"Bill Denton" wrote in message
...
[...] He said it was obvious they weren't trying to bring him down as the
hits were rarely in a critical area; they mainly just wanted to scare him
away. If they'd brought a plane down it would have attracted even more
attention which was what they were trying to avoid in the first place.

I think he was being too optimistic. Anyone dumb enough to grow illegal
crops near a relatively high-traffic area like a pipeline is also dumb
enough to attempt to shoot an airplane down. That's before even bothering
to consider the unlikelihood of the shooter being able to intentionally
avoid making a critical shot at a moving airplane.

Sounds to me like your friend was just plain lucky not to have been shot
down.

Pete