From the Airwaves

Recently heard on O'Hare tower frequency:

Controller: "United 1234, fly that two twenty heading and contact departure on one two seven point four."

United 1234: "Two twenty heading, twenty seven four, United 1234, GO CUBS!"

Unidentified Voice: "GO CARDINALS!"

Controller: "Who's the Cardinals fan that's not getting off this airport today?"

Unidentified Voice: "Don't be jealous because we win more than every hundred years"

Short moment of silence

Different Unindentified Voice: "He's got you there..."

Quote of the Week

"The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed." - Carl Jung

Band of Brothers

This dream of aviation comes not without its nightmares. Those nightmares usually arrive in the form of shrinking companies, shrinking paychecks, and layoffs. Such is the state of the industry today.

To my brothers and sisters who will find themselves unemployed later this year from Eagle, know that you will be prayed for. Despite inexperience, little rest, and demanding working conditions you still operated safely. Good luck, and God bless.

And the rest of us who remain in this difficult time must remember: despite our low moral and disappointment with these events, the people we carry are loved. They have families and friends who anxiously await their safe return. They look forward to hugs from their children, parents, and grandparents, and handshakes from their coworkers after a job well done. It remains our most heavy responsibility to care for them in their travels, and bring them safely home.

Join me then, all of you who read this blog, in praying for those who have or will be layed off, and also for the safety of the traveling public who remain in our care.

From the Airwaves

Recently heard on O'Hare ground control frequency:

O'Hare Ground Controller - "Eagle flight 1234, double back at echo, alpha, hotel, papa, alpha bridge, at alpha 16 transition to bravo to your gate."

Eagle Flight 1234 - "Over the river and through the woods, Eagle 1234."

LC

"I don't know what you mean to me,
but I want to turn you on, turn you up, figure you out.
I want to take you on." - REM

Bundled

The range of human emotion is an astounding thing, but what grabs me most this week is the capacity for more than one emotion to bubble over and overwhelm you.

This particular week brings with it a mix that is almost certainly very common: the crashing together of excitement and anxiety. I had almost forgotten what it was like to have these two somewhat similar yet diametrically opposed emotions yanking you in different directions. Perhaps the good Lord designed them to go hand in hand as often as possible. The forward-looking optimism of pure excitement is tempered by the anxiety telling you the ground will fall out from underneath you any minute.

The end result is a handful of lessons the Lord intends for us to learn. The first, I believe, is to turn to him with our hopes and concerns. The second is to trust in his divine plan. The third, I imagine, is simple patience. Our questions will eventually be answered.

Onward then, for life does not live itself.

Glad Tidings

What a great week!!!

Quote of the Week

"Small oppurtunities are often the beginning of great enterprises." - Demosthenes

Epilogue

So, after talking about the power of thunderstorms briefly earlier tonight, the power was displayed to me fully. I spent over an hour in the lobby of my hotel in Wichita, KS waiting out a tornado warning. Good thing scheduling agreed to delay our show time in the morning, 'cause that 5am van time probably wasn't going to happen...

Rumble thy Bellyful

At 35,000 feet the thunderstorm looks huge. Your mind is simply not capable of wrapping itself around the fact that the swirling mass of moisture and energy just off your right wing is the size of a small nation. It's so big you feel like you might drag your wingtip through it, even though you're twenty miles away.

It looks so serene from the outside, like a giant marshmellow. Big, white, fluffy, peaceful. We know better. Inside of it, roaring like a wild beast, lies the power to rip your insignificant machine to pieces.

We are so small upon this world, and the awesome power the Lord manifested in a simple thunderstorm is merely the tip of the iceberg.

Lest we forget how truly great he is, or how truly insignificant we are.

Quote of the Week

"Chance is always powerful. Let your hook be always cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be a fish." - Ovid