April 6th-The day was off to a normal start, I was ready to leave for the Red Bull Air Race in Croatia! My name is Stan Gray and I work for Red Bull, the Red Bull Air Force and Team Chambliss. On the way to LAX at 0430 to catch my flight that was scheduled from Los Angeles-Atlanta-Rome then Trieste, Italy, yeah, it’s a long way to Trieste, Italy!
Everything was going great! I arrived in plenty of time to check in and even have breakfast. Boarding went as planned, taxied out to 25L and that’s when things got interesting! We started the take-off roll and the pilot aborted the take-off, exited the runway to inform us of a problem indicated by the engine warning alarm. We sat on the taxiway for an hour and I began to get worried about my layover in Atlanta, which was an hour. In the meantime we went back to the gate and finally pushed back an hour later. Now two hours late…What about my connect? The agent said not to worry, there was a large group connecting to Rome and they would hold the plane for us. Great, except that did not happen….I realized that they had re-booked me on a flight from Atlanta to Zurich, connecting in Munich, Germany. It didn’t seem so bad, I could meet up with Kirby and the rest of Team Chambliss in Munich.
Arriving in Atlanta, we taxied to A15 and I had 10 minutes to get to F9. If you have ever been to the Atlanta Airport, then you know this is impossible! I ran all the way to F9, got to the gate to find the door closed! Not a good feeling! I was then re-booked on a flight to Paris, leaving in three more hours and had to be at the gate two hours early to get a seat assignment. There I was two hours early and 6th in line…Huh. Good news, I have seat 63A and I’m having a hard time believing there are 63 rows on this airplane. Ten hours later we arrived in Paris and you’ll be happy to know that the Paris-Rome flight went as planned! Another three hour layover and we were off to Trieste. I arrived in Trieste, but where’s my luggage? Waiting for the verdict, my luggage was in Rome and I was somewhat surprised it made it that far…
April 8th-The rental car company was open, still needing to drive two hours to Rovinj, I headed that way. My credit card was declined due to possible credit card fraud, finally got that worked out. Did I mention that the Hotel in Rovinj is on an island and the shuttle boats stop running at 12:30am? Yes, I caught the last boat to the hotel! Thirty-eight hours after I left home, I’m at the hotel and on my way to the room. Yea! I fall asleep about 0200 and get the wake-up call at 0600 to help assemble Kirby’s airplane!
My luggage did arrive the following evening and now I have a story to tell!
