Hypothermia? Me too! I landed at JFK Friday at 08:00 morning from Bombay, ran for the 08:30 flight to Orlando but missed it by 5 minutes. Since I commute from Florida, and layover in Bombay, I don't always bring a jacket. It's a 7 day trip and I don't have much extra space in my one small suitcase, and I -almost- never need the jacket. This was one of those times, the Bombay weather was clear and 90 degrees... Stupid me.

The early rain we landed in at 0800 in New York turned to freezing rain at about 0900, then clear ice and sleet, all day long.

To make a long, ugly, story short, I spent the day running from gate to gate, trying to get the HELL out of NYC, but every flight, after that first one to MCO, was eventually cancelled, after boarding and sitting at the gate for hours, waiting for the ice to stop fallying from the sky. Nobody was leaving NYC on Friday. There are FAA restrictions against trying to fly into ice storms, brought about by that Air Florida crash in DC years ago.

So at 6pm, I try to get to a hotel. Mind you I had been up since the day before, and I have to go out on the curb and get a ride into the city, wearing a short sleeved shirt, in 30 degrees, wind and sleet, waiting for about 30 minutes until my ride finally showed up. By the time I got to bed it was midnight (after 3 hours on the phone to Delta Crew Sched, most of it on hold). I had to be up at 03:30 for a 04:00 van ride to LaGuardia, to hopefully get on the 0600 to Atlanta, to then catch a flight to MCO, wearing the same short sleeved shirt. That 06:00 flight didn't push back until 7:30, then took a full hour with two deice trucks spraying hot fluid to remove all the ice, we finally got airborne around 9am.

I was lucky and got a flight out of Atlanta to Orlando, because most of the passengers never got out of NYC. So I finally got home late on Saturday, missed my daughter's gymnastics event (again) and when I counted back, I had a total of about 9 hours sleep (in three, 3 hour naps) since Thurday morning. This Airline Pilot stuff is great fun. And I will always bring at least a nylon windbreaker from now on!

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