A Passage to India Part 3

June 22, 2022
Blog Post
No Comments

A Passage to India Part 3

A Passage to India Part 3

The Return Leg

“Life never gives us what we want at the moment that we consider appropriate.”

E.M. Forster, A Passage to India

Due to the logistics of our flights, we arrived in DEL at night, around 8:30pm. We departed the next night around 11:30pm, so as to arrive in JFK at 6am (times are local.)

Due to winds, the return flight was scheduled to be about an hour longer, which made our on-time departure even more critical.

Even a minor glitch could threaten to cancel the entire flight—and it nearly did!

But first,

The Layover

As is often the case with my 777 trips, much of the crew was happy to get together for a “crew debrief,” and we even met up for the fabulous free breakfast buffet!

We basically had about 24 hours on our layover, and stayed at a nearby airport hotel. While most of the crew rested (including me!), some more adventurous types took a train downtown for shopping, and one of our FAs even took the fabled Taj Mahal trip.

While I am determined to do that eventually, the journey is an hours-long bus ride in an often un-airconditioned bus—with the summer temps in DEL topping 110°F!

I’ll save the Taj adventure for a winter trip!

A Passage to India Part 3

When Push Time Comes to Shove

“Adventures do occur, but not punctually.”

E.M. Forster, A Passage to India

As mentioned, due to the even longer flight home, we had only minutes to spare to get to the runway and take off before our “drop dead” time expired.

As luck would have it, one of our required oxygen bottles was low, and there was a question as to whether the replacement bottle was authorized for our plane. The approval by Maintenance Control and the installation cost us a precious 45′!

Unsure if we would even make our “drop dead” liftoff time, we taxied out, fingers crossed.

At the end of the runway, Tower told us to hold for 2 inbound aircraft. FO Mark immediately replied, “We need to take off within 4 minutes or we’ll have to cancel.”

Tower got the hint, and slowed the second arrival to give us a spot for takeoff.

We departed, with about 2 minutes to spare!

This time, Cap’n Dave and FO Mark took the first leg, which reversed course through the narrow Himalayan corridor, and included overflying the Afghan sliver.

Past that, it was our shift again.

Our first challenge was keeping track of potential emergency airports enroute. Overall, the Middle East is sparsely populated, and so are the “adequate airports”—especially for a “Heavy” like our Boeing 777.

Not only do we have to keep track of suitable airports, we have to make sure they are adequate for contingencies such as:

Simply enough pavement on which to land immediately, if on fire or some other dire emergency;
Facilities for Medical Diversions;
Refuel and re-dispatch capability;
Politically stable—i.e. we won’t get arrested and thrown in jail for the crime of landing in their country!

While over Turkish airspace, Mike and I also had to thread a needle—just a few miles south of Ukraine!

While we had departed the gate 45 minutes late, over the course of our 16+ hour journey, we made enough time up to touch down in JFK on time—though too late for me to catch my intended flight home to PHX.

So, I stayed another day in JFK to recover.

Yep, this trip is a solid 6-day event!

Full Passage to India Series:

A Passage to India Part 3

Hemisphere Dancing Report

This time, we dance the hemispheres back home to PHX to…

Dance at my (xx)th birthday party!

Bunny and I threw an 80’s themed party. We had everyone from Rod Stewart to Tina Turner, from Reno 911 to Indiana Jones, from Richard Simmons to Lt. Uhuru—and even a cameo from Hugh Hefner and his Bunny!

Speaking of which, who were (my) Bunny and me?

Why…