LIVING IN ALASKA
This week’s chapter, entitled “Keep Your Pants On, Please!” may be recognized by some who have been reading my blog for a couple of years. It was first published in March, 2005, in response to several inquiries regarding funny incidents that happened during my flying career.
Published in two parts as always, keep in mind the funniest sections are in the next installment. All chapters of my sequel may be found here as they are published:Table Of Contents .
Stories like this really take me back. When I first moved to Alaska, people who had been there for awhile told me people either love it or hate it almost immediately. I had no doubt whatsoever that I would love it, and I did.
I remember first learning about Alaska after the huge 9.2 earthquake there on Good Friday of 1964. I was in elementary school at the time and thought (other than that whole earthquake thing) it sounded like the most wonderful place, and that I would like to live there sometime. I was just sure I’d wind up there at some point.
My wish came true and I did live in Alaska for a period of ten years, moving there in 1981 to fly for Wien Air Alaska, and commuting from San Francisco for another five years after I was hired by United.
During my time there, I flew the B-727 and B-737 for Wien Air Alaska, but was often laid off for stretches of months at a time. During one of those breaks I was hired as Chief Pilot for the Nondalton Indian Tribe, whose Chief, “Jim,” thought it was just “way cool” to have a female pilot in charge. I thought it was pretty cool, too, and wrote a little about it in my first book (Chapter 25 – “Wing Walker”).
Colorado, where I now live, is a lovely state, but Alaska holds a special place in my memory and in my heart both from a career and personal standpoint. It’s where I got “up close and personal” with a moose or two, stood under Northern Lights so brilliant winter nights sometimes turned into day, stood on the north shore of the state in oil camps with nothing but the endless white arctic plain in sight, flew by steaming volcanoes, petted a friendly Beluga whale from a jetty right in Anchorage Harbor, stopped my car on the way home from the airport once to let a hot air balloon bounce right in front of me on the street and become airborne again, and had countless other wondrous experiences.
It’s why I’ve included so much about it in Part Two of “The World At My Feet.”
"The World At My Feet" and "Flights of Whimsy" is now a
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And with that,
Until Next Time,
Maintain Airspeed,
Cap'n Meryl

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