Yesterday, the Abu Dhabi Air Expo concludes in Abu Dhabi, UAE and with many of the industry’s big hitters featuring the latest and greatest private jets available at the Al Bateen Executive Airport, one relatively small twin turboprop stood in their shadows.
Although dwarfed by the other planes, the eight-seater Beechcraft King Air C90, commands a central role in the weather patterns of the UAE.
“When it rained two or three weeks ago, we made it rain even more,” said Capt Brendon Allen, 38, who pilots one of the six cloud-seeding Beechcraft operated by the National Centre of Meteorology and Seismology.
The King Air had been modified by the center to shoot rain-inducing flares into clouds on the edge of releasing their moisture and it was on show at the opening day of the Abu Dhabi Air Expo.
The airport opened its gates and landing strips to the public on Tuesday as it hosted the third annual expo. The three-day outdoor aviation exhibition features 175 aviation manufacturers displaying the latest trends and innovations in aircraft manufacturing. Leading private aviation companies, including Boeing, Airbus and Gulfstream, displayed over 100 planes on the airport’s tarmac.
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“People who fly into hurricanes, they’re crazy. As we fly straight into thunderstorms, we’re just a bit disturbed.”
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Flying out of Al Ain and Al Bateen airports the modified aircraft used for cloud-seeding are sent into rough weather at a moment’s notice. “We just give the clouds a nudge,” said Capt Allen, a former South African air force pilot who began flying in the UAE more than six years ago. Capt Allen, who worked for more than five years as a flight instructor in Al Ain, said the weather airlines usually avoid, were the conditions he and his fellow pilots flew toward. “People who fly into hurricanes, they’re crazy. As we fly straight into thunderstorms, we’re just a bit disturbed.”
He added that the design of the sturdy Beechcraft was ideal for flying into turbulent weather. “When you fly into clouds 50,000 feet high that contain billions of gallons of water, you learn to respect weather.”
In the UAE’s arid climate, cloud-seeding is essential to increase the water table and provide farmers with much-needed water. “Sometimes people ask me if I can make it rain on their farm or house,” said Capt Allen, adding that weather patterns where too unpredictable to control the areas it rained over. But he said projects such as cloud-seeding provided valuable data, which were the building blocks for controlling weather in the future.
“There are places it rains too much and people die, and there are places where it doesn’t rain at all and people starve,” said Capt Allen, who believes the long-term goal should be to move weather where it wasn’t wanted to where it was. “I believe one day we’ll be able to make this desert green.”
While displaying the aircraft, Capt Allen was asked by 10 year-old visitor Sammy Zain whether creating more rain would prove to be a problem on the roads of the UAE. “I don’t think for one moment I’m endangering anybody. We don’t control the weather, and the benefit to the country as a whole far outweighs the tiny bit of risk.”
“The private aviation market is witnessing tremendous growth in Abu Dhabi and the wider region,” said Ali Majed Al Mansoori, chairman of Abu Dhabi Airports. “Abu Dhabi is fast becoming a regional leader in the aviation industry, and we are very pleased to once again host a first-class general aviation exhibition in the capital.”
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