Surprise Alert

SUNNY days have replaced the cold rain.

Late yesterday I got notice of an alert that required we flight test some special equipment. Today was a beautiful blue, perfect day for such a test. I had to postpone a meeting with a new client in order to show up since it happened that my name fell on today's duty roster as an aircrew member if an emergency came up.

What came up was a 4-state test with us combining with FEMA, Texas DPS, the Governor's office etc. We were part of a 2 plane team - one that shot special video to cover anything from hurricane evacuation routes to a nuclear disaster. The second plane was an orbiting transmitter - it sent the photos back to the Emergency Operations Center (EOC). So we had instant statewide video transmitted real time through the system. I was co-pilot in the "high bird" - we had a special monitor and instrument so we could see the photo image transmitted from the video plane as we circled at 10,000 feet and our plane re-transmitted the image to the EOC.

One shot that impressed me was a burning oil fire sending huge clouds of smoke into the air somewhere near Corpus. Our plane even provided the GPS coordinates so ground teams knew exactly where it was coming from. This is something we've needed to do for years and we have only received test equipment so far. Much remains to be done. If the Bay City Nuclear Plant had a failure people in Houston would be threatened. We still need the equipment to monitor for nuclear material that could be smuggled in.

Anyway, it was a long day of flying since we didn't get back until after 5. In New Braunfels airport the cook had quit so it turned out the line guy who filled our plane with gas was doubling as cook. I have to admit he did a great grilled chicken sandwich, although I was wondering if it would come out smelling like 100 LL aviation gas (it didn't :0).

I just read that now they think Al Qaeda has people over here. This could be more bogus intelligence, but sooner or later it will happen unless we get better at resolving these global issues.

Client meetings tomorrow. More sun is forecast. Can't wait for spring. Things keep getting more interesting by the day. Who would have thought Howard Dean would not be the Democratic nominee? This is proving to be a year of surprises, and change. People are telling me that are ready for a change and are tired of politicians who have been in office for decades. Good! :0)