First, a reminder that you may send your aviation questions to me at support@fromthecockpit.com with "Aviation Question" in the subject. Be sure to check out this week's Ask Cap'n Meryl question & answer about the difference between what the pilot feels when flying with a stick vs. a yoke

Last week I offered my congratulations to Courtney Riecan, who recently attained her Private Pilot's license. Courtney became inspired last April to become a pilot and is now in flight school in Orlando, Florida, to accomplish her goal. I've posted a new photo of Courtney in my Sky Ladies Album, taken just after the successful completion of her check ride, with her check pilot and proud flight instructor:Photo Gallery

Also, last week I posted a question from one of my readers: He asked whether there is a "website where you can see all the planes flying in the US and zoom down to see your area, kind of a live radar map of the US." Thanks for all the responses on this. Most of you sent this link: http://www.flightaware.com along with a direct link to live tracking: http://www.flightaware.com/live

A few other readers sent the following link: http://www4.passur.com and you can add your own city. For instance, http://www4.passur.com/ewr.html

In the last issue, I put the decision to my you, my readers, whether or not there was any interest in seeing the sequel I started for "The World At My Feet." Part way through, I left United and the publisher no longer felt I would have the content they desired. The project was terminated a little more than halfway through. However, the chapters I did write may make entertaining reading, and so many of you responded favorably that I will go ahead and publish about half a chapter per Update (due to length). A few of the chapters have been published elsewhere, so you may on occasion recognize them, especially readers who have been with me for a year or more.

There will be a separate link so you can read anything you might have missed thus far, and I'll be adding to it each week. That way, if you're a new reader or just missed one part, you'll be able to view everything posted so far. Much of the content has to do with experiences I had prior to joining United, but none of it was included in "The World at My Feet."

Of course your comments are always welcome regarding whether you enjoy this new content or not. Comments should be sent to me at support@fromthecockpit.com and just put "Sequel" in the subject line. If you spot any plain old typos, I hope you'll pop me a note so I can get them corrected.

This link will take you to the Table of Contents, and you’ll see the entire Prologue may be linked to from there.

Al The Web Guy and I wish you the happiest of Holiday Seasons!


Prologue (continued from last week)

I’d first traveled this same route by train 35 years ago when I left my home in San Diego, but things were different now. Back then, trains had a certain sound to them—a certain rhythm. First there would be a loud CLANK CLANK as the momentum started, followed by a more subdued clunk clunk. Then another CLANK CLANK, followed by clunk clunk. The clanking would get faster and faster and faster and would finally disappear as the train got up to speed. Back then, you could feel the rails.

This train was very sleek and modern. If I hadn’t been looking out the window as we pulled out of the Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof (Main Train Station) I would have had no sensation that we were moving at all. The ride was so smooth that later, after I’d had my head down for awhile reading, when I looked out I literally could not tell whether we were moving or not in the pitch-black before the first light of dawn. With nothing for my eyes to focus on, I was convinced we were stopped. A few minutes later I saw some lights whiz by and realized we were traveling at full speed. It was remarkable, especially when compared to some of the ear-shattering local trains I’d experienced in the United States.

I was impressed by the smoothness and quietness of the ride, but I missed the noise and rhythm of the train on the rails. My mind raced ahead now. What would I find when I got to Innsbruck? Was my host family dead or alive? If they were still alive, had they moved and I wouldn’t be able to find them? How old would they be? I was now fifty-one. They would have to be in their eighties. This trip had come up so suddenly I’d had no time to try and look them up first. This was crazy! What was I even doing here?

This was just like me. My whole life seems to have been dictated by irresistible spur-of-the-moment whims and my succumbing to them. It kept things interesting—that’s for sure. The argument about whether I should or should not have made the effort to take this trip raged in my head all the way to Innsbruck.

When my flight had touched down in Frankfurt from Kuwait just fifteen hours or so earlier, it was the middle of the night. I had almost exactly fifty hours on this extra long layover to either take this side-trip or forget the whole thing. The normal layover time was around twenty-six hours, never long enough to consider a side-trip like this, but this was an exception.

I was so groggy when I finally lay down in my hotel bed at 2:00 AM this morning, I decided to not set an alarm and, on the off-chance I woke up in time just two hours later, I would get up no matter what and go catch that train. That’s the deal I made with myself.

The “night shift,” as I like to call it—otherwise known as my subconscious—apparently couldn’t resist the temptation, and woke me up at precisely 3:55 AM. The voice in my head was saying, “You may never get this chance again! Get up, already! Don’t you even think about going back to sleep. I’m not going to let you. I’m going to stay right here and scream at you inside your head until you get up. "GET UP! GET UP! GET UP!" I got up.

At least I’d had the foresight to research train schedules ahead of time and knew there was an early train departing around 5:00 AM. There would be two transfers involved to get me to Innsbruck. If I missed any of them, there would be no time to catch up and I’d have no choice but to return to Frankfurt, mission unaccomplished. A train even a few hours later would not connect to anything that would get me there before nightfall. It was go now, or forget the whole thing.

So here I was, having flown a military charter as a captain for United the day prior all the way from Frankfurt to Kuwait and back with over ten hours of flight time and several hours on the ground waiting for the troops to arrive for the flight back, barely able to keep my eyes open, heading full-speed into my rather colorful past.

I hoped I’d find my host family still alive and in the same house, but realized I could easily be making this fourteen-hour trip in vain. Still, as I gazed out the window, I thought how surprised they would be to see me and to read what adventures had befallen me. It would be worth it just to see their faces again.

As my train raced on, deeper and deeper into the mountains, my mind wandered to events which happened since 1985. That’s the year the narrative in my book stopped, the year I was hired by United Airlines, the year my dream of becoming a pilot for United was realized, the year I knew all my hard work and disappointments along the way were worth it.

It was also the worst year of my life.

Please note Al The Web Guy has created a free photo gallery site where you'll be able to post your own photos in your own private gallery. Your family and friends will be able to view all your photos. You can register and upload your photos at Your Photo gallery

"The World At My Feet" and "Flights of Whimsy" 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

Be sure to check out this week's Ask Captain Meryl question & answer about figuring an airplane's weight: Figuring an Airplane's Weight

First a couple of notes: Our friend Courtney Riecan is due congratulations as she got her Private Pilot license last week. For those of you new to this newsletter, Courtney first wrote to me last spring, inspired to become a pilot herself after reading "The World At My Feet." She called me immediately right after she passed her check ride, and I couldn't be more proud of her if she were my own daughter. She decided what she wanted to do, took the necessary steps, overcame financial and other obstacles and is on her way to becoming a professional pilot. By the way, she wasted no time and was back in school the very next morning to start working on her instrument rating. Congratulations, Courtney!

By the way, there are several nice photos of Courtney on both pages of my "Sky Ladies" Album in my Photo Gallery: Sky Ladies

Secondly, I received a couple of notes from a flight attendant for Singapore Airlines who was inspired after hearing about my story, and even more so after she started reading my book. She wrote to tell me she, too, has decided to find a flight school and become a professional pilot. Her own obstacles include a traditional Chinese family who thinks she should go get married and have children, but she is insistent and it sounds like she has convinced them to support her. Hopefully I'll hear more from her in the future.

The third note is a question I got from a reader and I'm hoping you can help. He asked whether there is a "website where you can see all the planes flying in the US and zoom down to see your area, kind of a live radar map of the US." If anyone knows of such a site I'd really appreciate it if you would send the info to me at support@fromthecockpit.com. Please put "info for Cap'n Meryl" in the subject.

The fourth, and final, note is that I'm offering a Christmas Special on my "Flying Fearless--Ground School for Passengers" CD course. It normally sells for $67 from my site www.flyingfearless.com but it's on sale now for just $47 for a limited time and includes a free bonus. I mention this because of the number of questions I get from readers who are unaware of either the site or the course: Special Offer

Now, on to this week's title. There isn't a week that goes by that I don't get at least several inquiries regarding the status of the sequel to "The World At My Feet." At the time I signed the contract with the publisher, I was still flying for United Airlines. When I retired, it pretty much messed things up in terms of finishing the book because it was meant to include current flying stories. I wrote fourteen chapters but then the project was abandoned as I no longer had any desire to write it and the publisher no longer had any desire to publish it. I'm still working on a hard-cover fear of flying book, but that's still in the editing process. My Ebook, however, is available at www.flyingfearless.com.

Since I never finished the sequel, I've decided to put out a feeler as to whether my readers might be interested in viewing the unfinished product, probably about half a chapter at a time due to the length. Please give me your feedback on this and I'll make a decision based upon your response.

By the way, just so you know, there may actually be some flying in my future, but not for at least another five to six months. It would be worldwide and include both wide-body and narrow body aircraft, but more about that later as the opportunity develops (if it develops).

In the meantime, I'm giving you just the first few paragraphs of the Prologue now of my unfinished sequel to help you make your decision whether or not you'd like to read more. You can send your feedback to me at support@fromthecockpit.com and please put "Sequel" in the subject line.

Prologue to the Sequel of "The World At My Feet"

My train is racing through the Alps. The scenes that rush by my window are charming and incredibly beautiful, each village with its colorful steepled or onion-topped churches and neat, pleasing-to-the-eye gingerbread patterns in the houses. The snow is deep and the sky an impossible sapphire blue.

I can’t believe thirty-five years has passed since I last traveled this route from Frankfurt to Innsbruck, Austria, surely one of most picturesque and largely unsung cities in all of Europe. Even after all this time, it seems as though part of me is still in Innsbruck, having never left.

I hadn’t bothered to pack a suitcase in the dark hours before dawn this morning when I’d crept quietly out of my hotel after only two hours of sleep. I didn’t intend to be gone overnight, although one never knows, and I was just too exhausted to bother packing. All I carried was a shopping bag containing my ever-present camera and a copy of my autobiography, which had been published only several months prior. It was to be a gift to a family which had last known me thirty-five years ago, when I was barely sixteen.

Since then so much had happened, and I wondered what their reaction would be when I showed them the book I had written. They were in the book as an important part of my life, yet they had no knowledge of this, nor of the fact that I was now one of the few women in the world who had made it into the left seat of a major airline as an international airline captain. When I knew them, I hadn’t even thought about being a pilot yet. That inspiration was to come a few years later.

It had been awhile since I had read my own book, and I reread the parts of it about them in the first hours of my journey, which would last over seven hours. I was a little warm in spite of the bitter cold that morning. I hadn’t realized the streetcars in Frankfurt didn’t run this early and had staggered exhaustedly the mile or so from my hotel in the dark.

Want more? Write to me and let me know.

And with that,
Until Next Time,
Maintain Airspeed,

Cap'n Meryl

It’s late, and I just uploaded the podcast. You can get it here:

Shownotes will be later today.