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RE: batten down the hatches estebanana (in reply to keith)
Nah, I chit bigger than this typhoon.
I been in a real typhoon in Micronesia. I flew through a typhoon in an an Air Micronesia 727- Lightning hit the plane and knocked out both the pilots. The stewardesses were screaming. Panic and terror spreading through the cabin I lifted myself out of the seat against the mounting gravity forces which pinned everyone helpless in their seats.
The plane yawed violently and pitched over onto one side, in this position I used the handles on the overhead storage doors as foot holds and used my expert rock climbing techniques to make my way to the cockpit door. I prized the jammed door open using a bent spoon and extracted the pilots single handedly trussing them to the handles of the in flight refrigerator to keep them from being tossed should the skin of the aircraft fail and create a gaping air sucking wound in the fuselage.
With the pilots thus secured and the stewardesses calmed, I strapped myself into the pilots seat just as we were about to hit the typhoon broadside and be ripped to shreds by 400 mile per hour winds. I looked out the window to see if my engines were still on line and pulled back on the throttle to gain airspeed, I could see black smoke issuing from the starboard engine nacelle. I gunned other engine and cut the starboard engine, I wasted no time doing a restart after I calculated enough water had passed though the engine to extinguish the fire. Expertly I restarted the starboard engine and pulled the nose of the Air Mike 727 down to gain speed, we at good altitude but with shear force crosswinds looming ahead I needed the speed generated by a healthy dive.
Once I had enough speed I pulled up the nose and began a strong steady climb, the aircraft shook, but I held the yoke steadfast and punched through the pockets of low wind I sensed in the air with my extrasensory intuitive piloting knowledge. After what must have been 7 minutes that seem like 7 hours I crested the nose of the regal metal alloy bird over the upper lip of the mouth of a massive typhoon. Once we made it to the stillness of the center of the ring of the typhoon I took off the fasten seat belt light and asked the stewardesses to be an emergency cocktail distribution break with orange juice for the kids and orange juice with vodka for the adults. Being that I have a iron constitution for drink, I myself imbibed several drinks in order to fortify myself for the landing.
After quaffing down the last gulp of orange & vodka I allooped the aircraft over the far lip of the typhoon and pulled us up and over the rim with the ease of Wilt Chamberlian making a slam dunk. I cursed the NBA for several minutes in a vodka fueled diatribe about the uselessness of zone defense whilst checking the radio for any sign of the Ponape flight control. I heard silence, but I paid not heed. I dead reckoned the plane to a fly circles of Sokhes rock while I scanned the runway. The fight tower had been knocked out, all one story of it. The runway was eaten and ripped by high tides and storm waves into a deeply rutted path of gouged and slashed coral. Quickly I deployed the landing gear and made for the main drag of Kolonia Town, the muddy street was packed with innocent people wondering were I would set down this injured bird. I circled the soccer field at the jr, college thrice in hopes to move off any kids. Once cleared, I banked the plane hard to the left pulled the nose up and floated the airliner down into hundred meter long futbol pitch.
The usual inflatable ramps were a button push away and I engaged them. I hopped out of the side door and ran to the back of the plane where some debris from the storm had lodged in the tail door. I unhinged the door pins and the hatch popped up. I used the hand crank to lower the stairs and rigged the of the goal netting as safety slide. The stewardesses and I helped all the passengers off the plane and waiting family members were driving pick up trucks onto the field to claim them. The two pilots were taken to hospital for concussions.
Once the area was secured and I had turned the situation over to the local agent for Air Mike, I had a call made for a car to pick me up and take me to the Village Hotel. Then after I was ensconced on the main veranda of the hotel I ordered a plate of mangrove crab and a bottle of fine French wine. I drank the vintage while I watched the remains of the the typhoon be chased away by a fragment of a the clear white moon. The next day I would begin my intensive scientific research, and the real trouble would show its pocked face and orange betel chewing maw.
Posts: 3446
Joined: Jan. 20 2004
From: Austin, Texas USA
RE: batten down the hatches estebanana (in reply to estebanana)
You push forward on the throttles to add power, not pull back. I'm sure this minor glitch in your narrative was influenced only marginally by the amount of shochu you had consumed.
RE: batten down the hatches estebanana (in reply to keith)
I was drinking coffee so strong it made me have a lapse of concentration.
Anyway, thank you all for your concern, we seem to be doing ok. Heh,heh, these news casters here in Japan don't know the rage of a full tropical typhoon down on the equator. By the time the average typhoon gets north of Okinawa it's diminished in force. However the extra intense rainfall can cause mudslides which trap older persons in homes, cars and while out farming. Things like that worry me more.
I did fly through a typhoon in 1988, but I embellished on the truth somewhat, as I was not in the pilot seat, I was really sitting on the stewardesses lap. Anyway, we did in fact crest the over the crown of the typhoon and we flew down into the calm center. It was special as the pilot was very good. From the windows we could see an open space around us about 40 to 60 miles in diameter and at the outer rims we could see dark grey storm clouds. The middle was sunny and calm.
When we landed at Kolonia the pilot flew parallel to the runway coming in from the east whipped out to sea a bit and then banked the airliner quite radically to turn it into wind and line up the runway. I'll never forget that. Weeks or months I watched perhaps the same pilot do that trick again, but as viewer on the tarmac. That day I was with my half sisters grandfather who was a fighter pilot in WWII and Korea who chuckled and said that was a fighter pilot style landing.
More worried about older folks being flooded than my own roof being torn off by wind. So far our area on the Western side of Kyushu has not been hit very hard. The typhoons make landfall about 60 miles south of here and cross land, I think it diminishes the power and they are spent up making the travel from Okinawa. The islands below Okinawa did have some evacuations, but that is more than 800 miles south of here, and I think they made it though in fair condition.
I'm always in hopes these typhoons bear down on us and then flip a left hand turn and go towards China. This particular typhoon tracked right over the top of the whole Japanese archipelago, I think that is why I got emails wondering how we are doing. I spent the day working on guitars and looking out at the river which is the puce green yellow color of baby vomit. Once it clears for a day or two after the typhoon passes I'll have to go fishing and see if I can still catch a Kochi before they breed a move back out to deep water. A Kochi is a powerful fish like a cross between a halibut and a grouper. It has a flat head and a low slung bottom hugging body like a halibut, but it is a kind of grouper. I catch them on a bait fish called Kibinago similar to an anchovy. The Kochi is a wonderful fish for sashimi and grilled. It's quite valuable too, the 2 kilo Kochi I have been catching I am told fetch $80.00 plus when sold retail in Tokyo. I have not considered becoming a fisherman, but I have to go catch them if I want to eat the best fish I can't afford to buy.
Typhoon bothers me more for messing up the Kochi fishing.
yeah...and zonked I'm not, I just have what's called an Imagination.
This photo does not do justice to the Kochi, it's powerful fish for it's size. Everytime I've caught one it seems like I'm brining up a big leopard shark off the bottom and then the Kochi's brown colors show. I think these are called Flatheads in English, but I've never caught one before anywhere else. I understand they are also common in Australia. It's delicious fish and I know why, every time I get one I clean it and there's a crab or lobster in it's gullet.
The Kochi is a gourmet predator.
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The white dotted line circle is the area of Kyushu the storm is supposed to hit. You see a line plotted from the black X over to the center of the circle- that point on the map is about and hour to two hours driving time due North of where we are. You can see a large bay at the bottom of Kyushu, between that bay and the white dot follow straight over to the left until you hit the coast. That is where we are. The typhoon looks like it will still clip if not hit Nagasaki later tonight or in the morning. If we are all lucky it will make a path down the middle and make for the the Sea of Japan and pass between Japan and Korea. But I'm thinking it will clip Nagasaki.
The buildings is this part of Japan on the coast are pretty solid in general, older country houses are in danger in the mudslide areas, hope they are safe. The danger is debris flying around..
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RE: batten down the hatches estebanana (in reply to keith)
Ever cut a Flathead into sashimi and compared it to other fish cut as sashimi? It's one of the best I've had. Another Aussie I know expressed how underwhelming it sounds, but Kochi is a great sashimi fish, that makes it valuable here.
I learned more about fish in the first three months I was here than in my whole life in CA, there's stuff you just miss unless you eat it with a Japanese eye.
RE: batten down the hatches estebanana (in reply to keith)
Those of you who were praying for my early demise will be saddened that Typhoon #8 did not undo me.
The typhoon did some thing unusual. It was on a big arcing course to clip the North-West edge of Kyushu and continue up the bottom of Honshu though Osaka and the Kansai region. Late yesterday afternoon the typhoon was North-West of us as I reported with the chart above. At that time it began to make a more than 90 degree turn East and head slightly South, that meant it was going to cut into Kyushu much lower. After traveling all night on the South East course the typhoon made landfall a few miles North of Acune, the town I live in, at 7 am Thurs. July 10th.
The typhoon made a radical right hand turn and aimed itself right at the town I live in. After a night of high wind and noisy racket against the storm shutters the early morning hours became more quiet and the wind subsided. The rain fell, but very little wind was blowing, and the typhoon was right over Acune at that point. This time I was in the calmer center of the typhoon, but on land instead of in the air.
Now the storm has blown over Kyushu and is heading East over the ocean on the East side of the island. It is still predicted it will climb in latitude and bring heavy wind and rain to Honshu cities to the North. So now pray for the older people who live in the path that the land slides and heavy rain does not trap or hurt anyone.
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