Last week I was in Seattle.  I headed for my gate, and the aircraft that I was going to fly had just arrived.  Soldiers in battle dress uniform were coming off the plane - and among the usual crowd of people gathered waiting to board the next flight out, the soldiers loved ones waited.

I saw one young woman fly into the arms of her returning soldier, she was swallowed up in one of those long,  close, hugs that says so much more than words could ever say ... they stood there locked in an embrace for a long time, oblivious as other soldiers filed past them.

And I saw another couple do exactly the same thing -- and then a third -- it was starting to look more like a Saturday night at a dance hall rather than an airport terminal - except for the fact that other  soldiers continued to file past them coming off the plane.

That's what it looked like -- this is what it sounded like ...Download

I'm back to work.  Back to flying airplanes.  After 2 months off, recovering from my broken ribs, I finally put on that uniform -- more importantly, both in a figurative and a literal sense, I put on my captain's hat -- more about that in this episode.

Plus I'm finally going to make good on a promise I made in episode 15 of Fly With Me (the second Freddie Laker interview), and I respond to some comments and emails you've sent.

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Music from the podsafe music network:  "Honolulu Shuffle" by Kaimoku, "Detective Double Bass" by Lastfuture, "Radio Friendly" by Little Fish Big Pond (includes a message for Don Imus, I think)

An Empty Seat in First Class

I've always kind of played a little game in my mind -- you know like those little parlor games you play where you ask people what books they would want on a deserted island, or where you ask "If you could invite five famous people to dinner living or dead, who would it be"?  Well I always though it would be more telling to ask "If you could sit in first class next to anyone -- currently living -- who would that be? And what would you say to them?" This question has the advantage that it could really happen.  You might realistically, in your lifetime, have that happen. 

Well, for me -- if anyone ever bothered to ask me that question, "Who would you want to sit next to?" the answer has always been, without hesitation ...

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music:  "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" by Big George Jackson Blues Band (on the podsafe music network)

I'm doing my revisions -- updating my jepps.  Those are the navigation charts we carry in those big black flight kits we all have.  I have two thick binders filled with these thin pages of airport diagrams, departure procedures, arrivals and so on.  Each binder is about the size and weight of two bricks stuck together.  And every two weeks they issue changes which we have to post.  As I said, that's what I'm doing now. Take out the old page, insert new one -- repeat ... it's a royal pain, as any pilot will tell you. 

It's even worse if you get behind.  And I'm way behind.  No -- I haven't flown with outdated charts -- in fact, I haven't flown at all in the last two months.

Here's what happened ... Download