Don’t get me wrong. It isn’t always a fear thing. I’m just
not that great in confined spaces! Most seasoned international travellers and
business people will have similar stories to the ones that follow, because part
of the territory is learning to appear comfortable in uncomfortable situations.
I admit that a heavy night out at the English pub in
Charlotte, North Carolina (run by a Scotsman but what did they know?) probably
wasn’t the best preparation for my 7am flight to Montgomery Alabama the
following morning. I was flying to see a manufacturer of veranda spindles who
was very interested in our high production woodturning machinery. I assumed
that our meetings might last until after lunchtime and to be on the safe side I
booked a late afternoon flight back to Charlotte. I had not expected a small
plane for the outward journey. It had not crossed my mind. But there it stood,
adjacent to the farthest gate, and when we were finally allowed to board I
found myself hemmed into my window seat by a rather large man for the 90
minute, rather turbulent flight.
Feeling somewhat crumpled, I took a short cab ride to the
factory in an industrial area adjacent to the airport and had an interesting
meeting with the company President. He showed me around the facility. There was
a chasm of difference between the modern day, clean, computerised offices and
the dark and dusty factory floor where machines were running without sufficient
guarding, as testified by the number of tooling blades that had embedded
themselves over the years in various parts of the ceiling. If ever a factory
needed our safer, quieter, faster machines it was this one and I consider it
one of my biggest failures in business to have not sold them at least one!
I was at the factory no more than 90 minutes, when my
customer happily drove me the few minutes back to the airport. I was back there
before 11am with my return flight not scheduled until after 6pm. So I decided
to sit it out and do some work and maybe some writing in the airport café. As
my flight time approached, I started to wonder whether I would have another
hemmed in flight back, and guess what. The same plane, the same seat, the same
man! So that is why I was not a fan of that small plane.
On the same two week trip, I went to visit a number of
existing distributors, potential distributors, and potential end users of our
machines, and my journey took me to some interesting regional airports. I took
a two hour flight from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to Boston in another small
plane on a windy Monday morning. There
were no spare seats, and plenty of travellers on standby for this seemingly
very popular flight. Well it wasn’t so popular with me! It was one of those
flights where the passengers clapped with relief when it landed safely at
Boston. It was truly the most terrifying flight I have ever had, with our small
plane being tossed about the sky through dense cloud cover that eventually
broke as we wobbled our way down to the tarmac. Platitudes from the pilot
didn’t help much: “It may get a little bumpy as we make our descent” seemed to
completely disregard the previous 90 minutes of airborne torture, but he had
obviously been there before – what a way to earn a living?!
A small plane is also the subject of my most boring ever
flight experience after a long week selling carpets in Scandinavia. My
colleague and I arrived at Billund Airport in Denmark from Bergen to find that
there was another Friday flight delay, and that we were destined to spend three
hours in a large Nissen hut that at the time constituted Billund’s departure
lounge. Eventually we were escorted across the desolate tarmac to a small
British Airways flight. Relieved to finally be in my seat, but separated from
my colleague, I then suffered the two hour flight in conversation with probably
the most boring man in the world, who apparently had met me in my machinery
selling days. I can’t think why I didn’t recognise him in return!
Another BA scheduled small plane flight took me to Lisbon
from Manchester on a weekday, and everything was fine until we were on
approach, when the pilot decided he had to abort and try again. It was a little
disconcerting to go from nose downwards to nose very much upwards in a matter
of seconds, but at least the second attempt was successful.
So small planes to me mainly mean discomfort,
claustrophobia, boredom, illness, and fear, and other unpleasant things, but
the job got done. Apart from the disappointment of Montgomery Alabama (I drove
the seven hours from Charlotte on my next visit and didn’t go near the English
Pub the night before), I succeeded in finding new business in Boston and on up
to Vermont, generated new business with distributors in Scandinavia, and won an
order from a Portuguese bank through our distributor there. Well I suppose you
have to take the rough with the smooth!
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