Leaving, on a jet plane....

[RedRacer]

Well, I am beginning the first steps of process for my new job, new life....I haven't really been at will to say earlier what I was doing or what my intentions were, in order to maintain my current job security. Even companies like Honda don't like investing in employees who are soon to leave their employ. So in order to not get axed, I wasn't really free to discuss openly where it could get back to the big dogs.

BUT....since I have procured my new job, permanently and for certain, I can now say that I start it a week from yesterday. Officially and in full capacity.

I leave Monday for Miami, there for a week, then I leave on the 19th for two weeks in South Africa. Then home for two weeks.

Then four weeks abroad: One week in Phuket, two weeks in Australia, and a final week in Singapore, bringing me home just in time for Christmas!

I am now working in risk analysis and assessment for a global tech company. I have security clearances and levels and I still can't REALLY talk about the specific aspects of my job in terms of who I will be working with and for. A large part will be as a civilian contractor working inside the US military. COOL, eh!?

Anyway, there is going to be some radio silence for sure with me through the end of the year. But I'll do my best if possible to stay with PDriver.

Wish me luck!

[spiffyguido]

Josh,

All I gotta say is that it's bittersweet. We've been on Prelude forums together for some 6 years now, and you're hands down the best 4th gen resource I know of. For PreludeDriver, this is a loss.

Having said that, it sounds like you've found a wicked opportunity for yourself, so let me be the first to wish you the best. I've heard that Honda is a great place to work, so I'm sure this new job must be pretty awesome for you to be making such a change.

The travel will be the best part I think. You're going places in the next few months that I've wanted to go for years. Take pictures, and keep us all updated. I know that Preludes run deep in your blood, so I have no doubt you'll check in with us once and a while.

You're not selling the Lude, Duc & G are you?

[RedRacer]

Awww, thanks Spiffy. You're sweet. <josh wipes tear from eye> LOL !

Dude, don't despair....I'm not leaving.

I am not moving. I'll still live in "The house that Josh built" and I'm keeping all my toys. I have a roommate and a brother who will be keeping an eye on things and making sure that not too much dust settles on all the things that go zoom and vrooom on land and water!
(come to think of it though, that fact alone is enough to almost scare me right into not going ANYWHERE!)

I will be just be traveling a lot, no more than a couple of weeks at a time in most cases. Sure, the time home will be short during busy periods or whenever demand is up, but I'll still be home and I'll still be accessible.

That's the good thing about tech today. We can be just about anywhere and still maintain the web-based lives that we have, from wherever we may be at the moment. As long as I have access and time, I shouldn't have any problems maintaining my role as "4th Gen Know It All" here at PDriver.

Heading out Tuesday for Miami, back Thursday and then leave Friday for South Africa. I will be in Cape Town for the first week and Johannesburg the second.

This will actually be my second trip to South Africa. I also spent time in Africa (Senegal and Nigeria) a few years back for pleasure. Amazing place. Beautiful and yet scary too on different levels; from the actual terrain, wildlife and country itself, to the civil unrest and warring factions...can be scary and dangerous. But I kind of like that aspect for some reason. Keeps things from being boring, ya know? Easy for me to say, I don't have to live there though.....maybe not a fair statement to make, perhaps.

Anyway, so don't feel too bad. I'll still be around to help run the board, just on a limited basis for a while. I'll check in until Tuesday.

I've noticed things picking up too, a good sign. Yet another reason I can't leave in the middle of the first growth spurt of the site!

~ Josh

[RedRacer]

Funny that I titled this post as "Leaving on a jet plane"

Because the jet plane that I was leaving on Weds, from Cape Town SA going to Johannesburg SA to meet my connecting flight to London, had a slight mishap : > The freakin starboard engine fell off the plane just as we rotated off the ground. Not just part of it, not just a piece.....the WHOLE engine from front to back, disconnected from the wing mounts and fell the freak off! It was not what I would call a fun experience, nor one that I ever want to go through again.

Closest I've ever come to being in a jet crash, and we were lucky, VERY, VERY lucky that our flight officer and crew knew what they were doing. Otherwise, you might have never heard from ol' RedRacer ever again.

I love the new job, the money is awesome and the locations are incredible, but now I'm just a bit gun-shy about all the flying. I know it's technically the safest way to travel and I've never been afraid of flying, but once something major like that happens and YOU are on the plane it happens to, it is a bit unnerving and it stays with you for a little while.

I'm very much glad to be home, and very, very much GLAD TO BE ALIVE! Will be home until the 27th of Nov and then I head back out until Christmas Eve. Kind of a double edged sword about a cool thing, which is, on this leg of my travels, I am booked to fly on the new Singapore Airlines Airbus A380 which I am very excited about, but then there's that whole engine falling off thing.......sheesh! Well, if one fell off an ancient ass 737 and it held together, I guess that a brand new supersized airplane with like ten engines or whatever it has, would probably be okay. Or not. LOL! Let's change the subject, whattya say?!

[spiffyguido]

Josh,

Great to hear things are going well, 'cept for the incident on the airplane. You always have the most exciting things happen to you.

I think you can take comfort in one thing though: Because air travel is so safe, since you've already had your close brush with disaster I think it's safe to say you'll be fine from here on in.

Unless you are really cursed....

Glad noone was hurt.

If anyone is interested, here is the article on CNN from what happened to our very own RedRacer:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/africa/11 ... index.html

[RedRacer]

Hmmm.....I don't know that I would file this one under exciting, exactly.

It was really just kind of terrifying, but then, not even that, in a way.

You don't really know what you will think or how you will act when something like this happens. I mean, you think about it, and wonder, but you don't know until you actually experience it. But I will not deny the fact that I was very scared. Having to consider that you may be about to die, is not an easy thing to deal with. It's a helpless, scary feeling when you are in a situation that you really have no control of, when all you can do is wait and see what happens. Yeah, I was scared.

It was just an average afternoon. It was cloudy, had been raining. Everything seemed fine. Sure, I had noted earlier that the plane was kind of old, but then, Nationwide is an economy, upstart airline, they don't have brand new airplanes. But I never really thought about it twice. I fly, I have a pilot's license and I just like to think that everyone in the business of flying is as responsible as I am when it comes to making sure the plane is safe, whether it's Virgin Airlines or Nationwide. Something I always think about is that the pilots have their lives to think about as well. A good pilot won't knowingly climb into a piece of crap aircraft. Unless they have a death wish, most pilots are going to be thinking of their own safety, and that somewhat ensures my safety too.

Anyway, I was in business class, front of the plane, left side. There are only four seats up there, I was in 1A, facing the bulkhead, no seat in front of me. We were rolling down the runway, wide open, the plane nosed up and then there was a really loud noise from the back of the economy cabin. Nothing that sounded too terrible, but it was a really loud noise and it was accompanied by a massive jolt to the whole plane, and then g-forces pushed me to the left into the side of the plane, and that told me that we were yawing under throttle, not sliding off the runway, because the plane was off the ground at this point, just barely, but it was off the ground, and I could only think that the starboard engine had gone out. I knew that if that happened, then the force of all the thrust from the port engine would push the plane around to the right.....so I knew whatever it was, it was serious and dangerous.

Then I noticed that the engine noise level had changed and it seemed the port engine (my side) was really pushing itself, the plane was shaking and we weren't gaining any altitude and that was when I put it all together and said to myself -- "Oh f**k, this plane is going to crash" -- But then I felt the nose go up a little more and we started gaining altitude and things seemed better. They took us up and out over Table Bay and we circled for about 30 minutes. The flight attendants had us going through the crash procedures and it was all a little tense. Amazingly, most everyone remained very calm. I could hear a couple of people crying, but there was no panic or overwhelming fear in the air.

We came back around, started dropping altitude and even though they had us brace for a hard landing, it was no different than any other in terms of how it felt. The plane stopped, the crew came out, everyone applauded them and the doors were opened and we all walked off the plane to the bus. No emergency slides or anything. We were taken back to the airport and interviewed and offered trauma counseling. I told them basically nothing other than what I posted here. I didn't need trauma counseling, although a few people did take them up on it. I needed a drink. A strong drink. I went to the bar and had two Maker's Mark bourbons, straight up. And then I had a third one just for the hell of it. And then I went back to the counter and postponed my flight to Johannesburg and changed my airline from there to London to British Airways, until the next day. I didn't want to fly anymore at that moment. And I definitely didn't want to fly Nationwide to London. .

No, I don't want to go through it again, but if I'm ever on another plane that loses an engine, I want it to go exactly like that.

I've never flown a jet engine, commercial aircraft, but I can imagine that it must have been hell up in that cockpit though. They had to contend with the sudden loss of one engine at the worst time; at take-off under full power, the loss of some hydraulics and other factors. I wouldn't have wanted to be in their shoes. Because the flight officer and his co were former South African Air Force pilots, had a lot to do with the fact that everyone on that plane survived. I honestly believe that.

From what I know now, the whole engine fell off the plane, which they are designed to do in order to protect the wing and fuselage in case something does go really wrong. But this engine didn't blow up or anything. It just fell off. They said that it was because of a foreign object being sucked into the engine, but now they are saying that was speculation and have withdrawn that statement. We saw the engine parts laying on the ground. It had been moved off the runway in order for us to return and land. It was in like three pieces, the front intake shroud, the fan and the rest of the jet. But it wasn't torn all to pieces like if it had failed and exploded or anything. I am convinced if that had happened, I wouldn't be sitting here composing this post right now.

So, right now, apparently nobody knows or they know and are just not saying, what happened. My personal theory is: I think the plane was just too old and that it was either corrosion or metal fatigue and it just fell off under the stress of take off.

So, to say we cheated death? May be......but whatever it was, I'm glad for the outcome that it was.