Blizzards, Work and Sun

So yesterday was interesting. I got paged out on a trip and left for Toronto, Canada. Got to Toronto, picked up 700 pounds of freight. Went and took off and just beat the snow(lots of snow in the greater Michigan area). Just as we took off, Approach control called and said we had to return to get more freight. Oh Darn!! I knew there was lots of snow coming, so I wanted to get out of there before it got too bad. so we got on the ground and found out a little while later that it was delayed at the factory. So it had started to snow, so this is what the plane looked like a few hours later.

Here's another one:





Once we got the freight, now the big delay began. We had to line up to get de-iced before we took off to get all the ice off the plane and to get some protection from the snow while we waited to take off. That took awhile. You can't taxi very fast because it is super slippery and It was almost like driving into a car wash... huge board that has your tail number on it and tells you to pull ahead, when to slow down and when to stop. Then the "iceman" tells you to set your brakes, shut off your taxi light, etc. Then they roll up in huge trucks like this:



They are huge and the guy up in the lift is driving the whole truck from up there!!! It's so cool!!! so it takes about 10 minutes to actually get that part done. Then another smaller truck comes up and does the gear and the back edge of the flaps. Then you wait while they move out of the way. The "iceman" tells you what kind of de-ice they used, how long it's good for, etc. Then you have to wait in line to get out of the deice pit. Here's what we looked like after:




We got a bit delayed back into Detroit cuz of more bad weather, but we cleared customs and left for Tulsa, OK. Got fuel and continued to El Paso, TX. And this is what I got to wake up to... Hope you have a great day!!