Airborne Again

After eight years of non-flying, I finally decided it was time to try it out again. It wasn’t fear of flying after 9/11—I did fly in January of 2002, but I just got tired of winging it, and wanted to enjoy road travel. As you know, Judy and I do a lot of that.

If you never worked for an airline, then it is difficult for me to describe the joys of NRSA travel. On my first attempt out of Dallas I was able to watch the flight I was standing by for depart the gate without me. However, I did manage to get the very last seat on the next departure a mere four hours later.

My seat for the flight from Dallas to Portland, Oregon was 33F, a window seat right next to the engine nacelle on the MD-80. It wasn’t noisy, and there was a neat aspect to it. On taxi out to the runway I noticed that there were a lot of dragonflies, and it was really cool to watch them buzz along unsuspecting and get sucked into the engine. Wow, they really gain speed on the way in!

I am also happy to report to you that the ingestion of dragonflies does not disable or in any way affect the operation of the MD-80. They seem to pass right through. Unlike that US Air flight that Captain Sullenberger had to ditch in the Hudson River after the bird strike, our aircraft was completely unsullied (unsullenbergered?) by the encounter with the dragonflies.

I am writing this column at 32,000 feet above the Rockies en route to Portland, where I will rent a car and drive across Oregon to see Hells Canyon, the sight that I missed on last year’s road trip. However, I won’t be doing the loop trip. The road is washed out part way around, so I’ll have to do a “U” trip instead, but I anticipate that it will be great. I have the whole day to do the 500-mile trek, though I may cut part of it out if what I saw from the air on the way over really is snow up in the passes.

If the weather holds, I also intend to drive up to Mt. Saint Helens from the south to see it from where Spirit Lake used to be. It is now called Windy Ridge, and that ought to be interesting if it lives up to its name.

For some of you I will create my usual journal with photos. This time I’ll probably do it after I return home, so you won’t see it for a week or so. Stand by…