The Flying Circus 6 - Landing

A good trick is to give the kids lollipops when descending. This helps the pressur eon their ears and may reduce the discomfort. I have constantly tried to make landing exciting by telling them to prepare for the “bumpity-bumps” and talking about what we can see through thee windows. The result is that this is now the favorite part of the journey for my tiny tots and they laugh themselves silly during landing and decelerating.

As a wheelchair user who needs an aisle chair to dis-embark, you are going to be last off the plane. So just sit back, relax and let everyone else get off first. My wife and the kids usually get off ahead of me and wait on the air-bridge or in the lounge.

Disembarking is the reverse of boarding. The ground staff come with an aisle chair and you have to transfer into it. Again, it’s great if you can do that yourself. If not you need to depend on the sometimes poorly trained ground staff. In Europe it is usually no problem – in the US it is usually a scary and dangerous moment. If you need assistance, insist that at least two people are available. Very often they send just one person with the aisle chair, and they may or may not know what they are doing.

They wheel you off the aircraft and with luck your wheelchair will be waiting for you on the airbridge. Once you are in that you are home and dry and back in control of your destiny. I usually ask for a push to the top of the airbridge (it can be steep) and then dismiss the ground staff as I have found it easier and faster to get through the airport myself. But in a strange airport it can be useful to have someone guide you.

Another circumstance where having a guide is very useful, is if you need to go through passport control at your destination. The guide can usually fast-track you and your family through the lines.