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1. 09:47 PM - Battlestar Gallactica (cybersuperstore)
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| Subject: | Battlestar Gallactica |
Many years ago I was flying regularly between Johannesburg in South Africa
and the bush near the border with Botswana. There are no lights for hundreds
of kilometers. Taking off at night with pitch dark sky, scarcely able to see
one's hand, required a walk down the dirt road on which we would take off,
position a flashlight so that its light can be seen from the aircraft, and
take off towards it rotating before passing it. (I always wondered what
someone walking in the dark in the bush would make of a flashlight alone in
the wilderness. Never got my curiosity satisfied). Every night-takeoff cost
a flashlight but that was cheap considering the value of that guiding light.
However, one night I had a passenger who swore that he'd never be
disoriented in a plane when all references to the ground have been removed.
He insisted taking the stick after takeoff but I refused knowing what was
about to happen. As soon as we cleared some mountains to the East and gained
sufficient altitude, I said he could take the stick. Every couple of seconds
I would grab the stick and right the plane, causing him to become irritated
that I would interfere with his flying. So, I decided to let him be. We were
about to roll over when a huge array of lights appeared above us. It was
larger than Battlestar Galactica with lighted tentacles spanning the sky. He
yelled, "look at that Boeing". Boeing was his metaphor for a very, very
large unidentified flying object.
I took the stick, righted the plane and when the Galactica was below us, I
said nonchalantly, "It's a city, you idiot."
That night Chris Kunneke came to realize flying a plane on instruments is
not a skill with which one is born.
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