Big Bird's Long Flight

Kalidasa had a special affinity for the city of Ujjain, better known for the magnificent Mahakaal temple. The name Mahakaal denotes the big Shivalinga in the Mahakaal temple. This city located on the banks of river Kshipra in the Malwa area of Madhya Pradesh state in Central India is a pilgrimage and tourist centre since more than two thousand years. Many people argue that Kalidasa hailed from Ujjain due to his animated references to this city in his works. There is a strong belief that he was one of the Navamanis (Nine Gems) in the court of King Vikramaditya of Ujjain. Of course, many others claim that Kalidasa was from their area as well.

Kalidasa knew that birds and objects flying in the air should naturally go in a straight line since that is the shortest distance between any two given points. Yet, he specifically advises the cloud messenger in his Meghadoota to take a detour (वक्रः पन्था यदपि भवतः - 29th sloka) and fly over Ujjain instead of going in a straight line to its destination in the Himalayas. This is despite his own urgency to send a quick message to his beloved wife living in Alaka Nagari in the Himalayas. He emphasis that there are distinct advantages in taking a detour on certain occasions, like the darshan of Lord Mahakaal and sight-seeing tour of the city of Ujjain. 

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Joel Garner, recently appointed as the Manager of the West Indies Cricket Team, was a much feared fast bowler in his playing days (1977-1987). Though he was a part of the famous four-pronged West Indian pace attack and was in the company of illustrious names such as Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Colin Croft and Malcolm Marshall, he held his own as a fast bowler. He stood 6 feet 8 inches tall and and the balls he bowled fell like coconuts from a coconut tree. Batsmen facing him would say that it was as if the balls were coming down from the clouds! For this feat he was nicknamed the "Big Bird". While he could bowl only fewer overs due to his being a part of the big attack, he took 259 test wickets in 58 tests with a cheap run rate of 20.97 per wicket. His economy rate in one-day cricket was a miserly 3.09 mainly due to his toe crunching yorkers. The batsmen were more concerned in saving their feet than scoring runs against him. Big Bird - Big Eggs was the popular saying in those days denoting the big wicket hauls he took in the matches he played.

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Air Bus A-380 is the biggest bird flying in the sky today. It is bigger than the Boeing-747 and has successfully challenged the Jumbo jet that ruled the sky for nearly three decades. Its physical facts are astounding. Its length is 73 meters (240 feet) and height is 24 meters (79 feet). At 80 meters (262 feet), its wing span is more than one and a half times of a football field (160 feet). Its Zero fuel weight (mere weight of the plane) is 361,000 Kilograms (KGs). It can take off from the runway with a load of 560,000 KGs and its 10 fuel tanks can carry 3,20,000 liters of aviation fuel. Refueling can be done in just 40 minutes. It can fly non-stop for 15000 kilometers or 9,320 miles. Its double decker body can carry 550 to 850 passengers depending on the configuration of first, business and economy classes. Its four Rolls Royce or General Electric engines lift and hold this massive plane for 18 hours and enable it to cruise at a height of up to 43,000 feet. It can provides the luxury of a bar, a gym and a duty free shop in its huge body. It needs a 3 kilometer long runway for takeoff or landing. At 400 million USD, it is the costliest civilian airplane today.

All these are mere statistics unless one flies on a long journey in this huge aircraft. Emirates is the biggest user of Airbus A-380 today with 82 such planes in its big inventory. Its A-380 fleet connects 40 cities on long haul flights extending up to 17 hours non-stop. The Airline has been the winner of "World's Best Airline" recognition this year from "Skytrax World Skyline Awards".  Emirates also has won the "Best in-flight entertainment award" for 12 years in succession. It is no surprise that Emirates has been a major tool in the emergence of Dubai as a world tourist and business hub.

A journey on its Dubai-Washington DC (Dulles airport) sector today was a memorable experience. The flight duration was a little over 14 hours. The cabin crew consisted of persons from 20 countries who could speak 18 different languages. The entire lower deck was configured for economy class passengers (First class and Business classes were accommodated in the upper deck)  and this provided the luxury of sitting in the first row of a plane in an economy class seat. The flight was wifi-enabled and the seats were very comfortable with lots of room and leg space. The windows were larger than those in other aircrafts and gave a magnificent view of the outside scenery. The three cameras on the plane (bottom, side and the top of the tail) gave a continuous coverage on the individual TV screen for interested passengers. The interior for the early morning take-off was lighted in a special way to give the effect of sitting below a star-studded night sky. It was instrumental in inducing fast sleep to those who wanted to spend a large part of the 14 hours in deep sleep.

All passengers were given a small pouch with eye-blinds, a pair of soft socks and tooth brush and paste. 900 movies on the inflight entertainment in many languages from different parts of the world gave company to movie buffs. Music and news channels engaged interested others. There were movies in all indian languages as well as classics from Hollywood and Bollywood. The distance of 7355 miles (11,367 kilometers) was covered in a little over 14 hours with a cruise at 40,000 feet above sea level. The take off was one of the smoothest such experience. There were very few turbulent moments on such a long flight. Even while losing altitude for landing, there were no jerks. Landing was equally smooth. One could feel fresh and relaxed despite the long legs of transatlantic journey.

It is often a curse to be a vegetarian on long haul flights. But not so on this flight. It was a privilege to be a vegetarian today. A special vegetarian meal was delivered ahead of all others in a tray with a sticker having one's own name on it! You can be enjoying your vegetarian delight when all others are still waiting for their turns.

Emirates has emerged as a preferred airline for passengers the world over. People from India taking transatlantic flights to continental America are using Emirates flights more and more instead of traveling via Europe for various considerations including cost and service.

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Kalidasa was indeed right when he advised the cloud to take a detour instead of flying directly in a straight line. There were other flying alternatives but a slight detour on a Airbus A-380 was indeed worth it. A three hour drive to the final destination instead of an alternative of one hour drive did not matter.  

Emirates flies A-380 aircrafts to New York and Washington DC on the Atlantic side, and Los Angels and San Francisco to the Pacific coast side of USA. Take a flight on the world's best airline in a big bird flying in the sky.  It would be a memorable experience. Vakrah panthaa Yadapi bhavatah ..... Even if it is a slight detour for you.......

Headwinds and Tailwinds

The line before security clearance at Philadelphia International Airport was quite long on Monday morning and growing by the minute.  As it was the first working day after a long weekend and New Years day celebrations, all morning flights were fully booked and everyone was in a hurry to get cleared through the security gates.  It appeared that my flight may be missed due to delay in clearance as there were dozens of others ahead of me.  A good samaritan helped clearance of passengers for flights taking off in the next few minutes on urgent basis and I was the last passenger to board our flight.  As I squeezed into my seat between two other passengers, take-off was announced.  "Even the darkest cloud has a silver lining", they say.  That was true here as I was spared the usual long wait at the boarding gate.

The pilot announced that the flight to Seattle on the Pacific coast would take five hours and four minutes.  As the aircraft took-off and started gaining altitude, the person sitting on my side asked me what the time was.  When I replied that it was 7.50 AM,  he said "See, the flight is already 20 minutes late.  Time table says the flight takes six hours.  Pilot says it takes five hours and four minutes.  How it is possible?  I do not understand".  He appeared frustrated and I felt it was better to leave the issue at that instead of explaining the situation to him.  I was actually happy that the flight was 20 minutes late or else I may have missed it.

What my fellow passenger did not realise was that we were the luckier lot as our flight was not cancelled, unlike thousands of flights from cities like Chicago and St. Louis.  North America is reeling under the effect of a phenomena called by meteorologists as "Polar Vortex" and described as "Polar Pig" by the media.  Polar Vortex has brought down the temperatures to as low as minus 50 degrees celsius in some areas.  Airport operations are hit as aviation fuel froze in the sources and the crew were unable to fill aircraft tanks.  Many inches of snow has rendered venturing outdoors a high risk idea. Schools are closed and people have been advised to stay indoors.  In many cities driving has been banned except in emergency situations. Icy roads and sidewalks have made journey on the roads treacherous.  We were at least airborne and on our way though the pilot warned us of a bumpy ride, in his own very polite language.  Despite this, journey by air was far more safer than on the icy and windy roads in life threatening temperatures.

How does the actual flight time happen to be much lower than the time displayed on time tables?   Timetables refer to terminal-to-terminal time while pilots refer to actual flight time between take-off and landing.  Transport operators, whether by road, rail or air, usually provide a cushion for the unexpected delays that may take place during the actual travel.  On time arrival at destinations is one key performance parameter for transport and airline companies.  A slightly extended journey time provides buffer to absorb unexpected delays in starting time and delays on the way.  Hence the arrival of the destination would be as per schedule despite slight delays at the starting point.  The on time performance figures are thus protected and make for good reading and publicity.  In the case of airlines, there are also likely delays due to clogging of runways and weather related issues.  If the take-off is on schedule and everything else also goes fine, arrival at the destination may even be before scheduled time.  Besides this, scheduling flights this way make further utilization of the aircraft more scientific and practical.

In the case of air travel, wind factor is a key influence in the actual journey time.  "Head wind" and "Tail wind" are two components that affect the duration of the flight.  A headwind is a wind blowing against the direction of the travel and a tail wind is a wind blowing in the direction of the travel.  In the case of aircrafts, headwind has the effect of decreasing the speed of the plane whereas the tailwind adds to its speed.  Journey in the air with tail wind is, therefore, faster than journey with a headwind.  For this reason, actual time of journey between two places in the same direction may vary on different days and even at different times on the same day.  Proverbs in different languages to take advantage of the direction of the wind blowing have been in use for a long long time.  Of course, our politicians have mastered this art perfectly.

Air traffic controls and pilots use the concept of headwind, tailwind as well as cross-wind to advantage in their operations.  Take-offs and landings of aircrafts are scheduled on different runways (in airports with multiple runways) providing headwinds as a headwind is favorable for both take-off and landing.  Tailwinds are favorable when the aircraft is in flight.  When we are engrossed in our own world while traveling, experts at ATC and pilots are busy with all these details.  Thanks to their continuous efforts, air travel is far more safer than travel on the land.  Many may not agree with this but that is what the truth is.  An aircraft tragedy attracts all the more attention and the fear associated with air travel is more in minds than in reality.  Modern aircrafts take every contingency into account and safety standards are upgraded from time to time.  Any accident that happens is like any other mechanical failure and despite all these safety efforts.

While I was contemplating all these issues, the pilot announced landing at Seattle-Tacoma airport five minutes before the expected arrival time.  Despite warnings of the bumpy ride made by him at the time of take-off, the flight was very smooth except for the initial half hour.  The aircraft had left all the cold weather behind and moved to the much warmer western coast.  My co-passenger who expressed his annoyance on the twenty minute delay in take-off was unaware of all these and lost in his wonderful sleep along the entire flight.  He did not get any sweet dreams, I am sure of that for he did not smile even once in his sleep.  I had to nudge him to wake him up as I had to pass him before getting off the plane.

Many thanks to the weathermen who are now able to predict changes in the weather so accurately and the ATC staff and airline crew.  They make air travel a lot safer though it often goes unnoticed.  
                      

The "Red Eye"

Our flight from Seattle had taken off on time at 6 AM and arrived on schedule at San Francisco at 8 AM. The connecting flight to the east coast was to take off an hour and a half later and land in Philadelphia just before 6 PM. Our host there was to pick us up from the airport on his way home from work place. The schedule was worked  out meticulously so that one host could drop us at Seattle airport before going to work and another could pick us up on the way back from work. Of course, we had no work to do except travel and all timings suited us.

We propose and airline companies dispose. (Passengers of "King of Good Times Airlines" know this too well now after all the bad times they had in the last two months). As we came out of the aero-bridge and checked on the monitor for the gate number of the departing flight, it was mentioned as "Flight cancelled". By the time we reached the customer service counter of Continental Airlines, there was a long line with passengers from flights arrived earlier at SFO who were to take the same flight to Philadelphia, standing ahead of us. Being at the end of the line meant that we had little chance of getting any proximate alternate flight as those ahead of us in the line would have naturally opted for them. When my turn finally came there were still a dozen passengers behind me and probably hoping that I would take much less time in sorting out my plans than the earlier ones.

The lady at the counter was all smiles and charm. She was probably one of their well trained employees and placed on such counters to effectively stall irate passengers of cancelled flights. All her talk just meant that she wanted to help us but she was herself helpless. You can have all the smile but your work will not be done. You end up thinking how helpful she was but only you were unfortunate. She apologized for the delay but having myself trained our staff to handle such situations, I was interested in the next plan.

"Sir, The best thing I can give you is a seat on the same flight tomorrow"

I had to make a decision in a few seconds. Accepting the offer means spending a day in San Francisco. My two nephews living in that city would be already on the way to work and not a wise idea to trouble them. I put a counter question. "What if that flight is also cancelled?". She was a bit taken aback but replied politely, "That does not happen everyday, Sir"

"I do not want to stay here. Give me a seat on a flight to New York, Newark or even BWI (Baltimore)"

"I am sorry Sir. All those flights are also full. If you do not want to stay back, the best I can do is to route you through Las Vegas. But Vegas to Philadelphia is a "Red Eye". Is it alright?"

I did not know what she meant by "Red Eye". The red eye I knew till then was the infection of the eye making it look red and called variously as "Singapore eye" in Chennai,  "Chennai eye" in Bangalore and "Bangalore eye" in Mangalore. There was no time to ask further questions and getting educated. There were indeed better place and time to learn what she meant by a "Red Eye".

"Red Eye or Blue eye, I want to keep moving and reach Philadelphia".

She probably thought I was joking. Or more probably felt it was a show of annoyance, albeit politely. She put us on a noon flight to Las Vegas and later on from there to Philadelphia.

My wife, standing behind me in the line, asked me after we left the counter what a "Red Eye" was. They give such names to some flights to make us reject the offer, I told her.  Years of marriage teach you certain things. You should always answer some questions truthfully, if you know the answer, is the first of them. You should never tell the answer to some questions, even if you know the answer, is the second.  Bluff your way with a face saving answer is the third. This time I used the third.

The afternoon flight to Las Vegas meant that we had to wait for five hours in San Francisco.  The next flight left Las Vegas at 11 PM and arrived in Philadelphia at 5 AM. The simple journey of nine hours was finally completed in 24 hours. And then I went about understanding what a "Red eye" is.

A red-eye flight is any flight departing late at night and arriving early the next morning. The term red-eye is derived from the symptom of having red eyes which can be caused or aggravated by late-night travel. These flights generally move east from west during night hours. The flight departs late at night and lasts for three to five hours and due to forward time zone changes, lands at dawn. Passengers do not get sufficient rest and end up getting off the flight with reddish eyes. Business travelers use this as an opportunity to save time without losing a day in their busy schedule.

After all there is something more to the "Red Eye" than just eye infection!