Dan's blogspot Post #1

For those of you who have been following my emails and photos, this is my first attempt to do a blog and then you can see my more frequent updates and photos anytime that's convenient for you.
I have been waiting for over two weeks to hear whether I passed my written exam in India. Yesterday (Thursday, Oct. 1) they called and said that I had cleared my exams. I guess that is Hindi English for saying that I passed. Now I can proceed to fly without having to spend a lot of my spare time studying the Air Regulations for India. There have been several pilots over the years from foreign countries that have come to me in America for help in getting their US pilot's licenses. It is so much simpler and only requires that you fly with them very briefly to establish that they can do what they claim. Based on a short flight, you can take them to any FAA Flight Standards District Office and get their USA pilot's license issued. It takes all of about an hour. I have spent more time than that just filling out applications and turning in passport photos and fees to qualify for my Indian pilot's license. In fact, this whole thing is still just a temporary license that lasts a couple of years. They say that if I want to fly permanently here that I will have to take the complete Airline Transport Pilot's License Exam, which is very, very hard to pass here and that still expires every two years. Someday, I think India will be forced into the 21st Century. For now, they are still playing with leftover British rules from the 30's and 40's and they like it.

Had several trips this week and again flew some High Ministers from the Indian government. It's always amazing how many people are following and getting in on the action with these individuals. Always a good show to watch. We were again able to make this person very happy and so they should fly again with us soon. My boss is getting very excited about the possibilities of all the charter flying that we are tapping into. He has proposed to the Director General of Indian Aviation that I become a check airman for our company on the two Citations that we operate (CJ2 and Excell XLS). He is also asking that I be given permission to give type checkrides in India in both airplanes. It's rare for ex-pats to be given this type of permission so we'll see how it plays out. Once I do get approval, it should give me a chance to really help train and qualify local pilots to do a good job and to be safe in their operations.
We did fly to a new place this week - Ranchi, India. It's down towards Kolkutta and was about a 90 minute flight from Delhi. We did get a brief glimpse of the Himalayas over on the horizon. That was fun but the best part was when we were driving around town I saw my first Indian Elephant on the road. He was huge, too. I had always thought that the Indian elephant was not as big as the African elephants I used to see while working in Botswana, but this one was built for work and he looked like he could move a building if necessary.

The XLS continues to be a great airplane. This one is very healthy and works very well. No lingering issues like there are on the CJ2, where we have grounded the plane because of intermittent issues with the Anti-skid and Angle of Attack system. They are both acting funny and so, after some evaluation, I talked to the other captain and we wrote it up so it will get some much needed attention and hopefully will be working better in the future.

Many changes taking place in the airport office. Stay tuned.