An Unlikely Mistake
FROM CAP’N MERYL
Link to this week’s column at USAToday.com/travel:
USA Today.com
As I write this it is Friday, June 24th and I spent a whole
week not flying. I’m so used to being gone so much that
when I have more than a day or two at home it seems like
quite a novelty and a real treat.
The downside (hey! a pun!) is that I don’t have a lot to
write about as I haven’t gone anywhere all week. However,
it was still a big week for me and Al The Web Guy.
One of my recent columns at USAToday.com/travel had a direct
link to my Photo Gallery at Photo Gallery
and resulted in our site bandwidth being exceeded, even
though we had a large capacity. Al The Web Guy got
that taken care of it by placing the site on a dedicated
server.
The very next week, my column linked directly to my new site
http://www.flyingfearless.com and once again, our already-large
bandwidth had to be increased, making Al The Web Guy
scramble yet again. He placed this site on the dedicated
server as well.
Speaking of flying fearless issues, I need some help from my
readers. If anyone has any notion of how to calm a child
who is afraid of flying, please pass your suggestions on to
me. You can just hit “reply” to respond to this Update.
I’ve had parents of children from ages 3 to 14 ask me about
this, and I didn’t have a lot to tell them. One little girl
was afraid of the noise jets make as they fly over and
didn’t want to get on one, a little boy said he was scared
but wouldn’t elaborate, etc. Your suggestions are most
appreciated and will be passed on to the parents involved,
and may even be referred to in a future “Ask The Captain”
column at USAToday.com.
This week I’ve spent doing some research on a couple of
upcoming columns—one about lightning and one about St.
Elmo’s fire. (Lightning is addressed in my Free Report at
www.flyingfearless.com, by the way.) St. Elmo’s fire, if
you’re unfamiliar with it, is a blue halo of static
electricity that forms around our windshields and wingtips
(although I’ve only seen the windshield variety) on
airplanes under certain conditions.
In researching both subjects, I called a local weatherman
(Nick Carter) on Channel 9 TV here in Denver (NBC). Since I
write for USAToday.com, a Gannett corporation, and since
Channel 9 TV is also a Gannet Corporation, it gave me some
common ground with which to introduce myself.
I needn’t have worried, as the instant the Nick heard I was
a pilot he was immediately anxious to “talk shop” as it
turns out he is a pilot as well. I had no idea of this, but
he’s working on his ATP (Airline Transport Pilot) rating,
the highest rating you can get as a pilot. He’s doing it,
as he said, “because I can” and not because he really needs
it. He loves to fly and has three students at the moment,
he told me.
This led to an invitation to be interviewed by him as he
says he likes to do aviation-related weather stories
whenever possible, and he also referred me to the producer
of the 6:00 AM news who, Nice assured me, would also want to
interview me. I’ve interviewed on the other local networks,
all except CBS, so I’ll be anxious to get on the air
(another pun?) here again to let people know about “Ask The
Captain” and also about my “Ground School for Passengers.”
It’s always fun to meet local media types and it’s always
good publicity. I’ll post a notice in an upcoming Weekly
Update for you folks here in Colorado when I get booked for
an interview (s).
But this leaves me wondering—since I have nothing current to
tell you about—if I should tell you a true and mildly
amusing story from another time. Hmmm…. Yes, I think I
will:
It was 1983 and I was living in Anchorage. I was good
friends with Herb Shaindlin, having appeared on his popular
radio talk show a couple of times and having also produced
some radio commercials with him.
One day, for a reason I’ve now forgotten, we were at the
waterfront in Anchorage. This is an industrial area, unlike
Turnagain Arm which is just south of Anchorage and which has
some of the most beautiful fjords and vistas in the world.
Herb was a displaced New Yorker who had come to Alaska years
ago to do a news story and never left. He was a New Yorker
through and through. His idea of camping was to take his
RV, park it somewhere under a tree and watch TV.
At one time, he was moaning so loudly about the lack of
Nathan’s Hot Dogs that I actually made a special trip to New
York and went down to Times Square to get him a couple of
cases. (This is related in “The World At My Feet”). Later,
luckily for me---and, I guess, for him---they became
available at our local grocery store. One New York hot dog
run was plenty.
This particular day we were at Anchorage’s rather industrial
waterfront on some sort of business and were about to get
back into his car when I spotted something in the water. It
was white and appeared to be floating. It would appear,
then disappear and reappear.
“What is that?” I asked him. Herb squinted his eyes to
look.
“Must be a one of those big trash bags,” he said. “Let’s
go.”
I was about to step into the car when I said, “Look!
There’s three more!”
“Yep,” he said. “Let’s go.”
“I really don’t think those are trash bags,” I said.
“Maybe not,” he said. Let’s go.
“Hang on. I want to see what those are,” I said.
Heavy sigh from Herb. “Can’t we just go?”
Hey, inquiring minds want to know, so I walked out onto the
little jetty for a better look. I was the only one around
and at first I didn’t spot any of the “trash bags.” But
then, one popped up practically at my feet and I laughed out
loud with delight. It was a Beluga whale!
“Herb!” I shouted to him, quite excitedly. “It’s a whale!
Do you think he’ll let me pet him?”
“Careful! Maybe they bite.” was his sage warning. He
stayed where he was. Can you really be afraid of a sweet
little white whale, even if you’re from New York and you’re
on land and the whale is in the water? Maybe he was just
uninspired, whereas I was thrilled to death and wanted to
get “up close and personal."
Growing up in San Diego, my Dad had a sailboat and would
take us kids out into the ocean to whale-watch when we were
growing up. It was always exciting and I remember one time
when I was sitting on the bow with my feet in the water, we
got so close to some California Gray Whales I actually
picked my feet up out of the water as I pictured maybe
stepping on one. That’s as close as I ever thought I’d get
to a whale, or ever wanted to, for that matter. Or so I
thought.
This was different. This was a small white whale (Beluga
comes from the Russian word for “white”) and although I knew
little about them, he or she just didn’t look threatening.
So I stepped down onto a rock that was almost in the water,
but not quite, and reached out to see if I could touch him,
and I did! The whale didn’t seem to object so I patted him
a little bit, and three more swam up. The others didn’t
come close enough to touch but they were right there, just a
few feet out of my reach.
After several minutes “my” whale swam away with the others,
but certainly this was one of those wonderful memories of
living in Alaska that I’ll never forget. In my whole life,
I can’t say I ever imagined petting a whale. I had no idea
there even were whales in the Anchorage area.
When I wrote “The World At My Feet” there was very little
included of my experiences while living in Alaska for ten
years. Much of it was edited out as the book was getting
too long, but maybe in the next book I’ll include more about
living there; living in Alaska was one of the best and most
interesting times of my life.
Tomorrow morning (Sunday, June 26th as I write this), I’ll
be doing an online/radio interview. (Later, when we archive
it I’ll let you know.) Then I’m off to Chicago to sit on
reserve duty and hope a flight comes along I can fly. By
the next Weekly Update hopefully I’ll have something more
current to tell you about. For now, I hope you enjoyed
hearing about my close and quite unexpected encounter with a
whale.
In the meantime, as always,
Maintain Airpseed!
Cap’n Meryl
http://www.fromthecockpit.com
http://www.flyingfearless.com
***************************************
Link to this week’s column at USAToday.com/travel:
USA Today.com
As I write this it is Friday, June 24th and I spent a whole
week not flying. I’m so used to being gone so much that
when I have more than a day or two at home it seems like
quite a novelty and a real treat.
The downside (hey! a pun!) is that I don’t have a lot to
write about as I haven’t gone anywhere all week. However,
it was still a big week for me and Al The Web Guy.
One of my recent columns at USAToday.com/travel had a direct
link to my Photo Gallery at Photo Gallery
and resulted in our site bandwidth being exceeded, even
though we had a large capacity. Al The Web Guy got
that taken care of it by placing the site on a dedicated
server.
The very next week, my column linked directly to my new site
http://www.flyingfearless.com and once again, our already-large
bandwidth had to be increased, making Al The Web Guy
scramble yet again. He placed this site on the dedicated
server as well.
Speaking of flying fearless issues, I need some help from my
readers. If anyone has any notion of how to calm a child
who is afraid of flying, please pass your suggestions on to
me. You can just hit “reply” to respond to this Update.
I’ve had parents of children from ages 3 to 14 ask me about
this, and I didn’t have a lot to tell them. One little girl
was afraid of the noise jets make as they fly over and
didn’t want to get on one, a little boy said he was scared
but wouldn’t elaborate, etc. Your suggestions are most
appreciated and will be passed on to the parents involved,
and may even be referred to in a future “Ask The Captain”
column at USAToday.com.
This week I’ve spent doing some research on a couple of
upcoming columns—one about lightning and one about St.
Elmo’s fire. (Lightning is addressed in my Free Report at
www.flyingfearless.com, by the way.) St. Elmo’s fire, if
you’re unfamiliar with it, is a blue halo of static
electricity that forms around our windshields and wingtips
(although I’ve only seen the windshield variety) on
airplanes under certain conditions.
In researching both subjects, I called a local weatherman
(Nick Carter) on Channel 9 TV here in Denver (NBC). Since I
write for USAToday.com, a Gannett corporation, and since
Channel 9 TV is also a Gannet Corporation, it gave me some
common ground with which to introduce myself.
I needn’t have worried, as the instant the Nick heard I was
a pilot he was immediately anxious to “talk shop” as it
turns out he is a pilot as well. I had no idea of this, but
he’s working on his ATP (Airline Transport Pilot) rating,
the highest rating you can get as a pilot. He’s doing it,
as he said, “because I can” and not because he really needs
it. He loves to fly and has three students at the moment,
he told me.
This led to an invitation to be interviewed by him as he
says he likes to do aviation-related weather stories
whenever possible, and he also referred me to the producer
of the 6:00 AM news who, Nice assured me, would also want to
interview me. I’ve interviewed on the other local networks,
all except CBS, so I’ll be anxious to get on the air
(another pun?) here again to let people know about “Ask The
Captain” and also about my “Ground School for Passengers.”
It’s always fun to meet local media types and it’s always
good publicity. I’ll post a notice in an upcoming Weekly
Update for you folks here in Colorado when I get booked for
an interview (s).
But this leaves me wondering—since I have nothing current to
tell you about—if I should tell you a true and mildly
amusing story from another time. Hmmm…. Yes, I think I
will:
It was 1983 and I was living in Anchorage. I was good
friends with Herb Shaindlin, having appeared on his popular
radio talk show a couple of times and having also produced
some radio commercials with him.
One day, for a reason I’ve now forgotten, we were at the
waterfront in Anchorage. This is an industrial area, unlike
Turnagain Arm which is just south of Anchorage and which has
some of the most beautiful fjords and vistas in the world.
Herb was a displaced New Yorker who had come to Alaska years
ago to do a news story and never left. He was a New Yorker
through and through. His idea of camping was to take his
RV, park it somewhere under a tree and watch TV.
At one time, he was moaning so loudly about the lack of
Nathan’s Hot Dogs that I actually made a special trip to New
York and went down to Times Square to get him a couple of
cases. (This is related in “The World At My Feet”). Later,
luckily for me---and, I guess, for him---they became
available at our local grocery store. One New York hot dog
run was plenty.
This particular day we were at Anchorage’s rather industrial
waterfront on some sort of business and were about to get
back into his car when I spotted something in the water. It
was white and appeared to be floating. It would appear,
then disappear and reappear.
“What is that?” I asked him. Herb squinted his eyes to
look.
“Must be a one of those big trash bags,” he said. “Let’s
go.”
I was about to step into the car when I said, “Look!
There’s three more!”
“Yep,” he said. “Let’s go.”
“I really don’t think those are trash bags,” I said.
“Maybe not,” he said. Let’s go.
“Hang on. I want to see what those are,” I said.
Heavy sigh from Herb. “Can’t we just go?”
Hey, inquiring minds want to know, so I walked out onto the
little jetty for a better look. I was the only one around
and at first I didn’t spot any of the “trash bags.” But
then, one popped up practically at my feet and I laughed out
loud with delight. It was a Beluga whale!
“Herb!” I shouted to him, quite excitedly. “It’s a whale!
Do you think he’ll let me pet him?”
“Careful! Maybe they bite.” was his sage warning. He
stayed where he was. Can you really be afraid of a sweet
little white whale, even if you’re from New York and you’re
on land and the whale is in the water? Maybe he was just
uninspired, whereas I was thrilled to death and wanted to
get “up close and personal."
Growing up in San Diego, my Dad had a sailboat and would
take us kids out into the ocean to whale-watch when we were
growing up. It was always exciting and I remember one time
when I was sitting on the bow with my feet in the water, we
got so close to some California Gray Whales I actually
picked my feet up out of the water as I pictured maybe
stepping on one. That’s as close as I ever thought I’d get
to a whale, or ever wanted to, for that matter. Or so I
thought.
This was different. This was a small white whale (Beluga
comes from the Russian word for “white”) and although I knew
little about them, he or she just didn’t look threatening.
So I stepped down onto a rock that was almost in the water,
but not quite, and reached out to see if I could touch him,
and I did! The whale didn’t seem to object so I patted him
a little bit, and three more swam up. The others didn’t
come close enough to touch but they were right there, just a
few feet out of my reach.
After several minutes “my” whale swam away with the others,
but certainly this was one of those wonderful memories of
living in Alaska that I’ll never forget. In my whole life,
I can’t say I ever imagined petting a whale. I had no idea
there even were whales in the Anchorage area.
When I wrote “The World At My Feet” there was very little
included of my experiences while living in Alaska for ten
years. Much of it was edited out as the book was getting
too long, but maybe in the next book I’ll include more about
living there; living in Alaska was one of the best and most
interesting times of my life.
Tomorrow morning (Sunday, June 26th as I write this), I’ll
be doing an online/radio interview. (Later, when we archive
it I’ll let you know.) Then I’m off to Chicago to sit on
reserve duty and hope a flight comes along I can fly. By
the next Weekly Update hopefully I’ll have something more
current to tell you about. For now, I hope you enjoyed
hearing about my close and quite unexpected encounter with a
whale.
In the meantime, as always,
Maintain Airpseed!
Cap’n Meryl
http://www.fromthecockpit.com
http://www.flyingfearless.com
***************************************
