Thank Goodness!!

This is Adam Montgomery! Adam came all alone from Pittsburgh via Qatar to visit us for a few days. How great it was to have his company. Adam is the teenage son of our friends from Pittsburgh, Alan and Jennifer Montgomery. Adam wanted to come visit us in India and we were all to happy to have him come. There is always the enthusiasm of youth that comes with a visit from a teenager. Adam came at 5 in the morning and so we picked him up, drove into downtown Delhi to the Shangri-La Hotel and had a wonderful breakfast before coming back home and letting him get what all teenagers covet - sleep!!! And, since I had to go flying that very day, Adam and Karen dropped me at the airport and then, while I flew off into the wild, blue yonder, they continued on to the house. While Adam was in town, I took him out to the airport to see the plane that I fly and since he had never gotten up to see a Citation Excell while I was in Pittsburgh, this gave him a chance to see one. He got kind of excited about all the buttons and controls but when asked if he wanted to be a pilot he said he would rather be the one who chooses the destinations. Anyway, we had a great visit with Adam and even set it up for him to take a driving tour to the Taj Mahal which he said was worth it when he got back. We were also able to do a Delhi tour day, which was kind of warm but still interesting as we toured a lot of the historical sights around Delhi which locals never take time for. Adam had just been to Kenya and Tanzania this summer and had climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro with several of his classmates from the American school in Qatar, plus he has been to Hong Kong and also to China to see the Great Wall so now, with the Taj Mahal to his credit, this kid is getting around the world.

Last week we had a brief scare as Karen went in for a routine mammogram and they ended up not liking a lump they saw in one of her breasts. This is always scary stuff but we got a recommendation for a good doctor to do the biopsy and it came back benign so we are very greatful for our blessings!! The most amazing part was that we were constantly talking directly to her doctors about everything, including driving directions to the offices and hospitals. It is just so different to call the doctor directly on their cellphone and have them pick up in the middle of the day and give your driver directions to the office or to give you a report directly about what is going on with your reports. And, even though we have paid cash the entire time, the largest bill we have seen was for the doctor at the biopsy clinic and included the doctor visit and all the reports and included the biopsy fees and it was less than $100 USD. We are always incredulous at these medical amounts since we are so used to sticker shock. The hospitals and clinics have all been new and clean and well-recommended, so far we are very impressed and happy. Oh, and Karen put off a root-canal and some bondings she was going to have until this other thing settled down, but all that dental work was going to be less than $80 USD, so the dentist was telling me as I prepared for price shock that we were in India and dental and medical was still affordable. I have routing cleanings done for $30, so that seems very fair to me.

This monsoon has been a far cry from last year. Last year it didn't even seem like much rain at all and the storms were few and far between. This year has been a totally different story, with lots of storms and rain and wind. We have almost gotten used to a big thunderstorm every afternoon, which keeps the flying very interesting as you dodge around all the storms. Some of the trips have been really delayed on our arrival back into Delhi. The other day we were coming back from Ranchi, which should have been about 1:20 trip and it turned out to be over 2:00 in the air, plus a long taxi back in. As I stated before, I have never taxiied so much in my life as we go for miles to reach the active runway here and then taxi a few miles to get back to our ramp. Those should shorten up a bit when we get our middle runway open again. It has been closed for a couple of months for renovation before the Commonwealth Games. The biggest thing I have noticed this year around Delhi, though, is the incredible amount of greenery around the city, with all the rain. Karen can't even recognize a lot of the open fields and stuff from before, where it was just dust and dirt and now it is tall with green plants and grass, etc. The roads, of course, have been suffering mightily and it will take months to rebuild some of them. Sohna Road, which is the main artery running near our apartment complex, is just a complete mess and traffic has been so slow with all the potholes and half the road covered with water all the time. Our monsoon should be ending now, but they say this year it might still have a couple of weeks left in it. Wow, everything is so green everywhere I fly in India from the air. It just looks like a different country from what I was seeing last year everywhere I went. I will have to say that I prefer it when it's green but my glasses end up fogging over for a couple of minutes every time I get out of the car since they run lots of air-conditioning and, then, when I get out, instant fog until the glasses warm up a little bit. But, I will still take the air, and lots of it, please.

We have lots of company coming in the near future. I already got a note from Dr. John McGhee, from Washington state, and he is in country and I will see him at Delhi SDA church tomorrow. He has a week's worth of meetings and then will come to stay with us for a few days while doing some work around this area. With his great musical skills and leadership abilities, it is always good to see him for a catch-up visit. Then, in early November, we have company from Tennessee coming to visit, Dr. Tim Jennings, M.D. I have personally invited Tim to come and make some weekend presentations in New Delhi, both at our SDA church on Saturday and the Delhi International Christian Fellowship church on Sunday. It's very difficult to promote over here as, if they think you are going outside your own congregation, they require you to have a missionary visa and that's a little more difficult than just a tourist visa, but we plan to keep it within the confines of the congretations, so it should be no trouble.

I am so excited about this since Tim is a psychiatrist and Delhi is such a stressful place. I just see a tremendous potential for an incredible ministry here if it all works out. Plus, Tim is bringing his wife with him and so they are going to do some touring around. I love to see people's reactions to the incredibly different culture here. Tim was commenting on how difficult the visa process is here, even worse than China, he says.

Speaking of India government issues, the DGCA has finally decided that I cannot be a check airman for longer than a month unless I have been a check airman in the USA, which I have never tried, nor been asked to do. So now I am going to find out if you can actually request to be a check airman, based on experience and need, from another country, and have something come of it in the USA. I have a favorite person at FlightSafety who is working on that issue for me right now. I suppose it's possible that I may have to go back to the USA and give someone a checkride while the FAA watches and then they can officially pronounce me an official check airman there, which will mean that I can continue to do it here. We went to the DGCA offices today in Delhi and drove two hours in traffic, plus waiting for a couple of hours in the office before being told that this wasn't going to happen in it's present state. They made a short exception in order for us to be able to get a lot of our own checkrides out of the way and then other people saw my name on the list and started asking for checkrides so that was the brief fun before we found the new program. I believe the company will want me to pursue whatever I have to do to make this happen, even renting a simulator outright for a couple of hours in order to do a checkride for someone. This should be interesting!!

The roadside visuals have been incredible with all this rain. The cows continue to rule the roads and so, between the puddles, lakes and cattle, the roads continue to be a very interesting place to travel. My drivers call the road near my house Danger Road, and that is just so true.

Karen and I had been fighting bad cases of Delhi belly for almost two weeks. Mostly it's over now and we are just still weak and dehydrated from dealing with that. With all the rain and dampness this, everyone says that the food supply is dangerous and the water isn't safe so we may have gotten sick from our own water but whatever it was, we don't want that again. Activated charcoal tablets and immodium seem to do the trick. After a couple of weeks of discomfort, we are just proud to have normal bathroom action. You know what I mean!!

Take care everyone and we'll chat again soon,

Dan and Karen

Karen's back

Hi everybody,

Karen is back and so life is getting back to normal around here. I got up at 3:30 a.m. on Tuesday morning and went to meet her flight. It was as this point that I realized that it was going to be over 2 hours late. She had tried to notify me but there is no communication from Abu Dhabi and that's where her flight was coming from. Neither of our cell phones have worked in that place. But, we finally found each other at the new Delhi airport, at the new terminal 3. They have just completed this whole, new international airport complex in time for the Commonwealth Games and it is nice. The sad part is, they won't let you go inside to wait, even for a cup of coffee or anything, because of security concerns, so we waited outside. When I say we, I mean that my driver was somewhere waiting for us to call him that we were ready and I was waiting alone, with about 500 other people, for relatives to come through the door and then, for them, the trip was over.

Karen was amazingly chipper and well-rested, probably due to first and business-class travel this time on Etihad Airlines, which does a wonderful job. The sad part was, after a very nice breakfast at the Leela Kapinski, the nicest hotel in town, we had to go home, change clothes, and then head immediately for the Ministry of Home Affairs to renew her visa. I knew this would involve a lengthy wait in the heat and without really knowing what was going on. It did manage to take most of the day and then, about 1:30 they told us to come back around 5 p.m. I had gone through this before. They finally, about 6 p.m., hand out a bunch of sealed envelopes that you cannot open, but must take over to the Foreign Regional Registration Office, this most hated of Indian government offices, as it involves long and complicated waits to get served rudely. So, after our first full day of standing outside in 100+ degree temps, we headed out for our second day of waiting in long lines at the FRRO. I had two checkrides scheduled for this day at 11:30 a.m., so I had to go in my uniform, which was very hot. We stood outside in line for almost 2 hours and then, finally, just before a total meltdown, we were allowed inside, where there were more lines and finally, the dreaded man at the front desk. He was satisfied with our paperwork, except for the fact that I hadn't realized that they took all copies of Karen's passport and visa at the Ministry of Home Affairs the day before, so he needed those. I literally ran across the busy street with Karen in tow and we got the three copies needed for 3 rupees (6 cents) and headed back across the street, handed in her papers, and were told that everything was fine, we should return for her visa extension on Monday, the 6th of September. What a relief!! Only two days in the burning heat and she could now go home and relax and try to get into the right time zone, which is always more difficult coming this direction, I think.

Meanwhile, I had these two looming checkrides, so the driver hurried me to the airport and dropped me off, while Karen went home to catch up on her sleep. To try and describe what has been happening since I became an examiner on the Citations in this country is difficult. The director of aviation for another company had called me and asked me if I could just charge them the money and sign the guys off without flying with them. This is so much the local attitude, but of course, I explained that I couldn't do this and we should schedule the two checkrides, which could be done together but still needed to be done. It was explained to me that the chief pilot for this company was related to someone at the DGCA, so if I needed any help with issues or had problems, it would be a good connection to have. I appreciated this, but it still didn't negate the checkrides and so, after dropping Karen off, I began my first ride in someone else's airplane since I came to India 14 months ago. The whole process was interesting because I was treated like a King by this company since they needed my signoff to continue flying here. They even sent a person to personally walk me through security to make sure there were no glitches and then, to my surprise, when I arrived at the airplane, their air hostess was onboard, just to serve food and soft drinks to me. All of my requests and questions were treated with the utmost respect and attention, it was just so interesting. We flew to Jaipur, about 30 minutes away and then did a full ILS approach, with the captain losing the autopilot and flight director just as we intercepted the localizer (too bad). The landing gear was a little recalcitrant but the copilot finally coaxed it down and we landed and taxied back. I explained that we would be taking off and then losing an engine right as the gear came up, but would continue and fly to a holding pattern, then followed by the engine shut down checklist (engine still running) and completing a single-engine approach and landing. That all went well until we attempted to lower the landing gear and this time it would not come down. I have been flying Citations for 25 years and this was the first time that we were going to exercise the emergency gear extension for real. Once the captain figured out how hard to pull the emergency gear extension handle, the gear came down and we blew the bottle to lock it into position. Three green gear lights looked mighty pretty at this point and we were still flying the Instrument Approach, so it was a busy time but the pilot handled it well. Now, we had to send one of the crewmembers up to the tower to pay the fees for landing here and for ATC, so we sent him up and while he was doing that, I got fed again. Then, we had to fly our fixed-gear Citation back to Delhi and try to fit in with all the big jets while having our landing gear down and locked. To make matters more interesting, there were a lot of thunderstorms around and so we ended up circumnavigating a lot to get back. It's amazing how much extra air noise there is when the gear is down for the whole flight. We got back and turned the aircraft over to maintenance, who had the same thought I did, that the landing gear switch itself had decided to quit on this day. So, checkride was completed and two pilots were very happy, while I was very tired and just glad to be back on the ground with wheels - yeah!! I went home and found Karen had been sleeping most of the day because she is 9 and 1/2 time zones out of whack and it just takes time to make this up. I always find it easier to travel West towards America then it is to travel East back to India. My body clock has always been this way and I think I would function better on a 25 hour day because it just works well for me. Going East, I always feel like a zombie for a few days, no matter what I do. Anyway, this was my first month of giving checkrides and since I am the only Citation XLS check airman in India, I think just that part of my life will be very busy. The guys I have been giving rides to are always so nice and they love that I have flown this aircraft for so long and understand the systems and the navigation boxes. They say that typically the DGCA guys don't know anything about general aviation jets and so much of what they talk about isn't relevant. So far, my boss says I have been getting rave reviews of my checkrides and cover material so that really makes me feel good. I never dreamed that I would be doing this but it does make me feel like I am making an important contribution to aviation safety, as it relates to private jets, in India.

Again, I never know how long I will be allowed to stay here. The expat pilot conversations vary from don't worry about this at all to there is a pilots union that is working very hard to remove all the expats by next July and it could happen earlier. So, I have resolved in my mind to enjoy this for as long as I am allowed and realize that it could be short term. The pilots I flew with yesterday were of the opinion that this would not happen for years because there just aren't enough general aviation pilots in India and since there are so many planes coming to the country there will be continual issues for years and so expats will be required, and by the way, do I know any pilots from America who would be willing to come over and fly. (Which, of course, I do). India is just such a different economy from America right now. There is growth and development everywhere and everything just has this feel of success and expansion. Of course, part of the problem is that it takes so long to develop a core group of pilots who are qualified to fly these airplanes. Our company has just recently hired two ex-Indian Military pilots, both of which I will be responsible for training, one in the CJ2 and one in the XLS. Both seem to have great attitudes and willingness to learn. I only hope that their flying skills are what I need and that this process will eventually lead to them both flying here, safely, for years to come and I won't have to try and make something work that really shouldn't. I have tried to get them to do some flight evaluations before hiring here, but it seems so foreign to them that ex-military pilots might not have flying skills. I have seen and heard about a few over here so I have high hopes and I realize that it is an awesome responsibility to do this, even while giving checkrides to dozens of other Indian pilots as these Citations become a very popular aircraft here, too.

I continue to be very thankful for such good health. As I get older, I realize that life choices make a big difference and now I am able to enjoy life, to a certain extent, because I have taken care of myself. I don't take anything for granted, though, and I do continue my workouts in the gym here at our apartments, which includes a cardio workout and then some weightlifting to try and keep my body from becoming a big saggy sack of flab!! Now we recently found out that the DGCA is going to make expat pilots take the hated and dreaded Indian flight physical, which is a 3 day rigorous test which includes everything from EKG's to MRI's and chest xrays and extensive hearing and eye tests. So, that should be interesting to go through. Some of my friends here think that it is going to be a way to exclude the expat pilots and that they will do anything they can to keep us from flying here. Who knows. I have retained good relationships with the Canadian handling company that brought me here and should India go away, I will try to find another international location, as they are just so intriguing right now. My hope though, is that this will be my last job before retirement. But long ago I realized that there are things I can control and things I can't and those shouldn't get mixed up or it will just cause stress.

Karen got a fresh prescription of her relaxant pills which she has humorously called her "No kill" pillls. I love this description, as, if you are on this medication, nobody gets hurt, but with all the frustrations of living in a very foreign place, if the pills run out, it might get dangerous.

(Just kidding, of course) but still a great description of a prescription.

I will include a picture of my friends from the Delhi SDA church, Richard and Tammy Jackson. He works at the US Embassy. They are already bidding for their next position and job. How nice is that, you can kind of choose where you want to live. I think they are leaving next June, so another year and they will be back in Washington, DC or some island. They say Delhi has been a very challenging location for them, and they were in Mexico before this. I will also include a picture of Ulyana, our friend from Ukraine, as she was able to bring her baby to church last week for the first time since he was born in mid-June. Just imagine setting up a new home and baby and living in India, thousands of miles from home, while doing all this. I admire people like this, my mom did the same thing!!

Drop me a note and let me know you are doing okay. News from home may sound mundane to you, but it makes my day to hear from you all.

Love,

Dan