Reflections of an Airline Pilot.....

The multi-colored sunrises.

The patchwork quilt of the great plains from FL370 on a day when you can see forever.

Cruising mere feet above a billiard-table-flat cloud deck at mach .86, with your chin on the glare shield and your face as close as you can get to the windshield.

Punching out the top of a low overcast while climbing 6,000 feet per minute.

The grandeur of towering cumulus.

Seven funnel clouds dropping out of the clouds over Lake Erie while on downwind leg to Hopkins runway 23 (Cleveland)...calling wife on the radio who was working in the banjo tower cab of the C-concourse so she could see the funnels too!!

Vr:  875,000+ pounds of airplane in your hands.

The delicate threads of St. Elmo's Fire dancing on the windshield at night in the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone over the Amazon.

Is there ever NOT a cross wind in Erie?

The twinkle of lights of the Japanese fishing fleet far far away from shore, on a night crossing of the North Pacific.

Cloud formations that are beautiful beyond description.

Ice fog in Anchorage on a cold winter morning.

Seeing geologic formations that no ground-pounder will ever see.

The chaotic, non-stop babble of radio transmissions at Kennedy during the afternoon rush or the whisper of silence on the radio during that 3:00am at Kennedy when you and the lone tower controller are the only two on the radio.

The quietness of center frequency at night during a transcontinental flight.

The welcome view of approach lights appearing out of the mist just as you reach minimums.

Lightning storms at night over the Midwest.

The maglev train in Pudong

The soft, comforting glow of the instrument panel in a dark cockpit.

The dancing curtains of colored light of the Aurora Borealis on a winter-night between Anchorage and Kennedy.

The majestic panorama of an entire mountain range stretched out beneath you from horizon to horizon.

The "rooftop of the world" between Shanghai and Dubai on a bright summer day.

Lenticular clouds over the Sierras.

The brief, yet tempting, glimpse of runway after you've already committed to the missed approach.

Passengers: 335 cows from Australia to Japan

Six US Dollars to ONE Bahrain Dollar and the prices on the menu with three digits after the decimal (mixed grill:  B$1.655)

The lights of London at night from FL350 - the dark meandering black line that is the Thames.

The coincidentally perfect timing of being in the right place at the right time for the inaugural flight of Airbus A380

Squall lines that run as far as you can see.

Exotic lands with exotic food.

Maneuvering the airplane through day lit canyons of towering cumulus clouds.

eating GOAT at La Estancia in Buenos Aires

The deep blue-gray of the sky at FL 450.

The Star Ferry.

The first time you realize there are no gutters on a 747.

The softness of a touchdown on a snow-covered runway.

"They're all somewhere over China
Shanghai or old Peking
On a plane or a boat in an envelope
Real adventure has its ring
Just to put a little distance
Between fact and fantasy
Still six thousand miles away from
Where I'd really rather be"

Hearing the nosewheel spin down against the snubber in the well after takeoff:  The sound signaling that you are on your way!

Watching the lightning show while crossing the ITCZ at night.

Dubai is HOT

Longboats speeding along the klongs in Thailand.

The quietly turning paddle fans in the lobby of the Raffles Hotel in Singapore.

Dodging colored splotches of red and yellow light on the radar screen at night.

The sound of foreign accents on the radio. The sound of the American accent on the radio when you come home.

Hummus and Pita catered out of Dubai.

...Are we there yet?

Luxury hotels.

Sunsets of every color imaginable.

The tantalizing glow of the flashing strobe lights just before you break out of the clouds on approach.

Yosemite Valley from above.

Canarsie to 13L in the jumpseat of Concorde as a kid and hand flying the Canarsie 13L in my 747 when I grew up (well....not sure i really ever grew up...just got a little older).

The almost blindingly-brilliant-white of a towering cumulus cloud.

Ocean crossings.

The dirt free, greaseless landing gear of the first revenue flight of a factory new 747-400.

Camel Crossing signs on the dessert highway between Abu-Dhabi and Dubai.

a different day, a different continent

The golf course between the parallel runways at old Bangkok, the golf cart that darts out in front of us as we slam on the brakes for him.

The scruffy three-legged dog that follows you around the B-747 on that 1/5th-of-a-mile pre-flight walk-around in Delhi while he hopes for a hand-out.

Seventy-thousand-foot-high thunderstorm clouds in the tropics.

Sipping a cold Iced-Lemon Tea at the Kowloon Peninsula while the worst typhoon in recorded history rages outside. And doing it again two weeks later with, again, the worst typhoon in recorded history raging on (worse than the previous week).

Chinese Junks bobbing in Aberdeen harbor.

The loneliness of the wide open water (and sparse radio contact) between Johannesburg and Perth

Two Degree Plots

Watching the latitude count down to zero on the GPS, and seeing it switch from "N" to "S" as you cross the equator.

ONE HUNDRED TWENTY TWO DEGREES FAHRENHEIT in the shade: Dubai indoor snow skiing available down the street.

Oslo Harbor at dusk.

Icebergs in the North Atlantic.

Taking a fallen soldier’s flag covered casket to Dover.

Contrails.

The shadow of your own contrail.

The camaraderie of a good crew.

The opera house in Sydney.

The pyramids along the Nile as seen from the air.

The dirty market place in Fez. The gold Suhk.

The Amazon Rainforest.  The Fires

Stanley Market.

Funny:  The fellow crewmember locking himself in a Ferarri we were hauling to Hong Kong.  Funnier: Calling a mechanic to get him out.

The Sail boat ride in Auckland.

Trade winds.

Emailing each others' in-flight pictures taken while passing each other enroute.

White sandy beaches lined with swaying palms.

Double-decker buses in London.

Water pumps removing water from the aircraft belly when cargo door remained open during a typhoon because it hadn't been closed prior to the winds reaching the 60knot operating limitation of the door.

The endless expanse of white of a trans-polar flight.

The wake the crew bus kicks up while navigating the tropical rainfall waters between the aircraft and the terminal building in Bangkok after a storm.

That huge Crater south of Portland.

The bus ride to Stanley... upstairs and in the front seat of the open-top double-decker bus and you round the corner to discover why no one else was up there.

The Long Bar at the Raffles.

Heavy takeoff from the reef runway at HNL.

...Are we there yet?

Landings in the B-747 when the only way you knew you had touched down was the movement of the spoiler handle (okay, that only happened once)

The cheese wheel at F-Street in Anchorage.

The deafening sound of tropical raindrops slamming angrily against the windshield, accompanied by the hurried slap, slap, slap of the windshield wipers while landing in a torrential downpour in Mumbai.

Kilimanjaro.

More than two crewmembers in a Delhi taxicab at the same time, yah right!!

Endless ripples of sand dunes across the trackless miles of the Sahara desert. The white cliffs of Dover. Fjords of Norway.

Calling home from over Pakistan to "make sure the satcom still works".

The aimless compass, not knowing where to point as you near the top of the world on a trans-polar.

Brain bags crammed with charts to exotic places.

The Peak Tram: Hong Kong.

Kuwait.

The hawkers yelling "copy watch, copy watch."

Sharing a cockpit jumpseat with my wife (one butt cheek each in the seat) while breaking out of the clouds on the IGS approach to runway 13 at Kai Tak, and seeing a windshield full of "checkerboard."

The Home Sick Angel:  An empty 747-400.   A full 256,000lbs of thrust.  350,000lbs takeoff weight.   Think about it.

The bustle and lights of Nathan Road on a steamy summer night.

The Fish Taco at Humpy's in ANC.

The smell of tropical blooms when you step off the plane in Kuala Lumpur.

The resort built into the side of the abandoned quarry with the water park under it in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (sunway lagoon)

Main gear touching down while the 747 cockpit is still 70 feet in the air.

"Copy Watch, DVD, come look"   "Copy Watch, DVD, come look"   "Copy Watch, DVD, come look"

Chelsea Arms, Dubai.

The Burma Road.

1000 to 1. The ratio of people awaiting each arriving passenger outside the airport in Delhi....and trying to push through the non-traveling "waiters" to get to the taxi stand...OH, and the taxi?  more like a toy car. 

Elephants in the road between the Delhi Airport and the Maurya Sheraton.

CAT III in Milan: wheels touch before you ever see the ground.

Fresh seafood:  Cheung Chau Island.

Tossing a coin to see who get first shift in the bunk.

The twists and turns of a noise-abatement departure out of Amsterdam.

Half the A/B Jeppesen book is Amsterdam.

Deadheading in First Class.

Aconcagua in the moonlight.

The high-hot-heavy, Max gross takeoff from Nairobi.

Following the magenta line.....

Mount Ararat.

Churrascarias.

The Hong Kong limo driver convinced that repetitively stepping on and letting go of the accelerator is saving gas while the rest get whiplash.

Crawling into the bunk an hour after a JFK take-off, sleeping for EIGHT hours:  Waking up to find you are only just half way to Seoul.

A large handful of thrust levers, each one connected to 65,000+ pounds of thrust.

...Are we there yet?

Man-sized rudder pedals as big as pie plates....controlling a rudder that is five-stories tall.

Watching the aircraft moving map display in a first class lay-flat sleeper seat as you cross the north pole between New York and Hong Kong,  deadheading to work.

Deadheading to deadhead to another deadhead flight to get somewhere to learn you are needed elsewhere and have to deadhead again to wind up where you started....(but consolation in a bank full or points)

"Leak-checking" your eyelids on a long night flight.

The captain in his bathrobe and slippers (BEFORE we even pushed back)

Iranian controllers compelled to say "Thank YOU, Sir" every time you say ‘thank you" and making them repeat it over and over again (cruel game).

Halibut at Humpies, then walking back to the hotel at midnight and it's still light out (Anchorage in June)

If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there Your hand will guide me,
Your right hand will hold me fast.

-Psalm 139:9,10 NIV

The Bamboo Triangle: The simultaneous triple-position report to Calcutta, Yangong, and Dhaka on HF just so each country gets paid while none really cares over which fix you are flying.

Tiger Prawns at Newton Circus (Singapore) the size of your forearm.

The Carnivore in Nairobi.

Can't recall your hotel room number 'cause you have been in a different hotel every night for the last 14.

The cookie run to Diego Garcia (re-supply for commissary).

...Are we there yet?

Having to get a passport renewed before it expires because the State Department wont put a fourth set of extra pages in it.

Easier to simply walk out of the customs arrivals hall without stopping or looking at anyone at the Delhi airport on a deadhead-in-to-operate-out rather than clearing customs and answering twenty questions while the junior customs officer writes down all your answers in a huge book (two feet by three feet, no exaggeration).

Full load of gas plasma televisions whose boxes are marked MADE IN USA, uploaded in Hong Kong:  Destination Chicago.

...miles to go before I sleep!!

 

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