over Oman, Monday, 1995-06-12(2) 07:00 local (Z+4)
Believe it or not, I actually seem to have slept well in this first class seat on the upper deck. Am I regaining an ability that I seemed to have lost with age, that of being able to sleep anyplace? I sure hope so. It would be most helpful in this job.
I strolled around downstairs. It's really strange to see all those empty seats and—on this leg—not even any flight attendants down there. The flight attendants that will be working the trip are waiting in Jeddah as is the captain. If things had worked as they should the first officer and flight engineer would be also. However, what happened is that when that crew arrived in Jeddah, they believed they would be deadheading back on the last flight out of Jeddah. Since most crew members don't like to spend one second more than they have to in Saudi Arabia, the first officer and flight engineer elected to forego sleeping in the Sheraton at Jeddah. The captain, being a middle east type himself, apparently doesn't harbor the intense dislike for Saudi most of us have, and he elected to sleep at the hotel. So, because the f.o. and f.e. didn't want to surrender their passports one more time, I and the engineer with me are going to have a brutal day. I can't really fault the crew members who elected not to stay; I would have done the same. Words cannot express my contempt for Saudi society and the deep-down anger I feel while I'm there.
This airplane's downstairs seating is interesting. It's all coach, standard configuration for Tower, but I counted seats from 4 different airlines. The aircraft itself is an old Virgin Atlantic airplane. All of what was the old coach has the original seats (with Virgin embroidered on them—wonder what that makes people think?). What was the business and first class sections have been replaced with coach, and with seats from 3 different airlines, none of them Virgin (but at least they don't have the airline's name on them). I had thought Tower also put the upper deck into a coach configuration, but I'm finding that most of the upper decks still retain the original first class seats. That's typically only 12 seats and by going to coach in the upper deck, you only pick up 4 more seats.
Oh, yes, I found some food. I hope to make that and one meal during the return trip my total intake for the day. I've got to stay below 170.