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 [...]
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. [...]
DH to Global Gal: “Hey, you know what’s strange? Every time I fly over Linyi, I see balloons. Random balloons, just hovering around 500 feet off the ground.” Global Gal: “Oh, I’m blogging that.” Ever wonder what happens to those balloons that float away from children’s hands or escape from Chinese wedding cars? Well, [...]
Good-bye Panam, for now anyway. Although we’ve known of your demise for quite some time, this is the first mention in the Western press. I join my fellow Panam alum in saying thanks for the good times, because in spite of all its faults, there were fun times. Without Panam we would have never come [...]
Since moving to China, aviation has become a big part of my life. I’ve learned more than I ever wanted about engines, airfoils and flight controls. Were I to be stuck in an airplane with a dead pilot, (like that guy in Florida), I think I might be able to land the thing, with a [...]
Like any good pilot’s wife, I am learning about airplanes and how they fly… with the help of my Paper Airplane a Day Calender… Oh yes, they really do fly! There are orange ones… Blue ones… And even green ones. I feel my aviation education is very well-rounded. Either that or I need more hobbies.
The morning started out sunny & humid. I should have known something was up. “Thunderstorm! Thunderstorm!” I can hear our Chinese staff calling excitedly. Thunderstorms clouds are known as “CBs” here, short for cumulonimbus clouds. At flight schools in the US, thunderstorms are nuisances that shut down operations until they pass. Here, CBs are serious [...]
Even though aviation seems more and more depressing by the day, I thought I would share some Chinese planespotting with you. Chinese Y-5 When I first saw this airplane parked at Linyi’s airport, I was pretty surprised. Being an airplane ignoramus, I believed that biplanes, (airplanes with two sets of wings), had gone out with [...]
It hasn’t been a very good day for aviation, has it? Between the economic woes of the industry (and the furloughed and unemployed pilots) and the recent airplane crashes, aviation has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. Every time there is an incident involving aircraft, such as the Hudson River landing or [...]
Yea, yea I know I said I wasn’t gonna be here, but in between nyquil doses, this made me laugh and I had to share: