From the Flight Deck

Our guest speaker will be Oakville resident Captain Doug Morris, who flies Airbus 320’s for Air Canada.

His presentation is titled: “From The Flight Deck – Plane Talk and Sky Science. Everything You Want to Know About Commercial Airline Travel."

Captain Morris has amassed over 17,000 hours. He is also a ground school instructor, a meteorologist, a freelance journalist and an author. He writes a monthly aviation column for enRoute, Air Canada’s in- flight magazine, and for newspapers and other aviation and weather publications. With a unique insider’s perspective, his book, From The Flight Deck – Plane Talk and Sky Science, covers a broad range of flight-related topics, including the physics of flight, how airplanes work, what hap- pens on the ground and in the air, and how pilots are trained. Blending facts, trivia, and humor, Captain Morris provides up-to-date, accurate and entertaining information about the science of aviation. Join us for some lighthearted and informative stories in the life of a commercial airline pilot and professional writer.

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Today's talk was at the Ontario Racket Club. I walked into the club with my full uniform on toting all my paraphernalia in my flight bag and asked the three attractive ladies working the desk...is this the airport? Okay, what else does a guy say when dressed in a pilot uniform at a racket sport club?

Luckily, I got there super early. More PowerPoint issues were rearing their ugly head. My laptop (Mac) didn't want to talk to the projector. After I suggested another laptop that too didn't want to communicate. After 90 minutes of troubleshooting by the staff, Captain's Doug's presentation got airborne. Luckily a pre-meeting social transpired before my talk.

The talk went very well. They laughed at all my "canned jokes," They even liked my two "mile high" anecdotes. Well at least no one walked out of the room in disgust.

(One very handsome woman told me after the talk, and who also bought my book, she really enjoyed my sense of humour. In fact, much of the crowd today were very complimentary.

Unfortunately, I requested more of my books two weeks ago from my publisher but they didn't show. I only had eight copies to sell. At the end of the talk, they were throwing money at me and I missed out on sales. Guess what showed up ten minutes after I got home? Murphy's law ruled the day.

But I didn't let those little glitches ruin my day. The group was a fantastic young at heart bunch who had very sharp minds. In fact, I'm told many of these people worked on the Avro Arrow!