Had an easy drive which could have been a very nice flight between 48V and CUT or RAP on Monday. I got to spend an hour with my dad before he deteriorated enough that they moved him to ICU for racing pulse, low blood pressure and labored respiration. I spent the next 30 hours in ICU with him, holding his hands to keep him from tearing out his IV lines. I guess it's a good thing I didn't fly, because I was in no condition to be in the cockpit on Wednesday after he appeared to be stable enough for me to come back home for some time with my family. Unfortunately, I was just about home when I got the call that they were prepping him for urgent surgery to clean up what appeared to be abcesses around the pancreas and stomach. The doc was giving him less than a 50/50 chance at that time. So, I turned around and headed back to Rapid City, donated $95 to the Wyoming State Patrol near Lusk, and arrived back in time to get the results of surgery from the doc...he said "it went considerably better than I had expected." I did find out after I got there that he had a cardiac arrest going into surgery, but responded to the defibrillator. That's a relief, but we spent the next 3 days in ICU with dad being non-responsive for the most part.
Another drive home from Rapid City on Saturday saw no further donations to any agencies. So, I'm spending some time with my son and getting him ready to go back to Ecuador on Saturday, but dreading every phone call, wondering if it's good news or not so good news...do I fly (2 hrs) or do I drive again (7 hrs)? Based on my emotional state after each visit, it's a NO-GO on the flying... this sucks...
I forgot to add (will the automerge catch this?) the saga of my brother and sister-in-law's adventure in trying to get from Seattle to Rapid City on Wednesday 12/28. They were on a Delta flight (not sure of the routing) but were diverted to Boise, ID due to what was announced on the PA as a generator failure. (possibly two? he doesn't recall as he was really focused on my dad's issues then) My brother (non-pilot) said it felt like they lost significant thrust before the announcement. He said he felt like the approach was flown with nearly no banking as they came in to Boise, and he said that it looked like all the emergency equipment in the county was standing by next to the runway. After 20 minutes of sitting at the gate, they told them that a quick repair was not possible, and they deplaned for what they were told was "possible flight to Salt Lake, but more likely a bus ride". They finally got on the last plane to Salt Lake, where they missed the last flight to Rapid City. They got a flight to Billings, where they ended up flying Hertz the rest of the night in order to get to Rapid. What a trip for them...
I can't find any info on emergency landings in Boise on Dec 28 anywhere on the net... anyone else have any luck finding something?
