Hajj - pt 3 - Tales of the Wrench

The dark lower forty one electronics compartment surrounded me
The light switch should be right about
There!
Now lit with several small light bulbs I checked the compartment one last time
Everything was ship shape
Reaching up as I stood in front of the ladder to the main deck
I turned the latch handle
Pushing up there was a lot of resistance
Someone was standing on top of the hatch
Figures
I rapped on the hatch panel with my fist a couple times
Pushing up again this time the hatch was light
I pushed it to the side under the passenger seat next to the opening
There were several faces looking down at me
One of the stewardess' and two of the Haji's
All peering down at me
Like I was some kind of dirty mole man about to invade their world
The stew recognized me and laughed

"Why didn't you use the stairs?" She wondered

I didn't have an answer
I'd explain later and we'd all laugh about it
Right now though, I was kind of embarrassed
I was the main attraction for the whole forward cabin
Huffing and puffing I squeezed my fat body up through the hatch opening
My pants almost fell down as the belt got stuck on the lip
Jeez

The stewardess helped me get my feet
Then I replaced the hatch cover
Smoothing the edge of the carpet around it
Wouldn't want someone trip now

I looked around
Most of the passengers were still looking at me
The fat dirty mechanic that popped up out of the floor
Glancing over at the main entry door I saw that the air stairs was still there
All that spectacle was for nothing
Could have taken the easy way

I asked the stew if there was anything they needed down here
They didn't
So I headed up the spiral stairs to the upper deck
I hoped to find an empty seat or two to relax on for the trip back
No such luck
The upper deck was full of men with meticulously trimmed beards
Clearly the upper class in the upper deck
So much for no distinction of classes during the Hajj

That meant I was going to sit in one of the jump seats in the cockpit
Which I really didn't mind
I was definitely not sick of the sights and sounds of the cockpit during flight yet
Still young at heart I suppose
It made me feel like a kid

The flight crew was talking about some event that evening
They wanted to get back in time to attend

"The clock is ticking!" One of them exclaimed

I quietly unfolded the fifth seat in the back corner of the cockpit
Locking the pins of the complex folding mechanism into place
I sat down heavily
Buckling my belts loosely
The crew went through their checklists
All routine stuff
I looked out the side window at the pretty countryside around the airport
Wondering if I'd ever get to come back someday
Engines start up
We taxi out
Experience the never boring thrill of take off
Set our course for Medina

I lose track of time by burying myself in an aircraft manual
Can't ever know too much about these things you know

An hour later I hear the copilot call in to Medina airport

"November - seven - four - seven - X-ray - Lima
requesting immediate descent to the runway"

The tower responds in their clipped accent

"Are you declaring an emergency?"

"No, no, nothing like that. We'd just like to land immediately"

I was puzzled by the exchange, usually that wasn't the way it went
Our immediate approach was authorized

So from our altitude of twenty thousand feet
The captain pulled the throttles back
Pulled the speed brakes
And pushed the nose down slightly
We dropped like a rock

I quietly hoped the passengers had been warned before all that
As my stomach was suddenly virtually weightless

Our descent lasted a few minutes
A big arc around the airport with a steep descent
Ending with us on short final approach

Brown desert spotted with frequent volcanic black rocks flashed below us
Getting closer and coarser
We crossed the threshold of the runway
The airframe shuddered as we contacted the runway
Almost before the nose gear touched down it seemed
The engines were thrown into reverse
We made the mid-field taxi way turn off
And scribed a short bee line for the terminal area

Our group on the ground was there to marshall us in
The airport people wheeled up the stairs as soon as we were chocked in place
Passengers busied themselves with getting ready to deplane
The usual mess being left behind

The flight crew was ready to go almost before all the passengers were
All carrying their bags out along with the mob of passengers
I was left alone in the cockpit
I was in no mood to fight my way through the throngs of people downstairs
So I sat down at the Flight Engineers desk to thumb through the logbook
I idly glanced at all the quantity gauges
Oil was in the green
Hydraulics was looking good
Fuel seemed a bit low
Reserves were empty as usual
Number one and four main were empty
Number two and three main had about seven thousand pounds apiece
Center tank was empty

That really seemed a little low

Our head mechanic came upstairs
We chatted about the flight and the few gripes that were in the books
I commented on the fuel quantity
He whistled

"Wow dude, you guys didn't even have enough to do a missed approach"

Turns out
The flight crew wanted to make it back in time for a flight back to Jeddah
Some sort of party going on there tonight
So they'd tried to shorten our time on the ground in Ankara
By having me put the bare minimum return fuel on board
That's why we'd asked for immediate descent
And slid into the pattern on a short final
There just wasn't enough fuel to do it right

Ironically
The flight back to Jeddah was cancelled
Cutting the fuel load back hadn't saved any time at all
We were all back at the Medina Hotel that night

Misplaced motivations
Standard operating procedure
In our little land of misfit toys