Yesterday's News
USAToday.com
I'm writing this Update from a hotel room in Seattle.
I flew in yesterday from my Chicago base to fly a trip
normally flown by a Seattle crew. Reserve pilots can
and do fly trips which "belong" to other domiciles when
the need arises. The rest of my crew-my copilot and
relief pilot (just one extra pilot from Seattle to
Tokyo)-are based here in Seattle and I'll meet them in
Flight Operations later on this morning. So far, in
addition to flying the majority of my trips out of
Chicago, I've also flown trips which originated out of
Washington, D.C. (to Munich), San Francisco (to
Honolulu and Tokyo) and JFK (to Tokyo). I've also
flown a military charter (to Georgia and then on to
Frankfurt and Kuwait) and ferried an empty airplane a
time or to for positioning for charters, and another
time I picked up a newly painted airplane in Louisiana
and delivered it to Denver. Being on reserve, as
Forrest Gump might say, is "like a box of
chocolates-you never know what you're going to get."
(If the quote is wrong-it's close enough.)
Next week I'll write about my
Seattle-Tokyo-Honolulu-Tokyo flight if there's anything
interesting to tell you.
Cap'n Al (The Web Guy) and I were having a casual
discussion recently about the International Dateline,
and the conversation reminded me of one of those weird,
off-the-wall (in this case it was more like
"on-the-wall" which you'll understand in a few
moments), meaningless and even ridiculous moments in
life that you just never seem to forget.
While I was living in Alaska in the early eighties and
was once again laid off from my pilot job, I had an
assortment of odd jobs which kept me going. For
instance, once I was the driver for an alcoholic
insurance salesman who used to like to hang out at an
Anchorage bar called "Chilkhoot Charlie's" which I
believe is still there. Their motto, printed on the
side of their building was "We cheat the other guy and
pass the savings on to you." (When I later quoted this
is in a marketing class as a joke the class laughed but
I got a stern look and a lecture from the
highly-esteemed but apparently humorless teacher.)
Another time I ran a "full-service" baby-sitting
service where I would pick up the mother and her baby,
drop the mother at work, keep the baby all day with me
at my home and then pick the mother up at the end of
the day and take her and her baby home. It was my idea
to offer this full service approach and I had no
trouble finding clients.
Then there was the job as a receptionist at the Captain
Cook Hotel in downtown Anchorage. When I applied for
the job there must have been 300 other applicants for
the same position. I couldn't believe it when I was
selected. Why? Because I was a fabulous typist?
Well, I am, but that's not why they hired me. Nope,
they hired me when they found out I was a furloughed
airline pilot (Wien Air Alaska). So what does that
have to do with being a receptionist? Absolutely
nothing, but the fact is Alaska has the highest per
capita population of pilots, and many of the executives
where I was to work were working on their pilots'
licenses. They saw this as an opportunity to get some
free education.
So, after a full day of work and sneaking in some time
with these guys individually in their offices to give
them some free ground school, I wound up staying after
hours every night answering questions and explaining
the finer points of certain types of navigation.
Unlike the other secretaries, I never had to brown-bag
it for lunch or eat someplace cheap. On the contrary,
there was always some executive around who wanted to
take me to an expensive lunch as long as they could
talk to me about flying and ask me stuff. Hey, it
worked for me. On more than one occasion it was the
lieutenant-governor of Alaska, who maintained an office
at the Captain Cook at that time, who treated. What
was I supposed to do-say "no?" Not on your life.
In spite of the good times, I lasted exactly one week
as a receptionist. I think I broke the world's record
for inadvertently hanging up on the greatest number of
people while attempting to put them on hold. I didn't
get fired, though. In fact, they begged me to stay.
But I just couldn't stand working in an office. I
quit, deciding I would rather starve to death.
However, the evening ground-school sessions continued
and my executive-students wound up paying me more than
I had made working eight hours a day wrecking community
relations with my inept handling of the phone. The
only thing that really changed is that I started
getting treated to expensive dinners instead of
expensive lunches. When I told them I couldn't
continue the sessions as I had to seek other
employment, they each contributed enough to compensate
me well enough that I actually didn't bother looking
for other work. Not a bad deal at all. This continued
all the way until I was called back to fly at Wien, at
which time I discontinued my informal ground school.
But it sure was fun while it lasted.
During another period of being laid off there was the
janitor's job. It was the dead of winter at about
11:00 PM at night and I was emptying the trash in a
downtown office building in Anchorage. One of the
executives was working late and I saw he had a picture
of an airplane on his wall (as many of them did) so I
struck up a conversation with him about flying. During
the conversation, for whatever reason, he asked me if I
happened to know when and how the International
Dateline had been established. I had no idea. I'd
never flown internationally and knew nothing about it.
The Internet wasn't in vogue yet so things weren't as
easily researched as they are now.
Just a few minutes later and one floor above, I tripped
over the cord of the vacuum I was using and went flying
across the room, smacking hard into the opposite wall.
For some reason, I left my hand where it had hit the
wall and I couldn't believe it! My hand had landed on
a world map and my index finger was pointing to the
International Dateline! Not only that, but it said,
"Established 1854 by the English Conservatory" or
something like that. I can't remember anymore and all
my research on the Internet says it's never really been
formerly established at all-just sort of commonly
accepted.
I rushed back downstairs to get my executive friend and
asked him to come with me. Mystified, he obliged and I
showed him where I fell against the wall map. He just
laughed and thought it was quite the coincidental
mishap, which it certainly was.
You see? Meaningless and even ridiculous but something
I've never forgotten.
Oh, and the title this week? What does "Yesterday's
News" refer to? Well, since you asked: The
International Dateline lies mostly on 180 degrees of
longitude which is at least mostly over water. Where
180 degrees is not over water it zigs and zags and has
moved around over the years due to political
influences. At one time, part of it even lay east of
Honolulu.
In any case, did you know that the country closest to
the United States but not bordering it is Russia? It's
true. Big Diomede Island and Little Diomede Island are
located in the Bering Strait off the coast of Alaska
and separated by just 2.5 miles. Little Diomede
belongs to Alaska and Big Diomede belongs to Russia.
And guess what runs right between them? The
International Dateline! From Big Diomede Island, when
one gazes across the Strait at Little Diomede Island,
one is literally looking into yesterday. And THAT is
what the title of this week's Update refers to.
Now, wasn't that worth the wait?
Until next time…
Maintain Airspeed!
Cap'n Meryl
http://www.fromthecockpit.com
http://www.flyingfearless.com
I'm writing this Update from a hotel room in Seattle.
I flew in yesterday from my Chicago base to fly a trip
normally flown by a Seattle crew. Reserve pilots can
and do fly trips which "belong" to other domiciles when
the need arises. The rest of my crew-my copilot and
relief pilot (just one extra pilot from Seattle to
Tokyo)-are based here in Seattle and I'll meet them in
Flight Operations later on this morning. So far, in
addition to flying the majority of my trips out of
Chicago, I've also flown trips which originated out of
Washington, D.C. (to Munich), San Francisco (to
Honolulu and Tokyo) and JFK (to Tokyo). I've also
flown a military charter (to Georgia and then on to
Frankfurt and Kuwait) and ferried an empty airplane a
time or to for positioning for charters, and another
time I picked up a newly painted airplane in Louisiana
and delivered it to Denver. Being on reserve, as
Forrest Gump might say, is "like a box of
chocolates-you never know what you're going to get."
(If the quote is wrong-it's close enough.)
Next week I'll write about my
Seattle-Tokyo-Honolulu-Tokyo flight if there's anything
interesting to tell you.
Cap'n Al (The Web Guy) and I were having a casual
discussion recently about the International Dateline,
and the conversation reminded me of one of those weird,
off-the-wall (in this case it was more like
"on-the-wall" which you'll understand in a few
moments), meaningless and even ridiculous moments in
life that you just never seem to forget.
While I was living in Alaska in the early eighties and
was once again laid off from my pilot job, I had an
assortment of odd jobs which kept me going. For
instance, once I was the driver for an alcoholic
insurance salesman who used to like to hang out at an
Anchorage bar called "Chilkhoot Charlie's" which I
believe is still there. Their motto, printed on the
side of their building was "We cheat the other guy and
pass the savings on to you." (When I later quoted this
is in a marketing class as a joke the class laughed but
I got a stern look and a lecture from the
highly-esteemed but apparently humorless teacher.)
Another time I ran a "full-service" baby-sitting
service where I would pick up the mother and her baby,
drop the mother at work, keep the baby all day with me
at my home and then pick the mother up at the end of
the day and take her and her baby home. It was my idea
to offer this full service approach and I had no
trouble finding clients.
Then there was the job as a receptionist at the Captain
Cook Hotel in downtown Anchorage. When I applied for
the job there must have been 300 other applicants for
the same position. I couldn't believe it when I was
selected. Why? Because I was a fabulous typist?
Well, I am, but that's not why they hired me. Nope,
they hired me when they found out I was a furloughed
airline pilot (Wien Air Alaska). So what does that
have to do with being a receptionist? Absolutely
nothing, but the fact is Alaska has the highest per
capita population of pilots, and many of the executives
where I was to work were working on their pilots'
licenses. They saw this as an opportunity to get some
free education.
So, after a full day of work and sneaking in some time
with these guys individually in their offices to give
them some free ground school, I wound up staying after
hours every night answering questions and explaining
the finer points of certain types of navigation.
Unlike the other secretaries, I never had to brown-bag
it for lunch or eat someplace cheap. On the contrary,
there was always some executive around who wanted to
take me to an expensive lunch as long as they could
talk to me about flying and ask me stuff. Hey, it
worked for me. On more than one occasion it was the
lieutenant-governor of Alaska, who maintained an office
at the Captain Cook at that time, who treated. What
was I supposed to do-say "no?" Not on your life.
In spite of the good times, I lasted exactly one week
as a receptionist. I think I broke the world's record
for inadvertently hanging up on the greatest number of
people while attempting to put them on hold. I didn't
get fired, though. In fact, they begged me to stay.
But I just couldn't stand working in an office. I
quit, deciding I would rather starve to death.
However, the evening ground-school sessions continued
and my executive-students wound up paying me more than
I had made working eight hours a day wrecking community
relations with my inept handling of the phone. The
only thing that really changed is that I started
getting treated to expensive dinners instead of
expensive lunches. When I told them I couldn't
continue the sessions as I had to seek other
employment, they each contributed enough to compensate
me well enough that I actually didn't bother looking
for other work. Not a bad deal at all. This continued
all the way until I was called back to fly at Wien, at
which time I discontinued my informal ground school.
But it sure was fun while it lasted.
During another period of being laid off there was the
janitor's job. It was the dead of winter at about
11:00 PM at night and I was emptying the trash in a
downtown office building in Anchorage. One of the
executives was working late and I saw he had a picture
of an airplane on his wall (as many of them did) so I
struck up a conversation with him about flying. During
the conversation, for whatever reason, he asked me if I
happened to know when and how the International
Dateline had been established. I had no idea. I'd
never flown internationally and knew nothing about it.
The Internet wasn't in vogue yet so things weren't as
easily researched as they are now.
Just a few minutes later and one floor above, I tripped
over the cord of the vacuum I was using and went flying
across the room, smacking hard into the opposite wall.
For some reason, I left my hand where it had hit the
wall and I couldn't believe it! My hand had landed on
a world map and my index finger was pointing to the
International Dateline! Not only that, but it said,
"Established 1854 by the English Conservatory" or
something like that. I can't remember anymore and all
my research on the Internet says it's never really been
formerly established at all-just sort of commonly
accepted.
I rushed back downstairs to get my executive friend and
asked him to come with me. Mystified, he obliged and I
showed him where I fell against the wall map. He just
laughed and thought it was quite the coincidental
mishap, which it certainly was.
You see? Meaningless and even ridiculous but something
I've never forgotten.
Oh, and the title this week? What does "Yesterday's
News" refer to? Well, since you asked: The
International Dateline lies mostly on 180 degrees of
longitude which is at least mostly over water. Where
180 degrees is not over water it zigs and zags and has
moved around over the years due to political
influences. At one time, part of it even lay east of
Honolulu.
In any case, did you know that the country closest to
the United States but not bordering it is Russia? It's
true. Big Diomede Island and Little Diomede Island are
located in the Bering Strait off the coast of Alaska
and separated by just 2.5 miles. Little Diomede
belongs to Alaska and Big Diomede belongs to Russia.
And guess what runs right between them? The
International Dateline! From Big Diomede Island, when
one gazes across the Strait at Little Diomede Island,
one is literally looking into yesterday. And THAT is
what the title of this week's Update refers to.
Now, wasn't that worth the wait?
Until next time…
Maintain Airspeed!
Cap'n Meryl
http://www.fromthecockpit.com
http://www.flyingfearless.com
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