My readers, who have always encourage me on my blog, have been asking me if I have taken a hiatus from writing. One of my blogger friends, in an e-mail to me, has even described my intermittent writing as “deficit monsoon”! Actually, I have been a bit tied up with some of the projects that I have on hand and have not been able to sit down and put some of my thoughts together. One thing that happened was that my trip back to the US got delayed to the first week of July. That prevented me from writing about the T-28 Trojan that I wrote about in an earlier piece.
One of my blogger friends who keeps encouraging me with his comments is Mr. Govindraj Ethiraj who has a blog of his own: http://datelinebombay.blogspot.com/
He is a journalist and writes about current issues on his blog. He mentioned to me once, in a comment on my blog, about a book called “Beyond the Blue Horizon” written by Alexander Frater. I have Frater’s book in my collection called “Chasing the Monsoon” which was also made into a TV Documentary. Beyond the Blue… is a travelogue of sorts, based on the old Imperial Airways of the U.K. and their overseas routes. I had been traveling around, as normal and began visiting book stores everywhere to find this book that had been recommended by Mr. Govindraj. Finally, running out on time, I placed an order with a book store here in Singapore who then kindly proceeded to import the same for me. Two weeks later, I have it with me.
“Beyond the Blue…” is actually Alexander Frater trying to follow the original Imperial Airways route from London to Brisbane in Australia. The original Imperial Airways flew out of Croydon instead of Heathrow and Frater seems to make the trip as close to the original route, landing in rather interesting places. I just started to read the book and I know I am going to have fun going through it. Some of the interesting places, I have been to, and some of them I have seen from the air while flying. Some, I have been chased away from (Gwadar and Pasni in today’s Pakistan, earlier called Baluchistan during Imperial times). That’s a whole different story! I will blog a little more about the book as I go along and also on other matters that may come up in my little field. Thanks for the continued support from readers.
14 comments:
This migratory bird may be coming home to roost mid June for a couple of days and then migrate again! The book is facinating and the more I read about Bari, Athens, Corfu and even Mt. Isa and Darwin in Australia, I have been to allthese places and can relate. This makes the reading more pleasurable. my wife tells me to blog more but time is not yet ripe! I will start putting things down more shortly.
Hello Captain!!
I strolled into your blog thru' Govind's blog and my journey here in your blog has been as great as flying an open aircraft at close to speed of light!!! :-)
Great technical explanations, excellent reasoning for the current fiasco in the Aviation Industry in India and very lucid non-technical explanations too. Don't know how I missed your blog so far!
Your response to each and every query is even more encouraging! My applauses to you sir!!
I shall post some questions in the near future, since I have some questions regarding the aviation industry. As you have said, The industry has great potential to grow in our country, only when our netas and babus realise it!!
I look forward to being a part of a discussion forum on Aviation industry that you could chair in the (near) future.
Cheers,
Venkat.
Mr. Vijendra, we need you more in Mysore to take up our common causes and I wish I can be of help too.
Mr. Venkat Ramanan, thanks for your kind words sir. I look forward to interacting with you on anything related to aviation. I have also started to blog about my travels, since a few people asked me to do so as I do travel a lot and have been for the last two decades. Thanks for your kind encouragement.
Hi Cap,
Are you a member on airliners.net?
VT-...
Hi Anon (VT-...), no, I am not a member of airliners.net but I have occasionally browsed the website.
Hello Captain!
Hope things are flying great with you! :-)
I have always had this doubt with regards to leasing of Aircrafts. what is wet and dry leasing? I tried googling but I couldn't get proper responses. When you have some time, please let us all know what these terms mean!
And Thanks a lot for your comment in my blog! Yes, we hope our rulers are sane too! I guess it will take sometime for such social reforms.. !
Thanks again Sir!
-Venkat.
Thanks for your question Venkat (if i can call you that). It is a bit simple actually. Dry lease is the lease of an Aircraft without crew. Wet Lease is with operating crew. The common wet lease used is ACMI lease. ACMI stands for Aircraft, Crew, Maintenance and Insurance. Dry Lease is usually on a monthly fixed basis, for example, a Boeing 737NG may be available for $200,000 dry lease per month (Don't take this as a quote!!). Leasing companies also add a maintenance reserve payment on top of the dry lease amount and that is based on an hourly rate. ACMI lease is always based on hourly rate. So, the more you fly, the more you pay. Hope this is helpful in understanding this issue.
Hi captain
Any comments on this one ,"AAI SUGGESTS RELOCATION OF MYSORE-OOTY HIGHWAY " http://www.starofmysore.com/main.asp?type=news&item=9834
-Sudhi
Hi Sudhi,
I could not find the link. I used the link you gace but it went to a page that says "no updates today". Is it possible to give me another link, the date that this new appeared? I am abroad and don't have hard copy to look through. Also, if you could kindly put in the new item here, I could then respond. Thanks very much for your interest.
The issue raised by Sudhi is interesting, though I too (being out of Mysore) have no access to details of the story. I Thought, in the interest of wider public interest this issue generates, I wonder if Sudhi would consider posting an item, giving his take on the issue, in 'Issues & Ideas' page. This would help widening the scope of interation among those who don't normally access Capt.Murthy's aviation blog.
Hi Captain and GVK
Thanks for the response , of late I have been interested in developmental activities happening in our own Mysore, since SOM is the only source for such news, i usually check em daily through web.
This artcile appeared on Sunday June 11th 06 edition of SOM.I have copy and pasted the content below-
Thanking u all.
-Sudhi
AAI SUGGESTS RELOCATION OF MYSORE-OOTY HIGHWAY
AAI Liasion officer takes charge in city
Mysore, June 11 (MRS)- The Airport Authority of India (AAI) has recommended to the State Government to re-locate a stretch of Mysore-Ooty Highway to facilitate construction of Mandakalli Airport.
According to sources, this came to light during inspection of the airport. On the one side of the airport, there is railway line and on the other Mysore-Ooty Highway. It would be difficult for flights to land and takeoff, unless that stretch of road is relocated.
The question of realignment of railway track was ruled out since it involved huge expenditure not less than Rs. 3 crore for laying one km of railway track.
Under these circumstances, the only option was to take steps for relocation of highway.
Approval
The AAI was spending around Rs. 100 crore on building a new runway, apron and other infrastructure. The administrative approval for spending that money is likely to come within a couple of days.
The AAI had already signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the State Government.
The AAI needs at least 24 months to construct the airport from the date of commencement of work. It had taken up levelling of ground and other works. A detailed plan had been submitted to the State Government after doing preliminary survey.
The only hitch so far, had been Mysore-Ooty Highway, for which the Government had to come out with a solution.
The AAI had sought free water, electricity, exemption of property tax and other municipal taxes for five years. Besides, basic infrastructure required to make Mysore Airport operational. The duty of AAI was only to submit plan mentioning extent of land required for expansion activities and it was the State Government which had to provide them.
Officer takes charge
The project got a shot in the arm yesterday with Dharmchand Meena taking charge as Liasion Officer of AAI in city. He called on Lok Sabha member C.H. Vijayashankar and discussed various aspects of the project.
Thanks for the news update Sudhi, I am much obliged to you for that. Well, at least this project has started making the right type of news. It is true that there is a rail line at one end and Ooty road on the other. if the AAI can take over the lands on the highway side and divert it somewhat, this may allow the existing runway alignment to remain. I had written about this matter previously in my blogs on Mysore Airport.
I hope and pray that the project takes two years or less. I just wrote a new blog on Seletar Airport in Singapore and what they are doing here. The amount of civil works that they plan to do here is much bigger than the Mysore Airport project and that will complete before Mysore Airport finishes, this i am sure of. Thanks for your comments again and please keep them coming.
I must thank Govindraj Ethiraj for recommending this book. Got me to start writing what experiences I have had in aviation and travelling. Look up for a three part series on my experiences flying an unsophisticated short range Aircraft across the Atlantic. First part is titled "Out of Scotland"
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