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On the day after Sarah and Bryan got married, Jeff took Jan, Pam, and Sheila
flying. The day had started with the crash of an American Airlines plane in
Queens—jittery people were unsure if it was a terrorist attack—and it was a
gray day in Santa Monica. You can read Pam's account of this, uh, memorable
flight below.
1:13 pm: Jump-starting the plane after trouble during run-up
1:14 pm: Let's go
1:58 pm: Back in one piece
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After having
such a good time at sarah and bryan's wedding, a few of us decided to
extend the family togetherness time by flying with jeff. We first ran into
some glitches in the "run-up," requiring a mechanic to come out
and jump-start the plane. This seemed to get all the on ground problems
taken care of, and so we were off, soaring up to malibu, with jeff
pointing out the sights as we went. as we turned around to avoid incoming
fog jeff glibly commented that we had just lost radio contact with the
tower and then with a bit more concern said, "and we're going to have
to land with out the flaps because we don't have enough power to put them
down. This is a real situation." Not exactly what novice passengers
want to hear!
jeff performed admirably during our
"situation" and was able to get the flaps down with persistance.
we were able to give the tower a bit of warning by way of cell phone and a
brief interlude with radio function assured us that we were cleared to
land. On the ground the adrenaline rush finally caught up with jeff and
his calm demeanor while in the air, was replaced by a look of total shock.
The rest of us were pretty happy to be on the ground too. Jeff must not
have thought we were sufficiently scared, so he tried to spook us further
by driving through red lights on the way home.
Already thinking it an eerie
coincidence that we had flight problems on the same day as a major airline
crash, i was in total disbelief when mac and i found out that our return
flight to portland was delayed five hours due to mechanical problems
severe enough to require a new plane for our flight. we finally were told
the true problem: THE RADIO WASN'T FUNCTIONING PROPERLY! on the bright
side, we did get seven lovely hours to spend in the burbank airport...
we did make it home safely (at 3 am)
after all the day's events. We look forward to seeing many of you again at
christmas... that is, if we don't have airplane trouble.
take care,
-P |
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