Cabin Crew Cronicles - III - Autumn Weather
Apple crisp sunlit autumn air, or the mysteriously foggy mornings have all the triggers that make me feel like a proper bird of passage that just wants to pack some bags and fly..
Fly away, somewhere, anywhere, just fly.
Yes, as a clockwork, autumn is when I miss flying the most. And the reason for it is that we started our cabin crew training in Hahn in autumn and all the time we were there the weather was either foggy or crisp sunny, only on our last day in Hahn was it drizzling, and we took it as Hahn crying for us having to leave.
The training itself was challenging. A lot of new information, tests every day, and two major exams with 90% pass mark, if I recall it correctly. And it just so happened, that at that point in my life all those new impressions, a complete change in environment and all that intense learning was exactly what I needed to get myself out of depression.
So this training time in Hahn was special for me not only in that it granted me the job of my dreams, it also tested me and in a lot of ways shaped me into the person I am today.
That one autumn of the year I finished working as a cabin crew my family an I went to Spain on a short vacation. On the morning we had to get on to our first connecting flight homewards, we were just coming out of the airport hotel when I immediately froze right outside the doors as I was observing fog twirling right by my nose. This spells trouble - I explained to my unsuspecting family.
We flew out nicely with a minimal delay, but when it was time to land and we started to circle I got really disheartened and pessimistic, as in my experience that meant diverting. When it comes to strong winds, there is still a hope to circle a bit and land, but fog wouldn't clear out quickly enough, so I was prepared for the worst - diversion to a random airport, which would mean buying new tickets to get home.
I'd believe we'll land in the right airport, when we land and I actually see it's the right airport - I said to my folks, as I also knew how pilots had the tendency to leave pax (and sometimes cabin crew too) uninformed about the actual situation.
To my great surprise, we did land where we should. They had used jet fighters to clear out a patch over the runway.
I like the Autumn here in Michigan. Its not till Winter that I long to fly to warmer weather :)