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 about "Crabby Pilots”

Now, I may have exaggerated just a tad with the title, but that's just me. When a friend of mine invited me snowmobiling near his Breckenridge home I couldn't resist. I'd been snowmobiling just once before, for about ten minutes, sitting behind someone who believed in keeping his speed moderate--maybe about 20-30 mph. That was in Alaska about 25 years ago or so.

My friend assured me this would be a docile, scenic ride. There would be two others with us, a couple from Florida. That sounded like fun and with all the snow we've had I knew it would be beautiful, so I accepted the invitation.

Al The Web Guy made the trip to the mountains with us but has snowmobiled many times before and didn't want to leave our dog Coco-Puff, so they just wandered around the mountains a little while we zoomed off into the wilderness. And when I say "zoomed," I mean ZOOMED.

It was a weekday and we saw very few other snowmobilers. My host had a trailer full of snowmobiles, helmets, gloves, clothes and everything else you can imagine.

What I didn't know was he apparently has the need for speed and an apparent death-wish. I was in the #2 position behind him with the wife and husband in that order after me. He took off like a shot and right away I had trouble keeping up. Within the first 20 minutes I was barreling along so fast it was hard for me to take my eyes off the trail and look at my speedometer, but I managed to do so. 65mph! What was my host thinking and what was I thinking trying to keep up? I later discovered he rides at speeds up to 120 mph, so from his perspective I guess we were just poking along.

I was afraid I'd lose him, though, as the trails branched off and he was not always in sight, and tried valiantly to keep up. At one point the trail became extremely steep and I went out of control and right over the side of the mountain. The snow was very deep off the trail and I stopped fairly quickly, but it took about half an hour to dig me out. I had tried to brake but my gloves were just big enough to keep my grip from being firm enough. I later pulled them up high on my wrist for better control, which helped a little.

One by one, we each had our moments, catching someone else's ski and usually throwing both riders off but each time, our host helped us up, then took off again leaving us far behind.

Surprisingly, out in the middle of what seemed like nowhere, we came upon a lodge where our host sprang for hot chocolate and hot dogs. I declined the hot dog as Al and I had stopped on the way up for a big breakfast. I couldn't resist looking at the prices, though. Six dollars for a hot dog! Frankly (Get it? Frank-ly?) that's just too much for a hot dog. Or maybe the hot dog was really just $1 and the fries 50 cents apiece. Hard to say.

So we refreshed ourselves, pleaded again with our host to slow down, which he didn't, and the three of us proceeded to be flung all over the mountain some more. I had to be pulled out over and over again. My last incident was the worst when I went over a steep cliff and wound up buried, along with my trusty steed in deep snow.

Our host and the other gentleman with us were successful in digging me out along with the snowmobile, but the incident held us up and our two hour ride turned into a six hour ride. Al was on the verge of calling Search & Rescue, which wasn't a bad idea by that time.

However, we emerged safe and sound if a little banged up. Our host invited me snowmobiling again this week for another scenic tour but I politely declined. I'm still healing from the last round and not yet quite ready to be splattered all over the Rocky Mountains again.

To see some photos taken during the ride, the following link will take you to the Last Uploads in our Colorado Wildlife album: Snowmobiling

Part One of Chapter Two of my sequel to The World At My Feet is now available for viewing. You'll find it here in the Table of Contents . Table Of Contents

Just a note first, that I've posted a wonderful photo of Margaret Wade, wife of one of my readers Walter Wade, in my Cap'n Meryl & Friends Album. I have a special fondness for figure skating myself and you can tell by her smile and her very stance what she thinks of it: Margaret Wade

I've lived in Colorado for 18 years now (how could it possibly have been this long?) and there has never been this much snow. Al The Web Guy was born in Golden, Colorado, has lived here all his life and even he can't remember a snowier winter. We keep getting snowed in over and over and over, and when the snow stops, the wind picks up and renders us snowbound once again due to the newly-formed drifts, many of which are taller than I am.

With the white sky and the white snowscape, and with even the small amount of vegetation poking through now encased in ice, it looks quite like a different planet at the moment with no visible horizon at all.

Temperatures here are now sub-zero and forecast to stay that way for the next several days. I lived in Alaska for ten years and I don't remember weather any more wintry than we're having right here, and in fact it's colder right now here in Colorado than it is in Fairbanks, Alaska, known for it's sub-zero temperatures.

Except for the fact that this extreme cold and snow creates a true hardship for people without the means to house themselves and keep warm, and the fact that livestock and other animals are stranded without enough food, it actually has little effect on us. We have a warm house and everything we need right here, and there is scarcely a minute of the day I don't look around and truly appreciate how fortunate we are.

Last week I published the first half of Chapter One of the sequel to "The World At My Feet." You'll find a live link now to the second half of that chapter here: Table of Contents .

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

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 about winglets & sails

Unless you're completely out of touch with humanity, you probably heard that Colorado got absolutely clobbered by a blizzard just before Christmas, wreaking havoc at our "all weather" airport and across the state in general. Al The Web Guy and I were snowed in for five days, then got hit with Round 2 and were snowed in a second time for another three days.

Al and I reside about an hour and a half south of Denver International Airport and of course had plenty of warning for the blizzards on the way. However, Al developed a bad toothache the day before the expected arrival of Blizzard #1 and our dentist was so swamped he had to put Al off until the day of the storm.

The dentist showed up even though the blizzard had begun full force just before dawn. Al was in such pain he kept his appointment as well and headed out into howling 50 mph winds and blizzard conditions. He had not a minute to spare getting home and was unable to stop and get a prescription for pain killers and antibiotics for fear he wouldn't make it home at all. It turned out to be a good decision in spite of the pain.

Our driveway is a quarter mile long. Al got stuck or nearly stuck in snowdrifts several times on the way home on rural country roads and in fact didn't quite make it all the way, but had to abandon the car near the house and tromp through the drifts and the storm with high winds the rest of the way. Serious business, but he made it safe and sound and although he was really uncomfortable for a couple of days, gradually the pain subsided on its own and there didn't seem to be an infection.

This was on December 20th and we weren't able to make it out at all until Christmas Day. However, even then the snow kept drifting back over our driveway and we were once again snowbound. The day after Christmas was the first day we could get out with any certainty of getting back.

As harrowing as it was, after the storm subsided we had sapphire-blue skies and a true winter wonderland to gaze at in awe before the second storm arrived. I've added quite a few photos to our At Home album of our photo gallery including one of our car almost buried in snow where Al left it. The following link will take you to the latest uploads. They take up an entire page plus two photos on the next page of the album. Be sure to click the Back arrow when you've finished viewing: Latest Uploads

My good friend Kelli King, a regional jet pilot (and former music teacher) sent me a beautiful photo of a snowy night at O'Hare, taken from the cockpit of her jet. Click here to see it in my Guest Aviation Photos album and don't forget to click the Back arrow after you've looked.

She also sent me a long and detailed letter of a truly harrowing winter trip rife with delays, lost baggage and a multitude of other difficulties, but I want to share with you what she wrote when I asked her if she was still enjoying her job as a pilot, even though she had just written about the most horrific conditions on a trip lasting several days.

Kelli wrote: "In spite of it all, I LOVE my job! I figured out a long time ago that whatever you do in life, you should love it enough to put up with all that comes with it. I didn't have that love for teaching school music, but I do have that love for flying. No matter what happens on the ground, or what sort of politics are going on within the company, I absolutely have no regrets when I put those thrust levers forward. I'm willing to deal with quite a bit in order to have the privilege of sitting in one of the "good seats." I can't really see myself wanting to change fields, even within aviation. Airline life is strangely addictive and exciting, as you well know. Even though much of the "glamour" is gone, there is still a "mystique" to being an airline pilot. I used to think I wouldn't care what sort of pilot I was, as long as I was flying, but it turns out I do care, and as long as I can, I want to stay with the airlines! I am also blessed to have a husband who supports me in doing this crazy job.

Is that a wonderful response or what? And she's right when she says airline life is addictive. I'm still in withdrawal although adjusting well enough. In March I will have to decide whether to take up flying again with a potential job offer, but there are several factors to consider and my mind is not yet made up. More about that in the next few months.

And now, here is the next installment of the Sequel to The World At My Feet. The full title of the sequel, at least for now, will be "The World At My Feet, Part 2 - The Other End of The Rainbow." This link will take you to the Table of Contents, where you can click through to the entire Prologue, if you missed all or part of it, as well as the first part of Chapter One - The Rocking Chair: Table of Contents

From Al The Web Guy & me, Cap'n Meryl, along with our critters (you can meet them all at the link above for our At Home album), Miss Bunny Bunnée, The Ferret Brothers Petey & Charlie Chopper, Coco-Puff the Pomeranian and Houdini, our Chattering Lorrie, we wish you a very Happy & Prosperous 2007.

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

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.

A few have emailed me to ask if I have given up podcasting. Well, the answer is no, but I do apologize for being absent the last two months. Hopefully, soon I will publish an episode of conversations from the Saint Louis Air Show, and later this month, a full episode, talking about winter flying, the “day the music died”, and the British aircraft of World War 1.

Stay tuned, and in the mean time, you may find some amusement in this:

Be sure to check out this week's Ask Cap'n Meryl
question & answer about Icing.

First a few notes: After my mention in the last
Update of The World At My Feet and telling about
one of the adventures in it, having to do with an
attempt to help buy planes that had belonged to
the former Shah of Iran, I had an impressive
number of orders. Many were multiple orders
intended for Christmas gifts, I'm sure.

I've had some orders from around the world
including Singapore, India, England, Finland and
South Africa, to name just a few countries, but I
want to remind all my international readers,
including our military men and women, that there
is no extra charge for international shipping.

I finally finished all the recording for the
audio version of the book and final editing is in
progress now by the studio in London which
approached me about doing the project. They're
adding all sorts of interesting sound effects,
like beach noises for the Prologue which takes
place at the Caspian Sea in Iran, my dad's
rattling of the newspaper when I'm talking to him
while he's trying to read, etc. I'll make an
announcement via this newsletter when the final
product is out, the price is set and it's
available for purchase.

I received the video for one of several segments
I participated in for The Gregory Mantell Show
which was taped in Palm Springs a month ago or
so. This particular segment has to do with
memory loss and I was used as a volunteer to help
demonstrate a particular memory technique. I
could tell you about the method, but I forgot
what it was (aren't we witty today?). You'll
find the segment, which runs about 20 minutes,
posted here and my part starts about halfway
through:
Media Links

Al The Web Guy also posted an earlier TV
interview I did with Greg, which was taped in Los
Angeles, entitled, "How Safe is Flying?" You'll
find this interview link just below the one about
memory.

Now, on to this week's Update. There are two
holidays I take more seriously than all other
holidays. One is Thanksgiving, when I reflect on
all that I have to be thankful for. It takes
awhile as I have an abundance of good things in
my life.

The other holiday, since you're wondering,
happens to be New Year's, when I think about the
year ahead and list all the goals I want to
achieve. This is the night I feel I can start
out with a clean slate for the coming year, and
wipe the previous year's slate clean of
anything and everything not so wonderful. I see
it as a chance to start over with new goals, or
another shot at achieving previous goals.

But let's talk about Thanksgiving. Early in my
flying career when I was as junior as could be on
the seniority list, an interesting phenomenon
occurred repeatedly. I was on reserve, meaning I
was on call. Even some schedules of reserve
flying had some combinations of days that
resulted in having major holidays off. I was,
however, so junior I usually couldn't get that
type of schedule but was invariably scheduled to
work right through Thanksgiving, Christmas and
New Year's. And if I wasn't actually assigned
flights, I was scheduled to be on call, meaning I
had to be in the city where I was based.

However, year after year, either I had a
scheduled flight that would cancel for some
reason, or I managed to get some days off through
the holidays, or I was actually on call but with
so many extra pilots on call ahead of me that I
actually made it home to my parents' house on
many occasions for Thanksgiving, Christmas
and/or New Year's.

My very first Christmas with United, for example,
I had been assigned an eight day trip that would
have put us in Tokyo for Christmas. Less than a
day before that trip was to leave, I got a call
saying the entire sequence had cancelled, so I
went home to San Diego at the last minute and
spent the holidays there.

When I couldn't make it home on the right days,
my Mom just moved the holiday in question for me.
They'd have their Thanksgiving with our extended
family, but if I missed it she would pretty much
do it all over again for me, just as she did for
birthdays and other occasions. It was more
important to my family that I manage to be there
at all than it was that I made it on the right
day.

That was pre-Al The Web Guy, of course. Now I
have my personal chef (he's incredible in the
kitchen) all the time and although of course I
still enjoy visiting my family, he's taken over
Thanksgiving dinner which we enjoy at home with
some friends. It's actually quite nice to not
have to travel during the hectic holiday season,
although as a pilot I never minded it. In fact,
I would let our reserve crew schedulers know that
I was quite willing to fly to let some other
pilots with spouses and kids spend the holidays
at home. I know there were other single pilots
who volunteered as well.

My most memorable Thanksgiving was right here in
the United States. I had been sent TDY (Temporary
Duty) to cover a shortage of B-727 captains in
Washington, D.C. for a month (it turned into two
months). Pilots could stay anywhere they wanted
if they could negotiate a hotel price of $50 per
day. That may not sound like much to work with,
but hotels almost universally gave steep
discounts to airline crews.

As it happens, my Dad knew someone at the
Ritz-Carlton near Washington's National Airport
(now Reagan National) and I got my deal after
inviting the manager to lunch and explaining the
situation. As it turns out, the holiday season
is quite slow for hotels and I was given a huge
suite that was much larger than the apartment I
was living in at the time. I was told I might be
asked to switch to a regular room if a paying
client came along, but none did.

A subway station is located directly below the
hotel, which is attached to a huge mall with a
movie theater complex. As an occupant of a
suite, even though the price was ridiculously
discounted and the airline was paying for it, I
had special privileges such as use of a private
facility in the hotel with indoor pool and steam
bath, and having my own chauffeur. Yes, my own
chauffeur.

Most of the time, however, I took the subway
wherever I needed to go and got to know the city
really well. I went through all of the
Smithonisan museums, the National Zoo, the
monuments, and just about everything there was to
see and do, I saw and did. It was fall with
crisp, gorgeous weather and foliage brilliant
with autumn colors, the city was very uncrowded
with kids back in school.

The one and only time my pager ever went off
during the entire two months I was there, I was
just finishing up a White House tour. This was
before cell-phones were popular and I had to ask
a White House attendant to use a phone, which
they were happy to allow. It was an emergency
situation for United with a plane full of
passengers already boarded and a sick captain who
bailed after checking in for his flight.

I caught a cab back the hotel, quickly donned my
uniform and called my chauffer for a ride to the
airport. I stepped out of the limo at National
Airport, taking the hand my chauffeur proffered.
He was decked out in a formal uniform complete
with top-hat. A businessman was standing there,
apparently waiting for a ride, and commented, "No
wonder airfares are so high!" he joked. I didn't
really have time to explain, but just told him it
wasn't what it looked like. It did seem kind of
funny, though.

I was back at the hotel in time for Thanksgiving
although my schedule required me to stay in
Washington rather than go home. In my suite a
note had been slipped under the door. It said,
"Captain Getline, you are cordially invited to
join the hotel executive staff for our
Thanksgiving Buffet with our compliments."

Such a deal! This was a very elaborate buffet
put on by the hotel for its guests for about $40
per person or something like that, and there I
was, staying in a gorgeous suite at my airline's
expense and now a guest for Thanksgiving dinner.
It was a spectacular spread, to say the least.

When I finally checked out of the Ritz for my
next assignment (TDY in New York for the next
month), I checked with the hotel staff to see
about a gift that the manager would surely like.
She was a chocoholic, as it turns out. As it
also turns out, Godiva Chocolates had a store in
the mall right there at the hotel and I got her a
two-pound box of her favorites.

Small thanks for a wonderful stay and memorable
Thanksgiving in our nation's Capitol.

And with that,
Until Next Time,
Maintain Airspeed,

Cap'n Meryl

Posted by Hello

Be sure to check out this week's Ask Cap'n Meryl
question & answer about missed approaches:
Missed Approaches

Before I get to this week's topic, I have just a
couple of things I want to mention:

First, I had a call from my friend Bettina Bathe
in Calgary. Bettina is the author of the highly
successful children's' series "Violet the Pilot."
Bettina had told me several months ago that her
books were being developed into a play, which was
pretty exciting news. Even more exciting, the
play is now a reality and will be performed in
Toronto this coming April and May. Since that's
a bit in the future yet, I'll give more details
as we get closer for those in the Toronto area
who might want to attend. You can visit Violet
the Pilot at www.violetthepilot.com .

Also, remember Sally Jessy Raphael? Her TV show
ended several years ago, but now she's on the
radio and I had the pleasure of being her guest
last Tuesday. Al The Web Guy has posted that
interview, lasting about 13 minutes or so, here
on my Media Links page:
Media Links .

Sally was a real pleasure to interview with, and
even mentioned me again the next day which, of
course, is highly flattering. The interview
primarily centered on "The World At My Feet."

Speaking of which, that brings me to this week's
title. I swore I would NOT get addicted to any
reality shows. However, I made the mistake of
watching one episode of "The Amazing Race" last
season and got hooked. I thought I might be able
to overcome the addiction, and even attended
several meetings of RSA (Reality Shows Anonymous)
but it was no use. Ever since I saw the
participants breaking wine bottles over each
other's heads every time a cuckoo in a cuckoo
clock went off, and watched them try to learn the
Schuhplattler dressed in lederhosen, I just have
to watch.

Now, I just finished recording the audio version
of "The World At My Feet" for a studio in London,
and as I read the chapter called "Iran" it
occurred to me that I had participated in my own
Amazing Race of sorts.

Frankly, my whole life could be looked at as an
Amazing Race but specifically, in the late
seventies, when I was flying for a small commuter
airline in southern California, one incident in
particular stands out. My airline decided to buy
some more Navajo Chieftains for their operation.
A Chieftain is a nine passenger light twin.

The Chief Pilot of this commuter airline had
flown B-727's relatively recently for Iran Air.
Through a contact in Iran he discovered a small
airline in Teheran had three Chieftains for sale
at a ridiculously cheap price. It was discovered
later that the planes were the property of the
deposed Shah of Iran and were being sold by those
who had confiscated his property, including more
than forty aircraft, as we later discovered.
Even the Shah's private B-707 with a gold bathtub
was put up for sale (the asking price was $8
Million).

There were only about sixteen pilots at this
commuter at the time, including fifteen guys and
me. We were all unmarried and all had the same
goal, which was to build flight time so we could
get hired by a major airline. We all had
tremendous drive and a sense of adventure, and
the thought of ferrying airplanes from Iran all
the way back to Los Angeles was just too much to
resist for any of us. We all wanted to be part
of it.

When we heard our Chief Pilot was going to go to
Iran to negotiate a purchase and then ferry the
three airplanes back one by one, there was
nothing less than a "feeding frenzy" of pilots
trying to convince him he should take some of us
along to help fly the planes back.

"Nothing doing," our Chief Pilot said. "I can't
take you all, so nobody goes." What he thought
he had going for himself was that, although he
still had a work visa to get into Iran, none of
us could get one as visas were unavailable to
Americans at that time. He thought he was safe.

He didn't count on all of us calling the Iranian
consulate in San Francisco begging for visas, but
we certainly did. Only one of us was actually
issued a visa and subsequently made it all the
way to Iran. Now, guess who that might have
been.

Right, and I had ridiculous obstacles to
overcome, just as in the TV show. For instance,
I had to figure out how to first talk my way into
being issued a visa when none were being issued.
Then I had to figure out how to get to Iran
virtually for free (it wound up costing me $10
round trip), how to come up with the bucks to
make the deal happen after the chief pilot quit
and no longer had any backing (the planes were so
cheap we decided to buy and sell the airplanes
ourselves), etc.

If you've not yet read my book, I hope this
tidbit will now inspire you to reconsider (see
offer at the end) and if you already have it
yourself, maybe you have a friend or child who
would enjoy reading the rest of the story. "That
time of year" is quickly approaching, and it
really is one heck of a story.

Sometimes I forget or don't appreciate what a
wild ride I had getting to an airline job, but
reading through the entire manuscript out loud
for the audio version served as a reminder. I
actually had to re-record several sections as I
couldn't get through them without laughing out
loud, like during the chapter about the blimp
pilot and the ridiculous joke he played on me.

But that's another story (and one you can hear
via a radio interview on my Book Synopsis page,
recorded in 1983):
Book Synopsis


Incidentally, my thanks to the folks at "Colorado
Country Life" magazine who wrote an unexpected
and really nice review for "The World at My
Feet." Their reviewer describes it as a
"hard-to-put-down" book.

Hopefully you will agree.