SURFIN' WAIKIKI-PART TWO
Note One: Before we start in on Part Two of last
week's story (you can read Part One, if you
missed it, at Blog ),
I want to draw your attention to the Cap'n Meryl &
Friends Album of my Photo Gallery. By clicking
on the link below, you'll see the latest photos
added. The first two rows are all new additions
and include a current photo of my helicopter
instructor from 1977 (you may remember him if
you've read "The World At My Feet" and if you
haven't, see February monthly special at the
bottom), three pilot/photographers who allowed me
to use their photos in some of my columns at
usatoday.com, a young man from Poland who wants
to become a pilot, and some friends/readers. By
clicking on each photo you can see the captions.
Gallery
Note Two: I will be a guest on "Around The World
Radio" this Thursday, Feb. 16th, for about 10
minutes at 10:27 Pacific Time. This interview
will be available online and you can see my
complete schedule here. Just look toward the
bottom for all the information about it.
http://www.fromthecockpit.com/Events.htm
One reader, a friend of mine who flies for a
regional airline, wrote to me asking about how to
pack for one-day trips. That is, what should a
woman put in an emergency overnight kit for
unexpected layovers? Last week I told Part One
of my story about flying to Hawaii, but in Part
Two of the same story I talk about what happens
when one is foolish enough to fly for an
international airline, yet not take an overnight
bag on every trip. Apparently this is something
each pilot has to learn for him or herself.
Here's how I learned:
In the late eighties, my airline acquired some of
Pan American's Asia routes along with some of
their pilots and, as I was based on the west
coast, suddenly I was flying much longer trips to
such exotic ports of call as Singapore, Bangkok,
Tokyo, Taipei and Hong Kong.
Currently, the longest international trip I'm
aware of is six days, while many are only three
days. Some of the trips we flew in the late
eighties were far longer. We'd fly trips twice
per month which kept us gone for as many as
eleven days at a time and, on occasion, even
longer than that.
At the other extreme were day trips out to Hawaii
and back. If there is any trip I detested, it
was this one. I considered it "cruel and unusual
punishment" to fly out to Hawaii and not be
allowed my "beach fix."
Passengers were really surprised sometimes when
they found out that we often flew out and back
the same day. This was more flight time in one
day than was allowed for domestic flying, but
because it was over water, a different set of
rules applied. Our flight time in one day out to
Hawaii and back exceeded ten hours.
Domestically we were limited to eight hours of
flight time in one day.
There was a superstition of sorts among pilots
that the way to be guaranteed an unexpected
layover on a one-day trip was to not bring a
suitcase. Most pilots carry a suitcase even on
day trips because, as we all know, things don't
always go as planned.
I knew better. I really did. But one day I
headed for the airport to fly a round trip to
Maui and I just didn't feel like carrying my
suitcase. This was before the days where
suitcases are easily rolled along and I guess I
was just lazy that day. Talk about asking for
it.
Sure enough, when we landed in Maui our local
operations manager came out to the airplane with
a message that I was to call our central crew
scheduling desk in Chicago. A message to call
the crew desk is generally not considered good
news. I couldn't imagine what they wanted as we
were only to be in Maui for an hour. I hoped
that, for whatever reason, they wanted me to lay
over and work a different trip home. I'd deal
with the lack of a suitcase for just an overnight
stay. A day at the beach was just fine with me
and I could easily buy a bathing suit.
"Meryl, here's the thing" said the harried crew
scheduler on the other end of the phone. One of
our pilots has broken his leg in Honolulu and
they're supposed to go to out to Tokyo and
Bangkok tomorrow morning. We need you to go
catch Aloha over to Honolulu, lay over and pick
up his trip tomorrow.
I felt I wasn't quite being told the whole story.
"When will I be back?"
"Oh, well, that. Yes, it's good you asked that.
Tomorrow will be day three of an eleven day trip.
Can you do it?"
"Hey, wait a minute. I don't even have an
overnight bag with me."
We'll authorize you an open-ended expense account
so you can buy absolutely everything you need in
Honolulu today if you'll just do this for us."
I'm not actually sure if I could have turned down
the assignment if I wanted to, but who wanted to?
I live for stuff like this.
"Sure, I'll do it." And off I went to tell my
captain. Another pilot was yanked off a flight
in Honolulu to fly this Maui trip back to the
mainland after a short delay, and he was somehow
replaced by yet another pilot and so on until
everything was back on track again, so to speak.
I got to Honolulu and went shopping in one of the
department stores right on the beach. I really
didn't need much: pants, shirt, bathing suit,
not much in the way of toiletries since the
hotels provided pretty much everything in that
department. The total bill came to just $57.
I'm a frugal shopper, expense account or no
expense account. I shopped, stashed my purchases
at the hotel, went for a swim at Waikiki Beach,
had an ice cream at Baskin Robbins (Chocolate
Fudge) on the way back to my hotel and
contemplated my life. I just didn't see how it
could be much better.
I had only the one uniform I was wearing, but
that wasn't a problem as each layover was long
enough to get it cleaned if I needed to, and on
this long a trip I would certainly need to more
than once. The airline would pay for that, too.
While I was at it, I decided to get another set
of uniform pants made in Bangkok. There was a
tailor right at our hotel there who was so fast,
you could just give him your pants, and an exact
copy would be waiting for you the very next day.
The cost was equivalent to about $25.
Just one more thing to tend to, and that was to
call my cat-sitter who lived down the hall from
me in the condominium complex I lived in at that
time near San Francisco. Having done that, I set
off to enjoy my trip. It turned out to be rather
mundane when compared with the first day of this
trip when pilots were shuffled like so many cards
to keep the airline on schedule as much as
possible. When a pilot goes out of commission
mid-trip like this, there is a substantial domino
effect about which the public thankfully neither
knows nor cares. Other than the slight delay of
the return trip from Mainland to Hawaii, the
airline's Hawaiian schedule remained
uninterrupted that day and nobody, other than
those directly involved, was the wiser.
I have never, ever, skipped carrying my suitcase
again on every trip, no matter how short. Not
since winding up half a world away without
notice.
In the context of this Update, in my Photo
Gallery at http://www.fromthecockpit.com/gallery there
is an Album called Chicago-Tokyo-Singapore if
you’'re interested. There are some nice shots of
Alaska and some ground shots in Singapore as well
as some aerial shots going into Tokyo's Narita
Airport. These photos weren't taken during the
time-frame of this story, however (no digital
cameras then) but on more recent trips.
And with that,
Until Next Time,
Maintain Airspeed,
Cap'n Meryl
week's story (you can read Part One, if you
missed it, at Blog ),
I want to draw your attention to the Cap'n Meryl &
Friends Album of my Photo Gallery. By clicking
on the link below, you'll see the latest photos
added. The first two rows are all new additions
and include a current photo of my helicopter
instructor from 1977 (you may remember him if
you've read "The World At My Feet" and if you
haven't, see February monthly special at the
bottom), three pilot/photographers who allowed me
to use their photos in some of my columns at
usatoday.com, a young man from Poland who wants
to become a pilot, and some friends/readers. By
clicking on each photo you can see the captions.
Gallery
Note Two: I will be a guest on "Around The World
Radio" this Thursday, Feb. 16th, for about 10
minutes at 10:27 Pacific Time. This interview
will be available online and you can see my
complete schedule here. Just look toward the
bottom for all the information about it.
http://www.fromthecockpit.com/Events.htm
One reader, a friend of mine who flies for a
regional airline, wrote to me asking about how to
pack for one-day trips. That is, what should a
woman put in an emergency overnight kit for
unexpected layovers? Last week I told Part One
of my story about flying to Hawaii, but in Part
Two of the same story I talk about what happens
when one is foolish enough to fly for an
international airline, yet not take an overnight
bag on every trip. Apparently this is something
each pilot has to learn for him or herself.
Here's how I learned:
In the late eighties, my airline acquired some of
Pan American's Asia routes along with some of
their pilots and, as I was based on the west
coast, suddenly I was flying much longer trips to
such exotic ports of call as Singapore, Bangkok,
Tokyo, Taipei and Hong Kong.
Currently, the longest international trip I'm
aware of is six days, while many are only three
days. Some of the trips we flew in the late
eighties were far longer. We'd fly trips twice
per month which kept us gone for as many as
eleven days at a time and, on occasion, even
longer than that.
At the other extreme were day trips out to Hawaii
and back. If there is any trip I detested, it
was this one. I considered it "cruel and unusual
punishment" to fly out to Hawaii and not be
allowed my "beach fix."
Passengers were really surprised sometimes when
they found out that we often flew out and back
the same day. This was more flight time in one
day than was allowed for domestic flying, but
because it was over water, a different set of
rules applied. Our flight time in one day out to
Hawaii and back exceeded ten hours.
Domestically we were limited to eight hours of
flight time in one day.
There was a superstition of sorts among pilots
that the way to be guaranteed an unexpected
layover on a one-day trip was to not bring a
suitcase. Most pilots carry a suitcase even on
day trips because, as we all know, things don't
always go as planned.
I knew better. I really did. But one day I
headed for the airport to fly a round trip to
Maui and I just didn't feel like carrying my
suitcase. This was before the days where
suitcases are easily rolled along and I guess I
was just lazy that day. Talk about asking for
it.
Sure enough, when we landed in Maui our local
operations manager came out to the airplane with
a message that I was to call our central crew
scheduling desk in Chicago. A message to call
the crew desk is generally not considered good
news. I couldn't imagine what they wanted as we
were only to be in Maui for an hour. I hoped
that, for whatever reason, they wanted me to lay
over and work a different trip home. I'd deal
with the lack of a suitcase for just an overnight
stay. A day at the beach was just fine with me
and I could easily buy a bathing suit.
"Meryl, here's the thing" said the harried crew
scheduler on the other end of the phone. One of
our pilots has broken his leg in Honolulu and
they're supposed to go to out to Tokyo and
Bangkok tomorrow morning. We need you to go
catch Aloha over to Honolulu, lay over and pick
up his trip tomorrow.
I felt I wasn't quite being told the whole story.
"When will I be back?"
"Oh, well, that. Yes, it's good you asked that.
Tomorrow will be day three of an eleven day trip.
Can you do it?"
"Hey, wait a minute. I don't even have an
overnight bag with me."
We'll authorize you an open-ended expense account
so you can buy absolutely everything you need in
Honolulu today if you'll just do this for us."
I'm not actually sure if I could have turned down
the assignment if I wanted to, but who wanted to?
I live for stuff like this.
"Sure, I'll do it." And off I went to tell my
captain. Another pilot was yanked off a flight
in Honolulu to fly this Maui trip back to the
mainland after a short delay, and he was somehow
replaced by yet another pilot and so on until
everything was back on track again, so to speak.
I got to Honolulu and went shopping in one of the
department stores right on the beach. I really
didn't need much: pants, shirt, bathing suit,
not much in the way of toiletries since the
hotels provided pretty much everything in that
department. The total bill came to just $57.
I'm a frugal shopper, expense account or no
expense account. I shopped, stashed my purchases
at the hotel, went for a swim at Waikiki Beach,
had an ice cream at Baskin Robbins (Chocolate
Fudge) on the way back to my hotel and
contemplated my life. I just didn't see how it
could be much better.
I had only the one uniform I was wearing, but
that wasn't a problem as each layover was long
enough to get it cleaned if I needed to, and on
this long a trip I would certainly need to more
than once. The airline would pay for that, too.
While I was at it, I decided to get another set
of uniform pants made in Bangkok. There was a
tailor right at our hotel there who was so fast,
you could just give him your pants, and an exact
copy would be waiting for you the very next day.
The cost was equivalent to about $25.
Just one more thing to tend to, and that was to
call my cat-sitter who lived down the hall from
me in the condominium complex I lived in at that
time near San Francisco. Having done that, I set
off to enjoy my trip. It turned out to be rather
mundane when compared with the first day of this
trip when pilots were shuffled like so many cards
to keep the airline on schedule as much as
possible. When a pilot goes out of commission
mid-trip like this, there is a substantial domino
effect about which the public thankfully neither
knows nor cares. Other than the slight delay of
the return trip from Mainland to Hawaii, the
airline's Hawaiian schedule remained
uninterrupted that day and nobody, other than
those directly involved, was the wiser.
I have never, ever, skipped carrying my suitcase
again on every trip, no matter how short. Not
since winding up half a world away without
notice.
In the context of this Update, in my Photo
Gallery at http://www.fromthecockpit.com/gallery there
is an Album called Chicago-Tokyo-Singapore if
you’'re interested. There are some nice shots of
Alaska and some ground shots in Singapore as well
as some aerial shots going into Tokyo's Narita
Airport. These photos weren't taken during the
time-frame of this story, however (no digital
cameras then) but on more recent trips.
And with that,
Until Next Time,
Maintain Airspeed,
Cap'n Meryl
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