We've Come A Long Way, Baby

Here's an email I received today from one of my best friends in the world, Pam. She's a pilot for Continental Airlines. This is one helluva great story, and her mom would be so proud. We all are.

Today I was flying the 757 to Orlando when the forward galley called on the interphone to the flight deck. After the Capt. talked a minute or so to our lead flight attendant, he handed me the phone and said Sally Ride wanted to talk to me. So I say "hello" and sure enough, I've got Astronaut Sally Ride on the interphone complimenting ME on how nice it is to hear a woman's voice coming from the flight deck.
I was floored.
I said, "no no no, the honor is all mine having you on our flight". And I went on to tell her about how my parents were both very active politically in the Women's Movement in the 70's and how they raised me to do whatever I wanted to do in life. She was on her way to talk to school girls about pursuing science and math. She was just a delight to talk to... the irony was she didn't want to talk to the Capt. at all. I hung up and asked him if he talked to her before handing me the phone and he said "no" and then tried to act like she wasn't that big of a deal anyway. WHATEVER! it was funny.

On a serious note, the quick conversation at 39,000 feet on Q100 will be one of my favorite moments in aviation. We (I) forget how truly amazing it is that we, women, are flying these aircraft all over the skies and that 24 years ago we were all in awe over this first woman in space. Quite humbling.

Cheers my sisters!
-Pam