Crazy Canadians

My last trip was a weather doozy. We weren't on time for a single flight til the last day. I stopped by Walgreens on the way to the airport Tuesday. Ice pellets were slamming into my face sideways walking back to my car. As a pilot these are not the days you look forward to. Last year we didn't even have deicing ability for ice pellets as there was no testing data available for the effectiveness of the deicing fluid. This year we have it but our "holdover (effective) time" is limited to 20-50 minutes from the start of the final deice application. I fear I am digressing.

We arrived in Halifax at 12:30am Atlantic Time Zone, i.e. we were tired. After a reduced rest period we were back out in the morning to see this:


All that wet stuff is ice from the night before...nice. A quick turn in Chicago and we go see the French Canadians in Montreal. Not the best hotel, I might as well sleep on a sheet of plywood. Snow was piled up in the parking lots to four times the height of the cars. We took the hotel van out to eat and just held on as the driver nearly sideswiped a car, spun out on every application of gas and somehow plunged through a tiny gap in a parking lot fiasco to get us there. Too bad my dollar tip is only worth 90 cents Canadian! (Back in 2000 it was worth a buck.45)

Last day, 4 legs...Montreal - Chicago - Ottawa - Chicago - Indy. Pretty much on time. The Asian gate agent in Ottawa was in the cockpit begging us to hurry with our paperwork after we received the load report late from the baggage guys..."Are we on time! Are we On time! Must be ON TIME! You Done Now?!" I think I said "CHILL OUT!"...not very professional. We were on time. Ottawa from the air:

I'm going to NC to celebrate Mom's Bday...The flights look awful or else I would take Jacob with me. Congrats to Dusty on passing his exam! Time for a little break Dus.