Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Bullshit
(4)
The color in the preceeding post might have been, 'yellow.' No matter: I was 'scared shitless' by the circumstances. The Roach disappeared from the Littleton Airport within the week and we never saw it again. I suppose they sold it, sans 'recent history.'
4304Z (tap) ended life tragically (boom): The owner, my student, had achieved his Private Pilot License (several wall bangs as I wrote that) and was flying passengers. One evening I saw on the local evening news what appeared to be a red and white airplane which had crashed. It looked so much like 04Z that I got into the car and drove to the site. There I confirmed that it was indeed 04Z. They said that both pilot and passenger had been killed. Apparently, they were flying close to the 'hogback' depicted in a previous photo. I presume they were (boom) observing the geology. They flew into the powerlines just east of the hogback, going east. They hit the top wire, which was a grounded steel cable above the three main high voltage cables. The impact cut the steel cable but reduced the forward speed of the airplane to near zero. The airplane crashed into the middle of the concrete highway just below. Both were killed. There was no fire.
Later I got a call (boom) from my friend's wife. She was frantic. Did I know of the accident? Was it her husband? I couldn't bear to tell her. I bullshitted her. As I droned on and on I got the sense that she saw through my bullshit, and realized that her husband was gone.
The color in the preceeding post might have been, 'yellow.' No matter: I was 'scared shitless' by the circumstances. The Roach disappeared from the Littleton Airport within the week and we never saw it again. I suppose they sold it, sans 'recent history.'
4304Z (tap) ended life tragically (boom): The owner, my student, had achieved his Private Pilot License (several wall bangs as I wrote that) and was flying passengers. One evening I saw on the local evening news what appeared to be a red and white airplane which had crashed. It looked so much like 04Z that I got into the car and drove to the site. There I confirmed that it was indeed 04Z. They said that both pilot and passenger had been killed. Apparently, they were flying close to the 'hogback' depicted in a previous photo. I presume they were (boom) observing the geology. They flew into the powerlines just east of the hogback, going east. They hit the top wire, which was a grounded steel cable above the three main high voltage cables. The impact cut the steel cable but reduced the forward speed of the airplane to near zero. The airplane crashed into the middle of the concrete highway just below. Both were killed. There was no fire.
Later I got a call (boom) from my friend's wife. She was frantic. Did I know of the accident? Was it her husband? I couldn't bear to tell her. I bullshitted her. As I droned on and on I got the sense that she saw through my bullshit, and realized that her husband was gone.
