Wake Up and
Fly Right
The importance of being fully alert in the air
THIS PARTICULAR STRETCH OF the flight was only about half an hour
long, and it covered some beautiful scenery. There were lakes, ponds,
wooded hills, and streams that zigzagged between the hills into valleys now deepening in shadow. But the flying didn’t require much of
me—just keep the wings level and the nose pointed at a particular
spot on the horizon, long since determined by GPS and compass. A
slight drowsiness crept in.
In this case, no T- 6 came close, as in my
fanciful drawing (and I don’t look anything
like Mr. Sleepyhead, either). What I did do
was get busy trying to wake up.
Incidentally, there was no possibility of
carbon monoxide poisoning in my open
cockpit with the pusher-mounted engine
