By Aviator

Every year at the end of July, aviators of all ages and categories, from different parts of the world converge on the sleepy town of Oshkosh, which is located in the state of Wisconsin, United States of America. This event is the annual fly in convention of the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA).

The first such fly-in meeting was held in September of 1953. This year the event will be held from July 27 to August 2. You can read more about the event and attractions on their web site www.airventure.org.

Today the event attracts around 500,000 visitors and draws an annual income of US$110 million to the state. It has hundreds of aircraft and the entire gamut of the aerospace industry, all at one location.

All sizes and shapes

Aircraft of all sizes and shapes from the home built to war birds to the massive Airbus A380 and even space vehicles like the Virgin Galactic WhiteKnight Two “Eve” are included in the event. Workshops to improve piloting skills and engineering skills are held all day long by volunteers. Documentaries on the pioneering pilots in their barnstormers and many more features are shown, but the most noteworthy is the “Young Eagles” programme which shares the joy of flight with children.

This year three Sri Lankans will participate by flying in their own aircraft to the convention. They are Priyantha Goonetilleke a professional engineer, Captain Anil Jayasinghe and his son Shevaan.

Priyantha is a nuclear engineer by profession (a special category for accomplished individuals in the field of engineering science. It has to be achieved by hard work and a series of assessments and noteworthy skills, and is not an honorary title). He is also a keen enthusiast who has a Federal Aviation Authority, Private Pilot’s Licence with an Instrument Rating.

An adventurer, he has driven overland from the United Kingdom to Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) in 1972, in a Land Rover. He is the owner of a Beechcraft single engine, four seater aircraft which will serve as the chariot for the aviators for their long journey to Oshkosh, Wisconsin from Long Beach in California — a 1700 nautical mile journey. Priyantha has over 1000  flying hours to his credit.

Direct influence

Priyantha’s engineering skills are the result of the direct influence of his father, Edgar Goonetilleke, a superintendent at the Public Works Department way back in the 1960s. He is complimented for many engineering infrastructure projects that serve the public of Sri Lanka todate.

Unfortunately our younger generations have not followed the standards of our former professionals and today public construction work has crumbled even before they are put to use. The substandard work on the bridges along the Southern Expressway is a recent example.

Captain Jayasinghe, the only hot air balloon pilot and pioneer of the sport in Sri Lanka and presently based in Singapore is a commander on the Boeing 747 “Jumbo” aircraft. He is anxious and keen to participate in this premier event as he is a regular visitor to such aviation gatherings around the world.

He is the chairman of the Ceylon Airship and Balloon Club, the organiser of the only aviation event “Sri Lanka Balloon Festival.” Captain Jayasinghe has 15,000 flight hours to his credit and has a special mention of the 100 hours he has in hot air balloons.

An aircraft engineer

Anil’s father was an aircraft engineer and this is the influence that made him pursue a career in aviation. His brother too is a captain on an Airbus A340 aircraft with a leading airline in the Middle East.

Last but not least his son Shevaan, an IB student who just got his Federal Aviation Authority, Private Pilot’s Licence two days ago (July 24) is the youngest of the clan and is only 17 years old. Shevaan is no stranger to aviation as he has grown amongst an ‘aviation-breathing’ family. This young buck already has 60 hours to his credit.

Another binding force that has gelled the trio besides their passion for flight, is that they are from S. Thomas’ an academic institution that had produced a large number of aviators and in the 1960s, had even considered setting up a private aviation academy for students, but was prevented from doing so as the then government of Ceylon had declined the request.

All three are members of the Aircraft Owners’ and Pilots’ Association and Priyantha is also a member of the EAA.

The greatest challenge

Although flights across great distances and across oceans are taken for granted by modern day travellers, flying a distance of 1700 nautical miles in a light aircraft is no easy challenge. The greatest challenge for the trio lay across the high Sierra Nevada mount range, a geo fault line that rises to heights reaching 15,000 feet and possesses weather features such as down drafts and turbulence that discourages many light aircraft pilots.

It has claimed many aviators and the most famous of them recently, Steve Fosset, the intrepid aviator who had overcome many hurdles and flew solo around the world in a hot air balloon only to meet his maker in these same mountains.

Our Sri Lankan team plans to fly southeast from Long Beach, Daugherty Airfield to Tucson and then on to the famous Roswell where the mysterious Area 51 is situated in Arizona; thereafter heading north east across and via Kansas City and the mid western plains downhill in to Wittman regional Field in Oshkosh. The team expects to break journey, enjoy the sites and get over the mountains all at the same time. “Fun and enjoyment is a must, that’s what flying is all about,” says Anil.

How to track their flight progress:

The Sunday Leader is proud to bring this feature for the benefit of its readers. The registration of the aircraft flown by the team is Beechcraft N24022. If you are interested to follow their route please visit www.flightaware.com  and select “Flight Tracker” and type “N24022” in this slot which will have the plot of the actually flown route online.

Also if you like to talk to them or SMS, call The Sunday Leader office operator and register with our desk who will give you their mobile number. Do appreciate the time difference between Sri Lanka and the United States, before you call them — ensure the time is during the daylight hours in the Mountain Standard Time which is Coordinated Universal Time (GMT) minus six hour time zone. The team intends to leave on this adventure today (26), subject to the weather gods along the route, especially over the mountains.

It is very important that interests and hobbies are nurtured in children from their formative years. These three individuals had been influenced by their fathers who have ultimately made them seek their passion as a career.  This also insulates them from life’s distractions and ensures they stay focused and helps them to select a profession. The lack of such interest is the primary reason for student unrest and the consumption of banned substances.

Sadly, general aviation in Sri Lanka has been destroyed due to poor decisions of officials who just acted to please politicians, and whilst the responsible authorities are yet to make an attempt to encourage or stimulate the aerospace industry — which is now at the point of oblivion and choked under many restrictions that are so absurd that one may be considered insane,  all this shrouded by a blanket of bureaucracy.

Flying is considered a threat rather than an economic catalyst and unless this fact is addressed our country will not have an aerospace industry.

However, Priyantha, Anil and Shevaan, Sri Lankan pilots are striving to rekindle the interest in aviation for the younger generation in Sri Lanka and hope their dream will spark interest in more to consider a career in aviation, as Sri Lanka has an urgent need for pilots, aircraft engineers and air traffic controllers. If not opportunities are always open overseas for this very lucrative and satisfying profession.

Captain Jayasinghe has informed us that he will give away three prizes, of model aircraft kits to the winners of an essay competition — the title is yours to choose. However it has to be on aviation with a minimum of 1000 words but not more than 2000 or a drawing on MS Paint or any other computer design programme. One requirement is that you should be a student and the essay should be in the English Language.

You can email it to want2know@srilankaballoons.com before August 23, and please include your name, address and contact details. The selected articles will be published in The Sunday Leader of August 30.

The Sunday Leader supports this adventure and wishes these three Lankan aviators a safe trip and back to Oshkosh. May their dreams come true. Bon Voyage!

The contact number for calling and sms is +1-310-754-0330.

A friend of the media reaps greater rewards

 By Ranee Mohamed

For two decades Manique Mendis has worked closely with the media — from head of communications to  public relations and information in private and public sector and international organisations.

As MTV/MBC executive she traversed the arena of the media world, making news as the founder chief executive officer of the Press Complaints Commission of Sri Lanka.

At the Sri Lanka Press Institute and the Editors’ Guild of Sri Lanka, it was Manique Mendis’ soothing touch that took away the frowns and tears, and wiped away the beads of the sweat off harassed and worried  journalists.

Be it the European Union Mission in Sri Lanka  or the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, Manique Mendis left behind a lasting impression in the form of professionalism.

“It is not that life has been a bed of roses,” she said as she looked back with nostalgia at the world of journalism she has left behind. Mendis began her career as a journalist whilst she was studying Mass Communications at the Kelaniya University. Though she ventured out into the world of information and public relations the printing ink continued to gush in her veins.

Reach out to the media

She could not help but reach out to the media and the media persons in Sri Lanka

“It did not matter who they were, from which part of the country they hailed from and to what community they belonged to; their problems became my problems,” recalled Mendis.

Then came a time when Manique Mendis realised that “there  were huge constraints to practising the profession and that there was lack of space for journalists in Sri Lanka,” said Mendis.

“I began to realise  that some journalists whose lives were under threat were working under extremely difficult conditions. Some journalists have faced abduction, assault and some of them are no more like the Founder Editor of The Sunday Leader Lasantha Wickrematunge, who was a fellow reporter at the Island, during the time I was working there. I also saw that many journalists were leaving the country,” said Manique Mendis. 

 It was a feeling of helplessness that flooded this friend of the media. “I felt that the support I was giving to the profession was not repaying and the efforts made to help journalists were hampered,” said Mendis.

The constraints

The constraints made her move away from the world of media, but her friends in the media did not move away from her. It was  her passion to work with marginalised groups that made her reach out to provincial correspondents, women journalists and young journalists.

And yet again it was this passion that made her nestle in a position which helped her nurture small and medium entrepreneurs throughout Sri Lanka through the Business for Peace Alliance which is a network of regional chambers of commerce throughout Sri Lanka.

BPA is a ‘bottom’s up’ initiative of a regional chamber of commerce for regional empowerment, fostering national unity and practising CSR at regional levels.

An interface

“The BPA umbrella brings together more than 15,000 businesses largely from the marginalised regions of the country, all fired by the same drive and passion for common goals in respect of what business can achieve in furthering peace through empowerment of the region.

“In its operation, BPA acts as an interface for these business entities with their counterparts from the more affluent business centres of the country as well as with relevant forums both locally and internationally such as government, civil society organisations and foreign business fraternities, where exchange  lends wings to our endeavours for true regional prosperity and unity, propelled largely by the regions themselves,” says  H.D. Wijayanandana, chairman and founder member of the BPA in a message.

“Working with the regional business community is a rewarding experience  and each day is a new learning experience about the realities in the grass roots in the Sri Lanka. Our present Chairman,  Suresh De Mel, is a charismatic businessman from the south who is enormously committed to social responsibility and regional empowerment,” said Mendis.

Drive to succeed

And it is Mendis’ goal to see that success reaches these people with the drive to succeed.

Yet her  heavier thought rests with the fourth estate.

“I have seen a fear psychosis and uncertainty  everywhere. Be it among the journalists or among the SMEs whom I deal with. Sri Lanka is still a very male dominated society and especially the business community is still very much a male world. But I have as the CEO of the BPA, with over 15,000 people, won the respect and cooperation by adhering today to professionalism, transparency and integrity and leadership by example,” said Mendis who has proven through her success that gender is no bar to professionalism and success.

Pursing the importance of livelihood development and self employment opportunities as a means to achieve success for women, Mendis insists that it is social skills as communication that will give them the confidence. “English is very important. In the modern world lack of knowledge of  English and IT education will stunt opportunity,” observed Mendis.

Manique Mendis has pursued her life’s role and more. As success envelops her in her professional life, being a wife and a mother has helped enhance her feelings and dreams for  mothers and children everywhere.

Each of us have done our part in life, Manique Mendis has done her part and more…

Is Sri Lanka musically uninterested or not talented?

I have actually tried this once, where I stepped out of the car, approached around 10 young men and women standing near a bus halt, and I asked them, are you into music? Four out of the 10 told me, yes we love to listen and the other six said, of course we are recording an album!

Out of those six self proclaimed recording artistes, all six had not received formal training in singing, never performed on stage, even during school concerts and most interestingly didn’t know what a musical scale was. I went back to the car and made notes as part of my research, which revealed that out of the 63 random people I spoke to, a staggering 40% were recording artists and 50% of that figure were musically uneducated novices. No wonder we see and hear so much garbage in Sri Lanka, that the municipal council is having trouble clearing.

I have been on the lookout for some young talented singers who have the potential of becoming artistes on an international platform, both male and female. Sadly my search has ended with few, and extensive work being done with some of them, behind closed doors without making too much fuss. This little out of 18 million is just not acceptable, so why is it so hard?

This is partly to do with our culture. When at relatives dinners and other functions, I tell people that besides being a lecturer and writer that I am in the music industry, the first question asked would always be, “So do you play at hotels and weddings”? For the love of god, the music industry includes, writers, producers, promoters, managers, executives, musicians, singers, artistes etc., and not only those you see at lobbies and weddings. No wonder all parents discourage their children from taking music too seriously.

Lack of big bucks

It is somewhat true, that those who are really talented, are not the ones who take to a music career  simply because of the lack of big bucks in it unless you make 6/8 rhythms or very confined music to our local masses. Outside of that there is very little money being earned and spent as a result.

My good friend Prihan, who is a rising star in the local industry (one of the few who doesn’t need Auto-tune) with his hit singles Oya Daase and Yayata Payana, also an entrepreneur in the digital distribution sector of the local industry, confirms that this is the main stream of income as the physical products are not selling much anymore.

In the Western segment, there are still a number of awful bands playing covers of Long Train Running and Tequila Sunrise in many clubs and pubs around Sri Lanka. These musicians are talented but simply lack vision, originality and business strategy to take their music to greater heights. In fact they don’t even have their own music. They need to understand their long train is running out of steam and the tequila bottle is nearing its end as the sun goes down, never to rise again!

I have heard so many experienced and talented singers like Kevin Almeida, Shane Beringer, Dillain Joseph etc. who can do so much more with their careers internationally  if they just paid attention to the calling of the contemporary music world. If I get these guys in a studio, we could easily have their music placed on overseas television series, films, advertisements and even shop a recording deal! So call me folks and let me write and produce the music you need to compete on an international scale.

You can’t survive

I recently heard a collaboration of Sri Lanka’s top singers coming together to sing about patriotic Sri Lankans. My ears are still bleeding from that horror ride I let myself go on. The song writing was abysmal, production hilarious and story line pathetic. Wake up people! This gentleman, who masterminded this project, was the same man from whom I purchased my first synthesiser at 14, at which point he told me “don’t get into this business, it’s tough and you can’t survive.” Well, now I would like to offer him some advise, and that is leave the industry unless your willing to adapt and change, as this is about survival of the fittest.

On the flip side, there are very good, young and talented singers, who do understand about- image, repertoire, styling, business models etc. and are unwilling to bend on their music genre and their interest sparking a conflict. They simply think along the lines of ‘I like Corrine Bailey so I should sing that type of music.’ Not so easy people, you must understand where you come from determines to a great extent where you go and how you can go about doing that.

In most cases these four feet no inches girls who look as poppy as bubble gum, want to enter the rock or blues genre, and others pick a genre of music which caters to a niche, and will be accepted only by an artiste representing the race, religion, colour of that niche. Yes folks although MJ said “it don’t matter if your black or white”, he knew that it matters too, and he was dying to be white! Some of our local rock acts may need to do that too, to be taken seriously!

Just like Autobot, Optimus Prime in Transformers made a call out to all the Autobots to join them in making a new day for mankind, I call out anyone who’s talented and interested in pursuing music more seriously whilst engaging in education or work, to mail me at azlan_31@yahoo.com for a meeting. Till then, I’ll be watching and waiting!

Mt. Lavinia Hotel has revamped their website www.mountlaviniahotel.com in order to make it easier for patrons to access hotel information, said General Manager, Mt. Lavinia Hotel, Anura Dewapura. 

With the new look, wider information on the hotel and its available facilities including banquet menus could be easily traced and according to Dewapura those who are interested in shopping at Mt. Lavinia Hotel could select from the ‘Lavinia Gift’ menu. There is also fast access to ‘travel trips.’

Same-name couple to wed after Facebook meeting

Kelly Hildebrandt from Miami will vow to share her life with a man who already shares her name in October.

This is no joke. Kelly Katrina Hildebrandt, 20, and Kelly Carl Hildebrandt, 24, expect just over 100 guests at a ceremony at the Lighthouse Point Yacht and Racquet Club in South Florida, where they will become husband and wife.

She is reported to have said at an interview “He is just everything that I’ve ever looked for”. “There’s always been certain qualities that a guy has to have. And he has all the ones I could think of — and more.”

Their modern romance was a match made in cyberspace. She was curious and bored one night last year, so she plugged her name into the popular social networking web site Facebook just to see if anyone shared it.

At the time, Kelly Hildebrandt, of Lubbock, Texas, was the only match.

So she sent him a message.

She said “Hi. We have the same name.” Thought it was cool, Kelly Carl Hildebrandt said. “I thought she was pretty cute.”

But there were also concerns. “I thought, man, we’ve got to be related or something,” he said.

For the next three months the two exchanged e-mails. Before he knew it, occasional phone calls turned into daily chats, sometimes lasting hours. He visited her in Florida after a few months and “fell head over heels.”

“I thought it was fun,” he said of that first online encounter. “I had no idea that it would lead to this.”

Months after Kelly Hildebrandt sent her first e-mail, she found a diamond engagement ring hidden in a treasure box on a beach in December.

“I totally think that it’s all God’s timing,” Kelly Katrina Hildebrandt said. “He planned it out just perfect.”

She’s a student at a local community college. He works in financial services. They plan to make their home in South Florida.

It hasn’t been all smooth sailing. A trip on a cruise ship almost got canceled when the travel agent deleted one ticket from the system, thinking someone had plugged in the same information twice.

There was also some uncertainty about how to phrase their wedding invitations, so they decided to include their middle names. But any confusion likely won’t carry on past the husband and wife. Kelly Katrina Hildebrandt said there are no plans to pass along the name to future children.

“No,” she said. “We’re definitely not going to name our kids Kelly.”

Humour

Doctor: Did you know that there are more than 1,000 bones in the human body?

Larry: Shhh, doctor! There are three dogs outside in the waiting room!

A man walked into a therapist’s office looking very depressed. "Doc, you’ve got to help me. I can’t go on like this." "What’s the problem?" the doctor inquired. "Well, I’m 35 years old and I still have no luck with the ladies. No matter how hard I try, I just seem to scare them away." "My friend, this is not a serious problem. You just need to work on your self-esteem. Each morning, I want you to get up and run to the bathroom mirror. Tell yourself that you are a good person, a fun person, and an attractive person. But say it with real conviction. Within a week you’ll have women buzzing all around you."

The man seemed content with this advice and walked out of the office a bit excited. Three weeks later he returned with the same downtrodden expression on his face. "Did my advice not work?" asked the doctor. "It worked alright. For the past several weeks I’ve enjoyed some of the best moments in my life with the most fabulous looking women." "So, what’s your problem?" "I don’t have a problem," the man replied. "My wife does."

There are several different kinds of doctors, and it is told that they can be differentiated by the following method: General Practitioners know nothing and do little. Surgeons know little and do everything. Internists know everything and do nothing. Pathologists know everything and can do everything, but it’s usually too late.

Used to be

At the beginning of my shift I placed a stethoscope on an elderly and slightly deaf female patient’s anterior chest wall. "Big breaths," I instructed. "Yes, they used to be," remorse the patient.

A new arrival, about to enter hospital, saw two white coated doctors searching through the flower beds. "Excuse me," he said, "have you lost something?" "No," replied one of the doctors. "We’re doing a heart transplant for an income-tax inspector and want to find a suitable stone."

The psychology instructor had just finished a lecture on mental health and was giving an oral test. Speaking specifically about manic depression, she asked, "How would you diagnose a patient who walks back and forth screaming at the top of his lungs one minute, then sits in a chair weeping uncontrollably the next?" A young man in the rear raised his hand and answered, "A basketball coach?"

A man visits the doctor for a check-up, and after some tests, the doctor comes in with a grave look on his face.

Doctor: Well, I have some bad news and some really bad news.

Man: Well, give me the really bad news first.

Doctor: You have cancer, and only 6 months to live.

Man: And the bad news?

Doctor: You have Alzheimer’s disease.

Man: That’s great. I was afraid I had cancer!