Kiddies Controlling Airplanes In New York

I had to be peeled off the ceiling when I heard about this one!

Two controllers allowed a child to issue commands to pilots from the ground and tower controllers positions.

Pilots were heard to express amusement when answering the young boy, with some even going as far as having general chit-chat over the airwaves with him.

In one exchange, the boy is heard to say "JetBlue 171 contact Departure" to which the pilot replied "Over to Departure, JetBlue 171, awesome job kid!"

It turns out that the boy was the son of a JFK Tower Controller who was with him to have a look around while on his school holidays.

The guy has now been suspended, pending an FAA investigation which will probably result in him losing his job.

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association have launched a scathing attack on the controller stating that he was unprofessional and put the lives of hundreds of people at risk at Kennedy Airport.

As far as I am concerned, they can shove that opinion up their collective asses!

There was nothing wrong with what was done by the controller. All was perfectly monitored and supervised and I sincerely doubt that the kid was left alone on position. Just a case of "Hey son. I am going to say this and then you say this ok? Here....I wrote it down for you."

My guess is that whoever sanctioned the investigation is one of those management dickheads who has never given a takeoff clearance in his life.

All the fun is slowly being squeezed out of this industry by jobsworths and morons who have no idea how or where aviation came about, and have no idea of the types of people involved in both flying planes and controlling them.

If there are any more pilots or controllers reading this.....get writing and let the FAA and NATCA know just what we all think......that no harm was or could have been done - at least not outside of some ass-covering safety manual written by an insurance company.

We are aviators. Professional, flexible and don't mind the odd joke or dream come true for a kid on the radio.

This sits right up there with the ban on cockpit visits. Nonsense, insurance company ass-covering again.

Beancounters and non-flying management types are slowly destroying our industry from the inside out.

I'm fuming. Really, I am!

Idiots!

Babies, Cars & Kinetic Physics

I have been thinking of writing this for a while, and the fact that it has been raining made me decide to expedite the process. 

I know that all of my expat readers have seen one of these before, but I wanted to draw them to the attention of local drivers. 

This is a child's car seat. It is not a toy. It is a safety device, that is designed to prevent your kid from becoming a flying death machine when you or someone else, does one of your usual and utterly astonishing road maneuvers. 

Now, I know that cultural awareness and tolerance is spoken about widely in the papers and on a lot of the blogs here - and while I fully respect the religious beliefs of my hosts, there has to come a time when you need to be practical. 

Picture the scene. This morning - coming out of Seeb and onto the highway, I am driving behind a late model Mercedes, and in the back, I see the beautiful smiling faces of three local children. Two girls and one boy - all between three and five years old. 

Dad hits the brakes as another muppet slices across two lanes of traffic, and the kids disappear, only to resurface again albeit in a different order - grinning and waving.

I just don't know how parents can allow this situation to occur. 

Time for a crash course in Physics:

The force of gravity upon you means that right now, you are experiencing what we call 1G - or one times the force of gravity. 

When you accelerate or decelerate, you experience different levels of G. 

For example, when I make a tight turn at work at high speed, I can experience about 6G sometimes more. 

As well as being uncomfortable, it also has an effect on my body's perceived mass. 

If my head weighs 10kg - this means that in a 6G turn, it now feels like it weighs 60kg. 

During a rapid deceleration, I can experience "negative G' which will try to pull me out of the seat. 

If I wasn't very securely strapped in, I would quite literally be minced after I disappeared through the instrument panel.

The same thing goes for your children. 

In a 120 kph crash, the deceleration factor can make the average child without proper restraints, pass through the car interior with the force of an elephant.

And if it happens, there is no prayer in the world that will save them.

A flying child with that much kinetic energy, has several options: 

They can, if you are lucky, go through the windscreen, killing only themselves.

Or, if your vehicle gets hit at an angle, the child can bounce around the inside of the cab, killing everyone. 

Put three kids in the car - and you triple your chances of instant death for all. 

Think that it can't happen to you? Think again.

I get the feeling that it happens here a lot. 

What stuns me is that, as far as I know, there is only one retailer that sells these seats in this country - Baby Shop in the Centrepoint chain.

This is absolutely outrageous!

THE USE OF CHILD CAR SEATS SHOULD BE LAW IN OMAN - Take that to the Ministries. 

Get it sorted. Now!

Attempted Child Abduction At Muscat Airport

kidnapThe UK Foreign Office has issued a new advisory on its site in relation to the attempted abduction of a child at the airport.

http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travelling-and-living-overseas/travel-advice-by-country/middle-east-north-africa/oman

I have heard of a few incidents over the time that I have been here, about children getting a bit too much attention from males - especially around the beach at Shatti for some reason. 

Because this is such a great place as a rule, with not very high levels of crime, we all have a tendency to take our eye off the ball sometimes. 

It's funny how the world is different over here. Last week, while on a trip up into the Jebels, we were astonished to see a family from a village, pass us by in their jeep and then screech to a halt, while the back doors were opened and two young children were summarily ordered out to go and sell keyrings to us. 

A girl of around ten and what appeared to be her brother with her, who was a few years younger. 

Off sped the jeep and kids were left to fend for themselves. 

One wonders how many children get abducted here and who are never found? 

Contemplating it, and knowing how other things are covered up here, is scary.