Unknown Rider

"The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious.  It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science.   Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed." ~ Albert Einstein 

Gentle Readers and Loved Ones,

The other morning flying from Guanghzhou, China to Bangkok, Thailand, a small saga occurred that I think you might find interesting and maybe even funny.  It ties together current events concerning the recent disappearance of the Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, the planet Venus and an old bar story that happened years ago.

As many of my aviation stories go, this story will require some ‘splainin’.

Guanghzhou has the ICAO 4 letter Identifier of ZGGG.  (Z is the country ID label for China just like K is the ID for the US.)  Guanghzhou is difficult to type and say, so I tend to refer to it as “Ziggy”.  Ziggy is our Asian Freight Hub and we fly in and out of there frequently.

Here is a map of our route of flight.  VHHH is Hong Kong, VTBS is Bangkok.

Next comes an astronomical discussion.  The planet Venus is an inner planet and this constrains where it can appear in our night sky.  It never gets higher than 45-47 degrees above or below the sun.  If you have a telescope and look at Venus, it behaves like the moon.  It has phases and depending on its position in relation to the sun it goes from a slender crescent to a full Venus. Mercury does too.

One would think that it would be at its brightest when it is full just as the moon is, but one would be wrong.  When it is full, it is on the other side of the sun and it is very close to limb of the sun and lost in the sun’s dazzle.  When it is roughly a half Venus, it is relatively close to the earth, climbs as high in the sky as it can and is very bright.  This picture illustrates that property.

The picture is from http://www.theplanetstoday.com/ and shows the relative position of the inner planets on the night of this story.  It shows how Venus is at max elongation right now.  When we took of from Ziggy, Venus was just rising in the east and my inner astronomy geek noted that Venus was now a morning star.  The last time I had seen it was in the west and an evening star.  

Generally, planets don't twinkle like stars do.  But when Venus is very bright and close the horizon it does "scintillate" and change colors.  It can be quite striking.  

Next, the old bar story.  Gentle Readers, if you have an impressionable young one who will read this, you might want to do some parenting here and read ahead.

Years ago when I was newly hired at FedEx we wound up on a layover somewhere in “flyover country”.  Some good ol’ boys in the bar had discovered we were FedEx pilots and had struck up a conversation with us.  As the conversation progressed, I could tell that one of the fellows had something on his mind and was working up the courage to ask. 

Finally, he said: “Geoff, you boys in FedEx fly all night, don’t cha?”  

I admitted that we did.  

“Well….I bet you boys see some shit.”

It took me a moment to realize he wanted me to tell him a UFO story.  I had to disappoint him and say that I have spent a lot time looking at the night sky from a flight deck and from the ground with the naked eye, binoculars and telescope and I have never seen anything that I can’t explain. 

So…two mornings ago, we were cruising at 34000’ above Mean Sea Level and had just entered Sanya Control airspace.  This is near the east coast of Hainan Island which in the big scheme of things is not too far from the airspace where the Malaysian 777 disappeared.  The story I am about to relate gives me the impression that people flying in that part of the world are just a little on edge.  I have never had anything like this happen to me before in my 11000+ hours of aviation.

When we checked in with Sanya Control, a new Chinese voice came on the radio.  You could tell that he had a little better command of the English language that your average Chinese controller and that he was either a little nonplussed or a little embarrassed or both. 

“FedEx, we have a report of an….unknown object.  It may be at your 9 o’clock and a little above you and about 45 kilometers away.  Do you see anything?” 

That is my side of the airplane and I turned to look.  All I saw when I looked out was Venus…which was very bright and hanging right there above the horizon.  I noted that it was as bright as I’ve ever seen it and looked kind of like an airplane’s landing light when the airplane is roughly 5 miles away or so.  And….a light bulb started to dawn in my head…..  There was no other traffic anywhere out there. 

We answered back negative visual contact with any traffic at our 9 o’clock.  Sanya said he had reports and it may move closer to us as we traveled further over Hainan Island.  We repeat “No Joy on the traffic.”

Sanya continued to insist that he had reports of an unknown traffic both to us and to other aircraft as we passed by them.  He sounded like he was growing frustrated with our inability to see whatever it was. This continued for the roughly 20 minutes it took us to fly through his airspace.  We switched over to Ho Chi Minh Control never having seen anything. 

So, using my aviation Sherlock Holmes Mystery Decoder Ring, what I surmise happened is that some previous crew flying along saw Venus low in eastern sky, maybe scintillating in multi-colors, thought it was an airliner or …gawd help me… a UFO….lighting him up with a bright landing light kind of beam and reported it to Sanya Control. 

I always thought that UFO stories being put down as Venus or Swamp Gas or Weather Ballons were funny.  Now I have my very own UFO story from the mysterious Orient.

On that happy note, I remain,

Dad / Geoff

A Different Solar Transit

  "I began to feel that I lived on a higher plane than the skeptics on the ground.  In flying, I tasted a wine of the gods of which they could know nothing.  Who valued life more highly, the aviators who spent it on the art they loved, or these misers who doled it out like pennies through their antlike days?  I decided that if I could fly for ten years before I was killed in a crash, it would be a worthwhile trade for an ordinary lifetime." ~ Charles Lindbergh

Gentle Readers and Loved Ones,

You may or may not recall my post talking about the Solar Transit of Venus from sometime back.  Click this if you want to reread it.

If you reread it, you will see down in the text a reference to seeing airplanes operating in and out of Minneapolis - St Paul Airport flying in front of the sun and how none of us were quick enough to get a picture of the event.

I was browsing around the inner toobs the other day and saw this striking photo.

 It is an MD-11 - the very same airframe I am employed to fly - crossing in front of the face of the sun.  This was the NASA Astronomy Photo of the Day (APOD) on Jan 29, 2001.  It was taken by the French astrophotographer Thierry Lagault near Paris using a small telescope and a Hydrogen Alpha Filter.  

I do not know if it was a FedEx MD-11 or some other company's hull, but this is just way cool.

On that happy note, I remain,

Dad / Geoff

Time Zone Vs Solar Time

 "An entire sensibility - it is called conservatism - is bound up with the idea that time is a test, that some things pass it, but most flunk." ~ George Will

Gentle Readers and Loved Ones,

I just saw a way cool map and I had to share it with you all.  As you know the world is divided into time zones because the world is round and it spins and the sun ain't in the same place in the sky all over the world.  There are 24 time zones and that means that each time zone is roughly 15° of longitude wide.

Therefore if you happen to live in the furthest east portion of your time zone, your 'local day' - based on the position of the sun in the sky - will start earlier and end earlier than someone who lives in the furthest west portion of your time zone. This despite both of your clocks showing the same time.

This map shows that relationship.  Green shows the eastern most times where your local day is ahead of the official time zone time and red shows where it is behind. 

Click this link for a full sized interactive look at this map.

If you want a detailed explanation of this look here:  Time Zone and here: Solar Time.

On that happy note of geekinosity,  I remain,

Dad / Geoff

Jan 6th 2014

Gentle Readers and Loved Ones,

Sometimes a single picture is worth a thousand cliches.  This morning, our back deck, 0900 Hrs Local.

 

 On that happy note, I remain,

Dad / Geoff

Gilbert Whisler and Pearl Harbor Revisited

"Only the dead have seen the end of war." ~ Plato

Gentle Readers and Loved Ones,

It's Dec 7th - A Day That Will Live In Infamy - and it lead me to google Gilbert Whisler. I wrote about him earlier here and here.

Google linked me to the Find a Grave website.  This is a link to Gilbert Whisler's grave that I visited.  It also has a picture of the temporary grave site where he was interred until being moved to the punchbowl.

TogetherWeServed.com has a link here with the picture of Private Whisler I posted earlier.  It also says cause of death was drowning, suffocation which leads me to the sad conclusion he was one of the unlucky souls trapped below decks but close enough to an entry to be recovered.

So...on the 72nd anniversary of Pearl Harbor, another post.  Maybe the last.  It is my hope that all you Gentle Readers and Loved Ones will take a moment and remember those that have gone before.

Dad / Geoff

The Eagle

  "There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man by which so much happiness is produced as  a good tavern."  ~   Samuel Johnson

Gentle Readers and Loved Ones All,

I am back home now after circumnavigating the globe in 12 days.  

We spent one night in Cambridge, England.  FedEx freight going into the London area arrives at London Stanstead Airport.  Then we cab up to Cambridge to layover.  Enroute we passed by the Duxford Imperial War Museum - which I one day hope to visit.

Other than the university - home of the Lucasian Chair of Mathematics (Newton!  Hawking!) - one of Cambridge's most famous landmarks is the Eagle.  Established in 1500, it's a great place to eat and drink.

The Eagle is famous for two things.  In 1953, Watson and Crick announced the discovery of DNA there at lunch.  

More importantly, from my point of view, is the RAF Bar.  There are aviation pictures all over the wall and various RAF and USAF Squadron Stickers (zaps) applied on manifold surfaces.  There are a huge number of Eagle photos here.

Most important of all is the ceiling.  During WWII, RAF pilots used their lighters, candles and other incendiary devices to burn and smoke graffiti and their names in the ceiling where they remain today.  

On that happy note, I remain,

Dad/Geoff

Dubai Desert Safari

“No, no! The adventures first, explanations take such a dreadful time.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

Gentle Readers and Loved Ones,

I am presently in Dubai.  Yesterday I experienced one of the top ten best layover experiences of my highly mediocre FedEx career.  Let me tell the story chronologically.  

I am flying this trip with an old friend - we have flown together more than a few times.  When we found out that we had a two day layover in Dubai, we decided to be tourists.  Since the flight here from Paris was over 8 hours, we picked up a Relief First Officer (RFO) so we could spend some down-time in the back of the airplane at cruise.  Federal Aviation Regulations do not permit us to exceed 8 hours in a day at the controls.  Emails flew back and forth and we decided to begin researching Dubai's infamous "Desert Safari".

A side story now.  The hotel in Dubai treats us to a free 18:30 Happy Hour in the 6th floor's Executive Lounge.  All the crews in the hotel - being frugal sorts - get together each evening to share free victuals, drink and comradely badinage.  The night we got here I met an old friend and his FO and our list of Desert Safari adventurers rose to 5 members. 

Google was consulted, emails flew betwixt electronic devices, notes were shoved under doors and it was decided that we would meet yesterday in the lobby to be picked up by North Tours Dubai Safari sometime between 1530 and 1600 local.  For the nominal fee of 185 Dirhams - roughly $50 'murkan - we would be picked up and returned to the hotel, driven through genuine desert sand dunes - "Dunes Bashing" - ending the evening at a desert campsite for a barbecue dinner and Belly Dancer show.  Included in the fee was camel rides.  For a small extra fee you could run ATVs through the sandy race area and snowboard a nearby sand dune.  

We loaded up in the 4th Generation Range Rover that would be our carriage for the next 5 hours and drove off into the UAE's desert stopping off to pick up a Nigerian Chemical Engineer who was in Dubai for the Formula 1 race.  

 

Four Guys in a Range Rover with Roll Cage

 The driver was employed by the North Tours and had been doing these Safaris for nine years. 

As I understand it, Dubai's economy is not primarily based on oil.  It is a commercial and entertainment hub.  They rely heavily on imported experience and labor.  Our driver was a Pakistani citizen, trained in the special Dunes Safari Drivers School.  We drove through town seeing many Dubai sights that I had not seen before.

Burj Khalifa Tower from freeway

On the freeway we passed a stretched hummer.  I thought this made nice artsy photo.  Please note the Arabic Script at the bottom of our Range Rover's mirror.  I cannot bring myself to think that it said:  "Infidels may be closer than they appear."

Rearview Mirror

 South of town, we stopped at an authentic traditional Arabic Oasis for possible potty breaks and because I am sure the Tour Owner had a contractual arrangement - if he did not out-right own the oasis itself.

Range Rover and Oasis

Oasis Signage

Inside the oasis, you could purchase critical desert survival supplies..... 

mmmm

Desert Survival Store

and have your picture taken with a genuine Arabian Falcon.  (CJ Box's Nate Romanowski would probably not approve...but I digress.)

The Falcon

 After this necessary break, we loaded back up and drove to the site of the "Dunes Bashing".  Here is a google map to orient yourself.  The long line from the exit of the desert to the campground is an artifact of a bad GPS position capture.

View Desert Safari in a larger map

Here we are entering the marshalling area to begin the Dunes Bashing.  (You may view these videos full screen by clicking the square in the lower right corner.)

Several observations here.  First, our Range Rover was luxuriously appointed.  The interior was heavily padded to include the roll cage.  Second, the air conditioner was never turned off, despite the fact that we did some serious, sand flinging Dunes Bashing.  Finally, the radio blasted the entire time.  This was not some old, rusted, tired, hot jeep.

Next, I had pictured that we would have the desert to ourselves.  Not so.  Whoever runs these tours is making some serious bucks as there were hundreds of vehicles from multiple tours all marshaled up ready to run.  There must be some system of Sand Dune Traffic Control as our driver appeared to know where to enter the queue.  We did not just drive willy-nilly over any and all the dunes.  There was a track and all the vehicles followed it.  I am sure this was experience speaking; if we had all pursued random tracks the probability of collision at the top of a blind dune would rise astronomically. 

At the marshal point, our driver got out and let the air out of the tires, lowering the tire pressure to 15 psi so as to improve sand traction.  I was transported back to my youth running the sandy orange groves of Central Florida in our old dune buggy.  

At some signal, we were off Dune Bashing.

Our driver issued us a warning about car sickness. 

A note at this point.  There were five experienced international freight pilots in this car.  We ain't getting sick in front of each other - even if we gotta swallow it.  Secondly and more importantly since none of us even got queasy - we are pros after all - was that I guarantee you that each of us thought we could do a better job of driving the dunes than the driver.  (...and we were all wrong.)

Roughly 3/4s of the way across the desert we stopped on a sandy dune ledge that overlooked a really pretty crag.  As we approached that crag, I noticed a 'feral' SUV that was high-lining the sand.  As I put the camera up to get a picture a C-17 screamed overhead.

SUV on bluff with C-17 overfly

Once we stopped, I got this video of the same guy on the crag.

 

At this point, we had stopped to cool the vehicles - note all the hoods are up - and to enjoy the desert sunset.  

Rest Stop

Sunset on the Dunes

 At this point our intrepid driver pulled out a battery powered air pump and re-inflated our tires while other drivers did not.  I wondered at the wisdom of this as we were still in the desert. 

Air Pump

Once we reached the highway I learned why.  The other vehicles were pulled over to the side of the asphalt and driving slowly on their vastly under inflated tires.  We cruised right by them and were among the first to arrive at the desert campground. 

After our campground orientation, we went out and acquainted ourselves with the camels.

Geoff and the nice camel

Evidently, this camel did not spit and therefore did not require the nose cover that you see on the other camels.   Behind me you can see the tires that mark out the ATV driving area and there is an ATV just off my shoulder between me and the red shirted fellow.  Tourists were not allowed to enter the foreboding desert and were constrained to a small track.

Camels sit on the ground in a very compact posture.  They stand up in a lurching 3 step process.  Rear end first, rear end higher and then the front legs extend.  This process subjects the unwary and inexperienced camel jockey to a sudden forceful lurch against the front of the saddle bringing pressure to bear on the 'Swimsuit Region".  Those of us not on the camels found this hilarious.  

By then it was dark and good photography - not that any of this has been good - was impossible. We enjoyed the pre-dinner male dancer who whirled around the stage for about 7 minutes with an LED costume that formed complex patterns in the night.

After dinner, the authentic belly dancer appeared.  She was not a traditionally rubenesque sort of belly dancer with finger cymbals.  I would guess she weighed in at about 100 lbs, lithe and fit.  I am not qualified to critique belly dancing, but she seemed to these amateurish eyes both skilled and tireless.  You may judge for yourself why I have no photos of her.

Before dinner, we climbed the roughly 50' sand dune that overlooked the campground.  This is where the sand boarding occurred.    As an end to this saga, I give you this poor photo of the venue.

Dinner Compound

On that happy note, I remain,

Dad / Geoff