This episode gives my take on the SwissAir Flight 111 accident, a little talk about handling fire and smoke emergencies in flight, and Philippe’s final segment on the Golden Age of French Aviation from the Wright Brothers to World War 1. You can download the podcast directly here:. Adam Curry’s Podfinder can be found here, and episode 8 of the Flying Pilot Podcast is here.

SwissAir 111

• Canadian TSB Accident Report

Inflight Fire and Smoke Emergencies

Golden Age of French Aviation

• Philippe’s Podcast: Aviapod

Podsafe Music

• Milk at the Podsafe Music Network
• MilkMusic.net

First of all, I'd like to thank all the readers
who wrote expressing sympathy or offering to help
reconstruct our Photo Gallery, which our virus
protection program took down. It had been hacked
into and we were dealing with that when the virus
was detected. Bad day for our Photo Gallery, to
say the least. We had dealt with hackers
previously but the virus corruption was too much
and down it went.

Although we have our most important files backed
up, the Photo Gallery had to be put back up
manually, photo by photo, over 450 of them.
We've completed the task about 95% at this time
and have reinstated the link through
www.fromthecockpit.com or you can get there
directly at www.fromthecockpit.com/Gallery . Be
sure you use the capital G in Gallery.

We've had nearly 100,000 views of our Gallery
while I've been putting it back up, mostly due to
the fact that my last two columns at usatoday.com
had direct links to the Boeing Dreamliner album.
We have far more photos on file than were posted
previously, so if and when you browse through it
you may see some that are new to you.

If you spot typos, incorrect information, missing
favorite photos, etc. please write to me at
info@fromthecockpit.com and put PHOTOS in the
subject line, and thanks in advance for your
help. Photos of readers, other pilots, and other
pilots' photos are welcome. We don't post
everything we receive, but do post many of them.

Now, regarding my situation with United, I am now
retired. I'm not going to be able to divulge
either the terms surrounding my retirement or the
particular set of circumstances which led to it,
unfortunately, but I did agree to keep the terms
confidential and I will abide by that agreement.
I can answer one thing, though, and that is that
I was involved in neither an accident nor an
incident as some have asked. My retirement
stemmed from a perceived conflict of interest.
In any case, I am now separated, satisfied with
the terms of my departure, and am keeping an eye
open for other opportunities.

The first thing people usually say to me, after
learning of my retirement from United, is how I
will be "snapped up" by another airline.
Unfortunately, it doesn't work this way. With
over 20 years of seniority at United, I couldn't
start over again at my age, with just seven years
until mandatory retirement age. Airlines don't
want to hire senior captains as junior copilots,
the pay would be a small fraction of what I
earned previously, and the cockpit dynamics would
be disastrous even if I could get hired
elsewhere.

Overseas, if I were a guy I'd have it made. To
date, a dozen airlines have told me I'm qualified
to be hired as a B-777 captain, but when they've
found out I'm female told me they don't hire
foreign female captains. The one exception was
Air India but their contract demanded a move to
Mumbai, India, and I don't think so. Maybe when
I was 20, but not now.

Other foreign carriers, the ones that won't
interview me, have contracts providing for a
monthly paid-for commute home. It sounds rough,
but I'd actually be home more than I was at
United when I commuted to Chicago several times
per month to fly. Some of the carriers that
rejected my application have female copilots,
mostly of the same nationality as the carrier,
but won't consider me for employment as a
captain. Some won't hire women as pilots at all,
but in any case I've explored that option to
exhaustion.

Regardless, I have at least one iron in the fire
regarding a desirable flying position, but I'll
address that later if it actually turns into a
flying position. If anything else should fall
into my lap, like an international corporate
flying job on a really sophisticated jet, I might
consider that as well.

In the meantime, last week I mentioned Al The Web
Guy and I were invited to Seattle as guests of
the Microsoft Flight Simulator Team. There was a
considerable amount of whining and whimpering
when we had to leave Coco The Pomeranian at the
dog sitter's. The dog was upset, too, but it
just couldn't be helped. Our other wildlife is
okay for a day or two, but our pooch needs people
around. The sitter later told us Coco jumped out
of her arms and chased after our car, but he
stopped obediently for her when she yelled after
him. All our domestic wildlife, along with some
outside actual wildlife, is pictured in the At
Home album at www.fromthecockpit.com/Gallery.

We flew up on Alaska Airlines and found their
737-900 comfortable and clean with a wonderful
cabin crew. I used to dread flying in the 737 as
a passenger, but the newer models are quite nice.
The last one I flew as a pilot was way back at
Wien Air Alaska in the early 80's, and that was a
B-737-200.

The guys at Microsoft treated us to a tour of
their campus, as they call it, in Redmond,
Washington, about a half hour from Seattle. The
tour included treating us to lunch at the
facility's cafeteria soon after we arrived by
private limo. The selection was really good. Al
The Web Guy had a BBQ beef sandwich provided by a
local restaurant which serves their food at
Microsoft's facility, while I decided to at least
pretend like I was behaving and had some soup.
There was, of course, being so near Seattle, a
Starbucks counter right there and we followed up
with coffee to take with us on our tour.

We met audio guys, graphics guys, technical guys,
marketing guys--lots of guys and I'm using guys
in the generic sense, meaning of course there
were women as well. All were young enough to
make me feel old, but I'll get over it, I
suppose. Just not anytime soon. You can meet
some of them in the new Micrsoft FlightSim Team
album here:
Microsoft Flight simulator Team


I had actually not been aware there even was such
a thing as a desktop flight simulator until
readers started asking questions about them.
Microsoft thought it was quite funny when I told
them I had responded to some emails from pilots
telling me about their flights, only to discover
later they were talking about simulated flights.
Even looking back at their emails now, it's hard
to tell they're not really pilots. I get emails
from all over the planet from actual airline
pilots and was clueless until one of them very
diplomatically asked me if I realized he was
talking about simulated flights. I didn't
realize it at all and felt just a little foolish.

One reader, as I mentioned in my last Update,
contacted Microsoft and insisted I would be a
good addition to their Team. Apparently they
agreed and Al The Web Guy and I are now working
with the FlightSim Team. Our own site will
undergo some changes in the next few months as we
join forces with them. Our contribution will
center on writing content for their site,
answering questions from FlightSim users, etc. We
still have lots of details to work out with them.

In the meantime, as luck and serendipity would
have it, Microsoft is hosting an International
Flight Simulator convention right here in Denver
July 1st and 2nd. The last one was held in the
United Kingdom and it's just our luck that this
one is to be held right in our own neighborhood.
You can read more about it here:
IFC Convention

After the Team hosted us at their offices,
treated us to a private limo, lunch and a lavish
dinner that night and put us up in the new and
luxurious Westin Hotel in Bellevue, we couldn't
help but want to try and reciprocate at least a
little. They wouldn't even let us pay for our
incidentals such as phone calls and other meals.
So the night before the convention starts, the
five of them coming to run things at the
convention will be our guests for dinner. Thank
God Al The Web Guy is also a Master Chef, at
least in my opinion, so they won't be subjected
to any of the lab experiments I have, on
occasion, loosely referred to as food.

And that's who's coming to dinner. Go figure. A
few weeks ago folks from Microsoft are pretty
much the last people I would have imagined
sitting at our dinner table. Life is funny that
way, isn't it?

And with that,
Until Next Time,
Maintain Airspeed!
Cap'n Meryl

www.fromthecockpit.com
www.flyingfearless.com
www.fromthecockpit.com/profile.htm(keynote speaker)

First, I’m happy to report that Al The Web Guy
appears to be completely over his recent serious
staph infection. He went from daily intravenous
antibiotics to oral antibiotics a few weeks ago,
then finished taking medications altogether about
ten days ago. Everything seems to be normal
again. We still have no clue what led to this
scary and potentially fatal infection in his
knee. He had no cuts and no previous knee
injuries. Whatever caused it, all is well again
and thank you so much to all the readers who
wrote me or him asking about his condition.

Now, the name of this week’s Update refers to
something most unfortunate. I tried to make the
name amusing, but what happened is not terribly
funny. Our Photo Gallery was hacked into and the
files so corrupted that the whole thing had to
come down. We have all the photos stored but not
the captions, and debated whether to even bother
trying to put the whole thing back up again.

Part One of my B-787 column had just been
published at usatoday.com when this happened, and
there was a direct link to the Photo Gallery from
the column. We’d already had over 10,000 views
of some of the Dreamliner photos in just 24
hours, so we hastily put that album right back up
again. My editor at usatoday.com responded
immediately to my request of a new hyperlink from
the column to the new stand-alone photo gallery
devoted to the 787 Dreamliner.

Right after that we put the B-777 album back up
and then just kept going, restoring other albums
the best we could, one at a time. This is, after
all, a personal gallery for Al The Web Guy and me
as well as a collection of photos for the public
to hopefully enjoy. All weekend, Al The Web Guy
has been doing his best to get over 400 photos
back up, having to guess in some cases which
album the photos belong in. My job is to
re-create the captions as closely as possible and
shuffle the photos into the right albums where
needed. When the gallery got shot down, we’d had
over 1.7 million views of all the photos.
Overnight, we had over 22,000 views. You can see
the counters on the individual photos and the
grand count near the top when you first sign into
the gallery, in case you’ve never noticed.

There were numerous comments on many of the
photos and those are lost forever, unfortunately.
My thanks to those of you who wrote such nice
observations and hopefully you’ll want to write
others.

When Al The Web Guy and I are satisfied with the
completeness and accuracy of the new Photo
Gallery, I’ll be asking readers for assistance
looking for typos, etc., but not just yet as
we’re still far from finished. It has taken us
the entire weekend and our work is still quite a
ways from being complete.

Most of the caption restoration was done by
memory. There is a new album or two, such as the
one of a military charter to Kuwait. You’ll
recognize some of the photos, but some have been
added from our collection not previously posted.
More photos will be posted later this week. The
link to the restored Photo Gallery will be
www.fromthecockpit.com/Gallery and we won’t
reinstate the link from our site
www.fromthecockpit.com until we’re satisfied it’s
as complete as it’s going to get. That should be
by next week at the latest, but you can have a
peek now at our work in progress if you wish.

I am writing this at 7:00 AM Denver time on
Tuesday, June 13th. Al The Web Guy and I are
headed, in just a few minutes, first to our
dog-sitter’s house to drop off Coco The
Pomeranian (Al The Web Guy and the dog are
already suffering from Separation Anxiety), and
then on to the airport where we’ll catch an
Alaska Airlines flight up to Seattle. After one
of my readers wrote to the Microsoft FlightSim
Team that he thought I would make a good
interface between Microsoft’s product and the
public, I met with four of them just after I
finished up my Boeing tour recently in Seattle.
I delayed my departure by a few hours in order to
meet them for lunch at my Seattle hotel.

We hit it off and now they’re flying both Al The
Web Guy and me back to Seattle to come see their
operation. We’ll meet with them, do dinner,
spend the night and come home the next day. I
don’t know yet whether Al The Web Guy and I will
or will not be doing anything business together
with Microsoft, but it’s certainly flattering
that they’re interested in talking with us. I’ll
let you know what happens, if anything, when I
write the next Update. I’ll have my camera with
me, of course, and hopefully we’ll be able to put
up a Microsoft album in our Photo Gallery.

In the meantime, this week the legal dust should
settle between me and my airline and I’ll let my
readers know next time where things stand
regarding my relationship with them. I’ve had to
be annoyingly cryptic about the whole situation
over the past several months, but I trust my
readers to understand this hasn’t been
deliberate. Rather, it’s been necessary for
legal reasons. I’ll be limited in what I can
say, but at least you’ll know basically what
happened in another week or so if there are no
more delays, and none are expected at this point.

So wish us a good trip, have a look at the
partially reinstated Photo Gallery here
www.fromthecockpit.com/Gallery and Al The Web Guy
and I will be in touch soon with another Update.

“The World At My Feet” and “Flights of Whimsy”
marketing test was a success and is now a
permanent offer in our Gift Ideas area at
fromthecockpit.com. Just $25 for both books,
shipped anywhere in the world for free for a
savings of $12.85.
Click here:
Gift Ideas

And with that,
Until Next Time,
Maintain Airspeed!
Cap'n Meryl

http://www.flyingfearless.com
http://www.fromthecockpit.com

Today, we have a special podcast, with a doctor who was recently an Air Force flight surgeon. He talks about his experiences, as well as the physiological and medical aspects of flying — and how the human body was not designed for this.

Download the podcast directly here:

The Doctor’s Fighter Upgrade Training Patch

The Air Force Flight Surgeon

• USAF Flight Surgeon’s Guide
• Spatial Disorientation Seeing is Not Believing (This is a .pdf file)
• Aerospace Physiology Training
• FAA Pilot Safety Brochures
• Flight Surgeon Badges

Add yourself to the Frappr Map! Vote for the show on Podcast Alley.