Simpy One of Many Stories of a Time Not So Long Ago

Pac

Wasn't SAT the outfit that Ollie was using in Nicaragua and the '****
kicker' got taken and made the headlines????

Big John

On 4 Mar 2004 23:51:14 -0800, (pacplyer) wrote:

(Badwater Bill) wrote in message .. .
So BWB did you really do it?


Nah. I was never in a war. Air America was a civilian airline
Everybody knows that. Ask Walt Troyer. He flew for AA.

I think the follow-on airline for CIA was called SAT. Southern Air
Transport (but I've heard it was exactly the same kind of thing.) He
said to leave him out of it via email. I ****ed him off doubting if
he was at that outfit. Sorry Walt. Like I said Bill, there's no
question he flew Hercs in Africa cuz I later flew with his old
co-pilot on A310's in SE Asia.

----clip----

Big John wrote in message . ..
Pac

Wasn't SAT the outfit that Ollie was using in Nicaragua and the '****
kicker' got taken and made the headlines????

Big John



Yeah that's the bunch all right. They were involved in a lot of other
things around the world too that didn't make the papers. "Anything,
anywhere." Everytime we'd see a grey or camouflaged herc C-130 with
no markings or registration numbers taxiing around on a ramp somewhere
around the world using a strange callsign we would smile because we
knew it might be those fearless SAT guys again. The average American
probably owes these guys a lot and doesn't even know it. I think BWB
is right, that it is really the same Co. (from the gov standpoint) but
they just changed their name and started anew aft Nam. At least
that's what I heard anyway. Should ask Walt if he's still here.

You doing better after you hosp. stay?

pac

Pac

Feel a lot better but still have the infirmities of old old age. Still
better than a sharp stick in the eye as we used to say.

The media trashed AA so bad in and after VN about their out country
ops, think the name was changed to protect the innocent. Probably many
of same crews moved on from AA after it was shut down or reduced in
size?

I went through a aircraft check out program during Nam with a CIA and
AF type who wouldn't talk about where they were going. From the A/C we
were flying the only place could have been Laos.

Take care and fly right )

BJ

On 6 Mar 2004 07:57:35 -0800, (pacplyer) wrote:

Big John wrote in message . ..
Pac

Wasn't SAT the outfit that Ollie was using in Nicaragua and the '****
kicker' got taken and made the headlines????

Big John



Yeah that's the bunch all right. They were involved in a lot of other
things around the world too that didn't make the papers. "Anything,
anywhere." Everytime we'd see a grey or camouflaged herc C-130 with
no markings or registration numbers taxiing around on a ramp somewhere
around the world using a strange callsign we would smile because we
knew it might be those fearless SAT guys again. The average American
probably owes these guys a lot and doesn't even know it. I think BWB
is right, that it is really the same Co. (from the gov standpoint) but
they just changed their name and started anew aft Nam. At least
that's what I heard anyway. Should ask Walt if he's still here.

You doing better after you hosp. stay?

pac

Big John wrote in message . ..
Pac

Feel a lot better but still have the infirmities of old old age. Still
better than a sharp stick in the eye as we used to say.

The media trashed AA so bad in and after VN about their out country
ops, think the name was changed to protect the innocent. Probably many
of same crews moved on from AA after it was shut down or reduced in
size?

That's what I've always suspected, but only a guy like Walt would know
for sure.


I went through a aircraft check out program during Nam with a CIA and
AF type who wouldn't talk about where they were going. From the A/C we
were flying the only place could have been Laos.

Take care and fly right )

BJ


Glad to hear you're feeling better. John, I really enjoy reading your
posts. But I think you guys need to cut old BWB "the grump" a break.
Sounds like maybe you two operated in the same theater at one time.
I'd bet, that in five minutes of B.S. on the phone you guys would
probably become good friends. I'm sure you knew Curtis Lemay types in
the AF who would clamp down on a stogie and really give someone a
piece of their mind. That's Bill the grump. I talked to him on the
phone and he is nothing like he comes off on usenet. He's a regular
guy. A non-politician. A fighting man's soldier. This goes back to
what I've been saying all along about this kind of media: That with
this damned usenet you can't be certain if people are talking in a bar
room humor or a formal essay mode. There's no voice inflection or
body language or eyebrow arching to clue you into the fact that the
guy is spinning a tale tall or just floating a trial balloon. And
then tempers flare, and heels get dug in, and well… it becomes just
like the U.N. ;-)

I'm going to continue championing free speech around here even if
it's unpopular. Including the right my detractors have to verbally
(but not in the real world) attack me.

Glad both of you survived such a ****ty war (even if in the periphery
roles.) My Saudi Arabian experience was, by comparison, a complete
cakewalk.

pac

"pacplyer" wrote [speaking of Big Littlejohn] in
message .

I'm sure you knew Curtis Lemay types in

Hell, he IS a Curtis LeMay type. With a hair trigger.

That's what I've always suspected, but only a guy like Walt would know
for sure.


Pac: There are a lot more here than Walt who would know.

**** Walt.

He ain't the only whore who ever flew for AA. You want to know
who's aircraft the CIA put drugs on in case they went down so it
looked like a Mad-Monk Squad ****ty op? They 'sanitized' everybody
from head to foot at the LZ with no ID, no uniform, no backing and no
****ing support? Just look around buddy. Those cocksuckers from the
"company" never gave a **** about the pilots. It wasn't about
"Clean-Green-Marine-ville" old buddy. It was about sacrifice...your
life, your VA benefits, your ****ing paycheck. In the AA, you left
your buddies behind. That was the motto Pac. It wasn't like the
Marines nowadays where no man gets left behind. It was just like I
said, ALL AA PILOTS GET LEFT BEHIND.

It wasn't any romantic novel Pac. It was ****ing war. Only the
greatest patriots risked it all...and the AA guys were some of the
most patriotic muther ****ers who ever lived.

If you were an AA whore, you were "expendable" as Rambo put it so well
in one of his ****ty movies. The Government could give a **** less
about your motives. They just wanted "Meat for the Line!"

****ing Company!

Look at the poor *******s who made it in the VA hospitals now with
brain damage and ruined lives who were enlisted, with ID's, real op's,
real missions, IN COUNTRY! Look at how well they live NOW. Then you
can imagine what really happened to those who were asked to color
outside the lines.

****.

The guys who are real Army, Marines, AF or Navy are the chosen ones
compared to the AA geeks. Any AA geek who got creamed in battle and
lived, is probably farming rice in some ****ing paddy on the
outskirts of Bangkok with chains on his ankles to this day.

All for God and Country, muther ****ers.

I wonder if Jane "****" Fonda would make a visit to Thailand to try
and free up the AA pilots who have had multiple lobotomies with wires
jammed in through their eye's and twisted in circles in their brains
when the cried for help while in pain from being treated as farm
animals by the Gooks?



I went through a aircraft check out program during Nam with a CIA and
AF type who wouldn't talk about where they were going. From the A/C we
were flying the only place could have been Laos.

Nah...not just Laos buddy. They went into China, Thailand and
Cambodia on a daily basis. You have been fed some bull-****
somewhere. I'm sure all of this is still classified, but I'm too old
to give a **** anymore.


Glad to hear you're feeling better. John, I really enjoy reading your
posts. But I think you guys need to cut old BWB "the grump" a break.

**** ya all, I don't want no breaks. I don't want no friends and I
don't need no help in finding people to "Understand" me. **** all of
you *******s.

Sounds like maybe you two operated in the same theater at one time.

Nope, not me, I was in college. I can prove it.

I'd bet, that in five minutes of B.S. on the phone you guys would
probably become good friends.

**** him. I don't want to be his friend. I hate kids, dogs and OLD
PEOPLE in the reverse order. I'm not looking for friends, recognition
or reward. Just want to stir things up a bit from time to time.

I'm sure you knew Curtis Lemay types in
the AF who would clamp down on a stogie and really give someone a
piece of their mind. That's Bill the grump. I talked to him on the
phone and he is nothing like he comes off on usenet. He's a regular
guy. A non-politician. A fighting man's soldier.

Nah, I'm a prick. I'm an old ****er and even I hate old ****ers.
Don't blow my cover Pac ;-). As I said above, I was in college and I
can prove it. Never set foot outside of this country during Nam.


This goes back to
what I've been saying all along about this kind of media: That with
this damned usenet you can't be certain if people are talking in a bar
room humor or a formal essay mode. There's no voice inflection or
body language or eyebrow arching to clue you into the fact that the
guy is spinning a tale tall or just floating a trial balloon. And
then tempers flare, and heels get dug in, and well… it becomes just
like the U.N. ;-)

Yep, I just ****ing hate people here. I get along real well in the
world each day. I flew 26 hours in the last 7 days, most of it IFR in
an MD-500 helicopter. At least today I flew back here at FL 230 in
our pressurized P-210. That son of a bitch is like a Roll's Royce
compared to most of the marginal **** I have to survive through.

I think I'm going to write a book titled "How to Fly Old **** and
Survive"


While all of you muther ****ers are sitting here posting on the
Internet each day, I'm out flying in rotten air, hot conditions,
****ty airplanes, thumping helicopters and dealing with egotists.
God, what a life....and I love it. I am sick.


I'm going to continue championing free speech around here even if
it's unpopular. Including the right my detractors have to verbally
(but not in the real world) attack me.

Screw them all Pac. You are an alright guy. I even called your sorry
ass on the phone to see if you were for real or just bull ****. I
found you to be solid.

You post any God damn thing you want here. **** the Wantabe assholes
like that prick above with the link to "Stolen Valor"

I'll bet you a million bucks that cocksucker never set foot inside a
battle anywhere on Earth. I think I know who that little sniveling
puke is to tell you the truth. I got an email from a Colonel who used
to work for me that told me he tracked that post.

You watch out Richard. You are not as tranparent as you might
believe.

Have a nice day you pricks.

BWB




Glad both of you survived such a ****ty war (even if in the periphery
roles.) My Saudi Arabian experience was, by comparison, a complete
cakewalk.

pac

Pac sez:

Whoa, let me pull up a barstool here and catch up! Single Malt in a
classy tumbler please! (this is what happens when you take a vacation
and forget what it's like to fly redeyes and get home at six in the
morning all month...)


(Badwater Bill) wrote snip

He ain't the only whore who ever flew for AA. You want to know
who's aircraft the CIA put drugs on in case they went down so it
looked like a Mad-Monk Squad ****ty op? They 'sanitized' everybody
from head to foot at the LZ with no ID, no uniform, no backing and no
****ing support? Just look around buddy. Those cocksuckers from the
"company" never gave a **** about the pilots. It wasn't about
"Clean-Green-Marine-ville" old buddy. It was about sacrifice...your
life, your VA benefits, your ****ing paycheck. In the AA, you left
your buddies behind. That was the motto Pac. It wasn't like the
Marines nowadays where no man gets left behind. It was just like I
said, ALL AA PILOTS GET LEFT BEHIND.

It wasn't any romantic novel Pac. It was ****ing war. Only the
greatest patriots risked it all...and the AA guys were some of the
most patriotic muther ****ers who ever lived.

Yeah, a tribute to the "unknown civilian" accompanying the armed
forces needs to be erected in D.C. sometime. I shutter to think about
what would happen to a guy who's airplane caught too many stray
rounds out there. If you ditched in a river or bailed out: Every
peasant with a sharp piece of bamboo who saw you for miles around
would start making their way toward you to get in on the torture.
Human life in SE asia to this very day just does not have any value.
The price of a human life in the Philippines now is about $1,500.00.
USD. That is what you are expected to pay the relatives if you kill
one of their family members drinking and driving out there (according
to the Auzzie ex-pats who have experienced this first hand.) And
that's it. Everybody's happy. No trial, no problem. Please hit
another one of my family members, I need the money... You had to
live there to really experience the indifference. A bus rolls down
the embankment with 30 pluss people in it every few months in Bagio.
Nobody cares. Bald tires? One lane mud road? Driver on uppers?
Nobody cares. I don't even want to know what happened to downed AA
guys in Laos or Cambodia. "Pol Pot's family taught me this… hold
still…" Sweet Jumping Jesus…



If you were an AA whore, you were "expendable" as Rambo put it so well
in one of his ****ty movies. The Government could give a **** less
about your motives. They just wanted "Meat for the Line!"

****ing Company!

Look at the poor *******s who made it in the VA hospitals now with
brain damage and ruined lives who were enlisted, with ID's, real op's,
real missions, IN COUNTRY! Look at how well they live NOW. Then you
can imagine what really happened to those who were asked to color
outside the lines.

****.

The guys who are real Army, Marines, AF or Navy are the chosen ones
compared to the AA geeks. Any AA geek who got creamed in battle and
lived, is probably farming rice in some ****ing paddy on the
outskirts of Bangkok with chains on his ankles to this day.

All for God and Country, muther ****ers.

I wonder if Jane "****" Fonda would make a visit to Thailand to try
and free up the AA pilots who have had multiple lobotomies with wires
jammed in through their eye's and twisted in circles in their brains
when the cried for help while in pain from being treated as farm
animals by the Gooks?


Man you saids it. (Hick!) What a traitor. To this day she can't
walk out of first class and chit-chat with the flight crew. No one
will talk to her pathetic ass if they realizesssss who she is. I
gotta go send her a spppecciall massage, I mean a spppecciall
message, Bill.


snip a couple of doubles here
staggering back from the can

=)


Nah, I'm a prick. I'm an old ****er and even I hate old ****ers.
Don't blow my cover Pac ;-). As I said above, I was in college and I
can prove it. Never set foot outside of this country during Nam.



Like I said, you were in school. There were no teenagers in SE Asia.
;-) Nother round here! Uh, Bill don't step in that puddle of barf
down there...

I get along real well in the
world each day. I flew 26 hours in the last 7 days, most of it IFR in
an MD-500 helicopter. At least today I flew back here at FL 230 in
our pressurized P-210. That son of a bitch is like a Roll's Royce
compared to most of the marginal **** I have to survive through.

I think I'm going to write a book titled "How to Fly Old **** and
Survive"



How about this one for a title: "Hair on the palm of my hand" by Capt
Badmouthplyer ;-)

Quit watering down those doubles you communist bartender!


While all of you muther ****ers are sitting here posting on the
Internet each day, I'm out flying in rotten air, hot conditions,
****ty airplanes, thumping helicopters and dealing with egotists.
God, what a life....and I love it. I am sick.



It is sick. Having to work every day as a line dog. But you kind of
fall into a tempo. It's like "go ahead, you piece of ****, what else
can possibly break on your 20pluss year old airframe… go ahead, fall
apart, challenge me…" Sort of like the movie "Death Wish" or the book
"Fate is the Hunter." You've handled so many shortcomings in the
"aviation system" that you start feeling like you're getting pretty
good at beating the odds…

Commercial pilots get paid to aviate (while everyone else has to pay
to do it) because they put up with having to fly whether you feel like
it or not. But all the weekend weenies here will hate you because
your getting paid to do it. I have a friend who flys newschoppers who
knows what real work is, and is jealous as hell that I stay home all
the time. I LOVE flying, as long as it's when I feel like doing it
and it's for fun. Working for a task-master is hard ****ing work.
And it can drive you to drinking. If you work for butt heads that is.



I'm going to continue championing free speech around here even if
it's unpopular. Including the right my detractors have to verbally
(but not in the real world) attack me.

Screw them all Pac. You are an alright guy. I even called your sorry
ass on the phone to see if you were for real or just bull ****. I
found you to be solid.


Thanks Bill. You are my kind of scum! :^D


You post any God damn thing you want here. **** the Wantabe assholes
like that prick above with the link to "Stolen Valor"

I'll bet you a million bucks that cocksucker never set foot inside a
battle anywhere on Earth. I think I know who that little sniveling
puke is to tell you the truth. I got an email from a Colonel who used
to work for me that told me he tracked that post.

Naa… John's all right. (if that's who you're talking about.) He
tells a few tall tales, but that's what this joint is all about. The
real problem is that girl/guy who goes by the imaginative name of "a."
(who disappeared by the way.) What a squirrel. What a coward. A
real cheap shot artist.



You watch out Richard. You are not as tranparent as you might
believe.

Have a nice day you pricks.

BWB


Thanks for picking up the bar tab Bill. I'll get your wallet back to
you later. ;-)

pac

Thanks for picking up the bar tab Bill. I'll get your wallet back to
you later. ;-)

pac

Don't mention it Pac. It was the Devil in the Glen Leavit (sp)
bottle that got me last night.

I just get a bit sick of flogging around the sky in a thumping pile of
**** 35 year old Bell sometimes. We were out there IFR last Sunday,
flogging our way back from Van Nuys (over your head by the way).
Sitting there at the MEA with no autopilot I was training a new ATP
student. He's a great guy, but he was all over the ****ing sky
because the helo guys just don't get to do instruments that much.
It's just low and slow most of the time in 300 mile vis.

Training them in a real ship is hard because they are all over the
place until their scan gets up to speed. The altitude was 200 low,
then 200 high, the HSI green bar (CDI) was two dots off to the left,
then the right. The DG was 20 right then 20 degrees left. You know
how it is when a guy who's scan is slow tries to get back up to speed.
And, I like this guy. He's a crack pilot. His pick-ups and set-downs
are some of the best in the industry. He's just not an instrument
pilot and he needs to put in the time to crank up his skills.

So, I'm a bit tired this week. I flew back from Sierra Vista Arizona
yesterday in 30 knot headwinds all alone at FL 220. It was funny, I
hit the autopilot out of about 5000 feet anymore and just manage the
power, fuel flow, props all that **** that is always creeping. I got
out my video camera and put it on the dash, shooting a film of the
whole flight back here from the Mexican border. I played the tape
today and I looked bored to death, all alone up there 4 miles above
the Earth with nothing to do but monitor **** that creeps all the time
on me.

I was sitting there and thinking if I had a heart attack or the power
failed, even at 1000 feet per minute glide, I was 22 minute from
Earth. If I used 500 feet per minute I was 44 minutes from Earth.
That's kind of interesting as I looked ahead at Phoenix below me,
talking to Luke approach...I was thinking of how really detached we
are up there. This kind of **** always works on me when I'm alone.
Here I was in a $500,000 airplane, all alone, autopilot on, nothing to
do but think...nothing to look at but a gray fluid of air all around
me. I even had a hard time seeing the ground in this embryonic fluid
I was flying in. Then I got to thinking that I might not even be
there. Maybe I was dreaming that I was there...and I laughed for the
video camera. I was watching my pressurization differential and
wondering how many seconds of useful consciousness I'd have if that
baby sprung a leak. When you are up there all alone it sort of works
on you in some ways. Night time is better I think. At night you have
no sense of height. You hear all the other traffic around you as if
you are in a big theater-sized room with lots of people around you.

"Denver Center this is Lear 312 papa charlie with you, climbing
through flight level two three zero for three one zero."

You see him go by you out there in the distance, strobes flashing.

"Good evening Denver, this is Southwest three eleven with you, level
at flight level two niner zero."

Denver comes back, "SW 311, you have traffic, your 1 o'clock position
10 miles at Fl 220...a Cessna 421 level at two-two zero."

SW comes back, "Rodger, we have the traffic."

This little dance on the radio is continuous at night as the other
people up there are going in all directions and making their livings
carrying people and things around. I get a sort of peaceful sense of
belonging in this big room that they are all moving through. I feel
much more at home than I do during the day when you look straight down
4 miles to the surface at houses or cars moving along on the freeways.
It's much easier to have no surface, just stars and strobes in the
distance...especially when I'm all alone.

How do you guys feel about that? I'm never on edge at night for some
reason when I'm at altitude and I'm alone. But during the day, I'm
always on edge when I'm alone up there for some reason. I'm not
worried, or stressed out or anything, I'm just a bit on edge. At
night it's almost meditative and calm. I feel in inner peace with the
bright stars shining and the traffic moving like little dots of light
in all angles and directions. It's like I'm not flying at all, I'm
just sitting there watching out the window at the beautiful heavens
surrounding me.

What do you guys feel in these conditions.

BWB

‘Hay' Grump,

I gotta tell you I thought that was some pretty good enroute poetry
last post. You gotta include that with the rest of "The Badwater
files"

Here's mine:

*Soul searching in the thin air*

Night flying at high altitude. It is unnatural for airplanes to fly
at night up here. Especially in clouds at night. You are balanced on
a knifepoint, suspended in space with no sensation of any speed
whatsoever. It can be a surreal experience. Maybe it's the slight
hypoxia. If you do it for an hour, you may nod off, come back to, and
wonder if you're just sitting in a simulator on the ground. Maybe
you're just sitting out on the ramp in the dark and you haven't even
started this trip yet. Or worse… Maybe you're dead. It just doesn't
seem part of this life at all. It seems fake. It seems impossible
that here you are floating without any turbulence or stars or anything
except these voices in your head. Your breathing is slow and these
low detached voices are asking some gatekeeper for the "direct" way
home. There's just something supernatural about it all. It is not of
this world I tell you.

You are truly alone with your thoughts if you're solo at night and the
voices leave you. Just you and the stars and the weather. It does
have a pacifying effect on the soul. If music can tame the savage
beast, then being up here in this dark place with little magic lamps
glowing in front of your outstretched hands can cure all your worries
about the crumby world below. You are not supposed to be up here,
you know it, and the Gods are permitting it for some reason you'll
never be privy to. Thank god Apollo is in his Chariot on the other
side of the world right now. Why if he saw your complete control of
the night heavens, he might turn green with envy and strike your
mortal ship from the sky!

pacplyer

(goddamn it, I copied you again! Something about your love of flying
always gets me dreaming – Thanks Bill.)



(Badwater Bill) wrote
snip

I just get a bit sick of flogging around the sky in a thumping pile of
**** 35 year old Bell sometimes. We were out there IFR last Sunday,
flogging our way back from Van Nuys (over your head by the way).
Sitting there at the MEA with no autopilot I was training a new ATP
student. He's a great guy, but he was all over the ****ing sky
because the helo guys just don't get to do instruments that much.
It's just low and slow most of the time in 300 mile vis.

Training them in a real ship is hard because they are all over the
place until their scan gets up to speed. The altitude was 200 low,
then 200 high, the HSI green bar (CDI) was two dots off to the left,
then the right. The DG was 20 right then 20 degrees left. You know
how it is when a guy who's scan is slow tries to get back up to speed.
And, I like this guy. He's a crack pilot. His pick-ups and set-downs
are some of the best in the industry. He's just not an instrument
pilot and he needs to put in the time to crank up his skills.

So, I'm a bit tired this week. I flew back from Sierra Vista Arizona
yesterday in 30 knot headwinds all alone at FL 220. It was funny, I
hit the autopilot out of about 5000 feet anymore and just manage the
power, fuel flow, props all that **** that is always creeping. I got
out my video camera and put it on the dash, shooting a film of the
whole flight back here from the Mexican border. I played the tape
today and I looked bored to death, all alone up there 4 miles above
the Earth with nothing to do but monitor **** that creeps all the time
on me.

I was sitting there and thinking if I had a heart attack or the power
failed, even at 1000 feet per minute glide, I was 22 minute from
Earth. If I used 500 feet per minute I was 44 minutes from Earth.
That's kind of interesting as I looked ahead at Phoenix below me,
talking to Luke approach...I was thinking of how really detached we
are up there. This kind of **** always works on me when I'm alone.
Here I was in a $500,000 airplane, all alone, autopilot on, nothing to
do but think...nothing to look at but a gray fluid of air all around
me. I even had a hard time seeing the ground in this embryonic fluid
I was flying in. Then I got to thinking that I might not even be
there. Maybe I was dreaming that I was there...and I laughed for the
video camera. I was watching my pressurization differential and
wondering how many seconds of useful consciousness I'd have if that
baby sprung a leak. When you are up there all alone it sort of works
on you in some ways. Night time is better I think. At night you have
no sense of height. You hear all the other traffic around you as if
you are in a big theater-sized room with lots of people around you.

"Denver Center this is Lear 312 papa charlie with you, climbing
through flight level two three zero for three one zero."

You see him go by you out there in the distance, strobes flashing.

"Good evening Denver, this is Southwest three eleven with you, level
at flight level two niner zero."

Denver comes back, "SW 311, you have traffic, your 1 o'clock position
10 miles at Fl 220...a Cessna 421 level at two-two zero."

SW comes back, "Rodger, we have the traffic."

This little dance on the radio is continuous at night as the other
people up there are going in all directions and making their livings
carrying people and things around. I get a sort of peaceful sense of
belonging in this big room that they are all moving through. I feel
much more at home than I do during the day when you look straight down
4 miles to the surface at houses or cars moving along on the freeways.
It's much easier to have no surface, just stars and strobes in the
distance...especially when I'm all alone.

How do you guys feel about that? I'm never on edge at night for some
reason when I'm at altitude and I'm alone. But during the day, I'm
always on edge when I'm alone up there for some reason. I'm not
worried, or stressed out or anything, I'm just a bit on edge. At
night it's almost meditative and calm. I feel in inner peace with the
bright stars shining and the traffic moving like little dots of light
in all angles and directions. It's like I'm not flying at all, I'm
just sitting there watching out the window at the beautiful heavens
surrounding me.

What do you guys feel in these conditions.

BWB

pacplyer wrote:

‘Hay' Grump,

I gotta tell you I thought that was some pretty good enroute poetry
last post. You gotta include that with the rest of "The Badwater
files"

Here's mine:

*Soul searching in the thin air*

Night flying at high altitude. It is unnatural for airplanes to fly
at night up here. Especially in clouds at night. You are balanced on
a knifepoint, suspended in space with no sensation of any speed
whatsoever. It can be a surreal experience. Maybe it's the slight
hypoxia. If you do it for an hour, you may nod off, come back to, and
wonder if you're just sitting in a simulator on the ground. Maybe
you're just sitting out on the ramp in the dark and you haven't even
started this trip yet. Or worse… Maybe you're dead. It just doesn't
seem part of this life at all. It seems fake. It seems impossible
that here you are floating without any turbulence or stars or anything
except these voices in your head. Your breathing is slow and these
low detached voices are asking some gatekeeper for the "direct" way
home. There's just something supernatural about it all. It is not of
this world I tell you.

You are truly alone with your thoughts if you're solo at night and the
voices leave you. Just you and the stars and the weather. It does
have a pacifying effect on the soul. If music can tame the savage
beast, then being up here in this dark place with little magic lamps
glowing in front of your outstretched hands can cure all your worries
about the crumby world below. You are not supposed to be up here,
you know it, and the Gods are permitting it for some reason you'll
never be privy to. Thank god Apollo is in his Chariot on the other
side of the world right now. Why if he saw your complete control of
the night heavens, he might turn green with envy and strike your
mortal ship from the sky!

pacplyer

(goddamn it, I copied you again! Something about your love of flying
always gets me dreaming – Thanks Bill.)


Saved, for further contemplation flying home some night...

You too, pacman.

Richard