Back down to earth

   

The reasons for flying home from Atlanta are twofold:

• More flights means more points
• A longer flight home means more sleep

Once at Heathrow a few years ago,  the jetstream was particularly fast and there were gaggles of people at baggage reclaim from New York, Philly and Toronto all rubbing their eyes, unable to believe thy had just crossed the Atlantic in a shade under 6 hours, the  mile walk from terminal B had done nothing to wake them up and children were piled on trolleys like luggage trying to snatch a few more minutes sleep.

You probably know flights from West to East are shorter than flights from East to West right?  all to do with the jetstream. The jetstream is a high speed wind that circles the globe at 25-40,000ft 

  The Polar jetstream is the one that affects us in the UK, the winds can be over 100 miles an hour and blow West to East in an ever changing pattern of swirls and waves. Often the flight paths are able to take advantage of the jetstream and "hitch a lift" on the wind. (likewise a headwind travelling East to West can slow a flight).

  The upshot of this is that flights from the US to the UK take between 45mins and an hour less than the outward flight, so less flight time = less sleep. Landing early in the morning when your body still thinks it should be asleep is a bleary experience anyway without a short flight.
  Arriving at Heathrow in the early morning can be especially tortuous, the airport doesnt actually open until 6 am and planes are literally stacked in the skies above London waiting to be allowed to land, it always seems a surprise to the ground crews that the overnight transatlantic planes are arriving, its not like they havent had 7 or so hours notice is it??    That, ladies and gentlemen is why it is better to catch as late a flight as possible from the US, by the time you land all the stacks have cleared, all the ground crew have made it to work and it is mid morning in the UK.

So, the flight 8hrs 10 mins from Atlanta to Heathrow, not a sleeper service so you eat on the plane instead of in the lounge, all taking up precious sleeping time. As a child we always went on holiday by ferry which used to take 6-8 hours to Belgium or Netherlands so settling in for a long trip is nothing new, perhaps thats why I like flying long haul so much.

There's champagne to drink while the rest of the passengers fight their bags into the overhead bins, some people think 1 carryon and 1 personal item means 1 case, 1 rucksack, 1 handbag, 1 coat,1 laptop bag and 1 bag of duty free, well, it doesnt, it means there is always a lack of space and people struggle to shove unfeasibly large cases into little spaces like schoolchildren shoving their PE kit in to their lockers at the end of the day. Eventually everything is crammed in somewhere and we can leave!

The cabin was only about half full and quiet, the meal was a salmon starter and yet another Caesar salad, this one wasnt a patch on the one on the way out, the anchovies were in a poly pot to add yourself, there was an assortment of grey vegetables, I bit one of them and was surprised to find it was a pickled onion, I bit another and was dismayed to find it wasnt anything I could name. Perhaps the caterers in the US have a different recipe for Caesar salad!

I started watching 12 years a slave but trying to pause it stalled the system so then I watched The Railway Man, same thing again after about 20 mins so I gave up and switched to the moving map, crossing the jetstream there was a fair amount of turbulence but since my fear of flying never had anything to do with safety or crashing, I am perfectly happy when the plane drops and creaks, I like to watch the wings bending through the window!   7hrs left to fly, I snuggled up and when I opened my eyes it said 2hrs left, closed my eyes again and woke up with 22 mins left, a good nights sleep.

Arriving at Heathrow was the long route march to immigration, a 2 sec stop at the E-passport gates, Customs, the parking company even managed to bring the car to the correct terminal this time, I saw the chap who had been next to me on the flight getting into a very large, very shiny black Mercedes and beside it was my battered purple Chrysler, someone drew the short straw driving it back to the airport!

Out through the sliproads still on the "wrong" side of the dual carriageway and Freedom.

I hope you enjoyed my ramblings, it was written for 2 different audiences, if you dont understand an abbreviation or dont get a joke, dont worry, you probably belong to the other demographic.

See you soon!