I never really knew the meaning of this phrase until this week. When I interviewed for Mesaba, I was asked if I could work in all kinds of weather. I said, "Sure!" I had shared a paper route with my dad and my brother when I was younger and we had to deliver in all of the elements. I don't remember anything like this though. The wind chills the past couple days in Dubuque have dipped below negative 30°F. Not even my toasty coveralls could keep me completely warm. The wind blew right through those. I could also sleep in until 5:30 when I had a paper route. These days I have to be up by 4:00 to shower and preheat my car. With all the cancellations due to weather and freezing planes, I've put in quite the work day the past two days. I was on the clock from 5am - 10:30am and from noon to 10:30 pm
yesterday because our plane had a "hung start" on one of the engines. From what I understand, it's too cold inside the engine to produce a good flame and maintain steady combustion. The turbines inside the engine don't speed up to the proper RPM and if the pilot continues the start attempt he or she could do damage to the engine. So we had to deplane everyone back to the terminal and get them rebooked for another flight. Many couldn't make connections that afternoon due to oversold flights and schedules that didn't align. So they got pushed back a day. Last night, the aircraft we were supposed to get from Minneapolis had a mechanical problem and didn't come in. So that cancelled our flight for this morning also causing some passengers to be rebooked a second time. Many people are getting frustrated and thousands are stranded at airports with dwindling hopes of making it home or to visit friends and family.
I was able to help one family last night though. They were waiting for their son to come home from the military whom they hadn't seen in 10 months. Mom and dad drove from Fayette, IA and were expecting him to arrive on the afternoon flight into Dubuque. Mom told me that she wasn't supposed to be at the airport and only his dad was expected to pick him up. Unfortunately, a late arrival from Seattle cause him to misconnect out of Minneapolis. His parents were then waiting for him to arrive on the late flight that he had been rebooked on. When that flight cancelled, he was told to stand in another rebooking line. When he was almost to the front, that agent had to leave and redirected the remaining customers to a different gate. I was looking at the availability and knew there was no way he was going to make it into Dubuque until the following night due to overselling. I didn't know where Fayette was, so I asked and I found that the next closest airport was Waterloo. By some miracle, there were actually four seats available on their late arrival, so I booked him on that flight. He still had to get his boarding pass from an agent in Minneapolis so I took the phone from dad and began giving him instructions to finalize the process. I told him to just find any agent who didn't look busy and if they didn't know how to complete the transaction, I would walk them through it over the phone. It took a couple more phone calls as he found someone to help him but he finally got his boarding pass. While I was giving him directions over the phone, I learned that he thought he was going to be surprising his mom by coming home early. It was a touching moment for me and I knew the mom was happy to see her son yet that night. I wish I could have been there for the reunion.
In other news, I was notified this week of the results of the 2008 Iowa Aviation Photography
Contest. I had submitted several of my photos from work and from the airshow that took place in Dubuque over the 4th of July. I was hoping for several awards, but was satisfied with taking third/fourth in the Commercial Aviation category. To see all the winners, you can go here. To see the page I'm on, go here. Now, I'm just hoping to get published in the 2009 Aviation Calendar. There's a chance it may not get printed due to budget constraints, but I'm hoping for the best. Time to shower and put my petroleum products on before going back out in the cold. All you doobies keep warm.
