About Me
- Captain Kirk
- Hi everyone! Because I am so bad at emailing and keeping in contact with everyone, I thought this might be a better way to keep everyone informed about what is happening in my life. I am an airline pilot currently working and living in the Middle East. Previously I have flown for airlines in Australia and the US. I am divorced with 2 great children that live with their mother in Australia.
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
Lessons learned
I have learned a few valuable lessons about kite surfing in the past few days:
1- When practicing water relaunching of a kite (the type I have) you can only do 2 or 3 water relaunches before the kite starts soaking up the water and after about 10 relaunches in a row the kite becomes water logged and will not relaunch!
2- Practice water relaunched close to shore!
3- A water logged kite is a pain in the backside to get to shore (at least there was an on-shore wind).
4- Kite line and fishing lines have the same properties but unlike fishing line, kite line is way too expensive to just cut and get new ones (there is 4 lines on my kite) when tangled up in a huge knot!
5- When drying out a 13 square metre kite at night it is about the same size as my living room.
6- The amount of sand that can be brought into a house by a wet kite is amazing (until you have to clean it all up!).
When I return from my South Africa trip my board should be ready and I can start the next stage of kite surfing.
I am off to South Africa today and will be back next Tuesday. I had a nice chat with the kids and they are happy and doing well at school. I hope to get back to Australia in June to see them.
I have a very busy schedule of flying next month with over 97 hours rostered of flight time and 4 day of standby (days they can call me out to fly).
I will post again next Tuesday.
1- When practicing water relaunching of a kite (the type I have) you can only do 2 or 3 water relaunches before the kite starts soaking up the water and after about 10 relaunches in a row the kite becomes water logged and will not relaunch!
2- Practice water relaunched close to shore!
3- A water logged kite is a pain in the backside to get to shore (at least there was an on-shore wind).
4- Kite line and fishing lines have the same properties but unlike fishing line, kite line is way too expensive to just cut and get new ones (there is 4 lines on my kite) when tangled up in a huge knot!
5- When drying out a 13 square metre kite at night it is about the same size as my living room.
6- The amount of sand that can be brought into a house by a wet kite is amazing (until you have to clean it all up!).
When I return from my South Africa trip my board should be ready and I can start the next stage of kite surfing.
I am off to South Africa today and will be back next Tuesday. I had a nice chat with the kids and they are happy and doing well at school. I hope to get back to Australia in June to see them.
I have a very busy schedule of flying next month with over 97 hours rostered of flight time and 4 day of standby (days they can call me out to fly).
I will post again next Tuesday.
Sunday, April 24, 2005
Japan and beach bbq.
I had a great time in Japan. I just missed the Cherry Blossom season but there were still a few trees with blooms on them. It was very beautiful and would have been impressive when in full bloom. In Japan I visited the Miidera Temple (http://www.bushcat.com/jbits/miidera.html), The Silver Pavilion (http://japan.chez.tiscali.fr/Kyoto/Japan/Ginkakuji.htm) and the Philosophers Walk around Kyoto. (For pics of Japan from my last trip in February http://kirkpleasant.blogspot.com/2005_02_01_kirkpleasant_archive.html - go half way down the page). My next trip I hope to visit Hiroshima.
I love the food and sake (rice wine) in Japan and indulged too much in both.
The return flight was interesting because we had 2 suspected heart attacks on board but a nurse travelling with us looked after the passengers and advised that both were ok to continue on to Doha. It would have been an interesting experience to divert some place in China for a medical emergency!
When I arrived back in Doha (after a 12 hour flight) I slept a few hours then went to a small beach about 100 km north of Doha with a few other pilots and their families. It was fun to be around all of the kids and I really wished that Ella and James were with me.
My next scheduled flight is to South Africa on Tuesday night.
I love the food and sake (rice wine) in Japan and indulged too much in both.
The return flight was interesting because we had 2 suspected heart attacks on board but a nurse travelling with us looked after the passengers and advised that both were ok to continue on to Doha. It would have been an interesting experience to divert some place in China for a medical emergency!
When I arrived back in Doha (after a 12 hour flight) I slept a few hours then went to a small beach about 100 km north of Doha with a few other pilots and their families. It was fun to be around all of the kids and I really wished that Ella and James were with me.
My next scheduled flight is to South Africa on Tuesday night.
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