Through The Mist Darkly

The clock says 3am Wednesday morning but my brain says it’s 9pm Tuesday.  Every time I travel I go through this.

I’m back in Switzerland for business meetings that began yesterday (today?) and end Thursday evening.  Off to the airport on Friday and back home by 4:30 in the afternoon.  So, in less than 5 days I will have:

- flown over 8,000 miles

- been on an airplane for more than 17 hours

- lost 6 hours of my life on Sunday and gained it back on Friday

- spent 2 hours on trains back and forth from the little town of Lachen and the Zurich airport

- sat through nearly 30 hours of meetings

The worst part of these trips is the jet lag that sets in on day 2 and continues through the following weekend.  I don’t sleep well on planes, especially now that we’re relegated to economy, and have no trouble getting a full night’s sleep the first night in the hotel.  Day 2 always, always ends with me being up half the night and only really feeling sleepy about 5 minutes before the alarm goes off.  Makes the day’s meetings go really, really, really long.  This will continue for the balance of the trip.

I’ll get home Friday afternoon and will drag my ass off the plane and attempt to stay awake long enough to wish Jan a happy anniversary.  By 9pm I’ll be in bed hoping beyond experience that I’ll get a full night of sleep.  Nope.  About 3am I’ll be wide awake and will spend the rest of the weekend wandering around in a fog.  Things will get back to normal just in time to go back to work.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.  Business travel is not what those who haven’t done a lot of it think.  It’s not glamorous, it’s not fun.  It sucks out loud.

HM Airship R-100 arrived in St. Hubert Quebec after an Atlantic crossing from Cardigan, Wales.

The picture above shows in floating over the Toronto skyline

The de Havilland Comet flew for the first time.  Plagued by problems with metal fatigue and a poorly designed wing, the world’s first jetliner suffered a number of spectacular crashes.

In 23 days I’ll hop a plane for a quick flight to Milwaukee to attend AirVenture 2010, better known as Oshkosh.

AirVenture is the world’s largest gathering of aircraft and enthusiasts.  First held in 1953 with about 150 visitors, it’s grown to the point that over 2,500 planes are set to arrive.  Here’s a long video that explains the whole thing.

Once a year, Oshkosh becomes the busiest airport in the world!

UPDATE:  Work got in the way.  Had to cancel.

Just noticed that I hadn’t posted anything here since the 1st of June.  Time is certainly flying by.  After Wings & Wheels I had such trouble with my feet that I’m finally able to say that I’m walking without pain for most of the day.

We have another wet weekend in Toronto (I’m sensing a trend) so there’s not much to do except housework and watch the Worldcup and G20  rioting. 

(above taken at Waterloo Air Show – Viper North MIG 15 and Vintage Wings of Canada F86 Sabre in high-speed pass)

Well the 5th annual Wings & Wheels Heritage Festival flew off into a beautiful sunset on Sunday night.  A great time had by all.  Thanks to all the dedicated volunteers who worked their tails off to make the event come off without serious incident.

Sure there were problems.  A press conference where nobody showed up.  Two aircraft brushing wingtips.  A carefully planned arrival of hundreds of bikes and cars that turned into a 3 stooges routine.  Heck, they’ve all faded from memory while the thousands of happy faces and compliments remain.

My feet have finally stopped aching and the sunburn has cooled down.  Time to start working on next year’s show.

Half way through this long trip to Lexington Kentucky.  It was a brutal week at work – I don’t perform well in a fishbowl.  Too many people, too many problems, too much stress.  We ended off further along the project than we started so I guess it should be considered a successful week.

Yesterday(Saturday) I needed to blow off some steam so it was off to “Thunder Over Louisville” the annual kick-off to the Derby Festival which culminates with the Kentucky Derby.  Thunder Over Louisville is 1/2 airshow and 1/2 fireworks display.  I only stayed for the airshow because I didn’t relish the thought of trying to get out of town at the same time that 1/2 million people have the same idea. 

I left the hotel in Lexington at about 8:30 and took the 1 1/2 hour drive to Louisville.  Beautiful country on the way and a very pleasant trip.  Downtown Louisville is very pretty and it was a short walk from the parking lot to the Ohio River where the event takes place.

I thought I had arrived too early (5 hours before the show started) but the locals know better.  Prime real estate on the riverfront along the flight line was already taken by tens of thousands of people and they kept coming all day.  Whole families had staked out their areas with chairs, tents, BBQs, coolers, toys, flags, etc., etc., etc.

These are dedicated folks who stay in the same place from, probably, 7 o’clock in the morning until 10 that night.  Everyone was in great spirits even though the temperature had fallen from the 80’s on Friday to the low to mid 60’s yesterday.

With plenty of time to kill, I wandered up and down the river checking things out and enjoying a lovely Saturday morning.  Hunger caught up with me so I stopped in to Joe’s Crab Shack which occupies a high vantage point to see the action.  Unfortunately, a ticket costs $200 in advance!  Was able to get in for lunch which was Bloody Marys’ and crab dip. I found out that they did have a slightly cheaper deal.  Underneath the restaurant, they had a fenced off area that you could access for $5 with bar and food service and dedicated Port-A-Potties which seemed like a great idea given the size of the crowd outside and the conspicuous lack of toilet facilities.  A wrist band insured that I would be able to come and go as I pleased.

Finally, the show started.  With all the good spots long gone, I had to make do with a spot right beside the massive speaker system that boomed out rock and roll all day.  It gave me a good view as the aircraft started their runs.  I’ve got about 200 pictures to go through but here’s a few of my favourites so far.

  My first B52!  This showed up late in the show but I was glad I had a chance to catch this cold-warrior that is still going strong.  Majestic and pretty dam quiet considering the size.  She made 2 quick passes and was off.

The KC-10 “Extender”.  Air-to-air refuelling.  Another old bird that first went into service in 1979.

I could post photos all day but it’s time to get ready to go to the Kentucky Aviation Museum near the Lexington airport.  Then it’s back to the hotel to do homework and get ready to have my spirit crushed for another week.  Oh, well at least I get to go home on Friday.

While down in Lexington Kentucky having my brain destroyed working long days in impossible conditions, an event occurred that almost slipped by me.

Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo completed its first captive flight connected to the Eve mothership. Funded by Sir Richard Branson and designed by Burt Rutan, SpaceShipTwo is poised to become the first commercial spacecraft when it goes into service in 2012.

Tickets will cost you a mere $200,000 and you can reserve now with only a $20,000 deposit.  If I only I could afford it.

As rumours surface that Tiger Woods may appear at this year’s Masters Tournament, it also appears that he is going to extreme lengths to recapture some of the sponsorships that he lost when he had trouble keeping his driver in the bag.

No comments yet from officials at Nike as to if this approach is working.

Friday evening at the Memphis airport I was in a great spot to watch the parade of FedEx jets taking off on their international shots.  One plane looked out of place so I grabbed the little Nikon I carry when I can’t be bothered to lug the D80 around.  It wasn’t until a few minutes ago that I realized what I’d got.

Airbus Industries F-WWYE.  The company’s first A330- 200F which first flew in November of last year.  I can only suspect that it was in Memphis to let FedEx kick the tires.