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.