Fighter Pilot: Mis-Adventures beyond the sound barrier with an Australian Top Gun

by Mac 'Serge' Tucker

Microchips now fly airliners—pilots just act as high-speed cheerleaders and psychological reassurance for naive passengers who truly believe that the old guy with the four gold bars and dorky hat is some sort of demigod who is not bound by the same physical laws as us mere mortals.

The more insecure a person is, the more likely they are to say no to you.

Life is like a journey up a giant mountain. All our life we spend looking towards the summit—a beacon of strength that draws us towards it with unending endurance. Along the way we encounter crevasses and avalanches, rock slides and storms but our focus on the summit keeps us going. Eventually we reach the summit and look around to see that there is no higher peak. This is it. We can’t get any higher. We then realise we must descend and in every direction we look down, north, south, east and west, we see only one thing—our own death. This is the critical moment of self-realisation when a boy can become a wise man or a fool. For the fool sees a sight so horrible he refuses to look at it and even tries to run away from it. He trades in the family wagon for a sports car, that iconic symbol of youth, or perhaps he trades his wife in for a younger model. And how good is the sex? He feels like he is eighteen again. That’s it. It’s working. He doesn’t have to face his own mortality any longer—he is immortal! Or perhaps he takes the path of the wise man that truly accepts his fate is death and ensures his life is in order for that fateful day that may come at any moment. He looks death in the face with a confident peace that is all-consuming, knowing that all he can do he has done.