Back in the Air

Happy New Year!!

I know I am early but since everything happens late in India by the time you get this it will probably be New Years.

I went back and looked at my log book to see what this year has been like. I always do this and my family used to think I was too wrapped up in my logbook but it's like a diary for me and I can go back and sort of relive my flying year while comparing it to the years before. The interesting thing about this year has been, of course, my tour to New Delhi, India. When I left Pittsburgh and came over here since Pittsburgh was kind of slow at the time I left I didn't fly for the last 3 weeks or so that I was there and adding that to my taking lots of time to actually get approved for flying over here, I was 50 days between flights back in June and July. But, that wasn't my longest period inactivity, as I just went back to flying after a 52 day hiatus. Most of this was because the DGCA got kind of mad at us and decided to enforce a rule that had been on the books but was generally ignored regarding use of contract pilots. When my regular copilot went for gallbladder surgery that effectively grounded the airplane for 6 weeks. Now, I have another young copilot who just got approved to fly with me in the XLS and we completed our first flight on Sunday evening. We still have some work to do with the DGCA because they approved a weight and balance sheet that cannot be completed due to no moment table for the fuel. I use the one from the AFM (aircraft flight manual) but some of our people don't think that it's legal since it hasn't been officially approved. I think they are reasonable people and would see that what we are doing is correct.

Anyway, to celebrate the new year and to celebrate that I am back flying again after almost two months, I decided one last photo of the winter uniform (monkey suit) in the plane was my little celebration. My favorite flying uniform that I have seen anywhere is the guys flying the little charter planes to the outer islands in the Caribbean and they are usually wearing shorts and a T-shirt along with their flip-flops. Of course, they are usually without any functioning air-conditioning and that is sort of survival gear down there.

I am loving the weather this time of year. It gets a little cool by morning but the days are lovely and just warm enough to make you realize it's going to be a long, hot summer in just a few weeks.

Today I am dressing in my church suit for the first time since I came to Delhi. The occasion is the wedding of one of our young people from the Delhi SDA church. I cannot really pronounce their names correctly but we talk and smile and wave in the church every week and they handed me a personal invitation so I told them if I was in town that I would try to go. So today Miss Somiwon Hungyo and Dr. Deepak Ditiya are taking the plunge into Holy Matrimony. It's at the church so I have seen the venue, I am just glad that I can go and be supportive, plus I get to see what this wedding party will be like. Fun! (And I know some of you guys probably think I am crazy). When you are alone on the other side of the planet it doesn't take much to provide the day's entertainment, let me tell you. But, this should be a good party and so here we go.

Today marks the actual day of being exactly one month until I fly home to America to visit the kids, see my new granddaughter when she comes into the world, and best of all, to get Karen and bring her back to India with me. Adventure never stops when you live like this.

Thanks again for all your comments, support and care for me during this last 6 months of being alone in India. I do have too much time to be on the computer since that is my social contact with the world. When Karen comes that will be replaced with person to person social contact and that will be a big improvement. But, it has been nice to be able to keep in touch with so many of you. I hope to still be able to blog or write once in awhile and to keep the pictures coming so that you can visualize that India is a real place with real people and lots going on.

Now go out and make it a great year in 2010. My close of the year admonition is a song I used to lead as a Youth Pastor in California that takes it's words directly from the Old Testament Prophet Micah (6:8): He has showed you, O Man, what is good, but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. Simply profound!!

Merry Christmas

It's funny, just when you think you have experienced all the weirdness that is a foreign country, something else crops up. We have had our new copilot back from school at FlightSafety in England for almost two weeks now. As soon as he got back he would have been working (flying) in America. Here he had to get DGCA approval to fly and then he has to have his familiarization training done by an experienced captain (me). The last piece to the puzzle is that since we are charter I needed a route check done since I have now been here for 6 months. This is a routine checkride if you have ever flown charter in the states and one that I flew many times up in Pittsburgh with the owner of our business up there. Here getting approvals and someone to actually ride along with us who is qualified has been a nightmare. The company has been calling me almost every day with a request for information. Today I found out that Murphy lives in India, too, as I had just completed my Flight Instructor renewal class online and sent all my paperwork to America, where I received confirmation of said paperwork and a temporary flight instructor's license until my permanent one comes back. They actually just send you a diploma which serves as a temporary license. When I sent my paperwork in, one of the things they wanted was my actual old flight instructor's license. I hadn't needed it for the 6 months that I had been here but I was nervous about sending any pilot license away. Sure enough, I was requested to send the license last week and this week our company requested me to bring in my flight instructor's license so they could make a copy. I had to tell them I had just sent it to America and it would be a few weeks before I got my new one back. This is about the third day of a complete staff of people going down to the DGCA and doing paperwork so that I can just be a check airman and check out my new copilot. Undoubtedly, I am the most experienced Citation XLS pilot in the country and that has come up with our people but that doesn't mean anything with these guys. So, another day goes by and it looks like two more will go by. I am actually thinking that I may not be flying until after Christmas now. The way things are going, I will be lucky to be flying before I go home to the USA on January 28th. What a place!!

On the other hand, I am sure that I am going to be here for the carol sing at the Hyatt Hotel on Christmas Eve. I thought I was going for a checkride yesterday but then it cancelled after I had gone to the airport, taken the sobriety test, checked in with airport staff and was waiting to go to the plane. Then the text message came through that the flight had cancelled. So, it did allow me to go to choir practice last night, which was now getting quite a bit more organized and well attended. While at the practice everyone was talking about some new Indian Visa regulations that are applying particularly to the tourist visas, which is what Karen will have over here. I guess people

who have been here for more than 90 days have left the country temporarily to go to a funeral or something like that and have not been allowed back into the country unless you stay out for two months. Since Karen and I were planning a little vacation next summer that would last only one month, this would apply. How crazy does it get?? Now there is some different visa called an x-visa for India that some are getting and it allows what they call multiple re-entry. So, I guess we are going to have to try and get one of those for Karen. Lots of things to think and worry about.

Last night was our really first cool night this winter season. The kitty was quite fond of the room heater, which is a radiator type. She set up shop right beside it on a little carpet that I gave her.

I was glad that I had my new comforter and slept very well.

As I was riding through a particularly crowded neighborhood in the back of the car last night I was thinking that you can kind of control how much you immerse yourself in Indian society over here. If you choose, you can go right out there and dive into it, noise, pollution, crowds and all. Or, you can also be in India but live a pretty good lifestyle with fancy shopping malls, good restaurants and big houses. You can also choose to not immerse yourself in the less desireable parts of Indian society. When a severely handicapped or very poor person appears at your car window at the stop light or somewhere else, it really makes a difference in your day and how your feel about yourself depending on how you react to these people. It has given a completely new meaning to the word "witness" for me. It's not something I "do" or how I act, it is actually who I am to these people every single minute of every single day.

The picture is from our choir practice the other night at Pastor Karl's house. You all have a wonderful Christmas and safe travel throughout the holidays.

Dressing up

Hello again from India,
So many of you have responded so kindly and been so encouraging I want to thank you very much. When you are far from home you have no idea how much it means to hear from folks back home just to say hi and that things are okay.
Since I have not been flying for a few weeks it has allowed me to get some other things done that have been on my list. One is to get over to the tailor's and get measured for my winter uniform. Since they measure everything the fit is really great and so, since this is my first complete uniform with a jacket and all, I took a self portrait in the mirror when I got home and tried it on.
We really don't get to wear the jacket much here since it isn't really cold for long at all. This time of year we will only wear the jacket as far as the plane and then hang it up and fly without it. So, this is the one chance you will get to see me in the full monkey suit. Thank goodness they don't want hats! I have never looked good in a hat. And maybe some of you will notice that all the time in the gym has been having a good effect.
Today was another typical India day. We had lots of errands to run and things to do all over Delhi. I took another pilot with me because we were having to get attested copies of our passport signed by someone way downtown. This was required for us to renew our airport passes for next year. They expire on December 31 and it took me almost 5 months to get it the first time. In fact I was laughing to myself because the pass didn't come in time to get me to the airplane one time for a flight. I have always been a passenger on my own plane with a boarding pass, etc. But, the airport pass has allowed me to go to the airplane to update my flight charts and do a couple of engine runs to exercise everything so the airplane will fly next time we actually get to go fly. My copilot is coming back from London this weekend but now I am told that it may take as long as 2 weeks to get his paperwork through the DGCA and get him approved as a copilot on our XLS. To give the pilots in my audience an idea of the opportunity that India provides for young people interested in flying, my new copilot is a great young man who is 28 years old and has exactly 600 hours. When I was that age and had that sort of flying time I was flying single engine Cessnas and Pipers and just glad to be doing it. He will be riding right seat for a long time, but what a fantastic opportunity for someone here in this country. He has so much invested in his flying though, he will be flying for many years before he gets it all paid off and gets on the positive side of the ledger since he went to America and paid for his own training. Our owner is helping him but he will be working for years to make this right. Ashish is a great guy and is dating one of our air hostesses so maybe love is in the air, who knows?
I found out that they are going to approve me as a check airman for the XLS, at least for this one situation and then maybe for others as it becomes necessary so that will be something new and exciting to do - help others become better and safer pilots, real professionals that are making true contributions to their companies for years to come.
I am very excited about this upcoming weekend. I have a tiger exploration and sighting tour coming up. We take a nice 4 hour train ride to somewhere North of Delhi to a state park known for tiger sightings. We will spend the night in a nice lodge and then get up very early the next morning to go see some real tigers in their live habitats. The last time I did this with a truly wild animal was when I was in Africa 37 years ago and we did some game sighting tours in the Kalahari. With a little luck maybe I will get some nice photos.
Well, here in India I am having to look hard for Christmas. I have my computer loaded up with lots of Christmas music and played through my amplifier speakers and with my carpetless apartment I can get pretty awesome sounds going. It's a little hard to follow up outside since it's around 70 degrees out there tonight at 9 p.m. But, I volunteered to sing in the Christmas Chorale at church and we have been invited to perform at the Hyatt Regency Hotel right next to my corporate office here in Delhi on Christmas Eve. They set up a little stage and we will sing a few carols and then lead the audience in quite a few more. There will be a flute solo and a vocal or two. There is one ladies trio that is really great and that will be most of my Christmas here this year. Of course the best part for me is knowing that I am now sitting on two airline tickets for early Feb for Karen and me to fly from Los Angeles to Delhi. I am flying to LAX late January and spending a few days both with my daughter and son-in-law in the Portland, Oregon area and then coming down to be with my son and daughter-in-law in Southern California. They will have provided me with my first grandchild by that time even though that little lady hasn't been born yet, she is engraved on my heart and mind. The kids seem to be getting excited about a dad visit all the way from India and I am very excited about it. Of course, it's going to be equally exciting to bring Karen back to India with me. I am so going to relish the looks on her face as she experiences all the wonders of this beautiful and interesting place.
When I went to Qatar for Thanksgiving and then came back to Delhi to my own place, it was the weirdest feeling in the world. It is like my world has gone through a complete shift and my life is so different from what it was before. I do feel much more at home here, I have lots of friends, both expats and Indians, who are wonderful people, and I find a lot of truth in the statement that I want to be my little piece of advice or saying for this blog -"Wherever you are, it is your friends who make your world."

Mosquito Alley

Hello from India. The weather here has been so nice, just perfect temperatures both day and night. Days have been running around 27-30 C, high 70's to mid 80's for the farenheight crowd. It cools down to around 10-15 C (50 to 59 F) at night. I haven't run air for over a month and I have no heat so a light blanket has been just great. I guess I might break down and buy at least one space heater for the apartment in case it gets really cold one night in December or January. So far, no need at all. A little hazy but just perfect temps. If you want to visit Delhi during the good times of year, I would suggest late October through mid December in the fall and they tell me that Feb and March are also just wonderful. Then, by late April it is getting very hot again. January can be cold.

The reason I called this blog mosquito alley is that during the late summer we were under attack but then the cool weather kind of ran them off. Now, with the very mild temps, they have sort of been making a comeback and since these are the dengue fever bad guys, I don't entertain them lightly. Karen thinks I am getting too crazy about this but you know when one of those little critters has been buzzing your ear at night for a few minutes, sometimes longer, it brings an amazing amount of satisfaction to swing the raquet a little bit and hit something. The other night I had three buzzers and I immediately turned on the raquet and got two. The third one was elusive and prowled most of the night over my body, which was under the covers. Finally, about 4 in the morning he went right past my ear and I took the raquet and just held it up above my head in the dark, with my eyes open. All of a sudden there was this loud pop and a sudden little firework display for just a microsecond as the mosquito became a temporary light source. I slept so well after that. No more threat of bad stuff making me go to the hospital. Oh, and the fighter pilots used to call parts of Vietnam "Mig Alley" and the aces had shot down 5 of the enemy planes. I am now officially an ace, having shot down at least 8 of these guys now over a period of a week. For awhile I thought I had wasted my money on this raquet but now I am feeling like it was one of the best buys I have made here - ha!

Today is Karen's and my One Year Anniversary. We got married in Las Vegas last year on a day that one of our Presidents said was a day that would live in infamy, December 7th. Karen wittingly said that we should reset our anniversary date since I have been out of the country for the last 5 months. Thank goodness for Skype and international phones so that we can maintain our relationship across continents and miles. Love you Karen!!

Went to church in Delhi on Saturday and ended up playing the piano for service since the youth were gone camping and one of them is the regular pianist. They were very nice about the help, although since I have no keyboard of any kind to practice on, it challenged me, plus knowing all the songs they use to keep the service flowing, etc, was keeping me hopping.

I signed up to sing in the Sunday church's Christmas Chorale so will be going to my first practice on Tuesday night. I need a few things like this to keep me focused during the Holidays since Karen and I won't be together until late January. She found her old passport so that is going to make getting her new one a lot easier and is one of the first things that has gone our way for her to come over here so we are happy about that. And, for those of you who are wondering, it was in the bottom of an old purse, in the bottom of an old suitcase, out in our storage area and she hadn't laid hands on it for years, so it was a very lucky find.

Pittsburgh had it's first snow of the season over the weekend and I understand from friends in Tennessee that it was snowing down there, too. Hard for me to imagine with the mild temps that we have going on here.

I found out that our company is officially promising the Citation that I fly will be back airborne by the 20th of Dec. Since I haven't flown since the 3rd of November, that will be over 6 weeks of paid time with nothing I can do except keep the charts and Flight Management System database updated and current. My friend Dhaka says I am the luckiest guy he has ever met because he is out with his surgery and I am out because he is out. Since this is a Hindu country, I imagine that my flying will get quite busy once we get flying again and the Christmas Holiday will mean nothing to them. There are lots of Christians here and the churches do put on a display. I have seen Christmas stores and decorations in spots but their holiday (Diwalli) was in mid October and it will be interesting to see if there is any recognition of Christmas here, officially.

Next weekend is when I am going to ride a train North of Delhi for a few hours and visit a National park here in India that is famous for Tiger sightings. I don't think we are guaranteed a tiger sighting but they say to bring your camera as good things happen. I am really excited about this opportunity to see these beautiful cats in their natural habitat. With a little luck I may have some really nice pictures and I am going to make sure I have my telephoto lense with me, too.

My group of Delhi Dan letter readers continues to grow. When I first came over, there were about 75 people that I was writing to and for. Now, through family and friends who have requested to be put on the list, I am over 90, pushing towards 100.

Thanks to everyone who reads and encourages and responds occasionally, it means a lot to have your support.

Advice for this blog - The last house you are going to live in might be the one you are building now, so build it carefully and to last.

Take care,

Dan

Thanksgiving in Qatar

Hello everyone,

I am back home again in Delhi and it feels so weird to think that Delhi is now my home. I came home with a cold so it took me a little longer to get my photos posted and labeled, plus, I took over 250 photos and weeded it down to 197 for the album. I could have done a lot more weeding but you guys always say that you enjoy the photos so I decided to just leave most of them up and let you see the world through my camera.

I did have an excellent flight in both directions, traveling coach late at night because I am frugal. It saved several hundred dollars. Instead of flying on Qatar Airways directly to and from Delhi, which was possible, I took a flight that went through Abu Dhabi airport in both directions. I booked the flight on Etihad Airways but ended up flying the leg to and from Delhi on Jet Airways, which is what I had flown on all the way from New York. They did a nice job and I can't complain, even though I left Qatar at 6:45 in the evening and didn't get to Delhi until 5:40 the next morning. Most of that time was eaten up in a 4 hour layover in Abu Dhabi and another 2:30 was eaten up in time changes along the way since India has this silly half hour time difference idea that the British started. I can't even program that into my FMS on the airplane so I end up just using Greenwich Mean Time for all my time calls.

Alan very kindly picked me up at the Doha airport at 3 a.m. We had no problem connecting and off we went to his house and to bed. The next day was Thanksgiving and we were going to be doing dinner that day at the Dean's house for Carnegie Mellon University Qatar. Very nice house. Met some very interesting people and had some great food. I think Jennifer's "Poor Man's Caviar" recipe was my favorite chip dip of all time. I even got the recipe from her, which I almost never do. She also loaded me up with some great canned food for my stay in Delhi. I haven't eaten like this since leaving Pittsburgh last June so I am afraid to get on the scale.

Alan took a lot of time to take me around to the shopping area called the Souq and to a fancy mall where they had an amazing choice of stores and food. The food court looked like America gone Middle East. Had some Lebanese food for lunch one day, with the best Tabouli Salad ever.

Since there is not much beef in India (cows are sacred, remember) we went out to eat and I wanted a good hamburger. Went to this great South African place and even teenage Adam said it was like the best burger he had ever had. Because of my deprivation I could only agree. The hot Krispy Kreme donut from the shop next door was a good appetizer, too.

Church was interesting, mostly made up of workers from the Phillipines and parts of Africa. Lots of people and enthusiasm. The pastor was a soft spoken man from Brazil. It was funny because I was picking out all the people at church from India and talking with them. Native dress from your home country is a giveaway now.

On Friday Alan and Jen had potluck dinner at the Greek Neighbor's house, with some other neighbors who are Irish and Iranian. Cool mix and loved the international flavor of the company. The kids loved the chocolate fondue fountain and blew the chocolate all over the wall, as well as their clothes and the floor. Chocolate seems to be a popular international commodity.

Sunday, Alan wanted to take me on a nice tour so we headed for the desert and a fort that he found on the map. On the way we passed a Camel Race Track so I insisted we had to stop and look around since they really don't have anything like this anywhere I have ever lived. It must be a huge track as we couldn't see the whole thing. We did see many camel jockeys practicing and leading their teams on practice runs. Each team has their own blanket color so it's cute to see the babies following their mothers on the run. We didn't get much information so I don't know how long the races are or anything but just the visuals were amazing and fun.

We got to the desert and the road quickly deteriorated in to nothing. We were following multiple sand tracks to nowhere. The fort wasn't to be found. I thought Alan and Adam were going to have a heart attack when I told them to stop at this Arab house so I could approach and ask about the fort. There were kids and sheep and goats running around in and out of the tents and buildings. The man of the house came out, put his hand out and we shook. He smiled and I tried my slow English on him. The word fort wasn't in his vocabulary so I tried Old building and he immediately lit up and pointed almost to his front yard. Alan was so glad for my safe return and we saw the fort and then proceeded to explore the kind of interesting terrain in the area. It was a nice day for doing a little hiking so we explored the interesting hills and you can see from the pictures that we were also near the sea. I love seeing places that I have never been. There were even some ex-pats who were camping on the shore with their tents and Alan said he had seen that a brochure said there was camping there.

Time was coming for me to get back and we went out to a very fancy mall. People watching is always interesting at malls and this was exceptional because of all the different dress styles that you see. I was amazed to find out that a lot of the women have fancy jeans and tops and very elaborate makeup on under those black, covered dresses. I just had a very different idea that things were very austere. I kept trying to see how they would eat at the mall with that total face cover on and I never did get to see that. Visual incongruity was everywhere with very simply exterior dressed people getting out of fancy SUV's and going in to very fancy stores and eating American style food. The fast food people have made huge inroads into Middle Eastern society. McDonalds, Burger King, Pizza Hut and Baskin Robbins were everywhere. Alan got a kick out of explaining that the kids in his college classrooms thought that Applebee's was one of the finest places you could eat. I guess when you compare it to McDonald's it does win.

I watched less football than I ever have for Thanksgiving. The only game we could find was the blowout of Green Bay over the Lions. Not much fun there. And, it was on early in the morning.

Seeing all the building going on in Qatar was simply amazing. I thought India was going great but I think Qatar has them beat. I counted 40 construction cranes at the Pearl alone, one small circle location. There are literally hundreds around the city. Dubai has proved that it isn't a bottomless pit of money out there so we'll see how it all works out.

I am now back in India and adjusting back to my simpler life style here. The streets are crowded again and the roads are rough but I am home. In another two weeks I should have a copilot and then I can go flying again. Yeah!

The picture is from Doha with Dunkin Donuts and Baskin Robbins stores side by side in a little strip mall center.

Keep in touch,

Dan

Thanksgiving Plans

I've been thinking that since I cannot fly without a copilot at the moment and since it is the holidays, I need a plan. So, I called my friends, Alan and Jennifer Montgomery, whom I met while in Pittsburgh. Alan is a professor at Carnegie-Mellon University and currently is on a teaching assignment in Doha, Qatar. That is only about a 3 and 1/2 hour flight from here. In fact, they are only two time zones away. They were thinking about coming here but then they have 6 people to travel and, at the moment, I am alone. I got on the phone today and checked and sure enough, they were staying home for Thanksgiving and Jennifer kindly invited me for dinner. I didn't have any idea what tickets might be like at the last minute but it turns out they weren't too bad if I arrived in the middle of the night. So, late Wednesday evening I will be boarding an international flight to Doha, Qatar, and spending a long weekend with Alan and Jennifer and family. The cool part is they were the ones who had the going away party for me in Pittsburgh last June so I will be reconnecting with my Pittsburgh friends, who were about the last ones I saw before I left. Alan and I had talked about getting together on the other side of the world but it was one of those things that might never happen. It probably wouldn't have except for my no-fly status at the moment. This is going to be so exciting!!

Had a nice time at the Sunday church today. The pastor there, Karl Smith, always comes up with great and thoughtful sermons. He is one of those guys who really puts a lot of thought and time into what he says up front and it definitely shows. Today he inspired me to put some kind of inspirational thought into each of my online offerings, whether it is a blog or a letter. He doesn't know that he did nor did he say anything direct, it just kind of occured to me that I would like to try it. Kind of just a thought for the day. Read and think or just ignore, whatever flips your switch. These sayings or phrases will almost always not originate with me, but are meaningful for me and I hope that they will give you pause for thought that will take you beyond the mundane, day to day thoughts that we all have. Maybe I have learned something in my life and maybe it can or will help you in some small way. If so, that would make my day, if not, then nothing is lost.

I have gotten a couple of letters from friends that are planning on getting together with family this week. Somehow, getting together at the holidays has become one of the things that we do. I remember the first Thanksgiving and Christmas that I spent in Botswana away from family in the Southern Hemisphere. With the warm weather and no family, it just seemed like any other day, so it is the relationships that make these times special. Take extra care and treasure each moment because they are so precious and few. I will be thinking about my family and where they are and what they are doing at this time. Karen will definitely be on my mind as she makes the final preparations to join me in India. I was the one who left her to clean up a lot of stuff left behind in the hurry to get over here to work. The love of a good woman is a treasure not taken lightly. My kids will also be in my thoughts. I am half a world away but thinking about them brings them closer, at least in my mind.

I hope that happiness is a big part of your days during this time of year. I will leave you with my thought for the day, which comes from another:

"When control enters a relationship, love is lost."

Wow!!

Take care and talk soon,

Dan

My New Title

Friday I was in the office and the Human Resources lady, who has her office at the airport office, came in and referred to me by a new (to me) name. They have always called me Captain Dan since I first came, since they call all of their pilots captain over here, but Friday it was Captain Dan gee. So, I was now curious what this new title that had been assigned to me was about. I asked one of the other people who spoke Hindi in the office about it and they were all saying that it was a sign of respect for like the senior guy in the outfit or the one who commands the most respect. The chief pilot and the CEO had given me a conference call the day before, asking me about my total flight hours (15,150) and my time in the Citation XLS (3000+) and time in the Citation CJ (2000+) so, after that conversation with them I think there was some discussion about me in the office since I wasn't there, that I was the high time pilot in the company. Of course, they have had my resume and total times for months but I don't think anyone paid too much attention to it until they were doing our ARGUS audit here recently and then it began to be clear. Of course, the other thing is that I am the second oldest guy in the outfit after Dhaka, who is out right now after his gallbladder surgery last week. Dhaka has me by 8 years but still I realize that I am not getting any younger here. So, I have called Karen and told her that I now would like for her to know my complete title in India so she can refer to me with the proper name - Captain Dan gee. It has a ring to it, but, as she says, this country does mess you up in many ways. Dr. McGhee was in church today again and he said the closest thing we have in English would that would equal gee is Sir. Now, since all men are looking for respect, I can now get all I need with just that title, Captain Dan gee.

It has been an interesting week as we try to rebuild the flight department and make the corrections necessary to get in line with the DGCA regulations and with our own Standard Operating Procedures. Several departures have occurred and now we are looking to hire some more pilots in order to properly staff our department. For a period of time last week I felt like I was playing a real life version of Survivor.

Fortunately, I have church on the weekends and it is a nice change of faces and venues to get my mind on other things and to be with other people at least for short periods of time. This week I have been priveleged to be with Dr. John McGhee, who is leading a public health teaching drive in Northern India for a few weeks here. He stayed with me for a few days. Then, I also had Edgar Pena, a pilot with our company, who was in Delhi for a week or so. I also met a pilot named Tom, who is a Japanese British citizen and has an American wife, so calls Seattle home. He flies a CJ2 for another company and we are thinking of putting him to work with us since his current contract is about to expire. We have recently become friends and since he is an accomplished organist we like talking about music since I was a music minor in college and loved the mathematics of music composition and also enjoy my piano, trumpet and occasional guitar. Now, one by one, the company has headed off and I am again alone. Karen is busy getting ready to come over and I still believe we will be together in a month or so.

We had another going away party last night for a departing member of our Tuesday night Bible study group. The hosting couple has the nicest house in Gurgaon, with a terrace roof that has grass and hedges and the temp was just perfect last night. Kathy, another American pilot from Austin, Texas was there. So, in lots of ways, it was kind of an informal pilot meeting on one side of the terrace. Fun!! Ricky is the departing one and he is headed back home to New Orleans. At the meeting I was again impressed with how supportive everybody is, while still calculating how long they have been in India or how long they have til they go home. Hoby, who taught the class last Tuesday is also headed home for Austin, even though he wasn't working here, he is Kathy's better half and she works hard as a pilot for another charter company here. Hoby has been through the "Emmaus Walk" program, which is quite similar to "Tres Dias", which I went through about 9 years ago in Tennessee. It has made a huge difference in Hoby's life and he is hoping to eventually bring it to India from Texas. For those of you who are wondering, it is a high intensity weekend spiritual retreat that is unlike any other retreat program that I have ever been through.

Tomorrow I have to go to church to hear a friend sing, then hurry over the the US Embassy for a Mela (kind of festival) program that will probably have US style food and entertainment. That should be a wonderful time to connect with other Americans in the area. Then, I have to leave there in order to get over to Muan's church and speak to his young adult group. Muan is a member of our Tuesday night fellowship group and he and Ricky have been here to minister to Burmese refugees in India. He wants me to come talk to his young adults but I don't have to worry about the topic since he assigned me a text to talk about that pretty much keeps me on that topic.

Now the conversation about the ex-pat pilots in India goes to an important meeting in January of next year that will determine the possible outcome. Looks now like it might be July, 2011 before we are ushered out. I still find it difficult to believe that they will have made enough preparations to go it alone, but we shall see. Now we are promised that our company will have an American component in case we have to leave India that will allow us to continue our careers in company. If that all works out, this might be my last job...........Dan

John McGhee and Edgar Visit

I am gaining weight again, this time it's because I have been eating like a King for the last few days. On Saturday my new friend, John McGhee came home from church with me and we had a great couple of days. He is a great cook and we did a store visit to buy some staples since my bachelor kitchen looked more like a convenience food outlet. Then we had the best spaghetti I have had since leaving home, where Karen's spaghetti still lingers on my tastebud memory. Then, when we were settling in to a routine of food, exercise and prayer, Edgar, my pilot buddy from the company, came to stay and now we had three people in the apartment. This seemed to confuse my househelper to no end. She wasn't sure what was going on but fortunately we had John to talk Hindi with her and kind of let her know what was going on. Edgar just laughs every time that John talks Hindi. He hasn't seen a white man talk this language and he was always just asking John to please talk to the taxi driver or talk to the maid or talk to somebody so I can watch you speak Hindi. It was like he didn't believe that a white man could actually speak this language, but we always got the desired results so it must have been working.

I haven't flown this week because the company is still working on our pilot situation for both the Citations. The XLS has no co-pilot and the CJ has no captain so it is a strange situation for me since I haven't left home without my suitcase in tow for a couple of months. I just can't afford to be caught on the other side of Delhi or something without my bag since we are charter and it can pop up. Dhaka, my XLS copilot had a gall stone so he had surgery last weekend and now the DGCA has decided that we cannot hire a pilot just for 6 weeks to replace him. That means that the plane may not fly until either Dhaka gets back or we send one of our Indian pilots to Excell copilot school. Either way it may be a couple of weeks or more till it flies and it could be as long as 5 more weeks. We are interviewing CJ captains and I believe we are going to hire one of the ex-pats whose contract was expiring and who is headed for America unless he finds a job. I have been encouraging and he has been calling. I believe we are going to hire one, if not two, CJ captains in the next few weeks.

Mardi the cat has been settling in to her new home. She is nocturnal but the most interesting part is that she used to live in a house and it was on the ground floor so she was used to being let out at night to play. Now, when she doesn't get to go outside there is a lot of yowling. I am working to turn her into a day kitty but as you know, this training of cats is a bad idea. We had one cat in Pittsburgh that Karen trained on the leash and he would walk and go places with the leash. He even had an alternate personality when he was on the leash. But this female kitty is like the female we had in Pennsylvania and she doesn't train AT ALL. When you put the leash on her to possibly go outside, she just falls down and slides with attitude. The funniest thing she does, though, is to always sleep with the covers pulled over her head. Sometimes I can't even find her because she is either in her basket in the jacuzzi or even on the bed with the bedspread or pillow case pulled over her. She has a bell on her collar or sometimes I would never find her. She loves her little games of hide and seek.

Dr. John McGhee and I did a song at Delhi church and then he did a song service in the afternoon that set the kids on fire. Too fun! They are so used to just their old songs and stuff, they always enjoy someone new coming in and leading. Since I have no guitar, no piano or trumpet here, I have been hiding my musical skills and letting the kids go. Many said it was the first time they had seen me play the piano. I did manage to unplug the electronic piano half way through the song with my other foot but we got it going again and they sounded really good a capella, too.

Hope you are having a great week. Now I am back to one guest, Edgar, as John is starting his work with the incoming instructors for his new health education programs throughout Northern India. It was interesting watching him chase the challenges of trying to put together this program, which involves many volunteers from America plus the church administration in India and the travel challenges of visas, etc. Sometimes, I think it even challenges the Almighty to work with all the India stuff.

If you look carefully at my 3rd birthday pic, you will see the little metal airplane with fold up wings that I insisted to my father I HAD to have. It took him days to find the right one because the propeller had to spin and the wings and wheels folded up. I have had this aviation bug for a long, long time. Sometimes, it takes me to interesting places.

Richest Temple in India

We flew a group of family down to Tirupati near Chennai in Southeastern India to see the world's richest temple at Tirumala. Lord Balaji is the god of prosperity and if you go there it is promised that you will be prosperous. This idea has obvious universal appeal, I mean who doesn't want to be prosperous. Anyway, this temple entertains between 60-100,000 visitors a day. Completely insane, of course, even by India standards. Our air hostess Mehak had wanted to go several times before and it just never worked out so she was all set to go and Dhaka was going to make it all possible so we all piled into the touring van and off we went up the mountain. Some people we walking up to 18 kilometers up the mountain and there are extra blessings promised for those that do. Many people have saved up their hair and then get their hair completely shaved so there were a lot of bald heads walking around. As the crowd got into the different lanes and started working their way towards the middle of the temple and the deity viewing, it got crazier and crazier. First of all, these people have no personal space requirement like American's do. I was being pushed and shoved the whole time by overweight Indians from behind. It was hard to maintain your balance and a couple of times as we got close to the god viewing the crowd was pressing so hard I was barely able to breathe at all and actually got worried about my personal safety. In order to not get separated from Mehak and Dhaka in the crazy crowd I was hanging on to Mehak for dear life from behind and one FAT Indian lady took humbrage at my behavior in the temple and gave me the evil eye. I barely noticed it but Mehak and Dhaka were laughing about it at breakfast. I said I didn't care what she thought, I just didn't want to get separated in that crazy, milling crowd. They have 12,000 temple workers there and many of them are using bullhorns to keep control of the crowds. I have never been through anything like it in my life. Just think the most crowded day you have ever experienced at Disneyworld or some amusement park and then remove the personal space requirements of us Americans. Also, remove the deodorant and bath that most of us have every day. The ONE saving grace was that there was a slight, cool breeze and it was blowing from our side of the cattle stantion. If it had been warmer or no breeze or from a different direction I believe I would have passed out and it wouldn't have mattered because the crowd would have carried me vertically right through the place. I know Karen and she has clausterphobic tendencies so she would have never made it. The bad thing is, once you are in there is absolutely no way you are going back out. The steel bars that keep you in your lane or area go all the way from floor to ceiling to keep people from cutting the line. I can see how people die in these religious journey's to the Middle East now because there were times last night when I really wasn't sure about survival. I told both my partners that they owed me coming to church with me now, no questions asked, and they both agreed that was fair. It was a once in a lifetime experience. I have never been pushed and shoved by so many heavy and stinky people for so long in all my days. It goes 24 hours a day and never stops. The Vatican has studied this temple for many years trying to figure out how to get money from people like this. This temple has documents in it that date back to 500 AD so it has been around awhile.

Too wild, and when I looked in the darkened hallway toward this Lord Balaji, it was just such a let down and so not what I thought it would be. My passengers who had made this special trip believe in the magic and donated several hundred thousand dollars towards the temple so there you go. Blessings return to those who give. We Christians have the same belief in our tithing and that it returns in spades when you give faithfully and generously.

Too bad they won't allow a camera or Blackberry anywhere on the place.

Dan

Back to flying again

Tomorrow we get back to the business of flying again. It has been almost a week as we had new rules recently more strictly enforced about using no contract pilots in our company. It's on everybody's books but seldom enforced until this week. Now, we are going to need a copilot for the Excell really quickly as Dhaka, who flies the CJ, is the only legal copilot we have right now. He was on vacation all last week and so I went to Mumbai and PASSED my FAA physical. Someone asked if there was any doubt and I have to say at my age there is always a lot of doubt about what might happen in these doctor's offices, and especially if you are in a foreign country where there is an undercurrent of getting the ex-pats out. I had always wanted my life to be settled down and somewhat boring but it seems like that always eludes me, just when I think I have it in my sights, a new challenge erupts. My stated goal is to stay in India for 4-5 years and then retire but now the DGCA, Indian Aviation authorities, may have a sayso in my future here.

I won't be losing any sleep over it but it does affect how Karen and I plan our stay here, with a somewhat less permanent feel to it than it had last year before I knew all this stuff.

I am going to a famous Hindu Temple tomorrow in Tirupati, India. It is THE most visited temple in India and therefore will be crazy busy. My co-pilot, Dhaka, called today and asked me to go the Temple with him. I said I would and then he explained that if he just went alone to pay homage, there would be a several hour wait, but since I have the white skin color and the "tourist" appearance I would be given preferential treatment to the FRONT of the line and that I could include friends to go with me. So, tomorrow I will be using my appearance to break into a line at a Hindu temple for my friend, so he doesn't have to wait. And, it's at this point that I realize that I am not in Kansas anymore, Toto.

Here's a pic with my favorite lady from church today and she didn't even know it was halloween, I bet.

Dan

Working Out

The last couple of times I was in the gym, when they saw me come in they switched to American Music for the time that I was in there. It was fun because I was working out to 'N Sync, which always reminds me of my daughter, since she was a huge fan when they first came out. Then, they put on the theme music from "Top Gun" and the "Breathless" song, just as I was feeling that way on the treadmill. I guess Tom Cruise's idea of Breathless was a little different from mind, riding the treadmill on an uphill grade at a pretty good pace. Then, it switched to the theme music from "Titanic" which Celine Deon does so well. Again, it brought back a flood of memories while I was passing the time.
The gym manager keeps asking me to take his picture and print it out since he doesn't have internet. I have become a full time photographer for him.

Mumbai here I come

Time for the twice yearly flight physical for my FAA license. I am flying to Mumbai tomorrow afternoon which is a 1:45 minute flight from Delhi. There I will be picked up by a hotel courtesy car and driven to this very nice 5-star hotel that is near the airport. From there I will have a transport of some kind, probably a taxi to the doctor's office in Mumbai. After the physical exam, it will be time to return to the airport and fly back home. All of this is paid for by my employer in order to keep track of my fitness to fly. This will be my first airline flight within India's borders so I am anxious to see what this is like and to be able to look out the windows more as we travel across this big country.
Looks like my next company flight is next Sunday and we have just had a new rule implemented that we cannot use any contract pilots for our company as per the India government ruling so now we are quickly trying to hire another captain who will possibly fly both the Citation XLS and the new Challenger 300 that is coming on line soon.
Will try to take some pics and put them up from this trip.
Dan

Happenings at the office

This week I have been at home and working in the office. The CEO is out of town and our chief pilot has been on a trip to London in the Global Express so yesterday the Executive Assistant in charge of Aviation called me to the Airport Office and said she wanted my opinion on helping her get the boss ready to make an informed presentation to the DGCA in India to help promote General Aviation and safety in India. We spent about 5 or 6 hours in the office preparing remarks and cleaning up the information so that what he says will have some relation to reality and will make sense. It is a rare opportunity to help get something done here, as sometimes I think they are stuck in the 20th Century. While I was in the office Roopali (who went to Rollins College in Orlando) and I spent quite a bit of time talking about the direction and movement within our own flight department. It was a scary time as they put so much emphasis on anything that I say and again there may be some personnel changes as a result of things that I said. I am so much less tolerant of incompetance since I have recently lost friends in a crash. But, along with those judgments, I realize that there are lives and families being affected. Fortunately, I also got to be involved in a job interview yesterday, where I was able to suggest some things that might prevent having to hire and remove someone for unsafe practices. Screening and flying with someone before hiring seems to be a foreign concept here, but now it will become a standard practice, as well as making sure that manufacturer approved Sim Training becomes a regular part of every pilot's training regimen. I just don't understand the thought process behind buying a multi-million dollar airplane and then trying to save $10,000 on the pilot training when that is the key safety element to the whole process. Somehow, the record skips on that groove, but then, I am dating myself terribly.
I am scheduled for my flight physical in Mumbai on Friday morning. My last company in Pittsburgh wouldn't even pay for the physical itself, the first company I have ever worked for that didn't do that and now in order for me to get an FAA physical, this company will fly me for 1:45 on a commercial jet, put me up overnight in a nice hotel, pay for transportation and for the physical itself, then fly me back to Delhi the next day. Kind of a nice little break and mini-vacation while visiting the good doctor. These guys get their FAA certification for doing medicals and then they serve the American pilots abroad by doing our physicals in a foreign country. I am less worried about this one than some others since I have been exercising and working out regularly, but I have no idea what my Indian diet has been doing so it will be interesting to see.
I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, but things have been going so well and continue to do so that I am just enjoying life immensely. I saw a sheet yesterday with a summary of all of our pilot information on it. I never realized it, but I am the high time pilot in the company. Our chief pilot is 3 years younger than me and since we have both been professional pilots most of our adult lives, I have him by a few hundred hours. Our retired Indian Airline pilot has about 10,000 hours. I had never really talked to these guys about their hours so I was surprised. I guess all that means is that I am getting OLD.
Go out and make it a good week. No new pics to send but I have some on my camera that will come along when I get a chance to download them in the next day or so.
Pets have been dropped as an idea because we might only be in India until next July or October, no one seems to know for sure. Karen decided it was foolish to attach ourselves when it might be for only 8 or 9 months. Probably a good idea but it will be lonely with no torturers in the house.
Dan

Pets

I misunderstood my copilot's message. He is on a vacation (called Holiday here) in Singapore and wants to bring me any kind of dogs and cats that I want. So, this morning he messaged me from Singapore and said to tell him what kind I want and he will bring them. Now, THAT'S a friend (who will bother to buy you some pets while he is on holiday) and bring them to India for you. So, I didn't really know what to say about the kitties - I just told him maybe a Russian Blue (which is a gray colored cat) and a white one with black spots. That is what the cats we had looked like and it would remind us of them. As for the dog, I didn't know what to say so I told him a Toy Poodle or a Yorkie or a Pekinese. I would like a Bichon Friese again but I don't know if they have them in Singapore. We'll see what he comes up with. He said he would keep the animals for us when we leave India - WOW! I guess bringing them from there is much easier than from the USA and especially for an Indian family. Now the housekeeper will have something to do!!!

Talk to you later.............Dan

Week in review

It's been an interesting week, I will have to say. We started out by flying over the weekend and then again on Monday. I had my friend in town and then after one day off it got busy again with a long day and then an interesting day. Friday was a trip to Chandigarh, which is a joint use military base and always requires lots of radio communication in order to get in there. I had a contract pilot for the day but he is retired Indian Air Force and used to be base commander here so he was talking on the radio to all his buddies in their language. Once on the ground we went to visit one of his Air Force buddies and his family. The son is quite brilliant and had one year of study at Stanford University in the USA all paid for by scholarships and grants. He now works for Barclay's bank out of London and is in the process of being transferred to Tokyo. He was home for Diwalli for the first time in 7 years and is only 24 years old. Really nice kid and fun to talk with. The airport was supposed to close at 8 p.m. we had been told we would be spending the night in town if we weren't airborne by 8 so that's what I told my boss. We had brought in the Chief Minister for the Indian State of Haryana, along with Mr. Jindal and they were going to a political meeting so when I called at 7:45 to see how they were doing I was informed that they had put in a special request and the airport would remain open until we left, thank you. I am learning quickly how India really works.

I went to the Gurgaon SDA church today for the first time and it's really just a home church that takes place at the ADRA (Adventist Development and Relief Agency) headquarters, which is a lovely, big home in a nice section of Gurgaon. I had first visited here only a couple of weeks after I first arrived in Delhi with Richard from the US Embassy, when we went for the drive in his car, exploring all over the place. Interestingly, they are looking for a pastor and tried to recruit me on the spot but I had to tell them that I would not be there half the time and it would just be very disappointing after I let them down so many times when I was out of town. I imagine it will provide some very good teaching and preaching opportunities if I do decide to attend their regularly. There is Paulo Lopes and his wife from Brazil and Carlos Lopes and his wife from Portugal, so the place should be having services in Portuguese but they do it in English so the rest of us know what's going on. Paulo has a 13 year old son who goes to one of the schools here in Gurgaon. When church was over the Portuguese family offered me a ride home and I told everybody that I needed someone who spoke Hindi to talk to my taxi driver and let him know what was going on. This 13 year old Brazilian kid takes the phone out of my hand and speaks perfect Hindi to my taxi driver. I was SO JEALOUS. I wish my mind could absorb and learn like that.

Our flight department has been kind of quiet for the last two weeks as our new American CEO is in Canada and America for a month, taking some class and seeing about the delivery of our new Global Express 5000 that is coming in November I am told. My boss asked me if I would like to fly this plane, which of course I would, but it may not be possible in India as they require that captains have at least 100 hours of Pilot In Command time before being certified in India. I could get about 10-15 hours in the Simulator which would count and probably about another 20 flying to India, but that still leaves me short so we'll see what comes of it. Kind of frustrating to have everything in place and then the Indian government steps in to stop the program.

It is getting scary here because I have stopped taking pictures of the cows and other animals in the road already. I knew this was going to happen!! It's also scary because my India flights are getting routine, which means that I have adjusted already to a very messed up ATC and government program. In 5 more days I will have been in India for 4 months and I still don't have my airport pass so I am treated like a passenger on my own flights. It's in someone's drawer, waiting for rupees.

Karen has me on a pet purchase program and I have one of the pilots who called and says he has kitties and a dog for me so I may go get them in the next couple of days. Now the housekeeper will have more to do!!

Later - Dan

Back to work

You remember that let down feeling after company leaves?? Well, it's worse when you are living alone overseas. My friend Ron was here yesterday and we really made a day of it. I took a taxi up to the Shangri-La and enjoyed their amazing breakfast buffet. I met another crew member from his Continental plane that is an SDA and lives in New Jersey. That was very cool. We took the time and I got permission with the help of my support staff to go to my airplane at the Delhi airport and take a tour. There were a few rupees that changed hands to keep everybody happy but this is the first time that I have been able to take someone to see the plane. Security is so tight and it's such an operation to go there that I don't try this often. After the airport and airplane tour we made our way down to my city, Gurgaon, and went out to a nice TGI Fridays that they have there. Then on down to my apartment, where we could both get a nap. Poor Ron comes over here and tries to stay on his West Coast USA time schedule so he stays awake all night and tries to sleep in the daytime. Now that I live in Delhi, I am always trying to get him to do something entertaining while here. I even got him to go with me to my small group from the Sunday church that meets on Tuesday night. He had positive things to say about that after we were done and he got to see a very international Christian group last night. After the meeting I went in his taxi back to Delhi to take him home and then back to my place. By the time I got home last night I was really tired of riding around in a taxi all day long. These are not big, comfortable SUV's or anything so it's quite a ride sometimes.

I have had several families or people approach me at the airport in my flying uniform and ask me how I like India. I am always positive and tell them that I really like the nice people and the beautiful countryside and bright colors. I like the food and then I tell them that the roads are awful and they look at me like I must be nuts or something. I guess if this is all you have ever had, you cannot understand an Interstate that you can travel at 70-75 MPH on for hours at a time without dodging cattle, people, scooters, bumps, large road repair projects, etc. My friends from the US Embassy just got back from their European vacation and said the part they enjoyed the MOST was just taking the rental car on the open highway and driving without fear of car destruction by many different processes. I can't wait to see Karen's reaction when we take a taxi into Delhi and experience their wonderful roads and traffic. I am going to have to put her in handcuffs so that the taxi driver lives to see another day - ha!!

I flew on Monday and then tagged around all day yesterday with my uniform in the trunk in a a suitcase in case the cell phone rang but we got away with a whole day off and now today I am also able to be at home and relax. Nice.

Our aviation CEO is in Canada or America and our chief pilot is in London via Abu Dhabai and Beirut so we had a couple of issues that needed their attention and I just had to deal with it. Sometimes, international flying is just an adventure, that's all you can say.

Here's a pic of our day. Chat soon. Dan

After Diwali

This will be very short. We have been flying a lot recently, this is like the holiday season in America here. I had a nice, longer trip to Ranchi, India again today. Then, I got a message from my friend Ron, who flies for Continental and he is getting a couple of extra days this time so I am going to eat breakfast with him at his nice hotel in Delhi and then bring him back down to see where I live and work here. Should be a great day. I will sit down and add some pictures and thoughts again after things settle down.
Got my Internet working only with a cable tonight. Someone set something on my wireless and it won't pick up at home now. I'll get it figured out. But, at least I can chat with Karen again.
Taking lots of pictures everywhere I go so you will start to see those really soon.

Dan

New Camera Toy

After years of putting it off because of educational bills and lots of other expenses, I have broken down and bought a new Canon 1000D Digital SLR camera. It's not a professional format camera but it has lots of features and 10 megapixel clarity, along with the ability to attach lots of different lenses and to do all the things that you digital camera buffs know about.

Just over 10 years ago I had gone to a hawk shop in Billings, Montana and bought a nice Mamiya SLR with lots of lenses and attachments, a motor drive and all. It takes great pictures and puts them right on your choice of film. That was okay 12 years ago but I have always wanted a nice SLR digital since they first came out. Now everything dad and I used to do together in the darkroom out in the garage, plus a whole lot more, you can do sitting in full daylight on your computer screen. I am sure dad would just be amazed if he were still here.

I will attach a few photos here but I have sent out invitations to my Picasa web album and this new camera is going to send a lot higher quality and that means more memory and bigger files so I won't send as many on my blog since I know many of you are still getting stuff via DSL phone lines. That's all I have here and so I feel for you, especially coming from Pittsburgh, where we had cable internet that was pretty fast. Some of my friends have fiber optic and I guess I have envy about that, too. You can get internet garbage so quickly that way - ha!!

Karen is back home, feeling lonely since the cats have gone to Tennessee with her son, Jeremy. He called to say Jupiter was already exploring and since I know his photographic memory, he will be upset as soon as he programs the new house and somebody has the audacity to move anything. Jeremy was setting up the Cat Tree, which Karen insisted had to go with the kitties to give them a familiar sense of home and something to climb on. He got it set up quickly and things are going fine. Apparently Marsy has been shortened to Mars and so it will be Jupiter and Mars. She likes women and always favored Karen, except when I had kitty treats or when the laptop was on my lap and then she slept on my legs. Maybe it put out heat, I don't know. But, after a couple of days of hiding under the bed, she has climbed out and slept under the covers with Teresa, Jeremy's other half. I knew when she got hungry or thirsty enough she would get over her separation anxiety and form up with somebody. Kitties are getting happier now, Karen is missing the meowing under the bedroom door each night and then the constant attention demanding by all the animals. As my friend Roy said, "Dan, this is a BIG MOVE."

Yesterday I found out that the DGCA, the civil aviation authorities in India have decided to rescind my ability to fly the CJ2. This is because it was originally registered under the wrong company. I think it was an honest mistake but it may have been intentional because they really don't allow ex-pat pilots to fly for more than one company at a time. Our Citation XLS is registered to our parent company, Jindal Steel. That's who my original license (called a FATA) was done with. When we added the CJ a month or so later, it was done under Jindal but then our company called for an Argus Audit and they found out that our CJ belongs to IndiaFlySafe, which is our charter company. This meant that my FATA had to be redone and I went in to the DGCA last week to make application for this. A committee met sometime and decided to reject having me fly for two companies since this isn't really allowed here. So, my life just got easier, flying only one jet, but the company isn't really happy about the government decision. If it stays like this, they are going to have to take one of the copilots from the CJ and assign him to me on the XLS because right now Dhaka is the only other CJ captain and he was flying a lot with me on the XLS in order to get certified as a captain on it. He needs 100 hours of supervised flight with a qualified captain (me). We were looking forward to this but now that is trash since if I am out on the XLS, he will need to be here to be ready for CJ flights.

There is still debate in India Aviation government circles as to when they are going to kick all the ex-pat pilots out of India. It was supposed to happen next July, 2010 but now I have seen a letter which said they were having a meeting on the 14th of Oct, where the topic was going to be discussing this issue and a recommendation to have us all gone by October, 2010. No one bothered to explain this to me when I was thinking about coming over here. So, after all my plans to be here for 4 or 5 years and retire, I may have to come home in one year from now. I hope that this all changes, as I am settling in and enjoying it here. Who knows what the outcome will be and I can't worry about it because it just takes all your energy. As Dhaka told me the other day, "Dan, if you can fly in India, you can fly anywhere, because they make it so darn difficult here."

I want to take a moment and put in a shameless plug for my cousin, Dr. Kenneth Clifford. He is a dentist in Northern California. He has taken that Clifford mechanical ingenuity and applied it to dentistry in a very interesting way. He has helped push the development of a Fixed Bridge Denture Replacement System or Mini Dental Implants. Please go to his website: http://www.kenclifford.com/ and see if you might have a patient, friend or relative who could benefit from these. Ken and my father never met a mechanical challenge that they weren't up to. I remember my father sitting at the dining room table with his Leica camera spread all over the table and mother remarking that it would never shoot another picture. Dad took it apart, cleaned and lubricated it, and put it back together. It worked for many more years. He never knew what was wrong but fixed it anyway. I have seen Ken's father, Larry, with Volvo's and VW's spread all over the garage. Cool mechanical ideas can work in dentistry, too.

Here's some photos.

Dan

Wednesday, October 14

I am home in Gurgaon today and have already had breakfast, worked out in the gym and am contemplating whether to try an outing to the camera store or not. Yesterday when I went to the Plaza Mall, where the Canon store is, I was told that the mall didn't open till 4:30 p.m. I was amazed at that but you have to remember that it's Diwali (pronounced Divalli) season here, which is the Hindu equivalent of Christmas, with lots of parties and lights and celebrations. I have been told that the actual day this year is Oct. 17th, so things should settle down a little bit after that. I will take some pictures of the lights just from my apartment balcony, it does look a lot like Christmas and the company driver that picked me up yesterday brought what I guess is the corporate Diwali gift for the year of a new set of sheets for my King Size bed and a very nice blanket to help make it through the cold weather months just ahead. I have to admit that I am loving the weather here this time of year, the nights are cooling off a little and the days are very nice until mid-afternoon, when it still gets quite warm. I can wait outside for my company driver or taxi without melting down into my shoes like last July.
Yesterday we flew up to Hisar again, where my boss's mother lives and where she just ran for re-election to political office. I don't know what the outcome is yet, but she should do just fine, I believe. She is a very humble and kind lady. I thought you guys would get a kick out of the little ambulance that waits at the airport each time we come and go. If we actually did need an ambulance at the airport I am not sure I would want a ride in this thing. I think they would have to fold you in half just to get you to the hospital and the ride on India road would surely do more damage than the accident itself, but this vehicle and the fire truck come rolling out every time we come in. There are always lots of people at the airport and it makes for an entertaining day to go in there. There is the tea/coffee guy bringing drinks to the pilots, the local flight instructor who comes out to talk with us and the bright eyed flight students who are overawed by this private jet flying into their airport.
Got a call, gotta go do a taxi test after maintenance. Talk to you again soon. Delhi Dan

Pele's Going Away Party

So, there's the party photos. Not very good, but hey a Blackberry's all I got right now and the flash is very weak. What I couldn't show with this little camera is the beautiful top balcony that has a lawn on it and the awesome view from up there. Everyone was so nice and it was just a great group of people to hang out with for an evening. We feel so isolated and alone, a few Christians from around the world in India, surrounded by a culture and religion that seems so different and intriguing.

The Sunday flight involved just flying for about an hour to Hisar, India and back. We were there only long enough to have lunch and relax at the company guesthouse for a couple of hours. They always treat us like VIP's so that is so different from the USA where pilots are treated like Chaffeurs. It is so nice to have help in the back of the plane to interface with the passengers, whether they be charter customers or our own people. It just makes things go smoother.

Flew yesterday and am flying tomorrow so some economies are doing well.

Sunday Flight

I should know better than to answer my phone on the weekend. Early out on Sunday for an all day trip but at least home tonight.
Had a nice day at church yesterday and a relaxing afternoon. Didn't get to see any kitties and for a sad reason. Edgar, who was just here with me, had an accident with the Caravan in Raigahr, where he has been based for the last year. I haven't talked with him yet but at least no one was even hurt, although the Caravan now has no landing gear or belly pod. For one thing, they should have given him more rest here before he was asked to fly.
The investigators have gone down to see about it all-so hard because Edgar just got his contract renewed and was looking forward to this next year of flying. Since Dhaka was going to fly the investigators down there, that cancelled our visit and look at kitties plan. I am just so thankful no one was hurt. Airplanes can be fixed and replaced-I have lost enough friends to last a lifetime, although I don't blame airplanes any more than you would blame a car for a friend's auto death. We accept certain risks because of the convenience that comes with it. If we didn't, we would never get out of bed in the morning.
Karen said to communicate that she would be doing better with everything but we are biochemical beings and chemistry is sometimes who we are-like it or not! By the time you read this the animals should be riding happily in the car to McMinnville, Tennessee, where they will live until we get back. Jeremy loves cats more than I do and they love him so they should be happy-especially since he has a nice salt water aquarium full of fish!
My power supply for my modem quit so we'll see how long it takes for me to find one. Until then---this off my Blackberry.
Dan

Looking for animals and cameras

This weekend is going to be dedicated to finding some kitties for the house and a good camera for Dan. A friend says there are some kittens that I can go look at. If they are cute enough, they will have a new home. And, because I need a NICE camera and have had camera envy for the last few years since the good SLR digitals came out, I am now going to make the investment.
Stayed home this week as we had several company meetings and one of our planes has been down for maintenance. That made it easy for me and it's a good thing because I had a pretty intense cold there for a few days. It's mostly over now and I am feeling much better - and, it wasn't the swine flu - ha! Interestingly, my son in California has a cold at the same time, must have been a genetic cold.
Had a going away party with my Tuesday night study group for Pele from Australia. Just a great guy and one of my favorite people since I came to India. He says I have an open invitation to come see him in Brisbane!! Karen and I actually have Australia on our list so we'll be there eventually!
The weather is getting so much nicer here. Just amazing how much better it feels in the early morning especially, but the going away party last night was on the roof of our friends very nice home. What a place - it must have at least 6000 sq ft and the terrace up on top has lots of yard and a hedge. I asked Cindy about the mowing up there and she admitted they are a two lawn mower family so they have one for the real yard and one for the yard up top. Anyway, last night looking out over the skyline of Gurgaon and the beautiful sky was really a nice evening and the temperature was perfect.
Back home Karen tells me that when they went into town to register the car, the notary place they went was the same guy who answered the AAA call the other night when she was stranded and out of gas. He said the story of the "crazy woman" who was out putting out yard sale signs at 2 in the morning and then ran out of gas (although she thought it was other problems at the time) had been making the rounds in the local businesses and bars. He did admit to falling back asleep after AAA first called and that's why it took over 2 hours for her to be rescued. So, not only did she sit in the truck from 2-4 a.m. but she had to go potty the whole time and now she finds out the guy just fell asleep and then came back and told her story to the whole town. She is just loving Western Pennsylvania at the moment. I thought it was pretty funny so it's good that I am 9 and 1/2 time zones away so no bodily harm occurs on this one.
I did have something new and funny happen this week. I have a nice little mall about 5 blocks away from where I live and its and easy walk through a pretty nice neighborhood to get there but when I first come out of my apartment complex, there is a dirt road that crosses an open field and there are usually construction workers and animals, etc, as I cross this field. On this day there were also several large cows that were just hanging out, eating the grass and looking for whatever food they could find. I had gone to the store for groceries and was walking back across the field towards my apartment carrying several bags of food when one of the smarter cows started moving in a triangulation move to cut me off before I got to the gate into the apartment complex. At first I thought it was just an accident then I saw this cow really cornering me with her nose headed right for the grocery bag!! When the natives standing there working in the field saw their cow headed for me and the food they began to shoo the cow away from me but it wanted FOOD and was not going to be dissuaded. I was laughing so hard at this industrious cow I almost dropped the bag, but these Indians were seriously yelling at the aggresive cow and I had to hurry through the walkthrough gate holding my bags high to keep that large, wet nose from invading my grocery bag. It was a hugely comical moment for me because I just never imagined in this life that I would be protecting my new groceries from a cow in the field who apparently knew exactly what was in the bag and wanted it worse than I did. See what an adventure I am on, I can't even get from the store to the house without an aggresive cow trying to grab my groceries. And, the people that were yelling at the cow were several men and women working on moving some dirt and bricks for construction. The men were doing nothing while the women were putting huge loads of dirt and bricks on their heads using a round platform that's about two feet across and balanced on their heads using a cloth donut that helps them keep it balanced. I can see the look on Karen's face the first time she gets over here and sees the guys loafing and the women working heavy physical labor like that.
Us American men have just sold ourselves out I guess, not really sure what happened - ha!!

Karen's battles

While I am enjoying the cooler weather and the house help at my nice apartment in Gurgaon, Karen got left behind to take care of all my stuff. There has been a lot going on at home and she gets to do it all by herself. She says its probably a good thing that I am half way around the world so that I cannot be hurt. She says hormones are part of what is making her feel like doing physical harm to me! A regular move is stressful, you can imagine what a move to the other side of the world is like.
To further clarify the yard sale idea, the paper never did get the information right. First they had messed up the street and then they didn't correct the date, so it was messed up from start to finish. Because she had to rent the pavilion twice to do the sale, she worked a deal with the lady to do some weedeating around the pavilion after it was all over instead of paying another $100. This turned into a major operation with her being given a large, heavy weedeater and this 7 foot tall ornamental grass was tough and hard to get at. Three hours later, with a sore back, sore legs, sore arms and not being used to physical labor and completely exhausted, she was done. But that night she woke up in the middle of the night with her fingers so swollen she had to hurriedly take her rings off and her fingers are still misshapen!
On the positive side, we had a hearing a couple of weeks ago about my filing for unemployment after my employer cancelled my health insurance at the beginning of the last month that I worked there. I thought that was uncalled for so I filed unemployment and got paid for the last two weeks of June, during which I had told him I was around and available for trips but didn't get called. They sent our dispatcher to the hearing and Karen thought it was going to go completely against us because of the questions and attitudes of the hearing officers but then we got a letter saying that they had ruled in our favor - yahoo!! Now she is thinking about investigating their cancellation of my health insurance for my last month of employment. I know times are tough but this seemed like such a petty thing so if it was illegal, that might come into play.
She just heard from her son who has arrived in Pittsburgh and will be around for the weekend. The animals are feeling the impending changes mightily. They are all clingy and demanding more than the ordinary amount of attention. Their lives are about to change for awhile.
My friend Edgar got the welcome back to India treatment today. First, they made him get up at 3:30 a.m. to catch an early flight which is to a city where they have to fly a private plane in to pick him up for the last little flight to our private airport near the steel mill in Raigahr. I got up and saw him off this morning and he caught his flight and then waited all day for them to come pick him up. He was supposed to be doing test flying today. So, he was at Raipur all day just waiting for transportation when he could have been up here in Delhi catching up on his sleep at my apartment and relaxing instead of just killing time waiting for a ride. Sometimes, it just amazes you the ways that things can get messed up over here.
His driver has called me twice today because he thinks my phone is Edgar's phone. I had to check with dispatch because I thought I might have a flight when the driver called saying he was picking me up quite early this morning. Of course all of this is conducted in HindiEnglish with lots of repeats and misunderstandings. Then, after explaining it all this morning and giving the driver the correct phone number, he called me back this evening saying he would be picking me up in the morning again. Learning is not occuring here!!! Edgar was fit to be tied when I called to tell him that his driver kept calling me. The flying is fun - the rest of this stuff can keep you challenged at times!!
One of my best friends from Bible study group on Tuesday nights just quit his very good paying job and is returning to Australia because his boss told him he couldn't talk about Christianity at the workplace. Being a principled guy, he was quite emotional last Tuesday as he shared that he made the decision and was walking away in faith!! Pele, you are the man!