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'Drunk' Flybe pilot removed from plane and arrested moments before take-off, after concerned crew member called police
A pilot was removed from an airplane and arrested on suspicion of drink-driving, just moments before the he was scheduled to take off.
The aircraft was due to fly from Newquay Airport to London Gatwick yesterday morning, but was cancelled causing passengers delays and in some cases missed connections.
A concerned crew member alerted the police, who removed the pilot from the plane, a Bombardier Dash 8 turboprop, and breath-tested him.
A Devon and Cornwall Police spokesman said: 'A 48-year-old man from Crediton, Devon, was arrested on suspicion of being over the drink-drive limit.
'He was taken to Newquay police station. He has been released on police bail until December 8.'
The pilot was named locally as Julian Lowden, who describes himself in an online profile as a pilot and former consultant stress engineer.
A woman who came to the door of his detached, five-bed £400,000 home in Copplestone, Devon, refused to discuss the arrest.
A neighbor said: 'To be honest she knows as much as you. She understands how serious this is.'
Flybe said it is unable to name the pilot in light of the police investigation.
The arrest led to the flight being cancelled and some passengers facing delays of up to five hours.
One traveller missed a connection flight to Mexico from Gatwick because of the delay.
Passengers were told the pilot was 'unwell'.
A Flybe spokesman said: 'Flybe can confirm that one of its pilots volunteered to help the police with their inquiries at Newquay Airport yesterday.
'The airline is not able to comment further while the police investigation is taking place.'
The arrest came the same day as it was announced the low-cost airline would be operating the Newquay to Gatwick route for the next three years.
Retired commercial pilot Andy Wilkins said he'd never heard of a pilot being arrested before a flight. 'It's very rare,' he said.
'I've never heard of my colleagues being tested - I wasn't. But the rules are very strict.
'Pilots are allowed a quarter of the limit for drivers.
'We always followed the adage, 'eight hours from bottle to throttle' - stop drinking at least eight hours before flying. But pilots are human and everyone is different.'
Mr Wilkins added: 'Alcohol stays in the system for different times with different people. There's no regulation testing of pilots that I know of. They're generally very professional.
'But I guess it's down to their colleagues to raise the alert if they have concerns.'
This is not the first instance of a pilot suspected of being under the influence.
Last year, a Pakistani International Airlines pilot was jailed for nine months in Britain for being drunk before he was due to fly a plane with 156 people on board.
Irfan Faiz, 55, was found to have three times the legal amount of alcohol in his blood, prosecutors told Leeds Crown Court.
The father-of-two was asked to leave the cockpit during checks for the flight from Leeds Bradford airport to Islamabad on September 18 because he smelled of alcohol and was unsteady on his feet.
In the US, 48 year-old American Eagle pilot, Kolbjorn Jarle Kristiansen, was removed from the cockpit after airline employees detected alcohol on his breath on him at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk
Timestamp 10/30/2014 10:47:00 PM 0 comments
Civil Air Patrol to base rebuilt airplane at Middle Georgia Regional Airport (KMCN) in Macon, Georgia
Macon's newest Civil Air Patrol plane is a bit of a veteran.
The Cessna 172 arrived late Thursday afternoon. It was first built in 1986, but it's been completely refurbished with modern displays, a new engine and a new interior, said James Marquardt, who said he was among a small crowd gawking at the airplane after it arrived at the Middle Georgia Regional Airport in Macon.
"It's a very awesome little aircraft," said Marquardt, commander of Middle Georgia Senior Squadron 033. "It's spectacular."
The airplane will be based in Macon but is available to help out anywhere. The Civil Air Patrol, a kind of civilian counterpart to the U.S. Air Force, runs search-and-rescue missions for downed flyers, among other kinds of missions. Another Macon-based Cessna 172 has run 217 hours of missions so far this year alone, Marquardt said.
From Macon, the new airplane should be able to reach almost anywhere in the state within about an hour and a half. Another Macon-based Civil Air Patrol plane recently helped in a search-and-rescue mission in Alabama, taking about 40 minutes to reach the border.
"We always hope for the best. We're always out there trying to find the people. If they're hurt, we want to get help to them as soon as we can," he said.
The newest airplane's old-style round gauges are replaced with a single modern digital display, while another display allows pilots to view a map, weather and other important information, Marquardt said.
Other improvements include rear windows that can be opened, allowing better aerial photos. It can also be set up to retransmit radio signals in the air.
"It's not going to look like a 1986 airplane. It's going to look like a 2014 airplane," Marquardt said. "That's what's neat about it."
The national Civil Air Patrol headquarters paid to refurbish the plane, and the commander of the Georgia Wing decided to station it at Macon.
- Source: http://www.macon.com
ViaAir offers daily flights to Charlotte and back: Raleigh County Memorial Airport (KBKW), Beckley, West Virginia
Congressman Nick Rahall, left, gives the thumbs up to Ami Viser, chairmen ViaAir aftert the announcement of Raleigh County Memorial Airport new airline ViaAir. The new airline will be bringing its 30-passenger Embraer 120 jets into Raleigh County beginning in early December.
While the new carrier for the Raleigh County Memorial Airport was up in the air, manager Tom Cochran searched for the company he believed would be the perfect fit.
Cochran thinks he found it with the Orlando, Fla.-based ViaAir, which will begin passenger service to Charlotte, N.C., in December.
"Their interest, their passion for service and the first-class equipment they have, not just to fly people out of Beckley, but to bring the world to us" made ViaAir the right choice, Cochran said. "They are totally committed to give us service not only to Charlotte, but also chartering opportunities (in the future.)"
U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., made the announcement Thursday at the airport.
"Enhancing our connections to Charlotte-Douglas International Airport with regular flights keeps our region connected in very short order to the world," Rahall said.
The congressman said the Essential Air Program, which helps fund airports for small- and mid-sized communities, is necessary for those airports to survive.
Rahall noted that large airports depend on smaller facilities to deliver passengers "to and from the first and last miles."
ViaAir chairman Ami Vizer said he and his wife, Irit, the company's president and CEO, don't just like but "love" the Beckley area.
Vizer said he believes once the outside world sees the region and sees what he sees here, the New River Gorge area will "be the center of adventure and many other attractions."
"I see nature," he said. "A lot of what you might see as undeveloped land, I see as open horizons."
Vizer wants to expand the tourism industry's horizons by offering an Adventure Package in conjunction with both the whitewater rafting companies in the New River and with Winterplace Ski Resort.
"Beckley is the closest ski resort (to Charlotte), only 45 minutes away using ViaAir," he said.
One thing Vizer didn't look at when he chose Beckley — not only for ViaAir's aviation business, but a 44,000-square-foot maintenance facility — was the state's perpetual 50th ranking in many areas.
"By referring to yourself as No. 50, you (have to) look up instead of looking at the true value of your community and say 'this is what we have to offer,'" Vizer said. "The advantage we bring to the table is we see it through very fresh eyes with no pre-conceptions."
According to a media release, ViaAir expects to increase travelers to Beckley from 14,000 to 15,000 next year as part of the Adventure Package program.
New River Gorge Regional Development Authority executive director Chad Wykle said there's reason to be excited about air service to Charlotte since so many West Virginia natives now live and work in North Carolina.
"It's a business city, it's a business airport; you can connect globally to anywhere," Wykle said. "It's another way we can bring (West Virginia natives) home more often, and then permanently."
Cochran said air service with ViaAir will begin Dec. 1, and the online reservation center will be available Monday.
"People can make bookings for future flights," Cochran said. "The more people we can put on the airplane, the more we can work with the fares to make them attractive."
Cochran said he is equally excited about the tourism enhancement ViaAir brings to Raleigh County. ViaAir customers in Charlotte will be able to buy lift tickets for Winterplace.
"They're already marketing ideas with people in Charlotte," he said. "They're working to bring people here."
Cochran said having reliable service is important to the airport's future. The Federal Aviation Administration rewards airports with more than 10,000 boardings a year, he said. That number of enplanements would bring Raleigh Memorial $1 million from the FAA, Cochran said.
The money would be used for future projects at the airport and to keep the facility updated, Cochran said.
"We want to be what we've said that we were, a servant to the community," Cochran said. "We feel like now we have something to serve it with."
Municipal airports are increasingly seen as key components of economic development for communities since they are an attractive selling point in recruiting new business to a region.
The presence of a local airport is regarded by many businesses — particularly those in the high-tech sector — as crucial to servicing clients around the world. And many of these firms are looking for smaller airports over international airports, due to ease of access and quick departures that aren't possible at large airports.
ViaAir is based on Orlando, Fla., with maintenance and operations bases all over the United States, including Cleveland, New York, Los Angeles and Charlotte.
The company will fly four Embraer EMB-120 aircraft, billed as the "fastest, lightest and most economical in its class," for up to 30 passengers. ViaAir will have a total of four flights a day, leaving Beckley at 6:55 a.m. and 10:20 a.m., and leaving Charlotte at 8:40 a.m. 4:29 p.m.
During its first three weeks of service, the cost of a ticket each way will be $59, plus taxes and fees.
Story and Photo Gallery: http://www.register-herald.com
Nigerian Airlines Still Battling with Safety Challenges
It has been acknowledged that the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has improved in the regulatory oversight of the airlines, but THISDAY has learnt that some of the domestic airlines are still grappling with safety challenges because of poor and incompetent technical management.
The NCAA regularly examines airlines' approved maintenance program, and their technical and administrative profiles. The Authority has the responsibility to recommend removal of an airline official who is incompetent.
THISDAY learnt that some airlines cannot afford the cost of hiring very competent and experienced hands to handle their aircraft because they are presently in financial mess. The situation, it was gathered, is affecting the output of their workers.
An inside NCAA source said, in terms of technical manuals of these airlines, they are up to date with their maintenance schedule, simulator training for their pilots and also the cockpit crew have met the criteria to operate; but lack motivation due to non-payment of their salaries.
However, industry operators have accused the regulatory body of being responsible for the failure of airlines to have enough operational funds because, over the years, it failed in economic regulation of the airlines.
A source said if a major accident occurs, it is not because the aircraft has technical limitation or was not airworthy, but because the pilot lacked motivation.
"Aviation sector is a very sensitive sector where you don't compromise on meeting the needs of your cockpit crew and your engineers. You must have money to competently run your operation. But it is not so with many of the Nigerian airlines. Some of the domestic airlines are okay, but some are hanging precariously. Some might have met the expected safety procedure but their cockpit crew may be thinking of the welfare of their children and therefore may not concentrate on their jobs."
"As a sensitive industry, it is expected that NCAA should also take drastic action when necessary to ground airlines that fail to meet their financial obligation to their staff, especially the technical staff. Many of our airlines have financial issues; some have not paid salary for upward of six months. Then there is poor technical management of some of the airlines, but the rating of the airlines is not bad", the source said.
THISDAY also learnt that some airlines cannot engage competent and highly skilled personnel because of the high cost of their remuneration and this affects the operational competences of the airlines.
This was confirmed by a pilot, who said some expatriates who seek for jobs as pilots and engineers may show their certificates and are quickly employed by some airlines without thorough verification of their claims.
"Some air crashes in Nigeria could be attributed to this problem, people claiming to have the competences, which they actually don't have. That may be the reason why a captain in command in one of the recent tragic accidents in Nigeria could not take a good decision to save the lives in his aircraft. It is under emergency that you know the competence of a pilot, but most often tragedies don't give opportunity for the pilot to re-examine the action he had taken. We are in a capital market, so what you pay for is what you get," the source added.
- Source: http://www.thisdaylive.com
Labor union partners with airline contractor to improve worker safety at Los Angeles International Airport (KLAX), California
A labor union trying to organize airport ramp and cargo workers announced it is partnering with Menzies Aviation to help the airline contractor improve health and safety conditions for its Los Angeles International Airport employees.
Menzies Aviation's partnership with Service Employees International Union, United Service Workers West, or SEIU-USWW, was formed two months after the company was hit with a $77,250 Cal-OSHA fine for three accident-related workplace safety violations found during an investigation prompted by the Feb. 21 death of a 51-year-old baggage cart tug driver who fell off the vehicle.
According to a coroner's report, Cesar Valenzuela died of blunt trauma. Hypertrophic heart disease was listed as a contributing factor, but the report said it was not directly related to his death. The tug had a non-functioning seatbelt.
SEIU-USWW has been working to organize Menzies employees since 2012, and the company's non-management employees are not currently unionized, but the company reached out to the union because they have taken the lead in pursuing safety issues at LAX, according to union research director Andrew Gross Gaitan.
"We've been pounding on the issue of heath and safety at LAX, so to have the company that has the longest-running and most serious problems to want to come forward and partner with us to try to turn the situation around — I think that's a very positive development for the future of worker health and safety at LAX," Gaitan said.
The workplace violation citations and a new licensing policy at LAX requiring contractors to have clean health and safety records may have prompted Menzies to reach out to the union to develop a new health and safety program, Gaitan said.
Los Angeles World Airport officials who oversee LAX and other city-owned airports were "seriously considering terminating (Menzie's) license" to operate at LAX, he said.
Menzies spokeswoman Maya Pogoda said they have entered into a "unique partnership with the SEIU to explore new and innovative ways to provide the safest, most efficient and professional services possible at LAX.
"The company is pleased to have resolved its differences with the SEIU and looks forward to a bright future at LAX," she said.
Under the health and safety program, a committee will be formed that comprise SEIU-USWW and Menzies representatives, employees, and health and safety advocates.
Industry experts will also help develop worker health and safety training programs, inspection programs will be created for vehicle and heavy equipment, and Menzies employees will have a process for communicating their concerns to management.
- Source: http://mynewsla.com
Macon County (1A5), Franklin, North Carolina: Airport Authority October 2014 Meeting
http://youtu.be/XU8kC7LRexo
Regular October 2014 meeting of the Macon County Airport Authority that took place on October 28, 2014 at the Macon County Airport (1A5).
Coast Guard puts off Oregon search and rescue base closing; Charleston still a question
The U.S. Coast Guard might be close to budging on plans to remove a search and rescue helicopter and shutter a base on the Stono River. A similar base in Newport, Ore., just won a reprieve.
The legislative delegation from that state announced Thursday that the Coast Guard commandant agreed to delay closing that base until Dec. 15, to "allow for a more extensive and thorough discussion of the risks to recreational fishing, commercial fishing and other activities" along the coast near the busy Columbia River delta, according to a delegation news release.
The agreement came after delegation members held a press conference with fishing and emergency response personnel calling for the service to reverse the closing decision, the release said.
Whatever is or isn't happening with South Carolina delegation members is being kept low key and largely under wraps.
Sen. Tim Scott's office had no comment to add to an earlier statement saying the senator "continues to work closely with the South Carolina and Oregon delegations to explore options, including possible legislative remedies or remedies the Coast Guard can immediately implement themselves," said spokesman Sean Conner.
A statement from Sen. Lindsey Graham was not provided by deadline.
The Dec. 15 date is significant because it is after the election and three days after the scheduled expiration of a Congressional continuing resolution that funds the military at current levels.
The Coast Guard has scheduled Air Facility Charleston to close Nov. 30. The Johns Island facility closing is a cost-cutting move, the service's pointed response to a federal budget sequestration compromise that calls for mandatory spending cuts each year.
The cost savings is $6 million, a tiny fraction of the service's nearly $15 billion budget.
The maritime community in the Lowcountry was stunned to hear that a port where tens of thousands of pleasure and commercial craft travel each year would be left without a vital search-and-rescue helicopter.
"We are very concerned that our safety and that of other mariners has become an expendable line item. As pilots, we board ships 15 miles offshore 4,500 times a year," said Julia Bennett, Charleston Branch Pilots' Association corporate affairs manager.
"Losing a helicopter that's only 15 minutes away, and instead relying on a helicopter 80 miles away that's now covering twice the coastline, is a major degradation to the Coast Guard's lifesaving mission here," she said.
With the base closing, the helicopter stationed on Johns Island would return temporarily to Savannah but eventually be reassigned elsewhere. That station would be cut back to three helicopters for rescue missions from mid-Florida to the North Carolina line - a move that piles critical minutes onto response times to emergency calls.
The U.S. Marine Corps also has protested the move, which is taking place as the Beaufort air station begins training Marine pilots to fly the new F-35B Joint Strike Fighters. The Beaufort air station closed its search and rescue unit in 2004, turning over the job to the Coast Guard.
- Source: http://www.postandcourier.com
Diamond DA40: Aspen aeronautics program offers higher learning • Aircraft obtained will be used by schools for student lessons
Jordan Curet/Aspen Daily News
Greg Roark, director of the aeronautics program in the Aspen School District, explains the instrument panel on the 2010 Diamond DA40 aircraft. Students in the program and the public will able to use the plane, which belongs to a not-for-profit corporation, for flight lessons.
Looking around Greg Roark's classroom in Aspen Middle School, with its immersive flight simulator, three flat screen TVs, noise-attenuating headsets, a private pilot syllabus and federal test standards, it's easy to believe him when he says the school district's aeronautics program is "not playing around."
That's additionally backed up by the Oct. 4 arrival of the program's newest addition: a 2010 Diamond DA40 single-engine light aircraft that will be devoted to flying lessons for students of all ages. Roark, a certified pilot and director of the program, landed the plane at Sardy Field after flying it from Canada.
The plane does not belong to the school; it was purchased through private donations made to the Aspen Aerospace Alliance and the Aspen Higher Learning Flight Academy, both not-for-profit corporations affiliated with Roark's program.
While that plane is a huge boost to those attending Aspen schools — which haven't had to pay anything toward the aeronautics program, as all the money has been privately raised — Roark said it also will be available to the general public at subsidized rates for lessons. He declined to say the price, citing the private nature of the donation that funded the purchase. But such planes tend to be in the $350,000 range.
Hunter Bryant, a junior at Aspen High, got his first experience in the Diamond DA40 recently. He is devoted to learning the myriad aspects of what it takes to be a pilot, a path that started for him last year.
When Roark introduced the program, Bryant said he joined it with a few friends and that there were about 20 people in the ground-school class initially. Ground school gives students the basics of aeronautical knowledge.
"Some kids thought it was hard … and so we ended up with six kids in the class," Bryant said. "It's just a lot of content to learn."
Roark said that is the point of the program.
"As a pilot, you're managing so many different things, so many different systems," he said. "You're in airspace, you have atmospheric conditions, you have the mathematics that you have to be able to do in your head, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, the communications piece."
But Bryant has endured and starts pilot lessons next week (the Federal Aviation Administration requires a licensed pilot to be at least 16 years old, though a person can begin training at any age).
"Hopefully by next year I can have my private pilot license," he said.
Sky-high plans
The aircraft is but one part of what Roark and the not-for-profit corporations have in mind to jump-start applied math, engineering and physics lessons for Roaring Fork Valley students, while also offering the public a way to learn to fly without having to go to Rifle or Grand Junction.
Roark and board members of the corporations also envision students building an unmanned aerial vehicle with two cameras mounted on it and a small supply cache that could be dropped via parachute to someone stranded on a mountain.
"We ultimately would like to be able to team with Mountain Rescue Aspen to be able to get out there and use these," Roark said. "This can be the first responder."
And the groups are hoping to buy a five-seat experimental aircraft that the students would build themselves, except for the engine and fuselage.
All of this, and the aeronautics program is only in its second full year. Roark, who speaks with evangelical zeal about the need for students interested in engineering, math and aeronautics, said the airline industry will need 544,000 new pilots in the next 28 years. Without them, "it will be a very rude awakening for a lot of people who just look at air traffic as this ubiquitous thing," he said.
The Aspen schools' program he is spearheading hopes to address that through applied math and science, and college and career readiness.
Starting the program required figuring out how to "implement that into the existing curricular architecture in such a way that it makes sense for the vision the superintendent has for the school," Roark said.
Superintendent John Maloy said one aspect that captured his attention when Roark made his pitch was that students would be "participating in a high-energy, technology-based learning environment.
"Students really get engaged if it is more of a lab setting, more of a roll-up-your-sleeves" endeavor, he said. "They can see the relevancy between what they are studying and what they're applying in the short term and long term."
Maloy also noted that Colorado ranks second in the nation for private aerospace employment. The industry will be needing highly qualified employees, and local students, if interested, could return to their home state for careers near their families.
The program offers two potential career pathways — FAA pilot certification and aeronautical engineering. It starts in the elementary school with assembling static models. In middle school, students build what Roark called dynamic models — on a recent morning middle schoolers were in the early stages of constructing radio-controlled (RC) planes. The process involves "true problem-solving," he said.
Building an RC aircraft allows the students to understand what makes a plane tick as students work their way up to the real deal.
The new plane already has offered its first lesson. Student lessons are offered at the operational cost of the plane: $125 an hour. Scholarships, similar to those available to students for sports and the district's experiential education programs, will be obtainable.
The general public will pay $185 an hour, which Roark called a fair price, considering the solidity of the Diamond DA40. He compared it to a flight center in Grand Junction that offers a rental price for a Cessna of $175 an hour, which doesn't include the instructor and fuel costs.
Roark and principals of the affiliated corporations want to take the program to other schools as well. The FAA pilot course he teaches for high school students and the general public, for instance, are to be broadcast live, allowing for distance learning at schools in Basalt and Carbondale. That aspect is expected to be available starting in January.
"There are not a lot of schools out there that do what we do," he said. "It's pretty rare. But I don't think it has to be that rare. … We don't think we have to limit the experience here."
Asked about the funding aspect of the program, which is considerable, he likened it to sports.
"You want to teach a kid how to play hockey, well, you have to have ice, build a rink. You have to pump millions of dollars into it," Roark said. "In looking at what we do, it's no different."
The school has not devoted a "single penny" to the program, providing only Roark's classroom space.
He said he spent three years knocking on doors for donations and that the Aspen Education Foundation has been a "tremendous supporter" of fundraising efforts.
One of the students diligently working on an RC model on a recent morning was eighth-grader Ethan Linn. He said the RC projects haven't been as hard as the piloting he learns through one of the room's smaller simulators, though he is getting better at that. Linn said he sits down at a simulator "every single day at lunch." He remembered when Roark brought an RC helicopter and another model plane to his regular classroom.
"I said, 'Wow, that's cool,'" Linn said.
Wait until he's in the Diamond DA40.
- Source: http://www.aspendailynews.com
Fog delays 125 flights at Mexico City International Airport
A total of 125 flights, including both arrivals and departures, were delayed Thursday morning by fog at the Mexico City international airport, which was closed for a time, aviation officials said.
The airport was closed for nearly two hours, delaying inbound and outbound flights, and forcing some planes to be rerouted to the western city of Guadalajara and the Pacific resort city of Acapulco.
The fog reduced visibility to nearly zero at the airport, which was closed from 6:19 a.m. to 8:12 a.m.
Mexico City's Benito Juarez International Airport, which was built in 1929, is nearly at full capacity, handling 32 million passengers annually.
- Source: http://latino.foxnews.com
Air traffic control key to tourism growth
Senior Minister of State in the Office of the President, Simon Khaya-Moyo, has reiterated calls to improve conditions of service for air traffic controllers, saying they play a key role in the growth of the country's tourism sector. Air traffic control is a service provided by ground-based controllers who direct aircraft on the ground through controlled airspace and can provide advisory services to aircraft to non-controlled space.
The primary purpose of air traffic control worldwide is to prevent collisions, organize and expedite the flow of air traffic. "All efforts to bring economic success and grow tourism contributions hinge on the excellent safety record and professionalism that our air traffic controllers have produced over the years," said Khaya-Moyo.
He was speaking in Kariba recently during commemorations of the International Day of the Air Traffic Controller, organized by the Air Traffic Controllers Association of Zimbabwe (ATCAZ). On October 20 every year, the world celebrates the role played by air traffic controllers in recognition of the founding of the International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers Associations (IFATCA).
ATCAZ is a professional organization of air traffic controllers employed the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ) and is a member of IFATCA which represents more than 50 000 air traffic controllers from over 135 countries worldwide.
This year's commemorations ran under the theme, "A Proud and Professional Air Traffic Control Family: Active in the Community."
Khaya-Moyo said air traffic controllers remained busy in 2014. "Over the past years we have witnessed a positive growth in air traffic volumes," he said.
"New airlines among them Fast Jet and Fly Africa started flying in Zimbabwe this year and the volumes of over fliers increased. The successful hosting of the Routes Africa 2014 and the SADC (Southern African Development Community) summit are some of the major highlights that kept the air traffic controllers busy for 2014."
The increase in volumes has said necessitated the splitting of the upper airspace into two, said ATCAZ. Khaya-Moyo, a former minister of transport and ATCAZ patron, said the safety record of the national flag carrier, Air Zimbabwe, was attributable to the sterling efforts of air traffic controllers.
"It must be remembered that the air traffic controllers are the nerve center of air travel and therefore must be afforded appropriate remuneration and utmost respect," said Khaya-Moyo.
"They (air traffic controllers) also partner our security forces in safeguarding our skies and facilitating the smooth and safe movement of VVIP and VIP flights."
He said there was a need to ensure the upgrading of the air traffic control tools of trade to ensure all requisite infrastructure and facilities were in an excellent condition and high quality. "I am proud to note that the Zimbabwean air traffic controllers even with the substantial increase in air flight volumes continue to prove their capacity to work under pressure by producing accident free airspace management for CAAZ and the country as a whole," said Khaya-Moyo.
ATCAZ president, Evans Makuku bemoaned that their profession remained one of the more obscure jobs with many people still ignorant about it. "Ours is a job that requires us to maintain high levels of good health so that we pass the regular medical examinations regardless of age," he explained.
"The profession of air traffic control requires intelligence, diligence, dedication and a host of other skills. Controllers have the critical role to maintain a safe, orderly and movement of air traffic." He added that as part of their efforts to sensitize the public on their job they always sought the involvement and participation of the public in their program.
- Source: http://www.financialgazette.co.zw
Lufthansa Lowers 2015 Earnings Outlook • German Airline Drawing Up Plans in Case Economic Prospects Deteriorate Further
By Natalia Drozdiak
Updated Oct. 30, 2014 10:07 a.m. ET
FRANKFURT— Deutsche Lufthansa AG on Thursday scaled back its earnings targets for next year and said it was drawing up contingency plans should economic conditions further deteriorate.
The German airline now sees its 2015 operating profit "significantly above the result of 2014," compared with its previous €2 billion ($2.52 billion) target, while confirming its 2014 operating profit target of €1 billion. The airline blamed the weaker global economic backdrop as well as overcapacity in key markets. In response to the weakness, it said it would curtail capacity growth next year to 3% from 5% to help combat pressure on yields.
"We can see that the economic slowdown and the continuing declines in our passenger yields in the face of such fierce competition will affect our operating scope in the year ahead," said Chief Financial Officer Simone Menne. She said earnings would also be hit by a sharp rise in pension costs.
The airline also warned that its 2014 dividend payment could be cut because of a change in interest rates and the sale of its IT unit.
Ms. Menne said the carrier's dividend policy was "under review" and would be discussed when the supervisory board meets in early December. Lufthansa said earlier this month that it would sell its IT infrastructure division to International Business Machines Corp. , a move that will reduce costs in the long run but result in a €240 million charge this year.
Lufthansa also said its 2014 earnings targets remained vulnerable to further labor union strikes this year. It said strikes aren't factored into the 2015 outlook, so it too could be further impacted if more labor unrest takes place. Labor union strikes have already shaved off €170 million in operating profit this year, Lufthansa said.
"To have conviction in the investment case we need to regain confidence in the stabilization of forecasts, which is difficult at this stage given the challenged operating environment," Jefferies analyst Mark Irvine-Fortescue said.
Lufthansa's shares dropped 7% to €11.47 around 1300 GMT.
The airline said the pressure on yields from overcapacity in the industry stemmed from outside Europe and mainly from North America. Lufthansa said it sees stable versus rising yields in 2015 and that capacity growth in North America will likely surpass 3% in 2015.
Like other European airlines, Lufthansa is struggling to compete with discount carriers, which have undermined short-haul operations in Europe, while rapidly growing Middle Eastern carriers are also threatening their long-haul businesses.
Lufthansa said it might have to make more capacity cuts and shrink the size of its fleet if demand declines further. Still, the carrier is so far "satisfied" with next year's bookings, Chief Executive Carsten Spohr said.
"We are disappointed that management is giving up again on its originally agreed financial target for 2015 without taking further action to preserve the 2015 target," Citi group analyst Andrew Light said.
The company said its fuel hedging policy was so far unaffected by the low jetfuel costs, adding that its fuel for next year is partly already hedged at 65% for 2015.
The altered 2015 outlook came even as it reported that third-quarter net profit rose 24% to €561 million from €451 million last year. Analysts had expected the airline to post a third-quarter net profit of around €491 million. Sales for the quarter advanced 1.9% to €8.46 billion from €8.3 billion, Lufthansa said.
Lufthansa said it would hold off on a specific 2015 forecast until next year, saying "strong volatility" in issues such as exchange rates and fuel costs made it too difficult to be more precise for now.
The airline said lower restructuring costs and a new aircraft depreciation policy helped offset the cost of the strikes. Its third-quarter operating profit rose 25% to €735 million, compared with €589 million the year before and against analyst estimates of €662 million.
Lufthansa said the cost cuts are outpacing their 2015 Score restructuring target to slash operating costs by €1.5 billion and doesn't see any other restructuring expenses next year. The airline plans to make the cost reductions and earnings improvements a permanent fixture once the program ends.
Chief Executive Spohr said the airline could cut more administrative staff and implement a hiring freeze in airline operations departments.
Earlier this year, the airline said it is extending the depreciation period for its aircraft from 12 to 20 years, and reducing their residual book value from 15% to 5% of purchase price. Lufthansa said the new policy has already boosted operating results by €260 million in the first nine months of the year.
The airline had already downgraded its outlook in June on weak sales growth and labor unrest, when it was subsequently hit by a number of pilot strikes. Lufthansa and its pilots are at odds over a push by the carrier to raise the early retirement age and the airline's plans to shift some flying to lower-cost operations.
Mr. Spohr, earlier this year announced a plan to boost the shift of short-haul operations to a discount unit while also moving some long-haul flights to a lower-cost business model. The airline also wants to revamp some Airbus Group NV A340-300 long-haul jets to offer discount flights to leisure travelers. It will brief its board about the lower-cost "Wings" concept in December, Lufthansa said.
European rival Air France-KLM SA in October also announced its second profit warning this year. The unprofitable Franco-Dutch carrier said a two-week-long pilots strike cost the airline about €416 million in lost sales.
- Source: http://online.wsj.com
WOW Air launches $99 fares across Atlantic
WOW Air, the roughly three-year-old discount air carrier, is going where few other ultra-low-cost airlines have gone: across the Atlantic. And if all goes according to plan, it's going to do it much cheaper than anyone else.
The budget airline, which is based in Iceland, announced last week that it will begin flying passengers nonstop from both Boston and Baltimore to Reykjavik, Iceland, for as little as $99 each way. The airline will also offer one-stop flights from the two U.S. cities to London and Copenhagen, starting at $228 for a round-trip. The airline will begin offering the flights next March.
"Paying even $200 for a one-way flight to, say, London, is unheard of," said Tom Parson, the chief executive of bestfares.com, which tracks airline pricing. "It just doesn't exist."
By comparison, the average price of a round-trip plane ticket between Boston and Reykjavik in March of 2015 is just under $600, by Parson's estimate. A single-stop round-trip ticket between Boston and London runs about $770, while a nonstop ticket costs roughly $800.
The incredibly low ticket prices from Wow Air are real, but don't expect them to last forever. "Those are definitely opening, introductory fares," said Skuli Mogensen, Wow Air's chief executive. "On an occasional basis we hope to be able to introduce similar fares, but those are very aggressive. We wouldn't be talking if I had introduced prices more commonly seen in the market, would we?"
But the airline's commitment is to offer the cheapest ticket for every route the airline flies, including transatlantic routes, Mogensen said. The prices Wow Air offers will vary by season and will depend on a number of other factors, including fuel prices and flight vacancies.
How does Wow Air expect to pull this off? For one, by operating like all other ultra-discount carriers. A ticket on Wow Air will come with little more than a seat, mini-tray table, and an 11-pound carry-on. Everything else will cost extra. Any carry-on in excess of 11 pounds will cost an extra $29 when booked online, or an additional $48 when done so at the airport. Checked luggage will set one back a bit more - an extra $48 online or $67 at check-in. And extra leg room, pre-assigned seats, and, of course, food will rack up the bill, too.
But unlike Spirit Airlines, which is famous for squeezing passengers' knees, Wow Air won't skimp quite as much on leg room. The seat pitch, the distance between two seats, is between 30 and 36 inches on the Airbus A320 aircrafts flown by the airline, said Svanhvít Fridriksdóttir, Wow Air's director of communications. Most pitch sizes are about 31 inches, and many discount carrier pitch sizes are less than 30 inches. Spirit Airlines', for instance, is 28 inches.
Wow Air also expects to save money by operating as efficiently as possible. The company relies heavily on online sales and marketing, for instance, which allows it to skip the cost of middlemen. It also operates few airplanes - only four currently - but maximizes their utility. "We have extremely good aircraft utilization," said Mogensen. "Within one 24-hour cycle, a single airplane will fly from Iceland to Boston, back to Iceland, and continue to London, and then back to Iceland, each time full of passengers."
And Wow Air expects to fill all of its planes, a feat few if any airlines operating transatlantic routes have managed. "Our assumption is that we will fill every plane, and we price accordingly," said Mogensen.
But Wow Air's biggest advantage might be its headquarters. Iceland is ideal, because it gives airplanes a midpoint where they can stop to refuel. That allows the airline to fly passengers to and from Europe in smaller planes, which it can more consistently fill with passengers. It also helps the airline save money on fuel. "About 40 percent of the fuel airplanes carry is used to ferry the fuel to the final destination," said Bob Mann, an aviation industry analyst at R.W. Mann and Co. Consulting. "As you go shorter and shorter distances, you can ferry less fuel, and save money."
Convincing customers to travel with a stop-over might be difficult, but if it means hundreds in savings it's hard to believe it won't be possible.
Still, the small Icelandic airline faces what some industry experts believe is a steep uphill battle. Wow Air isn't, after all, the first airline to try operating cheap transatlantic flights. Low-cost air travel pioneer Freddie Laker tried unsuccessfully to do it in the late 1970s with Laker Airways; the airline closed in the early 1980s after it couldn't stay afloat. More recently, Norwegian.com, a subsidiary of Norwegian Air Shuttle, began offering affordable transatlantic flights this summer. The pitch was London-New York flights for $241. But the flights haven't been as cheap as advertised, and the routes have been stricken with delays, according to Mann. "Norwegian has had huge difficulties," he said. "All across the summer it has been running relays for its transatlantic flights to and from New York."
The biggest obstacle to discount long distance air travel might simply be that long trips could strip an airline like Wow Air of the efficiency on which it so heavily relies. Despite Wow Air's advantage of being able to stop in Iceland, the nearly 5.5-hour flight between Boston and Reykjavik is still long by budget airline standards.
A comparatively small fleet becomes a competitive disadvantage as soon as there's a delay. "Once it starts to get off-schedule, they'll never get it back on schedule unless they start cancelling flights," said Mann. Likely for that very reason, low-cost carriers have soared domestically, but shied away from routes between North America and Europe. Discount airlines currently control nearly a third of the airline market in North America, and more than third of it in Europe, but only about 1 percent of the market for transatlantic travel.
Ryanair, which operates more than 100 aircrafts in Europe has been contemplating transatlantic flights for years, but has yet to jump the gun. "If anybody was going to do it, and anybody had the greatest potential to succeed, it would be them," Mann said. "And yet they've decided it's not in the cards. That's a cautionary tale, I'd say."
Wow Air, for its part, is optimistic about its ability to offer the cheapest form of transatlantic travel. "The long-haul low-cost model hasn't really been implemented because it's hard to achieve the utilization needed," said Mogensen. "That is, unless you have a hub in the middle. And Iceland is perfectly suited," said Mogensen.
And despite the added fees from Wow, consumers may still think they're getting a bargain. "If you think you can make it Europe with an 11-pound bag, Wow Air offers a fantastic deal," said Parson. "Even with their extras, you would still end up flying for a lot cheaper than with other carriers."
The airline plans to expand at least four more destination in North America by 2016, and fly two extra jets next year and a total of 10 airplanes by 2016.
- Source: http://www.sharonherald.com
NATO Tracks Large-Scale Russia Air Activity in Europe • NATO Says Russian Air Activity Poses Potential Risk to Civilian Flights
By Stephen Fidler
Updated Oct. 29, 2014 7:33 p.m. ET
BRUSSELS—Russian military aircraft conducted aerial maneuvers around Europe this week on a scale seldom seen since the end of the Cold War, prompting NATO jets to scramble in another sign of how raw East-West relations have grown.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization said that more than two dozen Russian aircraft in four groups were intercepted and tracked on Tuesday and Wednesday, an unusually high level of activity that the alliance said could have endangered passing civilian flights.
Military jets from eight nations were scrambled to meet the Russian aircraft, which a NATO spokesman said remained in international airspace and didn't violate NATO territory.
However, NATO officials said such flights heighten the risks of military miscalculations. They also come at a time when U.S. officials have been voicing concern about Moscow's actions in the wake of the Ukraine crisis, where thousands have been killed in months of fighting between the government and Russia-backed separatists.
"There is a troubling trend of out-of-area events being increasingly used by Russia along its periphery for political saber-rattling, with probing incursions by air and sea by the Russian military becoming more commonplace and flagrant," a senior Obama administration official said. "The United States has repeatedly called upon Russia to respect international law and the sovereign territory of its neighbors."
There was no immediate comment from Moscow, which has denied in the past that such flights were provocations.
NATO said it has conducted over 100 intercepts of Russian aircraft so far this year, about three times as many as were conducted in 2013.
This month, U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel characterized Russia as "revisionist," noting Russian President Vladimir Putin 's apparent intentions to restore Soviet Union-like borders.
The Pentagon said Wednesday that Russia has continued provocative behavior in Europe.
"We have been keeping track of incidents and have noticed an increase in Russian flights close to NATO airspace since the start of the Ukraine crisis," said Lt. Col. Vanessa Hillman, a Pentagon spokeswoman. "We don't think those flights help de-escalate the current situation at all."
Gen. Ray Odierno, the U.S. Army's Chief of Staff, called the flights "Russian aggression" in an interview on CNN. "I think they are trying to reassert themselves," he said. "I think we have to watch it very carefully. We have to reassure our allies."
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, Jens Stoltenberg, NATO's new secretary-general, said more "transparency and predictability" was needed between NATO and Russia "to avoid that the crisis spirals into something worse [and] that misunderstandings create even bigger conflicts."
Russian leaders have long portrayed NATO as a major threat to Russia, despite denials from Brussels. Mr. Putin explained his annexation of Crimea last spring—over Kiev's objections—in part by saying he wanted to deny NATO access to Crimea's naval bases should Ukraine ever join the alliance.
Russia's recent aggressiveness has been particularly alarming for NATO's new members from the former Soviet bloc, whose accession Moscow had vehemently opposed.
In September, Estonia said one of its intelligence officers had been seized by Russian security agents on Estonian territory and taken to Russia—just two days after a visit to Estonia by President Barack Obama. Russia has said the man, who remains in prison, was detained on Russian territory as part of a counterespionage operation.
This month, Sweden dispatched its navy to hunt for a possible Russian submarine plying the seas near Stockholm. Moscow denied it had sent any subs to Sweden, which although not a NATO member is a staunch Western ally.
NATO said this week's flights were detected over the Atlantic Ocean, North Sea, Baltic and Black seas. The Russian aircraft included fighters, bombers and tanker aircraft, it said.
Such flights pose a risk to civilian flights, according to NATO, because the Russians often don't file flight plans or use onboard transponders, which mean civilian air-traffic control can't detect them.
The spokesman at NATO military headquarters in Mons, Belgium, said he didn't know whether Russia had notified NATO of any military exercises.
In a sign of heightened nervousness, U.K. Royal Air Force planes escorted a Russian-built plane into Stansted airport on Wednesday, but it was a civilian plane from Latvia unconnected with the Russian activity, the Ministry of Defense in London said.
Russia has been increasing its long-distance air patrols for the past several years, ostensibly for training and readiness purposes.
In the interview, Mr. Stoltenberg said there are five times as many NATO planes in the air on air-policing missions now than a year ago.
NATO leaders, at a summit in Wales in September, agreed to what Mr. Stoltenberg called "the biggest reinforcement of our collective defense since the end of the Cold War," largely to reassure its eastern flank. NATO leaders also vowed to lift their military spending over the next 10 years to 2% of economic output; currently only a few members meet or exceed that level.
NATO said eight Russian aircraft were intercepted over the North Sea and Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday. Norway scrambled F-16 aircraft to intercept and identify the aircraft, which comprised four Tu-95 strategic bombers and four Il-78 tanker aircraft.
After the formation flew from mainland Russia over the Norwegian Sea, six aircraft turned back and two of the bombers headed southwest, parallel to the Norwegian coast, prompting Typhoon fighters from the U.K. to scramble.
The two aircraft then flew to the Atlantic, where Portuguese F-16s scrambled, before heading north to the west of the U.K. The bombers were still airborne, 13 hours after they were first detected.
NATO said two Tu-95 bombers and two Su-27 fighters were detected flying over the Black Sea on Wednesday afternoon. Turkish fighters intercepted them.
NATO radars also detected seven Russian aircraft flying over the Baltic Sea in international airspace, comprising two MiG-31s, two Su-34s, one Su-27 and two Su-24. Portuguese F-16 fighters assigned to the beefed-up NATO air-policing mission over the Baltic members—Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania—were scrambled in response, and the Russian aircraft returned to Russian airspace.
On Tuesday, seven Russian combat planes were also detected over the Baltic Sea. The Russian aircraft were intercepted over the Gulf of Finland by German Typhoon fighter jets from the Baltic air patrols.
Danish fighters, as well as aircraft from non-NATO Finland and Sweden, also scrambled and the aircraft continued toward the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad. These planes did file flight plans and used transponders, but didn't maintain radio contact with civilian air traffic control, NATO said.
—Philip Shishkin and Felicia Schwartz in Washington contributed to this article.
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Ashley is passionate about defining beauty on her terms. "Beauty is love, family, vulnerability, courage and creativity," she says. Through her scholarship, Ashley wants to continue redefining how beauty is expressed behind and beyond the chair.


A 3D mathematical description of a path — splines or line segments for example.
The path is matched with time information such as a velocity graph for 4D representation.
Can be generated by human operator or 4D Autorouter taking other vehicles into account.
Generates a corresponding Free Flight Corridor defining the safety envelope of the platform.
Built-in programming language allows the platform to modify its own behavior based on events or parameters it detects from its environment.
Trackpaths are data objects consisting of a number of elements, some necessary, some optional. In its simplest sense, a trackpath is a 4-dimensional object or data structure that combines a mathematical definition of a spline (or line segment) between two points with a velocity curve continuously representing the time between the same two points.
Using splines, splines with velocity information, and splines with velocity and attitude information is really nothing new, it's been used in 3-D rendering systems for a long time to define the movement of an object in the 3D model or the movement of the camera to define the scene. In this example the camera can be set to move along a spline path at a given velocity and an attitude that points in the direction of what the artist wants to see rendered.
In applications where the trackpaths are generated by an operator – a theme park show designer, for example, we would use the same basic forms and functions so anyone already familiar with such mapping can easily use the software.
Trackpaths can be 6 Degrees of Freedom (DOF) for platforms such as flying, space, and underwater, or 4DOF for surface craft, road, or plant floor platforms.
One important point is that in most circumstances the Trackpath is precomputed for the device. This can be done for any number of platforms and paths at the speed of processing with the advent of the 4D Autorouter. This is a new technology similar to 3D autorouters which are used on a daily basis to design printed circuit boards. The 4D Autorouter calculates at high speed the optimum safe path for a vehicle through all known obstacles, taking all other vehicles into account in both space and time without human participation, but with the ability for oversight. With this information, the system can quickly, safely, and effectively handle the workload of calculating and approving thousands to tens-of-thousands of air traffic requests per hour with no additional personnel requirements.
A TrackPath starts with a 3-dimensional model of the Area of Operation (AO) which includes the source and destination points. This is then overlaid with a 3D grid structure, and the model is intersected with the grid to provide an area of computation that can be easily searched and manipulated in software.
Through varying techniques the accuracy of this model can vary from tens of meters to centimeters depending on the requirements of the search and the density of the AO structure. The key factor is that all known moving elements of the system can be included in this model as well as static obstructions, no fly zones, and citizen overflight restrictions.
It can also consider the capabilities of the drone type and its relative accuracy in following the path (i.e. piloted vs autonomous). It can even "learn" that a particular done is always fast or slow or just has a pilot that needs more room. This is the key to the overall control of thousands of UAS in the AO without human traffic controllers, planners, and technicians to check every flight plan.
Even more importantly the path can take into account the concept of "moral" imperatives and safety metrics such as population density at certain times of day, the probability of injury versus death, lawful or permitted landing zones, etc. For example flying over streets might be discouraged during rush hour, but allowed at other times, or the use of eminent domain routes such as train tracks.
Note in the image above, that a 3-Dimensional representation of the 4D Free Flight Corridor (FFC) at a single point in time is often a sphere, but in a 4D sense it would look like a cylinder. Similarly, this representation can be "stretched" to encompass the confidence or probability of a platform or object moving within the space being within that that sphere at the given time.
For all UAS within the AO, the autorouter also provides a Free Flight Corridor (FFC) 4D structure for autonomous systems, or a detailed Inverse Geofence for piloted platforms.
The FFC depicted left might be used in a block reservation sense for a drone theater at a theme park. At this level of complexity it is not very different from a Geofence, except it keeps the drones In instead of Out.
The final, and one might say most important aspect of the Trackpath is its programmability. These platforms often include excellent obstacle avoidance and scene analysis capabilities. The Trackpath is able to tap into the capabilities as part of its operating system behavior, and utilize these to alter the behavior of the platform. This programmability moves the Drobotic platform from the "drone" category into a new classification – computers that move things. This unique capability makes the Drobot a tool instead of a toy.
In this example the desired application is to perform a show utilizing drones in a stadium, or over a lake or lagoon. The 3D geometry of the location is loaded from some known model or approximated with simple geometry. The user then starts creating the Trackpath entries that describe how the platforms will move about the space, synchronizing them via timelines and the velocity graphs. In turn, velocity graphs can be auto calculated from the waypoints – points that define spline start/stop or arbitrary locations – and the timeline. Once the general geometry is worked out additional information such as attitude can be added in and the simplistic auto-generated velocity graphs can be edited to provide more complex movement, such as starting slow, putting on a burst of speed, and then coming to a quick halt. With one track path completed it can then be used as a "copy with offset" operation to create additional formations.
The most interest thing about this method of definition is that it can then be used as input to an actual 3D render program to allow the user to see the show in simulation from the audience (or any other) point of view. When completed the full Trackpath is loaded into the drone once, comprising all events from motor start at the depot, through the performance, and back to the depot and motor off. It then runs the same program show after show based on either a current time + offset calculation or synchronized with a show control system such as a SMPTE time code.
It's also possible to embed other events, rather like DMX, into the trackpath to turn on/off lights, activate a speaker, play audio, ignite fireworks, launch a missile, etc.
Once the platform picks up the package at the depot, a quick scan tells the plotting computer (not in the drone) which one he has. The computer has pre-compiled the path of the platform considering weather, other platforms in the area, loaded speed, and pre-defined routes of airspace open to the drones approved by the FAA. This creates virtual highways that define the majority of drone routes in a congested or urban area. The Trackpath for this package is loaded to the platform, with a defined starting time, and the platform follows the command (including the return leg) at the given time. This allows the overall plotting system to integrate this platform's activities with all others it knows about, estimate time of delivery, notify others in the air space, etc. On the return leg the platform may be able to travel significantly faster, and the plot program takes this into account. The plot program has nearly unlimited computational power at its disposal as well as the 3D model of the AO, and makes use of this to simplify what the platform has to do.
The programmability of the Trackpath allows for the storage of multiple trackpaths, for example one to get from the storage yard to the designation pickup location in the depot, one to go from return location to fueling, return to a storage location, etc. Then the control system just tells it to execute each one at a scheduled time or based on other parameters.
Once the vehicle sees a trigger event, for example a shark in shallow water, it can then notify dispatch and run a secondary trackpath. In the event of a shark, it could track the animal, hovering above it, emitting strobe light and a siren. For tracking a person in open country, it could follow and notify dispatch, but remain silent. In the law enforcement scenarios, in one instance the idea is that the drone is stationed on the roof of the cruiser, and the officer has a small remote. As he exits the vehicle for an incident, he turns on the drone which then uses the GPS coordinate of the current location as its base, and the trackpath represents offsets from that point to basically circle the area recording the entire scene. Additionally it could track the officer's remote, keeping the platform's camera on the officer even though the platform may be circling. The programming / scene analysis system may take into account the road edge to keep out of traffic areas. Multiple cameras could record the officer and the general area at the same time. This kind of tracking behavior is a step above normal trackpath operations, but is again simplified by the tracking operation itself. The platform isn't trying to autonomously fly in general, it's just trying to match its vector against a moving object, and calling on obstacle avoidance to make that happen safely.
Similarly, an automated landing system for a carrier primarily involves matching the platform vector to a moving target in time and space. The final vector approach can take the full 6DOF movement of the carrier into account by analysis of the Fourier transform of the ship's motion. While much of the wave action around a ship or barge (think SpaceX) is random, the large motions are more regular and lower frequency. The ship's motion itself is usually predictable from a short analysis of its heading and speed. That allows an approach trackpath to be computed that matches the time of arrival and location against the ship at the exact position and time that is most desirable.
The key to safety of the general public and threat mitigation in the misuse of drones is the Free Flight Corridor. The only way to mitigate the threat of misuse of drones is to keep them to their path, not just keep them away from one someone thinks of as a target. There are an infinite number of targets. That's easy to explain and understand in concept, but it has some interesting implications. Design of the FFC can be seen as an extension of the 4D application code used to create trackpath itself, but here we're defining a volumetric object, or a simplification of one. For example, for a land vehicle the FFC might be a 2-dimensional rectangle. For a flying platform it could be a 2-dimensional outline of the lagoon in our lagoon show, and then projected from a base altitude to 200' in altitude. It could be a 3-dimensional object comprised of a spline or polygon in the X and Y, with a floor at 30' and a ceiling at 60'. Or it could be a simple sphere. The FFC is actually a 4-dimensional construct, as it can also vary over time. For example the FFC could be a corridor for some period of time and then become a room at the time the platform arrives at that waypoint in the trackpath. In a delivery scenario the FFC could be a tube defining the transport corridor, or a sphere that moves with the platform. One of the most significant principles of the obstacle avoidance system is the avoidance of the FFC.


text:
Q: Compress on code json string and return to client I have a ASP.NET MVC Controller C# and inside I have the following method:
public JsonResult PlayersData()
 {
     List<Player> players = new List<Player>();

     // here some code to fill players list
     // ...

     return Json(players, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
 }

I would like to send the Json compressed, I mean the List because the json is heavy about 12MB.
I don't want to enable IIS compression, I need to do it within the same code.

Any clue?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Time to Remove Roadblocks to Offshore Energy Production
July 17, 2013 by Justin Williams
By NOIA Chairman Dick Alario
A decade ago, it seemed far-fetched that America would be poised to become the world's energy resource leader. Yet, that's the case today.
America is on the path to overtake Russia as the top natural gas producer in 2015, according to the International Energy Agency. Some experts even predict that we will become the world's largest oil producer about five years later, surpassing Saudi Arabia.
Thanks to technology, energy companies can now safely and cost-effectively recover domestic oil and natural gas from shale onshore and from deep reservoirs offshore. The industry has become a jobs machine: It's one of a handful of sectors that saw double-digit percent job growth between 2010 and 2012, according to an analysis by CareerBuilder. Add the indirect jobs from the U.S. energy boom, and the number of new jobs rises well into the hundreds of thousands.
Tapping unconventional energy on land is driving much of this remarkable growth, but there is tremendous potential to increase energy production off our nation's shores as well - from oil, gas and wind - in the Outer Continental Shelf. Unfortunately, the federal government has placed 87 percent of the outer shelf off the table to oil and gas exploration.
Leaders in Congress are trying to jump start increased offshore oil and gas production with at least two important pieces of legislation. Last month, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Offshore Energy and Jobs Act, sponsored Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash. This legislation would require the Obama administration to scrap its current restrictive five-year outer shelf oil and gas leasing plan and expand lease sales in untapped offshore areas estimated to hold at least 2.5 billion barrels of oil and 7.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. (Note that these estimates are based on decades-old seismic data, and are therefore likely underestimates.)
The act would require lease sales in new areas, including offshore Virginia, South Carolina, southern California and in Alaska's North Aleutian Basin.
Thus, states like South Carolina and Virginia, where broad bipartisan support exists for offshore energy exploration and production, would finally be allowed to participate in America's energy revolution.
The act would allow states with energy production offshore to share in 37.5 percent of the resulting revenue, similar to current law that applies to Gulf Coast states. It would also create a health and safety academy to train government inspectors and support an Outer Continental Shelf Energy Safety Advisory Board that will provide independent advice to the offshore energy industry.
Also last month, the House passed the Outer Continental Shelf Transboundary Hydrocarbon Agreements Authorization Act, sponsored by Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-S.C.
This act would also help expand America's offshore energy production and improve relations with our neighbors to the south by formally authorizing an agreement signed between the U.S. and Mexico in February 2012 to facilitate cooperation on energy development in the maritime boundary between the two countries in the Gulf of Mexico.
The agreement would lift the moratorium on drilling in that area, which is estimated to hold up to 172 million barrels of oil and some 300 billion cubic feet of natural gas. The Mexican government ratified the agreement in April 2012.
Now is the time to remove any unnecessary obstacles to safe, cutting-edge domestic offshore energy exploration and production so that the U.S. can live up to its energy potential. The House has done its part by passing two important pieces of offshore energy legislation. Now it is the Senate's turn to act.
Alario is chairman, president and CEO of Houston-based Key Energy Services Inc. and chairman of the National Ocean Industries Association.
Filed Under: Deepwater Gas, Deepwater Oil, Energy Independence, Energy Security, Industry News, Offshore Drilling, Offshore Oil, Offshore Oil and Gas Leasing Tagged With: chairman, dick alario, key energy services, noia

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
The e-health revolution: This doctor helps patients monitor their stats from home
Respirologist Victoria Chan figured out a way for Covid patients to keep track of their vitals on their phones
By Andrea Yu | August 23, 2021
By Andrea Yu | 08/23/2021
"I've been working as a sleep specialist and respirologist at Mackenzie Health in Richmond Hill for 26 years; I currently serve as the hospital's deputy chief medical information officer. In February of 2020, I was tasked with launching virtual care at our hospital. We thought the project would take six to 12 months to roll out. We had no idea we'd have to switch gears on a dime.
"When the pandemic arrived, our IT department worked overtime to incorporate secure video conferencing into our electronic medical record platform. Some doctors worried older patients wouldn't be able to use the technology. But my mother is 87 and she's all over WhatsApp and YouTube. As long as you make the technology simple and intuitive, people will figure it out. One of my first patients was older and he caught on right away. He helped me find the language to help the others.
The E-Health Revolution
The e-health revolution: health start-ups are the next big thing in tech
The e-health revolution: Medical pros have pivoted their practices online
The e-health revolution: UHN's Sam Sabbah on his amazingly wait-free virtual emergency departments
The e-health revolution: Inside the new gig economy for health care workers
The e-health revolution: virtual therapy has gone mainstream
The e-health revolution: Online care helped save this woman's life
"I'm preparing for a future where we will have dine-in service again": Why one optimistic café owner is tackling a mid-Omicron reno
"By June of 2020, we were coming out of the first wave of Covid, but we knew things would get worse again in the fall. We wanted to figure out how to assess and treat milder Covid cases at home, but make sure that patients knew when they were getting sicker and needed to come into the hospital. We realized we could use a home monitoring app through our electronic medical record platform where patients could input their vital signs. We could send Covid-19 patients pulse oximeters—blood-oxygen monitors—and they could input their levels through the app. The monitor is like a clothespin that clips onto the tip of your finger, giving you your oxygen level and pulse rate. It was perfect for turning into a program for remote Covid care.
"We received a government grant to send monitors to Covid patients. They'd be prompted by their phones to input their levels twice a day. Normal blood oxygen levels in healthy lungs are between 96 to 99 per cent. If levels dropped to 94, that would be an early warning sign, and the app would alert the patient to call a hotline, and send the data to the electronic medical record. On my end, I'd see which patients were the most critical and would call them to make sure they got the care they needed.
"We started rolling out the app in July. That month, we saw about 20 patients through virtual appointments. We sent some patients to the hospital and treated most others at home—those we determined to be higher risk would get the oxygen monitors and instructions on how to use the app. At first, we had some people, generally older patients, who were reluctant to use the app. One time, I worked with a patient in his 90s who didn't speak English. But his daughter, who lived in another part of the country, was able to teach him how to check his blood oxygen levels and input the information. We worked together for two weeks, and the patient fully recovered.
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"By September, the second wave hit, and by December, we saw 1,000 virtual patients in a month. We were already working 50-hour weeks, then calling seven to eight Covid patients a day on top of that. Soon, a group of 15 doctors, mostly in general internal medicine, joined us in remote Covid care. As case numbers soared, another five doctors joined, then another five. We had endocrinologists, oncologists, cardiologists and rheumatologists coming to help us. We started sending oxygen tanks to patients so they could treat themselves at home. We probably sent out a thousand monitors and 150 oxygen tanks.
"There were a few dicey moments. I had one virtual care patient with dangerously low oxygen levels. I told him he needed to go to the hospital, but he refused. He was living alone, and I believed he was going to die if he stayed at home. So I told him, 'If I have to come over and take you to the hospital myself, I will. Please listen to me." It worked. He went to the hospital and made a full recovery.
"Our numbers only started to come down in June. We want to continue the momentum of the virtual care program. I've been talking with other respirologists about using this model for emphysema patients, because they need to monitor their blood oxygen levels in a similar way. I think a remote monitoring program could be used for something like checking blood sugar levels for diabetes clinics. There are so many biometrics that can be monitored remotely, like weight and blood pressure. Creating this program was one of the most gratifying projects I've ever been involved in. By treating patients at home, we prevented almost 900 Covid patients from having to come into the hospital, and many more from unnecessary emergency visits."
Topics: e-health 2021


text:
Denisha Ghumra (born 13 November 1995) is an Indian actress from Gujarat, India. She is known for her role in Gujarati films Hellaro (2019), Saatam Aatham (2022) and Raktbeej (2022).

Biography
Denisha was born on 13 November 1995 in Jamnagar, Gujarat. She received her school education in Jamnagar, and college education from KS School of Business Management and Upasna School of Performing Arts.

She debuted in 2019 Gujarati period drama film Hellaro, which won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film at the 66th National Film Awards and she earned Special Jury Award for her performance. The film has been theatrically released in India on 8 November 2019 to positive reviews and her acting is appreciated by the audiences. She later acted in Hardik Parikh's Raktbeej, and in Shital Shah's Saatam Aatham. Her film Bharat Maro Desh Che directed by Bhavin Trivedi has been selected in International Gujarati Film Festival.

Awards and accolades

Filmography

References

External links

Special Jury Award (feature film) National Film Award winners
1995 births
Living people
Gujarati people
Actresses in Gujarati cinema
People from Jamnagar

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Leather Pro Grappling Gloves Xl 5 out of 5 based on 16 ratings.
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his left glove in front of him in a circular manner before tossing out the jab. Jack is in a defensive shell, jabbing when he feels it's needed. They briefly co.


i've gone through a lot of posts about this issue…and i also tought i had solved it by replacing "localhost" with "127.0.0.1" in the alfresco-shared property file, but it worked for a while then it persists…i can start alfresco but if i turn it off i have to reboot in order to start it up again.
Problem solved by manually adding an openoffice shutdown procedure as it does not properly shut down with the latest Alfresco 3 labs (MacOs).
You have a some sort of issue with shutdown. Which is why Alfresco restarts after a reboot.
What errors are in your log file?
i am using the latest labs release and the snapshot i provided above is from the alfresco.log (startup session)…it's actually boring as everytime i have to restart the server for a change to be applied i have to reboot my machine.
other log files are actually empty…i've specified both loopback and dhcp assigned ip into /etc/hosts, i've removed duplicated jars from /WEB-INF/lib and i've forced repository.properties to randomly assign a port number to the RMI services (using "0").
Dont really have a clue but i can see this is common with the RMI jar.
The exception you posted is a symptom of an earlier problem not the problem itself, fiddling with the network settings will have no effect.
How are you shutting down alfresco?
Is there nothing in your alfresco log file related to shutdown? Perhaps shutdown errors?
I'm using a OsX machine (latest Leopard and JVM 1.5.0).
I shut down alfresco by providing "alfresco.sh stop" …. i have not altered the alfresco.sh script.
INFO: Illegal access: this web application instance has been stopped already.  Could not load org.apache.log4j.spi.NOPLoggerRepository.  The eventual following stack trace is caused by an error thrown for debugging purposes as well as to attempt to terminate the thread which caused the illegal access, and has no functional impact.
Dunno if that exception is somehow related to that problem…may this somehow related on the fact i have a proper tomcat installation on port 8080 (not active though).


text:
Night of Cake & Puppets
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Night of Cake & Puppets, p.6
Part #2.50 of Daughter of Smoke & Bone series by Laini Taylor
My fingers are shaking a little with thrill shivers as I type back: You're a genius and a savior. THERE IS A NOTE! <3 <3
I have never in my life typed a heart symbol. Those are for milquetoast girls. Karou will probably think my phone's been stolen – or possibly my body, by a lovelorn alien. I send the text anyway.
This is what comes back: …who is this??
Me: Don't you dare mock me.
Karou: You're not going to start collecting heart-shaped rocks or anything, are you? Because we might have to renegotiate our friendship.
And I have some time to kill before the mysterious twenty minutes elapse, so I call her – stupid texting, anyway; sometimes it takes a ridiculously long time to think of actually dialing the phone and speaking instead of typing away like numbskulls – and I assure her emphatically that there is no heart-shaped rock collection in my future. 'Toes,' I say, thinking of my grandfather's supposed golem souvenir. 'I'm going to take toe trophies from all my boys from now on,' and if Karou knows that 'all my boys' so far equals zero boys, she doesn't let on.
'That's more like it,' she says.
It's really good to hear her voice. She tells me she's going to Pakistan next. Pakistan! I issue all sorts of ill-informed warnings that she doesn't need, like to wear a burqa and not do any random sexy dancing in public, and she keeps trying to bring the conversation back to me and Mik.
Me & Mik.
I've never been part of an ampersand before. Never a 'we,' never an 'us,' but by the time I get off the phone and start walking – slowly, as directed – in the direction of the Devil's Stream, I'm feeling pretty good about my chances. It may be a grand delusion, but the feeling carries me along like I'm floating, and in no time at all, I'm nearing the footbridge at the end of Velkoprevorske Street, wondering where to go next. And that's when I hear it.
Peacock Footprints
Violin. Live and real and drifting with the snow. It's Eine kleine Nachtmusik, which I've heard so many times that I didn't even realize, until hearing it now, that it had become…mundane. Oh, yeah, Mozart's such a genius. What's for dessert? But hearing it like this, outside, at night, in a snowfall and meant for me…it's newly born in my mind as the sublime creation that it is. It's the Andante, softer and sweeter than the Allegro, and it's just…I can't even explain it.
It's a dimension. The space around me, the world above me – until just now a void of night air beset by snow flurries – becomes a living thing. Music. Close your eyes and it's a rosebush blooming in time lapse so that its shoots and blossoms flow outward in a swift choreography of growth and collapse, twine and coil, release and fade.
Close your eyes and music paints light vines and calligraphy on the darkness within you.
It draws me forward, like a hand extended. Mik is on the other side of it, somewhere as yet unrevealed, his music making a trail straight to him, and I'm so grateful in the moment that it's not an ordinary person I've fallen for, and not even an ordinary musician, but a violinist.
As soon as I step onto the footbridge I see him. There's the mill wheel just beside the bridge – the cute wooden mill wheel every tourist to Prague snaps a photo of – and Mik is down on the narrow dock beside it, barely ten feet away. There's a wall between us, though, concrete topped with an iron fence, and my miniature self has to stand on tiptoe to peer through the bars. His head, cozied by his knit cap, is bent over his violin, his posture is loose and fluid, he's blushing his blush of exertion and creation, and nothing has ever been quite as amazing as the fact that this perfect sound is the result of the smooth, deliberate swing of this beautiful boy's arm.
I'm not the only person who's been drawn to the music. Passersby are stopping to listen. Some windows clatter open in the buildings fronting the stream, and for a minute everyone is still, bent toward this lovely sight: Mik on the mill dock, playing Mozart to the snow.
No, not to the snow. To me.
Eine kleine Nachtmusik is Mozart's Serenade 13. Serenade.
World, I think it's important to acknowledge here that I am being serenaded. The Charles Bridge arcs in the backdrop, its lampposts ghostly. The canal is black and glinting, and the night is saying: Yep. Everything is miraculous.
Indeed, Picasso. Indeed.
'Excuse me,' I say to a couple who are paused nearby, leaning into each other so that their breath plumes mingle and become one. 'Can you boost me up?' I gesture to the wall. It's high, with pointy iron finials to further discourage what I am about to do, but the couple make no effort to dissuade me. They smile like they're in on a secret, and the guy makes a stirrup with his hands, and up I go. That's when Mik looks up. Right when I'm balanced on top of the wall.
Our eyes meet, and all this rigamarole and scheming, the back-and-forth across the bridge and diving behind tombstones, it all comes down to this moment.
Our eyes meet.
And…it's like all my life I've been this tower standing at the edge of the ocean for some obscure purpose, and only now, almost eighteen years in, has someone thought to flip the switch that reveals that I'm not a tower at all. I'm a lighthouse. It's like waking up. I am incandescent. I never knew I could emit heat and light. Damn. If the music created an external dimension, this creates an internal one.
There is more to me than I knew.
Mik smiles, and it's such a mix of glad and shy and sweet and eager and even a little bit of what I could swear is amazed – like he's amazed by his good fortune that I am climbing over a wall to him – that it triggers a kindred smile in me. My face responds without authorization from my brain, so the resulting smile feels like the biggest, most unguarded, goofiest smile I've ever unleashed in my entire life. I didn't even know my face could do this. It's like there were hidden zippers in my cheeks. Jesus.
This must be what feelings are. This is why people write poems! I get it now.
I get it, and I want more.
I start to climb down the outside of the bridge. Or, well, I look down for clues as to how I might accomplish this last, crucial step to finally entering Mik's magnetic field, but it's a far drop to the little metal walkway below, and I hesitate. And no sooner do I hesitate than Mozart hesitates. By which I mean, Mik's bow falters over the strings and the music cuts off, and when I look back up, he's laying his violin and bow in their case and coming toward me. There's a light smattering of applause, but I'm not going to be distracted by anything outside the circle of this moment.
Here's the situation. Me: clinging to the outside of the bridge. Mik: on the metal walkway below. His head is about even with my feet. He's looking up at me, and our eyes meet again and I'm thinking I love your face at him because it's just the best face and I can't help imagining a situation in which we are standing with our foreheads and nose tips touching, and it's only now that I realize the lighthouse radiance I feel myself emitting is actually blushing. He's blushing, too, and with the distance reduced between us there's the sensation that our blushes are meeting in the middle. The edges of our magnetic fields are bumping against each other.
And then Mik speaks. All he says is 'Hi,' but he says it like he's breathing it out on a plume of pure awe, and it melts me.
'Hi,' I say back. A word spoken, and no mouth malfunction. Granted, it's only hi, but it's the most meaningful hi I've ever said, and it doesn't even sound like my voice. It sounds like it belongs to some girl with a heart-shaped rock collection, and I defiantly do not care. 'Help me down?' I ask.
And he reaches for me. I crouch to sit on the edge of the concrete wall, the iron of the rail hard at my back. I find I'm still just a little out of range of Mik's hands, so I have to tip forward, fall to him and let him catch me. And I do. And he does. And it's like I'm watching myself do this thing – fall into Mik's waiting arms, into his magnetic f
ield at last – from a great distance. He catches my waist, so padded by my sweater and coat that it's just pressure and not even the feeling of hands, and I catch his shoulders, likewise coat-padded but still nice and boy-shouldery, and he sets me down in front of him, simple and neat, and here we are, squarely arrived at the talking portion of the evening.
There's a long pause.
But it's not a bad pause, because Mik is looking at me like I'm the treasure from the high shelf that someone's just taken down and put into his hands. I find I don't mind being looked at like this. I don't mind it at all.
'I got your note,' he says.
'I got yours, too.'
'I can't draw,' he says a little quickly, like he's offering an apology, and I know he's just as nervous as I am.
'And I can't play the violin,' I counter. 'That was…beautiful.' It's such an understatement. Sublime might begin to get at what it was, but that would just sound pretentious.
He shakes his head, humble. 'That was nothing. I mean, don't tell Mozart I said that. But it wasn't like what you did tonight. I don't even know what to say. It's the coolest thing anyone's ever done for me.'
'What, run you all over town in the snow?' It's my turn to act humble. It was really cool. I am well aware.
'Yeah, like that's all it was. I don't even know how you did some of that stuff.' There's a brief pause before he adds, 'But don't tell me. I want to just think it was magic.'
'It was magic,' I say simply. I've learned this from Karou, as regards magic: You can tell the most outlandish truths with virtually no risk of being believed.
Except, apparently, in the case of Mik. 'I believe it,' he says. 'This is pretty much what I imagined your Saturday nights are like.'
Pause. Consider. Unpause. 'You imagined my Saturday nights?'
'Yeah,' he says, with a gentle inflection of of course. 'Every week when I'm doing something boring and typical after the show. It's how I punish myself for laming out and not talking to you – by imagining you doing, like, secret errands over the rooftops, or vanishing through trapdoors that leave no seam when they close, just traces of silver dust.'
It's like he's describing Karou. Secret errands and vanishing and trapdoors? And it hits me that Mik thinks I'm mysterious.
It is, hands down, the best compliment I've ever been given. I could tell him what my Saturday nights are really like – that they're spent lolling at Poison Kitchen with Karou over sketchbooks and tea, moping about him – but I don't. I like this being-mysterious business. 'Silver dust?' I inquire.
He shrugs, bashful. 'I don't know. Or maybe peacock footprints.'
This is interesting. 'Peacock footprints,' I repeat.
'This poem I read,' he says. 'It had this line about "anyone who's woken up to find the wet footprints of a peacock across their kitchen floor," and ever since, I've kind of wanted to. Um. Wake up and find peacock footprints.'
'Okay,' I say, going with it. Peacock footprints. That could be arranged, I think, because I bet a scuppy could handle that, but then this sense of intimacy strikes me. It's the part about Mik waking up. The idea of…being there for that, and vice versa. It's like a glimpse of the future – a possible future, so far beyond my ken that I get a shiver up my spine. It's this feeling of being a kid in a roomful of grown-ups: All around you are just knees, and the grown-ups are up there in their own world, a bunch of distant heads talking about things you can't begin to understand.
Waking up with someone is the natural aftermath of sleeping with them, and that's something that happens up there, with the grown-up heads. Me, I'm still down here on the floor with the dropped Cheerios, getting thwacked in the face when the dog wags its tail.
Metaphorically speaking.
It's not a revelation, or any kind of decision to make. It's more a glimmer of decisions to come, soon or not soon. In adolescent fantasyland, the kiss is the happy ending. On the planet of grown-ups, I am fully aware, it's only a beginning.
I look at Mik intently, wondering where he falls in the spectrum of adolescent versus grown-up expectations.
(And PS, if you use the word grown-up, you probably aren't one.)
'You're like that,' he's saying. 'Like peacock footprints. Unexpected. And this night was like that. Amazing. And…I didn't want to be the guy who just wakes up and finds the footprints.'
'Wait. What? I thought you did want to find the footprints.'
'I do, but not just. I wanted to do something, too. Contribute something. To this.' He makes a gesture that encompasses us. An 'us' gesture that, given the recent detour of my thoughts, seems rich with meaning. And then the gesture opens up to include the dock, the violin lying there, the stream going past. 'Not that it's much. It was the best I could do on the spur of the moment.'
'It's great,' I say, meaning it completely. 'It's totally peacock footprints. I didn't expect it at all.' I don't mention the brief despair breakdown it caused back in the Lyceum courtyard, or my zested heart, or my argument with myself over whether or not he was a jerk.
'Good.' With a little worry frown, he says, 'I hope it didn't hijack your plans.'
I shake my head. 'No. This is great.' What were my plans, anyway? I was going to play it by ear after the courtyard, with the thought of going somewhere indoors where the ice orb would begin to melt. Where is the ice orb, anyway? He hasn't already melted it, has he, and read the message? My heartbeat skitters at the thought. 'Do you, um, have that…ice orb?'
'Oh. Yes. I do.' He snaps upright, and I realize belatedly that he's been leaning down to bring his face nearer to mine. Now he offers me his arm like some kind of old-fashioned gentleman. 'This way, please, my lady.'
Hmm. What's this? I loop my arm through his, and he escorts me to the end of the dock, past his violin case, and reveals…more peacock footprints.
Not literally.
There's a rowboat tied up at the end of the dock, swaying gently below us in the dark water. In the most delightful and unexpected tableau, it's set up for tea. I recognize the tea tray at once as belonging to Poison. A silver teapot, 'arsenic' dish and 'strychnine' pitcher, two white china cups on saucers, and there's the ice orb glinting like crystal, and also…a bakery box. Bakery box. Oh my god I'm starving. And freezing. And tea…and a bakery box…in a rowboat…I look up at Mik, in awe. 'How did you—?'
'The twenty minutes,' he says. 'I walked really fast. But even so, I couldn't have done it if that crazy guy with the eye patch wasn't such a fan of you. I got the definite feeling that he wouldn't have let the silver out the door for anyone but you.'
'Well, there is one other person. My best friend. We go there a lot. Imrich's kind of protective of us.'
'You think? He gave me this ten-second silent stare, and I'm pretty sure that if my intentions weren't honorable, my face would have melted.'
Hmm. I hope his intentions aren't too honorable. Wait. Or do I? I hope his intentions are mildly dishonorable, and extend to kissing, and that's all. For now. 'I'm glad your face didn't melt.' Because you'll need it for kissing.
'Me, too. Would you like some tea?'
'More than words can say.'
There's a little ladder at the end of the pier and I climb down first and scramble into the boat, trying not to set it rocking and spill the tea. I'm light, anyway, so it doesn't move too much until Mik climbs down after me.
'So the tea's from Poison,' I say, which makes sense. It is right around the corner. 'What about the boat?'
'Well.' Mik pours tea into my cup. It's still steaming, thank god. 'Let's just say, we should probably keep it tied up where it is.'
My first mouthful of tea is heaven, and the warmth of the cup in my numb hands is, too. 'I
see. So we don't have permission to be here.'
'Not exactly. I only had twenty minutes. I was kind of scrambling. Cake?'
Cake. As subject changes go, it's a good one. I hesitate for the tiniest instant, though, because my brain gets on this hamster wheel of concern over the likelihood of imminent kissing. To eat or not to eat, that is the question: whether 'tis Nobler in the stomach to suffer the Slings and Arrows of outrageous Hunger (while keeping mouthparts in pristine kissing condition) or to take Spoon against a Slice of cake, and—
'Yes, please,' my stomach pipes up. And Mik opens the bakery box to reveal a small, whole Sacher torte, its chocolate so dark it looks black. Chocolate. Thank god. If he'd brought a non-chocolate cake, I would have had to give him a demerit. We have no forks or plates, only our teaspoons, so we eat with those, me making the first divot in the cake's smooth surface – a dainty fairylike bite that is really not my usual MO – and holy hell the chocolate is so intense and pure it should be named an element and given a spot on the periodic table. It would be Ch, which isn't even taken.
The boat sways softly, and my feet are freezing, but the tea warms me from the inside, and each little jolt of Mik eye contact triggers a minor blush that warms my face, so I'm doing okay (so much more than okay), even though it's February in Prague and only crazy people would sit in a rowboat eating cake in a snowstorm.
Because: oh. The snow's coming down thicker now. We both look up and around, like: huh. It's falling in great downy billows, and when it hits the water it melts like sugar in coffee. It would be very sweet coffee, because it's a lot of sugar. On the rooftops and dock – and even on the cake – it's piling up.
It's Mik who makes the decision to ignore it. 'So, are you from Prague?' he asks me, looking at me with this determination to not notice the blizzard. He takes another bite of cake.
I take another bite, too. And another gulp of hot tea. 'Český Krumlov. You?'
Night of Cake & Puppets by Laini Taylor / Fantasy / Young Adult / Romance & Love have rating 4 out of 5 / Based on32 votes
LAINI TAYLOR SERIES:
Daughter of Smoke & Bone
Dreams of Gods & Monsters
Days of Blood & Starlight
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