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