My Lost Summer

The summer slipped by and I missed it! Buried deep in the bowels of the BP Incident Command Center in Houma LA, dealing with the oil spill, from "O" dark thirty to "O" dark thirty (that's before sunrise to after dark), time slipped away.

Finally the job was done and we returned to our "other" lives. Just as I was settling into my return to full time retirement I had to deal with a medical problem and there went the remainder of the summer.

Well I am back...better than ever and I will try to post more often.

Working the spill

When the phone rang at 5:30 AM on April 29, 2010 I had no idea what was ahead of me. I was invited to join the BP Spill response team in Houma LA as the aerial dispersants aviation consultant. What did that mean? All I was told was to bring enough cloths for thirty days.

Thirty days, then sixty days and finally ninety days went by before I was released and these were long days that started a 5:30 every morning and extended into the night, usually around 7:30 PM or later, seven days a week.

Aerial dispersants had (4) C-130 aircraft, (8) sprayer / spotter King Air’s, (3) DC-3’s, (3) AT802 [ag planes] and two more spotters. This small fleet (20)of aircraft was located at Stennis Field MS and Houma LA.

We were part of a three prong attack on the oil. Skimmers, and burners attacked the oil near the spill source and the aerial dispersant group was responsible for the large expanse of oil that spread for mile across the Gulf.

At first light the spotters were out looking for appropriate targets .Once found they would lead the larger spray aircraft onto the oil and guide them through the dispersant phase. Trip after trip, day after day, week after week they battled the spill.

After two storms, and the well capped we began to see the “dispersible” oil disappear. Our flying dropped off to nearly nothing and finally we were demobilized (all but a token force) and I went home.

I am still digesting the experience, some of it was good and some bad...but that’s life. Sadly there was much misinformation, agendas and egos that slowly worked their way into and clouding the mission...keep the oil off the beaches!

Working the spill

Lights on ships working offshore and in the onshore Incident Command Center (ICC) burn through the night, working their assigned tasks in the largest oil spill in history. Literally thousands of people are involved in securing and cleaning up the spill.

Life begins for the day shift around 6:00 AM and runs through the early evening hours (midnight for some). Bleary eyed and holding on to a hot cup of coffee we stagger in for our early morning briefings, group, division and tasking meeting consume the first few hours...then we are off to our sections to continue plowing through the myriad of detail necessary to make this work.

I am the aviation advisor to the Dispersant Operations Group. We have a small armada of specialized aircraft fitted to spot and spray dispersants. The aircraft are off at first light...guided by the spotters using data from electronic laden aircraft gathering data, they are sent to specific targeted areas.

The spotters, smaller twin engine aircraft, guide the larger four engine C-130’s, flying at 50 feet off the water, onto the assigned areas. Spraying the dispersant materials they fly repeated flights throughout the day.

The staging airports looks like a military operations with trucks full of fuel and dispersant meeting each arriving aircraft, refueling and re-loading dispersant they are sent back out for another run.

The ICC is full of scientist (PhD’s), rooms full, enough to start a small university. As with any group of learned folks there is the inevitable disagreements on approach, however, debate isn’t allowed to stop the process and consensus is developed faster than in most academic situation...it’s exciting to watch!

How long will it last?

Great minds and engineering talent are assembled in Houston and Houma LA working tirelessly to solve the problems and one by one they are solved.

Exactly when no one knows...so your editor will be detained, working a small part of the aviation issues...I’m the “briar patch manager”...whenever there are thorny aviation issues they throw me in.

As you have probably read / heard the BP spill has mired itself into a political morass. Our group, the aerial dispersant group (twenty aircraft ranging from C-130s, Turbine DC-3, Ag planes and a host of King Air spotters), has become the focal point of much of the controversy...."to use or not to use".

Most of the media representation is distorted and not factual...a battle we fight daily (not we but the Unified Command), bad reporting unfortunately becomes the "reality" of the day.

Example...a local reporter reported that the National Guard was throwing away spill booms....when in fact they were cleaning up the packing material it came in!!

We have over 1000 people (military, government and civilians) working in our center (24/7) to make this work and work correctly.

The aerial dispersant groups have effectively been grounded for days and the plume of oil is growing daily and beginning to impact the beaches and marshes.

Daily we are getting reports of people being "sprayed" and becoming ill...yesterday we got a call from a fishing boat 100 mile offshore saying he was being sprayed...AND we had not even take off yet!!!

There are a lot of people trying to become "spillionaires".

Knee Surgery

When I was still flying we had what was called an “aging aircraft program”...essentially to deal with old airplanes and was an “inspect, remove or repair” program to keep them flying safely.

Well I seem to have fallen into the category of an aging airframe and some of my parts seem to warrant the “repair” criteria.

Some time ago (actually months ago) I felt a strain behind my right knee while putting the cover on our boat. Nothing unusually...I seem to mysteriously strain, cut, bruise and other wise “ding” the old airframe from time to time...never realizing it at the time and only when I see a stream of blood trickling down my arm or hand do I realize that I must have passed too close to something sharp and never even felt it!!!

Oh well....I “gimped” around for months thinking that this too would eventually heal and I’d chalk it off to old age and wear and tear. Meanwhile my “inspector” (read that as spousal support and oversight committee SSOC) kept recommending I see a doctor. I finally gave in when it was no longer an occasional limp but a full time “Chester from Gun Smoke” type of limp.

An MRI revealed a...”tear in the posterior hom of the medial meniscus”...no wonder it hurt, with a name like that!

By the time the surgery was scheduled I had long given up on the “it will heal itself” philosophy and was saying “bring it on!”

So...at “O” dark thirty (0630)” this morning the SSOC drove me to the outpatient surgery unit at the hospital and they sharpened up the knitting needles (arthroscopic surgery...poke holes and “darn up the damage”) and did their magic! After giving me a nap inducing cocktail of “happy juice” it was lights out...great nap!

No pain (I walked out on my own landing gear) and we were in Denny’s at 0950 for breakfast.

TEXAS WEATHER

Like huge gray battleships the weather fronts have come, cannons blazing, pounding ashore. Many of the winter storms rolling across Texas start way out in the Pacific and gathering strength they come...dumping torrential rains and snows on the west coast before heading for Texas.

Somewhat depleted, they reach Houston and the Gulf Coast where they pick up additional moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and, re-energized, head up the east coast. One after another, like the endless waves of the sea, they roll across the country.

What a winter!

Last summer we were experiencing the worst drought in years with record high temperatures...now records lows and a lot of rain.

We have had measurable snows for two years in a row!

With long periods of rain we have reduced the drought in most of the state...good news you say. Well yes, however, the grey skies and rain do make one wish for warmer dryer days (I suppose I’ll complain about that next).

But that’s another posting.

Tales from Trinidad

I recently made my second trip to Trinidad to complete some work for a client. On my first trip I was only there long enough to complete the work and that mainly at the Port of Spain airport.
This time I rented a car as I had to go to a town called Couva, about thirty miles south of the airport.

Trinidad, being formally part of the British Commonwealth, drive on the left side of the road, so that made the adventure a little more interesting. Our flight out of Houston was delayed an hour due to fog, so the already late arrival of 8:30 PM was going to make for a long day. To add to my concern about driving, it was raining upon our arrival...pouring down tropical monsoon rain!

Customs and Immigration are notoriously slow in Trinidad, so our original arrival of 8:30 became 9:30 and out the door to pick up the car at 10:45 and finally in the car around 11:30. It was still raining as I sat the car, with the windshield wiper slapping back and forth, I was mentally conditioning myself to the right hand drive and setting up the GPS to get to the hotel.

With my courage finally up I headed out the airport exit only to make a wrong turn and had to wrap back around the terminal for another try. This time I made it to the first “round about”, another uniquely British phenomenon, before indecision and the rain caused a couple of loops around before I got in the correct lane to exit and head for the hotel – which was only a mile away.

Air and road weary I plopped into bed...ready to tackle the roads the next day.

The rains of the night before had passed and morning brought crisp clear skies. The main road into Port of Spain is called Churchill Roosevelt and is a very crowded three lane highway; I had to head into town to reach the highway south to Couva. Carefully merging into traffic I head toward my destination, my trusty GPS giving turn directions.

While I have driven on the left side many times in the UK, Ireland and Australia I realized that each had unique “quirks” that had best be learned to keep from becoming a statistic.
And Trinidad has some “quirks”!

The most important one is what’s going on the shoulders...that’s where the taxies stop (not yellow cabs, but ordinary cars with an H on the license plate) and other use as a passing lane.
And that’s where the real story was!

While not legal, many use the shoulder to pass the long lines of backed up traffic. Vendors work the inside lane with peanuts, drinks and other food items to make the wait more bearable. “So there I was”, about to turn when I looked into the rearview mirror (just before) and in a blur I saw a small car moving at a high rate of speed trying to get to the front of the lane and duck back into the traffic headed toward town...cutting across the lane I was in he swerved, narrowly missing me, a concrete barrier and a large dump truck...wow! I’m sure glad I looked twice!

Now here is the irony...Trinidadians are very polite people, gently of nature and easy going....UNTIL they get behind the wheel of a car (not all but some) and “schzammm” they turn into “road warriors”!

Doubles

The “ramblin retiree” has been spreading his wings lately. First it was Jamaica, Caymans and Cozumel (on a cruise)...then Trinidad. Recently I was asked to do some work down in Trinidad. Now I “had” said I’d done enough international travel (more than forty countries), but, this offer was interesting enough to accept.

Arriving late in an evening rain and jumping into work the next day, I didn’t really have any time to sample any Trinidadian sights, sounds or food. However, and life is full of “however”, on the last day I was treated to a local favorite called a “doubles.”

Along the perimeter road around the Port of Spain airport were a selection of roadside vendors, some with a cart and a canopy and others were more elaborate, with popup tents. Under a large tent was “Richards”, said to serve the best (and safesty) “doubles”.

Doubles is a common street food in Trinidad and Tobago. It is a sandwich made with two flat fried breads, called "bara" (hence the name "doubles"), filled with curried chick peas or garbanzo beans, commonly called channa (from Hindi/Bhojpuri "chanaa"). Topped with a variety of spicy chutneys (mango, cucumber, coconut, tamarind) and extra pepper sauce (ranging from a dash "slight" to much more), this delicacy is undoubtedly the most popular fast food in Trinidad and Tobago. It is usually eaten for breakfast.

Since these little delicacies are usually sold by roadside vendors, which I’ve normally steered clear of (no need temping those little “microbugs” lurking in roadside cuisine) I was reluctant to try one.

Our host ordered three bags of doubles, six each, to feed everyone at our exit meeting. One normal, one hot and one that was said to be “really spicy” (read that as HOT!).

Once seated everyone grabbed a “double” and began to munch away...they are really juicy so care is needed not to have the sauce dribble down your hand and arm. The other non-Trinidadian and I looked on longingly as the aroma waffled around the room and everyone, slurping away, seemed to be really enjoying their “double”.

Well fear of the little microbugs finally gave way to temptation. We cut ours into four pieces and said...”I’ll just try this little piece”...a forth. Wow...that was so good we tried more!

Fortunately, the next morning, we both got on the airplane back to Houston with no ill effects and a pleasant memory of having had a “double”.