SPANNING THE GLOBE WITH WORDS
Before I get started, I want to let interested
readers know of two publications I am appearing
in starting this week. One is the Christian
Science Monitor, which is featuring an article
about three women pilots in the Kidspace section.
I was one of those profiled and was referred to
the author for this article by one of the other
pilots, Bettina Bathe, my Canadian friend and
author of the children’s book series “Violet the
Pilot” which you can read about at
www.violetthepilot.com. The direct link to the
article is:
Monitor
and my sincere thanks to Bettina for referring me
to the author for inclusion.
The second one is known as the “Feature
Showcase.” It’s produced by Scholastics and is
available, unfortunately, by subscription only.
This is an educational piece I hosted for
Grolier’s Online Encyclopedia. It features video
clips and aviation information for
schoolchildren, aimed primarily at fifth graders,
and I was the narrator for the whole thing. I
mention it here because I have a least several
teachers and dozens of students among my readers.
If you’re a subscribing teacher, go to
http://www.go.grolier.com and sign in with the
current information. If you’re a student, you
can check to see if your teachers have access.
The Showcase be up until at least September or
October and will be viewed by an estimated 17
million people worldwide. Scholastics is the
largest publisher in the world and I hope to be
working with them more in the future on a series
of children’s books based on some of my poems.
You can see some of them at:
Poems
One of the nice things about writing a question
and answer column is that I never have to dream
up material for content. I receive an average of
50-60 questions weekly and although many are
repeats, new and interesting ones are still
coming in all the time.
This week’s column, about flying charters,
brought back some really good memories from over
a decade ago, and gave me the chance to write
about more recent charter work as well. It also
gave me an excuse to talk about the “49ER LINER”
logo that an imaginative flight manager ordered
painted on an airplane for a Superbowl charter
without getting permission first.
In next week’s column I had to go outside my own
Photo Gallery to illustrate my subject, having to
do with reverse thrust and how it works. It’s
not the first time I’ve used outside photos, and
it occurred to me somewhere along the way to post
photos of the photographers in my own Photo
Gallery. In recent weeks I’ve posted several,
and there are two new ones this week. One is of
pilot photographer Ander Aguirre, a Spanish pilot
based in Madrid for a major Spanish airline. He
has lots of wonderful photos at
www.airteamimages.com. Just type his name in the
Search box to find his work.
The other is Florian Joachim, a student pilot
training to be an airline pilot. He lives in
Berlin and works in Flight Operations for a major
German carrier. The column featuring both their
photos is scheduled to run on March 21st, barring
any changes. You can meet both of them in the
Cap’n Meryl & Friends Album here:
Album
Florian has about 70 photos from his
“familiarization ride” with his airline. Go to
Florian
and make sure you give it a chance to load up the
photos. The site is in German but the photos are
worth looking at even if you don’t speak the
language.
My column has also introduced me to so many
readers around the world, including Adam, a high
school student in Poland who aspires to be a
pilot himself. He and I have taken to
communicating on a regular basis. His photo is
in the Cap’n Meryl & Friends Album as well.
In addition to getting technical and general
aviation questions from the public, I’ve also
gotten a number of letters asking for personal
advice. One was from a young lady in Croatia,
asking my advice on dating an airline pilot who
was never around and didn’t seem to be interested
in settling down. He didn’t even live in the
same country and what did I think she should do?
That one was pretty easy—dump the guy and go get
someone closer to home. Long-distance
relationships are tough even when both parties
are committed, but in this case, only she sounded
even vaguely interested.
Then there are the highly technical questions I
get from high school teachers in Texas, engineers
in India and a few with political interests here
and there, like one I just received this morning
from South Africa.
Students have written to me from probably at
least 30 different countries asking for advice on
becoming a pilot. It’s difficult enough to give
advice in this country, but when I receive notes
saying that pilots from various countries seem to
come either through the military or through
corrupt political connections, it leaves me
somewhat at a loss. All I can tell them is how
it’s done in this country, either through the
military or privately, refer them to
www.aviationcareercounseling.com and wish them
the best. This site is run by my friend Captain
Karen Kahn, one of this country’s earliest female
pilots. She’s currently a B-767 captain for a
major carrier.
The far-reaching effects of the usatoday.com
column are something I did not count on. I
thought it would generate a significant amount of
interest, but I didn’t think I’d be communicating
with over 150 countries because of it. I didn’t
think I’d be on ABC’s “The View” because of it,
or wind up in so many prestigious publications
including the Christian Science Monitor as I did
this week. I was informed this publication is
even read at the White House. I didn’t expect
the FAA to write saying what a lift (pun
intended) I’ve given to the traveling public by
writing such an upbeat column. One FAA official
wrote to tell me my column is read aloud at every
Friday morning staff meeting.
Such a little idea and such big ramifications,
bigger even than what I imagined, and I have
quite an imagination.
I haven’t even mentioned all the readers who
communicate with me on a regular or semi-regular
basis. Sometimes all the communications get to
be overwhelming, but I do read every single email
that comes in, and there are many hundreds per
day sometimes. So far, I’ve been able to answer
all those that come through my site, but have
dropped to answering only a fraction of the ones
that come through usatoday.com although I read
all those as well.
So my point, and I do have one, is that my
readers are to thank for the launch and
continuation of my career as a columnist and
author, and this was my rather circuitous way of
saying “thanks.”
And that goes for Al The Web Guy, too.
readers know of two publications I am appearing
in starting this week. One is the Christian
Science Monitor, which is featuring an article
about three women pilots in the Kidspace section.
I was one of those profiled and was referred to
the author for this article by one of the other
pilots, Bettina Bathe, my Canadian friend and
author of the children’s book series “Violet the
Pilot” which you can read about at
www.violetthepilot.com. The direct link to the
article is:
Monitor
and my sincere thanks to Bettina for referring me
to the author for inclusion.
The second one is known as the “Feature
Showcase.” It’s produced by Scholastics and is
available, unfortunately, by subscription only.
This is an educational piece I hosted for
Grolier’s Online Encyclopedia. It features video
clips and aviation information for
schoolchildren, aimed primarily at fifth graders,
and I was the narrator for the whole thing. I
mention it here because I have a least several
teachers and dozens of students among my readers.
If you’re a subscribing teacher, go to
http://www.go.grolier.com and sign in with the
current information. If you’re a student, you
can check to see if your teachers have access.
The Showcase be up until at least September or
October and will be viewed by an estimated 17
million people worldwide. Scholastics is the
largest publisher in the world and I hope to be
working with them more in the future on a series
of children’s books based on some of my poems.
You can see some of them at:
Poems
One of the nice things about writing a question
and answer column is that I never have to dream
up material for content. I receive an average of
50-60 questions weekly and although many are
repeats, new and interesting ones are still
coming in all the time.
This week’s column, about flying charters,
brought back some really good memories from over
a decade ago, and gave me the chance to write
about more recent charter work as well. It also
gave me an excuse to talk about the “49ER LINER”
logo that an imaginative flight manager ordered
painted on an airplane for a Superbowl charter
without getting permission first.
In next week’s column I had to go outside my own
Photo Gallery to illustrate my subject, having to
do with reverse thrust and how it works. It’s
not the first time I’ve used outside photos, and
it occurred to me somewhere along the way to post
photos of the photographers in my own Photo
Gallery. In recent weeks I’ve posted several,
and there are two new ones this week. One is of
pilot photographer Ander Aguirre, a Spanish pilot
based in Madrid for a major Spanish airline. He
has lots of wonderful photos at
www.airteamimages.com. Just type his name in the
Search box to find his work.
The other is Florian Joachim, a student pilot
training to be an airline pilot. He lives in
Berlin and works in Flight Operations for a major
German carrier. The column featuring both their
photos is scheduled to run on March 21st, barring
any changes. You can meet both of them in the
Cap’n Meryl & Friends Album here:
Album
Florian has about 70 photos from his
“familiarization ride” with his airline. Go to
Florian
and make sure you give it a chance to load up the
photos. The site is in German but the photos are
worth looking at even if you don’t speak the
language.
My column has also introduced me to so many
readers around the world, including Adam, a high
school student in Poland who aspires to be a
pilot himself. He and I have taken to
communicating on a regular basis. His photo is
in the Cap’n Meryl & Friends Album as well.
In addition to getting technical and general
aviation questions from the public, I’ve also
gotten a number of letters asking for personal
advice. One was from a young lady in Croatia,
asking my advice on dating an airline pilot who
was never around and didn’t seem to be interested
in settling down. He didn’t even live in the
same country and what did I think she should do?
That one was pretty easy—dump the guy and go get
someone closer to home. Long-distance
relationships are tough even when both parties
are committed, but in this case, only she sounded
even vaguely interested.
Then there are the highly technical questions I
get from high school teachers in Texas, engineers
in India and a few with political interests here
and there, like one I just received this morning
from South Africa.
Students have written to me from probably at
least 30 different countries asking for advice on
becoming a pilot. It’s difficult enough to give
advice in this country, but when I receive notes
saying that pilots from various countries seem to
come either through the military or through
corrupt political connections, it leaves me
somewhat at a loss. All I can tell them is how
it’s done in this country, either through the
military or privately, refer them to
www.aviationcareercounseling.com and wish them
the best. This site is run by my friend Captain
Karen Kahn, one of this country’s earliest female
pilots. She’s currently a B-767 captain for a
major carrier.
The far-reaching effects of the usatoday.com
column are something I did not count on. I
thought it would generate a significant amount of
interest, but I didn’t think I’d be communicating
with over 150 countries because of it. I didn’t
think I’d be on ABC’s “The View” because of it,
or wind up in so many prestigious publications
including the Christian Science Monitor as I did
this week. I was informed this publication is
even read at the White House. I didn’t expect
the FAA to write saying what a lift (pun
intended) I’ve given to the traveling public by
writing such an upbeat column. One FAA official
wrote to tell me my column is read aloud at every
Friday morning staff meeting.
Such a little idea and such big ramifications,
bigger even than what I imagined, and I have
quite an imagination.
I haven’t even mentioned all the readers who
communicate with me on a regular or semi-regular
basis. Sometimes all the communications get to
be overwhelming, but I do read every single email
that comes in, and there are many hundreds per
day sometimes. So far, I’ve been able to answer
all those that come through my site, but have
dropped to answering only a fraction of the ones
that come through usatoday.com although I read
all those as well.
So my point, and I do have one, is that my
readers are to thank for the launch and
continuation of my career as a columnist and
author, and this was my rather circuitous way of
saying “thanks.”
And that goes for Al The Web Guy, too.
And with that, Cap'n Meryl
Until Next Time,
Maintain Airspeed,
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