Sunday, July 05, 2009
More Vacation 09
After ROT we spent another day in Austin visiting with our girl child and her SO and short visit to Hippie Hollow. We left Austin early Tuesday AM and rode to Amarillo, TX before we shut it down for the night. The next morning we did the short ride on to Red River, NM and camped by the river.
Red River is still beautiful and not too overrun with people. It had been over 30 years since my last time there and there were a few changes
but even with the new development it was one of the best places we stayed on the trip.
09 Vacation
I left Tucson June 11th for Austin, TX so as to meet friends at ROT. Ms.Bubba was in Scotland visiting family and would meet me in Austin for the final day of ROT, after that we planned to ride to Oregon, with many stops on the way, to spend a week camping on the Oregon coast. we needed to be back in Tucson no latter than July 4th.
That's the back story, as always, when I get on or in a traveling machine I tend to do lots of miles with few stops for pictures or much of anything else. Ms.Bubba is more of a smell the roses kind of person so most of the photos are hers
.The first image is of ROT, let me tell you it was great tacky and tasteless fun
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Good Weekend
Ms. OK and I loaded up the trailer with camping gear (new tent, never put up....big mistake) and headed for the White Mountains for a Saturday camp out. We had a great ride up US 191 and found an empty camp site a little over a mile off the main highway. Long story short...one of the main tent pole attachments was defective and after several attempts at a "work around" we gave up, packed the camping gear back into the trailer and rode to Show Low for a good meal and a night in a hotel. Oh darn . The next morning we were up early and headed home through the Salt River Canyon where we stopped for a river side picnic.
Monday Ms. OK had to work so I left the house about the same time she did for a ride. As I went out the door I thought about a comment that US 191 South from Alpine to Clifton is different experience compared to running the road north. Doesn't take much to get me to ride US 191. Normally I ride it north bound but this time I turned off US 191 at AZ 75 so as to join US 180 near Pleasanton NM and then north to Alpine so I could ride 191 south to Clifton. It started raining just before reaching Alpine and by the time I was a couple of miles south of Alpine it was a heavy downpour with pea hail. Thank you Frogg Toggs and Shoei Multitec. After running the fastest part of US 191 in the rain I passed a passel of HD riders in their usual riding outfits headed north into the rain, must say that image brought a smile.
I made it from Alpine to Clifton in a little under 2 hours, including a stop to take off the rain gear. Not too bad considering the fast part was in a heavy rain. Door to door, about an 11 hour day. What a great weekend, I got to run US 191 twice, once two up pulling a trailer and the second time solo. Each had its charm.
Monday Ms. OK had to work so I left the house about the same time she did for a ride. As I went out the door I thought about a comment that US 191 South from Alpine to Clifton is different experience compared to running the road north. Doesn't take much to get me to ride US 191. Normally I ride it north bound but this time I turned off US 191 at AZ 75 so as to join US 180 near Pleasanton NM and then north to Alpine so I could ride 191 south to Clifton. It started raining just before reaching Alpine and by the time I was a couple of miles south of Alpine it was a heavy downpour with pea hail. Thank you Frogg Toggs and Shoei Multitec. After running the fastest part of US 191 in the rain I passed a passel of HD riders in their usual riding outfits headed north into the rain, must say that image brought a smile.
I made it from Alpine to Clifton in a little under 2 hours, including a stop to take off the rain gear. Not too bad considering the fast part was in a heavy rain. Door to door, about an 11 hour day. What a great weekend, I got to run US 191 twice, once two up pulling a trailer and the second time solo. Each had its charm.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Camping in the White Mountains
Ms. OK and I did a trial run with the bike and all the camping gear that we need to take with us on vacation. We finally made it out of Tucson around 1330 Saturday afternoon and headed east on I-10 to join up with US 191 and on to our planned stop at Hannagan Meadow. After riding through rain and just missing snow (still on the roadside), we made it as the sun was setting and had to set up camp in the mud and dark. The sleeping pads and bags worked, the tent for a small backpacking model had enough room and was easy to erect. We warmed a can of Pazole on the auto gas camping stove and got a good night's rest. The next morning, after coffee, we broke camp and rode through the cold for several hours and then decended into the Arizona heat for the last leg before home.
Once home, martinis and the pool to end a perfect weekend.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
On the Road
Ms. OK was having her morning tea and said the magic words...."I would really like to go on a long bike ride this morning". Damn I love that woman.
Before she could change her mind I was dressed and had the saddlebags packed
. We went north with little plan other than to ride by Lake Roosevelt. We ended up continuing north through Payson and Show Low before turning south for home. The photo is at the last stop before home, we had been on the road for 9 hours with 1 more to go. This was the longest Ms Bubba had ridden in one day, before on the VTX an hour to two hours was the max she could set on the back. Not only do I love that woman, I love my V2K. What a road machine.
Saturday, August 09, 2008
New iMac
All the computers died last week. I got the POS HP laptop up and running but the Mac is still in the shop so there was nothing else to do but buy a new 24" iMac. I'd thought about it for awhile as I'm no longer traveling so there is no need for a laptop or even a "lugable".
I've geeked for the last couple of days getting everything set up, still not finished but about 90% there. Damn, it is nice to have a full sized keyboard and big screen to work with....I'd forgotten how nice it is.
Once the Mac laptop returns I will post some bike photos.
I've geeked for the last couple of days getting everything set up, still not finished but about 90% there. Damn, it is nice to have a full sized keyboard and big screen to work with....I'd forgotten how nice it is.
Once the Mac laptop returns I will post some bike photos.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
The Righr Side of the Dial
The big Kawi likes to run. It is so smooth and stable if you don't pay attention she will be over 100 mph before you know it. I was watching the world go by with the BrakeAway Cruise control on when I looked down to see we were going around 110 mph. I had to make a photo before slowing down.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Sunday's Ride
I rode north out of Tucson through Globe to north of Payson. I made a few photos of the the route, this is one made in Globe.
Motorcycle Photos
I have not photographed, worked on making "ART" for several years. The reasons are many but mostly because of changes in location and work the time and interest were not there. Over the years my photographic work revolved around my neighborhood. I was connected to my neighbors and felt a bond with them that I wanted to share. When I left Ogden Street I lost that connection to my daily life and also lost the need to document my surroundings.
During the last year I've joined a new community, Motorcycle riding, and I'm feeling the need to share the joys of that life. I'm working to find a voice and I'm feeling I've started to do things that are interesting. Not all the images "work" but more and more satisfy me and I will be posting those images as I make them.
I guess mostly what I want to say is: This Blog is moving in a new direction and you can expect to see more frequent posts and most of the posts will be about riding and or photographs of bikes and riding.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Last Thursday was the first day in several weeks that I had off and nothing pressing. After sending Ms. OK off to work I headed out with no real plan, I just knew I wanted to ride.
Ended up running east on I-10 about 90 miles to 191 North so I could ride my favorite Arizona day ride. The route runs North on 191 to Eagar then West to Show Low and from Show Low South back to Tucson. Highway 191 is a great motorcycle road, between I-10 and Eagar, AZ, it has everything a rider could ask for: first gear hairpins, slow sweepers, to fast ones. The road passes through beautiful high desert, mountain pine forest and meadows, and even about 10 miles of Moonscape as you ride through a open pit copper mine. The road from Eagar to Show Low runs through the White Mountains and then between Show Low Globe you ride through the Salt River Canyon. None of the road is boring, none of the scenery is boring, it is just a great ride and today was special.
The day had everything, I got hot, and even cold for awhile in the White Mountains, and then hot again. I was rained on a half dozen times, met several folks while fueling, one couple was on a V2K pulling a trailer. They were on their way to California to ride the Coast road to Seattle. Another couple were on their way home from two weeks riding around Colorado. I even watched a beautiful Sunset as I rode back into Tucson. Twelve hours, a little over 500 miles, home just as Ms. OK came in the door, a Martini and the Hot Tub, life doesn't get any better.
Ride to Carlsbad, CA
I had a few days off over the 4th. and Ms. OK is in Austin visiting the girl child so I had to find ways to entertain myself. After dropping Ms.OK off at the airport Thursday I thought "Self what would you like to do"? Well I hadn't stuck a toe in the ocean for almost a year and San Diego is only 6 or 7 hours west.....hummmm can you say road trip?
I threw a couple of changes into the T-Bags, hung 'em on the big Kawasaki V2K and headed West. I ended up in Carlsbad, CA, stuck a toe in the Pacific (yes it is still cold), watched a beautiful sunset as I ate fish and chips, and drank a couple of cold ones. After a good night's rest I rode the coast road to L.A., hung a right on I-10 and rode it like I stole it all the way home. Made it in time to see a great Tucson sunset, I'm not sure which sunset was better. They were both pretty spectacular.
The heat On the California trip was a killer both ways through the desert. I stopped about every 100 miles to cool my core and rehydrate. The photo was made just west of Phoenix, one of the last stops on the way home and by then I was pretty beat up, having a ball but beat up.
Then the next day work called and said my "line" for the week had canceled. Damn the fridge was empty so there was nothing else to do but ride up to Globe for lunch. The Globe, Superior, Winkelman ride is a great bike ride, mostly fast sweepers through beautiful red rock, high desert. Sorry no photos of that part, I was having too much fun riding.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Rode a HD Electa Glide Screaming Eagle
Back in May I wrote a post about my new Kawasaki Vulcan 2000 Classic LT, said it was the best bike I had ever ridden. That statement still holds after riding the HD Electa Glide. The HD was a nice bike but it felt like I was sitting on top of a toy instead of riding in a real road bike. It handled very nicely, quick in the turns and easy to ride slowly but no comparison to the V2K for smoothness and control on the road. We didn't do any "roll on" trials but I don't think that even with the "Screaming Eagle" mod the Electa Glide could stay with me. Lastly while the engine smooths out at speed it still has more vibration than the Big Kawi and there is no way I could ever get use to the engine trying to jump out of the frame at idle
It's a nice bike but it's no Vulcan 2000.
OK Guy at ROT
Here I am; dead man sleeping Saturday afternoon after two days and nights of riding, drinking beer and enjoying the show.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Home from ROT
The Republic of Texas Rally may be unique because its venue is set away from the public. All the activities (other than a few rides) take place inside the Austin Fairgrounds away from public streets and normal folks. Austin is a pretty laid back place anyway but for ROT it is hands off, if a bunch of suburban housewives and other assorted freaks wish to act out their wildest fantasies so be it as long as no one gets killed. I've been to most of the big "zoo" events, the infield of the Kentucky Derby, NASCAR, the 500, Mardi Gras, you name it, and none match ROT for shear craziness. It is over a hundred thousand people living Caligula, Dante's Inferno, and a Bible Thumper's vision of Hell all rolled into one alive, pulsating mass of humanity, with rock music blaring, naked women (and men) dancing, squids doing burnouts, HDs with V&H pipes running on their rev-limiters, going around and around the parade route, all day and all night for 4 straight days and all this packed into a few acres.
What can I say: Beer, boobs and motorcycles, does life get any better?
Monday, May 26, 2008
New Scoot
A couple of months ago I made the mistake of setting on a Kawasaki Vulcan 2000....."just to see how it felt"......BTW, it felt damn good. Long story short, after weeks of reading every thing I could find about the V2K, several more trips to the local bike shop to look and wish, and even a few sleepless nights browsing the web for V2K pics and stories, I brought one home.
What a beautiful bike, rides like a dream, has torque out the kazoo, in short the best motorcycle I've ever ridden.
Sunday, April 06, 2008
Home from Texas
just made it back from Texas, three days, two nights, just over 2000 miles. I had a blast....Sunburned, tired, dirty, can't hear, with bugs stuck in my teeth 
and a grin from ear to ear. Anyway I'm home and after a martini and the hot tub I'm catching up with my email and doing my three turns around the nest.
What could be better: Three days of riding through some of my favorite country, eating great Mexican food, having steak and beer after a long day's ride, Texas Hill Country Bar B Que (not Luling Meat Market but still good), a night in a great hotel and a walk across to the Cadilac Bar
BTW, I did the SS1000 reverse order: I rode a day and a half from Tucson to Laredo, spent the night and early the next morning I hopped on the Slab and "rode it like I stole it" all the way home. Had a close one between Fort Stockton and Van Horn, It is about 140 miles between them, because of head winds I went to reserve at 105 miles. Slowed the scoot way down and made it to fuel (I believe I put 4.5 gals in).
Today I have to clean all the dead bugs off the scooter.
and a grin from ear to ear. Anyway I'm home and after a martini and the hot tub I'm catching up with my email and doing my three turns around the nest.What could be better: Three days of riding through some of my favorite country, eating great Mexican food, having steak and beer after a long day's ride, Texas Hill Country Bar B Que (not Luling Meat Market but still good), a night in a great hotel and a walk across to the Cadilac Bar
BTW, I did the SS1000 reverse order: I rode a day and a half from Tucson to Laredo, spent the night and early the next morning I hopped on the Slab and "rode it like I stole it" all the way home. Had a close one between Fort Stockton and Van Horn, It is about 140 miles between them, because of head winds I went to reserve at 105 miles. Slowed the scoot way down and made it to fuel (I believe I put 4.5 gals in).
Today I have to clean all the dead bugs off the scooter.
Thursday, April 03, 2008
IBA Certification
Received my certification for my Iron Butt SS1000 I did the first of March. I'm now known as IBA Member 33312.
I'm leaving on another SS1000 tonight/early AM. This one will start in Tucson, go to San Antonio via I 10 then end in Laredo. 1030 miles according to MapQuest. I will spend Friday night in the La Posada Hotel. I should get there in time to walk across the bridge and eat at one of my favorite places. Saturday I will do an easy day to Alpine or Marfa for a RON and Sunday finish up in Tucson.
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Iron Butt SS1000
What a day. I’ve been planning and working on doing an Iron Butt certification ride for a couple of months. The Iron Butt Association is clearing house and certifying agent for long distance motorcycle rides. The shortest qualifying ride is the Saddle Sore 1000 or SS1000 for short. The SS1000 requires you to ride your Scoot 1000 miles in less than 24 hours. You need time stamped fuel receipts for the start and finish as well as ones at the “corners”. All the documentation is sent to the IBA for confirmation and if confirmed you are rewarded with membership.
I did my first SS1000 Saturday. I departed Tucson early AM for Deming, NM, Albuquerque, NM, Flagstaff, AZ, Phoenix, AZ and then home. 1079 miles on the Scoot’s clock and 19hours 15 minutes latter I was home in hot tub with a martini. What a hoot. It was planned as a 65th. Birthday present for myself and I must say it was the best B-Day present ever.
Will I do it again? You bet, in fact I’m already planning another SS1000 to this summers ROT in Austin, Texas.
Friday, February 15, 2008
Iron Butt
I may do an Iron Butt ride sometime in March….kind of a 65th B-day gift to myself. If I do it, it will be a Saddle Sore 1000 (!000 miles in 24 hours). I have two routes planned, one is a round about from Tucson to Deming, Albuquerque, Flagstaff, Phoenix, and back to Tucson. The other goes from Tucson to Pecos and back to Tucson.
I’ve been trying out equipment for the last couple of weeks. I have most of the bugs worked out and should be ready to go anytime after next week. It’s strange the things you find on longer rides that bug the shit out of you….if I don’t put my helmet on just right my hair gets caught in the padding and it’s like someone put itching powder in my hair or the ear piece of my riding glasses will drive me crazy after 20 or 30 miles. Anyway I will try a do-rag this weekend to see if it will take care of the itching.
BTW, last weekend I rode to Show Low, pultzed round there for a while and then rode home, a little over 400 miles total for the day. It was a good ride, the day started off in the high 30’s, warmed up to mid 50’s by the time I went through Globe, then back into the 30’s in the Show Low area (about 7000’ MSL) with heavy snow on the ground, then back up to the high 60’s by the time I made it back to Tucson. All in all, a good test of my riding gear.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
New Scooter
I'm a biker guy now. A couple of months ago I bought a '06 Black Honda VTX 1300S. Someone said a new bike is just a down payment on the accessories, I can testify that it is true. Anyway I'm through adding things for awhile, now I just want to ride.
We did a short ride yesterday, went south of Tucson to a crossroad cafe for a steak and then home. Today I did a couple of hundred miles solo, went north to Globe for some bad Mexican food and a cruise of the canyons.
Friday, October 19, 2007
Move to Tucson
I've retired from flying the line. Starting August 3, 2007 I donned the gray pants, white shirt, red tie and blue blazer; drank the Kool-aid and begin a new life. So far it is good. BTW, I did the change with style, my last flight was a reverse of my first flight for Evergreen, kinda fitting in a way.
The whole trip was typical Evergreen, total FUBR. First Evergreen tried to fuck me on the airline ticket to Abu Dhabi. We had a policy, it had just been agreed to, that on long international flights it would be "business or better". The day before I was to leave I discovered they had stuck me in steerage and to make it even better they had bought the rent-a-pilot going with me a business class ticket. What a way to ensure employee loyalty, back out of agreed policy and then to top it; stick the employee in the back and the rent-a-pilot up in business. I had nothing to lose, for the first time with Evergreen I said "enough is enough" and refused to go unless it was via "business'. In typical Evergreen fashion they grumped and tried to pull the guilt trip about how when "they fly, they ride in economy"....Bull Shit.
Because Smith wanted it, the LearJet, in McMinnville "now", "today is too late", it was hurry, hurry, got to get there and get the airplane back to Oregon No one would tell Smith that the Lear was not ready to fly. I knew it was not ready because I had talked to the mechanic the night before.
To be continued........
BTW.....life is good in Tucson. The photo is of the delightful and very delicious Ms. Okguy in our pool.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Glasgow
I’m on my last trip for Evergreen; the mission is to ferry a LearJet 35A from UAE to McMinnville, OR. I’ve been gone for two weeks and still no end, I may end up flying commercial home. We left Dubai a couple of days ago and made it as far a Glasgow, UK. During the pre-flight walk around the pilot flying with me found a loose wire next to the left engine fuel shutoff valve. We found a mechanic to work on it but so far he has not found the correct “pin” to replace the defective one.
I’m like a horse with the smell of the barn, all I want to do is strap the Lear to my ass and fly. If we get out of here this afternoon I expect it will still be a couple of days before I’m home. I’ll give it one more day then I’m pulling out the AmEx and buying a ticket out of here.
I’m like a horse with the smell of the barn, all I want to do is strap the Lear to my ass and fly. If we get out of here this afternoon I expect it will still be a couple of days before I’m home. I’ll give it one more day then I’m pulling out the AmEx and buying a ticket out of here.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Goodby Evergreen
I have posted my resignation letter. I’m on what I expect to be my last trip as a corporate pilot and boy did I pick a dozy. I’m bringing a LearJet 35A back from UAE to McMinnville, OR. So far we have made it from Abu Dhabi to Dubai. We have been in Dubai for almost a week and I do not expect to leave here for a couple more days. I expect once we are moving it will only take two or three days to finish the trip. The good news, by the time I make McMinnville I will be through flying for Evergreen.
My new gig will be teaching. Life many times comes full circle; this is one of those times. I started flying so I could teach. That was all I wanted to do. The realities of life soon convinced me that I would have to find another way to earn my living or starve. As they…. who ever they is…. say the rest is history. I’m looking forward to the opportunity of returning to the classroom and to the Sim.
Hard time off had a little to do with it as well.
My new gig will be teaching. Life many times comes full circle; this is one of those times. I started flying so I could teach. That was all I wanted to do. The realities of life soon convinced me that I would have to find another way to earn my living or starve. As they…. who ever they is…. say the rest is history. I’m looking forward to the opportunity of returning to the classroom and to the Sim.
Hard time off had a little to do with it as well.
What a Company
A friend wrote the following in response to one of my emails:
“What an amazing company, but I have a feeling we have no idea what goes on behind the scenes that make your missions so unpredictable. They are tied into a lot of situations we will never know about”.
Oh how I wish you were right. I fear it is nothing but incompetence and ass covering. This trip is a prime example.....Smith was on my boss’s ass "I want my airplane here now". So JK is on the mechanic's ass in Abu Dhabi. The mechanic in Abu Dhabi tells JK that the airplane will be ready last Sunday even though he knows there is no way in hell it will be to get JK off his ass. JK then tells Smith the pilots are on their way to Abu Dhabi on Saturday to pick up the aircraft so he gets Smith off his ass. I know it happened that way because I was sitting in JK’s office while all the conversations were taking place. When I had talked to the mechanic about the airplane the night before he had told me it would not be ready before mid week at the earliest. Pure ass covering, so I get to lay around a J.W.Marriott for a week ($500 USD/day/room) paying a contract pilot $1,000 USD a day just because no one will tell Smith the truth. The only reason the company makes money is because of Crony Capitalism, we suck on the government teat. It always amazes me how many right wing nutjobs owe everything to fucking the government but if you were to ask Smith or any of his kind they would tell you government was the problem not the solution. That it is all those welfare queens and immigrants that are sucking the US dry.
“What an amazing company, but I have a feeling we have no idea what goes on behind the scenes that make your missions so unpredictable. They are tied into a lot of situations we will never know about”.
Oh how I wish you were right. I fear it is nothing but incompetence and ass covering. This trip is a prime example.....Smith was on my boss’s ass "I want my airplane here now". So JK is on the mechanic's ass in Abu Dhabi. The mechanic in Abu Dhabi tells JK that the airplane will be ready last Sunday even though he knows there is no way in hell it will be to get JK off his ass. JK then tells Smith the pilots are on their way to Abu Dhabi on Saturday to pick up the aircraft so he gets Smith off his ass. I know it happened that way because I was sitting in JK’s office while all the conversations were taking place. When I had talked to the mechanic about the airplane the night before he had told me it would not be ready before mid week at the earliest. Pure ass covering, so I get to lay around a J.W.Marriott for a week ($500 USD/day/room) paying a contract pilot $1,000 USD a day just because no one will tell Smith the truth. The only reason the company makes money is because of Crony Capitalism, we suck on the government teat. It always amazes me how many right wing nutjobs owe everything to fucking the government but if you were to ask Smith or any of his kind they would tell you government was the problem not the solution. That it is all those welfare queens and immigrants that are sucking the US dry.
Sunday, June 03, 2007
Friday, June 01, 2007
Farm House Stay
We stayed with one of Pat's friends from her middle school days. She and her husband live on a small farm outside of Sterling. They are rebuilding and adding on to the original farm house. The house still uses most of the old walls which must be 30 or more inches thick. The view out the windows is beautiful. The attached photograph is out one of their windows.
It is so easy to photograph here, every place you look is just as or more beautiful than the last. Here is a quote from the folks we stayed with "Thanks for
the lovely photograph - is that really the view? We just take it for granted after all these years!"
I shake my head :-) ,
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Aberdeen
We are in Aberdeen.
The night before we left Kilmarnock for Aberdeen we went to see one of Pat's nursing school roommates and her husband. Their home was beautiful, set high over a valley with a wonderful view. They also had a full kitchen or maybe a better way to put it was a kitchen with States sized appliances. I haven't seen many like it here. Pat was a little envious, can't blame her, it was a beautiful 100+ year old home in a spectacular setting.
The super markets here are running the small shops, the butcher, the green grocer, the fish monger, out of business and what to me is very strange is how every thing in the super market is pre-packaged and how many items are pre-prepared. You can find bacon cooked and ready for the microwave, green beans are cut and wrapped as are the peppers, carrots and almost every thing else, few of the veggies are loose. I guess if I had to work in some of the kitchens I've seen I would want things ready to heat and eat as well.
Friday, May 25, 2007
From Scotland
Pat and I are in Kilmarnock visiting her folks.
My vacation was to start on the 16th, on the 16th I was still in Africa. We were scheduled to leave Portland at 07:45 on the 17th and catch a connecting flight out of Newark to Glasgow. I spent the night of the 17th in the Canary Islands, no way to make the Portland flight. Luckily the GIV was booked to go through KJFK and spend the night before going on to McMinnville. I hoped to make it to KJFK on the 17th in time for me to jump off and get to Newark to meet up with Pat on her flight to Scotland. We left the Canaries at 10:00 local, with the time changes after 7 hours of flight we arrived in KJFK at about 13:00 local. I changed into my jeans and grabbed a cab to Newark getting there just in time to catch up with Pat and board the 19:45 flight to Glasgow. I had a whole 30 minutes to spare. Talk about working without a net.
We haven't done much yet other than visit and catch up on sleep. Today we walked around the city for several hours and I even had time to make a couple of images.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Notes from Vacation
I’ve been on a long road trip. One of those if this is Tuesday then we must be in Italy types. We had just landed in Kuwait City and made it back to the hotel from the Afghanistan day trip and were looking forward to our first day with out a flight or a bag drag since the start of the trip, our ass was dragging, when the phone call came. "We have a Lear in Abu Dahbi that we want you to move to Kuwait tomorrow". It gets worst, they wanted us to catch a 04:30 flight with two of the Principals, wait in Abu Dahbi while they finished up their meeting and bring them back with the Lear. We put our foot down and said "no way Jose", we will get some crew rest, take a later flight and initially only I would go so one of us would be rested for the next day’s flight to Egypt. After I started planing the flight I found out the crew member in Abu Dahbi they wanted me to use didn't have a U.S. fixed wing pilot's certificate. After much thrashing around it was decided that my co-captain would have to go anyway.
We get to Abu Dahbi in the early afternoon load the aircraft, BTW it is my favorite Lear in our fleet, a really beautiful airplane. I let the other pilot take the left seat even though it was my leg because he has very little Lear time (< 200 hours) and I figure it would be a good time to do a little instruction. Little did I know how much instruction I would have the opportunity to do. Just after rotation, as I called "positive rate" the left engine shot craps and rolled back. Once I got the airplane cleaned up and we were climbing, my first thought was “why in the hell did I pick this time to teach”. The obvious good news is he did a OK job and we made it around with out bending anything or hurting anyone.
As it turned out the biggest problem of the day was when we tried to get on the airliner to fly back to Kuwait.....our passports had been stamped out and we didn't have a stamp back in...try explaining that to Passport Control.
We get to Abu Dahbi in the early afternoon load the aircraft, BTW it is my favorite Lear in our fleet, a really beautiful airplane. I let the other pilot take the left seat even though it was my leg because he has very little Lear time (< 200 hours) and I figure it would be a good time to do a little instruction. Little did I know how much instruction I would have the opportunity to do. Just after rotation, as I called "positive rate" the left engine shot craps and rolled back. Once I got the airplane cleaned up and we were climbing, my first thought was “why in the hell did I pick this time to teach”. The obvious good news is he did a OK job and we made it around with out bending anything or hurting anyone.
As it turned out the biggest problem of the day was when we tried to get on the airliner to fly back to Kuwait.....our passports had been stamped out and we didn't have a stamp back in...try explaining that to Passport Control.
Friday, March 02, 2007
Khartoum, Sudan Date 11/26/2004:
It's Friday and apparently a High Holy Day. Our driver was late (called to let us know) because he had to go to prayers. When he showed up he was in a white dress?..robe?...whatever they call it but he also had one of his giveme caps on. No flying yet, we are still working on Sudan permits, so most of the day was spent finding things to eat. I never thought I would find such joy in finding a jar of mayonnaise for sale or for that matter yellow cheese. Still no joy for pinto beans or corn meal. The meat here is very good, no pork but nice chickens and I bought a whole beef tenderloin for almost nothing. The veggies suck big time. Not a clue how I'm going to work around that other than keep looking for other sources. One thing I've found is the stores do not all carry the same thing so maybe there is hope. BTW it is really hard to de-glaze a pan and make a decent sauce with out wine, I'm getting there with other acids but damn I miss my beer and wine.
I am not a mathematician so I do not totally understand the Theory of Chaos but to drive in Sudan is, from my understanding of Chaos Theory, a demonstration of the beauty of chaos in nature. Stop signs, it is as if they do not exist, roads...maybe we stay on them ...maybe not, roundabouts are a thing of beauty, all of this going on with an amazing density of vehicular and pedestrians traffic on and along side the road, crossing it, coming on and off buses and private cars and trucks. Add in the donkey, jitney, and donkey cart traffic as well as the number of people living by the roads, some with herds of goats, it is astounding that traffic moves at all. But the reality is that it moves with what appears to be great efficiency. Go figure.
I am not a mathematician so I do not totally understand the Theory of Chaos but to drive in Sudan is, from my understanding of Chaos Theory, a demonstration of the beauty of chaos in nature. Stop signs, it is as if they do not exist, roads...maybe we stay on them ...maybe not, roundabouts are a thing of beauty, all of this going on with an amazing density of vehicular and pedestrians traffic on and along side the road, crossing it, coming on and off buses and private cars and trucks. Add in the donkey, jitney, and donkey cart traffic as well as the number of people living by the roads, some with herds of goats, it is astounding that traffic moves at all. But the reality is that it moves with what appears to be great efficiency. Go figure.
Thursday, March 01, 2007
Khartoum, Sudan Date 11/20/2004:
Our apartment is on the third floor. It is large with three bedrooms, one bath, a kitchen, and a very large sitting area. It is almost clean, with a combination of English, French and Middle Eastern wall plugs. The best you can say about the bath is it will get you wet enough to soap and with effort you can rinse. The stove is small and the pots and pans are barely usable but I’ve managed to feed us so far. We are close to the airport and in a "nice part of town" but that is all relative. There is an ever present dust haze and traffic is unreal.
I went to the UN this morning to get my ID badge. For the return home instead of our regular driver I used one from the UN. What an adventure, “yes, yes I know the way” almost two hours later and at least six stops to ask directions we found it. The traffic is insane, it is total chaos, there are ¾ finished buildings everywhere you look, men in white robes riding tiny burros, herds of goats on many of the vacant lots, and people moving, standing, talking, and sitting on rugs under any shade they can find.
This is not a place I would vacation but if you were intent on seeing the world it would be a fascinating country to visit and I would guess a must stop if for no other reason than the mix of cultures. I'm trying to learn how to recognize the different cultures and ethnic groups but for now it is very confusing. Each has different ways of dressing so in time I will get it sorted out.
I went to the UN this morning to get my ID badge. For the return home instead of our regular driver I used one from the UN. What an adventure, “yes, yes I know the way” almost two hours later and at least six stops to ask directions we found it. The traffic is insane, it is total chaos, there are ¾ finished buildings everywhere you look, men in white robes riding tiny burros, herds of goats on many of the vacant lots, and people moving, standing, talking, and sitting on rugs under any shade they can find.
This is not a place I would vacation but if you were intent on seeing the world it would be a fascinating country to visit and I would guess a must stop if for no other reason than the mix of cultures. I'm trying to learn how to recognize the different cultures and ethnic groups but for now it is very confusing. Each has different ways of dressing so in time I will get it sorted out.
Khartoum, Sudan Date 11/19/2004:
Poor is poor the world over. Khartoum could be anywhere in the third world. It really reminds me of some of the places I've been in Mexico but here many of the men and women wear long white outer garments and there is not a beer to be found. There really is great cultural diversity, I've seen Arabs, Blacks, what appear to be tribes men with ritual scarring, and modern clothing, close to the full range of dress. I'm having visual overload.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Khartoum, Sudan Date 11/18/2004:
The trip over went well. We traveled for 4 days... the first day was short just one leg Anchorage to Edmonton, next day two legs Edmonton to Thunder Bay and then to Goose Bay to position for the flight across. We were very lucky for the crossing the MNPS had not been approved for the aircraft so we were limited to FL270 for the crossing. With no help we would have had a large "wet footprint" and might have needed a stop in Greenland. As it happened we had 140 knots on the tail almost all the way across and good Wx in Iceland, sure decreased the pucker factor. After Iceland we flew to London and spent the night. What a lovely place. The next morning we left for Crete to grab a drink and then on to Sudan. Because of time changes we finished the trip at 21:00 local time. We were met by the UN folks and our local Evergreen rep to speed our way through Customs. All in all a easy trip considering we crossed 12 time zones and almost 50 degrees of latitude.
Monday, February 26, 2007
First Day
Date 11/14/2004:
I finally made it out of Anchorage. We flew to Edmonton last night. The departure from Anchorage was hectic with pulling together lots of loose ends at the last minute. Anyway we departed about 4 hours late so I didn't get a photo of the crew and aircraft before departure but I will get one today. You should see the airplane, packed to the gills with barely enough room for the mechanic, we have to fly about 2.5 hours after takeoff to get down to landing weight there is so much junk packed in the cabin. I hope to make either Goose Bay or Gander tonight. The reason I don't know which one is that Goose did not have any rooms the last time dispatch checked.
The airplane seems to be a good one. It is the youngest Lear I've flown a high 500 serial number, certified RNP and RVSM with all the bells and so forth. It even talks to me, on final approach it tells me when I'm 50 feet, 40 feet....I think down to 5 feet but I'm usually too busy to hear it then.. The FMS is impressive and it is an early generation FMS. If you let it you could punch on the autopilot once the wheels were in the well and never touch the airplane other than the thrust levers and a mode change button or two until just before the wheels touch the landing airport. I expect I would be lost all the way if I used it like that :-) . Even stranger for an old Lear pilot the autopilot flys better than I can. This modern world (mid 1980's technology combined with current RVSM air data equipment) is amazing.
On a personal note I packed a big can of peppers and the biggest bottle of Louisiana hot sauce I could find so I figure I can make anything they serve me in Sudan eatable. We hope to be there in about 3 maybe 4 days but the way things go who knows it could take a week or more.
One more thing, I'm saddled with a weak co-pilot. He's trying hard and I think he wants to learn but he's older so it may be a lost cause. I will say this for him by his 4th position report last night (after much coaching) he got it right. We will see if he remembers how to do it today, that will be a good indicator if there is hope. Today's job is to work on his general radio phraseology. The proper form is always "who who where what what" but it is really hard to get co-pilots to reply in the correct order. You should see the blizzard of charts and papers on his side of the cockpit, like I said he's trying hard :-) .
I finally made it out of Anchorage. We flew to Edmonton last night. The departure from Anchorage was hectic with pulling together lots of loose ends at the last minute. Anyway we departed about 4 hours late so I didn't get a photo of the crew and aircraft before departure but I will get one today. You should see the airplane, packed to the gills with barely enough room for the mechanic, we have to fly about 2.5 hours after takeoff to get down to landing weight there is so much junk packed in the cabin. I hope to make either Goose Bay or Gander tonight. The reason I don't know which one is that Goose did not have any rooms the last time dispatch checked.
The airplane seems to be a good one. It is the youngest Lear I've flown a high 500 serial number, certified RNP and RVSM with all the bells and so forth. It even talks to me, on final approach it tells me when I'm 50 feet, 40 feet....I think down to 5 feet but I'm usually too busy to hear it then.. The FMS is impressive and it is an early generation FMS. If you let it you could punch on the autopilot once the wheels were in the well and never touch the airplane other than the thrust levers and a mode change button or two until just before the wheels touch the landing airport. I expect I would be lost all the way if I used it like that :-) . Even stranger for an old Lear pilot the autopilot flys better than I can. This modern world (mid 1980's technology combined with current RVSM air data equipment) is amazing.
On a personal note I packed a big can of peppers and the biggest bottle of Louisiana hot sauce I could find so I figure I can make anything they serve me in Sudan eatable. We hope to be there in about 3 maybe 4 days but the way things go who knows it could take a week or more.
One more thing, I'm saddled with a weak co-pilot. He's trying hard and I think he wants to learn but he's older so it may be a lost cause. I will say this for him by his 4th position report last night (after much coaching) he got it right. We will see if he remembers how to do it today, that will be a good indicator if there is hope. Today's job is to work on his general radio phraseology. The proper form is always "who who where what what" but it is really hard to get co-pilots to reply in the correct order. You should see the blizzard of charts and papers on his side of the cockpit, like I said he's trying hard :-) .
A Brief Journal of Flying in Sudan and Afghanistan
A couple of years ago I was living the old Chinese curse "may you live an interesting life". I had two companies shut down on me in one year, one employed over 120 souls and had been in business for 30 years, the other was a start up so it wasn't much of a surprise. Then in October of 2004I went to work for the third company that year. I expected to be based in Oregon. The day I finished my indoc training and returned to Houston to load the truck for the move to Oregon I received a call requesting that I leave the next day for Anchorage to pick up a LearJet and ferry it to The Sudan. The company was starting a new U.N. contract in The Sudan and the Captain hired for the contract was not able to do the job. Long story somewhat short... a little over a week later after ferrying a LearJet 35A from Anchorage to Khartoum, Sudan I'm flying all over Africa on a U.N. contract.
What follows will be a journal and some of the photographs of the 4 months I spent in The Sudan and Afghanistan.
What follows will be a journal and some of the photographs of the 4 months I spent in The Sudan and Afghanistan.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Flying the Line
I’ve had a long couple of days. We had the APU go tits up Monday morning. Sometimes it is better to be lucky than good and Monday was one of those times. We found a “huffer” cart that worked so we could start the GIV and we had one available at the other end. With minimum monkey motion and a short delay we were airborne and completed the planned trip on time. We had a day to fix the airplane before we were scheduled to depart for KJFK and then to London. The shop finally received all the needed parts around 21:30 and had the airplane ready to go by 22:30. We still had to fly it back home and get it ready for a two week trip before the 08:30 departure. With lots of help from the third pilot we made it.
Only one more problem New York WX sucked. They were having their first major snowstorm of the year and the forecast showed us arriving just in time to enjoy the full effects.
Our luck was holding, by the time we arrived in New York the worst of the storm was over. It was still cold and windy but the ceiling and visibility were pretty good. When we landed at KJFK the wind was over 20 knots almost directly across the only open runway and the whole airport was a sheet of ice, what a ride. Landing wasn't too bad other than sliding down the runway with the nose cocked about 30 degrees to the direction of travel several times while trying to stop but the taxi to our ramp was a bitch. It took almost 3 hours from the time we landed to taxi, put the airplane to bed (put on the covers, pick up the trash, and remove all the liquid stores), and get ground transportation to the hotel.
The hotel is another story; I need to do a photo series on the Five Towns Hotel. It is aviation flop house. Most of the locals think it is a "hot sheet" hotel and in a way they are right but it is just pilots using it, not hookers. There are no check-in checkout times. The maid service works 24 hours a day; your room gets cleaned before you check in and after you check out but not while you are there. Coffee and cake are always in the lobby and the airport shuttle runs every 30 minutes 24 hours a day. There are always crews in the lobby, eating cake and drinking coffee, waiting to check in, waiting for the shuttle, or just bored and wanting company. Check in, at least for our company, is just sign your name and give them your employee number they throw you a key card and that is it. God I love New Yorkers :-) When you check out they give you a slip showing the number of days you stayed. I will say this for the Five Towns, it is clean, the Internet works, the beds are good and it is in one of the few areas near KJFK where you can walk out of your hotel at night.
A couple of days to enjoy the Five Towns and then on to London.
Only one more problem New York WX sucked. They were having their first major snowstorm of the year and the forecast showed us arriving just in time to enjoy the full effects.
Our luck was holding, by the time we arrived in New York the worst of the storm was over. It was still cold and windy but the ceiling and visibility were pretty good. When we landed at KJFK the wind was over 20 knots almost directly across the only open runway and the whole airport was a sheet of ice, what a ride. Landing wasn't too bad other than sliding down the runway with the nose cocked about 30 degrees to the direction of travel several times while trying to stop but the taxi to our ramp was a bitch. It took almost 3 hours from the time we landed to taxi, put the airplane to bed (put on the covers, pick up the trash, and remove all the liquid stores), and get ground transportation to the hotel.
The hotel is another story; I need to do a photo series on the Five Towns Hotel. It is aviation flop house. Most of the locals think it is a "hot sheet" hotel and in a way they are right but it is just pilots using it, not hookers. There are no check-in checkout times. The maid service works 24 hours a day; your room gets cleaned before you check in and after you check out but not while you are there. Coffee and cake are always in the lobby and the airport shuttle runs every 30 minutes 24 hours a day. There are always crews in the lobby, eating cake and drinking coffee, waiting to check in, waiting for the shuttle, or just bored and wanting company. Check in, at least for our company, is just sign your name and give them your employee number they throw you a key card and that is it. God I love New Yorkers :-) When you check out they give you a slip showing the number of days you stayed. I will say this for the Five Towns, it is clean, the Internet works, the beds are good and it is in one of the few areas near KJFK where you can walk out of your hotel at night.
A couple of days to enjoy the Five Towns and then on to London.
Sunday, February 04, 2007
Airport Bums
Last one for tonight. The little airport where I'm based is a throw back to an earlier time. There is always a fresh pot of coffee and someone to either tell you a "there I waz" story or to listen to yours. They could care less about the Lear or the Gulfstream but they sure love the Pacer.
FL450
Another one from FL450. We were on our way to Belize and having a great time. Flying air ambulance can be the best job in aviation, this one was. Shame it had to end.
Russian Cargo Plane
We were in El Obeid, Sudan for several hours, while there we visited with the crew of a Russian four engine cargo plane. The Russians were flying for World Food for Peace, we were flying for the U.N..
More Photo Book
This is Isam our driver in The Sudan. This was my first day in country and when I asked Isam if I could photograph him this is the pose he assumed.
Photo Book Project
I've been invited to join a group of photographers in a self published book. We will each be able to contribute 3 to 5 images. Over the next few posts I will show the images I plan to use, all are from my Day Job Series.
The first is of our cook and station manager in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Iraq
I have only one question for either party. Who will step up and tell the U.S. how and when we will get out of Iraq, not a year from when he is elected, not even 6 months later, but how he will get us out of Iraq starting the day he/she takes office.
Once that question is answered the others will follow. What a fucked up mess we have to face, I hope the country and our politicians are up to the challenge. The place to start is a complete de-bushifacation of the government and the Republican Party. Everyone and every origination that had anything to do with the last six years, from the illegal installation of Bush in 2000 to Iraq, must be removed from power and the leaders must be made to stand trial. We must not allow this attack on our Constitution and our Government to be covered up. When we let the last bunch criminals off the hook after Nixon resigned they came back like the living dead. We can not let it happen this time. May their souls rot in hell.
Once that question is answered the others will follow. What a fucked up mess we have to face, I hope the country and our politicians are up to the challenge. The place to start is a complete de-bushifacation of the government and the Republican Party. Everyone and every origination that had anything to do with the last six years, from the illegal installation of Bush in 2000 to Iraq, must be removed from power and the leaders must be made to stand trial. We must not allow this attack on our Constitution and our Government to be covered up. When we let the last bunch criminals off the hook after Nixon resigned they came back like the living dead. We can not let it happen this time. May their souls rot in hell.
Saturday, February 03, 2007
Caravan
Pat and I parked the caravan in a State Park near Lincoln City last week. Pat was able to spend most of the week there and I drove back and forth. The WX was beautiful, clear skies, cool, and very little wind. It couldn't have been better or come at a better time. Oregon winters can be wet and gray with few breaks, when the WX is good you have to take advantage or you will be nuts by late spring early summer when the skies clear.
We didn't do much but we did see a couple of great sunsets, built a big bonfire, walked on a some beautiful beaches, ate good seafood, read and played cards. I tried to take a break from the political world,but Molly Ivins death brought it all back. I did find one of her books in Goodwill the day she died, damn the world will miss her.
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Monday, January 29, 2007
Low and Slow Along the Oregon Coast
The local WX this weekend was beautiful, clear skies, temps in the mid forties, a little windy but not too bad. The wind was just strong enough and coming across the runway enough to make flying the Pacer interesting for an old guy that hasn’t flown tail draggers in more than 30 years.
Pat did her first flight lessons in the Pacer on Saturday and Sunday. I used the time she was practicing to sightsee. Saturday we went up the coast to the north and Sunday we went south. The Oregon coast is a magic place; I never get tired of seeing it.
Strange how as we age we return to things of our youth. I don’t really think I’m trying to slow aging or even trying to recapture youth. It is more a return to the basic things that give pleasure, a return to the reason I chose the road taken. Low and slow with such a feeling of freedom, knowing that the whole world is open to you, that you control the most amazing machine made by man, yet such a simple machine, one that could be built with simple hand tools and by almost anyone.
BTW, teaching Pat is part of the joy, watching her struggle, then understand and gain control. To see the same feeling of accomplishment I had when I first learned to fly. For someone with itchy feet there is nothing to compare with the joy of learning to fly.
Our little Churchills
A must read post from Glenn Greenwald....." We've now arrived at the point where the White House and its followers reflexively characterize any criticism of the Leader's war of any kind as aid to the Enemy and an attack on our troops. They don't even bother any more to pretend that some types of criticism are "acceptable." It is now the duty of every patriotic American to cheer enthusiastically for the President's decisions. Anything else is tantamount to siding with the Enemy...."
Monday, January 22, 2007
Blog for Choice Day
Some Personal History
Abortion choice is as important for men as for women. Just before Roe became the Law of the land my future wife became pregnant. We were young with almost no money. She was in Nursing School; I was working two jobs, nights at a hospital lab and days turning wrenches at the airport, to pay for my flight training. We didn’t have the money to go to NewYork for a legal abortion and there was no way we could have a baby and have any future. By chance one of my jobs while I worked my way through college was Medical Sales and one of my customers was a “Dr. Brown”. I never met Dr. Brown but it was understood that he provided abortions for the wealthy and well connected of Texas. Someway we scraped together the $500 needed to have Dr. Brown end BJ’s pregnancy and we both went on to have productive lives. Most in our situation at that time would not have had our options. Their choices would have been have the child and who knows what would happen to their future, give the baby up for adoption, or have an illegal back alley abortion. We must keep Choice.
Why
That's Shrub ..."Second, and more impotant, nothing we have seen or heard from this President in his public appearances and utterances over the last six years supports the notion that he is anything other than an inarticulate, illogical and muddleheaded thinker who is incapable of putting together an honest, realistic and coherent assessment of anything as complicated as Iraq..."
IED
The photo is of an IED found on the Kabul, Afghanistan airport. It couldn’t be simpler, a large pressure cooker, some explosive, a little wire and a motorcycle battery. A few dollars spent and you have the potential to kill and maim many and to destroy multi-million dollar equipment.
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Back for a Post or Two
What a year.
Can Shrub fuck up Iraq any worse that it is? Knowing his history I don’t want to know the answer.
I’m now the owner of a 1954 Piper Pacer. It puts a smile on my face every time I see it.
The GIV has new paint and carpet……looks pretty good. I will post a photo later.
Sunday, April 30, 2006
China
This was like many of our oversea trips...a blur of loading bags, unloading bags, taxi rides, crashing in your hotel room trying to recover from a 20 hour + day only to get up early the next morning to do it all over. Long story short...we flew to Anchorage for a meeting, then on to Khabarovsk, Russia for a tech stop, and Beijing for a RON. After a night in Beijing we flew to Macau for a day meeting and then to Hong Kong to spend the night. The next day we went to Xiamen for a meeting then back to Hong Kong so we could fly to Taipei (Mainland China will not allow flights to Taipei from their airspace) for a RON. The next day we were to come home but...when the boss showed up at the airport he "wanted to stop short and spend the night...somewhere..." The scramble to find a place to stop, to get permits, to set up hotel rooms, to get landing slots, started. BTW, we told him his best option would be to go back to his hotel in Taipei and we could start early Saturday morning for home. Nope, he wanted to do a short leg and then go home the next day. At this time we had been on the airport 6 hours with the APU running most of that time...the short part of the story...after almost 5 hours of work putting the permits and flight plan together at a cost of around $??,????USD...just as the "handlers" were walking up the air stair with the overflight permits, the landing "slots", the flight plan, just as we were less than 5 minutes from cranking our engines....you've got it..."we are going to spend the night here and go home in the morning". The bottom line...after 12 hours at the airport, Mucho $ for handling fees, and 2000 lbs. of kerosene burned we were back where we started...still 12 hours of flying from home...another unloading and loading of bags, a 1 hour cab ride on rain slick streets, two ways, and two very exhausted pilots that still needed to get a new set flight plans and permits. The good news...we left Taipei on time the next day, Saturday morning at 11:00 local, after a tech stop in Petropavlovsk, Russia we made it to Portland, OR at 09:30 Saturday morning. Did you notice...we made it home an hour and a half before we started :-) ...BTW it was a hell of a long ways to go for a bowl of noodles.
A couple of observations from someone that really didn't get to spend enough time in any one place to learn much but that has never stopped me from having an opinion or expressing it :-) ...we (the USA) are in deep dodo...the Chinese have their shit together. The place is clean and modern, the infrastructure is in very good shape, the people are smart and educated, and there are a ton of 'em, and we are shipping our money over there as fast as we can. We are screwed unless we get our act together much faster than I think we can.. Hong Kong is another world...I would love to have some time to spend there...it is also an example of how to make things work...money has been spent on the infrastructure, it is maintained, and there is an investment in the future...something that has been lacking in the States... our roads and public buildings are falling apart. We are not spending our money or our public capital wisely....maybe because our sense of community, of common cause has eroded, as we have been distracted by side shows and red meat thrown to the rubes. Whatever the reason...the result is our pockets are being picked and our country is falling apart compared to what I saw in Hong Kong and China.
A couple of observations from someone that really didn't get to spend enough time in any one place to learn much but that has never stopped me from having an opinion or expressing it :-) ...we (the USA) are in deep dodo...the Chinese have their shit together. The place is clean and modern, the infrastructure is in very good shape, the people are smart and educated, and there are a ton of 'em, and we are shipping our money over there as fast as we can. We are screwed unless we get our act together much faster than I think we can.. Hong Kong is another world...I would love to have some time to spend there...it is also an example of how to make things work...money has been spent on the infrastructure, it is maintained, and there is an investment in the future...something that has been lacking in the States... our roads and public buildings are falling apart. We are not spending our money or our public capital wisely....maybe because our sense of community, of common cause has eroded, as we have been distracted by side shows and red meat thrown to the rubes. Whatever the reason...the result is our pockets are being picked and our country is falling apart compared to what I saw in Hong Kong and China.
Friday, February 24, 2006
NOT JUST INCOMPETENCE
From Kevin Drum
Michael Hirsh has a decent rundown in Newsweek today of how badly George Bush and his team have botched the war on terror...The damage that George Bush has done to the United States is going to be with us for a very long time.
Michael Hirsh has a decent rundown in Newsweek today of how badly George Bush and his team have botched the war on terror...The damage that George Bush has done to the United States is going to be with us for a very long time.
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
IN KTUS
We are in Tucson. Interesting trip down…neither of us had flown for several weeks and the rust showed. There was nothing unsafe but at times it was like a couple of monkeys trying to do a basketball in the cockpit. Funny now but not while it was happening.
We stopped in Santa Monica for a couple of hours before flying the last leg of the day to KMZJ. KSMO has very strict noise regulations, to comply your takeoff path is Runway heading at 1000’MSL turn right to 265, climb at V2+10 to 3000’ MSL. The KSMO-KMZJ leg was mine. We were light with only 12,000 lbs of fuel…All I can say is “WOW” what a kick in the ass. At our takeoff weight we were only about 2 lbs of airplane for each lb of thrust. To hold V2+10 required over 20 degrees of pitch up…we went up like a rocket.
We ran into an old friend at Flight Safety TUS, while talking he reminded me of the time we were in Reynosa and I bought “pussy for the bar” with the company AmEx.
We stopped in Santa Monica for a couple of hours before flying the last leg of the day to KMZJ. KSMO has very strict noise regulations, to comply your takeoff path is Runway heading at 1000’MSL turn right to 265, climb at V2+10 to 3000’ MSL. The KSMO-KMZJ leg was mine. We were light with only 12,000 lbs of fuel…All I can say is “WOW” what a kick in the ass. At our takeoff weight we were only about 2 lbs of airplane for each lb of thrust. To hold V2+10 required over 20 degrees of pitch up…we went up like a rocket.
We ran into an old friend at Flight Safety TUS, while talking he reminded me of the time we were in Reynosa and I bought “pussy for the bar” with the company AmEx.
Sunday, February 19, 2006
It Has Been Awhile
Well I'm back...maybe.
What a busy 6 months. I received my GIV type at the end of Sept and almost the first trip out of the box headed for Kabul via Iceland and Turkey. Following the Afghanistan trip I have been to Denmark a couple of times, London, Canada, and all over the States. The time really flies (sorry), it is already time to go back to Savannah for re-current.
The image is of the entryway to our compound in Kabul.
Thursday, September 15, 2005
Open Letter to Republicans
Sir;
Why did you vote against forming an impartial, independent commission to find out the truth about what went wrong with Hurricane Katrina? Why do you put your party over your country? Would you rather have America unprepared for a future chemical, biological or nuclear attack from Al Qaeda? If we don't know why we were unprepared today, we will surely be unprepared tomorrow.
An investigation run by the Congress itself, an investigation where the investigating committee will be made up of a majority of Republican congressmen, a partisan investigation of one of the largest disasters in American history will not hunt.
I want the truth, you and your party want a whitewash. Quit playing politics with our lives.
Kenneth M. Hatch
Why did you vote against forming an impartial, independent commission to find out the truth about what went wrong with Hurricane Katrina? Why do you put your party over your country? Would you rather have America unprepared for a future chemical, biological or nuclear attack from Al Qaeda? If we don't know why we were unprepared today, we will surely be unprepared tomorrow.
An investigation run by the Congress itself, an investigation where the investigating committee will be made up of a majority of Republican congressmen, a partisan investigation of one of the largest disasters in American history will not hunt.
I want the truth, you and your party want a whitewash. Quit playing politics with our lives.
Kenneth M. Hatch
Saturday, September 10, 2005
Impeach Bush Now
Has there ever been a worse Administration than Shrub’s? Will the U.S. recover or is this the end of the American Experiment? I wish I knew the answer to the last question I believe I know the answer to the first.
During the 2000 campaign I was somewhat indifferent as to the out come…I knew the States would be better off if Gore won in the short term but if Bush won it would not be the end of the world. I figured he couldn’t do too much damage and with the expected down turn in the economy maybe the Republicans would for once be blamed for their sins.
When I fuck I fuck up big time…at every turn Shrub has been a disaster. If someone tried to come up with policy decisions to ruin the economy, the armed services, our foreign policy, the environment, or any area of government they could not top this group of goofs. There are only two possible answers to why that is so. Either this is the dumbest most incompetent bunch of idiots ever to have power in the United States or the really scary one is they know what they are doing and they are on a mission to destroy the United States. Whichever answer is correct we must act now to remove them from power before they can do more damage. I join in with Brad DeLong in calling for “Impeach Bush Now”.
During the 2000 campaign I was somewhat indifferent as to the out come…I knew the States would be better off if Gore won in the short term but if Bush won it would not be the end of the world. I figured he couldn’t do too much damage and with the expected down turn in the economy maybe the Republicans would for once be blamed for their sins.
When I fuck I fuck up big time…at every turn Shrub has been a disaster. If someone tried to come up with policy decisions to ruin the economy, the armed services, our foreign policy, the environment, or any area of government they could not top this group of goofs. There are only two possible answers to why that is so. Either this is the dumbest most incompetent bunch of idiots ever to have power in the United States or the really scary one is they know what they are doing and they are on a mission to destroy the United States. Whichever answer is correct we must act now to remove them from power before they can do more damage. I join in with Brad DeLong in calling for “Impeach Bush Now”.
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
More GIV
Today was good day in class. The more I learn about the Gulfstream the more impressed I am with the capabilities of the airplane. The avionics are most impressive and this package is mid 80’s vintage…it will be interesting to see how the G550 compares.
Pat called from a beach north of Lincoln City…said the sand was warm and everything was beautiful. She and puppy were having a great time. That is the best news this week…she has been wonderful during the move but she has not taken any time to enjoy life for weeks. Last weekend I dumped her and everything we own in McMinnville and left town for 3 weeks. Not fair but it had to be done. And I wonder why pilots suffer from AIDS (aviation induced divorce syndrome).
Pat called from a beach north of Lincoln City…said the sand was warm and everything was beautiful. She and puppy were having a great time. That is the best news this week…she has been wonderful during the move but she has not taken any time to enjoy life for weeks. Last weekend I dumped her and everything we own in McMinnville and left town for 3 weeks. Not fair but it had to be done. And I wonder why pilots suffer from AIDS (aviation induced divorce syndrome).
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
GIV School
I’ve been in Savannah for two days. Gulfstream GIV initial started Labor Day and will run for 21 or 22 days depending on when my type ride is scheduled. The first day was spent doing paper work and going over an overview of the aircraft. Today we started working on the meat…all day was devoted to getting the FMS (Flight Management System) up and running. The avionics are so tightly integrated with the airplane systems once you know how to program and use the FMS the rest is a piece of cake.
The class has 18 souls, about half are “Netjets”; the rest are US military types with a few of us corporate drivers thrown in to complete the mix. As with every Flight Safety class I’ve attended, with more than two pilots, there is the class "asshole”, he has flown higher, faster, and farther than anyone else in history and always has a story where he is the hero. My question as always is: “If you are so damn good and know so much how in hell did you get in that mess to began with”. I never receive a good answer.
The other thing that always startles me is how reactionary pilots are. Out of any group of pilots 90% will be so right wing they could fit right in with members of the Midland Petroleum Club. Strange…apparently no one has told them they are working class, the boss may pat them on the back and call them by their first name but the bottom line once they are not useful Mr. Big will not even remember what they look like. Times are changing a little, this class has one woman, no blacks, Hispanics, or others. I guess I should be happy that at least we are letting a woman into the club.
The class has 18 souls, about half are “Netjets”; the rest are US military types with a few of us corporate drivers thrown in to complete the mix. As with every Flight Safety class I’ve attended, with more than two pilots, there is the class "asshole”, he has flown higher, faster, and farther than anyone else in history and always has a story where he is the hero. My question as always is: “If you are so damn good and know so much how in hell did you get in that mess to began with”. I never receive a good answer.
The other thing that always startles me is how reactionary pilots are. Out of any group of pilots 90% will be so right wing they could fit right in with members of the Midland Petroleum Club. Strange…apparently no one has told them they are working class, the boss may pat them on the back and call them by their first name but the bottom line once they are not useful Mr. Big will not even remember what they look like. Times are changing a little, this class has one woman, no blacks, Hispanics, or others. I guess I should be happy that at least we are letting a woman into the club.
Saturday, August 13, 2005
Bats Left Throws Right
http://doghouseriley.blogspot.com/
T.Bogg is on fire, even for him. Same with Wolcott. World O'Crap continues to hide her subtle brilliance beneath her overt brilliance with Wingnut Island. Tom Burka says everything that needs to be said with a headline. Fact-esque is on top of everything. Patrick Smith, Salon's Pilot you can Ask, shows just how sloppy and hysterical the mass media are even when there's no reason to be.
Chris Clarke brings a tear to my eye, and then he does it again, and then Professor Bérubé does it for good measure, all in a twenty-four hour period.
And one brave woman in Crawford, TX, reduces George W. Bush from a prick to a pinprick.
Me? I'm crackin' wise about Fried Twinkies and tossin' paperwads for a kitten.
I'm too old. I'm too comfortable. And I've got the love of a woman too good for me. I grew up in the birthplace of the John Birch Society, reading the crackpot-before-its-time Puliam family newspaper. I had tracts and letters from the corpulent and hate-filled bully Gregg Dixon, one of the founding licensed beggars of The Moral Majority, stuffed in my mailbox at the school newspaper on a weekly basis because I wrote against the war, against racism, and for rock and roll. I watched the descent of network news, the willful choice of comforting fiction over complex and mystifying fact, the ready acquiescence to the idea that reality needed to be balanced by appending the thoughts of the unhinged to every topic. I watched the glorification of a second-rate actor and dim-witted phony the way Ionesco watches his fellow citizens in "The Rhinoceros". I saw the shitty Soviet Heroic-Realist scupture the Right insisted on erecting next to The Wall because fake piety is preferable to real piety in its book.
Special pleading? Well, TBogg is nearly as old as I am, and he still walks into that alley every day to take on the likes of Malkin and Goldberg and Coulter. God bless 'im. But I'm just too tired of these fifteenth generation photocopies, they and the sorry gas-filled lawyers and basement dwellers who've turned xenophobia and poor potty training into a political crusade, who will gladly fight to the last drop of someone else's blood, who bravely pound the virtual lectern so long as they believe there's a mob at their backs to do the dirty work.
Well, it only takes one strong man to face down a mob. And today her name is Cindy Sheehan.
T.Bogg is on fire, even for him. Same with Wolcott. World O'Crap continues to hide her subtle brilliance beneath her overt brilliance with Wingnut Island. Tom Burka says everything that needs to be said with a headline. Fact-esque is on top of everything. Patrick Smith, Salon's Pilot you can Ask, shows just how sloppy and hysterical the mass media are even when there's no reason to be.
Chris Clarke brings a tear to my eye, and then he does it again, and then Professor Bérubé does it for good measure, all in a twenty-four hour period.
And one brave woman in Crawford, TX, reduces George W. Bush from a prick to a pinprick.
Me? I'm crackin' wise about Fried Twinkies and tossin' paperwads for a kitten.
I'm too old. I'm too comfortable. And I've got the love of a woman too good for me. I grew up in the birthplace of the John Birch Society, reading the crackpot-before-its-time Puliam family newspaper. I had tracts and letters from the corpulent and hate-filled bully Gregg Dixon, one of the founding licensed beggars of The Moral Majority, stuffed in my mailbox at the school newspaper on a weekly basis because I wrote against the war, against racism, and for rock and roll. I watched the descent of network news, the willful choice of comforting fiction over complex and mystifying fact, the ready acquiescence to the idea that reality needed to be balanced by appending the thoughts of the unhinged to every topic. I watched the glorification of a second-rate actor and dim-witted phony the way Ionesco watches his fellow citizens in "The Rhinoceros". I saw the shitty Soviet Heroic-Realist scupture the Right insisted on erecting next to The Wall because fake piety is preferable to real piety in its book.
Special pleading? Well, TBogg is nearly as old as I am, and he still walks into that alley every day to take on the likes of Malkin and Goldberg and Coulter. God bless 'im. But I'm just too tired of these fifteenth generation photocopies, they and the sorry gas-filled lawyers and basement dwellers who've turned xenophobia and poor potty training into a political crusade, who will gladly fight to the last drop of someone else's blood, who bravely pound the virtual lectern so long as they believe there's a mob at their backs to do the dirty work.
Well, it only takes one strong man to face down a mob. And today her name is Cindy Sheehan.
Sunday, July 31, 2005
States Tonight
I’m out of here!
My Sudan Tour is over. Tonight I board a Lufthansa flight that will take me to Cairo, Frankfort, Chicago, and finally Portland. The “Truck Shop” will pick me up for the final leg by van to McMinnville. I leave a little after midnight and will arrive in McMinnville some where around 21:00 PDT. With time zone changes it will be over 30 hours standing around waiting to board something or having something strapped to my ass. I expect to be dead but not know it once the Truck Shop drops me at my home. My only hope is that there is room for an up-grade out of steerage for one or more of the legs.
That is the good news, the bad is I left in such a hurry because of the lost passport and visa that my house is a mess. I doubt it will make much difference tonight but once I recover I have to face trying to pick up and organize the mess I left plus deal with 6 weeks of mail and who knows what else.
My Sudan Tour is over. Tonight I board a Lufthansa flight that will take me to Cairo, Frankfort, Chicago, and finally Portland. The “Truck Shop” will pick me up for the final leg by van to McMinnville. I leave a little after midnight and will arrive in McMinnville some where around 21:00 PDT. With time zone changes it will be over 30 hours standing around waiting to board something or having something strapped to my ass. I expect to be dead but not know it once the Truck Shop drops me at my home. My only hope is that there is room for an up-grade out of steerage for one or more of the legs.
That is the good news, the bad is I left in such a hurry because of the lost passport and visa that my house is a mess. I doubt it will make much difference tonight but once I recover I have to face trying to pick up and organize the mess I left plus deal with 6 weeks of mail and who knows what else.
Skype
If you travel internationally this is a must. Once on your computer you can talk via the Internet to other Skype computers or call traditional phones i.e. landline or cell. Calls to phones are charged at rates determined by the country the call is to. I have spent the last 6 weeks in Khartoum, Sudan my total phone costs for this tour was less than 20 Euro. I paid AT&T over $4500 US for my last 6 week tour in The Sudan.
BTW Skype will work with dial-up, not as well as with hi-speed but it will work. There will be dropped calls and some distortion on many of your calls when using slow connections. Broadband computer to computer is the best, better than either phone to phone or computer to phone.
http://www.skype.com/helloagain.html
BTW Skype will work with dial-up, not as well as with hi-speed but it will work. There will be dropped calls and some distortion on many of your calls when using slow connections. Broadband computer to computer is the best, better than either phone to phone or computer to phone.
http://www.skype.com/helloagain.html
Sunday, July 17, 2005
Flour Tortillas
I’m in The Sudan with a South African and a Zimbabwean as flat mates. Neither had eaten tortillas of any kind before last night. I can’t find Masa Harina to make corn tortillas but flour ones are almost as good and better for some things such as Tacos al Carbon. The meat and fresh chilies are available and we even found some avocados, they are still too hard to eat but at least there is hope. Damn I miss Texas. As backward, crazy, mean and reactionary as it is there is something about the place that holds you tight like a first love.
Monday, July 11, 2005
Slow week in Khartoum
One of the advantages of the Khartoum base is the almost daily flight schedule. It make the time pass quickly. You get up in the morning, shower, put on the monkey suit, go to the airport, fly your legs, go back to the flat, check email, have dinner, go to bed, get up the next morning and do it all over once more. Before you know it the tour is over and you are standing at the airline counter trying to upgrade out of steerage and paying for your overweight bags. The last two weeks haven’t worked that way…flights have cancelled or not booked and we have been sitting around the flat staring at the walls. Not a good way to pass the time.
Sunday, July 10, 2005
Computer Woes
Sorry for the long delay...My computer crashed while I was in Abuja. Talk about being helpless, in Africa without a working cell phone, a dead computer and not a clue how you are going to get it, the computer, fixed.
The good news, I found a guy just down the street from our flat in Khartoum that worked on HP computers. Three days and $200 US later I'm on line. He didn't know how much he could have charged me...Can you say priceless.
The good news, I found a guy just down the street from our flat in Khartoum that worked on HP computers. Three days and $200 US later I'm on line. He didn't know how much he could have charged me...Can you say priceless.
Sunday, June 26, 2005
Life as an ExPat
When living in the third world small things make a big difference. Meat, except for pork, is no problem in Khartoum. It is cheap and very good, whole beef back straps run less than $20 US, I bought a couple of dozen lamb rib chops for a little over $10 US the other night. Grilled lamb ribs, rice, and some cucumbers in yogurt make a great meal. There are a couple of things missing...vegs and cheese. Today I found cheese, wonderful, beautiful cheese. cheddar, blue, swiss, even a couple of soft ones. Life is good.
BTW one of the local cheeses would make great enchiladas if only I could find some masa.
Now all I need is a source for some good tomatoes, asparagus, or lettuce. I would kill for green beans :-) .
Friday, June 24, 2005
James Wolcott
Damn he is good.
For a tuff-talkin' Texas, President Bush is awfully punctilious about reporters' trying to double-dip questions during press conferences. During the one wrapped up a bit earlier today, he took a sarcastic swipe at a foreign reporter for picking up the "American trick" of asking two questions when the quota is one per customer. He's a stickler about that. Before the war Bujsh didn't know the crucial dif between the Sunnis and the Shiites, according to a NY Times magazine piece (on the eve of invasion he had to have it explained to him by an Iraqi exile), but this sort of infraction he pounces on like John Simon affronted by a dangling modifier. The press con itself was mostly a familiar reiteration of his War on Terror halftime pep talk; more interesting was the byplay between Bill Kristol on Fox News and the shiny host, whose name escapes me....
http://jameswolcott.com/archives/2005/06/kristol_ball.php
For a tuff-talkin' Texas, President Bush is awfully punctilious about reporters' trying to double-dip questions during press conferences. During the one wrapped up a bit earlier today, he took a sarcastic swipe at a foreign reporter for picking up the "American trick" of asking two questions when the quota is one per customer. He's a stickler about that. Before the war Bujsh didn't know the crucial dif between the Sunnis and the Shiites, according to a NY Times magazine piece (on the eve of invasion he had to have it explained to him by an Iraqi exile), but this sort of infraction he pounces on like John Simon affronted by a dangling modifier. The press con itself was mostly a familiar reiteration of his War on Terror halftime pep talk; more interesting was the byplay between Bill Kristol on Fox News and the shiny host, whose name escapes me....
http://jameswolcott.com/archives/2005/06/kristol_ball.php
COMMON SENSE
Max Sawicky has some very good Dutch-uncle advice for those of us who care primarily about the substance of government policy:
MaxSpeak, You Listen!: COMMON SENSE: Determine the major policy challenges to come, fasten on the best solutions, and hammer away in the confidence that time will validate your message.... Three examples:
- The U.S. has to get out of Iraq, ASAP.
- The U.S. must have national health insurance.
- The Federal Gov will need to increase taxes -- over the next 75 years -- by about ten percentage points of GDP.
I think the arguments supporting these are very solid. If nobody makes them, we'll never get there. I don't have to run for public office, so I can make them. Politics is beyond me...
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Khartoum, Sudan
I’m in Khartoum. What a zoo this last week has been...UPS lost my passport with my Sudan visa. Our Washington office shipped it UPS "next day air" last Thursday to McMinnville, it made it as far as Louisville and no farther. Long story somewhat short...after working with UPS Monday and Tuesday I decided to go for a new passport and visa. I flew the company’s C-206 to Seattle Wed. morning and got a replacement passport then flew back to McMinnville to get on a redeye flight to Washington D.C. Wed. evening. I was on the Sudan Embassy’s doorstep Thursday AM. After 30 straight hours of go, go, go I had a passport and visa in hand. Needless to say once I made it back to my hotel and had some food, other than airline peanuts, and a couple of beers in my belly I crashed.
After resting most of Friday I started another 24 hours of travel on Saturday. This time on Lufthansa, the good news I was able to use our airline ID to upgrade. What a difference it is between the front and the back of today’s airlines. The seats did everything from making a bed to rubbing your back, all at the touch of a button. The food was eatable and the booze flowed. I’m still rummy from lack of sleep but all in all the trip over wasn’t too bad.
The C-206 flight was interesting...it was the first time I had flown a 206 in over 30 years and almost that long between single engine cross-countries. Two things stood out...first: damn it was slow, second: it was a lot of work and this was a pretty well equipped 206. We forget how hard it is to do everything solo with equipment that is not top of the line.
After resting most of Friday I started another 24 hours of travel on Saturday. This time on Lufthansa, the good news I was able to use our airline ID to upgrade. What a difference it is between the front and the back of today’s airlines. The seats did everything from making a bed to rubbing your back, all at the touch of a button. The food was eatable and the booze flowed. I’m still rummy from lack of sleep but all in all the trip over wasn’t too bad.
The C-206 flight was interesting...it was the first time I had flown a 206 in over 30 years and almost that long between single engine cross-countries. Two things stood out...first: damn it was slow, second: it was a lot of work and this was a pretty well equipped 206. We forget how hard it is to do everything solo with equipment that is not top of the line.
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
UPS Sucks
I'm pissed...The Washington DC office overnighted my passport and Sudan Visa last Thursday (09 June 2005). I have not received the package...It is lost. I'm busting ass to finish closing the house down tonight so I can fly the C 206 to Seattle in the morning. I have to file for a replacement passport. Then I need to make it back to Portland in time to catch the red-eye to Washington D.C. at 21:15. I will arrive in D.C. early Thursday morning...Just in time (I hope) to go to the Sudan Embassy and, cross my fingers, have a replacement Visa issued. Then who knows what kind of connections I can get to Sudan.
I had a good flight to Sudan booked out of Portland...Most likely First Class and with only a 2 hour layover in Frankfort. What do you bet it will be the middle seat of a 5 seat row with at least a 9 or more hour layover somewhere...I'm Pissed.
I had a good flight to Sudan booked out of Portland...Most likely First Class and with only a 2 hour layover in Frankfort. What do you bet it will be the middle seat of a 5 seat row with at least a 9 or more hour layover somewhere...I'm Pissed.
Monday, June 13, 2005
Brass: 'we won't solve this with bullets'
by kos
Mon Jun 13th, 2005 at 14:06:21 PDT
Military commanders on the ground in Iraq must speak the obvious truths our civilian or Pentagon leadership is incapable of saying.
A growing number of senior American military officers in Iraq have concluded that there is no long-term military solution to an insurgency that has killed thousands of Iraqis and taken a heavy toll on U.S. troops during the past two years.
Mon Jun 13th, 2005 at 14:06:21 PDT
Military commanders on the ground in Iraq must speak the obvious truths our civilian or Pentagon leadership is incapable of saying.
A growing number of senior American military officers in Iraq have concluded that there is no long-term military solution to an insurgency that has killed thousands of Iraqis and taken a heavy toll on U.S. troops during the past two years.
Instead, officers say, the only way to end the guerrilla war is through Iraqi politics -- an arena that so far has been crippled by divisions between Shi'a Muslims, whose coalition dominated the January elections, and Sunni Muslims, who are a minority in Iraq but form the base of support for the insurgency.
"I think the more accurate way to approach this right now is to concede that ... this insurgency is not going to be settled, the terrorists and the terrorism in Iraq is not going to be settled, through military options or military operations," Brig. Gen. Donald Alston, the chief U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, said last week, in a comment that echoes what other senior officers say. "It's going to be settled in the political process." [...]
Gen. George W. Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, expressed similar sentiments, calling the military's efforts "the Pillsbury Doughboy idea" -- pressing the insurgency in one area only causes it to rise elsewhere.
"Like in Baghdad," Casey said during an interview with two newspaper reporters, including one from Knight Ridder, last week. "We push in Baghdad -- they're down to about less than a car bomb a day in Baghdad over the last week -- but in north-center (Iraq) ... they've gone up," he said. "The political process will be the decisive element."
Saturday, June 11, 2005
Fall of 2001 Continued
After leaving the River Oaks Men’s Grill I returned to my office on Hobby Airport. I truly did not know what to do. I made a few phone calls, one was to Darrel Stewart, Darrel had an old and ugly Lear 25B he was operating and he needed someone to fly it. The only problem I did not have a current PPE in the Lear. I was typed but had not flown a Lear in at least 10 years. Darrel could give me a PPE but I had been out of the Lear so long I doubt the insurance company would have insured me with out my going to simulator based recurrent training.
Flight Safety has a wonderful program, if you are a full service customer you can go to recurrent on any other aircraft that costs the same or less than your primary aircraft. When I called FSI I still had just over a month left on my Fairchild SA 227 contract and the Lear program cost was the same. If I could make it to Flight Safety in the next month I could go through the Lear recurrent and have a fresh PPE. Even better if I could find a FAR 135 operator to let me use their program I could also get a fresh FAR 293a & b, a 297 and then all I would need is a 299 to fly Lears on charter. Darrel’s operation used Flight Safety Wichita for training. It was all working out, I could do some contract work with Darrel until I could find something full time. All I had to do was convince the downtown suits that it was to their advantage to send me to FSI Wichita. I did some fancy tap dancing and I don’t know if I caught Nick off guard or if he has a heart (if he does he hides it well) but long story short he said go ahead and go.
The first open slot was the end of December.
More to come,
Flight Safety has a wonderful program, if you are a full service customer you can go to recurrent on any other aircraft that costs the same or less than your primary aircraft. When I called FSI I still had just over a month left on my Fairchild SA 227 contract and the Lear program cost was the same. If I could make it to Flight Safety in the next month I could go through the Lear recurrent and have a fresh PPE. Even better if I could find a FAR 135 operator to let me use their program I could also get a fresh FAR 293a & b, a 297 and then all I would need is a 299 to fly Lears on charter. Darrel’s operation used Flight Safety Wichita for training. It was all working out, I could do some contract work with Darrel until I could find something full time. All I had to do was convince the downtown suits that it was to their advantage to send me to FSI Wichita. I did some fancy tap dancing and I don’t know if I caught Nick off guard or if he has a heart (if he does he hides it well) but long story short he said go ahead and go.
The first open slot was the end of December.
More to come,
Thursday, June 09, 2005
Out of Here
I'm leaving for a TDY in Khartoum, Sudan next week. It had been touch and go, for a while I didn't know if I would receive my new visa in time. My Afghanistan visa was still good and there was a chance I would be sent to Kabul instead of Khartoum. I must say the weather in Kabul would be better this time of the year but from what I'm reading people are being blown up in Afghanistan and so far that is not a problem in Sudan (unless you are black). It will be good to see my Sudanese friends and be in Africa for a few weeks.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)