pOkE the pLaNeT

It's been what seems like forever since we've been to the Balkans. We will be heading out this friday, flying into Dubrovnik but catching a bus down to Montenegro straight away. Was in Crna Gora (Montenegro) 2004ish last but it was at the end of a 3 week jaunt so I am kinda fuzzy on the memories. Mostly I remember eveywhere we ate always seemed to total 13 euros no matter how much we drank, Bill got nosey & coulda got shot and the locals were nice. Our 3 weeks will also encompass Albania, which we've never been to. Except for the capital Tirana, it is said to be more "rustic" of the balkan region and I can't wait! Maybe if there is time we will go to Macedonia and/ or Kosovo. This is a fact finding mission so I hope 3 weeks will be enough time to learn what we need to know.

I ride a Moto Guzzi. Let me ammend that last statement... I ride a Moto Guzzi when it works.

So far Ive done a couple of hundred miles on the thing and it simply refused to start this weekend. I thought it was the battery but, no, thats fine, so its either a relay or a switch or a starter motor. Heres the thing: look online and you find this fault is so common it has its own threads. Rats. When I was in Vegas I asked Pat Clark Motorcycles how many Guzzis they sold each year and I was surprised to find its was something like half a dozen, if that. Vegas is a Harley city with two of the biggest dealerships Ive ever seen and it surprised me that a region with such fantastic roads sold so few touring Guzzis. Mind you I was also told bikers with full leathers dehydrate terribly in the heat, and its no different here. Whats different here are the prices... Guzzis are comparable with U.S prices but Harleys cost a fortune.

Whats really annoying however is my cheap Indonesian Yamaha 225 which cost far less than the Guzzi keeps putting along like the energiser bunny without a single complaint. Hmm. Interestingly enough in a company with more than a few bikers I find not one rides a Harley, the closest being one guy with a Buell. It seems pilots ride BMW's, Yamahas, Suzukis and Ducatis, but not Harleys.

Bailouts. Watching whats going on in the U.S its interesting to see how Australia has handled this crisis. The government first threw out a thousand dollars spending money to every registered taxpayer (including Im told, the dead, foreign passport holders and quite possibly one or two family pets named Stanley). Now we have another burst of cash coming in the form of something like $900.00, but far from spending the money people are saving it or paying down debt. Big surprise huh? Those who are spending it are spending it on imported goods, like italian starter motors.

K

Watched the U.S Air Airbus crash in the Hudson and its a very interesting case from an pilots point of view. One thing I found odd was a figure given on the major media networks that 'planes hit birds about once in every ten thousand flights'? Huh? Try once in every two hundred.

Pilots are not only required to report actual bird strikes but they are also asked to report near strikes. From experience, most pilots I know simply dont bother reporting near misses and I would say only half report actual strikes. It all depends on the standard of airmanship and discipline at a given company, but many guys disregard incidents where a small sparrow size bird strikes a wheel or a wing. If its a larger bird, they will file a report if only to explain the mess along the side of the plane. If it goes down an engine the result depends on the speed of the plane, the size of the bird, and the type of engine. Old military type engines were small and tough, while modern engines are also strong but have large fan blades which present more surface area, increasing the chance of a strike.

If your engine does eat a bird, you usually get a bang and a shudder as the engines blades absorb the shock, and moments later you might get a smell of roasted meat as the carcass passes through the engine and the aroma is pumped into the plane through the bleed air/ air con pack system. One result is often that a blade is now askew, and the result is a vibration that, if powerful enough, will require an engine shutdown. Thats not a problem, as all multi engined planes are certified to fly perfectly well with an engine shut down during all phases of flight.

Losing two engines however is a different matter. In this case it looks like the airliner went through a flock of birds and each engine took a fatal hit. Thats quite remarkable as a statistic and it doesnt happen very often, but when it does its usually geese. I dont know what these birds were but the problem around many airports is they are built near swamps or coastlines or have refuse dumping sites nearby, all of which attract birds. Bird dispersal can involve shooting, sonic cannons, egg collecting, grass cutting to specific height to discourage nesting by certain breeds, falconry and even an automated aerosol unit that sprays a citric acid concoction into the air at regular intervals, which irritates the birds eyes and senses.

The smallest bird Ive knowingly killed has been a rainbow beeater, while the largest was a hornbill which destroyed an engine on an Embraer E110 I was flying at the time. Ive ingested one flying fox (bat) which destroyed a second engine, this time on a Fokker F28, and have probably struck about thirty raptors, mostly New Guinea Kite Hawks in the Markham Valley. The largest bird Ive nearly hit was a pelican which actually flew alongside my Cessna while I was landing, while a close second was a stork that flew across my path from right to left... at eight thousand feet. It was flying across a valley from one mountain range to another. I believe the record for a bird strike is a condor or something similar above 20,000 feet.

Once every ten thousand flights? I have just over 10,000 hours flying experience and reckon Ive hit at least 200 birds.

Trippin'.

Heres the trick to visiting the U.S. Go with a good airline, stay at good hotels, visit good friends, eat at good restaurants and dont worry about the cost until you get home. The sad thing is now Im home and everytime I open an envelope I want to cry..

Good airline? I went with Air New Zealand as they fly Cairns-Auckland-LAX with zero fuss unlike the U.S and Australian airlines who drag you through Sydney or Brisbane. Los Angeles is still fun but if anything the traffic is worse than I remembered and I was pissed to find Zima is being discontinued. Dont tell me I have to go back to peppermint schnapps to impress people again.

Utah I always like and the BodyWorlds exhibit in Salt Lake City just proves that in the Beehive State its whats inside that counts. Kind of surprised that show got a venue in SLC but it was worth it, though once was enough. What did surprise me was the total destruction of the ZCMI mall area. I mean, Jeez! When they say theyll do something they dont $%^& around! Thank you DeEva for the restaurant recommendation and La Hacienda was so good its worth going back to SLC just for that place, though theres a lot about SLC that keeps me coming back. Mexican restaurants in Australia are about on a par with French restaurants in Papua New Guinea.

Vegas was a revelation. Last time I went through was in 1998 and the town was desert-casinos-desert. Now its desert-McMansions-casinos-McMansions-desert, and pardon me for saying so but it looked crazy. As the guide at Hoover Dam pointed out, people keep moving to Vegas to live but the water supply just isnt there, and Lake Mead was shockingly low compared to the last time I saw it. I mean this place made most of Australia look like an oasis and weve have seven years of drought.

Prime attractions? I went with a friend to sample the restaurants, pastry stores and chocolate shops, and five pounds gained in twelve days tells you all you need to know. I did little gambling, little drinking but a lot of exploring and the neatest museums were the classic car museum at Wynns, the Ferrari showroom, the Shelby museum up near Nellis, and the Atomic Testing Museum. I wouldnt recommend the brief film at the last for those with heart conditions though, as the soundtrack is very loud and very sudden, just like the bomb.

The Natural History Museum was kind of slow except for a brilliant display of live sharks still in their egg sacs. We used to find these on the beaches when I was a kid and we called them 'mermaid purses', but its a bit sobering to see a baby Jaws twisting around in one. Hoover dam was fine but the real attraction was the half completed road bridge just downriver that towers above it. This thing is huge and was a bigger attraction to me than the dam itself.

Let downs? Art. The Vegas art museum was effectively closed except for one display of panoramic photos of Vegas. Very nice but not worth the drive. The Bellagio art display was too much money for too little return, and while I like modern art, two or three Georgia O'Keefes does not an exhibition make. The rest of the art was pretty awful. Anyway, my father has an ongoing vendetta with the Bellagio because he reckons the service sucks and the food is rubbish.

Drive out to Pahrump and surprise yourself with a visit to a really nice small winery just before town. Its a right turn at the first set of lights and directions are available at any hotel in Vegas. The real attraction though is the road, which almost made me weep. I swear I could top 300kmh on the right bike on that perfectly formed strip of blacktop.

Names to remember in Vegas? Todds Restaurant on Sunset, on the way to Henderson. Cheesecake and Crime at Henderson, a cheesecake store that also sells crime books and its a great concept and deserves to do well. There are a few other places but Ill wait until I get the official review from my friend before I list the details. Best shows? Bill Mahers first show post election and Penn and Teller. Worst experience? The touts on the strip handing out cards for call girls. Why cant they hand out scratch lotto tickets instead?

Los Angeles was fun of course, and I drove out to Corona on my first day to do some aircraft part shopping. The fire damage was pretty obvious just past Anaheim and one night later they were expecting flooding and land slides. Pretty awful situation for the residents. Sadly I missed getting in to the Nixon Presidential Library at Yorba Linda but hopefully next time Ill make it in for a t shirt. The following day I drove to Santa Barbara and back and got stuck in Oxnard, and thats all Im going to say about Oxnard. Last day I drove around Torrance and Manhatten Beach before flying home.

One of the best trips Ive ever had and thank you especially to Vera who is a wonderful host and a joy to visit. The weird thing? The TSA has improved so much it was astonishing, and they were better than their counterparts in most other countries Ive visited. Someones getting it right.

K

Here is a link http://english.vietnamnet.vn/photogal/2008/11/811399We
that shows pictures of our old neighborhood in Hanoi during the 2008 Oct./ Nov. flooding.

We got back from 3 weeks in the states having shopped and gorged ourselves to excess. Man, I love mexican food!!!

Still no snow has fallen here and the city has yet to turn on the heat. It has to be something like 5 days straight of temps at or below 8C before they'll turn it on. Although I am freezing, it really hasn't been that cold, it's just adjusting from an s.e. asia winters of past that will make this winter hard but at least it isn't flooding either.

I will be going next month to Frankfurt for training for work. Supposely what I'll learn will make my job easier but I am skeptical because of the enviorment it is applied to.

One day my lazy self will post some pics.