Fuel Dump

I was able to trade my second trip of the month with open time for London.  I was happy to be there over a Sunday, because I like to go to a little Presbyterian Church (Church of Scotland) in Covent Garden for the Sunday evening service, called Crown Court Church.  It was going to be a great layover.  Even though it was a Sunday, I had found a 2pm London Walks tour of Little Venice and my friends Mary Jo and Lorelei, who were working the later departure, were going to join me for an afternoon of touring and pub visiting.  I would then make my way to Covent Garden for evening services and from there go to dinner with a friend I made from the church.

But of course it all fell apart because I made plans to do something on the layover.  I was the #2 on this trip, the Coach Galley.  I sent the girls out with the beverage carts after takeoff and just as they were finishing, and I was loading the meal carts for dinner, the Purser calls back to say we are diverting because of a Navigational malfunction.

We ended up going back to base since they had the part that needed to be replace, but we were very heavy with fuel as we were supposed to be on a Trans-Atlantic crossing.  We couldn't just turn around and land.  So we had to dump fuel, which in over 13 years of flying, I had never experienced before.  It came out of the back of the wing thru a little nozzle.  So over Memphis we turned around and flew back low and slow to have enough time to jettison our Jet-A.

Two and a half hours after take off, we landed at base like normal.  We taxied to the gate and then sat for an hour and half why they fixed the problem.  They closed the door about 10 minutes before we would have gone "illegal".  I guess I should be glad we didn't lose the trip completely.

We ended up arriving in London about noon instead of at 8am.  I thought I might still make the walking tour, but we did not get our rooms at the hotel until just before 2pm so it wasn't possible to get to the starting point in time.  I ended up running some errands and then napped for a few hours before heading to Covent Garden for church and dinner with my friend John.

Again I was fortunate to be flying with some great ladies in coach this trip.  It always makes even the most painful delay more tolerable when you work with nice people.  This picture was taken after almost 15 hours on duty all night.... and they can still manage a smile!