It is a little humiliating to share my first P. Being a Fighter Pilot, this skill was not part of my portfolio. You can imagine, I was anxious to do it just right.
The plane was a Boeing and I was the third pilot. Our passengers were enroute from Ottawa to Edmonton and I was going to provide them with an update on our route. Being prepared, I wrote my script about an hour early so I would have time to practice and complete my many systems checks prior to the grand oration.
The latest weather is β¦ blah blah blah. It was written, read and rehearsed in my head until I was certain I would do the company and most of all my entire crew, proud. So, time passed and I eventually picked up the mic β and gave it my best.
I was quite proud, as it went well with no uhhs and or lengthy pauses. I even did the translation into French. So feeling relieved, I continued my duties and light conversation with the other two pilots. Then the flight attendant came up and asked if we had a map. A map? Of course, why would she ask that?
They were actually aeronautical charts but they provided us our position and we knew exactly where we were. This was before GPS, I might smugly add. Then she said, never mind β it is just there is a German tourist onboard and he thinks of himself as a pretty good navigator and wondered where we were. When she left, I leaned forward to glanced outside from my heavily instrumented side panel console.
