Life is a Cirrus, or "Spring Break for Pilots"

Got a chance to go to Sun N' Fun, the big airshow in Lakeland, Florida this week. It's a heck of an event -- airplanes everywhere, vendors selling things for pilots, an airshow over the runway in the afternoons featuring the Air Force Thunderbirds, and lots of seminars, forums, and stuff to look at.

While chatting with the Cirrus people today, I got invited to a little reception/dinner after the airshow at the main airport building. The featured guest was to be Dale Klapmeier, founder and Chairman of Cirrus. This guy is a legend in aviation, having basically built an new airplane company from nothing in the 1990's. The Cirrus SR-20 and SR-22 are both known for being entirely new composite designs that go fast, have modern comforts, and take advantage of every possible technological advance.

Klapmeier gave a talk in which he described the philosophy behind the highly successful Cirrus airplane. He said that, when he and his brother started out in the 1990's, they had four or five airplanes between them and his wife didn't want to go anywhere in any of them. Said he discovered that if your wife does not like or trust the airplane, you'll be driving a lot.

So, what did he and his brother learn from this? That they had better design an airplane with the primary goal in mind being to make the passenger, often a non-pilot spouse, happy and content. If the passenger is content, it is easy to please the pilot.

For example, the avionics in a regular airplane don't answer the questions his wife always had: where are we? when are we going to get there? do we have enough fuel? He said that as soon as they lifted off from the airport, with the airport still in full view behind the plane, his wife was already asking, "Where are we?"

So the entire design of a Cirrus was predicated on the need to answer those three questions in a way that is immediately obvious, as well as reassuring. When you look at the moving map screen in a Cirrus, even a non-pilot can see immediately where you are, and there is an indication of when you will reach your destination. And the fuel consumption and remaining amount is easily visible too.

Now, after developing the Cirrus, Klapmeier does not drive anywhere anymore. His wife wants to fly everywhere.

Must be the leather seats. And, the parachute. But that's a story for another day.

Cheers from KLAK,

Looping the Loop -- Around the Washington Beltway in 2.5 Hours

A guy from the running club had expressed interest in going for a flight. The weather was looking very good -- clear and sunny. So, Wednesday, we met at Leesburg airport about 9 a.m. and took off eastbound, departing over the northern Potomac River, going over Gaithersburg, and then following a VFR slot at 2000 feet through the space between BWI (Baltimore) and DCA (Reagan National) airports.

We came out over Annapolis, getting nice bright morning views of the City Dock and the Naval Academy, not to mention all the boat docks and big houses on the rivers. Then we crossed the Chesapeake Bay up by the Bay Bridge and then turned down over St. Michaels. We also had to do a turn or two right over Dick Cheney's place along the way, while admiring all the big houses. We flew on down over the Choptank River to Cambridge and landed there, but it turned out that the airport restaurant is closed on Wednesdays. So much for getting coffee there. (See picture of Brian and plane at Cambridge.)

So, we took off again and continued around the south side of DC, passing by Patuxent Naval Air Station, over the Potomac at its widest point, and eventually coming up over Fredricksburg. There I picked up an IFR clearance back to Leesburg from Potomac Air Traffic Control. Since 9/11 pilots have to have some kind of clearance to enter the Special Flight Rules Area (SFRA) around Washington, and an IFR clearance is as good as any to do it.

Now usually, they would send me way out to the west of Dulles, out by Winchester and then turn me east in to Leesburg, thus causing me to avoid the big airplanes coming in to IAD. The big iron lands from the north or the south into Dulles runways 01 and 19, mostly.

This time, however -- and I think it was because it was noon and a relatively quiet time for Dulles operations -- the controller sent us up the east side of Dulles Airport at 3000 feet! (See attached picture from the plane over Route 50 with Dulles in the distance).

This meant that we came straight up over Reston and indeed right over our house and Lake Audubon. I could the Reston Town Center clearly, and all the other landmarks. Except for the fact that I had to be flying the plane with some precision, I could have been taking pictures!

Then she (the controller) turned us west over Route 7 and we flew right out to Leesburg, over the quarries, by the outlet mall, and into the airport. A smooth landing on runway 17 finished the flight in just under three hours.

This was a lot of fun, and I think I've got to try to do it again -- with a camera. If it had been a little less hazy, we would have had good views of DC landmarks while crossing north and south of the city. As for getting cleared to fly over Reston, clearly part of the secret is being at the right time of day, sounding like you know what you're doing, and making it easy for the controller to send you up the east side of Dulles.

East of Dubai, Gulf of Oman -- continued

The signs along the roads are worth a mention too. This "camel crossing" sign caught our eye, and not just because it was bracketed by the frequent "humps ahead" sign, seen here in the distance.

All roads are decorated with speed bumps, or humps in local parlance, that are intended to slow the traffic before round-abouts or U-turn opportunities.

There are very few legal left turns on UAE roads. Instead, you drive past your intended street and find the first opportunity to make a 180 and go back for a right turn. In heavy traffic, this leads to incredible jams of cars turning around at any break in the median, often two abreast.

This picture shows the view of the mountains as we drove on highway 88 toward Dibba. It was Friday morning, the Sabbath so to speak, so there was not much traffic at all.

For all the traffic in the cities of Dubai and Abu Dhabi -- which can jam up like K Street in Washington at the drop of a hat -- there are also wide open spaces. Dubai already has a beltway road, six lanes in each direction, and it's "heavy traffic" if you see another car on it. As we drove out on Friday morning, there were only the large power line pylons marching alongside the road.


Motorways in the Emirates are well marked with speed limits, merging traffic signs, information about forthcoming intersections, and direction to major towns. Important tourist sites identified on brown signs with white letters, just like in the U.S.

Smaller two lane roads wind through towns and villages, with many small shops and services lining the highway with their colorful, brightly lit signs. There are lots of grocers, telephone salesmen, air conditioning sellers, rug merchants, and fabric sellers. Given the number of fabric shops, I conclude that people buy fabrics and take them to tailors who make the clothes. There are few shops that specialize in women's or men's ready-made clothing. And, while you don't see many hair salons for women, but almost every block has a barbershop, and inside is a man getting a shave. This seems to be true at almost any hour of the day or evening.

To the East of Dubai -- Gulf of Oman

Leaving Dubai in the early morning, the sun was shining nicely on the Burj Kalifa, so we stopped and took a couple of photographs. It really is a graceful building and deceptive about its height.

We drove east to the Gulf of Oman, through the town called Friday's Market, and up by Dibba, doing some bird watching and countryside looking along the way. Peter wanted to find certain birds, and we did spot one. He has an incredible eye for this, spotting and identifying birds that I barely notice.

We saw wild camels wandering around in the desert (well, they probably belonged to someone), and triangular "camel crossing" signs along the road.

The country become very mountainous as you proceed out there to the east, and then you drop down to the sea. We stopped at a little beach resort, called Sunny Beach, which is just even with a big rock formation called "Snoopy" that is about two hundred yards off shore. We bought a day entry, rented flippers and a mask (Peter hired scuba gear), and we went snorkeling and scuba diving.

Actually the 10 o'clock scuba trip was taken over by a class, so we went snorkeling around the island called Snoopy. It looks like Snoopy in profile laying down on his back.

We could not go out on the boat until 1 p.m. So we had lunch on the patio overlooking the water, and it was quite pleasant sitting in the sunshine with a gentle breeze off the water. Eventually large bus loads of corpulent Russians and Germans began arriving.

But, before they began to block our view of the sea, we set off in a dive boat with four Norwegians and a young American couple. It takes a long time to put on all the equipment for scuba diving, and the mask and fins for snorkeling were comparatively quick. We did dives on two different spots. Saw lots of coral reef fish with bright colors of blue and yellow, but I cannot identify them even when I have a reference book later.

It was about five o'clock by the time we got back to shore and cleaned the salt water off, took a few pictures, and got back in the car. We drove down through Badiya where there is a really old mosque right beside the road. It was built in about 1493 or so, out of mud, and said to be the oldest mosque in UAE. Its amazing anything lasts that long!

Then we continued down to Khor Fakkan, Fujairah and turned back toward Dubai. The coast is very pretty and green, and it is relatively unspoiled by development until now, at least as compared to Dubai. It is obvious why UAE residents like to drive out here for the day to swim, picnic, and enjoy the cooler atmosphere.

On the way back to Dubai, we noticed lots of cars and SUV's pulled off on the side of the road or even out in the desert. (Going off road into the desert is not something you do with the average SUV; most standard street SUV's would quickly get stuck in the sand.) Often, a few hundred yards away from the highway, there was a campfire, and in many cases a tent had been erected. Many times we noticed the boys driving ATV's through the dunes. In other cases you saw groups of men circling the campfire. No women were anywhere to be seen.

The Emiratis, remembering their heritage as nomadic tribesmen, still like to go out to the desert and go camping. In America, fathers take their sons camping; in Arabia, fathers take their sons camping. It is just the difference between being the woods and being out in the desert, under the stars.

Auto mad United Arab Emirates

Tomorrow I've got to return from Abu Dhabi to Dubai, the other emirate.

Well, there are seven emirates but the only two anyone has heard of are Abu Dhabi (the one with oil) and Dubai (the one with finance, hotels, business, and tourism, not to mention the artificial islands and the world's tallest building).

The trip is about 90 miles by car on the highway, so it takes about an hour and a half to drive between the two cities. It's not a pretty road.

Most of the way there is about as much to see as when you drive down I-95 -- it's just 10-lane interstate highway about five kilometers inland from the water. The speed limit is about 65 mph and there is enough enforcement to make you pay attention if you are a foreigner. Emirate citizens do not seem to heed the speed limit or be subject to police action. Oh, yes, gasoline is about a dollar a gallon.

Interesting fact: this country has more Maseratis, Lamborghinis and Ferraris per capita than any other country in the world -- driven by teenagers.

The cars here seem to have only two speeds -- full out acceleration or full hard braking. Every driver we have been with has seemingly had the accelerator nailed to the floor or was standing hard on the brakes. Curves are taken at a breathtaking pace. I assume tires get replaced frequently. Road rage is a major issue.

It is a car mad country. The S-class AMG Mercedes serve as taxis, and the 750Li BMW's are pretty popular with the younger set. You see a share of Audi RS-models in the flood of well equipped Land Cruisers, Range Rovers, Lexus SUVs and Escalades from Cadillac. I've seen plenty of Hummers as well as Corvettes!

Among the wealthy Emirati men, a white Land Cruiser seems to be a badge of honor. The other day the weekly camel races were shown on television. As the camels raced around a track, the enthusiastic owners also raced around the track in their white Land Cruisers, leaning out the windows and urging their favorite steeds on to victory.

Modern and traditional transport vehicles, side by side.

Valentine's Day in the Middle East

So here is a little entertainment stand on the Burj Dubai side with lots of hearts for Valentine's Day. This is one of those carnival games where you throw a ball in the hole and win a stuffed animal for your sweetheart. In this case, you will win a stuffed Valentine.

For reasons I don't quite understand, the idea of Valentine's Day is abhorrent to Muslims. I understand that it is quite scandalous that here in UAE, it is permitted to advertise and sell Valentine's Day items. There is not a lot of advertising and Valentines paraphernalia around, but there is some.

In some countries, Islamic religious leaders believe the celebration of Valentine’s Day encourages “promiscuous activity.” In Brunei, the censorship board ordered cinemas to remove from distribution the film that co-stars Julia Roberts, according to the Brunei Times report. In other places, shops have been burned for selling Valentines Day items.

Anyway, it looks like Valentines Day will be celebrated tomorrow here in UAE, but with moderation and very little fanfare.