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Letter
from the President: Flying with the wind
In
late November, I traveled to Perth,
Australia
to give the keynote speech at the Flow Measurement Forum. The
Forum was held on November 28 and 29, 2012.
I also gave a four-hour workshop on
flowmeters. The focus of both presentations was on flowmeters used in the
oil and gas business, and the energy markets more generally.
This is an important topic in
Australia, since they are a major provider of natural gas and LNG and also have
significant supplies of crude oil.
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Jesse Yoder in Sydney, Australia |
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Just
getting there is half the battle.
In case you have been to
Australia
, you know that getting there is a lengthy process. I left my house at 2:00
pm on Saturday for a flight from
Boston
to New York. This was to catch a
New York
flight at midnight to Dubai. The flight to Dubai
lasted 13 hours. Then I had a
6-hour layover in
Dubai
before boarding a 12-hour Emirates flight to Perth. All told, it took me 39 hours
to get to
Perth
from
Boston. Since I can’t sleep on
planes, I was beyond exhausted by the time I got there.
I arrived in Perth
around 7:30 pm on Monday evening, November 26.
The
Flow Measurement Forum
The
morning of November 28, I gave a four hour workshop about the different
flow technologies, their advantages and disadvantages, and their
applications in energy environments. The
audience was a mixture of people from process plants, universities, and
engineers and technicians. I
was also asked to chair the afternoon sessions.
The
following morning (November 29), I gave the keynote speech, the focus of
which was a more high-level look at flow measurement trends in energy along
with trends in oil and gas production and exploration.
This is such an exciting topic because so much is happening both in
natural gas and crude oil production. More
and more attention is shifting to natural gas because it is cheaper,
cleaner, and more plentiful than crude oil.
Australia
is the epicenter for a great deal of natural gas development. The Gorgon
Project exists in a couple of islands offshore of northwest
Australia. The Gorgon Gas Fields are
about 130 kilometers off the coast of northwest Australia. Near the fields is
Barrow
Island
, where a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant is being built.
This plant is expected to produce 15.6 metric tons of LNG per year. Australia
opes to supply LNG to the entire region, with India
being a major destination. The
project, which is costing an estimated $54 billion, is a joint venture of
Chevron Australia, Shell Development Australia, and Mobil Australia Resources.
A rare day off: sushi and
sleep, plus the zoo
On
Friday, I had a free day. First,
I caught up on a little sleep. Then
I went walking around downtown
Perth
, looking for sushi places. I
also managed to get in a visit to the zoo, where I saw some panda bears and
kangaroos.
Visiting
Sydney
The next
day I flew to
Sydney
for three days. I actually had
only one free day there, since Saturday was taken up in flying east to
Sydney
. While the flight takes only
four hours, because you are flying east, due to time zones you lose three
hours of time on the clock. So
I left
Perth
in the morning for a 4-hour flight, but arrived in
Sydney
in the evening.
Visiting
Macnaught
Since I
can’t seem to go anywhere without visiting a flow company, I had set up a
meeting with Macnaught Industries for Monday, December 3.
This proved very interesting. Macnaught
is the largest positive displacement flowmeter supplier in
Australia
, and they are a lot larger than I realized. After
leaving Macnaught, I left for the hotel and headed for the airport at 5:00
pm.
Flying
with the wind at your back has definite advantages.
The return
trip was a little easier than the trip to
Perth
. I had only one stopover –
in
Dallas
– and then flew straight to
Boston
. This took closer to 28 hours
than the 39 hours I spend going from
Boston
to
Perth
. What was most significant
about my route is that I flew east the entire way, instead of heading east
and then returning the way I came. Because
I continued east to
Dallas
from
Sydney
instead of returning through
Dubai
, I saved at least eight hours of flying time.
I logged over 25,000 miles of flying time in a unique opportunity to
fly around the world.
Many
wonderful experiences and people
I’ve
been to
Dubai
,
Abu Dhabi
,
Oman
,
Qatar
,
Switzerland
,
Germany
,
Norway
,
Amsterdam
,
London
, and, in the
United States
, I’ve been to
Boulder
,
Minneapolis
and countless other places. I
love all these places, but what I love most is the truly wonderful people I
meet on these trips. My trip to
Australia
ranks up there among my very best trips – even though I was
sleep-deprived most of the time – and I wouldn’t trade the experience
for anything I can imagine. I
am grateful to Sarah Montgomery and IDC Technologies for giving me the
opportunity to make this trip. If
you ever have a chance to go to
Australia
, don’t hesitate!
--- Dr
Jesse Yoder, President
Here are
some further thoughts on “Flying with the wind.”
According
to Sir Newton, a body in motion stays in motion unless its progress is
impeded by some opposing force. But a body in motion that is flying with
the wind will accelerate.
Flying
with the wind means traveling and working with minimal encumbrances, taking
advantage of natural forces that are aiding you in a certain direction
Of course there are plenty of literal examples. But here’s a
different kind of example. At night I come back to the office and work for
several hours every night. I listen to music at top volume while doing so.
This energizes me and gets my mind and body in a kind of natural rhythm.
When
writing an article or study, I sometimes take a day or two to get my ideas
together. But when I start writing, I find that there is a natural flow of
ideas that takes over and enables me to write as long as is necessary.
I think
that people unnecessarily spend a lot of energy hiding their true feelings
from other people. If they would just let their emotions flow out of them,
they would no longer have to waste energy on hiding their feelings. Here
flying with the wind means letting your emotions flow freely.
A similar concept applies to people who worry about what other people think
about their appearance. If they dress in clothes that naturally express
themselves and their inner feelings, regardless of what others may think,
they will be much freer to act naturally without concern about other
people’s impressions.