A few years ago, I was really into Pacific Fighters. I'd started a campaign that had been lasting for about a month, flying a career as a US Navy pilot. Waaaaaay down my career, my patrol ran into a few japanese Zeros, and during the fight, my plane was damaged. I made my way back to friendly waters, gained some altitude, flipped the plane over, and bailed out.
And so there I am in my parachute, waiting to reach the cold waters and-- hey, what the hell? My plane is doing a loop. A slooooooooow loop. And now it's coming down and OHGODIT'SCOMINGRIGHTATME!
The result: the plane's wing strikes my chute, shearing off the wing and sending me plummeting to my death. Took me a while to gather the motivation to start a new career.
And now for a real-life example, I'm currently reading a collection of memoirs from Vietnam, titled simply "Nam". In it, a huey helicopter pilot tells a funny story. He had just dropped off a few grunts near the bottom of a hill, and was flying off back to base when he spotted a VC sniper laying on the ground, farther up the hill. Having no way to talk to the soldiers on the ground, and nowhere to land, he flew near the guys and frantically waved in the direction of the sniper. But the soldiers couldn't understand him!
So, he did the next best thing. He flew back to the sniper's position and hovered a couple of meters above him, while pointing down, signalling the soldiers that he was hovering above a sniper. The sniper must've panicked or something, because he rolled on his back, grabbed an assault rifle, and unleashed a volley into the belly of the huey. The pilot, in turn, panicked himself and the helicopter just dropped out of the sky, landing smack on top of the VC. No one was hurt except the sniper, which the pilot described as having "just the one arm comically sticking out of the bottom of the downed bird".
You see? Life can seem like a video game sometimes.
And so there I am in my parachute, waiting to reach the cold waters and-- hey, what the hell? My plane is doing a loop. A slooooooooow loop. And now it's coming down and OHGODIT'SCOMINGRIGHTATME!
The result: the plane's wing strikes my chute, shearing off the wing and sending me plummeting to my death. Took me a while to gather the motivation to start a new career.
And now for a real-life example, I'm currently reading a collection of memoirs from Vietnam, titled simply "Nam". In it, a huey helicopter pilot tells a funny story. He had just dropped off a few grunts near the bottom of a hill, and was flying off back to base when he spotted a VC sniper laying on the ground, farther up the hill. Having no way to talk to the soldiers on the ground, and nowhere to land, he flew near the guys and frantically waved in the direction of the sniper. But the soldiers couldn't understand him!
So, he did the next best thing. He flew back to the sniper's position and hovered a couple of meters above him, while pointing down, signalling the soldiers that he was hovering above a sniper. The sniper must've panicked or something, because he rolled on his back, grabbed an assault rifle, and unleashed a volley into the belly of the huey. The pilot, in turn, panicked himself and the helicopter just dropped out of the sky, landing smack on top of the VC. No one was hurt except the sniper, which the pilot described as having "just the one arm comically sticking out of the bottom of the downed bird".
You see? Life can seem like a video game sometimes.
