Slice
Pie In The Sky From A British G.I.
Flight Cool: Not only was the Bell 47D-1 a workhorse of a helicopter, its design, by Bell Helicopter's Arthur Young, is a perfect marriage of form and function. So much so that the Museum of Modern Art includes one in its permanent collection (above). Photograph courtesy of Geoff Stearns.
Photograph by GEOFF STEARNS .::. There's been some weird news in terms of pizza delivery over the last couple of days. Most recent is word out of the UK that an Army lieutenant used his helicopter to fly a pizza to his girlfriend, a British Army cadet stationed at a different base. The flight was part of a routine training mission, but when the pilot noticed that he was scheduled to fly over his honey's place, he thought it'd be sweet to deliver her a pie from on high. From the Telegraph:
Captain Chris Gladwell, the spokesman for 16th Air Assault Brigade, said that the pilot - who had never been in trouble before - had been performing a routine exercise designed to refresh his skills."This was clearly a gross error of judgment on the pilot's part. And he was particularly unlucky because General Ritchie and other senior officers from Sandhurst were making a surprise inspection on their officer cadets.
"It's true that he deviated from the designated landing site slightly, and that's what caused the problem. But ultimately he was scheduled to land at Thetford, so it's not as if he made the trip especially to deliver the pizza."
The lieutenant was reprimanded and received extra weekend duties for his flight of fancy.
We at Slice have been known to go to great lengths for our girls, too, and we also know how much an unexpected present of pizza can mean, so we're happy that the lovestruck lieutenant wasn't demoted or sacked outright. Maybe next time he should just have a nearby pizzeria deliver a pie to his bird.
Just a day or two before this 'copter incident, an Australian firefighter used his firehouse's pumper truck on a pizza run. Trouble was that an alarm came in while he was out. Australia's Daily Telegraph quotes a letter of complaint from a fellow smoke eater:
This is about the public being able to be confident that an emergency service such as a fire brigade is able to respond to save lives and property ... as a priority over pizzas."
When pressed, Slice would agree that putting out fires and saving lives does take precedence over pizza. But you'd really have to press us.
[Thanks to E-Rock, Graham, and Nichelle for spotting and alerting us to these stories.]