A Better Vantage Point, part II

Recently, in late summer I’ve experienced some beautiful sights and challenging work days: a vertical moon beam projected downward through a narrow gap in the clouds, an expansive and vibrant rainbow, cumulus clouds that carry a punch greater than their looks, the real milky way coupled with meteors, cloud shadows trying to camouflage themselves as the woods in hill valley bottoms below, ‘embedded’ thunderstorms trying to hide behind haze and surrounding stratus clouds, a selection of ‘interesting’ (to say the least) Flight Attendants, an ATC induced go-around at Philadelphia and Indianapolis, and a few long, delayed duty days.

But for this second ‘vantage point’, I’d like to take you back in time a few years to just after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, when I was based in Denver as a Captain flying the Beechcraft 1900 turboprop.

Flying for Great Lakes was basically driving me nuts, because during the fall of 2001I was getting junior manned to fly as a First Officer instead of as a Captain, and junior manned down to ten days off a month as well. I was able to switch bases to Minneapolis-St. Paul, and hoped for a lighter schedule load, and some adventurous winter flying. I learned that Vanguard Airlines, out of Kansas City, was growing their fleet and switching from 737’s to MD-80’s. KC is halfway between Tulsa, Oklahoma, where I grew up, and where we still live now in northwestern Iowa. It was kind of like a attracting an insect to a blue light.

That was the flying career situation for me by the spring of 2002. With tens of thousands of ‘heavy iron’ drivers furloughed or about to be furloughed from the majors, and none of the low cost carriers hiring, Vanguard seemed like a great place to go, until the majors and low cost carriers started hiring again, at least.

Their minimums were 1000 hours turbine PIC (pilot in command), but I applied anyway with 800 Turbine PIC, and got no response. After applying again with 1100, things happened quickly. I was soon in Vanguard’s ground school in Long Beach, California, experiencing a cool and rainy ‘So Cal’ spring while drinking up the MD-80’s systems ground school course from a fire hose, as the saying goes.

I had never flown a jet before, not a LearJet, and not a CitationJet. I was a little intimidated, because this was ‘Mad Dog’ jet, aptly named because of the MD initials and because the flying and handling characteristics aren’t reputed to be near as nice as the jets Mr. Boeing builds. Several fellow students in my class were veterans of Vanguard’s 737, and after learning about the McDonnell-Douglas product they recycled the old joke ‘Boeing builds airplanes, Douglas builds character’ among us. For an interesting page on the MD-80, click here.

After learning that the aircrafts’ roll control and pitch control wasn’t by hydraulics and was only by cable and ‘control tabs’, these same pilots said the MD-80 was the ‘0riginal fly by wire jet – on a one-eighth inch cable’. The ‘80’ was a stretched version of the DC-9, which had the same type of flight control system. The MD-80 also ushered in some new technology to the airlines, but it did so using an old style cockpit display and instrumentation. It had the ‘old school’ style ‘six pack’ of flight instruments in front of each pilot, but with an electronic display version of the attitude and horizontal situation indicator (EATT and EHSI). Added on was an advanced flight guidance system for the autopilot, automatic thrust control for the engines (autothrottles), and a flight management system (FMS). All this advancement in technology was meant to reduce the workload of the pilots, but because of the way it was cobbled together with the same usual instrumentation, plus additional panels for all the new technology, meant that in a way this aircraft actually increased the workload required by the pilots. I found this out quickly when flying it, and after transitioning later in my career to aircraft which have a full EFIS (Electronic Flight Instrumentation System) presentation on six TV like flight displays, I appreciated ‘full glass’ much more.

Once in the simulator, I found out that the quirks this jet had were true, the flying characteristics were like nothing I’ve ever flown before, even considering that I had never flown a jet. It was like being on the front end of a struggling sky dart. I was happy with how I made it through training in the simulator. However, once I started flying the real plane and got checked out online, it was an anxious transition. The controls felt funny, and it was a long jet, so long that I couldn’t see the wings from the seat. I was apprehensive about where to look, what to touch, and what the plane was going to do next.

The flight guidance system, which controlled the autopilot and flight director, was fully functional, but had to be used gingerly and wisely, or one would risk giving the passengers an uncomfortable and jerky ride. The same thinking went regarding the autothrottles. On line, good technique necessitated that we lead and lag the autothrottles thrust settings, and program a descent or climb rate slowly. Otherwise the passengers would get pushed or pulled in their seats too much.

The FMA – the flight mode annunciator, was a panel which displayed the armed and active modes of the autopilot and flight director. On a more modern EFIS aircraft the flight modes are shown just above the attitude indication, so in result, this separate panel actually increased our work scan: it was another instrument to include in our ‘scan’.

Hand flying the jet was interesting. Lag in the control response was to be expected, especially in pitch. In pitch the force felt in the control yoke was springy and spongy, light at first but it increased at a non-linear rate. There was a large null spot where the aircraft was trimmed out, where movement of the yoke seemed to not affect the pitch attitude of the aircraft at all. It was light in roll, and the yoke was spring centered back to neutral when released. When the yoke reached 5 degrees deflection, the roll spoilers deployed, and the roll rate increased suddenly. The rudder was the only surface powered hydraulically.

Click here for a good link to a few pictures of Vanguard's Md-80's. My first landing in one, with my hands on the controls was a doozey, oh it was! Seeing in my peripheral vision my Check Airman Captain reaching for yoke during flare is not a good thing. I had already increased back pressure during the flare, and didn’t know just where the ground was, so to speak. I was trying to land it ‘like the simulator’, how I had been told. But the sight picture out the window was totally different than I was used to, as at touchdown the deck height above the ground in the ‘80’ is quite a few feet higher than in the 1900. I knew this, and tried to compensate for it. Observing the plane sink the last ten feet down to the runway surface is a useful clue while landing, but it takes a while to get used to the sight picture in order to discern this. In a long jet the nose is increasing in pitch angle as you land, this mitigates the sink sight clues somewhat. The radio altimeter had called out our height above the ground from 50 feet down in ten foot increments. Well, it was supposed to be ten foot increments. “50-30-20-10” bam! Somewhere far behind me (72 feet or thereabouts) the tires hit like a body part hitting furniture while walking in slumber in a friend’s dark house. We didn’t bounce, I realized as I perceived the cockpit bulkhead shaking behind us in a wave of reverberation from the point of impact. Ugh, oh well. Chuck, my Check Airman, didn’t ask for a hard landing inspection after we both gave it a good once over during the post flight inspection. That was good, and I hoped I could redeem myself. The next few landings went better, fortunately!

There are similarities between learning and flying a new and unfamiliar airplane and growing spiritually in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Apprehension, anxiety, excitement/joy, and exhilaration can and will be experienced from one moment to the next, side by side. A classic phrase from aviation (the movie Top Gun) is "highway to the danger zone", and the similar phrase in Christianity describing spiritual growth, especially in mission, is to "get out of your comfort zone". A sense of purpose, mission, and challenge that each arena has can help provide motivation to fulfill the hopes and goals presented. Most of all, learning a new plane or growing in Christ isn’t best done alone; one is much more productive being engaged with the intimate personal assistance, teaching, and learning involved in each endeavor.

In ‘A better Vantage Point, Part I’ in August I wrote a little about the Vantage Point 3 program, a discipleship course my wife and I were in last year at our church. I’ll share with you now the details of the course. In part III (there’s a part III? ;) I’ll share the changes I’ve experienced as a result.

VP3 (for short) has helped to spark a process of renewal in both of our lives and in our marriage. Growing in Christ can be difficult; we’ve learned again that growing pains aren’t only for children. As Christians, it’s often easy to feel comfortable where we are in our spiritual lives. VP3 is a ministry based in Sioux Falls, SD, and their purpose is to develop emerging leaders for the church, to call and enable Christians to become who they are destined to be in Christ Jesus. It’s much like a discipleship group, but it operates a little differently. Our group of five men and nine women, plus our facilitator/associate Pastor, met together for an hour and a half each week. The sessions presented challenging thoughts and questions, and involved personal introspection and sharing from all of us.

The first stage of VP3 was called Biblical Foundations of Leadership. From a scripturally personal standpoint, I became reacquainted with my Christian foundations, and articulated my own personal biblical values. It was a confrontational experience to consider the values I say I have verses how I actually live them out. I was asked to consider and draft a personal biblical mandate.

As a class, we read four books. My two favorites were In the Name of Jesus by Henri Nouwen, and The Gift of Being Yourself by David Benner. Nouwen has a unique but sound angle to our relationship with Jesus and how he can authentically be lived out in our lives. One big concept Nouwen expresses is that we should seek to be irrelevant to other people, not relevant, as one would assume. Why? Because as we are irrelevant to others while in relationship with them, they see and receive us as vulnerable, naked, and stripped to the core of our being. A being which has Christ lived out of us in Love, sacrifice, suffering, and serving others purely, just as Jesus did when he walked the earth. They can only respond in two ways: receive us as we are in Christ’s Love, or reject us.

Knowing God was of course a focus of VP3, but more emphasis was put on knowing your self, in that knowing yourself better, you can know God better as well, and thus permit God to indwell in the real you. David Benner’s great book The Gift of Being Yourself does a lot for the reader in that process; it is a deep book that I’ll read again this year. This is a concept which I hadn’t heard much about, and is very refreshing.

We were asked to write a personal faith narrative, framed by our life stories and events. In recounting my spiritual journey, I came to grips with my victories and my defeats, the times I’ve accepted the call of Christ and the times I’ve turned and gone my own way, and the pain it caused myself and others. I remembered and honored the ‘God things’ I’ve experienced: the events and moments in my life when I have truly seen or felt God and his grace and mercy, and the Holy Spirit act on my behalf. It is my story of God ‘meeting me where I’m at’ in my personal relationship with him, and it has great value to me. Nothing can take away my experiences of God acting personally in my life, leading me back into a right, fruitful, and intimate relationship with him, one step at a time. My VP3 brothers shared our stories with each other, and grew closer to each other in the process.

VP3 emphasized mentoring, both having a mentor during VP3 and becoming a mentor for others. A Christian mentor is more than an accountability partner; a mentor is brother or sister in Christ who listens to the song from your soul. A good mentor is a trusted and close friend, one you can bear your heart to, your spiritual and heartfelt victories, defeats, hang-ups, bitterness, questions, doubts, and one who will challenge you and teach you how to move forward, and to mentor others as well. I believe mentoring is a key to increasing the number of committed and discipled Christians in our nation and world. A united community of mentoring and mentored Christians will produce a harvest the church and the Lord will rejoice over.

The last stage of VP3, Functional Foundations of Leadership, is one I’m still grappling with. What habits and characteristics does a successful Christian leader have? What will I do to ensure I grow into and remain an emerging Christian Leader?

These last two paragraphs give a short version of a couple of the changes I've had as a result of VP3.

These days I have a more central and singular purpose in my life, and it all boils down to Jesus. Sure, my wife and children provide deep meaning and satisfaction to me, but my best person is in relationship with them through Christ. Ultimately, he gives me the deepest meaning, purpose, and satisfaction I have in my life. It sounds crazy, but it’s true.

As much as I love flying a jet through the sky, I sincerely don’t think I would keep doing it if it wasn’t for God sustaining me through the hard times of struggle and sacrifice. Doing it in Christ, through Christ, and for Christ helps me to continue packing for a five day trip away from my wife and family, with a half day commute on both sides.

Praise our one holy and true God!

And thanks again for visiting my blog.

When September ends

You scraped it on something, or hit it accidentally. The reopened wound hurts; nerve synapses fire and deliver jabbing, wincing pain. Perhaps even blood and pus oozes, and tears flow, in a fresh remembrance of the injury. It’s gross and uncomfortable, and can illicit bitter questions, sadness, and anger anew. For many Americans, myself included.

Remembering the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks is like dealing with a scab that has trouble healing.

I’d like to commiserate with all Americans affected by the 9/11 attacks, especially those deeply affected in a personal way. This event of Biblical proportions has changed us and history significantly, forever.

By late summer of 2001 I had been a Captain for Great Lakes for six months, flying the Beechcraft 1900. I had just returned home from dropping off my precious one year old daughter at her day care at a quaint farmplace a few miles from town. My lovely wife was working a nursing shift at the hospital. We had moved to northwestern Iowa a few months earlier, and I turned on the Today show to check the weather. I was going to pack and drive to Omaha, then fly to Denver to start a trip with Great Lakes.

Something didn’t look right with the picture of the World Trade Center in New York City; it had a huge, smoking gash in it, with towering flames licking the shiny steel beams. An eyewitness said a plane or missile had hit it, and on such a beautiful day. Immediately I knew it wasn’t done by a missile or a small plane, and got a very bad feeling. Moments later I, along with perhaps millions of other Americans, saw the other jetliner hit the second WTC on live TV.

At that moment I had a strong suspicion that I wasn’t going anywhere, and I knew that this event would change us all and change history. Over the next few hours I was reduced to screaming and pleading at the TV, my emotions pacing and ranging from anger, to anguish and sadness, to incredulousness, to helplessness, to resolve, to prayerfulness, and back again. Not one, but two large airliners had been hijacked, and flown on suicide missions into the WTC buildings. Then, like a living nightmare, the hits kept coming, first the Pentagon, then what next? United 93 impacted a field in Pennsylvania after passengers revolted (United 93’s CVR confirms the hijacker pilot intentionally did this).

One big question of the moment I had wasn’t why, but how: “We’re ‘the greatest country in the world’, how could this happen? We have the FBI, CIA, NSA, INS, FAA, Interpol, all their technology, and everything else, and we have the mightiest Air Force on earth, how could this happen?”

My other big question of the moment wasn’t whether the WTC’s will come down, but when. I’m still confounded as to why the WTC security told occupants of the second building to return to their offices before their building was hit. Many more lives could have been saved if they hadn’t done so.

I called my relatives and friends, and Great Lakes crew scheduling. Crew scheduling told me to sit tight, my trip wasn’t cancelled yet. With the smart and soon move of the FAA to ground ALL aircraft, it became very apparent that I wasn’t going anywhere on this day. I was blessed by this; I would’ve absolutely hated getting stuck somewhere (in our great country) sitting with the airplane, and away from my family, for three days until the sky opened up again. My wife would’ve hated it too.

That night churches all across the country, as well as in own our town, held prayer vigils. I didn’t attend any but I did pray, and afterwards more questions surfaced in me, on top of the most painful ones I had. Self centered and selfish I’ll admit they were, but I felt they were ones I had to consider. What will happen to the major airlines now, and their hiring plans? Will I be able to advance to a better job soon? When will the airlines fly again, and what kind of security restrictions will be in place? Will I have a secure, financially rewarding, or safe future in airline flying?

I was flying for Great Lakes again after about five days. The frequencies were very quiet, traffic was mostly non-existent, and the mood was very somber. The attack, and the responses our country had to them, was the deserved focus we had for the next few weeks, months, and years.

The scale of the human tragedy was on a scale we couldn’t comprehend. After it was all boiled down, a resolve for vengeance and justice, and a desire for the security of our people were left. And in large measure, our country’s military and government has taken on that task and performed it fairly well, for good or bad, depending on your politics and beliefs. There certainly have been missteps, and maybe a misplaced war, but I am not going to address that here, this time. This is for the victims, and for personally dealing with the aftermath. This was such a large event of terrorism that all of us are victims, in a sense.

In our peaceful, ‘Christian’, Americanized, materialized, and comforting culture it’s difficult to understand why a group of extremist Islamic terrorists were willing to train for and carry out these despicable terrorist attacks. Another difficult thing to understand is the fact that there are Americans among us who believe untenable, unsound conspiracy theories about these attacks.

And these aren’t your garden variety theories like ‘In different ways the government and Military left the door wide open to these terrorists to attack us, so we could justify the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan and control their countries, control the oil and gas there, and attempt to foster peace, democracy, and capitalism in the region’.

These untenable and unsound theories surround the technicalities of the attacks, and don’t have a sound scientific footing. Many of them border on the absurd: the airliners were flown into the buildings under separate radio control (the pilots were unable to overtake control of their own airliners); the Pentagon attack was a missile, not an airliner; United 93 was shot down, not crashed intentionally by the hijackers; the WTC’s had explosives planted inside their structures, otherwise they wouldn’t have fallen; WTC 7 was imploded by the NYFD (even though it was damaged heavily by falling WTC tower debris and had a large interior fire from an emergency diesel generator fire which had heavily damaged the building); and the craziest one of all: the planes didn’t hit the buildings, it was all trick video photography, and the bombs placed inside all the buildings only made it look this way (this would require a huge media conspiracy).

Popular mechanics magazine and National Geographic magazine (Nat Geo channel) have two great websites which refute these claims with solid scientific evidence. Click on the links to check them out, to help you counter the next ‘Truther’ who sits next to you on the airplane.

God won’t answer all the questions of why this happened, he doesn’t work that way. God wants us to desire him, to yearn to follow him, to have a personal spiritual relationship with him. Answering all of our questions (which diminish in importance when compared to his desire for us to have true, eternal life with him and through him) is not his first priority, having a right personal spiritual relationship with him is. Here is a site by Reverend Mark D. Roberts which has some reflections on 9/11 and faith.

However, God can and will give you peace about it, ‘a peace which surpasses all understanding’ from (Philippians 4:7). The ‘lover of my soul’ can also calm your fears and help you to walk in a peaceful field. God is sovereign; we don’t know his ways or his plans, and if we did we might not understand them. He does have a plan for your future, for my future, and for the future of our world and country, and his plans won’t be thwarted.

If you were directly or deeply affected by the 9/11 attacks, you have my sympathies. In Matthew 5:4 Jesus said “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted”.

From Psalm 34:4 and 34:18, the Father of us all delivers comfort: 4 “I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears (NKJV); 18 The Lord is close to the brokenhearted. He rescues those whose spirits are crushed.” (NLT).

There is a plan, and Romans 8:28-39 gives more insight and comfort to believers: “ 28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

31What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written:

"For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."

37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (NIV)

To be sure, my stance is that no, we don’t know why God permits such great pain and evil to be present in this world, but that he is our great comforter and peacegiver. Being open to and interested in the message and the mystery of the gospel is a first step not to making sense of these events, but to gaining a greater peace about it.

Hope's not giving up

(Originally written on September 1st, 2009)

Yesterday, the second day of my current three day trip, we had this beautiful dawn scene from the hotel van on the way to the airport. The promising, glorious light, framed by the dark and cold concrete, seemed to give me hope for a beautiful day. And we did have a nice, easy, and beautiful day of flying, from Rochester to Boston Mass to Indianapolis, Indiana, better known as 'Indy' or 'the Brickyard'.

The citrus toned sunrise gave way to a yellow sky and dark silhouetted wilderness and terrain on the way to very historic Boston. The air-port (get it?) is right next to the ocean bay there in Boston, and a very picturesque scene it is. I flew an enjoyable visual approach to runway 22L (towards the southwest), with the saltwater on my left and downtown Boston in front of us, slightly to our right. Dealing with a light crosswind from the right made me pay attention to what I was doing.

Inside the terminal I grabbed some breakfast and had time to read, think, and pray a bit. The mood was bright and friendly, and I noticed Boston business travelers with coffee and plans for the day. The flight to Indy (nonstop, surprisingly) had only 17 peeps, business fliers mostly.

While taxiing out on Boston's complex taxiways I snuck a peek and marveled at a huge, tall cruise ship docking at the nearby pier, it must have been eight stories up from the deck, with a sky bridge for the passengers too. After a takeoff in smooth air I activated the autopilot at 600 feet to enjoy the views during the climbout over the denizens and citizenry of 'Baasten'. They were no doubt still mourning and remembering Teddy Kennedy, who as we all know, perhaps too much so from cable news, recently passed on.

I supposed that many below were considering who will replace 'TK' and try to honor and carry on his legacy, over frank Boston talk and coffee (Boston 'coffee talk', if you will). If you disagree with Ted Kennedy's politics or life actions, so be it, but the man cared deeply about the common American, a good quality in any person regardless. Disclaimer over; it's my impression that Bostonians aren't afraid to say what's on their minds, aren't timid in expressing themselves, aren't hesitant to share their hopes and dreams for the future. Hope was becoming a theme for the morning in my emotions and my spirit.

Headed westbound later, at 30,000 feet and 515 MPH, we were running from the sun behind our backs, and appreciating the scene in the sky. Over central Pennsylvania, somewhere near Phillipsburg, we started picking up an ELT (Emergency Locator Transmitter) siren loudly emitting on the emergency frequency (121.5 Mhz). My First Officer told New York Center, and the friendly voice responded "yea they had a little accident yesterday". Looking down it was all Appalachian ridges and mountains, relatively tall ones, seen between scattered cumulus in a loose formation below us. Together, my FO and I wondered what happened, and HOPED that they were OK, whatever did happen. When an ELT keeping going off, it means the ELT hasn't been turned off yet, for whatever reason. Survivors of accidents keep the ELT on many times so that rescuers can easily find the wreckage. The other possibility was that rescuers hadn’t reached the wreckage yet, and the survivors, well, there were none. We didn't ask if they were OK, I would have rather not known, would rather be confident in the HOPE that they were OK.



The loose formation of the scattered line of cumulus clouds arrayed in a long, curving path to the horizon below, produced by the properties of the airmass in the present weather; there is an order to them, I feel. It communicates an order, and is a sign in the sky that at this present moment leads somewhere, leads me in a spiritual urgency to realize that all humanity needs to, and does have an ultimate, highest hope in something or someone.

We all have a highest hope, one which we invest in more than any other for our future happiness and satisfaction in life, and in death. This is the realm of StarWars, Princess Leia type hope. Who can forget when she, in her sparkling white gown and huge headphone brunette hairdo, kneels in front of R2D2, and pleads “Obi-wan Kenobi, you are my only hope”, and thus records a hologram message she hopes will be delivered to him.

My highest hope is in Jesus Christ; you certainly know this by now if you’ve been following this blog. I could have my ‘only’ hope invested in an airline pilot career, in perusing wealth and material things, in a government or belief system, in a politician or President, in my spouse, in my children, in a hobby, in mankind to achieve a united world peace and order (secular Humanism), or any number of other things. But by experience and desire (that I believe the Holy Spirit has put in my heart), Jesus Christ is my Hope with a capital H. The Apostle Paul calls Jesus our hope in I Timothy 1:1.

Before expanding on this, I feel there are a couple interesting things about hope I'd like to express.

"Hope's not giving up, hope's not giving up; in the cold, dark night, hope's not giving, not giving up." A line in this song by Christian band Remedy Drive readily shows that the nature of hope is that it doesn't give up until proven otherwise. Clink the link to hear it.

Hope for it's own sake of hope amounts to vanity. Example: it's foolish to hope that it won't rain when the forecast is a 100% chance for it to do so. It's much better to invest hope in something tangible: an idea, an attitude, a philosophy, a belief system, a government, a religion, a God, a person, (a person who is God?).

What encompasses the hope I have in the hope that is Jesus Christ? I'll let John Piper explain it much better, from I Peter 1:3-13, and ‘The Power of Hope’, a 1981 Easter Sunday sermon on his blog, Desiring God.

My Hope, Jesus, gives me an ultimate purpose, meaning, and satisfaction, for this life and after this life. Sometimes, a lot of of the time if I'm honest, I don't know exactly what that purpose and meaning is, but I think it has something to do with the presence of my Holy Savior being lived out in me. The Holy Spirit gives me the power to permit that to happen. The trick is in doing it consistently and honestly, and for that, I have hope that in God's grace and mercy I will continue on that path.

Let me share one last scripture, and I'll go for now. From Hebrews 11:1: Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen. We can all have hope invested in something or someone, but invested in the incredible person of Jesus Christ we can have a living, loving faith. That is a hope that's not giving up.

Pot of ???? at the end of the Rainbow

I haven't posted for a while, but I haven't been completely slothful. I've been busy trying to housetrain our new 'Shipoo' puppy (when I've been home), I'm trying to help plan our triplet 40th birthday party, and am studying for a six month Checkride I'll have soon. I have three or four blog posts I haven't put the finishing touches on yet. They're easy to start, harder to finish!

Recently a nice thunderstorm skirted Charlotte as we landed, giving us a nice little wind shear on final approach. Our airspeed increased 20 knots, definitely getting our attention, at about 500 feet AGL on final. My good FO 'Bob' was flying, and the passengers hardly felt a bump from it. We knew windshear was possible due to the radar returns, the clouds and rain just off the airport boundary, and the dust getting kicked up into the air on the west side of the airport (we were landing towards the north, on the east side of the airport). I thought we might get a windshear caution, but we didn't, continued and taxied in, waiting for the rain.

Then, after the storm passed, this incredible rainbow formed right in front of us as we were in a long line for takeoff. We watched the whole thing for about 15 minutes while in line. I was able to take this picture and a number of other ones.

Those of you in the know remember Genesis chapter 9, and the rainbow God made for Noah as a sign of the covenant between He (God) and mankind. In this covenant God promised Noah and his sons that he would never again kill all living creatures with floodwaters. When God makes a covenant, you can count on him keeping his promise. Reading the Bible assures us of this in many places.

As far as what is in the pot at the end of the rainbow goes, that is probably a good blog post subject for the future. After the last decade of tumultuous years in the the airlines, I don't think it is gold anymore!

Pigs CAN fly

Originally written (started) on June 30, 2009

Good afternoon again fine readers. This setting finds me looking out the hotel window at a gray and white sky, tall grass and trees in a field, and jets whizzing by. Unfortunately we're situated too close to the Detroit Wayne County Metro Airport (DTW), incidentally at the same airport SWA stays at, on a long overnight. It's rare when we have a hotel in a downtown or urban area where it's lively with people and things to do nearby, but I've stayed at worse places.

We had an early show in Burlington, VT (BTV) and an early finish here. I was going to nap but drank too much coffee settling into my room, so I'm now processing my latest trip thus far in my mind, and filtering what's been in my heart and spirit lately.

It's day three of a six day stint, a very long trip. I managed to catch ZZZ's by 10 PM last night, a pretty good feat for me, and have another 5:15 AM showtime tomorrow. Even though I've been doing this airline gig for nine years now, I still have to exercise discipline to get appropriate rest, and am still trying to improve in that regard. A wise, gray haired Pilot would advise me that it's one of the marks of a true professional. And I would agree. Professionals evaluate how they operate, continuously try to improve, and evaluate their attitudes from time to time as well.

And just what kind of attitude should a professional airline pilot have? It's a point of consternation for me currently. Many in my company would have a vastly different answer than the one our management would. More about that later, let's let it stew a little.

On the first day, after two enjoyable round trips involving flights to two pretty, renowned, and expensive Massachusetts islands, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, my First Officer and I said goodbye to our Flight Attendant, as we were getting a new one for the next two days. We took our scheduled long snooze and meal break and walked to our new aircraft for the flight to our GSP (Greenville-Spartanburg, NC) overnight. I retrieved the paperwork and noticed the last name of our new FA, 'Pig', with an extra g. I kid you not.

Airline crews perform essentially the same tasks over and over, so we look for and enjoy things which are out of the ordinary. Showing my FO her name, it was then 'on', a stream of pig and hog jokes, that is, while waiting for her to arrive. Sorry, but in my flight deck, joking around and wordplay are fair game, but all in good taste and in keeping respectful of others. We never kidded or joked with her about her name in person, of course, but I'm sure she had heard this snort of thing before.

It turns out that she is another great gal to work with, and to have as a partner in our cabin. As a new flight attendant, she flew with 'Neil' and I through changing weather systems, turbulence, rain, clouds, circling approaches, and maintenance delays, and never squealed once. Seriously, she has a lively personality and treats the passengers very well. She has been with our company for a while, working the ticket counter and gate, and transferred to the flight attendant ranks recently. In spite of tragedy and trials in her personal life, and a unique and challenging last name, she has a good attitude. That can make all the difference.

Here's a great quote on attitude from Chuck Swindoll, a widely broadcast Christian Minister:
“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our Attitudes.”

Incidentally, tonight I'm now back in the same spot I started this post in, looking out the hotel window in Detroit, with clouds and a few thunderstorms in the area. I guess I'd better finish this now while I'm enjoying this "deja' vu" moment.

A disclaimer: Firstly and most importantly, I sincerely appreciate the service and sacrifice many of our pilots have taken in working for our union, to improve safety, and to produce and maintain the work contract we do have. The working results of this shows in the safety, pay, work rules, benefits, and quality of life that we enjoy, which is better than most other regional airlines. Secondly, for legitimate mistreatment and pilot union contract violations, we have the capability to file grievances with the company in an effort to correct and compensate for violations, and our union has done this many times, and will continue to do so.

There are reasons I have security as a union pilot. After completing a probationary period, it is more difficult for the company to terminate my employment; it's kind of like being a tenured professor. Pilot unions also operate on the seniority system. This means I can expect to be compensated on the negotiated payscale according to year of service, aircraft, and position. Awarding position, aircraft, schedules, and base is in seniority order also. I know that other pilots with less seniority than I won't be paid more than I will or will be able to outbid me in schedules and basing.

But flying as a unionized airline pilot is like driving on a two way street. To make it work the best, you should be willing to drive in both directions. Yes, we have job protections, but I believe we have a responsibility to the company to not take advantage of those protections and behave as less than professional in the eyes of management. This means, among other things, not sacrificing customer service standards, and holding others accountable as we are best able to when they fail in meeting those standards. This is a tough part of the job, because in the regionals we don't get enough of the customer service support passengers deserve.

This job has another advantage which others don't, and pilots can and sometimes do take for granted and take liberties with it. We are basically unsupervised, excepting that the Captain is the defacto supervisor of his or her crew. The big bossman isn't in the office three cubicles down the hall, he might be three states away. Uncaring Pilots sometimes take advantage of that and perform their flights at a service level less than they should.

"I'll act like a Professional when they treat me and pay me like one" is one phrase heard on line. Another one is "they only pay me to be a pilot". Unfortunately, these phrases can be heard to be uttered at most other major airlines, no matter what the pay, benefits, days off, and airplane. I wonder how a pilot's bad attitude would improve if he knew his Domicile Manager was a passenger in his cabin.

It turns out that pigs can fly, in more ways than one.

I believe that too many of our pilots at my company and others have an incorrect working definition of 'professional' in the term professional airline pilot. Angry and bitter at the company over perceived and sometimes legitimate mistreatment toward them by crew scheduling and management, they carry a bad attitude wherever they go. A selfish mindset and a heart attitude of unforgiveness toward the company is typical for these pilots. Often they basically don't care about providing good customer service or projecting a professional image. They try to get back at the company by performing their duties at a bare minimum performance level. This only produces more unsatisfied passengers, and hurts the performance and reputation of the airline. I grow very tired of this negative attitude because it is contagious, it divides the pilot group, and it reduces pilot morale.

We are told in the scriptures that this attitude is the 'way of the world'. Exodus 21:23-24 establishes partial guidelines as the Old Testament and Old covenant way to recoup for personal injury. The basic principle is an "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth". But Jesus Christ not only brought in the New covenant, he IS the New covenant. If you are a follower of Jesus, as I am, the 'new rules' apply, lived out in the Love of God, toward him and toward others.

Jesus taught about revenge in Matthew 5:38-42: (NLT) "You have heard the law that says the punishment must match the injury: ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say, do not resist an evil person! If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also. If you are sued in court and your shirt is taken from you, give your coat, too. If a soldier demands that you carry his gear for a mile, carry it two miles. Give to those who ask, and don’t turn away from those who want to borrow."

My bible commentary says this isn't natural, it's supernatural, and that only God can give the strength to love as he does. Supernatural, indeed, as it seems illogical and to be an attitude of giving up strength, and submitting to the authority. However, as far as your livelihood goes, your employer is your authority. Jesus followed his own advice, and did plenty of giving up his strength, submitting to authority, suffering of his own, and loving his enemies, as he said to do later in this passage, in verse 44.

Regional airline pilots talk about getting paid 'slave wages', and I agree that some correction is still warranted in the industry. Supply and demand in our free market economy should take care of that, one would think, but in reality it is a different situation. There are other important elements to consider when the flying public is involved, mainly that of safety. The low wages regional pilots earn is an issue being scrutinized now by the US Congress.

(Before this, another disclaimer: I strongly dissaprove of any modern version of pure slavery, period.) In biblical times you could be put into slavery very easily to pay off a debt, or for other reasons. Biblical wisdom decreed that a master should treat his slaves fairly and not be cruel. Today, for example, a fisherman on TV's 'Deadliest Catch' (which I like a lot) is an employee, but the day to day function one has (especially a 'greenhorn') is similar to that of a slave, when viewed in terms of the employer-employee relationship. The guidance from I Peter 3:18-25 can be applied to this concept: "You who are slaves must accept the authority of your masters with all respect. Do what they tell you—not only if they are kind and reasonable, but even if they are cruel. For God is pleased with you when you do what you know is right and patiently endure unfair treatment. Of course, you get no credit for being patient if you are beaten for doing wrong. But if you suffer for doing good and endure it patiently, God is pleased with you. For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you. He is your example, and you must follow in his steps.

He never sinned,
nor ever deceived anyone.
He did not retaliate when he was insulted,
nor threaten revenge when he suffered.
He left his case in the hands of God,
who always judges fairly.
He personally carried our sins
in his body on the cross
so that we can be dead to sin
and live for what is right.
By his wounds
you are healed.
Once you were like sheep
who wandered away.
But now you have turned to your Shepherd,
the Guardian of your souls."

Is it right to act like only as much of a professional as one is paid? I don't think so, I don't think it honors God in the best way possible, and it doesn't honor and model Jesus Christ for others. I can thank my Savior and Lord for my definition of 'Professional' and 'good attitude'. My relationship with him and his words from the good book have and will continue to transform me.

All Praise, Glory and Honor, to Him!

Fickle Charlotte

Although I’m commuting home on the 06:40 AM NWA flight after getting four hours light sleep in the same crashpad bedroom as our new resident, a real snorer (and I should know about snoring), I’m going to replay the adventure we had yesterday evening while it’s still fresh in my mind. We had climbed out from Harrisburg, PA and turned south toward Charlotte, knowing that at the very least we would have to deviate around thunderstorms we had already seen up close on the way from Charlotte to MDT two and a half hours previously. The forecast for Charlotte was a general one for garden variety thunderstorms in the Charlotte area, and according to it the most likely time for a storm at CLT would end just when we were climbing out from Harrisburg.

Soon enough later, cruising at FL320 (32,000 ft MSL), on my suggestion my good FO requested a safe heading for a deviation in the wide gap between a scattered line of big ones. The weather radar displayed them as colorful on the MFD screen, like shiny pebbles in a tropical stream, but the view out the office windows was entirely different. Clean air in the upper atmosphere and blue sky was a great backdrop to present these immense, puffed up giants in the sky against us. They were clearly head and shoulders taller than we were, with tops of 48,000 feet. It’s almost football season, and this bright white defensive line of monsters in opposition to us were in full summer drills. The good news was they were moving slowly, that was also the bad news.

After passing the first couple of linebackers, Center (ATC) told us that CLT approach wasn’t accepting any more arrivals because a thunderstorm had the airport shut down. That was logical, the activity seemed to stretch that way, 150 miles ahead. Pretty flexibly, center let us virtually plan our own holding fix near a point on our arrival route, close to Greensboro, our alternate airport. At FL240 now, we programmed the FMS and slowed down, checking out the weather around us.

Once in the hold we took scope of the situation. One storm to our left wouldn’t drift toward us, but we had a huge mass of gray from previous leftover cells right in front of us, with towering cumulus below and in front of it, threatening to become big players as it all came toward us at 20 knots groundspeed. After doing the normal routine of notifying everyone, we waited for our Dispatcher to give us our bingo fuel. We had 4800 lbs of fuel, our bingo fuel give was 3900. At our rate of fuel burn we had 30 minutes till we bugged out to Greensboro (GSO), which still had good weather at that point. I didn’t know if my bladder or the weather would last that long, however. It looked like GSO might become thunderstormed in by the weather we saw in front of us, and we could only hold so long where we were. The towering ‘cumes’ were coming closer.

ATC started offering us alternate routings to get in better position for the arrival to CLT, once they started taking aircraft in again. Quick messages to Dispatch over our electronic box, asking him to check these routes and fuel burn for us, went unanswered for long periods, it seemed at least. I know he was busy, though. I turned the engine anti-ice and continuous ignition on, because in the holding pattern a few of these spires in the sky drifting over were climbing up to meet us. If we punched any of them they were sure to have good icing potential and guaranteed turbulence, so we locked down the peeps in back and updated them on what we might encounter.

The first route they offered looked the best. We would have to fly through the big gray area, which was only painting green returns on the radar; it would be light turbulence at most, probably. We had checked the weather in GSP (Greer, SC, serving Greenville and Spartanburg) and it was fine. GSP, where the storms had already passed by, would be our new alternate if we took this routing. Impatient with dispatch, but with good fuel burn numbers indicated by our FMS, using GSP as a new alternate, we accepted the new routing from center. It was a smooth ride when a few minutes later they cleared us to hold again, at the fix we were cleared to in the first place. This was entirely expected, of course, we assumed that the storm over the airport at CLT was still closing things down and there were a few aircraft holding in front of us as well, all true. These days, in these times, you don’t want to try to land while tangling with a moderate thunderstorm producing heavy rain in two miles visibility. Too many lessons have been learned and too many lives have been lost in the past.

Programming the second holding pattern produced yellow fuel numbers on our FMS, meaning that if we held the entire time CLT approach told us we would, we would be unable to arrive at GSP with legal minimum IFR reserve fuel, 1900 lbs for our jet. Our way out was GSP as our alternate airport, and we couldn’t give it up. The storms seemed to be moving slowly out of CLT, but we didn’t have the complete big picture.

Urgency in our voices to approach control seemed to get him to respond to help us as best he could. We could see, or imagine victorious end of our fight, but it was still seemingly far away. The storms were starting to clear from the CLT airport, but there were six aircraft in front of us, , and the wind shifted to require landings from the south toward the north, necessitating a still longer flight for us. This battle had already hard fought, and I and my very capable partner were weary and fatigued from it. Dispatches new bingo fuel number for us was 3300 lbs, received after one and half turns in this second holding pattern. We had 3400, so in black and white terms we had 100 lbs left till diverting to GSP.

We were practically resigned to our fate, GSP, then were teased more by the controller. I appreciated it but was irritated at the same time, not by him personally though, he was just trying to help. It is frustrating battling the temptation to take the bait, to shave off a little integrity, safety, and legality, in order to arrive at the planned destination. And I hate inconveniencing passengers by diverting; connecting flights are missed, expletives come out in the cabin, and the stress level is tasted by everyone. But pushing (and exceeding) the legal limits in this way is a slippery slope on which I am not comfortable traversing. Any number of things could have conspired against us to make us fly to GSP after we attempted an approach at CLT.

We were inbound to the holding fix, about to tell approach we would like to divert to GSP, when he said “cleared to CLT airport via radar vectors, fly the outbound heading” (in the hold, to the northwest, away from CLT). So we did so, looked at our fuel, and a voice of experience (a little experience albeit) and caution spoke inside me. In the turn outbound we had 3250 lbs. I asked the controller ‘how far would he take us out’? “20 miles”. Twenty up and twenty back, just to get back the holding fix, then inbound on the arrival route to CLT. At about 2000 pph (lbs/hr) and 4 miles/minute ground speed that’s 10 minutes, or about 0.2 hour, or about 400 lbs of fuel we didn’t have to play with. No deal. We’d be landing at CLT with 2300, not 2700 if we had left the hold right at bingo fuel. If we had actually tried to land at CLT, then had to divert to GSP, we’d have landed with 1600 lbs, due to the 700 lb estimated fuel burn from CLT to GSP. It’s a lot of numbers, I know, but the boilerplate in the minds of airline pilots when it comes to fuel is don’t ever plan the possibility of landing at your destination or alternate with less than your legal reserve, in our case, 1900 lbs and 45 minutes of fuel.

My good FO, who actually was doing a great job, had already sent the message to dispatch that we were diverting to GSP anyway. I told approach we were going to continue to GSP, which we were cleared to then. A moment later, he asked if we could proceed direct to another fix, slightly southwest of CLT, to get on the approach corridor that way. Still no dice, we were committed to GSP, and had lost all confidence in our fuel situation. I appreciated the offer, but it was time to stick to our guns.

Greenville airport was close by, and we were high, descending at our maximum practical rate with the flight spoilers (panels on top of the wings) deployed at maximum. I kept my hand on the handle, a reminder to one that the spoilers are still extended, although the airframe buffet from the spoilers was a readily apparent clue. I spied the long runway almost below the nose, and joked with my FO “Chris” about whether we could make it straight in, or whether we should try to. Maybe with landing gear down and a sideslip we could. That would only be called for if the plane had a fire or smoke we couldn’t put out, or if an angry nest of wasps stormed the flight deck (I hate wasps).

The tower controller gave us a vector around the green area below Greenville so we could lose more altitude and get on a proper, normal approach path, three degrees to be exact. Parking on the large ramp at Greenville-Spartanburg next to the two mainline Airbuses helped to show our 50 inconvenienced passengers that we weren’t the only one in this predicament. The GSP station is used to having CLT bound aircraft divert, and I was impressed at how quickly we got fuel and new paperwork to head to CLT with. We even made one particular GSP bound passenger happy, the ramp agent escorted him and his carry on bags inside; fate had smiled on him to not require a connecting flight on this journey.

The short flight east to CLT was punctuated with diversions between a dozen rapidly developing towering cumulus clouds with tops high above our low altitude. They were already painting as red and pink exclamation points on our radar. We got a few good jolts of moderate turbulence on the way in, just for good measure. The pax were told there were thunderstorms about, after all! Have to ‘keep it real’, you know. Charlotte, fickle Charlotte, had cleared up well; it had an orange streak visible from the sun lowering behind a gap in the blue and gray tinted sky, and the express ramp welcomed us as usual with a friendly chaos.

This was perhaps weather diversion number ten for me in nine years of airline flying, but who’s counting? They never get easier; well they get a little easier every time, I suppose. Experience teaches, as things I and my crew could’ve done better are brought to light each time in a mental review.

BTW if you want to see our MDT-GSP diversion flight, click the highlighted portion. Flight aware is a very cool flight tracking website. You can see our route, holding patterns, and an overlay of the weather at that time, even zoom in on a portion.

Till next time, thanks for stopping by.

(Right hand:) 'I don't know what the left is doing'

It's August 4th, the third day of a four day trip. I've switched from early, early morning shows in July to afternoon shows in August. I underestimated the effect I'd feel from it as well. It feels great to sleep in and get more than six hours of uninterrupted sleep every night on the road. But there are strange things afoot; it will take me a couple more days of transition to get used to the new routine.

After only a single day off between trips, due to the way my July and August schedules merge, I was back in Charlotte, fighting my Sunday afternoon nap inclinations. We were to fly to Cincinnati and back, with a jet with one broken air conditioner, or 'PACK', and a flight management computer (FMS) with an expired performance database. The one PACK left made climate control an inconvenience but it wasn't unbearable, thanks to warm, but not hot temperatures at CLT and CVG. But the lack of performance data in the FMS meant that we would have to set our thrust settings old-school style, using our paper charts and tables. And we soon found out that our moving map display didn't show the ETA of any of our waypoints or destination, because of the lack of thrust setting data available to the FMS. Because the 'warm fuzzies' we like to have were lacking, the flight log paperwork we are always issued from Dispatch became a lot more important. We would actually check it's fuel and time estimations to each waypoint along the way mcuh more closely than usual, and some pilot 'mental math' calculations were in order.

Our round trip to CVG and back to CLT for the overnight went off without a hitch, mostly. Anxiety from flying an opposite schedule and not having ETA's displayed on our screens? Yes. My body told me along the way that I wasn't used to flying during this time of day, that I should be off pilot duty and preparing for bed time. This same experience befell me yesterday as well. Out of sorts and in an unwanted siesta, I told my Co-Pilot to watch out for me, but I would do my best. Results? Yesterday, I tried to perform the in-range checklist without completely preforming the 'flow', the duties which encompass the checklist, first. Last night on the way to Columbia, SC, our overnight where I'm writing from, I actually put up the sun shade to block the light from the beautiful full moon, I'm not kidding! Relative to our typical duty day we had in July, this was the high noon time we were making out way to the overnight, so it was out of habit, I presume.

Yesterday, it seemed that my affliction was passed on to a myriad selection of our operations people. We showed up at CLT on time at 2:10 PM, and the departure monitor showed our flight was delayed for 1.5 hours, till 4:30 PM. We found a crew room to rest in, and I called our Dispatcher to confirm our delay. He was understandably upset and surprised: "You guys aren't delayed, your plane is here, you're delayed?" Uh oh. Just then, Crew Scheduling called me on my cellphone, asking the dreaded "where are you?" question. The plane was here, on a different gate than shown, and on time. Well, not anymore, we had about five minutes to get out on time now. We hustled over there, and the monitor still showed the wrong gate and time, and we even had to convince the gate agents we were taking that jet outside to White Plains (HPN). The paperwork they had printed proved our point. Someone had dropped the ball, big time. The explanation we always get, and got this day, was "the city controls the departure monitors".

And the Captain is responsible for leading his crew. Oh well. This day I assumed the system would work, as the weather was fine, and I trusted the monitors. That's the way this job is, you slowly, unknowingly, ride the complacency curve until something happens, then you're gun-shy for a while. I much prefer the type of events which don't require a written report, as this one was, though. I'll be calling dispatch daily for a while now, before we leave the hotel for the airport!

We flew CLT-HPN-DCA, it was all fun until greeted with the news that our CAE (Columbia) aircraft we were to swap into in DC was delayed for maintenance. Taxiing into our parking spot we spied our 'swap' and noticed that it's right engine cowling was open, and a ladder was laid horizontally across the ground. The jet was 'hot and dark' (doors closed, no power or air-conditioning on) as well. Dispatch told us they were waiting on parts and were expecting a 9:30 PM departure, 1.5 hours late.

Shortly after, while conferring with Maintenance (MX) I was informed that the part for the jet they thought was good was bad, and a good part wouldn't help fix the plane till 2 AM. That equalled a cancellation to me, but Dispatch came to our rescue again with a good plane which would arrive at 8:15 PM, just a little after our scheduled departure of 8:08. Good. No, we would still be a little more delayed. This 'good' plane required a service check, an 'oil check' and more of sorts, by MX before midnight, or it would become illegal for flight. So it looked more like a 9:30 PM departure, all in all.

DCA ops chomps at the bit to board your peeps on a bus which they drive out to the aircraft, which seems to arrive just as you do at the aircraft. It takes us a good 5-10 minutes before we stow our bags, check everything and are ready to board. With a service check due I made sure ops would not board our peeps until I told them, to limit their time on the lovely bus.

Our plane arrived and we checked it out, but MX wasn't climbing all over it, like they were on the jet next door to us. A sharp ramp agent talked to them and got back to me: "they said this plane doesn't require a service check". What? A quick call to our MX department confirmed that our Dispatcher had gotten confused, our swap required a service check by the next night at midnight, not this night. You know, people are human, and this characteristic was showing it's face all day. The right hand was learning that it did not always know what the left hand was doing, truly.

Are we always aware of what we are doing and thinking? I'm thankful that in my job we have many checks and balances, and procedures for covering and correcting others errors. It contributes vastly to the safety of airline travel, the safest way to travel long distances by far.

Anyway, we shortly awoke to a hurried atmosphere of boarding us and departing ASAP. My good Co-Pilot's job on the way to CAE was to fly us down there; I was to lead, monitor, and communicate. So I was able to observe and 'wax' silently. The "smaller great light", the one which "governs the night" (from Genesis Chapter 1) was full and round and bright. Climbing out from DC southbound I gazed at the silver water and the striped, white reflection the moon provided on the historic Potomac river. The night breeze displayed ripples of life on the current, in between calm stretches, just as in our own lives. The skies were hazy but visibility good, the air alive with a moon glow which reminded me of an idyllic but trepidatious scene under the oceans surface, with many illuminating jellyfish gracefully swimming in peace.

When the right hand doesn't know what the left is doing, one must first know that fact itself, and then seek to find the truth, in the true light. It's good that we spiritually have a light available to illuminate our paths during all of the day and all of the night. Unfortunately for some, (those who don't believe) I'm not speaking universally, as far a true light goes, anyway. From the Gospel of John, Chapter 1:4-5, referring to Jesus: "The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it." And from 1:9: "The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world."

Read the gospel of John, find out more, and believe about the 'true light, whose life gives light to everyone'!