TheBanyanTree: Whether Looming in the Distance

[B Drummond]

Latest road trip had me in the heart of Gotham.  

Flew into LaGuardia airport on Monday after being delayed inflight and 
buffeted by very high winds around the airport.  It was one of those 
"everyone on board gave the pilot and crew a good round of applause 
upon landing the plane" kinda' flights.  The winds had the plane doing 
more moves than James Brown in his prime on stage as we glided, 
lurched, surged and shook around coming into the what always appears to 
be too short'a runways that are found at LaGuardia.  And Gotham loomed 
in the distance.

Tuesday had me in Queens.  Wednesday had me in Midtown, with a 
claustrophobic crossing into Manhattan through the Midtown tunnel, 
"straight across" from the Empire State building.  There just ain't no 
place on earth like Manhattan, folks.  No place.  The skyline, the 
streets, the people and the smells even are uniquely New York City. 

And then afterward, late in the afternoon, back through the seemingly 
ever narrowing walls of the tunnel again and into Queens. After the 
tunnelling experience, up to Yonkers on Wednesday night, past Yankee 
Stadium and up the fabled Bronx via the Major Deegan Expressway to my 
night venue.

Thursday was spent in Yonkers and then a drive by Yankee Stadium again 
as they played there season opener at the stadium there. Friday was 
passed in eastern Long Island.

And then, upon leaving NY, as a first incidence after hundreds of 
flights, the pilot headed us down the runway, poured the coal to the 
engines and about halfway or so down the runway cut the power and hit 
the brakes hard.  

I seemed to be the only one on the plane that realized that something 
about the takeoff wasn't normal.   This was a first for me.  An aborted 
take off does NOT happen often on a commercial airline flight in our 
neck of the woods.  I squirmed in my seat.

The pilot later told us as we screeched to a halt precariously close the 
end of the runway and into the Long Island Sound, that he was warned of 
a "generator malfunction" while attempting the takeoff and had to 
abort.  He said that he was sure it was a minor problem though and 
would taxi back to let the mechanics take a look.

After an hour plus delay we took off down the runway again, this time 
successfully entering the wild blue yonder over the skies of Long 
Island, and headed home.

I'm glad to be back from Gotham - whether it looms in the distance, or 
up close and personal, I'm still awfully glad to be back from it.


  bd
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