This started back in December when my nephew Tyler called and asked if I would be willing to be a presenter at the IBA safety seminar in February. My first response was “Tyler I have lived in Florida for 20 years, I don’t own enough clothing to come to Iowa in February”. His response was “Suck it up Buttercup”.
I get a call from Tyler a month later and he say’s “How long can you talk?” I ask if he was joking because I could be a one man seminar if they want and talk all day but would never be invited back the rest of my life. Tyler said they had made mistake and had me down for two segments! My topic, navigation & technology was miss interpreted as two different presentations. So I had to combine two presentations together to create one really long one.
So I began the process of joining my PowerPoint presentation (Navigation & Technology) with my presentation (Learning to fly again) and my PowerPoint on the (Hot Air App) into one nearly cohesive and almost comprehensible (and really long) program.
It’s funny how life has a way to put some things on the back shelf till the last minute and this program was no different. The last couple of days before leaving for Iowa was spent in front of the computer taking screen shots and writing notes for one very long presentation.
According to the travel plans I was going to have a 4 hour stay in Houston on the way to Des Moines so I decided that I would take my laptop and my IPad as my carry-on items. This would allow me to work on the program while sitting in the airport in Houston. I looked at the forecast before heading to the airport and saw that I would be landing in Des Moines in blizzard conditions. Low clouds, heavy snow, freezing rain, winds of 26mph with gusts to 35, temperatures of 18 degrees and wind chill of ZERO! SO.. Since I needed to work on my presentation I placed a heavy fleece cover and a set of sweat pants on top inside my suitcase so when I arrived in Des Moines I could open up the suitcase and become appropriately dressed for the conditions.
One of the things I like to do when I am a presenter at a safety seminar is to have some give away items. This becomes a nice break from the presentation and everyone likes the chance to win something. Typically what I do is to pass out business cards to everyone in attendance and have 9 of them specially marked with a colored X on the back. There were three Black X’s & three Red X’s and three Silver X’s mixed in with the rest of the cards. A Black X would win you a flashlight, a Red X would win a striker for lighting a burner and a silver X would win a free sighting compass. I knew for a fact I did not want this stuff going thru security so they were all packed in my checked luggage.
Leaving Florida on an 84 degree day I am dressed in a pair of jean shorts and a nice short sleeve dress shirt. I have my electronics in hand for working on the plane and while I sit for 4 hours in Houston. I have my presentation and all of its parts on a USB stick in my pocket. I make productive use of my time in Houston using my Laptop and IPad to finish the combination of slides in my presentation the only thing I had left to do was a little adjustments to the timing on the slides.
A quick look at the weather conditions in Des Moines confirms my fears that we will be landing in conditions that are simply dangerous. Sometimes being a pilot really messes up the ole ignorance is bliss thing. As we came down from the sky we were in a complete white out. We could not see the ground till we were less than 1500 feet up. When we did break though the clouds the ground was covered in white. Right then you feel the plane increase thrust as the pilot comes on and says. They are not ready for us at this time. We will go around and give them a little more time to prepare for our arrival. In my head I am saying " Yea the ambulance and fire trucks are not warmed up yet to scrape us off the end of the runway when we slide off it". As we come around for our second pass the pilot again throttles up and passes on the landing. Saying they are not quite ready for us but if we need we can divert to Kansas City. O great, My poor nephew gets to drive three hours to KC to pick me up and drive back to Des Moines by midnight if we are lucky, Did I mention in a blizzard!
So our third attempt at landing was a success or at least we got down and slid to a stop. As the mobile walkway was being wheeled over to the plane I noticed that the gantry was covered in frozen sleet and an inch of snow. Those of you who know me are aware of the fact that I had a serious motorcycle injury back in my 20's where my right foot was ripped off and surgically re-attached. This means that after sitting for 5 hours I am going to limp horribly and have a very difficult time walking. When I saw the walkway covered in frozen sleet and snow I was instantly aware that I must be extra careful getting off the plane without slipping and seriously hurting myself. I was so focused on stepping over the ice and snow that I scrapped my arm along the door of the plane cutting a 5 inch gash in my arm. As I limped up the walkway into the airport I looked at my arm only to see blood streaming down my arm to my wrist. Placing both my carry on items in my left hand I used a paper towel I had in my back pocket to try to wipe up the blood and stop the bleeding as I am limping my way thru the airport heading for baggage claim. I looked like an episode from the Walking Dead. No one even asked if they could help me as they seemed to part like the red sea in front of me.
Tyler was waiting at the bottom of the escalator as I came down. He informed me that Troy Bradley was arriving on the next flight and we would wait for him. I figured I would go get my bag at baggage claim and we would all be ready to leave at or about the same time.
The problem was my bag never showed up! My luggage was left in Houston. The Airline had miss labeled my bag and it never came to Des Moines. So now I am in Des Moines Iowa in February in a BLIZZARD in a pair of jean shorts and a short sleeve dress shirt. Never mind bleeding and limping like a zombie. What the heck, Lets go out for a tenderloin sandwich and a beer. I am with my nephew who I love and a world record setting hall of fame pilot. Sounds like a great night out to me.
I am sure I must have looked like a crazy man walking into the restaurant when everyone else is dressed in long pants and heavy coats, after all the temp was 17 degrees with winds of 35 miles per hour and a single digit (barely positive) wind chill. BUT,, an Iowa pork tenderloin. We don't have them in Florida. I would have walked a mile in that snow storm for a fresh, homemade tenderloin and it was not disappointment at all.
After dinner we dropped Troy off at his hotel (The Above Video) and headed to Tyler and Becca's home. By the time we got there Mom and my grand nephew had gone to bed. I set up shop to finish the timing on some of the presentation slides and asked Tyler when he had to be at the seminar. His reply was 6am. It was nearly midnight at that point and I had more work to finish.
The next morning came way to early. I got up and cleaned up as best I could. The airline gave me a toiletries bag with tooth brush and soap and such. Still not satisfying since I had to put back on the clothes I had worn all day the previous day. My plan was simple. Ride down with Tyler, drop him off and head to Walmart! Of course the comments I got from the pilots who were already there were, well lets just say less than complimentary. Tyler was nice enough to have the weather guy go first and I would be second. This afforded me about an hour and a half to go to Walmart and get everything. I needed a shirt, tie, slacks, socks, belt, undies and I even had to purchase a suitcase to be able to get everything home. So I used up most of my time.
As I pulled into the parking area where the seminar was being held I received a phone call from the airline. We have your bag and someone will be sent out to deliver it. Well, crap. I need that bag still because all of my give away items are in it. So once again I begged Tyler to shuffle his presenters to buy me some more time. He agreed to do so and now I will have the last two sessions before lunch.
I now have one hour and 35 minutes before my presentation. Tyler lives 35 minutes away. So off I go to Des Moines. I get hold of Becca and tell her to keep an eye out for the bag. I tried to call back the airport to see if they were coming directly out to deliver the bag or if they may have other stops along the way. Trying to see if my efforts were in vain or had an actual chance of success. I get to Tyler and Becca's house and jump into the shower and clean up. I then get dressed in the new outfit that I had just purchased since there was still no guarantee that my bag would show up in time.
Dressed and ready it was now time to wait. I had about 30 minutes I could sit before I had to head back no matter what. A couple more calls to the airline, but no luck. I was able to spend some time with the newest members to the Thompson Family Tyler and Becca's boy Will and Hailey's girl gabby. Just 8 minutes before I had no choice but to leave, a car pulled up out front. THE BAG WAS HERE!
So grab the bag and throw it into Tyler's truck and head out as fast as I could safely go. I arrive at the seminar 9 minutes before my presentation was to start.
I first had to say a few words about how glad I was to be there and a few thank you's to some special attendees. The presentation goes well and I was able to pass out some flashlights, Strikers and compass's to a few lucky winners.
After the presentation I was able to do a little bit of mingling but not much, Sherry said at least your flight back is direct so they wont loose your luggage. JINX... back to Tyler's house for a wonderful evening watching Becca, Tyler and Chris clean my clock with video games. The next morning came to soon. I took my Lost Luggage and packed it as full as I could get it. I then pack the rest of the stuff with my laptop in the new luggage I had purchased at Walmart. This way I still had only one carry one and one personal item. Interesting that the airline charged me $25 to send my bag from Florida to Texas to Iowa but the airline in Des Moines wanted $40 to send my bag straight back to Florida.
As I am in line for the NSA (non-sense authority) Someone taps me on the shoulder and as I turn around there was Troy Bradley. We both had a little over an hour to kill so I asked if he would join me for a burger and a beer. He had already eaten but did take me up on the beer. We chatted about all sorts of things ballooning and more. Always fun to share stories. I did inform Troy that it was HE who took the title Youngest Balloon Pilot in the country away from me in 1979. I also found out that I did some instruction of one of the pilots he fly's with back home way back in 1990. Shout out to (Patrick Stevens).
When I get back to Florida my wife was already circling the airport with our three kids in tow. Parking is a big pain so she just drove around and around. Guess What. The luggage never came. I received a panic call from my wife that she need to use the restroom two laps ago. So I ran out and we did our best Chinese Fire drill where my wife and oldest daughter jumped out and ran inside and I jumped into the SUV with my other two children and proceeded to drive around and around. My wife what the one who contacted the airline baggage people and found out that my bag was still in Des Moines. So much for a straight flight home. Thanks Sherry. It was now again going to be after midnight before I was to get to sleep and I had passengers to fly in the morning.
All in all I enjoyed the trip very much and was able to spend some time with a fantastic bunch of pilots and ground teams. I received a message from Ken Walters a few days later saying that the reviews for my presentation were very good and wondered if I would be interested in a trip to Wisconsin in March. No offense but I believe I will pass on that this year.
Thank you to everyone who were kind enough to go out of the way for me. I am very thankful for the event filled trip.
Have fun, FLY SAFE
Jeff A Thompson
O by the way. My luggage showed up at my home two days later at 3am!
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