew...I was on my way to PHF to hang out with her.
I caught a few snags on my trip. Non-rev travel is almost always space available standby. I was cleared through to Boston from DFW...but I got pulled when I got to BWI. I wasn't going to make the next flight to Boston, either...but I kissed a little butt while I was there and they got me to Boston. My flight from BOS-PHF was wicked delayed due to a fucking monsoon coming through BOS...so I wound up helping the gate agents in Boston with all the delay questions and helped them get a flight boarded. My F/A came in on a flight from PHL that turned around to PHF...so I finally got out of Boston and we were on our way to PHF.
The flight to PHF was possibly the best flight I've ever been on. The flight ahead of us for takeoff was an AerLingus A330...such an awesome takeoff. The clouds were really dark in the bay, but the sun was setting just below the cloudline and that made for a beautiful sunset over the waters. Tack on the hardcore thunderhead off the right wing for most of the flight, the continuous drinks, and the Texas Rangers game on the XM radio...oh yeah, and the cute flight attendant...it was the best flight ever.
We just hung out and had a good time in Virginia...I was catching the 0530 flight through ATL to get home in time for work at 1200 the next day. I got to the airport and they had 2 available seats on the flight. I was the number 3 standby. Grrrr. But, good luck came along in the form of an airstart. The ramp crew there was mostly new guys and airstarts in PHF are few and far between. None of them knew how to do one. I, however, DID. So I told them that I would airstart the plane if they gave me the last seat on the flight. It was a deal.
So, there I was, in my business casual clothes...hooking up an airstart and telling the captain to "spin one"...then running up the jetbridge and jumping in my seat. Good times.
I got back to Dallas at 0901 CST, started working at 0930. I was exhausted at the end of the day. My F/A and I haven't really talked much since then...I guess I scared her off or something. Oh well. She was really cute, though. But, then again...I'm just her layover buddy in Dallas. So I guess I'll hear form her soon enough...or whatever.
I'm on my day off today...I wanna go out tonight...but my car is still dead. Melinda is here working on it as I type this...but it's not being nice. The bolts to the u-joint yoke are tighter than...well...something that's air-fucking-tight. The airtools aren't even budging it. Hopefully it'll be up soon.
Well, back to handing her tools and watching her 5 year old.
My car is still inop...but as I type this, Mel is scoring the parts for me and it will hopefully be fixed by tonight. The peice of shit will FINALLY be paid off this coming week, but I'm gonna have to look into the possibility of having to get a new one. We'll see...having HORRIBLE credit isn't going to help me at all. :(
So yeah, non-rev'd all over the place the other day. 25 hours, 5 flights, 16 alcoholic drinks on said flights...a very interesting day. Routing of DFW-BWI-BOS-PHF-ATL-DFW.
I guess I should preface and say that I met a darlin' of an F/A a couple of weeks ago while covering someone's gate for them. She was scheduled to take one of our LAX flights out and I was a total smartass to her when they checked in. She was a smartass right back to me (something I'm inexplicably attracted to) and we kinda joked around about getting a beer when she came back to DFW that night. Well, I wasn't sure if she was joking, so I left her a note with my number for the gate agent to give to her when she returned to Dallas. She called...we hit it off over the course of her off days and the next thing I knew...I was on my way to PHF to hang out with her.
I caught a few snags on my trip. Non-rev travel is almost always space available standby. I was cleared through to Boston from DFW...but I got pulled when I got to BWI. I wasn't going to make the next flight to Boston, either...but I kissed a little butt while I was there and they got me to Boston. My flight from BOS-PHF was wicked delayed due to a fucking monsoon coming through BOS...so I wound up helping the gate agents in Boston with all the delay questions and helped them get a flight boarded. My F/A came in on a flight from PHL that turned around to PHF...so I finally got out of Boston and we were on our way to PHF.
The flight to PHF was possibly the best flight I've ever been on. The flight ahead of us for takeoff was an AerLingus A330...such an awesome takeoff. The clouds were really dark in the bay, but the sun was setting just below the cloudline and that made for a beautiful sunset over the waters. Tack on the hardcore thunderhead off the right wing for most of the flight, the continuous drinks, and the Texas Rangers game on the XM radio...oh yeah, and the cute flight attendant...it was the best flight ever.
We just hung out and had a good time in Virginia...I was catching the 0530 flight through ATL to get home in time for work at 1200 the next day. I got to the airport and they had 2 available seats on the flight. I was the number 3 standby. Grrrr. But, good luck came along in the form of an airstart. The ramp crew there was mostly new guys and airstarts in PHF are few and far between. None of them knew how to do one. I, however, DID. So I told them that I would airstart the plane if they gave me the last seat on the flight. It was a deal.
So, there I was, in my business casual clothes...hooking up an airstart and telling the captain to "spin one"...then running up the jetbridge and jumping in my seat. Good times.
I got back to Dallas at 0901 CST, started working at 0930. I was exhausted at the end of the day. My F/A and I haven't really talked much since then...I guess I scared her off or something. Oh well. She was really cute, though. But, then again...I'm just her layover buddy in Dallas. So I guess I'll hear form her soon enough...or whatever.
I'm on my day off today...I wanna go out tonight...but my car is still dead. Melinda is here working on it as I type this...but it's not being nice. The bolts to the u-joint yoke are tighter than...well...something that's air-fucking-tight. The airtools aren't even budging it. Hopefully it'll be up soon.
Well, back to handing her tools and watching her 5 year old.
Sunday, August 07, 2005
Thursday, August 04, 2005
Dragging Driveshafts, Happy (Emergency) Landings, and Smartass (however, wicked cute) F/A's!
Once again, I've let WAAAY too much time pass since my last entry.
I guess the big thing that's happened since I last bitched about stuff is the fact that Blackie, my '98 Explorer and all-around peice of shit car, is currently in the driveway...and her driveshaft is sitting on the front porch. Therefore, she's completely inop. And like the old "Ugly Duckling" car ads used to say, "Life Sucks Without A Car".
>>A week ago, myself and a bunch of my co-workers went out to the Hooters north of the airport and had a few beers, some wings and, and shot the shit for a little bit. Margee was coming back through the airport when she called me, so she came out as well. When it came time to leave, I decided to go to Denton with Margee and get a few more drinks with our friends there and then just crash on her couch.
We stopped at a stoplight on northbound 121 and, when the light turned green, I hit the gas and heard a big BOOM!. My car stopped accellerating and it felt like I was dragging something. I WAS dragging something. My driveshaft was still connected to the transmission until I stopped on the side of the road. Basically, my car blew a u-joint and, because it dragged on the ground, there was a little bit of damage to my actual driveshaft.
One of my co-workers, Melinda, fixes cars as a hobby. (I am aware of how sad it is that I have to get a chick to fix my car for me.) She came over the other night and tried to fix it...and it turns out the u-joint bracket is practically rusted onto the car. Not good. We're still not sure how we're going to get the damn thing off. I mean, she brought the airtools and everything. It sounded like a NASCAR pit row in my driveway when she was working on it. So, here I am....stuck at home on my day off. It's killing me. I have so many things I NEED to do, but at least I'm not wasting gas.
>>Things are getting better at work. School starts soon and the loads are getting lighter. We've mastered the art of quick turns with heavy loads...so we should kick some ass until November. I think management is considering sending me to CI training this month. Imagine that...ME...training people. HA!
Ahh, who am I kidding. I've already trained half of our new crew in the nuances of the ramp. I just can't sign them off on equipment. And I think they've all turned out to be quite good. In fact, the ones I trained are EXCELLENT. I'm quite proud of that.
Had a little drama at work yesterday. My first emergency landing. One of our outbound flights turned back to Dallas due to indications of a right-side hydraulic failure. They had to manually drop the landing gear...which means they landed with the main gear doors open...dragging them like a driveshaft on a '98 Explorer.
The aircraft landed safely...much respect to the captain for such a smooth landing in overweight and emergency condtions. It was swarmed by fire trucks & EMS vehicles and a crew of us were escorted out to runway 17L to tow the plane to the gate. When we got there, we could tell it WAS a complete hydraulic failure on the right side thanks to the thrust reverser still open on that side. It never retracted.
We kicked a little ass to get the plane off the runway ASAP. A plane on the runway for more than say, 25 minutes, becomes a PR nightmare. News choppers were probably scrambling. Gear pins were put in, towbar hooked up, and we tried to get the gear doors in place (that wasn't happening thanks to damage). We got her back in the gate 24 minutes after she landed....including a 8 minute tow from 17L.
Knowing that everyone was safe and we got them to their destination safely, though a few hours late, allows me to say that it was exciting. It was my first time out on the runway...and my first time dealing with that kind of situation. One of our rampers brought his digital camera with him to the runway, but I won't be posting any of those pics here since they would be a dead giveaway of who I work for. Not that you guys don't already know...but I just want to stay on the safe side.
>>Not a whole lot else has been going on. I met a smartass F/A the other day...I let her get away with it because she was really cute...and we've been talking the past few nights. I wouldn't say she hit on me...but she's definitely the only female F/A to (unofficially) give me her number...HAHA! Either way, apparently, I now owe her dinner and a few beers. I wouldn't owe her if my car were working the other night when she overnighted in Dallas...grrrr. Hurry up, Dirty Blackie, get fixed! You're killing my social life.
-----------------------
Current Music: Bowling For Soup - Almost
Current Weight: 223
I guess the big thing that's happened since I last bitched about stuff is the fact that Blackie, my '98 Explorer and all-around peice of shit car, is currently in the driveway...and her driveshaft is sitting on the front porch. Therefore, she's completely inop. And like the old "Ugly Duckling" car ads used to say, "Life Sucks Without A Car".
>>A week ago, myself and a bunch of my co-workers went out to the Hooters north of the airport and had a few beers, some wings and, and shot the shit for a little bit. Margee was coming back through the airport when she called me, so she came out as well. When it came time to leave, I decided to go to Denton with Margee and get a few more drinks with our friends there and then just crash on her couch.
We stopped at a stoplight on northbound 121 and, when the light turned green, I hit the gas and heard a big BOOM!. My car stopped accellerating and it felt like I was dragging something. I WAS dragging something. My driveshaft was still connected to the transmission until I stopped on the side of the road. Basically, my car blew a u-joint and, because it dragged on the ground, there was a little bit of damage to my actual driveshaft.
One of my co-workers, Melinda, fixes cars as a hobby. (I am aware of how sad it is that I have to get a chick to fix my car for me.) She came over the other night and tried to fix it...and it turns out the u-joint bracket is practically rusted onto the car. Not good. We're still not sure how we're going to get the damn thing off. I mean, she brought the airtools and everything. It sounded like a NASCAR pit row in my driveway when she was working on it. So, here I am....stuck at home on my day off. It's killing me. I have so many things I NEED to do, but at least I'm not wasting gas.
>>Things are getting better at work. School starts soon and the loads are getting lighter. We've mastered the art of quick turns with heavy loads...so we should kick some ass until November. I think management is considering sending me to CI training this month. Imagine that...ME...training people. HA!
Ahh, who am I kidding. I've already trained half of our new crew in the nuances of the ramp. I just can't sign them off on equipment. And I think they've all turned out to be quite good. In fact, the ones I trained are EXCELLENT. I'm quite proud of that.
Had a little drama at work yesterday. My first emergency landing. One of our outbound flights turned back to Dallas due to indications of a right-side hydraulic failure. They had to manually drop the landing gear...which means they landed with the main gear doors open...dragging them like a driveshaft on a '98 Explorer.
The aircraft landed safely...much respect to the captain for such a smooth landing in overweight and emergency condtions. It was swarmed by fire trucks & EMS vehicles and a crew of us were escorted out to runway 17L to tow the plane to the gate. When we got there, we could tell it WAS a complete hydraulic failure on the right side thanks to the thrust reverser still open on that side. It never retracted.
We kicked a little ass to get the plane off the runway ASAP. A plane on the runway for more than say, 25 minutes, becomes a PR nightmare. News choppers were probably scrambling. Gear pins were put in, towbar hooked up, and we tried to get the gear doors in place (that wasn't happening thanks to damage). We got her back in the gate 24 minutes after she landed....including a 8 minute tow from 17L.
Knowing that everyone was safe and we got them to their destination safely, though a few hours late, allows me to say that it was exciting. It was my first time out on the runway...and my first time dealing with that kind of situation. One of our rampers brought his digital camera with him to the runway, but I won't be posting any of those pics here since they would be a dead giveaway of who I work for. Not that you guys don't already know...but I just want to stay on the safe side.
>>Not a whole lot else has been going on. I met a smartass F/A the other day...I let her get away with it because she was really cute...and we've been talking the past few nights. I wouldn't say she hit on me...but she's definitely the only female F/A to (unofficially) give me her number...HAHA! Either way, apparently, I now owe her dinner and a few beers. I wouldn't owe her if my car were working the other night when she overnighted in Dallas...grrrr. Hurry up, Dirty Blackie, get fixed! You're killing my social life.
-----------------------
Current Music: Bowling For Soup - Almost
Current Weight: 223
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