Volcanic Ash Cloud Grounds Aircraft!

You've got to be kidding me. I totally thought it was a joke. I had had a uneventful layover in Manchester, UK and I woke up that morning and was getting ready to leave when I noticed a plain white sheet of paper had been placed underneath my hotel room door. It said that "Due to a Volcanic Ash Cloud, my flight to Philadelphia had been cancelled until further notice." I thought my other crew members where trying to play a trick on me. What a great April Fool's joke that would have been!! Only it was true! I turned on the TV and there on BBC and CNN were the news anchors showing all the airports in the UK, closed!

That first day, I stayed glued to the TV, hearing all the reports about the volcanic eruption in Iceland and the dangers of flying thru an ash cloud.

The BBC played a documentary about the British Airways flight in 1982 that encountered an ash cloud over the Pacific and lost all four engines!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Flight_9

I had known about the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland. It had first erupted in March and while flying back and forth across the Atlantic we had hoped that we would be able to see the glow of the eruption. (our flight path to Europe from Philadelphia often takes us across Iceland)






Each day we would watch the local news in England, hoping that the travel ban would be lifted. The weather played a key role. As long as the winds were blowing the ash plume over Europe, we would be grounded. We had no idea how long this could last and were just waiting day by day to see what would happen next.





At home things were going along as normal with only the International Flights to Europe being disrupted. But here in the UK, the whole country was stranded. England is an island and the only contact with the rest of the world was now thru ferries to mainland Europe and the Eurostar train thru the Chunnel (Channel Tunnel) linking the United Kingdom with France.















We were "humanity adrift on the sea of life" like this statue, Adrift, by John Cassidy in front of the Library in Manchester.















The weather in Manchester was gorgeous. I believe only one day out of the nine days I was stranded was even overcast. Every morning the sun rose bright and shiny in clear skies! We did not see any evidence of ash, although there were reports that in areas of Scotland and northern England a dusting of ash could be seen.























After several days of waiting and watching, I finally decided to get out of Manchester and see more of the countryside. I took a train to the town of Chester.







http://www.chester360.co.uk/index.htm








Chester was a Roman Fort in the year 79! and a medieval walled city. Roman remains can still be found in the basements of some buildings and in the lower parts of some of the cities walls. There is also a Roman amphitheater just outside the walls. Many of the black and white buildings in the center of the city are actually Victorian reproductions. The walls of the city can be walked and it is a 2 mile circuit. The location on the River Dee made it a key port during the industrial revolution. Chester was a transportation hub for the railway and for a canal system. It is really a super cute little city with wonderful history, shopping and restaurants.






On another day, one of the other flight attendants and I decided to tour the BBC studios in Manchester.









http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/manchester/hi/









The studios are very close to our layover hotel and we made arrangements to take a tour. It was much like the tours I have taken of NBC studios in New York City and the Warners Brothers and Universal movie studios in California.





Finally after nine days in Manchester, the travel ban was lifted and the Manchester airport was opened. The flight from Philadelphia was on it's way and we would be working the flight back to the United States the next day! It was great to be back in the air again!

Just half a mile shy of 50....

A gorgeous Saturday in Seattle and the Twin Falls Trailhead of Olallie State Park was packed! The trail was crowded with families and dogs! I met up with another USAirways employee to do a quick 3 miles roundtrip to see the falls.
There is a really nice waterfall viewing platform with awesome views of the 150-foot drop of the Lower Twin Falls. We also hiked out to where a bridge crosses over top of the falls.

So my mileage total is up to 49.5 miles and the pledges total is now $1,098! I fully expect to exceed my mileage goal of 50 miles since I have already exceeded my pledge goal of $1,000. There is more than a week left for hiking and You can help by still making donations on the WTA website during the month of August, just click on this link:

Amanda's WTA Fundraising Page

May begins the Casual Flight Attendant

Hurrah, the time to wear our new uniforms is finally here. Although, I am not too happy with all the purchases I made. Here is a photo of the sweater set. I think it looks like I am ready to go jogging! A little too casual for me.
As many of you know, the airlines carry alot of the mail. This next uniform option looks like something the girls at the Postal Service or FedEx would wear....just make it brown and I could be working for UPS. Is this package for you?


We will be able to wear our shirts untucked....


And of course I had to try out the scarf in my hair! Especially since I won't be able to do that for real on the airplane...but doesn't it look cute:



I think I will end up wearing this last option the most. It is my favorite and it is more like the uniforms that we have been wearing all along...am I resistant to change do ya think?



I just think it looks more neat and professional than all the other choices. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get a picture of the SKORTS in...they had to be altered and are still not back yet.

Just call me Business Casual!

Exciting things were happening at my apartment this week. Hours of watching "America's Next Top Model" and "Project Runway" had prepared me well for the evening that I just spent! I got a HUGE box of new uniform pieces for USAirways. I had to try everything on, mixing and matching to make sure that everything fit. I had ordered 32 pieces and only two were missing. (this is actually better odds than most flight attendants that I had talked to!) I am missing a red scarf and a raincoat, but everything else was there. Lots of washing and hemming and trying different knots with the scarves rounded out the week!

This is a new "business casual" uniform. (I ordered 3 Skorts! :-) We have sweater sets and casual jackets and vests that look like what the postal workers wear. Since every time I go to work, there is someone in the crewroom who is about to "go postal," I guess this is appropriate. I think my favorite piece is going to be the "tailored top." If any of you knew me back in my days when I was based in Charlotte, just after the Piedmont/USAirways merger, one of my favorite old uniforms was a beige dress that we had that was actually two pieces: a top and matching skirt. When worn together, they looked like a single piece. The tailored top works this way and you can wear it with the skirt, pants or the skort!

The sweaters aren't so great. The shells are nice, short sleeved or a mock turtle long sleeved, but the outer sweater is yucky. It makes you look like you are wearing a track suit. I got one of each color, (we have a dark blue and a light blue) but I don't like them so much. I will need to wear them for warmth, but I think they look silly. But all in all, there are a lot more "girly" items than the old USAirways stuff. Scarves! Hurrah --although I really really really want to put one in my hair! Which is a big NO NO....It's the CLT F/A in me. I just want to have a pretty bow in my hair. :-) I wonder how long it will take til someone breaks the "scarf in the hair" barrier? And could it be me? Am I brave enough??

Originally, I was very excited about the skorts, but now I am not too sure about them. They have an almost gaucho thing going on about them that might not work too well with my increasingly stout figure. And I wonder how they are going to hold up to washing!

I will need to get pants hemmed, but otherwise, I was very lucky. My items fit me. Lots of flight attendants that I talked to had to send stuff back because the sizes were all wrong. One of the controversial things about the new uniform was the apron. The "America West" way of doing things is to have your name embroidered on the apron. I personally have no problem with this. But lots of flight attendants get a bee in their bonnet about people knowing their name. They think they are going to be the target of stalkers or that it will make people a little too familiar with them. I don't know. Anyway, they have their reasons. When we ordered the uniform, you were required to put something down to be embroidered on your apron. Several flight attendants took this opportunity to send a message to the company. And it wasn't "good job". Many of the things put down on the form were a little "blue"!! I actually saw an America West flight attendant the other day with "Inflight" on her apron. I thought this was very clever. Especially if you don't want your name on the apron. But USAirways was adamant about a name on the apron and if you put something off-color/or even silly on the order form or even left it blank, they are going to default to the first name that is on your employee badge.

We are supposed to start wearing our new uniform pieces on March 3rd! I hope to get some pictures out to everyone with ME in my new uniform soon.