Rough Flight

The worst thing about my last job was having to fly on my boss's private plane. While I worked for him, he had 3 different models, and as much as he delighted in showing off to defense counsel ("I don't know when your flight leaves, but for me it's wheels up whenever I say") I loathed those flights.

The last plane he had was a Beech King Air, and I nearly died twice on it. The first time, on a flight to Tampa, the plane shuddered and wouldn't steer right after takeoff. My boss and his pilot friend struggled to get the thing back to the runway, to find that a rudder trim tab was locked in the "right turn" position, so the plane didn't want to go left.

The second time, as I was in the jump seat, just as the plane became airborne, the pilot (same fellow) put the plane right back down, explaining to me that the contraption that kept the props in synch was broken, and we could have flipped over as soon as we got a bit higher. Needless to say, I'm not going to fly with this fellow a third time, to tempt fate.

So, yesterday, I find myself on a commuter flight heading to Gainesville, to fetch D1, abourd a Beech 1900, essentially a bigger version of the King Air. As we're taxiing to the runway, I'm replaying in my mind the fun events of my prior brushes with death. I notice out of the corner of my eye 4 Metro Police cars racing pretty fast. The Beech halts, and the pilot announces that there is "an unauthorized vehicle on the runway," and there would be a delay.

Perfect! I'm going to die on a freakin Beechcraft, but not even in the air! When they show the list of the victims of this terrorist, most of them will have been sitting on big jets when the car bomb explodes. I'll be in the pathetic group of 9 souls sitting on a commuter plane.

Well --the delay was short, and it turned out that some senile old man drove around a wooden gate, and made his way to a runway. He's lucky he was only arrested and not shot by the police.

The flight went smoothly, and even enjoyably, as the low altitude gave me some great views of Lake Okeechobee as we flew North.

I don't know --I'm still a bit leery of those Beechcraft...