In the driver's seat
I got to see the cockput on the 747 airplane. It must have been a few hours past noon as I could not see the sun directly from the cockpit (not that I'd want to). I could see 180 degrees - nothing but the top of portions of small, fluffy white clouds as if they were steaming from the ocean. but it was all blue - hard to tell what was sky and what was water.
There must have been a million gauges and instruments, some of them looked familiar (thanks to Jon Friederichs and his flight simulator game). The pilots should loosen up a little. I stayed for about 10-15 minutes - I had to tell the gang about this.
I got to see the cockpit a second time. This time at night. But this time the whole team (six including myself) managed to cram into the cockpit. Must have lastest atleast 30 minutes or so in there. Got to see the stars (the pilots turned off the lights for us) and listen to mysterious/weird people talking on the radio waves.
"I had less than good news," the pilots/captain announced. The 747 is short on fuel. Must make a quick (I hesitate to say emergency) landing somewhere. We're making the descent now to some small place called Windhoek.
They wouldn't allow us to get out of the plane. So I just stood around an open door where a coupld of ladies were chatting. Eventually I found the hard way that they were smokers, and were just dying to get a cigarette (there was smoke in one of the lavatories just hours before - while in the air). One of the ladies really got mad at me - basically because I was bugging her about the health-hazards of smoking. When it was time to takeoff, I found out that she sat just two seats away from me to my left. She leaned over and said, "you better not sleep." I was amused and smiled - she didn't.
There must have been a million gauges and instruments, some of them looked familiar (thanks to Jon Friederichs and his flight simulator game). The pilots should loosen up a little. I stayed for about 10-15 minutes - I had to tell the gang about this.
I got to see the cockpit a second time. This time at night. But this time the whole team (six including myself) managed to cram into the cockpit. Must have lastest atleast 30 minutes or so in there. Got to see the stars (the pilots turned off the lights for us) and listen to mysterious/weird people talking on the radio waves.
"I had less than good news," the pilots/captain announced. The 747 is short on fuel. Must make a quick (I hesitate to say emergency) landing somewhere. We're making the descent now to some small place called Windhoek.
They wouldn't allow us to get out of the plane. So I just stood around an open door where a coupld of ladies were chatting. Eventually I found the hard way that they were smokers, and were just dying to get a cigarette (there was smoke in one of the lavatories just hours before - while in the air). One of the ladies really got mad at me - basically because I was bugging her about the health-hazards of smoking. When it was time to takeoff, I found out that she sat just two seats away from me to my left. She leaned over and said, "you better not sleep." I was amused and smiled - she didn't.
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