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Alone

Imagine taking a flight on a Southwest Airlines jet.

Imagine getting assigned to seat 22b, the dreaded middle seat, in the back of the plane, with no view, and your seat cannot recline.

Now, imagine that the flight is 80 hours long, and that you can’t sleep at any point of the flight.

Now imagine that you’re not just a passenger, but you’re the pilot. And its not a well tested and understood Boeing 737, but a one time creation, made mostly out of plastic, and it doesn’t have two engines, but one.

And no one has ever done what you are about to do. Fly around the world, nonstop, Solo, on one engine without refueling.

Now imagine that you just crossed from Newfoundland into the Atlantic. You are familiar with the North Atlantic arent you? The Titanic sank there most of the passengers died not of drowning but of hypothermia. In that water, you have about 20 minutes before you are stone dead, even if you use your 'flotation device'. Even if you crash next to a nice warm US Coast Guard Cutter, your chances of survival are pretty slim. The Atlantic is the most populated, safest part of the trip. Later, you’ll cross the equator, and all of the weather problems that can create will be yours to deal with.

Alone.

Before you tonight is 8 hours of blackness before the green coast of Ireland appears along with the bright light of sunrise. Only that sunrise will make you squint, which will have the effect of making you want to sleep even more.

Now imagine you have two more days and nights to go before you can sleep.

That’s what Steve Fossett is up against tonight and the next three days. There are people who would say that Steve is really not alone out there.

But none of those people are pilots.

Pilots know that all engines and electrical systems immediately fail or go dark as soon as you are over water and too far to go back to land. Pilots know the cold fear that comes from second thoughts. Pilots know the nervous habit of tapping the side of their instruments to “make sure they work”, like knocking on wood. We all know its crap, but we do it anyway. We all listen for the engine to miss, and even when it doesn’t, we hear it, as if by hearing it early and catching it, there might be something we can do to stop it.

But there isn’t anything you can do. You, like all pilots have to sit there and take it. Once you do the pre-flight, and once you are in the air, there’s not a damn thing you can do about a misfiring engine or the blown fuse that happens when you neglected to bring a spare or a flashlight to see it with.

Pilots know. And it makes us all sweat and fidget when you talk to us about it.

Tomorrow, when you see someone you know who is a pilot, you’ll see them sitting they’re tapping the edge of their coffee cup with their pencil, nervously awaiting news. When you look at their eyes, you’ll know what pilots know that normal people don’t.

Sure, its lonely up there, and potentially dangerous but there’s nowhere else any of us would rather be.

Say a prayer tonight for Steve Fossett.

Posted @ March 01, 2005 12:35 AM | Aviation

Posted by: Archpilot at March 1, 2005 11:47 AM

Posted by: Greg in Texas at March 2, 2005 08:01 PM