Night Flight

By lex, on November 5th, 2011

I almost didn’t launch last night, as one of my hydraulic systems stubbornly refused to provide the requisite system pressure. You don’t want to make a habit out of bailing on night flights, even when there are plausible reasons to do so, however. The maintenance jollies did their work, and I hustled down to the hold short to join my lead.

I’ve seen darker nights – we had at least half a moon – but not recently. With our engine checks complete, my flight blasted off into the gloom, his afterburner plume receding in the distance, and after a suitable interval, I followed.

Credo

"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me."

— John Paul Jones

"Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature"

— George Bernard Shaw, Caesar and Cleopatra

"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."

— Friedrich Nietzsche

"A kind Providence has placed in our breasts a hatred of the unjust and cruel, in order that we may preserve ourselves from cruelty and injustice. They who bear cruelty, are accomplices in it. The pretended gentleness which excludes that charitable rancour, produces an indifference which is half an approbation. They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate."

— Edmund Burke

"Μολὼν λαβέ"

— Leonidas

"Blogito Ergo Sum"

— Neptunus Lex