Another Day of Delays

Yesterday Nov 12th was to be a very long day with five legs totaling nearly 8 hours of flying. On the drive in to work, the news stations were reporting that a major freeway was closed south of Ft Worth due to a bad wreck. I was sure glad I wasn't on that freeway! I was signed in and already in the cockpit with 20 minutes to pushback and still the first officer was nowhere to be found. Then I called our dispatcher and he relayed to me that the FO was stuck in traffic on that very freeway!! He finally arrived about 30 minutes after scheduled departure time and we were finally moving.



The first leg was from DFW to ABQ (Albuquerque). We flew through an approaching cold front and that made for a very bumpy ride all the way to ABQ. Same thing on the next leg back to DFW. The next leg would take us from DFW to SAT (San Antonio). We were almost back on schedule by the time we reached SAT. On the way to SAT we experienced some difficulties with the ailerons and decided to have the maintenance people take a look at the problem. (The ailerons are the small flight controls on the ends of the wings that move up and down and their function is to bank the aircraft left and right.) The mechanics couldn't find any problem with them and released the aircraft for service. I wasn't satisfied and refused the aircraft and ultimately the flight back to DFW was canceled. The previous flight from SAT to DFW had also canceled so the gate agents weren't too happy about the situation. Three hours passed before our scheduling people finally decided to send us back to DFW and spend the night there.


We saw an Air Force C-17 cargo jet land while we were waiting.


We eventually deadheaded on a late flight from SAT back to DFW. Deadheading is when airline crew members ride as passengers in the cabin. I had to sit in the very last row between the loud engines!!!



The last leg of the day was to be from DFW to Memphis but that was canceled also so the scheduling people decided to send us to a hotel right near DFW and have us nearby for the remainder of the trip the next day. It wasn't a real good day......

Thanks for reading.