Adventures in Flying
June/05/2008
Anyone who flies a lot knows that the skies have not be friendly for a long time. I'm pretty accustomed to the grind, but the trip home from Dallas was something else again. Here's how the day went:
The plane that would take us from Dallas to Cincinnati was late getting in, so I had to make a dash to the commuter terminal. Made it just it time, but discovered that my 3:00 P.M. flight had been cancelled. My travel agent tells me there will be lots more regional jet cancellations, as the cash-strapped airlines lose money every time they fly the 50-seaters. So I settled in to wait for my 7:30 flight home.
Right in the middle of dinner, there was an announcement that a tornado was on the way, so we had to take shelter in the tunnels underneath the airport. The evacuation was orderly, and the airline workers did an excellent job of moving everyone underground.
There was no question about the need for our taking shelter. You could hear the cracks of thunder, and the rain was pelting down so hard that water was beginning to build up in the tunnels.
About 30 minutes later we were informed that a funnel cloud had touched down about four miles from the airport. There was hardly any light in the narrow tunnels, so I used the 3200 ISO program menu setting of my Canon G9 to catch a few shots.
Around twenty minutes later we were allowed above ground, and I shot the image below on the way out. This t-shirt wisdom seemed like an appropriate sentiment for the occasion, and I was impressed with how well the camera did on 3200.
Back in the terminal things began going from bad to worse. The schedule was a shambles, crews had timed out, so it was a scramble to see how many flights could get off the ground. As the hours crept by, lots of folks gave up for the evening and left the airport on their own. I decided to stay as long as my flight remained on the board, and eventually I was rewarded, but not until after midnight. I never did hear how much damage the tornado did near the airport, but the morning news was full of reports of multiple funnel cloud sightings and touchdowns throughout the region. But I was very grateful to be out of that weather system an back in my own bed!
The plane that would take us from Dallas to Cincinnati was late getting in, so I had to make a dash to the commuter terminal. Made it just it time, but discovered that my 3:00 P.M. flight had been cancelled. My travel agent tells me there will be lots more regional jet cancellations, as the cash-strapped airlines lose money every time they fly the 50-seaters. So I settled in to wait for my 7:30 flight home.
Right in the middle of dinner, there was an announcement that a tornado was on the way, so we had to take shelter in the tunnels underneath the airport. The evacuation was orderly, and the airline workers did an excellent job of moving everyone underground.
There was no question about the need for our taking shelter. You could hear the cracks of thunder, and the rain was pelting down so hard that water was beginning to build up in the tunnels.
About 30 minutes later we were informed that a funnel cloud had touched down about four miles from the airport. There was hardly any light in the narrow tunnels, so I used the 3200 ISO program menu setting of my Canon G9 to catch a few shots.
Around twenty minutes later we were allowed above ground, and I shot the image below on the way out. This t-shirt wisdom seemed like an appropriate sentiment for the occasion, and I was impressed with how well the camera did on 3200.
Back in the terminal things began going from bad to worse. The schedule was a shambles, crews had timed out, so it was a scramble to see how many flights could get off the ground. As the hours crept by, lots of folks gave up for the evening and left the airport on their own. I decided to stay as long as my flight remained on the board, and eventually I was rewarded, but not until after midnight. I never did hear how much damage the tornado did near the airport, but the morning news was full of reports of multiple funnel cloud sightings and touchdowns throughout the region. But I was very grateful to be out of that weather system an back in my own bed!