Flight Delay Thoughts

Back home from a long trip to the east coast. It did have a few different forms of transportation. But the flight from Chicago, O’Hare to New York, JFK was the one that left the longest impression on me. It was supposed to be an ordinary travel event but had a couple of bumps. Weather in the New York area caused several delays. First on the ground in Chicago and then by a very roundabout routing. The flight was diverted to going south to Saint Louis and then east to Washington DC before going up the coast to New York. Well the pilot decided that he needed more fuel to complete the journey safely so we landed in Atlantic City for more fuel and all together messed up the life of those with connecting flights out of New York. At least in our case we did not have that additional trauma.

This did lead to several thoughts while on the flight and not all was bad about the flight. As a good thing we did get to fly at a lower altitude (9,000 feet vs the usual cross county height as 37,000 feet.) So I was actually able to see a lot of the coast and make out what was down there. As an example I was able to see Barnegat Lighthouse on Long Beach Island, New Jersey and that part of the bay as we left Atlantic City.

But some other thoughts did come to mind.

1. When did they change the name of the area where aircraft are parked to the Tarmac? Was it done to make it sound more exotic? Was it done so people would not think that they were stuck on a parking lot?

2. Is there a world record for the length of time on a scheduled flight without turbulence? I have never gone completely across country without a period of turbulence. The flight across the pacific to Hawaii and another that went to Japan and neither was without some rocking and rolling. It seems that it is impossible to go any distance without the movement and are those periods are usually at the time that food and beverages are served.

3. What does the expression “Ground Hold” really mean? It sounds like we should get out of the aircraft and hug the ground. At least when you are still at the terminal it doesn’t feel so bad. When you are parked at the end of the taxiway watching aircraft taking off and landing in front of you is not comfortable.

4. Personally I had spent enough time in New Jersey many years ago and had not planned on visiting that state again especially on this trip. I liked Atlantic City before they tore down all of the old houses and put up all of the casinos with their attached parking lots. So I had not planned any additional visits to that city.

5. And finally I had the suspicion that the pilot was playing the theme song from the classic television program “Gilligan’s Island.”

I know other people have had longer delays and flights that were much worse. I’m not complaining about that. We did arrive at a reasonable time and only had a late check in and dinner, not many hours sitting in the airport, like some of the others probably did. It is only that on this extra-long flight I had all of these thoughts.