Money train

The other day we flew to Abuja, Nigeria to deliver 180,000 pounds of bank notes.

The manifest said our cargo was "printed material". Normally, if I'm busy I don't check the cargo - if we are carrying hazmat some one notifies me, otherwise I just have "boxes" in the back. Our first indication that something was different on this flight was that Abuja control repeatedly asked for our permit number. Oh, and the 50 men with kalashnikov automatic rifles approaching the aircraft after we parked.

View from my hotel room in Larnaca, Cyprus. I was only there for about 25 hours, but that was enough time to take a swim in the Mediterranean.

Hotel bathroom in Liberville, Gabon. I think this might be a good look for our master bath at home.

The Sahara desert can, like most deserts, be very beautiful. I enjoy it's beauty best from the air.

July 2010

Last month I started a trip from Anchorage, Alaska. We flew troops (who started out in Hawaii) to Leipzig and then they went on to Pristina, Kosovo. That was the original plan, anyway.

All flights are required to carry more fuel than is needed to complete the trip. This contingency fuel is used if the weather is bad or if we can't land at intended airport, and have to proceed to a different airport. The amount of extra fuel needed depends on weather or not we fly in the US or internationally (or to an island with only one airport). What is important to remember is that the more reserve fuel we have to carry, the closer our destination airport must be; so sometimes, we use a re-clear flight plan. This allows us to carry less reserve fuel and fly farther or carry more payload; the only down side is that sometimes if things don't work out just right we have to land somewhere short of our intended destination and put on some gas.

Thats just what happened on our flight to Leipzig, because of stronger than anticipated winds over Greenland (and a very forward c.g.).

We had to land in Manchester, UK. We did get a great view of Thule AFB. If you look closely, you might see the treeless, grassless golf course adjacent the runway.

The picture of the C-172 is for insurance purposes. It was parked right off our left wing in Kosovo. I had to make a 160 turn right in front of it to taxi out of the ramp. It wasn't tied down, so I thought it might be blown away.

Sunrise and moon set over Iraq, on our way to Al Asad AFB. We did the Al Asad turn two times - with out an APU.

Kris alway says I don't take enough pictures of myself. This is a picture of me checking into the Penta Hotel in Leipzig, Germany. Pilots checking into the bar - always makes me smile.

A little music, please.

Sometimes I forget just how good music makes me feel. This trip has been another long one – long days, multiple legs, and short layovers. I just haven't taken the time to put in the headphones.

Yesterday I got out to the airplane and it had no APU (auxiliary power unit). The APU is a jet engine hidden in the tail of most modern commercial aircraft. I say “most” because, even though the MD11 is a relatively modern airplane (only 20 years old) my company insists on doing no preventative maintenance on APUs. So, when one brakes, instead of fixing it, we take it out of the airplane. Why? Well, if you leave it in the plane you are under a time constraint to fix it; but you are not required to fix something thats not there (I love airline logic). The APU is a very useful piece of equipment, it allows us to power the various aircraft systems on the ground, including the air conditioning, and start the main jet engines. It is not required, but it really is a pain in the behind if you don't have one.

The point? (sometimes I just like to ramble on about aircraft systems) – Yesterday the temperature was 45 degrees celsius in Abu Dhabi, thats 113 degrees fahrenheit when you do the math! Setting in the cockpit greenhouse of an MD11 the temperature had to have been in the 130F neighborhood. Needless to say, doing anything in that temperature with no air flow (even thinking) is draining. And when despatch screwed up our flight plan, causing a greater delay than normal, I was one cranky pilot. Today, I was still feeling the effects of my bad mood until I put my headphones in and got lost in a 3 cord ocean.

Three cord string theory: the wave form that describes me must be modulated by the frequency of The Clash, because that particular vibration always smooths my mood.

I remember the first time I heard The Clash, it was “Straight to Hell ” played on Millikin University radio (WJMU). As soon as I could, I bought the album Combat Rock. Joe Kim told me that the best Clash album was their first; so I got that one and then everything I could get my hands on. You might never know by looking at me, but on the inside, my heart beats to a punk drum. This doesn't mean that I can't appreciate all kinds of music, because I do, but punk charges me up. A few favorite mood altering songs:

• White Riot – The Clash
• Divide and Conquer – Husker Du
• Last One To Die – Rancid
• True Believers – The Bouncing Souls
• A New Tomorrow – Screeching Weasel
• Carousel – Blink-182

Three working World MD11s all at one airport, Abu Dhabi. We all departed within an hour of each other.

I thought the airline name was funny on this 767 in India - Blue Dart. Lawn dart was the thing that came to mind, and thats not a good thing.

Sunset in Abu Dhabi, standing around waiting to go to the hotel.

Invictus

This trip I am headed to Africa once again. First stop is Oostend, Belgium then down south to Lagos, Nigeria and Kinshasa, DRC for a short over night (I'm looking forward to that – the short part) before we get to Nairobi, Kenya.

Africa is a fantastic continent with so much promise; and thats the problem, so much promise. Americans have often been criticized for expecting everyone in the world to think like we think. I for one am glad that not everyone thinks like me. South Africa is a perfect example. If I had gone thru apartheid, I would have become a terrorist/freedom fighter. I don't know that I could have forgiven that repressive regime. And even now when I hear a white South African talk about how their country is worst now than during those years apart; I can only think, 'you reap what you sow'. Why didn't South Africa foreshadow Zimbabwe? The leadership of Nelson Mandela, is the short answer. When given the chance for revenge he and his country saw past blind justice and chose a forgiving peace.

How many times in human history has an oppressed majority come to power only to share peace with their former masters? How many times have we seen reconciliation committees instead of retribution tribunals? South Africa is a singular story, and this history unfolded on a continent most Americans write off as hopeless. Maybe, there are still things we can learn, from beyond our shores.

Sometimes we forget that both sides of the coin are required to pay the ferryman. Warrior and peace-maker are of equal importance. Teancum and the people of Ammon.

Invictus is an amazing movie highlighting one of the truly deserving recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize, Dr. Mandela.

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

William Ernest Henley

Baghdad

In all the years I've been flying over Iraq, I think this is the best view of Baghdad I have ever had. When we first started over flights in Iraqi airspace, we could only fly at night. On at least one occasion we could see rockets and artillery fire with their accompanying explosions. A couple of months ago I landed in Iraq and picked up troops on their way home. Things always seem nicer from 40,000 feet.




Moon rise over the Atlantic.

7000 miles

Almost 7000 miles, 15 hours of flying time; thats the distance and time from Luanda to Houston. Of course these statistics depend on winds and route taken (north or south), but no matter the metric, this flight is a ball buster. Now, I know that military pilots often fly greater distances, under more taxing conditions, so I'm not saying my job is harder, but at the end of the day I don't get to blow anything up or ingest government approved speed on the job (I'm just saying).

World Airways has had a long standing contract with SonAir to operate a flight between Houston and Luanda, Angola two times a week. Since I've been flying the MD-11 I have bid this route every month without fail. Not for the exotic locations – we are only on the ground in Luanda for 14 hours (minimum rest for this flight) and all that time is spent in the hotel or under guard traveling back and forth. Not for the interesting flying – three round trips, across the same air space, only 6 landings to split between 4 pilots; not too bad if you liked the movie Groundhog Day. Not even for the prestige of flying passengers – when you fly passengers, flight attendants have to come along too; there is no ego boost with flight attendants around, especially when they each have 40 years of seniority with the company. No, the real reason is time off. If I was to be awarded a Luanda line, I would only have to work a week and a half and get paid for 94 hours of flying time for the month! It's the holy grail.

It just so happens that a senior captain called in sick last month and I got to fly the whole line. The problem is; that line backed up into this month's line, and I am still on the road.

Sunset over the flatlands of Houston.

Meeting the sun along the west African coastline after racing around the world in opposite directions.

Nostalgic for the ground

Sometimes I wax nostalgic for the ground. Most often when I wake up on a plane and find myself setting in the a middle seat. Most pilots can only sleep in the front seat. I am one of the rare few who can sleep anywhere at almost anytime (my one and only natural talent). Some might be inclined to label this personality trait as just plain laziness, but it has a very big upside. My job makes it impossible to have a regular sleep schedule, but I don't need one. This fits perfectly with my normal default mode of operation: I sleep when I'm tired and eat when I'm hungry. You can never be certain when the next opportunity for either will come. This means, however, that I am always sleepy and hungry (now that might be the definition of laziness?).

My flight back from Nairobi, was a little bit more than eventful. We ended up in Manston, UK, with some mechanical difficulties, which precipitated an all expense paid trip to Peachtree City for the crew. (More about this when the investigation is complete.) I thought, I might get to go home early -the mountain was calling- but World is having its busiest AMC (air mobility command) month, ever. More missions this month than any month in its 62 year history.

I flew a plane from Atlanta to Offut AFB to pick up members of the Fighting 55^th. (This unit has been on continuous deployment for the past 16 years!) I then continued as a passenger on their journey and got off in Leipzig, Germany. I have a couple days in Leipzig before I make my way down to Kuwait to fly troops home. We are scheduled to stop at Al Asad airbase on our way back to Leipzig.

A nice view of Mount Kenya.

Sunrise over Nairobi.

Some mechanical difficulties.

Year of the Tiger

Twenty six days is a long time to be on the road. I've been away longer, but never without the most essential of traveling tools - my computer. Just one week into the trip my faithful HP gave up the ghost. No skype, no movies, no hulu, no NPR, no scriptures, no facebook, no blogging, no pre-flight planning or schedule updates; everything done by phone, my cell phone bill was not pretty. Aside from the computer problems the trip was very cool.

We were in Shanghai for the Chinese lunar new year. I witnessed one of the best fireworks displays of my life out the window of my 35th floor hotel room window.

For more than 4 hours the people of Shanghai set off fireworks all over the city. Just before midnight it started to snow and the visibility went down but you could still hear explosions from every quarter.

When we flew back to Abu Dhabi the next night, every city large and small were still celebrating. The city of Kungming: most of the lights in this picture are fireworks.

We also had the opportunity to fly to Kabul, Afghanistan (my first time, so a new pin on the map!). This normal looking Land cruiser is almost 12,000 pounds, armored and very cramped inside. The official who ordered it didn't spring for the blast shield under the vehicle - might not be the smartest decision in a IED rich environment. We took two of these cars up to Kabul.

We landed in Kabul right before the sun went down. It was nice to fly in when we could see the mountains. About three hours on the ground and we were off (with no lights on) to Karachi, Pakistan (another garden spot and a new pin!).

On our return, Abu Dhabi was fogged in. We wanted to land at Sharjah, but they had no place for us to park, so we ended up in Dubai.

After six hours of rest we flew back to Abu Dhabi. We got a great view of the palm island and the tallest building (not being used) in the world.

Another beautiful sunrise over a troubled part to the world.

Pearl Tower in Shanghai.

Vertigo inducing mall in Shanghai.

All I could think about for 26 days, was how much snow I was missing.

Milan

The first thing I did in Milan was take a nap. 
I know it's hard to believe, but doing nothing (but watching movies and reading) for eight hours in the back of a Delta 767 can be very tiring.  I watched 21/2 movies:  The Secret Life of Bees, The Invention of Lying, and some romantic comedy (I know a guy didn't pick this line up).  I also started reading 13 Things That Don't Make Sense (so far pretty interesting).
About 6:30 in the evening I went out to dinner with John Foster and Matt Goldschlager (we will be flying together this month).  If you know anything about eating dinner in Italy, this might seem a little funny, because an early dinner in Italy is about 8:00.  We took a tram downtown, Matt wanted to exchange a shirt be bought earlier that day.  Evidently Milan is the fashion capital of the universe.  It's like walking down a fashion catwalk, but with dog poop.  Everyone looked better than me - it was a real high school flashback (but with a lot more dog poop).  We walked into the store to exchange Matt's shirt; everyone seemed uncomfortable with my red plaid button down.  Fashion all around me and I found the coolest thing in the store - a huge gas powered heater (think Benford 5000).  John and I talked about BTUs and tuning winter into spring until Matt was done.
We then found a side street restaurant and had - you guessed it - pizza.  It is impossible to have a bad pizza in Italy.  I know about all the fantastic food to be found in Italy, but if you want something hot, fast and cheap (especially if there is no english menu to be found) - pizza is the way to go. 

Today I wanted to go to church, so I found a meetinghouse on the internet and took the meto across town.  As I walked up to the church doors, two missionaries walked out, they said that because of heating problems in the church the meeting schedule was changed and church was over - bummer. 

Heavy Haulers

Tuesday we flew 161 members of HMH-462 back to San Diego. They were coming home from Afghanistan.  The flight had been delayed 14 hours because of weather in Bishkek.  I did try to hurry the process in Baltimore (where I picked up the flight), but the plane had a number of maintenance issues that had to be addressed, so I added another hour to their families already long wait.  We did fly the plane as fast as we safely could but with 100 knots off the nose the flight took 5 hours.   

 As we taxied into the ramp we saw about 200 family members waving signs like this one.  It was about 2:30 am but I could still see many little children jumping up and down.  After all the Marines disembarked, Jay Rindler came on board and thanked us for bringing these Marines home.  He also sent us some of the pictures he took that night. 

One of the pictures was of a small girl with her dad.  Mom is proud of her husband, because she has dressed her daughter in a flight jacket.  Dad is so happy to see his daughter.  His daughter is trying to figure out who he is. 

The sacrifice we ask these Marines to make isn't new, but it's new to them and their families and I am so grateful that they make it.  I don't have the words to express how I feel about these men and women in the military.  I'm not one for making speeches over the p.a. to a captive audience; I always feel that it is more about self-aggrandizement than information or thanks.  I don't do many things well, but I can fly an airplane and if my actions can get these men and woman home safe - my actions are my gratitude.

I wonder if I looked at my Dad the same way the first time I saw him.  I was over a year old when we met on his return from Viet Nam. 

This picture is Jay Rindler, me and RK Smithley.  RK was giving a line check.  Once a year the company sends a check airman out to see if I'm doing everything right.  It was nice to fly with RK and he had some good suggestions for me.  Every time I do a line check it seems that I have to perform some maneuver that don't normally fly.  Last year I had to do a raw data DME arc (I hadn't done one in 10 years).  This year I did my very first real PAR approach.

A Marine heavy hauler. 

Old Friends

The first trip of the new year was from Cherry Point, North Carolina to Leipzig, Germany (more Marines headed to Afghanistan). I flew with James Ackerman and Matt Riley. It was a very nice trip with almost no hiccups. The best part about the trip was the flight back home. From Leipzig we "dead-headed" on a World DC-10 to Baltimore. 23 of us had the back of the airplane to ourselves and a great crew up front. Dave Mauldin, assisted by Symon Rankine and Bill Wade flew us to Baltimore. I hadn't seen these guys in years, so it was great to talk to them.

You may not be able to tell from the picture, but Bill Wade could strike fear into any flight engineer. He was one of the check engineers when I went to school to learn the DC-10 engineer's panel. He always had some obscure systems question on the tip of his tongue, and when I wouldn't answer quickly enough, he would berate me about not reading the manuals. If you look closely, you may notice a sly smile beneath that mustache of his. He is a true professional aviator and a great guy to be around (if you've read your manual).

Symon Rankine was in my new hire class back in 2000. From the first time I met Symon I knew I would like him. He always has a funny story to tell and knows the most interesting and odd trivia about all kinds of subjects.

Dave Mauldin is the kind of pilot you want around if anything goes wrong. When we started out at World, Dave and I flew a number of times - and something always went wrong! Our first flight together was my first "real" flight after training (it was one of Dave's first flights after training also). Our captain, Nikki Manes, had her hands full with both a new first officer and never-been-on-the-line flight engineer. After some problems setting up the navigation system, we took off out of Miami. About 5 minutes into the flight we had a severe vibration on the number one engine - ran checklists and returned to Miami. After switching planes we took off again for San Juan. Over the Bahamas we got a cargo fire warning. More checklist and emergency calls to divert into the Bahamas (well if your going to have a problem it might as well involve landing in Nassau). I ran more checklists on that flight than any simulator event.
I was glad that we had no such problems on our flight to Baltimore.