I'LL FLY AWAY!

        Last week I visited a pastor friend and his wife in Texas. The trip from Denver to Dallas-Ft. Worth was great. After the scheduled layover at DFW, we boarded a small CJR 200 jet ("flying hotdog") to finish the trip as planned. Only it didn't quite go as planned.
        The first plane kept us sweating in the gate an hour and a half before the pilot said air conditioning problems forced a change of planes. A long while later we boarded another CJR 200, and after finding and loading luggage, we departed. Twenty minutes into the flight the pilot announced apologetically that a "malfunctioning auto-pilot" forced us to turn back. The half dozen emergency vehicles, lights a-flashing, that followed us to the gate made me wonder what the real problem was.
        At 10:00 PM and with no other flights to San Angelo, we waited patiently until they brought us a third plane of the same variety. After another wait to locate and load luggage, we backed out of the gate, sat there a half hour, and then pulled back into the gate. The pilot announced more unnamed problems was canceling the flight. By then some of us were on a first name basis with other passengers and had all but exchanged phone numbers.
        The desk scheduled us on a flight the next morning and gave us vouchers to a very nice Fairfield Inn for the night where we checked in at midnight. I slept like a log. The next morning we boarded a fourth CJF 200 and quickly flew to San Angelo. As we landed I noticed at least thirty identical planes in mothballs nearby parked like little red, white and blue toys. I joked loudly maybe those were left from other cancelled flights. No one laughed.
        After a lovely but all-too-short visit, I was pleased to return to DIA the next day at midnight. I was very civil in my email to the airline, but I am unsure how or if I will use the Courtesy Voucher they sent me.
        Lessons learned? 1) Sometimes after years with no problems, they all come at once. 2) Good pilots don't take off when they're unsure if the plane will fly. And finally, 3) God was watching over us, so why gripe? There are other airlines to fly.

“Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away.“ (Psalm 55:6)

Rev. Bob Tasler
ww.bobtasler.com