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