The End of the Adventure

Now you’ve at least heard some of the nightmare of the month Bob had, I would like to conclude our Dubai journal from a more positive side. While Safi Airways was working on imploding, we kept having visitors, which was great for me. I’ve gotten to be a pretty good tour guide by now.

After RD left, we had a visit from Bob’s brother and his friend R, who was a delightful houseguest and a very good sport in our 1-star accommodations. Among the highlights of their visit was our trip to the souk in Sharjah to purchase rugs. When we got to my favorite rug vendor, the 18-year-old son was the only one there. He quickly realized this was a major shopping expedition and called in the manager from another store, who also brought more rugs with him. Eventually they called the father/owner, Abdullah, to come in and bring more rugs with him. After about three hours and several cups of tea, we all finally agreed on our rugs and haggled over their cost.

As we were about to leave, Abdullah, who speaks little English, invited us to lunch. Of course, we didn’t know if we were going to his home, to the quickie café at the souk, or where. We ended up at a very local Lebanese restaurant. What an experience! It’s men only downstairs, families upstairs. Well, when Abdullah walked in with three Americans, two being female, all eyes were on us and the jaws were dropping. When we went upstairs, people were sitting on the floor eating with their fingers, as is their custom. We did get to sit at the one solitary table. Abdullah had obviously called ahead that he was bringing guests, and our lunch started with soup, then a salad, and then a fish and rice course. Our only implement was the soup spoon, which I kept a firm hold on. When the main course came, we had the ENTIRE fish, which they eat with their fingers. It was hamour, which is a very good local fish. Our group consisted of the three of us, Abdullah, his son, and the Indian manager, who has at least some English skills. In the course of conversation/sign language, we learned Abdullah is from Yemen and has three wives and 15 children.

Abdullah had good reason to take us to lunch after our numerous rug purchases. We purchased a couple of Iranian kilim rugs and a number of the Kashmiri silk rugs. I can’t speak for the others, but I love my rugs, and our lunch adventure was an experience of a lifetime. It was such a fun day, and poor Bob was spending his time having to deal with a lot of Safi unpleasantness.

I took G and R on the desert 4-wheel excursion, and again we had another fun adventure. G was chosen to be the “partner” of the belly dancer. He was a very good sport and turns out to have some talent we never knew about! Poor Bob didn’t get to do that either because of all the Safi issues that week. He did at least get to go with us to the Burj al Arab for one more very nice dinner on the beach. It is a very cool place but soooo expensive.

After G and R left, PW’s friend EE, who is an exchange helicopter pilot with the French navy, had a port call in Abu Dhabi. As we had never seen Abu Dhabi, which is beautiful, we drove down and picked E up to come stay with us. She was in serious need of “girl” time after being on a ship with a squadron full of guys, so I was happy to oblige. We went to the Aviation Club and worked out, went to the pool, and paid the spa a visit for a couple days. We also did the usual touring and made our way to the Indian textile area, where we both had some rather unique outfits made. It was fun!

Bob was able to go on the desert tour this time, and E gave the entire group a good lesson in sandboarding. RD, she put you to shame! We also had the opportunity to go with E to the Souk Madinot Jumeirah, which is a huge complex of souks, theaters, restaurants, and hotels built around canals. It’s obviously built for tourists, but it’s a very neat place.

Of course, we made another trip back to the souk for carpets. E bought an exquisite silk Afghan rug. I had not seen those before, and this one is just beautiful.

After E left, I came back to Atlanta to bring home some rugs, etc., and get some emergency dental work taken care of. I was only supposed to be here three days, but Safi more or less imploded, and Bob told me not to return as there was so much turmoil in the company, as he has just discussed in his entry. It will take a good bottle of wine to go through the entire saga, but the situation became quite ugly, and I was glad when he arrived safely back in Atlanta.

All in all, we are very glad we had the experience this last year in Dubai. We did and saw things we never thought we would experience and learned a lot about some very different cultures. There were good times and bad times, but we met some great people along the way, and we agree we would do it again in a heartbeat. That said, it’s nice to be home with our family and friends in the greatest country on earth.

The Beginning of the End of Safi

I believe it was in the end of March Safi Airways obtained four charter flights to Iran. As there had been no advance warning of this new routing, I had to explain to the Chairman that the US and Canadian pilots would not be able to fly into an Iranian Military base for charter operations. He just assumed we would be “happy to go!” After a few “heated discussions” we compromised with the Bolivians flying the Iranian flights and picking up the funds. You must understand that the banking system, especially among nations over there is very primitive. This means that our pilots had to be paid in CASH which arrived in a briefcase, just like in the movies. What you don’t see in the movies is the person actually counting the money…one, two, three. At least it is always in $100 bills. Another item over here is all the money is always crisp and new, not like the US.

After the Iranian discussions, normal flying from Dubai to Kabul resumed. However a new glitch soon popped up. That was when the Chairman decided to start layovers in Kabul proper. I felt like I was beginning to be an ALPA negotiator and had to explain that we were told when hired that we would only lay over there in irregular operations. We did not want a scheduled operation where everyone in Kabul knew when we arrived, when we would depart, and where we would be staying. All the pilots were leery of this new development for numerous reasons. Safi Airways maintained the new schedule would commence on the 30th of March.

About four days before the scheduled start date, with emotions running high, our scheduled crew left for the normal Kabul turnaround. They departed Dubai with the normal two flight plans, two General Customs Declarations, and fuel onboard to return to Dubai. The Safi Station Manager in Kabul informed the crew when they arrived that they were spending the night in Kabul and if the crew tried to return at that point they would be charged with stealing the aircraft and arrested. The crew was given the choice of paying their own way to Dubai (no flights available till the next day), or staying in Kabul and flying themselves back to Kabul.

The crew wisely decided to stay at the Safi Landmark Hotel and return the next day. Needless to say, many discussions followed. There were three days of down time on their return and a compromise was worked out for a short term basis in Kabul, even though this amounted to a kidnapping. Talk is cheap but money was the trump card.

What made all these events that much more interesting was that we had guests in our small apartment the entire time. G, R, E, and RWD all went through these events with us as they unfolded. They had to listen to numerous cell phone calls during dinner and touring. ASD worked out to be a great tour guide as she had been in Dubai for many months and had been most places.

Early in April Safi Airways had received a grant/loan from either the IMF or World Bank for a good deal of money. Almost at the same time a new face appeared in the office, a Jordanian, who claimed to know everything about everyone and an “expert” on the airline industry. The word “shyster” came to mind immediately. He immediately wanted to buy six MD80s. Of course he was looking for a large commission, and those of us in the office were able to convince the Chairman not to buy the aircraft. There was not an MD80 within fifteen hundred miles of the Middle East, much less maintenance support! What a joke! The Jordanian didn’t like losing and had the Chairman release a number of us from our contracts with pay. No problem there, I made my Board meeting in Pensacola well rested and Preakness Weekend is now history.

A couple items that should be said of the layovers in Kabul. Obviously security was paramount. We always had two armed guards as well as a follow up vehicle. Once again Safi’s political power came through loud and clear as roadblocks always just “melted” in front of us. The only one we seemed to had to wait for was the President and even then we were always number one in line to proceed.

Another item in Kabul is the rug trade. For Westerners, rugs in Dubai are about a third of the price you would pay in the States. However, once you get to Kabul and the further cities out, the price drops dramatically from there. The only trick is getting to Afghanistan safely in the first place.

The last item I would like to mention has to do with security. If we took one step out of the hotel, there was immediately an armed guard behind us. How did they know?

Prior to departing the UAE, there was a very nice party at L’s. The evening ended up in the pool as we all could see the Burj Dubai lit up in front of us. It was really great to be able to exchange regular email addresses with everyone and to see the enthusiasm of all the young people. They were all great and learned so much in a year! L did a great job.

Since this is the last blog about Dubai/Kabul I thought I should put a very good travel tip out for those that may someday arrive in Dubai. The world’s only seven star hotel is in Dubai, the Burj al Arab. This is where one of the most expensive restaurants, the Al Maharah is located. The average price there is between $500 to $800 per meal for two. If you call ahead, or better yet, e-mail their reservations department and make reservations for the beach restaurant, the Majlis al Bahar, you can still get a tour of the hotel and save $300-$400 for the meal for two! Yes, you read that correctly, it is still going to cost you $300-400 for the meal. Do not go to the Brandy Bar in the lobby for an after dinner liquor, unless you want to spend $500 per drink! Bon Appetite!

3/17/08 VOICE FROM THE OTHER SIDE

I decided maybe it’s time to chime in again after laying low for two months. I ended up being back in the States for a month doing some extra PT for my shoulder and having a good time visiting friends and family. We do appreciate and miss everyone when we’re on the other side of the world, and we thank you all for your fun and kind comments to the blog.

As Bob said, our friend RD came back with me, and we had a great time showing him the sights and sounds of Dubai. I seem to be official tour guide during the day, since Bob is quite busy trying to keep Safi Airways straight. His job can be challenging and sometimes quite frustrating, but he has overall enjoyed the opportunity.

I took RD on the usual tours and tried to take him shopping in the souks, but he is a real loser when it comes to shopping! KD would have been much more fun in the souks. We did try out the indoor skiing at Emirates Mall, which was a very fun experience, although certainly not Colorado. We also tried sand boarding in the desert one evening, which was also lots of fun. RD also wanted to experience the Burj al Arab while he was here, so we had another lovely dining experience at this very over-the-top hotel, this time at their restaurant on the beach. We were sorry to see RD leave, but we heard KD needed him to shovel snow from the last blizzard they had in Indiana.

For the moment life is pretty quiet again until the next visitors, but at least we are enjoying going to the Aviation Club to work out and swim. The weather is very nice right now. Unfortunately, it can be very difficult to get a cab to go down there, so often I stay in the apartment when Bob is flying, which can be very confining. Today I took the big plunge and drove myself into Dubai to the club. It was very stressful, but I survived the first plunge. This was a big step for me!

Wednesday is our 42nd anniversary, and we’ve decided to call it the “sand anniversary.” We’re going to a very upscale Arabian resort in the desert, where we will have, among other things, a one-hour camel ride and an Arabian feast under the stars. Hopefully we’re not too old to be able to enjoy the romance.

We hope all is well for each of you, and for our Atlanta family and friends, I hope the recent storms haven‘t done too much damage. I know for many of our Atlanta friends tennis season started, and we hope week one was a good one. I also know for some of you the important part of the NCAA season has started, and we wish your teams well, particularly UNC. And, of course, for GHD we wish you a happy outcome for the ice hockey season at Cornell.

And wherever the venerable Clifford is between Annapolis and D.C., please give him a hug from us.

ASD

Springtime

A and I went back to Atlanta at the end of January to keep our normal lives in order. We were able to see many of our friends and family. The highlight of the return was Clifford’s (our 16 year old Golden) birthday party. This can be seen on theturbevilles.com web site. I’d also like to thank everyone for the Blog comments. The Blog seems to be a very easy way to communicate with all of you rather than independent emails.

Another reason for going back was to complete my six month simulator check in Miami. I also interviewed pilots and gave simulator checks to the two that we wanted. Obviously this means we are in the hiring mode. While in Miami we announced that the airline had purchased two 737s for intra-country flights to feed the 767 out of Kabul. The 737s needed more maintenance than originally thought, so that has been put on hold. I have been pushing for 757s for the dual qualification. It now appears our next plane with be a 767-300. I will try to attach a recent announcement of the company’s plans.

Spring has arrived in Kabul. The temperature is starting to rise to about 20 degrees Celsius and the snow in the mountains is receding. It is like Kabul is coming out of a deep freeze. People are moving faster and traveling more. One flight last week we had over 213 people aboard. Speaking of coming out of the deep freeze, the true story about the generator and the ILS system has now come to light. It appears that “someone” had stolen gas out of the tank that was feeding the generator. So no one would notice the loss, the quantity in the tank was replaced by water. So when enough water is added to the gas, two things happen. The first is the pipes freeze. The second is that no one knew this till they unfroze and the generator couldn’t work because it needs gas. I will say that no one has heard from the people that “used” to work in that area. There is now an Afghanistan Military Guard around the ILS shack!

We have now moved into our new Offices in the Dubai Free Zone of the Airport. They have leased about 3500 square meters and they are looking for more office space. The offices have been very well fitted with first class materials and furnishings. At times, price seems to be no object.

Politics can be amazing over here. Sharjah now doesn’t like the thought that we service Dubai to Kabul rather than Sharjah to Kabul and has said we can only park the aircraft in Sharjah when we have a non-stop---which happens to be Thursdays. So, this has caused the aircraft to be moved from Sharjah, to Fujairah, to Ras Al Khaimah, to Al Ain. All this movement is chewing up the crews, but stability always returns.

We did go to Emirates Mall with our visitor RWD. The reason for the trip was to ski in Dubai. The indoor skiing is actually pretty good. They keep the interior at 25 degrees Fahrenheit at all times, so the snow never turns to ice. The runs themselves are I would say green slopes with one steeper than the other. Shadows do seem to create problems. I’m pleased to report no one wiped out.
As I mentioned earlier, we have joined the Aviation Club. This club controls all the tennis in the UAE, with about eight courts and the tennis stadium included. The current Barclay’s Tennis Tournament is ongoing with all the professional athletes more than happy to have their pictures taken with members. Everything revolves around this event and security is very heavy. Definitely nice to have a member’s card and parking space to be there. I’m flying with RWD to Kabul on Saturday, while A is trying to get tickets to the finals.
Returning from Kabul, A informed RWD and myself that the tickets for the finals were a done deal. So, after a three hour nap, we headed down to see Andy Roddick defeat Feleciano Lopez last night. It was quite a day for all. We ended with a nice French dinner at the stadium and a long night’s sleep.

I will end this Blog up with a little commercial. P&W gave J&M a “Slingbox” for Christmas. Yes, I know, what in the world is a “Slingbox?” This “little box” is now connected to J&M’s spare bedroom cable TV converter. “Slingbox” actually has its own web site and allows me, as a favored individual, to use J&M’s converter to access any channel they subscribe to. It in no way interferes with their other TVs. The only competition I will have is when someone stays in their guest bedroom. Once I have connected for about two minutes the voice streaming is almost perfect. If you leave the picture on the small mode, it is very usable. This was very handy as our own cable TV went out for about two days recently.

Rain & Winter

I thought I would follow up the last blog with a note on the annual rainfall in the UAE, and Dubai/Sharjah in particular. My first taste of rain was early January when I took a friend, AMM, to the airport. Traffic was just backed up everywhere and I would have only called the rain light.

However, it did rain when President Bush arrived. As I mentioned earlier, all the bridges, overpasses, and tunnels were closed. The night he left, it started pouring and continued for approximately thirty-six hours straight. In an area that only gets about eleven days of rain a year, they received a record rainfall causing flooding everywhere. I’m sure the prevailing thought is “who needs drainage?” What President Bush was not able to close, the rain did. The only way to equate this event would be to compare it to a “snow day” or “hurricane” party day in the States. We ended up with eighteen inches of water just standing in front of our apartment for two to three days. This area came to a stand still. In the states when you mix sand and water you get a beach, here you get a sticky mud!

As the good drivers of the UAE found out, when you hit deep standing water at thirty klicks or better your car doesn’t work anymore. Cars were everywhere. Many cars were covered just where they were parked. It is very difficult for camel drivers to understand mechanics!


During the last four trips to Kabul, the temperature hasn’t gone above 0 degrees Celsius and is usually about -20 at night. Only a light dusting of snow has hit the valley but extremely heavy snow in the mountains. I keep thinking it is only a matter of time till winter hits but I’m beginning to think if we can make it through the first week of February, we may have bypassed winter in the valley.

I have inserted a recently taken picture of the RWY 29 in Kabul take off position.. You will be able to blow it up to see the mountains right off the departure end. The other interesting thing about this picture is when you blow up the L1011 on the upper left part of the picture; it is an old Delta L1011 which I flew years ago. The L1011 stayed on that taxiway for about a week due to a mechanical.

The problem in Kabul, at least at the airport is electricity. When it is -20 at night with no power, the building gets cold soaked and it really can’t warm up during the day. Adding to that is the fact that some of the doors don’t close and the windows leak air it is hard to file a flight plan. ISAF supplies the computer for flight planning so it is always up during the daylight hours. But I can tell you, one computer doesn’t heat a room! Still, the only approach available is the VOR/DME.

Now it is time for another commercial. For those of you that keep asking about the “kids” and what is going on in their lives, there is now a new web site that connects them all. http://www.theturbevilles.com/ should answer all your questions. There are also connections available to their videos made on cruise. The videos show that there is far too much time available on cruise for junior officers.

While you’re there, be sure to vote for Captain Bob as your pilot of choice. You’ll see what I mean when you get to the web site. Actually, just enjoy the great job they have done getting this site put together. I think this is a preamble for the blogs from Tilbisi, Georgia. A definite site for “old woodpeckers, blackhawks, and executioners!”

As A has said before, we joined the Aviation Club in Dubai. It has all the athletic amenities we could wish for plus about eight tennis courts. At the center of all this is the Dubai Tennis Stadium where the Dubai Open takes place later this month. I’m sure you will see some of the results on TV during the two weeks it runs. Additionally, it has about twelve upscale restaurants on the property of which we’ve only hit four so far. The best news of all is the owner…Dubai Duty Free Shops. We can all guess what is sold in Duty Free Shops at the airports and at the club they are sold for the same cost. This is the only place, other than hotels in the UAE, that can sell booze
by the drink. Dubai is looking up!

Bush Visit

I took the flight to Kabul on Saturday December 16, which really is only a Sharjah turnaround. Two hours twenty up and two hours thirty back. It is all daylight VFR so with the mountains now covered with snow, it is very pretty. Although we fly at twenty eight thousand feet, at times we are only ten thousand feet above the ground (mountains). The schedule on Saturday calls for a two and a half hour layover on the ground.

The ramp in Kabul is very congested and won’t expand until the new Japanese Terminal is completed late next year. Being the airline we are, we always have priority ramp space in front of the old terminal. The ramp will only hold three wide body aircraft at one time. Yesterday I was given the number one spot and taxied there with two aircraft to my left.

I realized I couldn’t taxi out in either direction due to closeness of aircraft, terminal, and buses stored on the ramp. So I set up with our tug driver to tow me out when we were ready. Since I’m mentioning it, you must have already guessed, the tug driver took too big a turn and smashed the right white strobe on the terminal wall. Of course there were only a hundred people on the ramp as the Prime Minister of the UAE had just arrived in Kabul for a dedication. Anyway, the wing was not damaged and we could go as the MEL says the other red strobes must also work. All things are possible in Afghanistan, but not everything happens as planned.

A and I have planned a “Progressive Christmas Dinner” with the other pilots in the building, our Flight Attendant Manager, and our mechanics. There will be appetizers in one unit, dinner in ours, and then dessert in the third. As far as the food is concerned, we were able to get a “Butterball” over here --- just not as cheaply as the States. They don’t have stuffing over here, but A brought some with her.

A found a Christian Church in Dubai so we made a test run the other day. Good that we did, as it is very difficult to find as there are no crosses allowed in this land of religious freedom. The church is actually just behind a high school and to get there one must go down a small alley type entrance. We ended up there last night for Christmas carols, and I am using that term loosely. There are approximately twenty seven Christian churches in the UAE all using a different base language. Bottom line is that we heard at least seventeen different languages sing Christmas carols. J&M would have loved it!

I’m continuing this about two and a half weeks after the previous part was written due to numerous personnel, plane, and weather related incidents have taken up so much time. These are only stories for late night or at the lake and certainly cannot be printed here!

It is now the second week in January and winter is starting to affect the flights into Kabul. The mountains around Kabul are at the 16,500 foot range with Kabul being at 5800 feet. It is really quite a sight to see the snow encroaching into the valley as the mountains have been covered with snow for about six weeks. There is very little, both physically and in amount, of deicing available so the weather has to be watched very carefully as to not get stranded up there. We would have to use ISAF facilities for deicing and it is very expensive.

There is a very delicate balance in Afghanistan between the government, ISAF Forces, and the local population. Kabul only has one precision approach which is the ILS RWY 29. I believe it was the US who just donated a new generator to Afghanistan specifically for maintaining the ILS. When the offer also came with installation, the Afghanis balked and said they had their own engineers and they should install it. They completed the installation and only “forgot” one step, calibrating the volts and freqs. So, the bottom line is that Kabul now has a solid metal box at the end of the runway that formally was an ILS. In the middle of winter in the mountains with wind, snow, and ice, we are now limited to a VOR/DME approach for the next two months or more.

Expansion is right around the corner as we have exercised Fifth Right Freedoms in two different countries that will allow us to now go to the sub continent of India (three cities) as well as getting into Europe from Dubai. Of course the hold up is hiring new pilots. It is hard to pin everyone down, but new aircraft (for us) are in the pipeline.

Our kids gave us a dinner for our birthdays at the Burj Al Arab and we decided to exercise it on Monday. It was full for dinner for all of the nights we wanted to go, so we opted for lunch. This restaurant is inside the world’s only seven star hotel. The only way you can see the restaurant is to have a reservation for either a room or one of the restaurants. Our limo driver was very pleased we had our invitation with us, otherwise we would have had to pay 250 DHRs each or $135.00 just to get in the door! Just because we didn’t have to pay it doesn’t mean the hotel get their take it in other ways!

The food and service was just superb! Tuna Carpaccio, fresh salmon, vichyssoise, sea bass; and every serving was better than the prior. I’m not a big seafood connoisseur, but if I could have seafood cooked like that, I would have it all the time. I must tell RD that I had their Crème Brule for dessert and also refused to share. It was as good as Paris.

If you have been watching the news, President Bush was here the day after our trip to the Burj. We kind of guessed where he would be when the night he was here the Burj was “closed for a private party.” I can’t even imagine what it would cost to “close the Burj!” Alice had to have her pocketbook scanned when we arrived at the Burj, but I must say it was extremely discrete. On questioning the security people they would only tell us a VIP was arriving.

The next day upon waking, there was a note under our door that today was “just declared a “national holiday” with all bridges, tunnels, and major roads closed. We actually were able to leave because that was the only way you could drive, away! We made great time back since there was no other traffic.

Christmas-NewYear

Now that the holidays have come to a close, we will try to describe Christmas in Dubai. It was different certainly. One of our first challenges was to find a church, not an easy task in a Muslim country. We did find one in Dubai, a complex which serves almost every Christian denomination except Catholic, tucked back from the street so it couldn’t be seen, I guess. Anyhow, due to Bob’s flying schedule, we decided the best we would be able to do was go to Christmas carols under the stars in the church square on the 23rd. There were choirs from each denomination that functions out of the church, most of them being Indian, Asian, African, or from the Pacific Islands and many being quite evangelical. It was a very interesting and unique evening. I’m glad we went.

Christmas day we had a sit-down dinner for 12 Safi people in our little apartment. It was a bit of a challenge, but everyone seemed to enjoy it. We even found a 24-pound Butterball. We did miss our family, but we tried to make the most of it, and Santa did manage to find us over here. He seems to think we should do some rug shopping, so I’ve been trying to learn about different Oriental carpets online. The Iranian silk carpets are exquisite, far superior to anything else, but the prices are also exquisite.

Unfortunately for Bob, all through the holidays he has had to deal with some personal issues that came up with one of the pilots. It got to be very stressful for everyone here, but at least the issue is resolved now. I don’t think Bob knew he was going to be housemother for this group too.
We actually had a wonderful New Year’s Eve. We’ve found this place called the Irish Village, pictured above, which is part of a complex also containing the Dubai Tennis Center, a variety of other restaurants, and the Aviation Club, which consists of a nice clubhouse, pool, spa, restaurant, and numerous other amenities. It looks like they accept short-term members, so we plan to pursue that this week.

Anyhow, back to New Year’s Eve, the Irish Village had an outdoor party “limited” to about 2,000 people, all outside, as the weather is just fabulous this time of year. They served a wonderful buffet and had about four bands, one of which was a good ABBA- imitation group. We had a great time dancing to all the best of ABBA. Most of the people on the dance floor were younger than our kids, but we had fun. I really think if this Aviation Club works out, Dubai is going to look a whole lot nicer, even from our dumpy apartment.

We are very excited about having a special dinner at the Burj al Arab, the hotel that looks like a sail that’s in all the pictures of Dubai. Our kids have given us a special night out, and all we’re waiting for is Bob to have his schedule set so we can go in the next week or two. This is the restaurant that you get to by “submarine,” and hopefully now the holidays are over, we’ll be able to get a reservation.

As this blog has not gone to final edition yet, we are now new members of the Aviation Club, and hopefully that will give us an avenue to the activities we enjoy and people with the same interests.

This week the Italian VP of maintenance for Safi has had his wife here, so at least I’ve had someone to pal around with. We’ve hit the souks and a couple of the shopping centers looking for good deals, etc. The best buys are in the Sharjah souk, and she’s a great negotiator. I’ll be sorry to see her go. She’s been a lot of fun.

I will have Bob do the next blog to give a little different perspective on life in Dubai. In the meantime, we do hope the new year is starting well for everyone.

ASD

12-16 From the Female Side

Well, I figured it’s time for the distaff side to chime in again. We came back to the U.S. for a wonderful Thanksgiving at G and S‘s; 23 people and 5 dogs: all the kids, Bob’s father and brother, P.W.’s in-laws, and G’s in-laws. It was great being back in the States. ‘There’s no place like home.”

I stayed in Atlanta after Bob returned to Dubai and had a wonderful time visiting with friends, Christmas shopping, and going to a very fun Army/Navy game. I can’t believe the coach has left Annapolis for Georgia Tech. Frankly, I don’t know why anyone would give up Annapolis for Atlanta.

I do want to thank each of my good friends who made time in their busy schedules to have lunch or dinner or just “play” with me. I had a wonderful time getting together with everyone and will miss seeing you over the holidays.

I guess I never had a chance to mention before the holidays our very good friends, JR and NR, came to visit on the back end of their around-the-world trip. They stayed with us in our tiny apartment for a week. That’s true friendship! We’re open for any other adventurers! We had a good time playing tourists while they were here. Poor Bob; that was the first week of operations for Safi Airways, so he was kind of burning the candle at both ends. We did the bus tour, which is a very good overview of the city, and stopped at Emirates Mall to take a look at the indoor ski slope. We will try that before we leave. We also made it to the Emirates Golf Club, which is fabulous, and the new ice bar, which serves no alcohol. It’s a fun place to visit once; not like the one K, J, PW &W visited in Hong Kong.

JR and I had a great time in the Indian tailoring area. They have absolutely gorgeous fabrics from India, and we found a very nice tailor to make us some fun, glitzy party clothes, followed by a dhow ride across the creek to the gold souk. It’s fun looking, but there are few deals to be had.

Bob, JR, NR, and I did our night-in-the-desert adventure, which entails four-wheeling on the sand dunes, an ethnic dinner under the stars, belly dancing, henna tattooing, and trying on local dress for photos. The biggest adventure was when our driver for the night was an hour and a half late and tried to make up the lost time on the way to the dunes. During the ride out there we reached speeds of roughly 140 kmh and at one point we were going the wrong direction down the highway. I’ve never been that fast in a car. It made the four-wheeling seem kind of tame.

Life is settling in a little as Safi tries to develop something of a monthly schedule. Obviously, there are a lot of changes, but a pattern is slowly emerging. Bob thought he might be going to Tunisia with a charter group of Arabs to go hunting with their falcons over the Eid holiday, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen now. Could have been interesting for him.
They finally had the memorial service for G in a very lovely park along Dubai Creek. It was very nicely done and finally brought some closure to this difficult time for his wife. He was my buddy in Kabul while the crew was pre-flighting and training, and it’s hard to believe that all of a sudden he’s gone.

We also this week found our way to al Mamzar Park, which is a lovely beach park with lots of amenities. It doesn’t compare to Pensacola, but it’s still pretty nice. They have little chalets one can rent for the day, so we might get the pilot group out there for a day of sun and fun over the Christmas time frame.

There isn’t a whole lot of Christmas here, but we are trying to make the most of it. Hopefully we’ll get a little tree for our little apartment, and at least Bob is not flying Christmas. We will be cooking turkey dinner for about a dozen Safi people. Should be enjoyable. After Christmas we would like to take a mini-vacation and enjoy some of the finer areas of Dubai overnight.

That about covers the latest here. We hope you all are enjoying the pleasures of the holidays. It’s amazing how we can miss all the hustle and bustle we complain about from year to year. Next year we’re thinking big on Christmas!

ASD

Early December

To begin on the final note of last week, it is a very sad tale of what expats have to go through when there is a death involved over here. The police have yet to finalize the case, and over here if it is not “solved” then it remains “pending.” And the real item is that if it remains “pending” then it is not added to the statistics! G’s company and the Australian Embassy have been very helpful, but bribes still have to be paid to see the body!

Now back to the slide. The slide was sent down to Abu Dhabi and repaired the next day. However, they then found that when the slide went through the windshield it destroyed the wiring harness for the emergency lights. A wiring harness was found in London and overnighted to Abu Dhabi, but now we have to wait for the contractor to reschedule the completion date. Meanwhile we can fly for a few more days. On a side note, our only strong competitor in Kabul blew their slide departing from Dubai yesterday and is now ground by the UAE authorities…and they were so quick to criticize us last week. I did have to call one of their pilots to see if they “needed any assistance.”

The schedule changes this Monday. We have been flying from Sharjah to Kabul and returning. This Monday we will actually begin flying Sharjah, Dubai, Kabul, Dubai, and returning to Sharjah. Dubai ranks up there with the major airports in Europe such as Paris, Frankfurt, and Amsterdam. And as I have mentioned previously, you can go to the Duty Free Store AFTER arrival, so the “dryness” of the area is lessened.

A should be arriving tonight having finished all the Christmas packages. I must admit, this is the earliest preparation we have ever had for Christmas. In a way I feel back in the military being away for the major holidays, but this is the last time. SMSDiscount and Skype will be working overtime on Christmas Day (provided they are not blocked)!

One of our pilots stepped out of the box Thursday. We have been staying pretty close to the hotel in Kabul or just at the airport when flying. However, we do now have some contacts in Kabul. He was interested in oriental carpets and had the brother of one of the senior members of the airline take him to the rug bazaar. He was surprised at how many rugs (and guns) were there and the prices were extremely reasonable. Remember, there is very little transportation required once the rug is completed to get to Kabul. The real problem lies when we have too much weight at the airport returning to the US. May have to check into shipping items back, but not overnight!

Tragedy

After a great Thanksgiving with family, in-laws, and friends it was time to catch the Saturday flight to Dubai. Just to remind everyone that when you depart on Saturday evening, you don’t actually arrive till Sunday night. No way around losing a full day!

I did mention the Dubai Airshow in the last blog. We have all been to many military airshows that usually last for one to two days, have a formation flying exhibition, and can walk around the airplanes.

However, I certainly was not prepared for my first Commercial Airshow. First off, they took over the entire new Executive Terminal at the Dubai International Airport.

Second, there must have been 150-200 planes of all descriptions that you could enter and get information on. The exception was the US Air Force's AWAC’s and the US Navy's E2 that were there. The Norwegians even had an AWAC aircraft that the dome rises from the middle of the fuselage during flight and retracts for landing! There was a flight team demonstration each hour on the hour from differing countries. The only country not represented was the US. UK, Canada, Jordan, Egypt… It was interesting since I’d never seen some of them, but if you’ve seen the Blue Angels – “that says it all!”

The third difference from military airshows were the vendors. If it is made for or anticipated for any type of aircraft the item was there to be seen. To see the envisioning of the future of all facets of aviation was terrific. We even signed up a British Maintenance firm and a security firm just for Kabul. I will say it wasn’t Blackwater, although they are one of the best.

Safi Airways also had a booth at the Airshow. It was interesting that they had the opening ceremonies already on large poster sheets around the booth. It was strange to see some of the same pictures of myself on four foot by ten foot blow ups. I never realized I was so good looking!

We have been flying a three day/week schedule to Kabul and are about to increase to four. Load factors are much higher than I would have expected to this point. But as everyone knows in aviation, “things happen!”

Yesterday was one of those days. Arriving into the Kabul approach control area we had our runway changed twice after the initial call. This obviously requires computer inputs but most important is keeping real world situational awareness going as it relates to mountains. The rest I’ll leave to your imaginations and for late nights at the lake.

After taxiing to the Kabul Terminal Ramp, the engines shutdown, seeing the stairs being positioned at the front door, I decided I could finish my paperwork before doing the normal PR work with the airport authorities. Just looking for a quiet four to five minutes to get things together! At that point I heard three timid knocks on the door. It was A, one of the mechanics that travels with us. You must understand, he is about 6 foot nine with perfect posture. But here was this mechanic looking at the floor, shoulders bent inward, and almost whispering... “they blew the slide!”

All our flight attendants are new and undergoing training with the flight attendant onboard each flight. However, Purser #1’s hands moved faster than anyone could react to and there it went. The stairs are powered by a truck body similar to the States. They were about ten feet from the side of the aircraft when the slide blew. As all the aviation buffs know, slides have power, so you shouldn’t be surprised to know the slide blew inward the windshield of the truck. Luckily no one was injured!

The slide was bad, but not the worst. I was awoken the next morning at 7:00AM to go to the police station to help pick up a very good friend. She had not gotten home till about 8:00PM the night before to her new condo to find some new furniture had just arrived. She and her husband celebrated till about 1:00AM when she had to go to bed as she had been up for almost twenty four hours. She was awakened by the doorbell at 5:00AM only to find the police and security at the door. They asked for her husband and she looked frantically throughout the condo for him. The police then said he had had an accident and she found out he had fallen off their third floor balcony by the pool. Everyone here is just devastated!

Mid November 2007

The intensity of the work continues. As I mentioned in my last blog, we had a VIP practice flight to Kabul last Sunday. After getting all the flight planning, fueling, overflight clearances, catering, and numbers of people set, we were off to Kabul in force (53).

I flew the left seat on the way up with C as a F/O. We did have some FMS problems on the way up, but nothing that couldn’t be handled. Basically Honeywell forgot to include airways and intersections on their download to our FMS. Who needs airways? At least we had approaches, SIDs and STARS.

There were probably 300-400 people to meet the aircraft on arrival into Kabul and all wanted to tour the aircraft. Unfortunately, we didn’t have extra stairs for the back, so we just had them make a complete circuit from the front door to the back and up the other aisle. The only other thing I can remember was that there were pictures, pictures, and more pictures. I think everyone there wanted a picture with someone in a Safi uniform.

There were numerous vans and private cars to take us to “downtown” to the Safi Hotel. The accommodations were as before, but it is very evident winter is approaching as fountains are covered and the nighttime temperatures drop to around 3 degrees centigrade.

The Safi’s put on a large buffet dinner for the crews, family and friends in the hotel. A & myself were at the head table with the Elder Safi, and his oldest son. A very strong point must be made here that I met about seven sons (two different mothers) and one daughter wearing a burka. Each one of these kids, fifteen to forty, was extremely well mannered and spoke excellent English. They all showed their sense of humor when they invited me to the rooftop to smoke the hubblie-bubblies. It was an honor to be asked, but I decided to pass!

I will have to mention that the car A, I, and K were to take to the airport was ready to leave on time and started backing up to only hear a loud crunch! Obviously WE hit a car coming out of the alley. The armed guards were there immediately for numerous reasons, and they did the talking. Not understanding Afghan, I presume the conversation went somehow “how could you get in the way of a SAFI car?” I think he was “asked” to drive his car away or they would shoot the tires out. Not once did they exchange insurance papers! Godfather comes to mind.

The next day Safi Airways had erected a large tent at the airport for the purpose of having all the VIPs. President Karzi was invited but his VP showed up. The entire tent, three hundred feet walking to it, and about two hundred feet to the aircraft was covered by oriental rugs. There will be pictures sent out and if you want a copy, please leave your email address on the comments section of the blog.

We started flying early the next week on a three-day schedule with a 0500 departure from Sharjah to Kabul, and returning to Sharjah about 1400. The flying is very pleasant and interesting, and daytime VFR only is not too bad.

The approach into Kabul is actually difficult. The Glide Slope is 3.5 degrees starting in the mountains. Even thought we’re sixteen miles or so from the airport, you must have flaps 20 and 160 knots at initial or you will not get down. So far everyone has made it in on their first attempt. I was asked to fly at least two flights with each pilot going in, so flight time is no longer a problem.

The Rs arrived about 2300 on Monday or Tuesday with me leaving for Kabul with a 0300 pickup that morning. We stayed up to talk for a while and then decided I needed to get to bed. I returned back to the apartment around 1430 only to find A and the Rs still in bed. I guess they were making up for the sleep I lost!

The first night we had dinner in Sharjah on a dhow on the water at a Lebanese Restaurant. The food was excellent and very inexpensive. They were even exposed to hummus. Since we had had happy hour while they met all the pilots, we used our best taxi driver, Muhammad. He dropped us off at 2030 and picked us up at 2230. Always on time!

All the touring will probably be covered on A’s blog, but some of the events of this fast week come out of the blur.

One of the first events I can remember is driving with A and the Rs to City Center Mall. Of course someone in the back wanted the air conditioner changed. New thirty-day car had arrived, so I had to look down to change it. And you guessed it, right into the back of a Toyota Camry! Of course I hit an Arab and they “never” have accidents, only expats. We now had two choices. One was to call 999 (same as 911 in the states) or the other was to drive to the police station and report the accident. We both agreed to drive to the police station for the report. Arriving at the police station, we walked in and were assigned an officer IMMEDIATELY. It took him about two minutes to assess the damage. I agreed I hit him and the report was written up in about five minutes. I received a one hundred dirham fine ($27.00) for hitting him from behind and the police time required. I then walked away! Since I had the full insurance from Avis, everything will be taken care of. In Dubai and Sharjah, INSURANCE IS GOOD!

Thursday night in the desert also comes to mind. The ticket price included transportation in an SUV (Land Cruiser) to the desert and back. Once again the traffic was bad, so the driver was late picking us up in Sharjah. We immediately knew why there were seat belts in the car as he reached speeds of up to 160 klicks trying to get back on schedule. If that wasn’t bad enough, we missed a traffic circle turn and headed out the wrong spoke. As all normal drivers would do, he made a U turn on a major highway and drove against and through the traffic to again drive into the intersection and then proceed on course. The only thing I knew is that it would be a quick demise.

Once we reached the desert area, we found we were with approximately ten other SUVs for the Dune riding portion of the tour. We played follow the leader at speeds up to fifty klicks on top of the dunes and almost rolling over (intentionally) numerous times. Very much like a roller coaster!

Dinner and a belly dancer were back at the main camp with the surprising thing—being able to get a rum and coke! The food was excellent for this type of event, which surprised all of us. I will definitely go back again (with a different driver)!

A separate note must be made at this time, “do you know which mother got a tattoo in the desert?”

Another event which comes to mind is the Ice Bar. This is in the Dubai section and this mall is called Times Square. After you pay the admission price, you are given a winter jacket, hood, and boots if you don’t have socks. The interior of the bar is kept at minus three degrees Fahrenheit at all times. The entire forty meters square is made out of ice shipped from Canada for its clarity. All the tables, bars, glasses, and food plates are made of ice. Three of us had hot chocolates and N ordered juice. His juice soon turned to a slushy in the ice glass and room temperature. Good music, so dancing was the preferred warm up method.

Another memorable event was on Friday when I presented N with his Afghanistan Visa and a business class ticket to Kabul for the Saturday rotation. Awakening at 0200 for a 0300 pickup, we noticed a little fog outside. This was the second day in a row so we thought it would burn off quickly.

Arriving at the airport we did find a few items out. The airport closed last night at 2300 and wasn’t expected to open untill later this morning (where was our station manager). We did learn a few things about the airport: (1) it has lost it’s Cat II and III certification due to construction; (2) fueling and catering cannot take place during low visibility operations; (3) we need to start parking over a fuel hydrant. We also learned that N and I were not going to make it to Afghanistan that day as we had to call out a reserve crew. The rest is a story for the lake (whichever). At least he got the Visa.

I will be in Atlanta for Thanksgiving, more on the Dubai Air Show next blog. Happy Thanksgiving!

AFGHANISTAN ADVENTURE

11/9/07, AGHANISTAN ADVENTURE FROM THE FEMALE SIDE: Last Sunday Safi Airways had its inaugural flight to Afghanistan. This was basically supposed to be a fam flight and an opportunity for the crew members to update their visas. However, it turned into quite an extravaganza in Kabul. The operations officer’s wife and I were invited to tag along, as well as about 25 members of the very prolific Safi family. From the pilot side, I will let Bob fill in all the trials and tribulations of making this flight happen, which were numerous.

We started the day by taking a one-and-a-half-hour bus trip across the desert to Fujairah, on the other side of the UAE, where the plane had been parked for the last month. Some of the scenery could have been from the American West. Overall it was pretty desolate until we got close to Fujairah.

Bob was captain for the trip up, which always makes me feel better. He hasn’t lost the magic touch. The entire cabin applauded both when we got in the air and when we safely landed in Kabul.

We flew a route over Iran and Afghanistan. From what I could see from the air, I don’t know why anyone would want to live anywhere we flew over. I’ve never seen such desolate, barren countryside.

Kabul was quite an experience. When we landed and taxied in, there was a huge group there to meet the plane; TV cameras, flags, Imam, and everything. The elder Safi was the first one to greet and congratulate the crew. By the time we left the airport for the hotel, it was too dark to see a lot, but we saw more on the way back to the airport the next day. I don’t think you can get much more third world than Kabul. It’s still a military zone, and we could not leave the hotel. You see tanks, bikes, and all sorts of transportation, mules in the streets; lots of beggars, children and adults.

The hotel is the only “5 star” in Kabul and has a shopping center as part of the structure. That’s a bit of a stretch, but the rooms were fine. Mr. Safi held a big dinner for the crew and VIPs, and then some of the many “Safi kids” invited the pilots to go up on the rooftop to smoke from the sort of hubblee-bubblee pipes. I call it a “peace pipe.” These do not have drugs in them, and I honestly don’t know if they can be used as vehicles for some sort of drugs or not. They’re really neat looking, though.

The next day, upon an adventuresome and, I’m glad to say, safe ride to the airport, there was another big ceremony. They had a very large, colorful tent set up with about 500 chairs. This time the UN, some various country delegates, press, Afghan government officials, lots of Safi family, and crew were present. Since the crew had to be there early to do preflight, I ended up talking to a very nice Australian, an Afghan military officer, and a couple of Afghan Safi execs under a tree at the airport, watching the caterers set up for the reception under the tent while numerous Afghan and UN military officials were “hanging out.“ I never thought I’d be doing anything like that. Hamad Karzi was supposed to be there but was apparently attending that meeting in the north that was bombed. Unfortunately our Afghan is a little weak, so we couldn’t understand a thing anyone said during the ceremony.

The flight back was filled with numerous procedural quirks, as is not surprising in a third-world war zone. Bob had designated someone else to be captain, but it’s a good thing he was in the cockpit monitoring because there were apparently a lot of deviations to the original flight plan.
I will say there was one time I did not feel real safe. Generally when people are ready to transfer from the hotel, they don’t just hang out on the streets. They get in the car/van and go quickly. For some reason, there was a problem, and we ended up being stuck in the van in front of the hotel for about 20 minutes. We noticed a man just sitting in a van across the street watching most of the time we were there, and it made me very uncomfortable. We were very glad to get moving finally.

All in all, it was just a very moving and memorable experience, and I’m very glad I went. I’m also glad I don’t have to stay there. If I’m lucky I will be able to include one or two pictures here. We’ll see what happens.

As a side note, we have had a lot of Internet connection problems lately, so I apologize for the lack of communication.

Alice

Initial Woman's View

11/3/07 FIRST MOM BLOG: So much has happened so quickly, it’s hard to know where to begin. First of all, for all of you asking about the venerable Clifford, the kids have taken over his retirement care. He is now in Raleigh with G., where he celebrated Halloween, and it is my understanding PWDT is picking him up to go to J and M’s this weekend. We are very pleased and grateful they are willing to take him over. It was difficult to say goodbye to him, but I’m betting we’ll see him over the holidays sometime.




Our apartment is in “suburban” Sharjah, which is the next emirate up from Dubai. It’s really like one continuous area. When there’s no traffic, which is almost never, we’re only about 20 minutes away from downtown Dubai and 10 minutes from downtown Sharjah. Sharjah has a beautiful downtown. It’s much more conservative, which means among other things it’s dry, and you see very few westerners here. I was brave and took a taxi into Sharjah to get my nails done today and had a real jerk of an Iranian cab driver who didn’t know where anything was. However, I found a good salon in more or less the high-end area of Sharjah and the day ended well. We had dinner on a dhow, little old boats, on the lake the other night in Sharjah, which was enjoyable.

They have gold and textile and spice souks, bazaars, here that are actually nicer, less crowded, and less expensive than Dubai, but the old souks in Dubai are still something to see.

Dubai, if course, is beautiful. Every building tries to outdo the previous one. They are building the Burj Dubai to be the tallest building in the world, and if someone builds a taller building, they have designed this one so it can be added onto. I did manage to get on one of those city and beach bus tours, which gave me a great overview of the city.

Shopping seems to be the national sport here. There are large malls everywhere, and some of them are absolutely gorgeous. The bad news is traffic on “weekends,“ which are Thursday and Friday, is like Christmas in the U.S. every weekend . We went to the Festival Mall yesterday, which is built on Dubai Creek with a canal running through it. It was kind of like being on Rodeo Drive. Haven’t been to Emirates Mall yet where they have the indoor snow skiing.

As for our apartment, it’s an adjustment. The area is full of construction, and again we are among the very few westerners. It’s not exactly the high-rent district, but it seems to be safe, and the apartment is new. I’m pretty uncomfortable taking a power walk around the neighborhood in shorts, as there are very few women out during the day and none in athletic gear. I’ll get it figured out, though. It’s pretty much a live and let live attitude around here, so I’ve just got to get over being uncomfortable.

The apartment itself is smaller than our first apartment when we got married, so we’re learning to “share” space all over again. It’s nice enough, but I could live without the gas container for the stove, for which you have to match-light the burners and the oven, in the middle of the kitchen. There’s no dishwasher, a tiny sink, and no clothes dryer. Aside from that, it’s great! The clothes dryer is the rack on the balcony.

All of the pilots are here, so the situation very much reminds me of our old Navy days. The apartments may be small, but we do more entertaining now than we’ve done for a long time.

Bob has been working very hard, and I personally think the airline is still looking for its direction, but they all have very handsome new uniforms, and the first flight, which will be a fam flight for all the pilots and flight attendants, is tomorrow to Kabul. I have been invited to join the group, so still more adventure! It should be interesting, and I understand this could be a good place to purchase oriental rugs. I will follow this up with the female impression of Kabul when we get back. Now I have to go pack.

We miss all of our family and friends and look forward to seeing everyone when we get back hopefully sometime over the holidays. I know we will appreciate Marietta, the lake, and the beach much more.

More to follow after Kabul.

Pre-Kabul, Early November

110307 This has been a very busy week! The decision came down from above on Monday approving our practice flight with all the Flight Attendants, Management, and some VIPs going to Kabul. We will spend one night at the Safi Landmark Hotel in Kabul City Center and return to Sharjah the following afternoon.

So of course this meant that everyone was going to “general quarters.” Flying over here is definitely not the same as flying for a major in the United States. From my end it meant getting the overflight permission from Iran, getting Boeing to facilitate our AFMs (Aircraft Flight Manual), flight planning, fuel planning, getting the pilots back into the books, uniforms, and SECURITY!

The original intent was to never have the plane RON in Kabul, but everyone knows plans are always in flux. In Bogota, the plane was always safe with just the security tabs placed on all the openings. In Kabul, anyone who wishes to enter the aircraft after shutdown could just open a door and walk in. Of course that would be preferable to blowing a hole in the side or underneath and walking through it. So, the bottom line is we are still sticking with tabs but also “numerous” armed guards for the entire stay.

Our custom tailored uniforms were to be delivered on the 8th of November, but the powers that be weren’t thinking of that. So, we had to quickly re-schedule our final fit and I believe pay a premium to get them five days early. They actually arrived at 1530 the afternoon prior to the test flight. The fit was actually pretty good. I did require more material than in my Navy days. While I was thinking,” wow, they arrived,” I decided to inventory the suit bags. I was surprised to find the epaulets were missing. After a couple quick calls, it turned out that the Duty Driver had left them in the back of the van and was back in Dubai. Just another trip back to Sharjah for him to deliver them back to my room! The president of the airline wanted us to have silver strips as opposed to the traditional gold, so now we need a belt to match---so many problems!

As I mentioned earlier, we will be taking a few VIPs on the RON to Kabul. One of the VIPs will be A. She received her expedited Afghan Visa on Thursday and is now ready and eager for the next thirty days. She has even started doing research for possible rug purchases in Afghanistan! No time wasted for this woman in this part of the world! One can only guess who she will have carry it for her?

While she has been transitioning to the time zone over here, she has been able to visit Deira City Center Mall, Festival City Mall, Sahara Mall, Safeer Mall, Wafi City Mall, and the Sharjah City Gold Souk. Together we will explore the Emerates Mall for the Rs arriving around the 11th of November. So many malls, so little time.

This will be sent out when we arrive in Kabul and are at the hotel. Next week we will cover the first Safi Trip with Flight Attendants and VIPs. This is the whole reason we’re over here and we do find it exciting!

Over and Back

As some of the loyal readers may have noticed, there was no blog activity last week. I was able to fly back to Marietta on Wednesday night with a 2240 departure out of Dubai. The 15 hour flight arrived into Atlanta on Thursday morning at 0640, just in time for traffic hour!

It was an extremely busy four days beginning with a trip to Pensacola, Florida, for the annual Homeowners Meeting and election. I was able to see lots of friends at the meeting and two nights of events on the property.

We left Sunday morning to return to Atlanta and have dinner with G & S prior to his returning to North Carolina. It really was very nice of him to drive to Atlanta to have dinner since I hadn’t seen him for three months. Good catching up on his career and golf improvement.

Monday night we had dinner with R&E at Giovanni’s in Marietta. It was great to see them again and catch up on their new lake estate. In sparing no expense, R will have a state of the art ice maker in the lower level – can’t wait to try it out! We were able to also see blog readers M&M at the restaurant also. It was nice to finally meet him and see that he was recovering. I didn’t ask if he had replaced the motorcycle yet.

The real purpose of the trip back was to help A get over to Dubai with her recent rotator cuff surgery. The return trip Tuesday night went very well as we were able to sit up front together. Once again, I was able to pay the $100 over weight penalty for her suitcase. It really doesn’t take much to go over the limit of fifty pounds. The fourteen hour flight was uneventful as I slept through most of it.

A has now acclimated to Sharjah and the surrounding areas. Not too sure she enjoys the car rides to get where we’re going, but she does enjoy getting there. She is already branching out from the Souks for the back streets!

More on the flying next week.

End of Ramadan

Last Saturday I flew in the cockpit of a rival company’s 767ER into and out of Kabul to observe the inflight procedures and problems. The aircraft left at 0740 and because it was an international flight, I had to be there at 0540. It was a very early wake up! The trip was excellent in that I could see why the northern route into Kabul was far superior to the southern one due to heavy military flights from one of their airfields. The biggest hurdle of the trip was Ramadan AGAIN! I didn’t eat on the way up and knew I had four and a half hours in the Kabul Airport to get something to eat. The airport only broke the rules enough to get me a Diet Coke!

With all the mountains in the Kabul area, it is a day VFR airport only. Even with the GPS working and programmed perfectly, the mountains can be extremely dangerous. The biggest problem I foresee is the engine failure during takeoff and getting above them. To add to that problem is that the elevation of Kabul is 5800 feet. So much for density altitude helping!

On Sunday night I had dinner with MR from Atlanta. It was really good to catch up on life with him as we really haven’t had a lot of one on one time since his embarking on a career with one of the major corporations. We had dinner at his hotel, the Meridien Mina Seyahi Beach Resort, which overlooked both the Palm Jumeirah and the Burj Al Arab. It was a very nice atmosphere on the outside decks with the evening temperature perfect. I was disturbed to hear how low Lake Lanier is. I guess the extra two billion gallons of water released by “mistake” last year is coming back to haunt the Corps of Engineers.

The official announcement was made Wednesday that Ramadan would be over on Friday. I’ve been waiting for that announcement since it all started. I couldn’t wait for the economy to get back to “normal.” However, I then found out at the office that at the end of Ramadan there is an additional two day holiday where the stores still stay closed which is called Eid. So knowing that it would be a very long weekend with cabs very hard to obtain and underground cabs charging double, I rented a car! Driving here is very similar to playing Whirlyball in Atlanta. The rules for driving here are very simple: Tractor trailers trump; Cement trucks are close behind; SUVs are to be respected; after that – all cars are fair game! For the first time in my life I took out as much insurance as I could get on this vehicle. Just let someone else worry about all the dings.

The pilots decided today to give a reception for the flight attendants and management later this month so K, B, and I drove to Ajman today to try to find some bids on this reception. Some of you may be surprised, but the Russian hotel up there gave us a great offer, may even be one we can’t refuse. The hotel is right on the water with two nice pools in addition. It is right next door to the Kempinski Hotel, where I originally wanted to go. Once again, the ONLY place to buy a drink in the UAE is in a hotel!

Before any questions are asked in the comment section, yes the Hole in the Wall was open and I did take advantage of it.

Fujairah

On Saturday morning I had scheduled all the pilots to go to Ras Al Khaimah to have their first look at our aircraft. As I have mentioned previously, the ride takes about an hour and a half. Once you pass through Sharjah and go out the other side of RAK, it is pure desert. As you can see, if the picture makes it, there are wild camels in the area. Had to get a couple pictures to prove to everyone that they are indigenous to the area!



Arriving at the airport and seeing little traffic, I realized that Saturday was a holiday. We were originally going to pick up the last pilots security pass, but certainly not with the office closed. After about forty five minutes discussing the problem with the officials, they agreed to let the pilot pass in my CUSTODY! I told him to stay real close on the ramp. To make a long story short, battery was dead and ramp temperature was 115 degrees, so we didn’t stay on the ramp too long.

J and I had dinner with another airline friend, R, at the Radisson Hotel Dubai Creek on Wednesday night. Very good contact as he also flies into Kabul numerous times per week. Looks like I will be going back to Kabul for one last trip prior to starting service. I plan to go to Kabul this Saturday during a turnaround. This will amount to about 5.5 hours of flight time with a four hour layover. Plane leaves Dubai at 0740.

Thursday I was trying to leave the office about 12:00 to extend the weekend a few more hours when I was asked by L what time I wanted a pickup in the morning to move the aircraft to Fujairah, Oman? Apparently, our parking spot in RAK has been let for a long term contract. Everyone must remain fluid over here as I had given our secretary my passport that morning for another Afghanistan Visa. I had told her and another person, I, to return it to the apartment Thursday afternoon. I was adamant that I wanted the same day visa! Of course I had received the usual “no problem” reply.

Friday morning at 0630 I asked “I” if he had brought my passport from the office. He did go “white” when he realized: he didn’t have it; it was the normal Friday holiday; I needed it to go to Fujairah; and the van had two mechanics ready to go for minor maintenance. To stir the pot some more, the airport closes at 1300 for Ramadan. He was getting very frantic trying to reach anyone on the phone, but no one in their right mind answers the phone at 0700 on a holiday. I finally recommended that he go to Ras Al Khaimah with the mechanics to get them started and get the other Duty Drive moving to get my passport. He then asked what I would do and I said “I’m going back to bed!” I explained to him that “poor planning on his part does not constitute an emergency on my part.”

My passport did arrive at 1100 that morning with a driver to take me to Ras Al Khaimah. My original idea in moving the aircraft was to stay at 5000 feet and fly the water route from Ras Al Khaimah to Fujairah. This would involve flying around the southern point of the Strait of Hormuze (?). As with all my ideas, this would have been a spectacular trip. However, after getting into the idea and reading all the military warnings (US warships, Iranian Navy, UAE restricted areas) I decided to fly over the mountain directly to Fujairah.

The trip itself was uneventful, tower to tower turnover. There is about forty miles separating the two airports but a world apart. On the approach, looking north there were more than sixty of the large oil tankers lined up to receive oil. There is an underground pipeline to the Indian Ocean side so they don’t have to transit the Strait of Hormuze. The other difference is that just about all the other planes were old Russian Cargo Types. There is a lot of flying between here and the former Soviet States to the north. Pictures will be forwarded to


Fujairah, International. Note the tow bar bend for the Russian Aircraft.

End of September

We finished up the five days of simulator training with a check flight. I needed to see how the other pilots were progressing, so after K and myself, I spent the remainder of the day observing simulator periods. Needless to say, this made for a very long day. I was certainly ready to get back to the hotel.

With Ramadan over at 7:30 the entire group went up to the roof top Indian restaurant for the Iftar Buffet. We had been to this restaurant on numerous occasions so were well known by the staff. The reason we were there was an interesting sidelight of Ramadan. As I have mentioned previously, there is NO alcohol served during the month of Ramadan. Not that I would “skirt the rules,” but on previous nights we had been able to order “cold tea” that arrived at the table in a nice silver tea pot with a China cup and saucer. The “cold tea” was actually a way for the steady customers to get a cold beer, under the table so to speak. On this evening not all things were possible in Bahrain as there were under cover police watching in the kitchen and restaurant to ensure Ramadan rules were followed. So back to the room after dinner!

Gulf Air did provide us with first class seats for the returning trip to Dubai. Their service was excellent and the US airlines could learn a good deal from them. In a two hour flight they served a full meal, many juice, water, soft drink runs, and gave everyone a newspaper in the language of your choice. It is really very easy to get used to first class when someone else is paying the tab!

Once again arriving back into Dubai we had to make a Duty Free run before finding our driver S. Everyone purchased their limit of Duty Free but there is really no way to hide it from the driver, who is an Afghan Muslim. So, Ramadan or not, he turns a blind eye to our purchases as he knows who fills up his “rice bowl!”

With the pilots and flight attendants trained at this point, it is now up to the S Brothers to decide when to start and where to go. I think that we will begin operations sometime before the fifteenth of October. Hopefully they will start small so everyone can get some experience working together before getting too exotic. Although the new web site, http://safiairways.aero/, doesn’t seem to indicate a slow start! I would like to point out also that I had nothing to do with the building of the site.

I was very anxious to get back to Dubai this time because I was going to have my first visitor! This SNIL, Simulated Nephew in Law, was JS from Singapore. He was staying at the Arabian Courtyard in Bur Dubai, so we decided to have dinner there. He travels to Dubai numerous times a year on business, so I hope he ends up being the one constant while I’m here. I really did try to get him to the Ice Bar in Dubai to no avail. I had really thought he and his wife K were into this lifestyle. What can I say; he had to go to bed early! There are hackers and non hackers… I’m sure the Rs will go when they get here in November.

As I have mentioned before, it is a moral violation to use Skype on the internet in the UAE. The authorities are not able to keep Skype off the internet but they can BLOCK direct dialing internationally; they can BLOCK the ability to pay your account online; they can BLOCK direct dialing into your account. The only thing they can’t BLOCK is Skype to Skype calls, which are free.

So the commercial for this blog is about SMSDiscount.com. All the pilots have joined it as of yesterday. We took them up on their offer of 120 days of free international calling and then one to two cents per minute on the international calls after that. I was able to call GHD on SMSDiscount and the reception was excellent. We’ll see how long it takes for the UAE to find out about this. The real problem here is that both of these firms take away business from Etisalat, which is a UAE communications company. For those of you that may be going overseas, one must stay a step ahead of these guys.

Bahrain

Saturday morning K and I went to the Dubai airport for our flight to Bahrain for ground and simulator training. The other pilots had gone up the day before while we were flying the aircraft to Ras Al Khaimah.

There were some interesting facets to the Gulf Airways Dangerous Goods program that are not covered by US carriers. One good example is falcons. This may appear to just be an Air Force bird to you, but over here they are taken very seriously. Their initial price may be ten to fifteen thousand and go up from there. Be that has it may, you may take your falcon onboard the aircraft with you provided: (1) it is in coach; (2) it is hooded; (3) it must be chained to the seat and a pedestal is provided. However, if the passenger owning the bird sits in first class, the bird will have its pedestal in first class also (VVIP). Apparently about ninety five percent of the flacons that fly in the aircraft are in first class. One Gulf Air Training Captain said it was very interesting to watch the falcon on the pedestal because during takeoff it naturally leans forward and then backwards during landing.

Another example is the ceremonial dagger that an Arab always carries while wearing their long white robes. They are presented to the check-in counter and will be placed in a very nice padded box to be given back at their destination. First Class (VVIP) daggers sometimes are authorized in the cockpit! So much for US security!

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that we have been here during Ramadan. I’m really not sure of the significance of this lunar month, but it over takes everything. Muslims fast from sun up to sun down. So what this means in this liberal religious bastion is that no restaurants can serve food to anyone during this time, no alcohol can be served anywhere during the month, and you cannot have anything to drink (water, juice etc) during the day. If you are seen in pubic with a cookie or cracker, fines can be received. Muslims are not allowed to work during sunrise to sunset, so very hard to find ANYTHING open or to tour around (no taxis). Everyday is Sunday when we had our Blue Laws.

On initial check-in at the hotel I found a nice oriental rug in the room. It was about twenty four by forty two inches in a royal blue basic color. I soon realized that this was not a great bathmat, it was the prayer rug. I guess the Guidens Society are not very big over here!

The Gulf Air Training Facility did provide us with a private room, with a guard, for us to have coffee, tea, and our hand carried lunches from our flight kits. The glass door and windows to this room were covered over with paper so no one could look in and see us eating and drinking! So, we’ll be out of here next Tuesday and we’ll see how Sharjah celebrates. Always something!

CHINA

090807 It looks like China is getting very close! The authorization for the Business Class tickets went to the Travel Agent (Safi) today and we’ll get them Monday. Since the plane is purchased from China Air, we must fly them rather than Emirates Airways. Will be packing and planning for the trip till then.

Right now the plan is to take the Monday night flight which departs at 2300 arriving into Beijing at 1100 the next day. Beijing is four hours ahead of Dubai, so this will be a total of twelve hours ahead of Atlanta. What this all means is that I’m now half a world away!

We had received directions to the Hotel written in Chinese so the taxi driver would know where to take us. These directions proved invaluable; as we could use them anywhere we went and knew any taxi driver could get us “home.” The Hotel had very large apartments and was in a very nice part of town, at least for ExPats.

K and I got our signals crossed on when we would take our combat naps, so ended up at the Silk Market at different times. This is the market where most people have their custom tailored suits made which requires the first meeting to pick out the material needed, type of suit or sport coat, buttons etc. Twenty fours hours later is the second meeting where your clothes are fine tuned to your exact measurements. Then once again after twenty fours hours your clothes are ready. I was able to get two suits, one sport coat, and four shirts for the price I was going to pay last Christmas for the same sport coat. So, in that regard, it was a successful trip.

Now about the Silk Market! What a place to walk into. The only way I can describe the Silk Market is to call it a “zoo.” The first two floors must be very good “knock offs.” The prices that they are selling name brands for is unbelievable! There are two to three floors of small cubicles selling clothing for all age groups. The people running these booths put the American car dealers to shame when it come to aggressive selling.

My first night there I made the mistake of stopping to look at some Tommy Bahama knock offs. The young sales girl took the shirt off a hangar and handed it to me. Stupidly taking the shirt in my hand, I was “fair game.” With the shirt in my hand, she had the opportunity to grab my Cross Pen out of my pocket to “look at.” All of a sudden the pen is in her friend’s hands and we’re playing “Monkey in the Middle,” and guess who the monkey is? Once I obtained my pen back, I knew I had to stay focused on ordering my suits.

I think the rules I learned from these first three floors were: don’t touch anything, don’t shake hands (you can be pulled into the shops), don’t answer where you’re from (they then know which currency to convert to), offer your first price at 25% of what they want and try to stay below the 50% level and you will win, stay focused on why you’re there. Other than these rules, just go and have a great time!

Now we need to talk about the upper floors. This is where the good stuff is. The jewelry, jade, pearls, and stones appear to be very good. Like the Gold Souk, a lot of weighing goes on to determine prices. Artistry does change the price. They do have real luggage (Samsonite) for very good prices but again negotiating comes into play.

I had arranged to have dinner with SB in China on the first night. It turns out he lives very close to the hotel so we decided to have dinner at a German restaurant in the Lufthansa Center. I do understand that you don’t go to Beijing for German food, but this was very good. It was very nice to be able to sit outside and have adult refreshment. The only problem outside is that the Chinese are able to put the people of Los Angeles to shame with all their smog. Those that are able to see my pictures will see that on the ramp of Beijing airport visibility is only about half a mile during the day do to this smog. It must be all the bicycles over here!

The real reason I was in Beijing was to pick up the 767 for Safi Airways and take it to Ras Al Khaimah, UAE. Tuesday morning Air China picked up K and I as well as two others that have been “getting the plane ready for flight.” These two also happen to work for Safi Airways. One of the individuals was named J, who is an Afghan and is the brother of our President. The second is an Italian named M who happens to be “a maintenance professional.”

Our two Safi employees begin to explain how to get the security passes at the Air China/Lufthansa Maintenance Facility and Chinese Military. It sounds so easy when I put the initial conversation on computer, but as some of you know, nothing is easy with the Chinese!

Arriving at the front gate at the Maintenance Facility, we went into the security office. The initial pass didn’t take too long but the agent there wanted to keep our passports, which we would need to get our ramp permits. It took a few calls to our Air China Customer Service Agent to have him explain in Chinese that we were not required to give the passports to her. She succumbed to the pressure and we had our passports back in hand.

We then went to the Safi Office within Air China and gathered up numerous items that J and M would need at the aircraft. K and I had our flight kits that we would need to check out the various systems to accomplish our mission. Our Customer Service Agent, Paul, was then to take K and I to the main terminal for our ramp permits. Nobody said it was five miles away! In the main terminal it was pictures, passports, and lots of questions.

Arriving back at security point number one, we now proceeded to security point number two. At security point number two, the military scanned our bags, had us go through a magnetometer, and inspected the Air China truck we had. They also stamped our security permit, which also meant that when we left the ramp, we couldn’t go back unless we went back to the main terminal and purchased another pass! The bureaucracy didn’t stop there. As we approached OUR aircraft and unloaded the truck, I noticed an armed Private (or whatever) approaching. The Air China Customer Agent told us he really “owns” the aircraft at that point and we couldn’t touch it till a mechanic was there.

We called for a mechanic and of course there is another wait. When the mechanic arrived, there was a formal signing ceremony at which time the mechanic “owned” the aircraft and was responsible for all of us on OUR aircraft! All of this could possible even put the Russians to shame!

During our inspection we did find a couple items that needed fixing and made a list up for Air China. We also checked the FMS (navigation) extensively and ordered updated software. As it was now approaching 5:00PM, we had to get ready to go because we would have to have another signing ceremony and get back to the office because the entire plant closes then.

Wednesday was a very busy day. Our president wanted the aircraft washed, the Italian ordered a fourteen day check, Air China had to finish the requested items, final money had to be transferred, the 8 hour and ten minute flight plan had to be filed, catering had to be ordered, and most of all we needed 50,000# of additional fuel. Again I mention that K & I had also to get to the tailors to pick up our clothes. So, needless to say, this day will turn into one of those “lake stories!”

Private and Corporate jets must leave Beijing before 6:00AM, which required a very early pickup. I had planned on a 5:00AM takeoff to give myself some slack. After an excessive amount of taxiing, we did have a 5:10 takeoff. The flight was on its way toward the Gobi Desert, Himalayas, and then to the desert again. If you are not familiar with those items, we followed the northern Chinese border, west to Pakistan, down the Pakistan border with Afghanistan, over Iran to Bandar Abass, over the Straights of Hormuze (?) to Ras Al Khaimah.

The trip itself was uneventful but had extremely beautiful scenery. Not only was the Gobi interesting, but the Himalayas had a MOCA of somewhere around 32,000 feet. We were only cruising at 38,000 feet, so it was very interesting to be about 8000 feet above the ground. I will put more out on this trip to the aviation types later.

The arrival and landing at Ras Al Khaimah was as all the Navy friends would expect. The old touch is still there and I was “back in the saddle again!”

The joy of the moment was only tempered by the thought that I had to be in Bahrain the next morning.

Have a good week!