Where did Günter go?

Posted on May 5, 2011 by Alex

“Günter Wendt, I wonder where Günter went!”. Anybody who saw the movie Apollo 13 remembers these words. I saw the film in 1995 and this funny joke was one thing that caught my attention. But… who the hell was Günter Wendt?

Sometimes Spaceflight looks a bit like the film industry: the only thing you remember are the plot, the actors and, if your memory is up to it, the name of the director. Well, did you ever read the credits of a movie? You probably tried but desisted after a minute or so. Hundreds of individuals are listed as main contributors in the making of a film. The same rule applies to Spaceflight.

In the front row are always the astronauts and sometimes a flight controller-usually after a disaster-but there is no mention of all the people who contribute to a safe launch, mission and landing/splashdown. There is however one exception: Günter Wendt!

Somewhere in 2003 my interest with Space and everything around it revamped. On my layovers in Washington DC I would go to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum and buy books on the subject, especially from the golden age of Mercury, Gemini and Apollo. Most books were-how could it be otherwise-biographies of astronauts and their daring adventures. Mighty interesting and, even though the stories started to repeat themselves after a while, one thing caught my attention. All these guys mentioned in their books a man called Günter Wendt. Every single astronaut! The line from movie Apollo 13 came up again and I realized that this Mr. Wendt must have been some special dude.

First thing I had to do was to read his book “The unbroken Chain”…the rest could wait.

What a reading and what a character! This man had such an important function on the launch pad that his pioneering work is still used today during the preparation of a Shuttle launch. A serious and meticulous worker-he was of German origin after all- but loved to play gotchas at the same time. Now I finally knew who Günter Wendt was!

The man made such an impression on me that I decided to write him a letter with the request to meet him. Günter, strangely enough, agreed and we met in May 2005. It was the start of an amazing friendship that abruptly ended a year ago when he suddenly passed away.

So where did Günter go? Only he knows but for me, and the people who knew him well, the Pad Führer will always be in our thoughts.

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Geolocation

Posted on April 25, 2011 by Alex

Sometimes a year I wonder where the hell I am.

A really good psychoanalysis might explain a lot but I am not talking about existentialism or other mind related issues here. What I really mean is that I cannot tag my position on the globe! It’s called, I believe, “geolocation”.

This usually happens at night when I wake up and need to go to the bathroom. I sit on my bed and stare at my hotel room wondering where on earth this standard double bed arrangement might be. Five seconds later my brain accesses its last 24 hours database and delivers a quick and reliable answer. “No worries Alex you are safe in XXX” says my gray matter and I stumble reassured to the bathroom with that horrible feeling of being lost forgotten.

Once in a while though things do not go as planned and my brain accesses the wrong data; as a result things can go terribly wrong.

I remember vividly (now) how one night I found myself standing naked in a brightly lit corridor of the Barcelona Hilton! Luckily no guests at the moment and I awoke just in time from my stupor to stop the door closing behind me. Peter Sellers doing this scene in a movie would be hilarious but me in real life…no thank you.

How on earth could this happen? Well, the night before I slept at another Hilton-Heathrow I believe-and the room was slightly different with the entry and bathroom door swapped.

Now on long haul flights these kind of embarrassing incidents are quite rare because I have just an average of four flights a month i.e. four hotels.

Short haul was a total different thing. Sometimes I could sleep in more than fifteen (yes 15!) different hotels in 28 days. No wonder I got lost in my own room…if I remembered where the room was in the first place!

Here another pearl from my en-route hotel adventures. “I lost my key and need a new one for room 2502, thank you.”. Polite answer from the concierge: “Sir, this hotel has only twelve floors”. Hmmm then this is not Madrid. Quick look on the calendar to realize that it is Tuesday and therefore I must be in Milan. Phew!

It’s a good thing we have GPS on board today.

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Space Shuttle

Posted on April 18, 2011 by Alex

It goes without saying that for many pilots Spaceflight is the top of the pyramid, the apex of a career in aviation, the sum of all that is technically possible.

If you think that flying near the speed of sound is an exhilarating experience imagine to sit on a flight deck and travel twenty five (25!) times faster than that while your spacecraft is heating up to temperatures as hot as the sun. That makes your average fighter plane look like a Dinky Toy!

Two more Space Shuttle flights and the western world will not see a human spaceflight for a long time. Avery long time. The dream will be dead and with it all the passion and adventure that made the world, at the end of the sixties, tremble with anticipation while Neil Armstrong descended the ladder of his Lunar Module. Damn I wasn’t even born then and still get goose bumps when I see those images.

Funny thing nobody remembers the second lunar landing while Apollo 13 pops up to everybody’s mind thanks to a movie or, if you were alive then, the memory of the excruciating suspense that maybe, only maybe, three astronauts would die in the cold deep of Space.

And there lies the problem with human nature, and in particular the modern western mind, that we forget things too quickly. Once we achieve our goal we set it aside and take a nap only to be awakened from our torpor when disaster strikes. The Space Shuttle is a perfect example. And there is no substitute for it! Well, yes, on paper, a few mockups and an already adapted Apollo/STS launch pad but… that’s it.

And nobody looks surprised too!!! Until the Chinese will send – in a few years if you ask me – a group Taikonauts to the moon and then, and only then, we will react by pointing fingers and finding the scapegoat who made this all possible.

Aviation, a relative of spaceflight, is no much different. Wally Shirra, one of the first 7 American astronauts, said once that the Wright Brothers built a powered glider and that modern airplanes are no more than a pimped version of that thing. Plans to build better flying machine are there but in the end, like spaceflight, nobody wants to pay……first of all the passengers.

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Transport Business

Posted on April 14, 2011 by Alex

Inevitably when asked about my profession I try to avoid being too specific. “I’m in the transport business” is usually my answer when I don’t want to get too much attention.

Sometimes however there is no way I can avoid a straight answer and reluctantly I have to say I’m a pilot…unless there is some gorgeous chick involved in which case I do not even wait for the question in the first place.

Trust me, as a pilot you do not want to talk to strangers about your profession because, inevitably, they try to corner you and, gleefully, dissect your guts. Making money and loving your job at the same time is something that people really do not appreciate.

“So the autopilot does everything and you just stare, isn’t it?” is one of the comments that really baffles me. To me it’s the same like saying that writers do not write books anymore because they have word processors. Damn! The autopilot is just a tool I use to fly the airplane and, yes, if properly used it saves a lot of work in the end, but like all computers…if you put shit “in” you get shit “out”! It’s a machine that waits to be told what to do and the outcome always depends on the “user”.

“Were you ever scared during a flight?”. Sooner or later this question pops up and, internally, I start to scream as if my testicles were wired to a car battery.

There is no way I can answer this question in a good way. If I say “no” the person asking, rightfully, doesn’t believe me. If I say “yes” I get dismissed as a pussy.

Sometimes the inevitable example has to follow. But how to explain things in a simple way when a lot of it is technical gibberish? Nobody is waiting for a lecture in high-speed aerodynamics or static relaxed stability before getting to my succulent story.

They want blood, burning kerosene, screaming mothers and maimed children…and they want it from my mouth…now! Unfortunately for them, the sensation seeking auditors, there is nothing much to tell because 99.9% of the “near death” cases in aviation are properly rectified by the pilots who, in the end, go home and resume their jobs the next day. As if nothing happened.

And that’s why I really hate about that Nat Geo/Discovery way of explaining things to the masses where the “real” cause of the accident or the way the pilots solved the problem becomes a footnote in the show or, worse, gets omitted all together…unless your name is Sully and land an airplane on the Hudson.

And even then the media miss the point all together.

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Fasten your seat belts!

Posted on April 10, 2011 by Alex

Hi everybody!

After some pressure (thanks Gian!) I decided to go global. Instead of telling my stories to e select group of friends and colleagues I thought that, maybe, there were other people who were willing to read my experiences in the crazy world of aviation.

A Pilot’s Tour. Why a “tour”? Well because it is…especially for you readers!

I will write about past experiences but also from wherever I may be in the world and have something to tell about. Probably no timeline to follow but a lot of short stories.

Have fun!

Alex

P.S.

This whole blogging thing is new to me so…be patience if I don’t get it right from the beginning.

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