Wednesday, 5/13

Well, it's nice to know I still have that weird talent of mine.

I've joked in here before that the only special “talent” I have is the ability to discuss any subject for 30 or so seconds and make it sound like I know what I'm talking about. It's a talent I rarely use, yet is has come in handy once or twice in my life.

Well, make that three times after yesterday.

The Michigan Air National Guard did a flyover of Marquette yesterday in a salute to health care workers. It was a nice thing to do; after all, they deserve each and every ounce of praise they can get. Since the flight plan for the flyover was set to go right over downtown Marquette I figured I'd take a microphone out on the sidewalk and broadcast while they were doing it.

Unfortunately, they didn't fly over downtown or the lake. The flight came down from Houghton along the lake, and then flew down Seventh Street, over the hospital and Jacobetti, and then back headed back downstate. That flight plan was great for both health care and vets, who must've had chills running down their spine.

For those of us downtown who couldn't see a thing? Well, not so much. And for those of us standing outside with a microphone, broadcasting and wondering where the planes were? REALLY not so much.

I was following the flight on Flightaware, so I knew where it was and about when it would hit downtown. I brought my microphone outside, and started describing the situation. Seven minutes later, wondering just what the heck was going on because the flight was only a minute away (last time I checked) I came back inside, while still broadcasting, and found the flight was already into Alger County.

Les Nessman would have been proud.

For seven minutes I talked about what was going on and why. I mentioned the people on the Range Bank parking deck across the street waiting to take pictures. I talked about the tankers, and their history at KI Sawyer. I talked about all the other flyovers they were doing yesterday. Heck; I even talked about the Flightaware software. But not once did I see the plane and, like I said, found out seven minutes later that we missed the whole thing.

Oops.

It wasn't a total loss. We did have someone who did get a video of it. But for those seven minutes, waiting for the plane to flyover and trying my best to now have any dead air, all I can say is this--

I'm glad I was able to use my one skill in life yesterday. Let's just not do it again any time soon.

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)