Ahh Manchester!

derg

Apparently a "terse" writer
Staff member
I forgot to tell my story of my Manchester layover!

So we get into Manchester, NH last night and it's -18C outside, AND WINDY.

Usually when we park the jet overnight at a non-maintenance station, the FO will do a walk around of the jet before shutting it down. Basically, you're doing an abbreviated pre-flight looking for blown tires, obvious signs of manfulction, etc so you can give HQ a 'heads up' and they can arrange contract maintenance of the aircraft.

So, like a dummy, I forget to bring my overcoat so I'm walking outside in arctic-esque temperatures with just my coat and I even wore my hat to keep a little warmth around the noggig as I'm walking around.

Little do I realize but almost the entire tarmac is a sheet of ice so I slip and my hat goes flying towards the United ramp. I'm able to retrieve my hat and shake the ice off.

But it was so cold that I'm litterally convulsing as I'm walking around in the wind. BRR! The OPS guys unloading the jet got a kick out watching this.

Anyway, we eventually get to the hotel and I discover my room key doesn't work.

I walk back up to the front desk and there's one of our flight attendants with another room problem, but her key works but it's got a nasty smell of fresh paint.

The lady at the front desk is in shock because they're hosting some convention at the hotel and they're absolutely out of rooms.

"Well, we have a problem" the flight attendant said and I offered to take a wiff of the room and if it's not absolutely disgusting, I'll trade her rooms.

I've got 'boy nose' so I could almost step in dog poo and wouldn't smell it.

The room wasn't so bad, just a fresh paint smell so I traded her rooms and the front desk recoded my original non-working key.

I get to the room and the heater is barely working because it's pretty darned cold outside and what can one expect with a wall unit heater?

Of course I've got to log in and see what's up on the website but the best connection I was able to get was about 24.0 kbps. Ouch, especially when I'm used to 3500+ kbps at home and at least 56kps on the road with my modem.

Anyway, the next morning, I wake up and the room is absolutely FREEZING. I go to turn the heater up and it's already maxed out but doing absolutely nothing.

I decide to start the shower and use some nice hot steam to warm the room before I do the morning ritual of showering, making sure I put my epaulets on the right shoulder and stuffing 800 square feet of junk back into my rollaboard bag.

About 15 minutes later, I figure the shower should be nice and toasty, but it smells like a freeze. "WTFO?" I thought.

To my suprise...

No hot water.

It's not freezing, but extraodinarily lukewarm -- almost toward the temperature of a poorly chilled soft drink.

This sucks because I'm a scorching hot shower-type person.

Ok, ok, I'll make it real quick so I don't completely become an ice cube.

The toilet won't flush.

Ok, I've had enough. I'll just bone up on some fresh hot airplane coffee in one of those warmed ceramic cups from first class once I get to the airport.

We arrive at the jet and the "Potable Water System" is inoperative.

In cold environments, the ground crew will drain the water tank (tanks? I dunno, I'm just a pilot) so it doesn't form a big iceberg in the belly of the aircraft overnight. Unfortunately, the potable water tank heater was inoperative so they weren't able to refill the tank without risking a big icy mess.

No coffee for a two-hour flight to Cincinnati.

So here I sit, wondering if laying over in PHX on this trip is worth braving the subarctic temperatures and exceptional quality of the Manchester, NH Wayfarer Inn for the rest of the month?

Just a note from the road!
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BTW, the northeast is the only place you can say "Oh yeah, it's wicked cold like" and you won't get a strange look from people.
 
I've had days like that... and they bite! Funny story: about a week ago the temp in the Chicago area and Midwest was around -13C. Well, going to use the lav at one point during the day I found that flushing no blue juice was to be found. Try again. Nope, none. At MDW, call for a lav service. Well, all the lav carts are frozen. So is the blue juice in the belly of our plane. Ahh... the fun!

Last night show up to the plane, start the preflight, notice a huge gash in one of the prop blades on the deicing pad. MX comes out, and tells us they will have to change out the blade, a delay of an hour. Luckily we did an aircraft swap, and arrived in TOL a few minutes ahead of schedule even with the change last minute. Moral of the story: DO A POSTFLIGHT!
 
Doug,
Interesting story! While home at PHX you'll maybe think it was worth it, until you're back at MHT! Two questions:
1)When is the next time you're in MHT, and is it from CVG? My roomates and I go up there to watch planes all the time.
2)What hotel do you stay at when laying over there? Just curious...I go to school adjacent to ASH airport which is under jets on a left base to runway 35.

Nick
 
The Wayfarer Hotel needs to be shut down. The wing you stay in (I forget the #) almost never has hot water. Have them put you in the 5s building.. Always have hot water there!

I guess they think they can throw a coat of paint on the walls to cover up the real smell.
 
Doug, for some reason everybody uses the word wicked for everything they talk about here in the NE
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What'd you expect from Manchester? Seriously, after 18 years of living in Boston, I know there isn't much to that city. Too bad they won't overnight you in Portsmouth. I lived there during grad school ... NH's only seacoast town with lots of good restaurants, nice hotels, and shopping. It's about a 30 minute drive from the airport.
 
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So we get into Manchester, NH last night and it's -18C outside, AND WINDY.


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I miss winter. There's only so much 70 degree WX I can take. Looking forward to a few east coast/midwest trips soon.
 
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:( I miss winter. There's only so much 70 degree WX I can take.

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I'll gladly swap places with you!! In San Francisco, we had two seasons : early sprint and late spring - and they change daily!! Never sure what you're going to get
!!!

Now, that's what I miss!!!
 
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I miss winter. There's only so much 70 degree WX I can take. Looking forward to a few east coast/midwest trips soon.

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You can have it. I guess this is payback for me calling some of my friends in So Cal a couple of weeks ago and saying, hey, guys, did you know that the weather is nicer here in Maryland than it is in your neck of the woods?

Boy, did I feel stupid when they called me over the last weekend and asked me to explain to them what wind chill meant.
 
windchill on last saturday in dc was so cold even the deicer at the airport we used wasnt workign well enough to clean the planes...now that is cold.
 
so did that mean you couldn't fly? how long do you have to de-ice a plane and do you de-ice the entire plane or just the wings?
 
People in the NE and East Coast or wherever it is cold-i admire you guys for living in that type of condition everyday. Boy it is so miserable!
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Tell me about it...Sometimes it gets so cold on a nice day you wish it wouldnt tease you, and just snow....I miss Texas
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The Wayfarer Hotel needs to be shut down. The wing you stay in (I forget the #) almost never has hot water. Have them put you in the 5s building.. Always have hot water there!

I guess they think they can throw a coat of paint on the walls to cover up the real smell.

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It was kind of odd that the driver dropped off USAirways in a different building...
 
Wow! Could it get any worse!

I'm 40 minutes from MHT. Maybe you should stay in our guest bedroom next time! LOL, It has heat, hot water and coffee..

Anyways if you are MHT again soon, let me know. I'll go over and get some pictures of your plane landing/taking off. Maybe zoom in on the FO.
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It was kind of odd that the driver dropped off USAirways in a different building...

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See, if USAir used the "cheap" wing of the hotel for their crews then they wouldn't be in all of this financial mess.
</sarcasm>
Ethan
 
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Anyways if you are MHT again soon, let me know. I'll go over and get some pictures of your plane landing/taking off. Maybe zoom in on the FO.
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Man, what I wouldn't pay to see Doug hangin' a moon out the window on takeoff as he's calling "positive rate"...LOL!
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Doug - moon???? BWWAAHHHHHahahahahahahhaha would never happen (not that i'm daring him to get into trouble or anything) but that's just a funny funny thought.... he'd have to have a lot of the little green bottle to go that far in showing some skin... LMAO
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however - that would definately make an awesome christmas card woudln't it?! HAHA
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I miss winter. There's only so much 70 degree WX I can take. Looking forward to a few east coast/midwest trips soon.

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I miss winter too, but SoCal has turned me into a complete wuss when it comes to cold temps...anything below 70 in my apartment and I'm uncomfortable now. Back when I lived in SLC, anything over 70 and I'd start to break a sweat!
 
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