Dubai Duty

One exciting aspect to my job is that every six months I am assigned to go through what we call recurrent training. Usually this involves a couple of days in a classroom going over all the aircraft systems and how to handle different malfunctions. The rest of the week is spent in a full motion flight simulator, where we practice dealing with a litany emergencies such as engine failures, fires, and equipment malfunctions. Many of these problems are to be dealt with pre-determined actions that we have memorized. Others require a bit of thinking and application of some of our system knowledge, or the use of an emergency checklist. It is always an exciting week, and I usually learn a lot. The other fun thing is that this training is outsourced by other companies that specialize in providing this sort of training. The aircraft I happen to be flying and the availability of the training facilities will determine where I will go for this training. So far I've gone to Paris, Toronto, Wichita, and this last week I was in Dubai. Dubai is a fascinating city with a myriad of things to do. I didn't have much time to do many things myself, but my wife and daughter came along and took advantage of the company paid "vacation". This included indoor snow skiing, visiting the tallest building in the world, and of course lots of shopping. Compared to Saudi Arbia, Dubai is clean, modern, and liberal. People from all nationalities can be found almost everywhere, but like Saudi, the hard labor is done primarily by workers from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. Filipinos make up much of sales workers and nannies, etc. probably because they are better at English. My instuctors at the training center were all European (Norwegian, French, and Portugese). The hotel staff was very international as well, as was the staff at the airline. In fact I don't think we ever interacted with a single Emiratti! Because of its proximity to many poor countries, Dubai, as many of the other Gulf states, have taken advantage of cheap labor. A significant percentage of their work force make less than $200 a month. As a result Dubai has probably one of the most amazing skylines. Buildings shaped like flowers, wheels, or even twisted licorish sticks line the beach front. Islands shaped like palm trees, or dolphines are covered with half built condos, and private beaches. It is very unreal, and seems precariously balanced on a notion that there is no end to the oil that has paid for all this lavishness. Where else can one snow ski in the desert!

Prayer at 35,000 Feet

After we level off at 35,000 feet, and establish our course eastbound from Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, the Muslim captain I'm flying with slides his seat back and says, "You have the controls, okay? I'm going to pray." A moment later he is standing with his arms crossed, hands on his wrists, facing aft toward the flight deck door. I hear him quietly reciting the Koran while he bends down with his hands on his knees, and then stands back up again. A minute later he is kneeling with his forehead on the floor, ...and then he is back up again. He does this full ritual twice while continuously reciting the Koran. The air is smooth. The sunset has left a faint glow on the horizon behind us. Mecca is less then 100 miles behind my right shoulder. I feel so lucky to be here.