on a regular basis i am almost overwhelmed with the marvel or what we are doing!
FL330, GS of 500 knots or so, outside temp around -45C. coffee in hand, 148 pax and their bags on their way to see family or a holiday.
and though we are required to know answers to questions about the navigation aids we use, it still strikes me as quite amazing that this airplane can know where it is, where we want it to go, and coupled to the autopilot actually get there.
on a walk around, even though sometimes on a bad day, i feel like i am trapped in a piece of S..T airplane when the APU doesn't work and it is hot weather, most of the times i can look at the B737 and see the wonder it really is. run my hands on some parts of her when no one is looking. knowing that if it were up to me, couldn't even make the coffee cup holder out of raw materials.
as i look out the window i am amazed at how complicated LIGHT is. and how it can come through that thick piece of stuff we call glass. i read a book by Richard Feynman about the strange properties of light and still could only walk away knowing that i really don't understand WHY light is that way.
the actual performing of the radio transmissions amaze me.
and to think of how brave those first people were who flew in the early years. and how many gave their lifes for the pursuit of aviation.
and to think that most of it was motivated by war and defense and offense. those beautiful war planes are really just killing machines.
and that on one day we can travel farther than many many people ever could years ago.
i sometimes think what someone like Plato would have thought of a B737-400.
and how with altitude everything gets a blue color to it due to the filtering of all the lower frequency light waves.
i still get a kick out of crashing into the clouds when descending on an approach, as long as they are the friendly types.
and popping out of an overcast layer while climbing out and seeing the bright morning sunlight.
too many things to mention!
and then each of the good things seems to be balanced with discrepancies in passenger counts, slots, derated engines and full pax and possible fuel stops.
enough for now.
