Never look down
April 21, 2007
In another terrific installment, razzbuffnik at “All the dumb things” continues with his tales of bumming planes rides around Cambodia back in the 70s — including more terrific photography — and the things he used to do to pass the time on longer flights.
One time when I was flying in one of those old scrap heaps I noticed a window with a large jagged hole in it. I tentatively stuck my hand a short distance out and felt the warm air rushing past at about 380kph (approximately 150knots or 170mph). I made a small wing out of my hand and was playing with the air (like when I was a kid in the family car). As timed passed, I got a little bolder and stuck my arm out further and further with (surprisingly) nothing bad happening. One of the things that I always wanted to do on a plane was look straight down at the ground, I was getting a bit bored with looking across at the horizon all the time.
POSTSCRIPT: Photography geeks will be chuckled to know that the Cambodian film processing industry’s long and distinguished career of destroying negatives dates back to at least 1974.
