My wife’s grandmother often says this when unexplained things happen that turn out for the best in the end. A similar thing happened to me yesterday and into this morning.
Yesterday was supposed to be the end of a 4-day flying trip for me. As a commuter (commuting SUCKS), I actually dread the last day of a trip because that is when I am moving into the unknown (flight loads, delays, inconveniences, more security, etc) of the commute home. Yesterday was no different. The plan was to fly from Greer, SC to Chicago, then to St. Louis where I was going to ride an AirTran flight home.
When we arrived at the airport in Greer, I saw that the airplane we were to fly that day is our oldest most worn out airplane in the fleet. It is actually serial #3. It is the third EMB-145 ever built – the first two were test beds – as was this one was also, actually. The story goes that this airplane was built as an EMB-145 and was used for flight testing. It was then chopped up and shortened into an EMB-135 (a smaller version of the airplane) and tested. It was then resized back to an EMB-145 and sold at a discount, which is probably why Hulas (company owner) bought it.
Every time I have flown this airplane (N850HK), there has been something wrong with it. Either an A/C unit (known on airplanes as PACKS), an APU, or something is deferred. Last time I flew it, the #2 engine air turbine starter shaft broke in Newark and we had to taxi back to the gate with an airplane full of pissed off people. I was slightly skeptical walking up to this heaping pile of crap yesterday morning as to whether we’d have an uneventful morning with it.
Anyway, first thing is first, the captain tries to start the APU and it doesn’t crank. In the airplane’s defense, the Capt had forgotten to turn on the #2 fuel pump (a requirement for the APU to get fuel). Finally, after the APU is started things are looking up for the morning. We did notice a couple little glitches in the system that morning, the TCAS was giving strange indications. But, these things were soon remedied and we were on our way.
It was my leg to fly and upon being cleared for takeoff, I throttled up to take off power and right at rotation we got a caution chime accompanied by the LG AIR/GND FAIL EICAS message. Basically, this means that the airplane was confused as to whether it was in the air or on the ground. There are 19 weight on wheel sensors that work like a democracy. When the weight is removed from the wheels, the majority of the switches much agree that the weight is indeed off the wheels for the computer to allow certain things to happen – one of those things is landing gear retraction. When this happens, the airplane goes into sort of a “safe mode” were it assumes the worse case scenario (air or ground) for each system. So we are climbing out and try to the pull the gear up and it won’t come up (because this system assumes the worse case scenario that it is on the ground). We run the QRH (quick reference handbook) checklist for the malfunction and decide to come back around and land. You usually don’t mess with landing gear issues – especially when they are locked down (a good thing). I performed a flawless landing, BTW, and we taxied back to the gate.
After notifying the company about the problem, 6 hours goes by while they are getting their ducks in a row deciding what to do. To make a long story short, we ferried the airplane to Richmond, VA (NOT ST LOUIS where we are supposed to be) where we have a maintenance base with the landing gear locked down the whole way. Every now and then you get to do something different than the norm and it was kind of cool to experience this. With full cruise power the airplane wouldn’t fly faster than about 213 knots IAS. A lot of drag out there.
We got to Richmond and taxied straight to the maintenance hangar (which was kind of cool), they drug the airplane into the hangar and proceeded to jack it up and swing the gear for testing. Meanwhile, we were driven over to the gate where we were now supposed to double deadhead back to St Louis via Chicago O’hare. We flew to O’hare and got stuck once we arrived because the company didn’t list us positive space. So the flights were all full and we were stuck. I attempted to “Limo” myself home and took off through O’hare trying to find Orlando bound flights but all that I found were full or there was no gate agent in sight. I absolutely LOATHE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! O’hare airport. Every single concourse is so packed with people it is just like a concert let out of a huge stadium and everyone is bottlenecking through the exit doors – I am not exaggerating. I hate crowds as it is and this was just torture for me. Furthermore, my cell phone battery was all but dead and I couldn’t fully explore options to get home – non rev numbers, my wife, etc. By this time, my body rudiments were way out. I was tired, hungry, stressed out, unhappy, and just basically worn out. I made my way back to the rest of the crew (I had the foresight to get the Captains cell number so we could stay in touch) and we spent the night in O’hare. At least the company found us hotel rooms – kudos for that.
Upon waking up in the morning, I awoke to a light snow blizzard outside my hotel window. I called Southwest Airlines non rev to explore how I would get back to St Louis should I decide to go home today. Well, because of spring break and Easter, everything going to St Louis is sold out on both carriers. So, the usual flights that I fly on to get to work are completely sold out. I called the American non rev desk and was greeted by a message stating that due to high flight loads and weather expected to impact the St Louis and Chicago area today (Fri, Mar 2st) there might be a long delay in speaking to a rep.
So, if I had gone home yesterday, I believe the chances of my getting back to St Louis would have been substantially reduced. Despite the BS yesterday, I really believe that through someone’s foresight, those events transpired to keep me from going home because of the great likelihood that I wouldn’t have made it back to work. So, I have decided to stay in St Louis (once I get there that is, I am still in Chicago right now) and ride out the next day and a half and just report for my next trip on Sunday as scheduled. It sucks to not get to go home, but this is mainly spring break and Easter haunting me not a usual problem.
So, the next time I go home, will be Tuesday evening and all the flights that day are looking great. I believe that the worst of this month (REALLY tough commuting month) will be over by then and hopefully, I can look forward to relatively smooth commuting for a few months.
And on the upside, when all is said and done, I will have earned about 84 hours of credit and will have not missed a single scheduled trip through the worse commuting month of the year (I think. I haven’t commuted for a whole year yet). So, it could be worse and I admit that.
And, I was able to drop my last trip which bought me more time at home which basically made up for this missed trip home. So, in the end, its not too too bad.