Nose Gear & Sniffles

This post will center around one thing...noses.

First off, I'm a smart, clever girl. I think I mentioned how I listed the girls on a flight from Medford to San Fran, and then they could connect onto my flight from San Fran to Sacramento. It worked great! All the flights were ontime, despite the fact that my plane was having maintenance issues. The crew that brought in my plane had called for maintenance, but I never did find out what that was for.
I was just happy that it was taken care of quickly and we got our flight to Reno out ontime. I called my mom after we landed in Reno to make sure the girls got on their flight. They had just closed the door when I called. So far everything was going as planned.
We left from Reno early and landed in San Fran with plenty of time. I shuffled over to gate 87B and only had to wait a few minutes while my girls plane pulled up and parked. I watched them deplane and walk into the terminal. They were both so happy to see me and I was thrilled to receive hugs and kisses!
We walked back over to my gate and had the gate agent print out boarding passes for them. In no time we were on our way back to Sacramento and the girls were making funny faces trying to get me to mess up. It was the first time they had seen me work. It was very cool. I loved having my babies on my plane.
It was supposed to be a short flight. However, it took longer than that because the nose gear wouldn't come down. I sat in my jumpseat and felt the guys cycle through the landing gear procedures 3 times while the passengers sat there completely ignorant of the problem. I knew I'd be getting a phone call soon.
Shit! I thought. I don't want to have to prepare the cabin for an emgerency landing! Not when my girls are on this flight!
As expected, the first officer called me.
"Hey, what's going on?" I asked casually.
He said they were having a problem with the landing gear. My heart started beating faster as I waited for the NTSBO. Luckily the next words out of his mouth were "the gears down now and we are circling around for the approach." As if he were reading it off a card he added, "no brace, no evacuation. no brace, no evacuation."
"Okay." I said, and hung up.
We landed just fine, but lost the hydraulics. This made the plane difficult to steer and the taxi into the gate was extremely slow going.
It turned out that the gear "free fell" and locked into place. As long as it was down, there was no need for emergency. However, the captain had to stay late to fill out a bunch of paperwork. Everything turned out Ok and I'm very thankful for that!

Now for the next story of noses..
Mine. Yesterday I slept the entire day because I was sick. A cold I guess. It took me right out. Today I feel better. I even forced myself to the workout room and ran a couple miles on the treadmill. What was the song that lifted my spirits? Blessed be Your name!

The words that represent my heart most are these:

Blessed be your name
when the road's marked with suffering
though there's pain in the offering
Blessed be your name.

Every blessing you pour out I'll turn back to praise
when the darkness closes in Lord, still I will say
Blessed be the name of the Lord, Blessed be your glorious name!

You give and take away, you give and take away
My heart will choose to say,
Lord blessed be your name.