Day Off

Sunday…. first day off this time. I slept until 730, had breakfast at the cafe. I did some reading at the pool, where I talked to a couple who was here to adopt a three year old orphaned girl. The weather was nice in the morning but now the sun is behind some clouds.

Yesterday afternoon when I came back from work, the lobby was prepared for some festivities. Lots of serving trays, balloons and white linen cloths on the tables. Then there were two carts with six hooks on them. From the hooks hung what appeared to be a whole butchered cow…. mmmm meat…

The festivities was to welcome the European union delegation, that is here to oversee the elections taking place next month.

Back at the Hilton

Stepping of the shuttle and walking into the Hilton, i was greeted several times by staff that recognized me. “Good evening, captain Mathias.”

I checked in, got a room on the fifth floor facing the pool. I had a note from the General manager of the Hilton and a plate of strawberries waiting in my room. It’s good to be treated like this.

I called Jonathan and we decided to meet downstairs in 20 minutes.

A couple of beers, some good conversation and all of a sudden it was midnight.  I had now been awake more or less for the last 36 hours. I had to be at work, teaching, the next morning. Time to sleep.

I woke up at 2AM, jet lag sucks. Slept from 4 to 6 and then it was time to get up.

Work

Last time I was here, I did systems ground school for the Q400 and three days of procedures training. This time I had a few other courses to do. The students are either 6-7000 hour B737/B757/B767 First Officers who are doing there upgrade into the Q400 or 200 hour pilots straight out of the Ethiopian Air pilot academy.

The goal of the training is to prepare the First Officers to become Captains of the Q400 and to prepare the Academy pilots to be Q400 First Officers.

The difference in knowledge and experience is large. Selecting the appropriate level of difficulty for every lesson is a challenge. To teach automation to a highly experienced airline pilot and a low time light piston pilot at the same time is quite the challenge.

The students are progressing and I feel confident that I will be able to do the job that I was sent here to do.

Life in Addis version 2.0

I wake up at 6AM every morning. Listening to the city of Addis Ababa waking up with a cup of coffee in my hand is a treat. There are lots of birds chirping and singing as the sun rises, a group of people is using the swimming pool and I am taking it all on from the balcony on the fifth floor.

Breakfast is delivered to my room around 6:15 every morning and the strong, aromatic coffee is absolutely fantastic.

I leave for work at 7:30 and I get back at around 17:30.

I try to workout almost every evening, but one out of three is probably all I do in reality. Jonathan makes sure that we spend adequate time at the bar, and Yohannes is still here to hang out with.

Last night we went to the Sheraton for the music show, the band from Atlanta is still there. One of the German Embassy guys had a farewell party and the Red label was flowing freely. The show was great as usual and Jonathan and CD had a great time.

Who is who?

 

• Mathias – Me
• Jonathan – My Boss
• CD – Other FlightPath Instructor
• Yohannes – Ethiopian who grew up in Kenya
• Richard – Canadian English teacher

ET501

A Boeing 767 takes off from Dulles, heads north along the coast. Passes New York and then heads NNE bound, where tailwinds and a shorter route can be found.

But not today. The volcanic ash cloud that blankets most central and northern Europe also has made the northern Atlantic crossing routes unusable. After New York the Ethiopian Airlines aircraft took an easterly heading, passing well south of Iceland. the track is taking us just north of the Azores. At this latitude there is a prevailing easterly wind, currently 50 mph. Normally you’d see a groundspeed of almost 600 mph with the prevailing tailwinds further north. Today I am staring at the flight status screen showing 475 mph. In addition to the headwind the crew has throttled back to conserve fuel and on top of that a southerly route adds a considerable distance. All in all we are going to be about one hour and twenty minutes late into Rome.

The service is nice, just like last time. One of the flight attendants recognized me from my last trip, and she is making sure that everything is just right. I got introduced to some Ethiopian Executive here in business class, marketing I think it was.

My favourite though is the fat man who snores behind me in his seat. The snoring isn’t half bad. It almost has a rhythm to it. He does however kick with his right foot, over and over again. He is sleeping all sprawled out with his right arm protruding into the aisle. He must be dreaming of running, (by looking at him you wouldn’t think he has ran many steps for quite some time), because he keeps lifting his right leg as if he is taking a step and then banging his heel firmly into the floor. I bet his heel will be bruised when we arrive.

The stop in Rome was smooth, 55 minutes on the ground then off for Addis.

I was very tired and managed to get some sleep. The flight took us southeast, passing over Sicily then crossing the Mediterranean and then over the Sahara desert. Touchdown in Addis was about two hours late, and after 32 hours of travelling I stepped out of the 767 and into Bole International Airport.

Between having a visa obtained in the US and the first class line for immigrations, I made it through in less than 20 minutes. My bags were waiting for me and shortly thereafter i was on the Hilton shuttle to the hotel.

Four hours in the Red Carpet Lounge

Flying business class has its perks, the red carpet lounge is one of them. Snacks, booze, internet and tranquility. Ahhh, the good life.

Looks like an on time departure tonight for ET501 departing IAD for FCO and then onto ADD. 17 hours on an airplane.

Several flights into Europe shows up as cancelled on the departure screens, this volcanic activity will be devastating to several European carriers. 

I hope I will be able to get some sleep.

1900 arrival, 13 hours later I am starting to teach.

Bring it.

Return to Africa

Once again I am headed East for the horn of Africa. This time I will travel nonstop for over 10 000 miles.

San Diego – Washington DC – Rome – Addis.

I woke Cody up just before 6AM, he was to give me a ride to the airport. His NOx equipped Pontiac Sunfire rolled up in the alley and I loaded up my bags. Some coffee from Cafe’ Bella and we were on our way.

I still hate airports, TSA, check-in procedures and all that comes with it.

UA 970 pushed back from gate 14 at Lindbergh airport right on time. A westerly departure over my house followed by a sweeping left turn over PGY VOR, and then the 757 set its course eastbound for IAD.

The Captain kept talking on the PA about wind-changes and turbulence, which materialized about 30 minutes into the flight. The estimated flying time is four and a half hours 30 minutes less than scheduled.

Road trip continued

My knee was still bothering me, but enough snow and sunshine worked as a beautiful distracter. So against the doctors orders, I purchased a lift ticket and went out skiing with Jett.

It had been two years since Jett had gone the last time so she was a bit rusty. We manage to make it down from the house to the Funitel. It was a gorgeous day and we couldn’t wait to get going.

A great morning of skiing, followed by lunch and Coors light at the lodge, then additional skiing in the afternoon followed by Bud Lights in the ski room. The kids spent the last part of the afternoon in the hot tub while the adults were chilling around the house.

The Bryans had tickets for some shows in Vegas and a reservation at the hard Rock Hotel. Jett and i decided to tag along for two nights at the Hard Rock and for the Blue Man Group show. Vegas was very nice and we had a great time. Pool, rock’n roll and an amazing show by the blue man group.

Jett and I drove back to San Diego, tired, spent and very happy.