24 MAY 2007 – T-Minus 2 Hours

24 May 2007 – T-Minus 2 Hours

“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome aboard KamAir flight 0006 – non-stop service to Kabul. For those of you wondering, yes, this is the very first 737 ever built. As we climb out, you may hear a slight squeak coming from the rear of the airplane, that would be a pressurization leak, but not to worry, our cruising altitude today will only be 29,000 feet. In the event of an emergency, please do not attempt to use the aft most exit on the left-hand side of the airplane, as the large Igloo coolers for the refreshments are blocking the door. For your comfort the air conditioning will be turned on once we begin our taxi, however the system is inoperative past row number six and so we kindly ask that the passengers seated in the forward most seats to vigorously wave their briefing cards backwards so the passengers in rear of the plane can have some air. We apologize for the inconvenience. Also, the flies you see onboard are certainly annoying but rest assured, are in no way harmful. The captain today has programmed our flight into the portable Garmin GPSMap 296 clipped to the instrument panel and has estimated our flight time to be two hours and 20 minutes.”

Alright, so maybe only about half of that was true. I’ll let you decide which half.

Maybe it was closer to 3/4 true.

So here I am, on the final leg. Anticipation, more than anxiety, is probably the best way to describe how I feel – with the exception of this airplane, in which case anxiety is probably the better word. We did get airborne, which while on the ground I still had my doubts. At least it’s a Boeing and not an Airbus, but now that I think about it, we do still need to land. It’s definitely a far cry from the Emirates 777-300ER with all the personal entertainment bells and whistles in the seatbacks on the flight from Joberg to Dubai.

Dave and I had about 24 hours to spend in Dubai. Just like the Travel Channel boasts, it’s a modern city with all the amenities, and in a lot of ways reminds me of Las Vegas – so we decided to play tourist for the day and do some sight-seeing. We visited the Mall of the Emirates, the Barj Al Arab hotel, and the Gold Souk. The Mall of the Emirates is the mall with the indoor downhill ski slope. Impressive? Uhhh… I guess. I don’t know what to say other then it’s a big frozen tunnel with snow on it. Other then that it was like any other mall. From there we went to the Barj Al Arab – the giant hotel that looks like a sail and seen in nearly every photo of Dubai. Security wouldn’t let us past the front gate without a reservation so we took a couple of novelty photos and were on our way.

The real fun came when we decided to go to the Gold Souk. After our taxi driver rear-ended some guy at a stoplight we arrived at a covered street where various gold items, mostly jewelry, are sold and traded. Our cab dropped us off and a teenage kid immediately approached Dave asking if he wanted to see some watches – Dave’s a bit of a watch aficionado and said sure. The next thing I know we’re being lead through a back alley, into a building, up four flights of stairs, to a door that was locked from the inside. Security cameras poked out from the ceiling and the teenage kid rang the doorbell a few times. With a click the deadbolt unlocked and we were invited into small room lined with floor-to-ceiling shelves of phony Louis Vuitton handbags on three of the four walls. Three men greeted us and presented us with a multitude of bogus designer watches: Rolex, Breitling, Omega – you name it and they had it. “American Navy men come here to buy watches” one of the men boasted. I’m sure they do.

Although they were friendly enough, getting out was a bit of a challenge, so Dave asked if they had a blue and red Rolex GMT Master – apparently relatively rare in the states. Of course they didn’t but made several phone calls trying to track one down. Dave’s plan worked, our excuse to leave presented itself, and we were able to walk out guilt-free. We spent another 30 minutes browsing the shops – some of the gold jewelry is really quite impressive. By the time we decided to head back to the hotel the word was out and every other hawker in the Souk trying to sell us a blue and red Rolex GMT Master.

Admittedly I was a little nervous as we climbed the stairs – having no idea where we were going or what exactly we were doing; but for whatever reason I never really felt like I was in any danger – even when we were in the “office.” The men weren’t at all aggressive and I didn’t necessarily feel trapped, although the whole experience was a bit surreal.

This morning’s flight was scheduled for an 8 a.m. departure. Our briefing from HQ suggested that we arrive early because the flight often leaves early – a good thing because as 8 a.m. rolled around we had already been airborne for 30 minutes. As I look out the window to scenery that resembles the American southwest times about 10, I can’t help but wonder what was so important about this desolate, inhospitable land that would warrant the Russians to engage in war over it for so many years. There is nothing here – no shipping ports, no agriculture – nothing obvious anyway. Just mountains, rocks, and sand. There must be more to that story.

Well, the moment of truth. We’ve begun our descent. If you’re reading this it means I survived.

TO BE CONTINUED…

20 MAY 2007 – Rugby and Air Law

20 May 2007 – Rugby and Air Law

I know, it’s been awhile since I’ve posted. I appreciate all of your e-mail wondering what’s going on. I wish I could report that the past couple of weeks have been so exciting that I’m sitting here wondering where the time went. Sadly, that’s not the case. In fact it’s just the opposite – I feel like I’ve been here for months.

The short version is I’ve been very busy. Study, simulator, study, simulator, study, study, class, study, class, study, study, study. It’s been stressful. The good news is, is everything is done. I passed my sim check ride last week, passed my written exam a few days ago, and passed the flight check this morning. It’s a huge relief, and now I just sit back, relax, and wait for Afghanistan.

That’s not to say I haven’t had a little bit of fun though. For instance, a couple Saturday’s ago I managed to take in a pro rugby game. It was the local Vodacom Blue Bulls (ranked #4) vs. The Reds, a team from New Zealand (ranked dead last at #14).

If you’re not familiar with rugby I will sum up:

The idea of the game is similar to American football – get the ball into the other team’s “half” and what we call a touchdown is called a “try.” A try is worth 5 points and after a try is scored a “conversion kick” is attempted through the uprights – just like the extra point but in this case it’s worth 2. There’s also a “penalty kick”, similar to a field goal and worth 3 points. A typical score is also similar to that of an NFL game – somewhere between the upper teens and the upper 20’s is about the norm. In order for the Bulls to retain their home field advantage for the playoffs they needed to win by 72 points, which everybody said was impossible.

Watching these guys play was unreal. They don’t wear any pads and it’s just as brutal as football. A match is made up of two, 40-minute halves and the clock only stops running if there’s a serious injury and for halftime. There are no downs, very few penalties, and the ball is almost always in play. It’s wild to watch 10 guys jump on the ball, land in a big pile, then about 10 seconds later see the ball come flying out from underneath it all, have someone catch it, and then start running with it again. Halftime is 10 minutes and everyone just hangs out in his or her seat until halftime is over – there is no mad rush to the beer stand.

Two, 40-minutes halves plus 10 minutes for halftime is 90 minutes. There are no TV time outs, no two-minute warnings, no playing the sidelines, no reviewing the plays, no downing the ball; and so you come in, watch the game, and walk out about an hour and a half later. For those of you who don’t watch American football, it’s made up of four, 15-minute quarters and you’ll walk out about three and a half hours later.

Now for a little shop-talk…

US pilots are governed by a set of regulations dictated by 14 CFR and its applicable parts. Or more simply, what you can and cannot do as a pilot. The code has grown over the years to what is now a book about as thick as your average dictionary written in print of about the same size. Unfortunately many of these rules stem from accidents (or worse) pilots killing themselves; someone does something that causes an incident or accident and, if there isn’t already, a rule is often written prohibiting it from hopefully happening again.

I’m sure South African air law has a similar history and some of the regulations are noteworthy. Take for example 91.02.5 (2):

In the case of a single-pilot aircraft, the pilot-in-command shall,
during all phases of flight, remain at the controls of the aircraft.

I can just imagine the government lawyer shaking his head when he had to write that one up.

I’d say about 95% of the regulations are the same as the US. I won’t go over all the little differences but I’ll point out some of the more interesting ones. Much of following only the pilots out there will understand but I will do my best to make it interesting for everyone:

1. Tossing Objects: you can’t throw anything out of the airplane without prior authorization. If you saw the movie The Gods Must be Crazy you know how an empty Coca-Cola bottle can wreak havoc on an indigenous tribe. It’s for the best.

2. Lousy Weather: you cannot fly single-pilot in IMC without a heading and altitude hold autopilot. It doesn’t matter what type of airplane you’re in or if it’s a revenue flight or not. 1 pilot + no autopilot = VFR only. It’s actually probably a pretty good rule.

3. Type Ratings: type ratings are required for every type of airplane flown regardless of max take-off weight or propulsion. A pilot who earns their license in a Cessna 152 is required to get a type rating (essentially a check ride) to fly a Cessna 172 and so on. However, they don’t have federal or designated examiners like they do in the US – they have three levels of instructors and only a level three can actually issue the license, while a level one, two, or three can issue a type rating. Lucky me, I will automatically be typed in every airplane I have logged in my logbook.

4. Climb and Maintain: flight levels begin at 1,500 feet AGL and you set 1013mb (29.92”) in the altimeter as you climb through it. 4,000 feet is FL40. Altitudes are given in feet, visibility is given in kilometers, and distance is given in nautical miles.

5. Flying an Approach: approaches are the same – an ILS is an ILS, a VOR is a VOR and so on. The big difference however are the government-published approach plates, in that the approach minimums are not listed on the plate itself. The pilot has to figure them out based on all sorts of different criteria, cross-referencing with various tables and charts. I wrote up the steps in a previous revision but realized I would probably lose half my audience. If you want them for curiosity’s sake let me know and I will e-mail them to you.

Determining your alternates (often you need two and sometime three) involve about a half a dozen more steps. Nobody actually uses these plates in real life – they’re far too complex to be practical. Everyone just uses Jeppesen, who of course has worked all that information for you and published the minimums on the plate itself. The NOS plates that nobody seems to like or use are awesome by comparison.

The RSA regulations are really a bit of a mess. There are inconsistencies, contradictions and ambiguities everywhere. It’s so bad in fact the RSA Civil Aviation Authority has failed its last two audits conducted by the FAA and ICAO – and because nothing has been done to correct the problems they’re considering all kinds of tariff increases and route limits to the US until the problems are rectified. This of course is a big problem as various cities in the RSA are scheduled to host the World Cup Soccer Tournament in 2010 and the potential for huge revenue loss. Not to mention, flight safety.

But like I mentioned before, I’m done with everything and I’m about to begin the next phase of this grand adventure. My flight to Kabul is scheduled for May 22nd with a two-day stopover in Dubai. And although it seems like I’ve been in South Africa forever, I haven’t minded the time I’ve spent down here. I’ve met a lot of great people, had some fun, have seen and experienced first-hand both the problems and achievements of a post-apartheid South Africa – and is someplace I absolutely look forward coming back to. There is a whole other world out there, outside of my safe little San Diego bubble, and there’s not a school in the world that could teach this kind of thing.

So on Tuesday I pack my stuff and head back north. Where in the matter crossing a few parallels the seasons switch back from fall to spring and I get to look forward to a whole new group of people, a whole new learning curve, and fresh dose of culture shock. I’m doing my best to keep a positive attitude and I appreciate the concern many of you have expressed of the Afghanistan mission in general. I know it’s dangerous, it’s not secure, and that many Afghanis don’t exactly welcome American’s with open arms. I wish there was something I could write that might help put your minds at ease, but I know that’s not possible. However there is something I’ve learned in the past month: fortune comes in many different sizes and shapes, flavors and colors. And after being in Uganda, South Africa, and soon Afghanistan, I have never felt so fortunate to be an American in my entire life. It’s given me the opportunity to be in a position to heal, versus hurt; to help, versus hide; and to hope, versus feel despair. That’s not to say America is perfect – it’s not, and no place is. But politics aside, and in my limited travels, I’m beginning to realize in a whole new way that America is the greatest country in the world.

Alright – I’m stepping down from my philosophical soap-box. For now.

I’m sorry I don’t have a lot of photos to share this time. This area of the RSA is like Bakersfield – pretty boring and not a lot to do. But for the final score of the rugby game (and some other stuff) you’ll need to log on to Flickr. Enjoy!

~dj

http://www.flickr.com/photos/djhorton