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!