Captain's Blog

HAITI DISASTER & SEAPLANES

2010-01-15T19:22:00.000-08:00

Seaplanes are sometimes a great necessity in disaster zones, especially those communities that are close to the seashore. Take the unfortunate massive Earth Quake that struck Haiti recently. The amount of aid pouring in, through conventional Aircraft, is huge. But, since the Airport facilities are small, only a certain number of Aircraft can operate in and out at any given time. This is hampering bringing in massive aid that is required urgently. The quake destroyed the control tower also and that compounded issues. The US Air Force has taken over the Airport now I have heard. They know what they are doing. President Obama's immediate actions have helped a lot and it needed someone with his command to get the machinery moving quickly. Can't say the same for his clueless predecessor.

I am happy to report that the Seaplane Pilot Association of the United States has stepped in to help. They are appealing to the Seaplane community to bring in small medical supplies, water purifying tablets and other essential supplies. Seaplanes will be able to land in certain designated sea lanes near the shore and deliver aid to communities that are nearby. This may help mitigate the problem to a certain extent and in any case, be able to distribute aid to far flung places. I commend the Seaplane owners and pilots who are pitching in to help in this time of need in Haiti and that they are volunteering their Aircraft and services for this.

Now, the same solutions can be applied in other areas. Remember the far flung ocean communities that suffered Earth Quakes recently and Tsunami before that in Indonesia? Remember the Cyclone that struck Myanmar and SE Asia? Remember the annual cyclones and tropical storms in Asia and other parts of the World? Coastal communities were worst hit. These are the area, that a seaplane/amphibious Aircraft can operate and hence would be an ideal platform for disaster management agencies to consider. Of course, not all times can seaplanes operate especially is there is a lot of floating debris but the airplanes can be used for dropping supplies and even jettisoning life rafts to those who had been swept out to Sea.

Let's hope Haiti comes out of this trauma although it may take a dozen years for mental scars to heal, what with the tremendous loss of life. Let's support the International Communities efforts to help Haiti. We know this all too well in Asia, this author among those who was in the middle of the Tsunami on Gan Island in the Republic of Maldives at that time.

THE SAGA CONTINUES

2009-09-07T07:37:00.000-07:00

23 Sept 2009: Charter flight landed in MYQ Airport carrying tourists on the Dasara trail. I hope the service lasts beyond Dasara, and hope that if such is the case, the DGCA will complete its certification works of the Airport and we can look forward to long lasting service. I hope I am not overly optimistic!

LATEST NEWS AS ON DATE; 21 SEPTEMBER 2009:

I am not sure how long this link to Star of Mysore archives will be available online. In short, it says that Mysore Airport Inauguration has been put off indefinitely. There is going to be nothing happening for a while. There are no flights announced and none planned by any Airline, hence no one interested in opening an empty airport. All we have are false assurances from various authorities and ministers. SOM report claims that all that is false. Saga continues....
Star of Mysore link: http://starofmysore.com/main.asp?type=news

SCROLL DOWN TO READ UPDATES PREVIOUS UPDATES.

MAIN ARTICLE:

OK, here is a bit of disappointing news, if true. Indian Express online today says that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation is not going to visit Mysore and conduct inspection before Dasara. They do not have the time to conduct this detailed and elaborate inspection at this time. The earliest inspection may be done sometime after December.

What does this mean to you and me? Well, nothing much really, no Airline had come forward to operate to and from Mysore to any point anyway. Global Vectra Helicopters had made a statement that they would like to operate a helicopter service. Well, that's going to be too bloody expensive, pardon my French.

Now, to save face, the State Government may still go ahead and inaugurate the Airport. Since it won't mean much, the same can be symbolic. Let us Mysoreans take it on the chin, again. Can they run the Airport without DGCA permissions? Of course they can, like they used to on the grass strip that existed before, minus the Control Tower of course, maybe minus the Meteorological service for the operators (if any operator, that is), minus fueling (that facility isn't even ready), minus fire fighting services (God, I hope not).

Well, here is the silver lining: Sources have been quoted saying that the State can still operate chartered flights "at it's own risk" even if DGCA clearance is not done before Dasara. That's how chartered flights used to fly into Mysore in the past. What a tangled web we weave. This is like someone playing April fools day in September. Fingers crossed and hope to fly!

UPDATED 19 September: No charter flight into MYQ Airport! What happened? Sri Sri Ravishankar arrived by Road to inaugurate Dasara. The Chief Minister arrived by Helicopter and landed at Lalitha Mahal Helipad. No one came in any chartered Kingfisher Aircraft like it had been announced before!

UPDATED on 16 September: Latest report says the Chief Minister and his entourage and Sri Sri Ravishankar and entourage are going to be landing at the new Mysore Airport (MYQ) on the 19th of September in a chartered ATR Aircraft. However, this will be a one off flight and is not the real inauguration of the Airport. The "official" inauguration may be on the 22nd of September when Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel visits Mysore. Don't know how far this is true either. Earlier report spoke of the PM visiting and inaugurating the Airport.

Latest from Mysore's paper says that Kingfisher will fly between Bangalore and Mysore in an ATR 42 (50 seat) between 22nd and 26th of September. Kingfisher will then start weekend services from Mysore to other destination such as Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Goa! Have they been reading my blog? hehehe...

SAD QUESTIONS

2009-09-03T01:52:00.000-07:00

I normally don't just sit down and write about something unless I feel really compelled. YSR Rajasekhara Reddy the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh passed away in a Helicopter crash yesterday, the remains were found this afternoon. His passing away compelled me to write this piece. He was going to visit a Village, an unannounced trip till the last minute, because he just wanted to "drop in" and talk to the villagers one on one and understand their problems without having an entourage of interlocutors.

I met YSR this year with respect to some flight operations. He was very personable, likeable, simple and easy to work with. Even though our contact was brief, he easily remembered my name and called me by my first name. From what I know, rural people loved him a lot, he'd remember everyone's names when he went visiting villages. I was struck by his uncanny ability to remember so much with genuine affection. Even I felt that when I was with him briefly. There was no doubt about his sincerity to work for people. I can't say the same for many politicians. To lose someone like him is rather hurting. I had met his wife and family briefly and my condolences goes out to them in their difficult time. I am not forgetting the others on the Helicopter who also perished, previously I had even met the Security officer Wesley, who died in the crash.

I am sorry for this sad post but I guess it reflects how I am feeling today and the anxiety of the previous day when the Helicopter first went missing. I have to ask some plain and simple questions:

1. Why did they dispatch the Helicopter when the weather was known to be bad? I checked on the weather including satellite maps from Singapore and it was evident that the weather was bad. So, don't tell me otherwise. I'd also ask whether these pilots, even though well experienced, done any CFIT training lately? (CFIT = Controlled Flight Into Terrain)...Does the State Government aviation arm have recurrent courses for CFIT?

2. Does the State Government have a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) in place? Are the Aircraft in it's fleet always dispatched under guidance from their manuals or is it just a fill it-shut it-fly it operation?

3. I know that people around VIP's exert a lot of pressure, I have faced it myself quite badly, where they insist on flying at any cost, even when there was a technical problem. My question to them is: Is it worth it? Laloo Prasad Yadav just came on TV and said that yes they do pressurize the pilots to fly and he wanted the pilots to refuse and walk away. Does that happen in India? Air safety is a concept that has to be ingrained in everyone who is connected with it. Drill it into the bureaucrats and others who surround VIP's and add to the pressure on operators and flight crews.

4. Why did the Emergency Locator Trasmitter (ELT) not work? This is supposed to operate automatically in the event of a crash such as this. The time spent in trying to locate the missing Helicopter was unacceptable, nearly 24 hours to search for the crash site...one of the reasons being an inactive ELT. An ELT is a stand-alone system with a separate power supply. The latest version is the ELT 406 which bounces signals off satellites to pin point the location of a crash. Did this Helicopter have this? If so, why was it not working?

These questions are meant for whoever is in charge, to answer. The DGCA (Indian Directorate General of Civil Aviation), god bless them, don't even have an updated web site. They came on air saying that the Helicopter that crashed did have a Certificate of Airworthiness, even though their web site said otherwise. They said that their website had not been updated. Talk about inefficiency and confusion caused.

We have had too many Helicopter and general aviation accidents in India. Check this out (not in any order), GMC Balayogi died in a Helicopter crash (Single engine) in bad weather in 2002 prompting the DGCA to insist that all VIP flights have to be done in Twin Engine Helicopters henceforth. OP Jindal died similarly in a Helicopter crash in 2005. Another Bell 430 (same as the one that YSR passed away) crashed killing the pilots and engineer on board last year (2008), belonging to a private company that charters these machines. Madhav Rao Scindia died in a ratty old King Air in 2001 in very bad weather with two most inexperienced pilots at the controls who also lost their lives. There are many more, I only cited some accidents that had VIP's on board. Makes me think...is general aviation safety audit really done properly in India? How many crashes need to take place before someone does something about fixing general Aviation in India?

Sad day for India and for the families of the deceased and for others who knew the people on this Helicopter and for aviation. The last one can be fixed. Do we have the professionalism in India to fix it?

MASKS EVERYWHERE!

2009-08-17T23:54:00.000-07:00

First it was the Japanese who always went around the World wearing masks and gloves long before this new bug called H1N1 came along. Now, it seems Indians have panicked (thanks to the high decibel, repeated screeching of anchors on news channels there) and loads of them were seen wearing these masks without knowing whether the masks they had on were really going to stop the infection from hitting them or not. I saw "normal" Indians, even couples in downtown Bangalore wearing these funny contraptions. Why funny? Let me tell you why. There were people with kerchiefs tied around their noses, there were those who had these single layer masks and there were those with dupattas around their faces looking like The Taliban had enforced a dress code. Of course there were regular masks all around too.

Went to the Bengaluru International Airport to catch my late night flight back to Singapore. Saw more varieties of masks there, mostly on Indian faces. What bugs me is that the wearers don't even know if they are protected or not. One should check on guidelines and there are sources on the net also, such as the Center for Disease Control, USA that explains what works and what won't help. The masks, the different variety of ones that are available in the market in India, are ineffective in preventing the wearer from contracting the disease. They are only good in the sense that they stop droplets from spreading all around when the wearer coughs or sneezes. So, while it may not protect the wearer, at least the chaps around are safe to a certain extent! The N95 respirator "mask" is the one that is approved by CDC and health officials around the World. Not the mickey mouse contraptions that most of them were wearing. The mask manufacturers are laughing all the way to the Bank as they make a "killing", selling them like hot cakes.

Let me briefly describe some of the masks I saw on many faces at the Airport. There were these green surgical ones you see on TV medical shows and at hospitals. Then there were ones that are labeled "Duck billed" (even on CDC website!), I swear this is the funniest one. Some looked like birds standing around because they were yellow in color (the masks I mean!) There is a definite beak shape, just like on Tweety Bird. I thought that was the funniest until a couple walked by, both of them wearing, what would have come straight from Star Wars. I am not kidding you, they looked like the ones Darth Vader would wear to the beach. These were large, dark, covered a lot of the nose, mouth and cheeks, had round discs jutting out from both sides of the mask like Oxygen regulators and they looked like what some one would wear in a chemical attack. Maybe effective against H1N1 too, no?

On the Aircraft, some of wearers decided to give it a rest and took them off and put them back on whenever they felt like it. Catering arrived and soon all the masks were off to eat and drink! Some people are deluded to think that H1N1 is only floating around when they are wearing these masks. For me, I was just pleased. Firstly because the person next to me sneezed, while wearing the mask and so I did not have to hold my breath till I turned blue in the face...and secondly, these mask wearers were a source of entertainment, just looking at some of them and their behavior with and without the masks made my night!

I have to end this story with something really funny, without disrespect to anyone. Many of you would already know this I think, although it may not be politically correct. Anyway, what I heard in Bangalore was that the sales of padded Bras were going up in the city. Not because more women had come into town all of a sudden leaving their wardrobe behind but because half a padded Bra works wonderfully well as a mask! This it seems, is a fact, and not a joke as it had been mentioned in some media. Thanks to H1N1, Bra manufacturers can also laugh all the way to the Bank! I kid you not.

MONSOON MAGIC PART-1

2009-07-24T23:14:00.000-07:00

Use this link to read about the first part of my journey this monsoon season, undertaken by road...Mysore to Goa via Jog Falls. The article on my blog contains anecdotes of my journey, photos and videos especially of Jog Falls. Click on the title above to be redirected to my other blog where this article is published.

MYSORE AIRPORT LATEST AS ON JUL 2009

2009-07-20T19:23:00.000-07:00

Hi All, for those of you who have been following the story on my blog about Mysore airport, here's the latest. I was in Mysore recently, just a few days back and found that the tarmac and runway is ready at the Mysore Airport. There have been some chartered flights that have already operated in and out of the Airport on unscheduled visits, having obtained prior special permission to land at Mysore. For those who live in Mysore or have been reading some sites on the net, they would already know this information. For those who don't have the latest, here is what's been going on.

The last item for development before the Airport can be officially opened is the terminal building. As it appears, the work is going on in full swing. Credible reports from the current DC of Mysore Mr. Manivannan suggests that the Airport will be open in time for Dasara 2009. That's around the last week of September this year. Some readers may laugh at this because several Dasara festivals in Mysore have come and gone with politicians of every hue and color making statements that the Airport would be ready by Dasara time. This time, it may be believed because the statement comes from the DC of Mysore, a person who I credit all positive things that are happening there. If there is an honest, upright and dynamic officer, then Manivannan is the man and he has been an asset to Mysore notwithstanding the political pressures that his office may experience and the threat of transfers of such good officers, again coming from politicians of every hue and color.

So after much waiting, decades of it in fact, maybe we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Naysayers are still at work saying that the Airport is inadequate, large Aircraft cannot operate from them and that additional land needs to be acquired, this is not the end of the story..blah..blah...blah.

It is left to the operator to decide whether there is enough traffic from Mysore for large Aircraft and if so, what sectors would make sense and so on. Airline business is not a charity, it is highly sensitive and break even/loss making at the best of times. To speak of the current situation where load factors on known, established routes have come down drastically and every one painting red on their Balance Sheets, one cannot expect anything more from the industry. The point is, at last we have an airport that can see commercial operations. Let's hope it is viable for operators to come in with ATR turboprops to begin with. Let's see what sectors will be offered and whether those sectors make enough sense in the long run for the operator to stay on this route. If the viability fails, it does not matter how big the Airport is or what it can handle in terms of Aircraft. If viability fails, we will have an airport either with sporadic service or none at all. Lets hope this becomes viable in the long term and it appears that way at the moment. I, for one, will await with some eagerness, to see the day we have air services into Mysore. Hopefully it is in September this year!

MUSTANG FERRY ENDS

2008-05-30T06:10:00.001-07:00

This article appears on my regular blog page that can be accessed here.

In this post, I will import more pictures of my stop over in Egypt on the ferry.

MUSTANG FERRY GREENLAND PHOTOS

2008-05-12T06:02:00.000-07:00

Before the Greenland pictures, here are some more of the Mustang in Wichita at the Cessna Service Center, just before we started on the ferry:

Now for pictures of Goose Bay with the Dash 8 turboprop and leaving Goose Bay and the rest of the pictures are Greenland shots:

Mustang ferry

2008-05-11T07:02:00.001-07:00

I have just arrived in Singapore with a brand new Cessna Citation Mustang, serial number 0070. I have written about the acceptance of the Aircraft and now doing a series, with pictures, of the ferry flight of the Aircraft and can find that story here.

Airplane delivered

2008-04-28T10:54:00.001-07:00

I wrote about the new Citation Mustang delivery and acceptance, the first one for SEAJET Singapore. That story can be found here

VISITING CESSNA-LINK

2008-03-23T21:06:00.000-07:00

I wrote about visiting Cessna facility to look up my new Citation Mustang. That story can be found here.

Singapore Air Show 2008

2008-02-23T21:28:00.000-08:00

Singapore Air Show is being held for the first time, this year. The air show that was organized in previous years was by a different organization and was called the Asian Aerospace Expo. That event has now moved to Hong Kong. The show was from the 19th of Feb to the 22nd, it is the last day today and a public day. The two days of the weekend were for public days and judging from the sheer volume, it is a hit with the public, attracting over 40,000 people per day. The trade days were for delegates, customers (such as myself), sellers, exhibitors and so on.

(Selvam, me, representatives for Cessna in this region Ms Chong and Dato Lee)

Here are some positive things to say about the air show. Firstly, the venue is great, plenty of space, a purpose-built indoor exhibition space, huge by any standards and well organized. The tarmac area is more than adequate. The show is very well connected by MRT/Bus, Taxis, own transport and so on.

(Fighters and bombers made their presence felt as always)

Here are some not so positive things to say about it. This show was really small compared to Dubai. At least it seemed that way. There were for sure, a lot less Aircraft on static display. Vast area of the tarmac was absolutely empty. Dubai was leaps and bounds bigger and better in terms of deals and sales concluded. However, Dubai was poorly connected, no buses running round the clock during the show, severe shortage of taxis and really expensive taxis. The exhibition hall in Dubai and the layout was confusing unlike Singapore. Dubai had great volume and poor organization. Singapore had poor volume and great organization. So there.

(The Cessna 400 single engine seen from the cockpit of the Citation Sovereign)

I had promised all, in my last blog post, that I'd post pictures, so here they are. The Singapore Air Show for me was a good one. I had plenty of work with Cessna Aircraft. They are the manufacturers of the Citation Mustang Jet and as mentioned earlier, my new company will acquire two this year. One Aircraft is due in late March and I had meetings related to this at the show.

(Citation Sovereign outside and with me inside)

Cessna also reported large orders from Indian promoted Singapore operator BJet. The TATAs' have a stake in it and some jets are likely to be based out of Seletar Airport here. A flight school in India ordered a large number of piston engine Cessna 172 training Aircraft and Cessna reported that single engine piston Aircraft sales were at record levels this past year and looking good for this year as well. The all-new Cessna Columbus also made the news here. It is a new large Cabin concept Jet to be designed and built by Cessna. This is a product many Cessna faithful were looking for, from a long time. The largest they had ever built is the hugely successful Citation X, the World's fastest biz jet. Let's hope the Columbus gets off the drawing board and into production real soon. Other maufacturers such as Gulfstream had brought in their G150, 200, 450 and 550 large executive jets. Here's a picture of a G450 with the clergy also evaluating the Gulfstream line and why not?

Falcon had brought in their new Falcon 7X whose pictures I have in my Dubai Air Show article. Embraer had their Legacy 600 and Eclipse had their Eclipse 500 VLJ, again these photos also appear in the Dubai Air Show. As in the recent past, Indians almost dominated the show in numbers, or at least seemed like it. India had a pavillion with the same old H.A.L and defence exhibits. Chinese and Indonesian operators also made their presence felt, ordering large number of transport Aircraft.

(The Airbus A380 super jumbo)

The flying displays were the usual standard that one gets to see at every air show. The Republic of Singapore Air Show put up a grand display with their F-16 aerobatic team. The Airbus A380 made another appearance, on the ground as well as in the air. As always it's great fun to see this big bird make fantabulous displays in slow flight. The show ends this afternoon and I'm looking forward to the next one in two years time. A new air show is planned to be organized in Hyderabad, India this year. Farnborough U.K. has announced that it will partner that event. The chances of me being there with one of my Mustang jets on display, is very high. See me at the show, October of 2008.

MYSORE AIRPORT – LATEST NEWS AND UPDATE

2007-12-23T23:17:00.000-08:00

In December 2005 – two years ago, I wrote about the plan that the Airport Authority of India was making, to construct a regular airport in Mysore, India, my home town. Later on in April and May 2006 I followed up this story and made critical comments on how the airport project was making sound bites of the wrong kind and how the local media wasn’t getting it right either. As promised in my blog of April 2006, I am updating the news in my new blog that I use for writing only on aviation and aviation related matters.

I am late in updating news and that has been due to a combination of the fact that the much announced and much awaited (20 years or more in the waiting!) project ran into troubles from the start and also because I could not gather any information on the progress, if there was any, of the project because I was away overseas for all this time and no news or data was available on the internet about this airport. If you the reader attempt to research this airport on the internet, you’ll just come up with links to my blog and articles I had written last year on other online aviation magazines.

Well, I’m glad that this time I made it to Mysore on a very brief trip and managed to go to the construction site to see for myself what was going on. I had met the Airport Director of the Bangalore International Airport before heading down to Mysore and had a fair idea of how things had progressed in the time I was gone and since the days of my first writing on the subject two years ago. The Director had been candid about the problems they had faced and the commitment they had for the project that kept it going nevertheless.

(The present "terminal")

Here are some pictures of the Airport, a Second World War surplus airfield, with a grass strip that was once used to fly DC-3 Aircraft and trainer Aircraft such as the Famous biplane the Tiger Moth. These pictures at least give the impression of activity going on at the Mysore Airport. What I saw while I was there seemed impressive, truck loads of material was seen arriving every five minutes, material that would be used at the site. The main runway to cater initially for ATR-72 type Aircraft (68 passengers) is being completed. This will be extended in the second phase to accommodate larger Aircraft such as the Airbus A320/Boeing B737 types. When it gets done in the first phase, it will be a great place for companies to set up light Aircraft/corporate Aircraft maintenance and a flight school and the latter seems to be an idea that may be already in the pipeline, from an undisclosed private party.

(Path from the tarmac area towards the old terminal building)

What I could see is that their first goal of laying the runway was almost over and this is to be followed up by putting in the taxi ways, tarmac area and the airport terminal building. What you see in this picture is the original old “terminal” building that used to be operational even 20 years ago when Vayudhoot (a commuter airline those days) operated a Dornier 228 to and from Mysore using the grass runway. The present estimate for completion of the project is October of 2008 and the officials are confident of meeting this deadline. I’m planning on a trip out to Mysore Airport again sometime in May/June of next year. I’ll update the news on the developments and I’ll encourage Mysoreans to keep their fingers crossed in the meantime and hope that the Airport will be opened soon; it will bring a sigh of relief to the locals.

(construction equipment working on the main runway)

Happy Holidays and Happy 2008 to all, may everything that you aspire for, come true next year. Cheers.

DUBAI AIRSHOW PICTURES

2007-11-25T23:13:00.000-08:00

In my blog about Dubai Air Show, I had posted some pictures. Since this blog is dedicated solely to aviation, I have decided to post more pictures of the event that took place in Dubai between 11th and 14th November and happened to be the third largest air show in the World and one that is emerging as a leader in Asia, air show wise and also perhaps because this show will have a dedicated new venue in the form of the new Jebel Ali Airport coming up soon.

(Air Show Main Hall)

(ATR display model)

(Sukhoi Super Jet - an Aircraft in the 100 seat category that is being jointly developed by Sukhoi of Russia who are more known for their military Aircraft and the Italian Company Alenia who is well known as the manufacturer of the ATR Aircraft)

(Above and below are the display model of the Cirrus Jet concept Aircraft. It is designed to be a single pilot/owner pilot jet Aircraft. Cirrus is a manufacturer of the famous SR-22 single engine Aircraft that revolutionized the industry with innovative technologies including an in-built parachute system for the entire airplane)

(Above and below is the Cessna Single turbine engine utility Aircraft)

(Different aerobatic teams put up displays every afternoon during the airshow)

(Above and below-The Airbus A380 Super Jumbo made an appearance and put on some flying displays but the Aircraft was in Airbus colors, Emirates Airlines purchased 55 of these at the air show)

The air show ended as a commercial success, with the promise that the next one to be held in 2009 at the new venue will be a bigger version of the event. Watch this space!

New Post - Aviation

2007-11-25T01:57:00.000-08:00

(Me on a P51 Mustang)

After a long hiatus, I am reviving this blog. I have been actively writing on another blog site and topics there started with aviation in the beginning and then I sort of branched it off to include travel related topics. While the going has been good and I have traveled a lot and hence can blog a lot, I and some friends connected with aviation found that I was not doing any justice to aviation. I began that blog to reflect my enthusiasm for aviation but I did not persevere with that subject. The good thing is that the travel blog (as it may now be called) has enjoyed some support from non aviation readers who would not have, perhaps, read my blog if it had been only about aviation.

(Premier 1)

When I re-read what I wrote in my first post on aviation, on this blog, last year, I am happy to note that things which I prophesied at that time still hold true and trends are continuing that way, especially what I briefly wrote about with respect to GA/Corporate Aviation. Now, this blog is going to be based entirely on aviation, news about aviation, the events happening in this field and my analysis on the happenings. I may also be forecasting things but these will be purely my assumptions and I do not encourage anyone to use the data or assumptions that I will provide, for any commercial use or base their commercial or non commercial decisions based on my forecasting or anything I write about, such responsibility will be on the reader only. In the past my writings have been used by others, a plagiarism of sorts, and while I cannot encourage that sort of copying behaviour, it still is beyond my control. I can only ask people who want to use my material, to first obtain my permission before using the same. I may not oppose using my material in other publications so long as the columnist or author obtains my permission to do so.

(Flew in a T28 courtesy my friend Chuck at Camarillo, California)

I thank everyone who have been supportive of my other blog at http://mymysore72.blogspot.com and encourage them to read about aviation on this blog from time to time and ask questions on the subject, especially about things that I write about, should the reader not understand the subject or anything associated with it. I may also cross post what I write here, on the other blog as well, especially if the subject is of interest to the readers there as well.

I will post aviation photographs that I take from time to time and may even post photos that have not been published yet on my other blog. For example, I have taken many more photos of the Dubai air show but have selectively posted them on the other blog. On this one, I'll put in more info and photos of the air show as well as other hitherto unpublished pictures. As always, please click on the pictures to view them full size. Enjoy.

Aviation Issues in India and the Region-New Blog

2006-11-07T22:29:00.000-08:00

I've got a blog at mymysore72.blogspot.com where I wrote about aviation in general and diversified it into a forum for me to write about my travels as well. A blogger, Mr. GV Krishnan, based in Mysore, India egged me on to write aviation specific blogs that would highlight some of the deficiencies in Indian Aviation and what needs to be done to improve things.

It is common knowledge for anyone flying in the Indian skies as a passenger that it is a hassle to fly. There are lots of Airlines these days connecting just about everywhere one would want to go and that's not the problem. Actually, that's the good thing. The bad part of the entire rapid expansion is that the much needed infrastructure has not caught on and developments in this area is woefully slow.

The job situation in Aviation is good, pilots, engineers, cabin crew, ground support staff ET AL never had it so good. However, the Airlines are not doing so well. In their mad dash to be one up over the next operator, they are all painting RED. That's never good for a business that is capital intensive and these days over competitive. Us aviation chaps know that this field is a big hole, a bottomless pit where one pours in the money and the pit never fills up. Its a common joke to say that if one wants to be a millionaire in aviation, one should start with many millions!!

Private and corporate aviation activity is doing well. Here, there is a genuine need for business travel at schedules and routes convenient to the companies that own these Aircraft. The spurt in the purchase of corporate Aircraft may naturally result in, although not significant at this time, to make a dent in the business class travel on the Airlines in the long run.

Business class makes money for an Airline, lets not make any bones about this fact. In fact business class perhaps subsidizes those sitting back there in the "cattle class". Kingfisher Airlines in India realised that fact and what started out as a high density all economy seating Airline grew into a two class Airline. With that it hope to take on the other established "legacy Airlines".

There are more problems than solutions and not many solution providers. What I'll attempt to do is to keep writing about the problems, hoping that some one takes notice and does something about it. Easier said than done, in India. Solutions sometimes are staring in the face but people fail to recognize them. More in my next post.