Day Trip to Malaga

Malaga has always been a popular destination for visitors from all over Europe. The Phoenecians, Greeks, and the Romans who named it Agripina (which is why your luggage has the code AGP printed on it)
For more information about the history of the area have a look at
http://www.malagainformation.com/history.html but Im going to talk a little about flying there.

It is easy to get blasé about flying to Malaga as its a route that I fly often, but the last hour of the two-and-a-half hour flight is actually one of the most interesting approaches that I am lucky enough to fly.
The first view of Spain you get as you leave the Bay of Biscay behind you is the Cantabrian Mountains as you cross the coast at Santander. Quite spectacular at this time of year with the first snow starting to settle (this photo is looking West towards Gijón)




The high ground along the North Coast soon becomes flatter as you approach Madrid and although there is a ridge to the East of the capital city, it was (unusually!) foggy this morning and I didn't get a decent photo. South of Madrid, aircraft are sent to the 'MAR' radio beacon (somewhere near Osuna) to line up with the runway, and you can see the ground start to get higher as you approach the south coast. On my first flight here, I was surprised at just how mountainous the area is, but the Sierra Nevada are just East of Malaga, and the highest peak, Mulhacén, reaches 11,400 feet.






On a clear day (today was a bit hazy) you can see beyond Spain and the Mediterranean and catch a glimpse of the Atlas mountains in North Africa. (Must get a better camera for this...)





North West of Malaga as you join the ILS (Instrument Landing System) that lines you up with the runway you fly over large reservoirs that supply the area with fresh water. Over the last 5 or 6 years these have been slowly drying up, so it's nice to see them full again this winter.





(yes, the bonfire smoke (on the right of the picture above) is the same plume in both pictures.)



The line of the runway takes you over the lowest part of the high ground. The descent is slightly steeper than usual and has specific height and distance checks to keep you clear of the various ridges, which are all now equipped with wind farms!





The airport is situated in the centre of the low, flat ground and surrounded on three sides by high ground, it's not as extreme as somewhere like Innsbruck or Chambery, but it's quite stunning so if you fly there any time soon, do take the time to look out of the window!
Being in a valley like this means that the prevailing wind is heavily dependant on time of day. In the morning the warmer air is over the sea, which rises and draws air down the valley- so the earlier you get there, the more likely you are to use the North Westerly runway. As we arrived this morning the land was warming up and reversing the air flow, so we were able to go straight in from MAR to land in a South Easterly direction- which can cut up to 10 minutes off a flight time.





Directly ahead here you can see the main runway and taxiway, to the left of that, the new runway being built which should be ready for next summer.
Welcome to Malaga- I can recommend a great Kareoke bar, but that's quite another story!


- Blogged from my iPad

Political thought for the day

My greatly missed Australian Uncle used to quote this a lot. It sums up pretty well how I feel about right wing politicians at the moment (and I'm quite happy to be identified as a pig)

"One evening last October, when I was far from sober
And dragging home a load with manly pride
My feet began to stutter and I fell down in the gutter
And a pig came up and parked right by my side

Then I mumbled, "It's fair weather when good comrades get together"
Till a lady passing by was heard to say,
"You can tell a man that boozes by the playmates that he chooses"
Then the pig got up and slowly walked away."

The view from my office window

This is what I saw at work today.
Minehead



Lanzarote



Racing home



A sunset sequence (sorry if you were on the ground this evening, you would have missed this as the low cloud got in the way)














And Birmingham through a gap in the cloud





I hope you enjoy these. Seeing this at work sort of makes up for being in a hotel away from my family tonight. Sort of.


-Blogged from my iPhone

The upside of an early start

After yesterday's post about the first early, I only think it's fair to point out the upside to being up at this time of day. On the second day of a run of early shifts, your body is adjusted to the new schedule and you are somewhat less grumpy. It allows you to appreciate something beautiful, Sunrise!











It may not be attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion ... But it's as close as you can get. I am reminded once again how lucky I am to be doing this job.

-Blogged from my iPhone

Location:35000 feet

I am NOT a morning person

I'm pretty sure that this is a problem shared by all shiftworkers, the curse of the "First Early".
These are especially tough after a block of leave (like today) when your circadian rhythm has slotted back into real days and real nights, like a real human being. What happens is this:
You know that you have to be up at 3 or 4 am, so you have tea with your family and go to bed early, (with a full stomach, which doesn't really help). There you lay, in bed, with the noise of a family evening going on around you. TV downstairs in the background, Kids playing in the bath, having a tantrum about putting on pyjamas or which story is going to be read.
After half an hour, of no sleep, you pick up a book or read Twitter. (Actually Twitter is the worst possible move at this point as you get to see everyone else's normal life and get jealous. Or a contentious political link and get angry. 20 minutes later and you are nearly an hour down on the sleep you planned.)
So you try again, and another half hour later, just as you are staring to get drowsy, someone else will start their bedtime routine. Not noisy, they know you news your sleep. But just that quiet hum of an electric toothbrush will at this point keep you from proper sleep. Or the sound of the shower will make you want to go to the loo. None of this is avoidable, and none of it would rouse you when you are tired enough to crash at 6pm for your 2nd or 3rd early shift. But this is your first attempt to change your body clock, so you are doomed!
Once the other half is in bed, you eventually drop off, no earlier than you would on a normal evening. But this is your first early, so you are subconsciously waiting for that alarm clock. As a result, your sleep is lighter, you hear everything, and it will wake you. A faint car alarm over a mile away, a couple of cats fighting, your other half snoring. Everything will wake you up, even if you would normally sleep through a bomb going off. The less sleep you manage the more annoyed you become. The more annoyed you are, the harder it is to sleep!
Of course you do eventually get to a proper sleep, but it will be around 45 minutes before tour alarm goes off, right in the middle of the deepest part of your sleep cycle.

Then at work there are always the smug buggers who "like earlies because you get the afternoon off" which is fine if you live just round the corner from work, but I don't, and I prefer to spend my afternoons NOT feeling like a Zombie, thanks!



Edited because this is important:
To clarify, I would not fly if too tired to do so. I take my responsibility to my passengers (and the rest of the crew) very seriously. I would (and have) called in unable to operate because of disrupted/inadequate rest.
This is a comment on the occasional difficulty of obtaining that sleep and the fact that I always find it hardest at the start of a run. I'm often tired, never too tired, but always grateful that the coffee chains are now 24/7 in most airports!
-Blogged from my iPhone

Ode to Paul Chambers

Here's my effort for National Poetry Day, inspired by the #twitterjoketrial


An airport was closed coz of snow
So to Belfast poor Paul couldn't go
Angry tweet, CPS
Yorks police, what a mess,
Jack of Kent, Robin Hood, Sky High Blow


- Blogged from my iPad

The visual Arts can get stuffed.

One of the political chaps I follow on twitter posted a Blog today bemoaning the cuts about to happen in "the Arts". He's usually worth reading, but this time, I think it's nonsense. This blog is an edited run-together of my tweets to him.

If enough people think the arts are important enough to pay for, then government handouts are unnecessary. There is already a great way to collect revenue: pay to visit a gallery. Cinemas work that way, so why shouldn't theatres?

Why should the government use my money to pay for art that I have no intention of ever looking at? Let people spend their own money on the art they want to enjoy. If I have a burning desire to see a picture then I will happily pay to see it. I already pay for the films I chose to see or the show I want to see at a theatre.
Even when times were good and New Labour were throwing money at left wing causes willy-nilly, "The Arts" were always complaining that they didn't have enough of my money to spend on interpretative dance. The big problem for "The Arts" is that it's just not as important to people as it thinks it should be.
Please explain why the government should take money from me and give it to self important stars of the industry like Emin & Hirst, when it is these people who should be reinvesting in the industry that has made them millionaires.

By all means flame me. I would actually like to be wrong on this so someone come up with a better argument than "an important arty luvvie with a vested interest says so".

- Blogged from my iPad