Second Week of August

080707 I arrived at 9:00AM for my planned meeting with Captain V Lakshman Reddy, expat head of the Gulf Air 767 Simulators. Very competent individual who flew with Air India prior to being pulled into the training realm. From my past experience, this is a small operation with two A320 sims, one A340 sim, as well as one 767 sim. However, as the saying goes, it is the ONLY sim in town. The next closest 767 sim would be London or Frankfurt requiring too much transit.

For those of you from the aviation community, the interesting thing to remember setting up the program is that Afghanistan really hasn’t set up their controlling authority, so we are really autonomous. What we set up may well turn out to be their model. For GT and BW, like setting up the initial P3C budgets. To make us acceptable to the EU and others we will have to be very close to their model.

I was able to complete everything in one day but will be staying one more night in Bahrain leaving early in the morning. I didn’t mention the Bahrain airport previously, but after Dubai it is similar to Muscle Sholes, Alabama. It is a fifties stile airport that is functional but will never be a hub. The one restaurant that stood out was Chile’s! When I was leaving customs, I was not surprised at having to pay five Dinars for a visa, but that the rate is $3.00/Dinar. Very few places in the world require more dollars than their basic unit.

I was scheduled to leave Bahrain at 7:15 in the morning, so I checked in the required two hours early. I again checked through security before getting to the check-in counter. At 7:00AM the realization hit me that there was not a plane at the gate and people were leaving. Checking the gate assignment monitor, I realized the gate was changed. Changing gates and I notice the departure time has changed to 9:30AM. Again, people were leaving close to 9:00AM with another gate change and time pushed back to 12:30PM. All these changes and not one announcement! We actually pushed back from the gate at 1:30 arriving back into Dubai with the time change at 5:00PM. Gulf Air is not high on my list!

Returning to the office I was informed the aircraft was ready to be picked up in Beijing and that it was also insured. Our hold up now is the Boeing Manuals and we can’t get them till the title transfers…everything has its own time. Anyway we’re now completing the flight planning from Beijing to Dubai. I believe this will happen before the end of August. We will be calling the other pilots over very soon and it will be nice to have more company.

Before Beijing, John and I will be traveling to Kabul to set up the operation and procedures up there. This should not be hard since we’re also building a new terminal at the airport! Because the US Air Force has such a presence in Afghanistan, it is interesting to note one of the procedures for departure is to have the wheel wells pressure washed to prevent the spread of Hof and Mouth disease. Just another bird bath!

080907 So far, I really haven’t mentioned the working environment and schedules. The office is downtown Dubai by the clock tower. The working hours are 10:00AM to 6:00PM, Saturday through Thursday. That’s right folks, six days and Thursday is really Friday night. The office is really as diverse as diverse can get. Very nice folks, and their rundown would be:
R -- Afghan about 35, owner with his brother, quiet but absorbs a lot. No problems making a decision quickly and efficiently.
S -- Afghan, former Captain for Ariana Airlines, longtime friend of owner’s family. Handles most of the business end of flying as well as the pilots and flight attendants. Old school and keeps the operation on some type of timetable. Wants the plane here ASAP.
J -- American who handles hiring all the pilots and the initial training in MIA. Former Pan Am and operated foreign airlines for them.
L -- From the Philippines. Flew and administrated Cathy Pacific flight attendants for twenty years. Started out with thirty six F/As but now down to thirty five due to a problem! She and her husband (Australian) have been here for almost three years and are in their second condo here. Sold the first one for a profit already M! Very competent individual.
S -- Indian who runs the office as the administrative assistant. She is a very effective YNCS! Most important is that she handles electronic banking for ME!
C -- Italian who is in charge of catering and logistics. He is a very likable guy who lives in the same apartment with his wife and two kids. He’s actually the one who has gotten me thinking about renting a car. It is amazing how cheap cars are to buy here with no taxes! He is from Northern Italy (Milan) about 37.
I -- Afghan that handles the public relations and communication. Young guy about 28 who I believe is looking to the long term. Good ideas on reservations and the impending sales push. He also lives in the apartment building and rides in in the morning. Faster than a type A!
K -- UAE dispatcher. He has walked me through all the computerization for the weights and balance and it is far ahead of anything I have used in the past! Interestingly if the mainframe goes down, there is another computer onboard that can be used. Nothing like backups!
Sa -- Arab from Dubai that is the IT king for the office. He is very well trained on most of the computers and software currently available. He just gets things done! We will be leaving at the end of this month for new offices (900 meters square) at the airport and he is in charge of the office and wiring. He is really trying to make them economical because when the new International Wing is finished next July we will be moving into our permanent offices (3500 meters square) there.
Im -- Not sure, just know he’s Muslim. He is the office gofer and that is the only way to put it. He constantly wants to get me water, coke light (diet for you Americans), tea, or food. When I’m in the office he sits about ten feet from me and his two eyes are just waiting and watching to do something. As bad as I am, I had to roll a pencil off my desk just to see how fast he could pick it up…bad, bad, bad!

OK, now you know the lineup. They are all really polite qualified people starting a new airline. One thing that is really different from Delta is seeing the same people everyday and getting to know them. Yes I do know size makes a difference!

Since I arrived last Friday night, tomorrow will be my first day off. My plan is to sleep late, go swimming at a local park C recommended, and (don’t be surprised) go to the grocery store. Since I’m back in the apartment with no internet right now, it may be a while before this all gets sent out.

081107 I enjoyed my wake up call from the Ts lake house and speaking to everyone. I noticed that I spoke to everyone except K who is usually a lightweight staying awake with the troops. It is easy to see my leadership skills were missed by the wine opened late.

My day off turned out not to be as I expected. I had planned to get a taxi and go to the beach which is about fifteen minutes away. As it so happens, everyone in Dubai is off on Friday and Saturday and uses taxis. Very, very , very difficult to get a cab at all, much less that distance.

So as flexible as I am, I decided to go to the Mall and Super Market instead. Same taxi problem! Using the old Moscow trick of standing with you arm at 45 degrees, I was able to commandeer a private taxi. Unlike Moscow, these are usually twice the going taxi rate---but they are there and ready!

I had the private taxi driver take me to the Sahara Mall. Very large mall, even by US standards. It is three levels with the lower level mostly a very large Super Market call Spinny’s. The middle and half of the upper level are all the international stores you can think of. The remainder half of the upper level is covered by a “tent roof” and houses the restaurants.

Starting with the stores, I was able to find two pillows which I sorely needed. Continuing to Spinny’s, when buying milk and milk products here one does have to remember that camels make milk also! The final event at the mall was dinner.

I don’t normally do it when I travel, but I went to an American franchise---Chile’s. G would be proud of me. The first thing that struck me was it appeared bigger than American Chile’s that I am accustomed to. The second thing was a much larger staff and always immediate service. The third was the segregation. Women in birkas were in the back right area, women with birkas and children were in the back left area, those in European dress were grouped together, and finally traditionally dressed Arab men were in another section. The food was good and the experience better. However one must remember that Sharjah is dry, so nothing alcoholic was served. The waiter did do a double take when I asked.