Q400 Horizon to Montana

Q400 Horizon
Originally uploaded by Spappy.joneS

As usual Horizon somehow stooped to a 2 out of 5 for an overall rating. Rather than make this a big bitch session I will just make a quick list on the pluses and minuses.

First the positive:

• Great friendly service from Horizon
• TSA agents were very very kind and helpfull getting our dog, two kids, double stroller and all of my electronic gear through the screen in under 15 minutes.
• The Bombardier Q400 is a favorite aircraft of mine
  
• We choose asile seats across from each other hoping the window seats would stay vacant. We got lucky. Both kids are under 2 and were "lap kids"
• Aircraft landed on its wheels, stopped and was not on fire or in pieces.
  
• Luggage made it to Helena

Now the negitive:

• We sat on the tarmac for more than 30 minutes after boarding.
• To save fuel they don't power cabin HVAC while sitting on the tarmac which results in a cabin with depleted oxygen, high relative humidity and an ambient temp over 90 degrees.
• Sat extra long in Great Falls because they counted 2 extra people on board after the Great Falls folks got off the aircraft and we were ready to leave. This took at least 15 additional minutes at 12:15 am and yes with out the HVAC running and all children in the cabin were pretty pissed off they were not in a climate controlled bed. Adults were wishing they had some stiff drinks and some pain killers, at least some of those ear muff things the ground crew use, and a fan.

Long story short we needed to be picked up in 2 rigs last night. Thanks Barb and Tom for staying up so late, once home it took a couple hours to settle everyone down including myself, couldn't sleep. I am reading a book about baseball called The Five Seasons by Roger Angel.
The part about the 1975 season is so good I can't put it down. More on that next post.