Groundhog Day Intermission

 A Break In The Normal Trip Routine

- Les Abend

The 1993 movie Groundhog Day is an American classic. The film has become synonymous with routine and repetition. Recalling the final scene, Bill Murray wakes up to the radio alarm clock when the last digit clicks to 6:00, just as it had done hundreds of times before. The same Sonny & Cher lyrics of “I Got You Babe” blare from the speaker. Instead of Murray mashing the off button, Andie MacDowell reaches across him and silences the alarm clock. Murray’s today had finally become tomorrow. Time had moved forward. The routine had been broken.

Because of the movie, characterizing an event as Groundhog Day suggests that circumstances are exactly the same as they were during a prior time period. After months of flying the same two-day London trip on the 777 from JFK, my Groundhog Day finally became tomorrow. Granted, my Groundhog Day is self-induced. This particular trip is highly desirable because it leaves midmorning on the first day and returns the following evening without body-clock disruption.

I have absolutely no complaints. That being said, I know the dining menu at the hotel better than the contents of my own refrigerator. The scratches on the bureau in my room have been etched in my memory like a fine mosaic. And I know that a good kick to the mini refrigerator in just the right spot ceases its annoying rattle. Operationally, for the most part, the departure procedures, the arrival procedures, the North Atlantic track procedures, the frequencies and the assigned gates rarely deviate from the routine. Even the controllers sound the same.

So what changed on this particular trip? First, my friend Jay Rud was meeting me at the Heathrow Airport layover hotel. Jay is a former chief pilot at our Chicago crew base and is now a 787 check airman. He would be requalifying a captain for North Atlantic procedures.