From my office at Linyi airport I hear various sirens – sirens that are recognizable as police and ambulance. What is going on? The windows in my office look directly into our school’s aircraft hangar, but I cannot see any further. Couldn’t see further if I wanted to anyway, as this morning a thick fog covers the entire city.

I walk down the hall to the DH’s office, as he has a full view of the airport apron (airplane parking area) and part of the runway. I am surprised to see a line of firetrucks, ambulances, police cars and what appear to be SWAT vehicles driving across the apron towards the runway. Several flights are due in this morning from Qingdao, Beijing and Shanghai, but with the fog they would normally have been delayed or canceled. Landing would not be allowed anyway as the visibility is well below the minimums for safety, even with a fancy Instrument Landing System. Disaster flashes through my mind and my stomach clenches. One of my coworkers seated in the office is quick to inform me that the emergency vehicles are simply engaged in training activities. This is the first time in four years I have ever seen an emergency training exercise at the airport and I have to admit I am impressed. It’s pretty darn important to be prepared for the worst, I think, especially as the wife of a pilot who has all sorts of emergency evacuation numbers on speed dial in her phone.

And indeed, I imagine that at airports all across China similar activities are taking place. On November 28th an Avient Aviation MD-11 cargo airplane (registered in Zimbabwe) crashed on takeoff at Shanghai’s Pudong Airport. Of the seven crew aboard, three died and four were injured. Video of the huge black smoke plume can be seen here. As always, my thoughts are with the families and friends of the deceased, Americans all, and the injured, American, Belgian, Indonesian and Zimbabwean.

“Internet, Global Gal 1976, Good Morning.”

“Good Morning, Global Gal 1976, Go ahead.”

“Global Gal 1976, We will require a delay of several days in posting to blog due to imminent ICAO Aviation English exam and realization that we do not know how to talk on the radio. Request radiotelephony cramming sessions.”

“Approved, Global Gal 1976. Take several days to study and report exam complete.”

“Cramming commenced. Report when exam complete, Global Gal 1976.”

“Global Gal 1976, Confirm date and location of exam the 17th in Guangzhou.”

“Affirmative, Global Gal 1976, and good luck!”

“Global Gal 1976, Thanks!”

Vacation is underway! I am safely in Shanghai, watching Da Shan on CCTV9 (gosh he is annoying!) This afternoon I was freaked out when a couple of the other flight instructors in our school informed me that we might be flying through the remnants of Typhoon Morakot, but luckily our flight was relatively calm. I guess the Nerbulence Fairy was with me tonight!

With a couple of flights ahead of me, I’m working out a plan for dealing with my fear. The last time we went to Hong Kong we rode a ferry from Shenzhen to Hong Kong Island. The seas were a little rough that day and the ferry bopped up and down in the waves. I realized that I wasn’t afraid at all. Movement was normal and did not signal impending doom. I am now attempting to apply that feeling when I experience turbulence in the airplane. This all makes total sense in my head. We’ll see how it actually plays out on my 12 hour flight to Amsterdam.

The DH has business in Shanghai tomorrow, so most likely we will leave on Wednesday. I should probably buy our tickets!

*This was supposed to be posted last night, but the Internet was asleep.

Have you ever had a cough and wished you had a cough drop? Have you ever felt a little peckish and wished you had a gum drop? Have you ever suffered from coffee breath and wished you had a mint? Have you ever experienced all three simultaneously?

Have I got a product for you!

Unick Cough Gum Drops – “Packed for Shanghai Dah Chong Children’s Food Factory Co. Ltd”

Yummy mint flavor! Gummy texture!

Just one of the many delightful foods we have been given on domestic airline flights in China. I just wasn’t sure that a mint-flavored cough gum drop was exactly what I needed as an in-flight snack.

The DH and I are flying to Shanghai tonight. I can’t wait to see what the snack will be!

reading/thinking about today:

Here’s an update on the company dinner last night: two words – warm beer. Enough said.

In other randomness:

• The pneumonic plague has struck China, and as alarming as that might seem, I could barely be bothered to keep up with the news. I know it is isolated to some village in the northwest. I know the village has been quarantined and disinfected. I know that plague is endemic to much of the world and treatable when caught early.  So although shouts of “the plague!” and “black death!” and “bring out your dead!” spring to mind, plague in China doesn’t concern me. Nor does H1N1 either. Besides, with newsy items like this from China Daily, why would I be concerned?

• I enjoyed reading this blog post about abandoned places around the world. I am crazy fascinated by abandoned spaces and detritus of modern life. I guess that is the wannabe archaeologist in me.

• And finally, we all know that the global economic crisis has done a number on the aviation industry, right? Well, in case you didn’t know, it has. Which is one of the reasons I am still sitting in China. There are just zero aviation jobs out there. On a somewhat bizarre note, to save money, these pilots are “crashing” in mobile homes set up in LAX’s long term parking lots. I guess they don’t have to worry about being late for work. Personally, I’m glad the DH “crashes” at home every night and that our commute is all of 15 minutes down a chaotic Chinese road, but that doesn’t mean we are not looking for other opportunities. Just when is this crisis supposed to get better?

En Español:

Lo Que Estoy

leyendo y pensando hoy:

Primero, la cena de ayer fue una desastre total! Dos palabras: cerveza templada. Qué horror!

• Has oido que hay plaga en China? Pues si, en el noroeste. Pero no me importa nada, si te digo la verdad. Estoy hasta la narices del paranoia del gripe A y el gripe aviar y no sé que. La plaga está todo bajo control y está muy lejos de mi. Bueno, eso es lo que me dice la propaganda las noticias Chinas.

• Siempre me han fascinado los edificios abandonados. El DH y yo sacabamos las fotos de nuestra boda cerca de una casa casi en ruinas. Como niña yo quería ser arqueologa. En éste blog hay una resumen de muchos sitios abandonados por todo el mundo – edificios, hoteles, pueblos enteros! Está todo en ingles, pero hay muchas fotos.

• Y al final, la crisis nos ha tocado a todos, verdad? La aviación en especial. En vez de alquiler una casa para descansar entre vuelos, (cuando no están en casa), éstos pilots viven en el parking del aeropuerto LAX en Los Angeles. Por un lado me parece una ridiculez, pero por el otro lado me parece una buena forma de ahorrar dinero y no tener que llegar al trabajo tarde!

What a day. It is cloudy and rainy. The perfect day to be at home in bed. I have been tempted multiple times today to just put my head down and sleep. Instead, I have been researching ticket options for our upcoming trip to Spain. I am always astounded by prices. But what can you do? In all my years of buying tickets, I still find the best prices directly on the airlines’ web pages. How about you? We will be traveling Shanghai to Madrid with a two day layover in Amsterdam. Damage? 9000RMB per person. Yikes.

Here at work it is b-o-r-i-n-g. The weather is not conducive to flight today and with no airplanes flying it is unnaturally quiet. When you are used to airplane engine’s running up and airplanes buzzing around, the quiet is enough to drive you crazy. The DH is freaking out. He hates being stuck on the ground with nothing to do.

We’ve been told we have a company dinner at 1830 this evening. I really have no idea what the dinner is for, but it might be to celebrate our school receiving permanent certification from the CAAC (Civil Aviation Administration of China). Our school is only the second in history to receive this certification, so it does seem to be a dinner-worthy accomplishment. Something tells me I am going to have to “empty my glass” a few times tonight, toasting to continued “harmony and cooperation.”

This afternoon, just before I left work, I spent a few minutes on Twitter asking a question of fellow foreigners in China when I saw a tweet about a possible air plane crash on the Thai island of Koh Samui. I know this island well as I spent Chinese New Year there two years ago and my father flew in and out of the island every month for work back in the late 1990s.

The tweet directed me to a forum, Thai Visa, where every time I hit refresh I could read new posts, which turned out to be mostly rumor. Still, the whole experience was very interesting, and soon enough, breaking news reports started showing up on BBC and Thai newspapers. Now it is all over the Internet. Here is a time line of how it spread. I tuned into Twitter and retweeted about the crash at about 1550 (Beijing time, which would be 1450 Thai time).  Here are some photos detailing the aftermath of what happened. A Bangkok Airways ATR 72 (a very nice airplane, btw) skidded off the runway in heavy rain and plowed into an old air traffic control tower. Evidently the pilot went down with this ship and the co-pilot remains trapped. No other fatalities have been reported.

Braking action on an airplane is severely retarded with water or snow on the runway and it takes much less water than you think to throw everything out of whack. Once you are hydroplaning on water or even just skidding on the runway surface, maintaining directional control – the mantra every pilot knows – can be very difficult. The airplane had just touched down and was traveling at a very high rate of speed. It is unfortunate that there were buildings in the path of this aircraft. It is fortunate there was no fire.

As an aviation ground instructor – what can I take from this to teach my students? I am reminded of the 2005 Air France crash at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, when the A340 overran the end of the runway and burst into flames due to heavy rain and gusting winds. Weather can be a mighty foe, as passengers on a Continental aircraft diverted to Miami for severe turbulence yesterday could surely tell you.

As a pilot’s wife, my heart goes out to the family of the deceased pilot.

En Español:

Este tarde estaba buscando información en Twitter cuando ví noticias de un accidente aérea en la isla Tailandesa de Koh Samui. Conozco la isla bastante bien – fuimos alli al año pasado para las fiestas del nuevo año Chino y mi padre trabajaba alli en los 90.

Desde Twitter, fue dirigido a un foro, Thai Visa, donde alguna de los gente local hablaba del incidente. Había muchos rumores, pero lo más interesante fue que todo estaba ocurriendo en esos momentos. Cada vez que yo tocaba el botón del “reload” (como se dice?) nuevo información/rumores apareció. Aqui hay una interesante cronología de como pasó. (En ingles.) Yo empezó a mandar tweets sobre la tema a las 1550 local, 1450 en Bangkok, unos 20 minutos despues del accidente.

Lo que pasó es un ATR 72, un avion potente y muy bueno, de Bangkok Airways, salió de la pista despues de aterrizar en fuertes lluvias. El avion chocó contra un antiguo torre del control aérea. El piloto (capitán) murió y algunos pasajeros resultaron heridos. Aqui hay unas fotos del avion.

Con agua o nieve en la pista, puede ser muy dificil para un avion frenar y el piloto puede perder el control direccional – una cosa fundamental que los pilots aprenden. Desafortunadamente, había edificios en el camino del avion. Fortunadamente, no había fuego.

Miro éste accidente como una profesora de la teoría de aviación. Que puedo aprender para enseñar mejor mis estudiantes? Me recuerdo mucho del accidente de Air France en Toronto en 2005. El avion aterrizó en fuertes lluvias y viento y no podía frenar. Repartó en llamas despues de salir del fin de la pista. El tiempo no es el amigo del aviación, como pueden decir los pasajeros del Continental que tenía que desviar a Miami por culpa de turbulencias muy fuertes ayer.

Miro éste accidente como la mujer de un piloto y solo puedo pensar en la familia del capitán fallecido. Mis condolencias a la familia.

It’s the burning times in Linyi, but don’t worry, the witches are fine. The fields, recently emptied of their latest crop of wheat, are burning across the countryside. What have been beautiful days with impressive visibility are now hazy and smoke-filled. The smoke of burning fields is one of the major contributors to pollution in our area.

The DH reports that from the air the burning fields are obvious. I’m curious to see what that might look like and today I’ll get my chance. I’m flying from Linyi to Beijing so that tomorrow I can get my passport renewed at the US Embassy. Grrr.

I figured that the burning times were coming soon since last week I noticed a lot of cars driving around with wheat stalks sticking out from under their cars. In order to speed up the threshing process, the farmers here lay their wheat out across the local roads. When the cars drive over the stalks, the seeds separate from the stalk and some of the stalks end up stuck in the undercarriage. Just another part of the routine here in semi-rural China.

It’s that time of year again – thunderstorms in the afternoon. I’m sitting at my desk, looking out the window at a sky that is a very unnatural shade for 2:30 in the afternoon. I wouldn’t mind a bit, except for the fact that the DH is somewhere out there in a tiny little plane. 

Man I hate flying.

*Update 1600hrs: The DH is safely on the ground. His student has a very serious look on his face, but it was just another day at the office for DH. I’m glad I do not have his job.*