It has been a long time since I have posted, and quite a roller coaster ride to say the least.  I am still in Lagos, and have now been away from home for more than three months  even though I was only supposed to be here for two months.  I have been flying 6 days a week for the most part, since there has been no one else to fly the aircraft until now.  The 3rd First officer (Gladstone) had just finished his line check.  With Gladstone here, we now have 3 First Officers, and 3 Captains authorized to fly the two Q400s that we currently have. 

The next two aircraft are now due to be delivered no earlier than March to my knowledge.  We still have only one line-trainer, if we had more than one if would have greatly increased the rate of training new pilots, which when trained would allow me to finally travel home.  I am having a good time out here and am enjoying the flying, but missing Christmas, New-Years, and being away from all my family and friends for so long has dampened my spirits along with the rest of the Q400 pilots I’m sure.

Above is a picture of my crew and I after landing in Katsina.  We were the first Q400 to ever land here.  As you can see, my hair has gotten quite long, I have become stubborn and decided not to cut it until I am about to travel home. 

I received some supplies from the USA thanks to my family sending them to Norbert (Arik 737 Captain) and him bringing them over on the start of his rotation.  The most important item I received was contact lenses, I just had ran out of them when I received the package – it would have been tough to fly the aircraft blindly.

Tour of Nigeria 

One of my favorite routes I have done so far is Lagos – Akure – Abuja – Katsina – Abuja – Akure – Lagos.  I call it the “tour of Nigeria” because you fly from the southern part of the country to the northern portion, and back again. 

This picture was taken during descent into Katsina.  As you can see, it is very dry and desert like.  The winds were also stronger here at 20 knots from the North. 

First “Night-stop”

My first overnight (or “night-stop” as they refer to them here) was in Abuja, Denim Air who operates the Q300’s had stopped flying to renegotiate contracts (I think…) so we picked up a Lagos – Abuja – Katsina – Abuja – Kano – Abuja route.  There were a ton of Boeing 747s on the ground in Kano, I have never seen so many in one place!

The Abuja night-stop was very short but it sure was sweet staying at the Sheraton hotel there.  It is very nice with several restaurants to choose from.  Gustavo, our captain had his heart set on eating steak so we went to the restaurant that had steak, I ended up having this delicious grilled fish with vegetables and mashed potatoes.  They were playing “honkey tonk” music in the place…

I had them stop the music for a little bit so I could play the piano in the restaurant.  After dinner, I went up to my room which was very nice by Nigerian standards.  For breakfast I had some waffles delivered to my room.

 

Flying into Abuja is always fun, each time I have been there we land on runway 22, and although they apparently have an ILS, it is always INOP requiring us to do the VOR DME 22 approach.  Fortunately the Flight Management System gives you a “glideslope” so you have vertical and horizontal navigation just like an ILS approach. 

The visibility has been poor almost everywhere, usually not increasing to more than 5 km.  We are delayed almost every morning due to weather when flying to Osubi and Akure since they are VFR airports requiring a 1,500 ft. ceiling and 5KM visibility to land. 

So far I have operated the Q400 at the following airports: Lagos, Benin, Akure, Osubi, Ilorin, Abuja, Katsina, Oyu, and Kano.

After the nightstop in Abuja, we returned to Lagos and were scheduled to do two round trips to Osubi and everything was going fine until we got until we realized we couldn’t fly to Osubi and back the 2nd time legally due to the duty time aloft regulation (explained below).  The company decided that we should do the flight to Osubi which we could do legally and then have a night-stop there.

Here in Nigeria, the duty limitations are more restrictive in a sense than the FAA rules I am used too.  In the USA, for the type of flying we are doing, we could not fly more than 8 hours in a day, and must not be on duty for more than 14 hours.  These limitations are the same in Nigeria, but we have one more regulation which is called “Duty time aloft.”  In essence, 30 min. before your first scheduled departure, the clock is started, and you must complete your last flight of the day 30 min. before 11 hours from when the clock was started comes to and end. 

So we departed Abuja at 08:00 , therefore the 11 hour clock started at 07:30.  Add 11 hours to this, and you get 18:30, so we must complete our last flight at 18:00.  The captain does have the authority to add one more hour to this if he feels he can do it safely, and we do not have more than the minimum amount of cabin crew members.  So when we carry 2 cabin crew members, we can add one hour, but when we carry 3 (which we sometimes do on busier trips), the extra hour can not be added since the crew is augmented by definition.  This normally isn’t an issue except when our morning departures are delayed several hours due to weather.

The other Q400 (on its way back from Abuja) in Osubi was able to carry most if not all of the passengers we were supposed to take back from Osubi to Lagos. 

The cabin crew wasn’t to happy about the unexpected nightstop in Osubi, I was somewhat excited to see what it was like there, but was also tired from two long days of flying and anxious to get some rest.

The rooms weren’t to bad, there were only a few bugs, the lights worked, and the bed was comfortable.  The bathroom though wasn’t so nice, I didn’t even attempt to use the shower which was quite dirty.  I met Gustavo downstairs near the bar and restaurant and ordered some food which took almost two hours!  There was no one in the restaurant, we weren’t sure what took so long.  My food was pretty tasty though, I think I had some sort of spaghetti and a fruit salad. 

For breakfast I had french toast, pancakes, and fruit salad.  Unfortunately due to arriving late and leaving early, I wasn’t able to check out anything outside in the area.

While walking out to the aircraft, we got to see in person, the thick fog that always delays our flights to here from Lagos in the morning.

In a relatively short amount of time, we were above the clouds and on our way to Lagos.  The flight from Osubi to Lagos is relatively busy for the Pilot Not Flying (PNF).  Here is a list of the radio calls required for this flight:

On departure from Osubi:

Call Osubi Tower with estimated times of arrival (ETA) to destination.

Initiate Contact with Benin for clearance to higher altitude (10,000 max)

Call Osubi and tell them you have two-way communication with Benin.

Initiate contact with Lagos (very difficult on this congested frequency) for clearance to your cruising altitude, usually 21,000 on this flight.

Example of Call:

Lagos Control, Arik Air 4003

Arik Air 4003, go ahead

Arik Air 4003, Osubi – Lagos, DH8-D, Estimating BEN @ 1514, OK @ 1522, MOPAD @ 1528, and LAG @ 1602, 66-4 crew, 3 hours endurance, 5N-BKV, FL80 climbing FL100, requesting FL 210.

Arik Air 4003, cleared OSB – LAG A609, climb maintain FL210, report reaching.

Cleared OSB – LAG A609, climb maintain 210, report reaching, Arik Air 4003

Call Benin and tell them you have two-way comm with Lagos.

Call Company Operations and tell them Off-blocks and air-borne time out of Osubi, number of passengers aboard, and ETA at Lagos.

Copy current ATIS (weather) from Lagos.

Contact Lagos approach, given squawk code, several descents, heading changes, and finally approach clearance.

Contact Lagos Tower for landing clearance

While doing this, he must also operate the aircraft systems, run the checklists, and monitor the pilot flying.  This dramatically increases the workload of the crew, which is why I tend to always fly with the auto-pilot ON during departure so I can spend more time monitoring systems and what the PNF is doing.  I still do departures with the auto-pilot off out of less busy airports like Katsina where the job of the PNF is much easier to maintain proficiency, and for the pure enjoyment of hand flying. 

Sometimes I’ll look back at the wing and gently rock it up and down in disbelief that I get to do what I do.

This is a picture of me after landing in Lagos ending the day, I had a bit of a beard since I didn’t pack a razor, hadn’t showered since the day before, and was pretty fatigued.  We almost ran into another problem that day as well, as pilots we are not allowed to fly more than 30 hours in a 7 day period.  Upon landing in Lagos we had flown 29.6 hours in the previous 7 days! 

The next day I flew with Sean to Akure – Abuja – Akure and back to Lagos, it was my first time flying with him.  I also flew with him the following day, just one Osubi turn and I was back at the hotel very tired after 6 days straight of flying, which required me to have a day off the next day.  We must have one 24 hour period of rest (midnight to midnight) once every 7 days by regulation.

Malaria

I take Doxycycline Hyclate as an anti-malarial medication everyday.  It isn’t 100% effective though, as I unfortunately had to learn the hard way.

The afternoon after flying with Sean, the 6th straight day of flying, I had a chicken sandwich and spring rolls for lunch.  A couple hours later I was not feeling very well, had strong abdominal pain and felt weak.  I then threw-up my lunch, and had diarrhea.  I thought it was food-poisoning, so I went to the restaurant and told them how I felt and what I had eaten so they could take the necessary precautions.  That night was rough, I could not drink water without throwing up which I did several more times, and the abdominal pain would not go away.  When I finally woke up the next morning, I did not feel any better, and was very dehydrated (since I could not drink water and had diarrhea), had no appetite and was feeling very weak and sick.  So I got a ride to the doctor and told them I thought I had food poisoning.  I was given some medication to get rid of the diarrhea which would relieve my abdominal pain as well, and just in case, they took a blood test to see if I had Malaria.  I wasn’t worried, I didn’t think I had malaria since I didn’t have any of the common symptoms: sore throat, sweating, shaking, fever, etc.

20 minutes later though, to my surprise, I was informed I did have Malaria and was given medication to knock the parasites out of my system.  Vomiting and diarrhea are more uncommon symptoms to my knowledge but some people do get them.  After taking the medication I immediately felt better, no more abdominal pain, no more diarrhea, and was able to take in a little water at a time.  I did vomit one more time, it was just water though so it wasn’t painful.

I was able to eat a little bit of food, but still didn’t have much of an appetite.  I slept almost all day long, the medication really knocks you out.  My body was continuously feeling better though.  The following day I felt 10x better and although I was still dehydrated and feeling weak, I had no pain and could eat a larger amount of food and drink more water at a time.  I just relaxed in the hotel resting up, Abel, a Spanish pilot at my hotel got Malaria the same day I got it so we went together the following day to see if the Malaria was out of our system.  Now I was actually nervous for the results, I felt like it was out of my system, but it sure was great to hear the good news, both of us were clean, the Malaria had been cleansed from our bodies.

For more information about Malaria, this website is a great: http://www.cdc.gov/malaria/

I was given one more day of rest, Gustavo had gotten Malaria too a couple days before I did.  But we both recovered in time to fly together again soon, starting another 6 days straight of flying after the 4 days I had off to recover from Malaria.

This picture was taken on the ground in Benin after a heavy rain shower passed through the area.  The weather this time of year has been quite pleasant from a non-flying point of view.  There are very few thunderstorms, but the visibility is quite poor, especially in the morning as I mentioned earlier.  But the clouds due lower the temperatures a little bit so it feels good being outside. 

Pizza

Abel showed me a couple stores full of things like peanut butter, jelly, wheat bread, deodorant, soap, and other various items which I greatly appreciated.  We had lunch at Mr. Biggs which is a fast food place with ice cream, pizza, burgers, and chicken.  The supreme pizza I had there was very good.  I am used to it when restaurants and places that sell food do not have most of the items on the menu.  When we went to Mr. Biggs, the Chicken place had no chicken, the burger place had no meat, the ice-cream place only had strawberry ice cream left and none of the fancy toppings as advertised.

As you can see above, I have a new outfit, I bought the material at a nearby store and had the same tiller who made my last one sew it.

2nd Abuja Night-Stop

Less than a week ago, we had another night-stop in Abuja, this time was also because we could not legally finish our final leg to Lagos since it would exceed the duty time aloft limitation.  It was nice though having much more time to relax on the overnight.  I had a cappuccino, played some piano, ate some delicious dessert, had a tasty dinner at the Italian restaurant, and in the morning I enjoyed a large breakfast buffet.

Well that’s all for now, I know it had been a long time since I last posted so wanted to get some updates on here.  There are other things I would like to blog about, but don’t want to put to much in one post here.  I am not sure at this point when I am traveling back home, but hopefully I will know soon – there is a pilot meeting this Saturday, so maybe I’ll get some questions answered.

I showed up to the offices last Sunday with all of my bags packed and a ticket home, not sure if I would leave or not.  It was my 56th day since leaving home and contractually I didn’t have to stay any longer, we are required to work 56 days, then have 28 days off at home.  After talking with my fleet manager that morning, I decided to stay to help get the Q400 operation going for Arik Air.  It has been a long wait, and although I was excited to travel back home for the holidays to see friends and family, I felt it was the right thing to do.  Every two days I spend in addition to my 56 days will be compensated with one additional day off in the future, so all is not lost.  The important thing is the Q400 operation will continue to move forward, which is important as it is under a lot of pressure to do so quickly.  I am not sure how long I will stay or if I will get an opportunity to travel home for at least a week or two, hopefully I will find out soon.

Enjoying time off before several days of training

The hotel close to mine has recently gotten a electric piano with weighted keys (feels like your playing a real piano).  This is a big plus because I now have a piano I can play regularly at the same place I can swim and relax.  Our hotel picked up the Monopoly board game and since then, we have almost played it every night! 

The 56 days, 10 of which were spent in Toronto, went remarkably fast and I really don’t mind being here in Lagos so much.  Having such entertaining people to hang out with at the hotels has really helped. 

One day we took a trip to a market, the same one I had visited about a month ago, and I did some Christmas shopping.  We went on a weekday which was great at the market because it was not crowded, but the drive back to our hotel took about 3 hours due to intense traffic.

Our driver, UC (pictured to the right), is a hilarious guy.  He talks super fast and makes a funny sounding “ehhhh” quite often, which we always try and imitate when we see him to make him laugh.  On the drive home, I saw this (below), which I doubt I would ever see in America:

Jose and Fernando wanted to go see the work of a famous Nigerian artist here in Lagos, so I tagged along with them.  I was quite impressed by the artwork, it was all to expensive for me though. 

Fernando had a toothache, so he went into the dentist right across the street from where we were at, to check out the place.  The office seemed quite clean and Fernando later informed me after going to the place several days later, that the equipment was very nice but the dentist himself wasn’t so nice.  They did fix his toothache though, albeit with questionable techniques.

I am wearing the local attire I had made for me several weeks ago.  It is very comfortable to wear especially in this hot and humid climate, and I have received many complements from the locals on it.

 

Flight training and Line Check

The same day that I had packed all my bags to head home, and then decided to stay, I flew to Ilorin and back with the fleet manager for more training.  While we were in Ilorin, Gladstone and David both got there “base training” out of the way, which consisted of 5 touch and goes at flaps 15, followed by one full stop at flaps 35.  Unfortunately Fernando didn’t get to do his base training again because of daylight.  It was fun sitting in the back for all of the landings, some were very good.

Gustavo, a future line trainer at Arik, demonstrates a pre-flight on the Q400 to Gladstone, Fernando, and David.

 

Movie Filmed in Arik Air Boeing 737 then Q400 training flight

A couple of weeks ago, while  waiting for our fleet manager to finish some paperwork and answer some emails, Gustavo and I were asked to be in a movie that was being filmed in a 737 on the ramp.  The Nigerian film company needed two pilots to be filmed up front while the captain gives a “welcome aboard” over the PA system.  They gave us the script, but didn’t know what and how the pilot should do the PA, so they left it up to Gus and he did a great job.  During the PA he had to congratulate two passengers who were recently married and on there way to Abuja for their honeymoon.  Here is a video of one of the three takes.  They had microphones everywhere so that they could choose which PA they liked the best and edit as needed. 

 

 

It was a fun way to pass time, and will be neat to watch the movie (not sure what the name is) when it is finished and see the scene, and our names in the credits. 

After our fleet manager was finished, we all made our way to the aircraft with Gus in the jumpseat, and departed for Port Harcourt civil.  We had 4 legs planned that day.  Unfortunately when we were about 15 minutes from Port Harcourt, we had a “Door” warning light come on.  We decided after determining there were no pressurization problems, that the best course of action would be to return to Lagos where our only maintenance is.  If we were to land anywhere the aircraft would have to be fixed before departing.  The rest of the flight was uneventful and upon taxing in, we called it the day.

Lagos – Benin – Lagos (first flight with passengers!)

Two days after flying to Ilorin again, the fleet manager and I flew to Benin with Jose in the jumpseat.  As the first officer, it is my job to do the weight and balance which is completely manual.  Jose and I created a excel program that does all the calculations for you though, and this saves 3-5 minutes and is much more accurate.  I first enter aircrafts weight, estimated fuel burn, and total fuel on board.  Then later I get the total cargo (baggage) and passenger count.  After entering in this data, I copy all the totals to the paper copy, call for start clearance, and we’re on our way.

It is very beneficial for the Q400 pilots who haven’t flown the aircraft before to jumpseat and observe how it is operated in the same environment they will soon be flying it in.  I know from doing several observation flights with my previous company (Horizon Air) that it reduced the total training I required on the line, and I felt much more comfortable and confident after doing them.  Jose who was observing us from the jumpseat, snapped a couple pictures for me on the flight.  In the picture above, I am copying down some data onto the OFP (Operational Flight Plan… I think).

It felt good to finally be earning some money for the company.  I think I am going to really enjoy flying here, I have been so far at least.  It is much more hectic overall compared to flying in the USA, but it keeps things interesting.

Lagos – Osubi – Abuja – Osubi – Lagos (two days in a row)

Before flying this day, I had 7 sectors under my belt.  It was my first time flying to Osubi so I did a bit of research on the field before leaving.  We have a manual full of insightful “what to expect” type of information which I read in addition to talking with Gus and Paul.  We departed almost 2 hours late due to several problems I will touch on in a future post.  I’d rather not get to detailed on these specific flights.  There is so much to talk about, it deserves its own blog post. 

I only flew one of the legs, from Abuja to Osubi.  The rest of the legs was practicing the aspect of flying here that is different, talking with ATC.  Although during the 3 legs spent talking to ATC I made a fair amount of mistakes, I was learning from them and gaining experience. 

The next day I flew the same route and despite us having to hold for 10 minutes above Osubi on the first leg so we didn’t exceed our maximum landing weight, it all went fairly smoothly.  The last two legs, Gus and I were each checked on our pilot flying and pilot not flying duties which completed our line check.  I was feeling very comfortable on the radios, especially since we were doing the same route and I was familiar with the routine.

Gus and I will be the 2nd crew that has completed line training for the Q400.  So we now have three captains (including our fleet manager) and two first officers able to fly the two aircraft which are flying revenue flights regularly now.  I am not sure what the plan is to get the rest of the pilots trained, but I do know that each of them will require a minimum of 20 sectors since they have not flown the Q400 before.  Gus and I had each flown the Q400 in the USA previously so we only had to do a minimum of 6 before we could fly without our trainer occupying one of the pilot’s seats.

I apologize for the lack of details on these flights.  There is so much to talk about that I’d rather save it for future posts.  I am flying almost everyday now and loving every minute of it.  Christmas and New Years will most likely be spent here in Nigeria because I have agreed to stay and help get the Q400 operation on its feet.  It was a tough decision to make realizing all the friends and family that I wouldn’t get to spend time with during the holidays, but I feel it was the correct one to make.  All is not lost though, for each additional two days I spend here, I will get one additional day off.  And I most certainly will get Christmas and New Years off next year.

So that’s all for now, check back for more soon!

Last Saturday, I finally got to fly the Q400 in Nigeria!  The plan was to have me fly to Ilorin with our only training captain, then sit in the jumpseat as Jose and Fernando (two pilots who haven’t flown the Q400 before) take there turn doing 6 landings at Ilorin.  After their landings, I would hop in the seat and fly the return leg to Lagos. 

Well our training captain was very busy with his other duties, so our morning flight was delayed for several hours, but late in the afternoon we made our way to the aircraft and I conducted the preflight while the Captain fired up the APU to power the aircraft and cool it down. 

I did a manual weight and balance, which was very easy since we were carrying only 1 passenger, Fernando, for the first flight.  My flows and order in which I do things came back quickly and I felt right at home in the aircraft.  The checklists are much longer then at Horizon Air where I used to fly due largely to the fact we have no flows, everything is basically read and do.  I still use my flows though, and use the checklist to back up what I have already done, but they can be used solely as a read and do if desired. 

I started up the engines, and we were soon taxing out to runway 18L.  Here at Lagos, we call ground just for a clearance to start, then use tower for our taxi, takeoff, and flight plan clearances.  We received the clearance to our destination, which included our squawk code (since Lagos now has radar), and cruising altitude that we had previously requested while talking to Lagos ground. 

My first takeoff went well, we did a flaps 5 departure with full tanks and the aircraft accelerated and lifted off rather quickly since we had no passengers or cargo.  I slowly raised the nose and was soon pitched up 15 degrees and climbing like a rocket. 

Captain: “Positive Climb”

Me: “Gear Up”

Captain: “Acceleration Altitude”

Me: “Flaps Zero, Condition Levers 850 MCL, Bleeds ON and Norm, After Take Off Checklist”

At this point the Captain is told to contact departure, where they had us turn on course and copied our estimated times of arrival at specific waypoints along our route.  While in cruise, I briefed the captain on our arrival, which was a visual approach backed up by a VFR approach I programmed into the Flight Management System (FMS) on the ground.  This VFR approach provides vertical and lateral guidance all the way down to the runway.  Using this feature is very helpful considering the fact that many of the airports do not have Instrument Landing System (ILS) approaches.

I used the vertical navigation (VNAV) capability of the FMS to plan our top of descent, and we were soon descending into the hazy skies beneath us.  The airport was quite difficult to spot, we didn’t see it until we were about 7 miles out leaving me just enough time to intercept the final approach course I had programmed for a 5 mile final.  My first landing in over a year was on centerline and quite good in my opinion, and it felt good to finally land the bird again!  We taxied in and I swapped seats with Jose so he could do his 6 landings.  I was there to keep an eye on things since Jose was new to the aircraft and doing pattern work in such a complex aircraft can be dangerous if done incorrectly.

The first 5 landings were done flaps 15, and the final one was flaps 35.  None of the landings were especially nice but they were close enough to the centerline and in the touchdown zone which is all that matters for now.  He did remarkably well and our training captain was very patient, orderly, and spoke with a calming voice.

I snapped this picture of Jose while they were on downwind. 

Above is Fernando and I, both happy that we finally get to fly the Q400 here in Nigeria.  Unfortunately due to the lack of daylight, we didn’t have time to let Fernando fly.  He was a good sport about it though, and seemed happy that he at least got to sit in the jumpseat and observe the aircraft he had previously only flown in the simulator.  I flew the return leg to Lagos, did the ILS to runway 18R (18L is not used at night), and had a very nice landing to end the trip. 

Overall I felt very comfortable on the trip.  Ilorin is a great airport for training because it is close to Lagos, over 10,000 feet long, and has almost no traffic.  I am not worried about the flying here in Nigeria and think it will be a lot of fun, and a great experience. 

Updates

There are a ton of updates, but for now I just wanted to talk briefly about my first time flying the Q400 in Nigeria.  More posts to come shortly, so check back often!

I named this post “Trying to Fly and Relaxing in Lagos” because that is essentially what I have been doing.  For this post, I will just show a lot of pictures and discuss briefly what was going on when we took the picture.   

On the right is Wilson, me in the center, and Wilson’s brother on the left.  Wilson took me to his house which is just a 3 minute walk from my hotel and introduced me to his family.  They were all very friendly and since it was Wilson’s brother’s birthday, they had a very delicious cake that I was able to snag a piece of.  After this, we met up with Emmanuel and got a ride over to the hotel that has tennis, ping-pong, squash ball, and many other activities for a day of fun!  Here are some of the pictures we took:

There was an airline crew staying at the hotel who were from Kenya, and I got them good when I pretended to accidently drop my digital camera in the pool.  The camera is waterproof but they don’t know that – so I act like I just ruined my camera and freak out to get some sympathy and “ohhhh noooos” from whoever is watching, and then I inform them the camera is waterproof.  That always gets a laugh.  Especially from these Kenyans who were very friendly people and were a lot of fun to hangout with that night by the pool. 

The tennis court is adequate but the walls are a tad bit close to the court making some shots difficult. 

After swimming in the pool, and playing ping-pong and tennis, we challenged the Kenyans to a volleyball match.  We were having so much fun we played until we could barely see the ball since it was getting so dark.  Shortly after that, we all jumped in the pool to cool off and snapped this picture hooting and hollering.

 

This day of fun was actually on Thanksgiving for the United States, and instead of gorging myself with good food, I got to play volleyball with Nigerians and Kenyans – I’d say that’s a fair trade.  I do Thanksgiving time though, there was a group that went out for a turkey dinner but I’m glad I didn’t go as I heard it was expensive and the portions were too small.

Football Again

I spent a day hanging out with Emmanuel, went swimming and ate some food at the nearby hotel. 

While I was there, I talked with Greg (a Q400 captain), who informed me that I was going flying the next day!  At this point I had plans to play football that evening, so I got a ride back to my hotel and told Emmanuel I’d see him at the sand field that evening.  I played for a lot longer that night and did fairly well.  Early in the match someone took my cell phone which I had set down next to my water but luckily Greg who had come with to watch saw this and got it back no problem.  When I got back, I was full of sand and sweat.  To prevent making the shower floor a mess, full of sand, I rinsed off outside the hotel and had one of the security guys snap this photo:

It is one heck of a workout obviously when you run in deep sand, especially playing football where you change directions routinely.  I soon went to bed looking forward to flying the next day.  Unfortunately we never got off the ground…

First Day of Flying (Trying to fly…. actually)

Gladstone came along with me early in the morning to the offices where we were taught how to do the weight and balance form by the first trained first officer, Rochell.  She also walked us through the process of getting our required documentation from OCC (Operation Control Center…. I think).

Unfortunately, a brand new aircraft usually comes with small quirks that need to be fixed and are usually only found after they have been delivered to the company who will fly them.  In this case, we had an air data computer, which provides heading, altitude and other very important data essential to flying fail.  And although we tried several resets of the systems, we were unable to get rid of the problem.  The aircraft has two of these computers, for redundancy, but if one fails on the ground, you may no longer depart as the aircraft is not airworthy.

Maintenance was unable to fix the problem in time to fly that day, so we went back to the hotel disappointed but happy to have at least tried.

The next morning, Greg and I got to the offices early and went to the aircraft to see if it had been fixed.  Well it had been fixed but another problem had appeared.  The Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) which provides power for the aircraft, and air conditioning, did not pass the fire test.  When testing it, the system did not close the fuel valve automatically which it supposed to do to stop a fire if one occurs.  Even with this occurrence, the aircraft is still airworthy – the only problem is, we need the APU to start the engines when we get to our destinations since they rarely have Ground Power Units, and starting the engines solely off battery power is considered an abnormal procedure that we never do unless there is no other option.

Well long story short, maintenance for the Q400 hadn’t shown up and weren’t answering there phones, so were sent home almost right away and told we would possibly come out again if it was fixed.  That phone call never came. 

After those two tough days of “trying to fly,” the NCAA was keeping our fleet manager very busy and they had some proving runs (flights with the NCAA to show they can safely operate the Q400s in the area) that kept them busy, and us away from the aircraft.  So during this time, I continued what I had been doing the whole time, relaxing and having fun at and near the hotel.

I didn’t do anything to exciting.  One day I taught some local kids some math out of boredom, another I taught some hotel employees how to play the logic oriented game, Sudoku.  I have a book full of puzzles I can tear out and share, and now several of the employees ask me for them since they enjoy the challenge.  We have a new cook and they have been making some delicious meals!  I gave them the recipe for Lemon Chicken and they did a great job.  Pancakes, french toast, and cereal with orange juice is now my hearty and delicious breakfast.  Sometimes the pancakes are traditional flat American style, other days they are more like crepes, rolled up and filled with honey.  Both ways are great.  After a night of playing football with the security guards in the parking lot, I grabbed some of the hotel staff on duty and snapped this picture.  Very friendly bunch!

Directly above is the bar area, where I often sit and chat while playing Sudoku, watching football, or playing my Nintendo DS.  I have a Nintendo DS program which teaches you how to speak Spanish quite a bit, I also practice with the few Spanish speaking pilots we have at the hotel. 

I really like it as this hotel and am more comfortable then I ever thought I would be in Lagos.  Time has really been flying and is sure to go even faster when I start flying routinely!

Update!

I flew for the first time today, and am scheduled to fly 4 more legs tomorrow.  I decided to separate the posts.  Keep posted for a exciting post about my first time piloting the Q400 in Nigeria soon!  I am scheduled to fly home on December 13th, so this training is coming just in time.

Since only Americans, some Canadians, Australians and residents of South Africa refer to Football as Soccer, I will be referring to the sport as Football from this point on. 

I felt the name of this post was appropriate because that’s all I have been doing the past three days, playing football!  It has been an amazing experience playing with the local boys, it’s almost like another language that everyone can speak and always brings smiles to people’s faces.

Sunday

My friend Phillip picked up my Nigerian Attire and delivered it to me early that morning.  I unfortunately didn’t take any pictures but this Sunday I will snap some and post them.  Since I don’t have any pictures, I’ll wait to explain the process I went through to get it made and so forth until Sunday as well.

The Arik bus didn’t show up to pick me up, I think they stopped the scheduled Victoria Island Trips and now require that you request the trip, it does not automatically happen.  So I mostly just relaxed at the hotel, and put together a website for Arik pilots to keep in touch: www.arikpilottalk.forumr.net

The website is only for Arik Pilots, and requires registration and approval by an Administrator to view the posts.  I am hoping that eventually all of the pilots will use this and we can plan things to do, talk about safety related items, and other pertinent items.  So far the site has received a positive response, but the registration by pilots has been greatly slowed down by the poor/in-operative internet connections at most hotels.  Ironically, the hotel I am at has one of the best internet connections of all the hotels we stay at.  I feel this is ironic since most people try to leave the hotel I am at for hotels with nicer rooms, better food, and more activities on-site.  I however don’t mind it here unlike 95% of the rest of the pilots.  I have become friends with the staff who always greet me genuinely and with a big smile since I do the same to them (the knowledge of local customs has come in handy), I actually like the food although the nearby hotel does have much more choices.  We have free transportation unlike any of the other hotels to my knowledge, and like I said before, the internet is great in comparison to the rest of the hotels which is highly important when you live thousands of miles from friends and family.  I am very comfortable in this area.

Monday

This day was special.  It started with an solo quest for a football, while walking down the street I asked a young man if he knew of a place where they are sold.  He then proceeded to ask if I could help him by donating some Naira to him.  I promptly said no, but then, wanting to help, I said I’ll give him some Naira if he helps me get a football.  The next thing I knew, we were sitting on a bench while an Okada (motor bike used as a taxi) went and bought me one from a relatively far place.

About 30 minutes later, the Okada returned with a very nice football that cost me 4,000 Naira (about $27 US).  I paid the Okada driver 150 Naira for getting my football, and my new friend 100 Naira or so for the help.  He then told me that he knew of a place nearby where we could play and we were on our way.  This is when the football in my hands came in handy, a couple groups of boys were walking by and asked if they could play.  And rather quickly, we had a mob of young footballers anxiously looking for a place to play.  As we passed by the nearby hotel, I called a friend of mine who was staying there and he quickly agreed to meet us outside the hotel to join our group of players.  I handed out some water  and sprite that I got from the hotel to some of the guys and we continued on. 

Unlike Washington State in America, there aren’t flat grassy parks and fields all around.  Suitable fields in this immediate area are scarce and even the best I have seen so far wouldn’t cut it back home for most players.  Field #1 had its gates closed, Field #2 was very poor with trash and sewage all around.  So after almost an hour of walking, we snapped the photo below and followed some very young kids who were leading us to hopefully a field we could actually play at.

About a 1/2 KM from the next field where we finally were able to play, my friend (Soren from Denmark) who joined us earlier had to head back since he had to work soon and was growing tired of the never-ending walk.  I made sure he felt comfortable walking back alone since we were quite far from the hotel, and he assured me he was fine and left the group.

Soon we arrived, very tired from the heat, but anxious and excited to finally play.  We played 7 vs. 7, shirts and skins.  I had a blast but ran out of energy very quickly and wasn’t able to play very long.  The heat, the sun, the deep sand, and the long walk had drained my energy.  Here are some pictures from the game:

A majority of the boys played in there underwear since they hadn’t planned on playing, it was either that or play in jeans.  The walk back to my hotel consisted of almost every boy exchanging phone numbers with me so we could all arrange another football game.  I told everyone to come back to my hotel so I could get them all free drinks and food.  It sure was a sight when I walked into the hotel with a train of kids – the hotel employees had never seen that before!

I made sure they were all comfy, ordered them some drinks, and rested with them watching football on TV.  I arranged for the hotel to make 20 meat pies so everyone could have something to eat.  They were all very appreciative of course.

My whole body was full of sand from playing football, so the shower floor was full of sand after rinsing off, along with the floor of my hotel room.  The boys ate there meat pies, drank at least two drinks each and were soon on there way and I told them they are all welcome to come by anytime and say hello.

I may not have been handing out money, but I did the least I could, gave them some food and water, and enjoyed there company.  It sure was funny thinking back that the day originally started with me going out alone to buy a football, and ended with a great group of kids populating the hotel lobby and making a mess of empty bottles and meat pie wrappers.

Later that night, I hung out at the nearby hotel and played computer games against some other pilots until 2AM!!!  It was a lot of fun, although it kind of messed up my sleeping schedule.

Tuesday

I slept in today until 1PM since I had stayed up so late the night before and was so tired from all the walking/football.  But after brunch, I took my football out to the small parking lot of the hotel where the security guards hangout and played with them for probably at least three hours.  The driver for the hotel and some of the guests played with us occasionally as well, it was a lot of fun and my shirt was soon completely drenched with sweat and I hobbled up to my hotel room, showered, ordered dinner, and did some more work on the website I had created a couple days prior.  Paul, the bartender at my hotel, arranged for him and I to check out a nice grass field where some great players train, and where I could hopefully play at instead of the sand field from time to time.  I then went to bed with plans to meet Paul early the next morning.

Wednesday

This morning I had some cereal which was a nice change, I have always avoided the cereal here since I wasn’t sure if the milk was safe to drink.  But I have now learned that the milk is perfectly safe to drink, at least in the cartons that I drank from.  It took about 45 minutes for the van to return from an airport drop-off before Paul and I could head out to the football field but after a 10 minute drive we arrived.  The field is on a Nigerian Military Base of some sort and is nothing fancy, but compared to other fields in the area, it is quite nice.  There was also some basketball and tennis courts nearby which I may use in the future.  For a little over an hour, I watched some 15-17 year olds play some great football, very talented young men.  Football here is a bit different, there are more than enough players, but few leagues and available teams to play on.  The 35 players I watched weren’t on a particular team, they just meet regularly in the mornings to play short 11 a side football games until they can find a team to play on, which requires sponsorship. 

 

Paul, pictured above, has been very helpful and is a smart guy.  He owns a hair salon and after asking if he could use anything from the States, he said he could use some clippers, maybe a razor, and other tools that hair-stylists need which would help him open up another hair salon.  I promised I would get him the things he needs – I think it’s a great way to show my appreciation for his help.

Two of the players on the team live very close to my hotel, Emmanuel and Wilson.  We walked out of the Military Base to the main road where we would be picked up and Paul took a picture of Wilson and I.

We were all soon picked up and brought back to the hotel.  There, I got them some drinks and we all cooled off and relaxed in the lobby.  They invited me to check out there home and after the short walk, I was soon shaking hands of there family members, one of whom is a male flight attendant for another local airline.  They were all very friendly and happy to hear I have been thoroughly enjoying my time here.  Emmanuel and Wilson were going to train at the sand field I had played at on Monday at 5 PM, and invited me to play with them, I agreed and was soon back at the hotel ordering lunch. 

As soon as my lunch was delivered, I got a call from the front desk telling me two of my friends were downstairs to see me.  It ended up being two young boys around the age of 14 who had played with me on Monday – they were both funny characters and fun to hang out with.  After relaxing in the lobby and sipping on some Fantas, I invited them to come to the nearby hotel for some good food.  I walked over with some local pilots and the kids and they both ordered chicken and rice for lunch after we arrived.  They didn’t seem interested in the American food choices which is the majority of their menu.  We juggled the football around a bit while waiting for the food and I invited some of the pilots lounging by the pool to play with us later that night.

The kids wouldn’t eat the food until they were back home to share it with there family members.  After the food arrived in tin-foil for carry-out, we got a ride back to my hotel and I gave the kids 500 Naira to take an Okada back home to change, eat, and return to the hotel in time for our 5 PM game.  I continued to drink water to hydrate, did some stretching, and then got a phone call from Jacob (Denmark) who said him and David (Sweden) would like to play.  I sent our hotel driver down to pick them up and after they arrived, the two little guys returned, but Emmanuel and Wilbert were no where to be seen.  We waited a few more minutes then decided to drive to there house where I quickly ran in and found out they weren’t there so we continued on for the sand field.

After being dropped off, there were a lot of people hanging out by the field, few playing, just a lot of observers.  There were about 10 guys close to my age in which I warmly greeted and we were all invited to play a game with them.  Unfortunately the younger guys didn’t have shoes and were not allowed to play since most of us had shoes and football boots with cleats.  They seemed happy watching though along with many other people.  I did surprisingly well in the game playing mostly in a defensive position but occasionally coming up and getting a few shots on goal off.  David and Jacob played well too, I think we all had a blast, playing until it began to get dark.  My team ended up loosing 2-1 but it didn’t really matter, it was a high level of play with great passing and a lot of fun attacks.  The atmosphere was great too with so many people watching and the sun setting in the distance.  We didn’t have a chance to get the best picture since the hotel driver was in a bit of a hurry, but still I feel it’s worth posting.

Emmanuel never showed up, not sure what happened to him, but Wilson arrived later to watch and was late since his coach asked him to come play 5 vs. 5 at a nearby pitch.  He was thankful I had sent pictures of him to his email earlier, and now Emmanuel, him and I are going to hangout while they show me Lagos on Thursday (Tomorrow).

We went to my hotel first, and I gave the kids some more Naira to split amongst themselves so they wouldn’t have to walk home in the dark and stayed with the bus to go swimming at the nearby hotel.  When there we all shared with the others how much fun we had playing football on the sand field with big smiles on our faces, and sweat drenched t-shirts.  I jumped in the pool to cool off and get all of the sand off of me there instead of in my shower like I had on Monday.  I had ordered food before jumping in the pool, and after getting my food, I hopped in the hotel bus that was waiting and went back to my hotel to watch a football game on TV with some Spanish pilots and eat my food.  For dessert I had vanilla ice cream with cinnamon on top (recommended to me by the Spanish guys).  It was very good actually! 

I’ll be getting up early tomorrow to meet up with the two local boys, not sure what we are all doing, but I believe it is a Muslim Holiday.

Updates?

Not really, as far as I know, the same 3 pilots are flying the Q400 and training of the rest of us line pilots has not begun and I am not sure when it will begin.  Hopefully it will begin soon as I am scheduled to fly home on December 14th, less than three weeks from now!

There hasn’t been to much going on here in Lagos, at least not for me.  Since I have done plenty of observation flights, there is little left for me to do but wait until I am needed to start training on the Q400. 

One of the hotels we stay at, the one with the piano, has a squash ball court, tennis court, foosball table, ping-pong table, swimming pool, and an extensive work out room.  I had a blast playing squash ball and tennis with a fellow pilot, it is too bad I am not staying at that hotel or I would have plenty to keep me busy. 

I am trying to organize a football (soccer) group to kick the ball around sometime next week.  Several people have shown interest, it’s just a matter of finding a field and finding a day when everyone is able to play.  The other night I played some computer games against some other pilots my age. 

And tomorrow I will hopefully be going to Victoria Island, I believe they are still doing the run every Sunday like I did last time.  Hopefully I am not getting up early for nothing!

Sorry for the scattered post, not much is going on, and I don’t know much about the training plan for all of us.  I do know that it is flying though, but only one Captain and one First Officer besides the Fleet Manager have flown it as far as I know.

Here is a link to an Arik Air Press Release regarding the new Q400s.

http://www.arikair.com/arikair/racine_site/press.asp?page=Arik-Air-introduces-new-Q400-aircraft&id_sessionlangue=2

Cheers from Lagos!

I thought the title of this post was appropriate since it seems it can be quite fun here as long as you are “getting out of the hotel room.” It can be quite depressing if you stay in your hotel room the majority of the time, and some people do this and are seem to be much less happy overall.  Not everyone can handle being away from friends and family for 2 months at a time in such a chaotic yet lively place such as Lagos.  In fact I just heard a story of a pilot arriving for his first time in Lagos, only to refuse to get out of the van at several hotels and immediately fly back home that first day!  I have been having a great time here, making the most of the experience, and am sure that when I start flying it will only get better.

Anyways, it’s been awhile since I last posted so here are the updates and what I have been up to starting with Thursday of last week:

Thursday

I was actually sore from golfing from the day before, so I spent this day relaxing for the most part.  I walked over to the nearby hotel and jammed out to music and swam in the pool.  It’s always nice to come to this hotel since they have much better food, which I always take advantage of.  Later that night, I watched the U-17 (young guys) Semi-Final Football (Soccer) game between Nigeria and Spain.  It was exciting to see Nigeria win 3-1 over Spain and advance to the World Cup finals vs. Switzerland which they unfortunately lost 0-1 on Sunday.

To celebrate there win that night, I ordered a BBQ burger with a salad:

We actually attempted to get tickets to attend the Nigeria vs. Spain football game since it was being held in Lagos, but they apparently had been sold out days in advance.

Friday

More relaxing, ordered a pepperoni pizza, exciting huh?

Saturday

Finally had to do something work related, door training.  We all had to show we knew how to operate the emergency exits on the Q400s properly.  In addition to the doors, we became familiar with the location of various emergency equipment in the aircraft which can vary from airline to airline.  I sat in the cockpit and fired up the APU with one of the mechanics to get the aircraft cooled down for the training, everything smells amazing since it is brand new.  Here are a few pictures I snapped, there is still protective covering over the floor that will be removed soon.

As you can see from the above picture, there are 10 first class seats, and 62 economy seats.  They are very comfortable seats with plenty of leg room and have generous tilt on the backrests.  I have a feeling these aircraft will be very popular from a passenger’s point of view.  As you can see below, even a tall guy like my self has more than enough leg room.  I’ve been in aircraft where my knees are pressed against the seat in front of me…

To the left is a little coat hanger, and below is the nifty cup holder I think will be quite useful since Nigeria has a fair amount of turbulence year round.

 

 

  

I had planned on going on a observation flight that day, but decided to head over to the nearby hotel for the weekly barbeque instead.  I went over a couple hours earlier by myself and ended up playing football by the pool with Chris (from the UK) and a local Nigerian.  We were kicking the ball across the pool and all over the place.  It’s amazing we didn’t break anything or hurt ourselves!  Then around 7 that night, I walked into the restaurant to see a table full of interesting dishes, it was a Christmas party.  Apparently in some countries they have a couple parties with friends and family even several months prior to Christmas.  They had the flag of Denmark on the table as the majority of the people here are from there, and most of the people there speak Danish.  So although there were only a few of us who didn’t speak Danish, and therefore couldn’t understand what everyone was saying unless they spoke with us in English, we had a great time!  The meal basically consisted of putting various toppings on a special type of bread.  Here are a few pictures:

 

It was a lot of fun to try all of the different types of foods and take part in the celebration. 

Around 11PM, I got a ride home with Gladstone and David who had arrived a bit earlier that night, drank a lot of water, and went to bed.  I think this video I put together below will sum of the party better than I could in words:

Sunday

Today we had RVSM (Reduced Vertical Separation Minima) class and Flight Planning.  We are required to take a RVSM every year, even though for us Q400 pilots, we do not operate in RVSM airspace which starts at 29,000 ft.  Our maximum authorized altitude is 25,000 feet although the aircraft could easily climb higher performance wise.

After breakfast, some other Q400 pilots who had arrived just a few days ago, and Gladstone, David and I got on the bus to the offices and made our way up to the classroom.  At first they couldn’t find the key to the training room, classic.  After 30 minutes it seemed of waiting, they finally found it and we were soon turning on all the AC units on to cool down the room and starting class.

I didn’t have to take the RVSM class but I did anyways since it would reset the clock for another year.  We did the flight planning course first, which talked about the pertinent NCAA (Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority) regulations and the paperwork and documents we use during our flights.  After this class, we did the RVSM course, took a test, and we were done for the day.  Our instructors did a great job keeping it short yet informative.  The 737 pilots had to stay longer for there performance / weight and balance course which us Q400 pilots don’t have yet; however, I think our course will be ready by Wednesday to my knowledge.

Since I had an hour or so before I had to go do my observation flight to Ilorin on a Q300, I went to the terminal for lunch with a couple 400 pilots.  Instead of eating at the fancy restaurant, I ate in the “fastfood” section and ordered a chicken burger with fries.  It cost 1,350 Naira and was ready in about 10 minutes.  It tasted pretty good, I wouldn’t be against eating here in the future. 

After returning from lunch, I made my way out to the aircraft which had just started boarding, introduced myself to the Denim Air pilots from Spain, and we were soon on our way to Ilorin.

 

I didn’t ask to operate the radios on the flight to Ilorin since they were busy when I got to the aircraft during boarding in Lagos.  But I asked if I could operate the radios on the return flight and they graciously said yes.  They gave me the clipboard to copy weather, clearances, estimates and other items.  I did ALL of the radio calls and it went quite smoothly.  A couple of times I had to ask the First Officer who was the pilot monitoring, “what did they just say?”  But most of the time I figured it out and had a lot of fun finally getting to apply all that I had been learning on the past observation flights. 

The return flight was at night, and we all enjoyed watching a thunderstorm in the distance lighting up the horizon with spectacular lightning.  Next time I’ll make sure to keep my camera handy to take some video footage of it – I wonder what the passengers in the back thought of it…?

Monday

After the observation flight and opportunity to operate the radios, I was feeling more confident than ever that I am ready to fly in the Nigerian Airspace.  So I spent Monday getting a much needed workout in.  I did my ab/push-up/band workout followed by running a 25 minute 5k on the treadmill.  The run was difficult since I hadn’t ran in awhile, but fortunately the treadmill is working properly so I can use it more regularly now.  I run or do a equivalent cardio workout a minimum of two times a week, along with the ab/push-up/band workout (2x also).

After the workouts, I walked over to relax by the pool.  I juggled the football around, swam some laps, and was also invited to go have dinner at the Sheraton hotel later that night for some Italian food by some of the pilots.  I agreed of course wanting to see the Sheraton hotel I have heard so much about and looking forward to the good company and good food.

I walked back to my hotel, showered up, and got Gladstone and David out of there rooms to tag along with me to the Sheraton.  The hotel is very nice of course, costing eight times more per night then the hotel I am currently at.  The Italian restaurant was in the huge lobby of the hotel, and the majority of us ordered pizza.  I got a Hawaiian pizza which had thin crust, and was full of flavor for 4,000 Naira.  It was nice to get to know some of the other Q400 pilots better and hangout with the friendly group of pilots from the other hotel.

After dinner, we all crammed into an elevator (haven’t seen one of those in a while) and hung out in a Boeing Representative’s suite which he had turned into an apartment since he had been living here permanently for about 4 years.  The helicopter you see flying at the end of the video earlier in the post was taken in his apartment.  After hanging out there for awhile, we made our way down, hung out in the bar for awhile.  I talked with two Swedish pilots about skiing and life in Sweden and then the bus showed up and we took the 20-30 min. drive back to our hotel for the night. 

Getting out of the hotel has been key in staying happy so far in my stay.  Time is flying and hopefully soon I will be flying too!  Today I went swimming again, and had one of the best tasting fish sandwiches I have ever had.

I also finally felt comfortable enough with the walk between the hotels to bring a camera and take a picture, I had Gladstone who went with me take it.

 

Updates

The Q400 is now flying!  It isn’t taking any passengers yet, these are just training flights.  They flew Sunday night, did 4 sectors on Monday, and are probably going to fly everyday to expedite the process if possible.  They are currently getting Sean who will be a line trainer, and Rochell a first officer who is new to the aircraft, accustomed to the airspace.  They are doing all of the weight and balance / performance manually since we are all still waiting for the runways here in Nigeria to be analyzed for the Q400 (Runway Analysis Data).  I still do not know what order all of the Q400 pilots will be trained in, but once Sean and Gus are ready, we will have three pilots who can fly in either the right or left seat of the aircraft and train the rest of us on the two aircraft we currently have.  There is more information to share, but I think I’ll save it for a future date when I know more about what is going on.  For now, I am just relaxing and having a good time in Lagos.  Tomorrow (Wednesday) I think we have a performance and/or weight and balance class, and I may do an observation flight to Osubi which will likely be one of the first places the Q400 flies too.

Monday – CRJ Observation Flight

Well all of the Q400 pilots were told to come in for an update, since the second Q400 had arrived and all.  There was quite a bit of traffic on the way there, so we delayed the fire training class a bit.  But once we got there, we saw the group of people on the side of the building, and Sean waved us over.  I did this fire training back in May, and we only have to do it once a year – but I figured since I was here I might as well reset the 1 year clock.  Nothing big, listen to some instruction and review on the fire extinguishers, then practice using one on a fire.

After this, we all walked over to see our fleet manager for an update.  There really wasn’t much of an update, just that we are still waiting on our validations to come through – he is very busy catching up on emails and such after being gone ferrying the 2nd Q400 down.  The captain that flew with our fleet manager took us out to the hangar to check out the Q400.  We went inside and I sat in the cockpit for the first time in basically a year.  It’s always nice to see a brand new aircraft.  I will take pictures soon of the interior for posting, but I can say this, I really liked the seats, very comfortable with more than enough leg room, even for tall people like me (this sentence has way to many commas).  Plenty more on the aircraft to come in the future.

In hopes of being able to practice radio calls, I found a Benin turn in a CRJ, the same flight I had done initially to jumpseat on.  The captain was the same one I had on the exact same flight several days ago, and in the right seat was a local captain acting as first officer for the day.  Unfortunately due to the flight being so short, I guess they felt there was no time for practicing on the radios and although I told them I was fully capable of doing them all and understood what was going on, I was only able to request start, and call operations after takeoff.  The return flight was even more busy, since Benin tower is only able to climb you up to 10,000 feet, and getting a hold of Lagos for a higher altitude can be very difficult due to radio congestion.  Although I didn’t get much of a chance to practice radio calls, I felt very comfortable with who we were talking to, what we were telling them, and why.  It was a good confidence booster, I definitely didn’t feel that way on my last Benin turn.

We barely beat a big thunderstorm passing over Lagos, and when the rain started pouring, and continued and continued to pour, I was sure glad I brought my raincoat.  Several crew members were stranded leaving the hangar waiting for the rain to subside as I walked right by, made sure the fleet manager didn’t need me to come in the next couple days, and off I went, back to the hotel. 

Lesson in Local Culture

The crew of the CRJ encouraged me to get out of the hotel and experience Nigeria.  They warned that you will be considered very rude if you don’t acknowledge a person passing by you or in your presence.  In the US, if someone walks into an elevator with you – often you won’t even say hello, or look at them.  Here, a good morning or nod and a smile is highly encouraged.  I have always been friendly and appreciative to others here, but after talking with them – I immediately began going out of my way to say hello, ask for names, ask how they were doing.  I think this part of Nigerian culture is why they are such warm and friendly people.  Of course I also began noticing people who would not respond to my hellos, but they were usually people on the street and they were few and far between. 

At the hotel, the staff seems to smile more genuinely at me now since I always go out of my way to say hello and ask how they are doing.  I also buy them water or juice to help get them through there 24 hour shifts.  It’s the least I can do.  They gave me much more advice, but there main advice was to be yourself, acknowledge others, get out of the hotel often, make friends who aren’t associated with the airline, and make the most of your time here!

 

Tuesday – Relaxation

I feel much more at ease and welcome here now that I know more about the local culture.  I confidently walked to the nearby hotel (the same one I stayed at last May) alone around two in the afternoon to swim in the pool and order some lunch.  Along the way, several teenagers asked me a bunch of questions, and also were looking for work.  I told them I could only get them some water or coke for free and after a few laughs and what not, I continued on my way.  The swimming was great, I brought a book and after catching up with some pilots I hadn’t seen in months, I laid next to the pool and read.  The book I am reading is called “Dark Star Safari,” and is about a guy who travels from Cairo to Cape Town overland (N. Africa to S. Africa). 

I definitely put on sun-screen before going out, the UV rays down here will really harm your skin fast and I am not here to get skin cancer, I am here to work.

I ate some BBQ Chicken Fingers and had Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad with a Sprite.  The food is much better at this hotel, some of the guys at my hotel are now looking at moving here soon.

Before walking back, I charged two waters and two Cokes to a fellow Arik Air pilot’s room like I had the food and put them in a bag to give to the teenagers on the way back.  Well the teenagers were gone, but 4 men were doing some heavy labor and I stopped by and offered the goods, they graciously took the Coke and water and continued on.

That night, Gladstone, David and a 737 Captain in training took a van over to the hotel I was at earlier (took a van because it was now dark out) for dinner.  I had a salmon sandwich, very tasty.  Like I said, the food is much better then our hotel.  Before leaving, I arranged a golfing trip for Wednesday, this feels to much like a vacation to be work…

 

Wednesday – Golfing in Lagos!

Well as soon as I heard that some of the pilots had been golfing, I wanted to go – and luckily everyone still wanted to golf who had said so the night previously.  Around 11 or so, a car picked me up at my hotel to take me to the course.  We were quite cramped for the ride there, fitting SIX guys in a 4 door car.  Luckily it was less than a 30 min. drive.  When we got there we learned there was a woman’s tournament going on at the time, and we would have to wait a hour or so before we could tee off.  Well it was fine for me, because I hadn’t played golf in a long time and wanted to hit some practice balls at the driving range.

A young guy who worked there set me up with rental clubs, 50 range balls, and 5 new balls for 4,000 Naira.  He then soon introduced me to my caddy and instructor, Daniel.  He helped me work some kinks out in my swing as a kid ran around chasing my balls (they have no machine to pick up the balls).  I was feeling fairly good, my swing was coming back.  I invited one of the people in our party over to get some instruction and hit some balls since this was his first time ever playing.  He did very well for his first time, I think he’ll be coming back again in the future.  After the range, I spent a little bit of time practicing some chips and putts, I sunk a chip from 30 yards out, it was sweet.

The golfing was fairly expensive, but it was nice to get away from the noisy city somewhat and see some GREEN, and lots of it covering the 9 holes which were cleverly arranged to be played twice with some greens having two separate pins and some holes having separate fairways and greens depending if you were playing the front or the back 9.

I didn’t play particularly well, but I had my moments.  This was my first time having a caddie, he was a great golfer himself with a handicap of 3 – he was very helpful.  I think it is mandatory here to have a caddie. 

That is Daniel, my caddie.  Later in the day, on the back 9 – I challenged him to two 75 meter sprint races.  I surprisingly won both of them.  He said he was having problems with his shoes slipping but after two races, the second being his revenge race he insisted we do, he paid me my respects as being faster.  But I still don’t believe its true, we’ll have to race again – I got his phone number and am hoping he can help me find a place to play some football (soccer) around here.  He used to be paid to play soccer for a premiere club in Nigeria.  Here is a picture taken after the first race – he doesn’t look to happy does he.

I was told I had to tuck my shirt in, which made me look a bit ridiculous in my opinion since I didn’t have dress shorts on.  But the worst part of the attire was the heat and the sweat which eventually drenched my shirt. It would have been nice to play in swimming shorts and sandals – but that wouldn’t be appropriate or allowed on the golf course.  In fact, one of the people in our group had to buy some shorts because jeans weren’t allowed on the course.

Although the course was pretty straight forward, we all made it look pretty difficult, all of us slicing or pushing balls into the trees.  But we all had some nice shots that surprised us, and those are the ones that we’ll remember.

 

I did very poorly on the back 9, loosing my focus due to tiredness from the heat I believe.  So when we were finally able to sit down and relax, I ordered 7-up and sat back and listened to the usual pilot talk that arises when you sit a bunch of us together.  All in all it was a great day, I may not play golf here weekly, but a 1 or 2 times a rotation might be nice! 

Update

More days off to come.  This weekend we have Q400 door training, flight planning, and possibly weight and balance classes.  If we do finish all of this then there is nothing left but to fly the plane.  The company went to the NCAA to look for our validations today I hear, not sure if we have gotten them or not.  I don’t think we can fly the aircraft yet even for training without our manuals being approved. 

I will probably jumpseat to Awwuri and Kano later this week.  Tomorrow (Thursday) I plan on going swimming again.  I am working on an instructional document to handout to new pilots with Arik Air that will aid them in learning the local airspace and radio procedures.  I will continue working on that and distribute it out as my way of helping fellow Q400 pilots (and others too) in getting ready to fly.  Gladstone and David expressed concern that they will be learning flying a “new to them” aircraft (they flew Q300’s previously) in a new environment which makes them a bit nervous.  So I sent them what I have so far and will help them feel comfortable with the radios and airspace here to supplement there observation flights.  Hopefully this will ease there nerves when its there turn to actually fly the Q400.

Honestly I do not know what must happen between now and the first Q400 flying around here – but I am doing all I can to prepare myself for that first advancement of the power levers of the powerful Q400.

As I said towards the end of my most recent post, the 2nd Q400 has arrived in Lagos.  Hopefully everything from this point on will go smoothly so I can finally fly the bird again!  The last time I flew the actual Q400 was November 10th, 2008 I believe.

I had planned on going to the beach today; however, the 5 or 6 people coming from the nearby hotel had other plans.  They instead wanted to spend more time shopping and hanging out on Victoria Island.  It was fine with me, I’ll just hopefully get to go to the beach next Sunday.  The whole day turned out to be a blast and a eye-opening experience.

About 30-45 minutes late as usual, the Arik Air bus picked me up at my hotel, and I saw some familiar faces from the nearby hotel and they then informed me of the plans.  As an Arik Air Q400 pilot, others often laugh and joke about how we have been sitting around doing nothing (waiting for our aircraft to arrive) while they have been here flying earning money so we get paid! hahaha.  The bus took us to the Arik Air facilities where a few other pilots from the other side of town hopped on the bus and we were off towards V.I. for a day of fun!

It took us about 45 minutes to get to our first stop, which was a large outdoor market with many many small shops.  Immediately after stepping off the bus, several boys started following us, and some didn’t stop until we got back on the bus an hour later! They were hoping to get paid for helping us carry our bags, or showing us certain items in stores.  Relentlessly I was encouraged by shop owners to look at there merchandise, I must have said “no thank you” 1,000 times. 

I picked up a few items I thought would be great Christmas gifts and picked myself up some sandals and fake Mont Blanc sunglasses.  I didn’t bring my camera in the market because I wasn’t sure if there would be security guards or police that would try and fine me for taking pictures (I have heard of another pilot being fined 10,000 Naira).  There weren’t any, so next time I will be sure to take pictures here.  The picture below is of me eating a local banana which almost looked orange but tasted ok.  I really liked the sandals, I hadn’t seen any like them before – they have soft fur on them.

Our next stop was the shopping mall.  Lagos Island and Victoria Island both seemed completely different from the area near the airport.  Much more clean, and “Western” if you will.

The shopping mall was very nice, looked like any other mall I am used to seeing in America.  There was a bowling alley, theatre, two large stores that had a little of everything like a Wal Mart almost, and several other outlet stores.  I will take more pictures next time I visit the mall.  For lunch, I had a frappachino and Vegetarian Pizza:

We had a fun group, it’s always interesting hanging out with pilots from other countries.  After lunch, we got to go bowling, and even play air hockey and pool!  Those are 3 things I thought I’d never do here in Lagos!

I did terrible at bowling of course, but this is just one of those games where it’s all about the people you are with, not how well you do.  Air Hockey was real intense, the puck flew off the table on several occasions and we had a small crowd at times with smirks on there faces amused at how crazy and fast we were playing.  We played 2v2 pool and Chris (737 First Officer from the UK) and I barely won. 

Cost?

Bowling cost 1800 Naira ($12 US) for one game each.  Both Air Hockey and pool were 300 Naira a game I think.  A Pizza that fed two was 2800 Naira ($18 US) and my Frap was 600 Naira ($4 US).

Later on…

We started walking through the stores and once I saw this…

I had to get one of these! (Chocolate Sundae):

After the tasty sundae, I bought some shampoo and a bar of soap.  The local shampoo I bought was working fine but I missed the kind I was used to.  Around 4:45PM, we were soon heading home after a fun day of fun and games.  Visiting V.I. and driving through Lagos Island definitely proves to me that there are much more beautiful parts of the country then the areas near the airport.  I hope during my time here in Nigeria that I get a chance to visit other cities and check out what is our there!

Dinner

Well I was surprised to see the hotel actually had ice cream tonight!  It was a very creamy Vanilla ice cream complimented by some Spaghetti.  I took my daily anti-malarial pill with dinner and don’t believe I have been bitten at all yet.

Tomorrow

The other Q400 pilots and I are heading in to the offices to see what we must do next now that the 2nd Q400 is here.  After the briefing, I plan on jump seating and actually operating the radios for practice instead of just listening/observing like I have in the past.