MOONSTRUCK
FROM CAP’N MERYL
Link to this week’s column at USAToday.com/travel:
USA Today column
There are things we pilots witness that passengers
never get to see the way we do. I was thinking
about this one evening a few nights ago as I was
gazing from my bedroom window into the eastern
sky, just in time to watch the moon come up. It
struck me how very slowly it appeared to move. It
dawned on me that I hadn’t watched a moonrise from
an earthbound vantage point in a very long time.
We see moonrises all the time when we fly,
especially on long-haul routes from west to east
such as flights from Asia to the U.S. Many of
these flights depart in the evening and we
experience a very short night as the sun sets
behind us in the west and we race to catch it
coming up again in the east.
The difference between watching a moonrise (or
sunrise) from the ground and watching it from the
cockpit is really quite spectacular. Obviously,
passengers sometimes see moonrises from airplanes
but it’s always a side view without the speeding
up effect we get while hurtling eastward.
My favorite moonrise is one where it’s full and
turning different colors as it first peeps over
the horizon. This isn’t especially different from
watching it from the ground except it’s much, much
faster. First it’s blood-red, then pinkish, then
yellow, then stark, stark white and so bright
sometimes it’s difficult to look at directly.
In 1980, before I was with a major airline I
became the youngest pilot (and first woman) to
ever get checked out on the DC-10. I did this
under private contract with the airline that
eventually hired me and wrote about the experience
in my first book, “The World At My Feet.” There
was another pilot getting his captain’s checkout
at the same time. We were on our check ride in
the middle of the night somewhere over the plains
of Colorado. These days, the same check ride
would be accomplished in a simulator, but back
then it was necessary to get checked out in a real
DC-10.
While I was waiting my turn to fly from the left
seat, a second pilot was getting checked out. He
was doing steep turns (45 degrees of bank instead
of the normal maximum of 30 degrees) and was
concentrating in order to maintain his altitude.
At one point he shouted, “Someone turn out that _
_ _ _ _ _ _ light!”
There were five of us in the cockpit including me,
the copilot/instructor, flight engineer, the pilot
getting checked out and an FAA examiner. We
looked at each other in amusement but didn’t say
anything; that light he wanted turned off was the
moon. It was full and almost bright enough to
require sunglasses or, in this case, moonglasses.
The first time I ever flew from New York’s La
Guardia to Miami was as captain on the B-727 in
the early nineties. The entire aura of the flight
was very different from anything I’d ever flown
before with lots of highly animated passengers
(I’m trying to be polite here). I don’t remember
if there was a particular reason this flight’s
passengers were so agitated—I just remember they
were and that the flight attendants seemed to
dread this particular crowd.
We knew there was to be a full eclipse of the moon
that night and I made a brief announcement to the
passengers about it. Apparently nobody was
listening. Later, when we were still over an hour
away from landing in Miami, the eclipse was full
and took on an unearthly (or is it unmoonly?) red
glow. It was spectacular. I called the flight
attendants up one at a time to the cockpit to have
a look and they were astonished at the sight of
the red moon. The cabin was still very rowdy and
I asked them to dim the lights all the way and I
would make an announcement about the eclipse. The
First Flight Attendant’s off-handed remark was
something along the lines of, “Maybe that’ll calm
‘em down back there.” I didn’t take the remark
seriously.
However, the combination of the lights being
dimmed and the site of that moon had a most
unexpected effect on the passengers. Everyone
just calmed down. I mean, really calmed down.
According to the flight attendants, there was
barely a peep out of anyone for the rest of the
flight whereas prior to this the passengers had
been very irritable and demanding of attention.
All I wanted to do was share a site that many of
us might never have seen before or see again—a
perfect view of a total eclipse and in this case,
the resulting “red moon” unobstructed by either
clouds or pollution. The result was the
passengers along the left side of the airplane had
their faces plastered against the windows with the
other passengers pleading with them to move aside
so they could see, too.
When people deplaned my crew and I stood at the
door and it was though someone had switched
passengers on us. These were docile, smiling,
calm people. It was a 180 degree mood swing from
when they boarded and an unexpected but gratifying
end to that flight.
As we walked down the terminal, we stopped to look
out the window at the eclipse as the moon starting
becoming visible again, and all the way down the
long corridor at Miami Airport we could see our
passengers doing the same—pointing it out to the
people who had come to meet their flight (prior to
9/11 when anyone could go to the gates).
Sunrises are also speeded up from our cockpit
vantage point and they can be spectacular as well,
but after the dark of night the bright sunlight
can sometimes be somewhat irritating. In contrast
to the light of the sun, the light of the moon or
the stars on a moonless night promote a very
soothing and gentle feel to those of us up front.
And there is nothing more soothing than light on
a vast ocean reflected from the heavens above.
I have nothing else really to tell you about this
week other than I have a 30 minute radio interview
coming up. You can listen online anywhere or on
the radio if you happen to be in the Cincinnati
area. The interview is this Friday at 11:00 AM
Eastern Time on WLW 700 AM or www.700wlw.com--The
Mike McConnell show.
Before I sign off, I want to let new subscribers
know that my new book “Flights of Whimsy – Quips
‘N’ Quotes” will be out soon. I’ve never
mentioned it before but a sketch artist joined me
on this project and put in several cartoons to go
with the quotes. The whole thing came out very
nicely. The retail price will be $11.95 plus
shipping but until Christmas you can order it for
just $9.95 and I’ll throw in shipping for free.
Should ship by mid-November. Click here to order:
http://www.fromthecockpit.com/Gift_Ideas.html
I’ve also put autographed copies of my book “The
World At My Feet” on sale until Christmas in the
form of free shipping. Total price is $17.95.
Ships within a day or two.
Click here to order:
http://www.fromthecockpit.com/Gift_Ideas.html
And with that,
Until Next Time,
Maintain Airspeed!
Cap’n Meryl
www.fromthecockpit.com
www.flyingfearless.com
www.fromthecockpit.com/profile.htm
(keynote speaker information)
Link to this week’s column at USAToday.com/travel:
USA Today column
There are things we pilots witness that passengers
never get to see the way we do. I was thinking
about this one evening a few nights ago as I was
gazing from my bedroom window into the eastern
sky, just in time to watch the moon come up. It
struck me how very slowly it appeared to move. It
dawned on me that I hadn’t watched a moonrise from
an earthbound vantage point in a very long time.
We see moonrises all the time when we fly,
especially on long-haul routes from west to east
such as flights from Asia to the U.S. Many of
these flights depart in the evening and we
experience a very short night as the sun sets
behind us in the west and we race to catch it
coming up again in the east.
The difference between watching a moonrise (or
sunrise) from the ground and watching it from the
cockpit is really quite spectacular. Obviously,
passengers sometimes see moonrises from airplanes
but it’s always a side view without the speeding
up effect we get while hurtling eastward.
My favorite moonrise is one where it’s full and
turning different colors as it first peeps over
the horizon. This isn’t especially different from
watching it from the ground except it’s much, much
faster. First it’s blood-red, then pinkish, then
yellow, then stark, stark white and so bright
sometimes it’s difficult to look at directly.
In 1980, before I was with a major airline I
became the youngest pilot (and first woman) to
ever get checked out on the DC-10. I did this
under private contract with the airline that
eventually hired me and wrote about the experience
in my first book, “The World At My Feet.” There
was another pilot getting his captain’s checkout
at the same time. We were on our check ride in
the middle of the night somewhere over the plains
of Colorado. These days, the same check ride
would be accomplished in a simulator, but back
then it was necessary to get checked out in a real
DC-10.
While I was waiting my turn to fly from the left
seat, a second pilot was getting checked out. He
was doing steep turns (45 degrees of bank instead
of the normal maximum of 30 degrees) and was
concentrating in order to maintain his altitude.
At one point he shouted, “Someone turn out that _
_ _ _ _ _ _ light!”
There were five of us in the cockpit including me,
the copilot/instructor, flight engineer, the pilot
getting checked out and an FAA examiner. We
looked at each other in amusement but didn’t say
anything; that light he wanted turned off was the
moon. It was full and almost bright enough to
require sunglasses or, in this case, moonglasses.
The first time I ever flew from New York’s La
Guardia to Miami was as captain on the B-727 in
the early nineties. The entire aura of the flight
was very different from anything I’d ever flown
before with lots of highly animated passengers
(I’m trying to be polite here). I don’t remember
if there was a particular reason this flight’s
passengers were so agitated—I just remember they
were and that the flight attendants seemed to
dread this particular crowd.
We knew there was to be a full eclipse of the moon
that night and I made a brief announcement to the
passengers about it. Apparently nobody was
listening. Later, when we were still over an hour
away from landing in Miami, the eclipse was full
and took on an unearthly (or is it unmoonly?) red
glow. It was spectacular. I called the flight
attendants up one at a time to the cockpit to have
a look and they were astonished at the sight of
the red moon. The cabin was still very rowdy and
I asked them to dim the lights all the way and I
would make an announcement about the eclipse. The
First Flight Attendant’s off-handed remark was
something along the lines of, “Maybe that’ll calm
‘em down back there.” I didn’t take the remark
seriously.
However, the combination of the lights being
dimmed and the site of that moon had a most
unexpected effect on the passengers. Everyone
just calmed down. I mean, really calmed down.
According to the flight attendants, there was
barely a peep out of anyone for the rest of the
flight whereas prior to this the passengers had
been very irritable and demanding of attention.
All I wanted to do was share a site that many of
us might never have seen before or see again—a
perfect view of a total eclipse and in this case,
the resulting “red moon” unobstructed by either
clouds or pollution. The result was the
passengers along the left side of the airplane had
their faces plastered against the windows with the
other passengers pleading with them to move aside
so they could see, too.
When people deplaned my crew and I stood at the
door and it was though someone had switched
passengers on us. These were docile, smiling,
calm people. It was a 180 degree mood swing from
when they boarded and an unexpected but gratifying
end to that flight.
As we walked down the terminal, we stopped to look
out the window at the eclipse as the moon starting
becoming visible again, and all the way down the
long corridor at Miami Airport we could see our
passengers doing the same—pointing it out to the
people who had come to meet their flight (prior to
9/11 when anyone could go to the gates).
Sunrises are also speeded up from our cockpit
vantage point and they can be spectacular as well,
but after the dark of night the bright sunlight
can sometimes be somewhat irritating. In contrast
to the light of the sun, the light of the moon or
the stars on a moonless night promote a very
soothing and gentle feel to those of us up front.
And there is nothing more soothing than light on
a vast ocean reflected from the heavens above.
I have nothing else really to tell you about this
week other than I have a 30 minute radio interview
coming up. You can listen online anywhere or on
the radio if you happen to be in the Cincinnati
area. The interview is this Friday at 11:00 AM
Eastern Time on WLW 700 AM or www.700wlw.com--The
Mike McConnell show.
Before I sign off, I want to let new subscribers
know that my new book “Flights of Whimsy – Quips
‘N’ Quotes” will be out soon. I’ve never
mentioned it before but a sketch artist joined me
on this project and put in several cartoons to go
with the quotes. The whole thing came out very
nicely. The retail price will be $11.95 plus
shipping but until Christmas you can order it for
just $9.95 and I’ll throw in shipping for free.
Should ship by mid-November. Click here to order:
http://www.fromthecockpit.com/Gift_Ideas.html
I’ve also put autographed copies of my book “The
World At My Feet” on sale until Christmas in the
form of free shipping. Total price is $17.95.
Ships within a day or two.
Click here to order:
http://www.fromthecockpit.com/Gift_Ideas.html
And with that,
Until Next Time,
Maintain Airspeed!
Cap’n Meryl
www.fromthecockpit.com
www.flyingfearless.com
www.fromthecockpit.com/profile.htm
(keynote speaker information)
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home