Mr UD and I are driving home from our recent hiking trip in the Virginia mountains.
We’re maybe forty miles from home when we come to a massive roadworks project which blocks all car traffic. Large signs instruct you to get out of your car, walk to a nearby field of 747s, and fly one home.
Mr UD and I begin walking. I’m thinking I do remember reading somewhere that anyone can fly a 747.
The two of us get to the massive plane, and Mr UD’s game, he’s being a guy, he’s walking up the steps to the cockpit (Do 747s have cockpit steps?)… But I can tell he’s reluctant.
Suddenly I say: “Stop. That’s enough. There’s NO way you’re flying this plane. It’s not good for your health. It’s not safe. No.”
Somewhat sheepishly, Mr UD descends the steps.
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When I woke up, I told Mr UD the dream. I expected him to laugh. He didn’t laugh.
“It’s true,” he said, his voice a bit slurred by sleepiness. “All you have to do to fly a 747 is press a button. I mean, it has to be programmed and all.”
“Oh yeah?” I countered. “A field of 747s. Tons of people are taking off at the same time. How do you avoid hitting them?”
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(For new readers: UD is recovering from surgery and taking Percocet.)
August 20th, 2011 at 4:06PM
Quick! Grab a pen! You could pull a Coleridge and write a “Kubla Khan”. Just don’t answer the door.
August 20th, 2011 at 4:43PM
Percocet makes drab telephone poles and drooping wires beautiful and perfect. This is not an endorsement of the drug, except that it’s indescribably grand. I hope your recovery is going well.
August 21st, 2011 at 7:35AM
About once a month (including the latest one), Patrick Smith in his Ask the Pilot column at Salon points out that modern jet liners are not capable of taking off using a computer alone. Auto-landings are possible but very rarely done.
Nice dream, though.
December 1st, 2011 at 1:52PM
[…] I woke up this morning from the following dream, strikingly similar, it seems to me, to this one. […]