Re: Very OT: things that fly by

Michael H. Phillips <mhp@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

> The Viscount and Friend****p were just too civilised to be 
> exciting.

Oh, I dunno. I once flew from Kolwezi to Kinshasa in a Friend****p. As a
rare treat I was sitting in the jump seat- the pilot was an ex-Belgian
Air Force Thunderjet jockey. The trip was through a lovely lot of
African afternoon thunderstorms; he was looking at the convection cells
on the weather radar (there was nothing to see apart from shades of grey
outside) and steering around them by altering the heading setting on the
autopilot. He told me stories about doing these flights in DC6s, without
radar. Apparently, lightning paths diverge from the centre of the cell,
heading downwards, so by looking at the discharges you could steer away
from the cells. Really...

It was the only thunderstorm flight I've actually enjoyed. Civilised or
not, the people in the back didn't have such a nice time.

Afterwards, he invited us to his house to eat a mess of whitebait.
Delicious.
-- 
Peter