Aviation

There is a story told, and is said to be true, from the early days of aviation.  In those pioneer days planes flew from airfield to airfield to refuel and they could only carry a limited amount of aviation fuel.  One pilot was making a flight around the world and had landed at an airfield for more fuel.  He then set off and after two hours heard some strange noises inside the plane.  As he listened he realised, to his horror, that somehow a rat had got onto the plane at the last stop and was gnawing at the inside of the aircraft.  

He knew this was a very dangerous situation because if the rat gnawed through some vital cable or control on the plane then the likelihood of crashing was very high.  He was in serious trouble and was two hours away from his last stop and had nearly two hours to go to reach the next destination.  At first the pilot didn’t know what to do and felt deeply concerned and anxious. Then he remembered that a rat was a rodent and was not made for heights.  Rats live on the ground and even under the ground and not thousands of feet in the air.  The pilot started to take his plane on a climb upwards.  He reached a thousand feet, then ten thousand and eventually at twenty thousand feet the gnawing stopped.

Looking forward to flying again!

 

All photos courtesy of Unsplash

One of the benefits of travelling is that I get to fly from time to time. I enjoy flying and am not too bothered if the plane is large or small. It's been a long time since I have flown, so I am looking forward to the opportunity when it comes again.

Once when I was visiting Vancouver, I had the opportunity to fly in a three-seater small plane. It seemed tiny to me. We took off and climbed high above Vancouver, had a quick look over the edge of the Rockies, dipped over downtown Vancouver and returned to the airfield. I enjoyed it, but I was trusting the pilot, the technicians who maintained the plane, air traffic control, and many other people. Events in life are often only safe because people care, prepare and plan things in advance. 

A change of perspective!

Photo by Jerry Zhang on Unsplash

Photo by Nick Morales on Unsplash

Photo by Bethany Laird on Unsplash

I can remember on a flight I was looking out of the window at the white cotton clouds below, scattered over a mountain range. This is a perspective only seen maybe a few times each year. Looking down I could pick out villages & hamlets. I began to wonder where they were, who lived there, what did they do and what problems did they have. I glanced out of the window again, of course, the scene had changed. The cloud was more plentiful, I could make out a wooded area and in the distance a larger town. I did not know where it was, what size its population was and I certainly knew nothing of the very real problems that many people were facing that day.