among giants

On the plane ride up to Maz. I was able to actually watch the takeoff and landing through the front windows of the airplane! I was sitting in the row behind the pilots and I’m sure I looked like a kid in a candy shop. My eyes must have been huge as I watched the pilots flip a zillion switches and say stuff like, “Left prop is go for flight” and “Setting cruising altitude at 27 thousand, captain.” I made a friend here that is a pilot, and he told me who would be flying my plane. This is good info for schmoozing purposes. I did some name dropping and found favor with the mutual friend/pilot. He asked if I wanted to wear the headphones and communicate with my friend who was also flying that day. I chickened out because I pictured the worst: some bit of vital information coming through as I’m wearing the set of headphones, putting the vital communication at a hault, then our plan spiraling down into a crash landing in a mountain, all because I was wearing the headphones instead of the pilot. Instead, I busied myself with the view from my little frosted-over window. Here’s what I saw…







Goose the Pilot, my new friend that gave me the schmoozing ability with Bruce my pilot told me that the mountains we flew over were the Hindu-Kush Mountains. I believe him. He also said that if we had taken a hard right turn as we were flying over the major mountain pass, we would eventually run into Mt. Everest. I’m glad to be in Maz for this week, but must admit that circling Mt. Everest in a 10-seater plane would have been quite fabulous, as well.

Ps: Goose isn’t his real name.