Re: had a showdown with a apache gunship
Almost shot down a Cobra Gunship. Complete fucking accident. True story.
Island of Oki. The weekend previous I had been deathly ill so I couldn't drink. This gave me time to make a cannon. Like a spud gun. But they don't have huge potatoes in Japan. And the PVC pipe we used for the barrel was sort of small in diameter. Did just fit a golf ball. And a plastic grocery bag makes a wonderful wad that wouldn't leave the yard. Generally...
So we are all off base at our chalet which sits on a jetty at the edge of a cliff. Like a finger of land with our house surrounded on 3 sides by a straight jungle covered drop off. Which leads straight 90 degrees down into a valley with farms all the way to the ocean. The view was the best I will ever have in my life. The lip of this valley was propagated by apartments, condos and other dwellings filled predominantly by local Japanese.
And here we are the next week on a Friday. Just got off work. All of us still in bdu pants drinking the first or 5th of the weekend shooting this thing as it starts to get dark. We're zinging golfballs 700yds+ down into the farm land below. And it's just starting to get dark.
Fun fact. Pop some glow sticks. Cut them open and pour the glowing liquid into a cup marked poison. Drop golf ball into cup and swirl a few times. Quickly transfer golf ball into cannon breech and fire when it has fallen down and contacted the wad. Instant golf ball tracers good for as far as one can see such a thing.
So we've fired our first few tracers and are laughing at how awesome we are. And we let out the next and watch it almost hit the Cobra Gunship. The Cobra pilot abruptly comes into view and jerks his stick to stop his circling to hover as it passes right past him directly on his level. The Cobra has come from mainland behind us somewhere and was rounding the house in a circling hovering pattern down in the valley. Missed him by 200 feet or so. And there he is looking at us clear as day through the cockpit. If the cliff wasn't there he would have been parked in the backyard.
All we could figure was he came in trying to figure out what the noise was (cannon was LOUD and echoed through the valley). We just sat there laughing, raised our drinks in a salute, he waved, and off he went.
Bullshit right?
Shot a few days earlier (sorry about the poor quality). The thing you see flying is the plastic grocery bag wadding.
http://vimeo.com/26793307