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Ode to the Flight Engineer

from FAWM 2013 by ZeCoop

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about

Written as part of February Album Writing Month 2013
14 songs in 28 days.
This song is a companion piece to Mark L. Berry's article "Hand Cranking the Gear Down", published in the May 2013 edition of Airways.com magazine.

lyrics

Airplanes today
All have two pilots
Two pilots are more than enough
One pilot flies
If the other one dies
Two pilots are more than enough

But I flew in an era
When three pilots ruled
Two faced forward and flew
The third one sat sideways
In front of a panel
With more than enough work to do

The flight engineer
Had no way to steer
He had no controls but a desk
Computers do now
What he only knew how
Every miniscule task

He balanced the fuel
Controlled the cabin temp
And managed electrical power
Turned on hydraulic pumps
Maintained cabin pressure
And balanced the fuel every hour

When engines failed
Or hydraulics were lost
Or any of the systems went away
It was the flight engineer
Who flight after flight
Made things always work out OK

If the gear didn't come down
He had to crank round and round
And do things the old fashioned way
Three cranks to the left
Or three cranks to the right
Were just another part of his day

But this is the age
With computers the rage
There's no turning back to the day
When the flight engineer
Would hand crank the gear
And make sure everything stayed OK

He balanced the fuel
Controlled the cabin temp
And managed electrical power
Turned on hydraulic pumps
Maintained cabin pressure
And balanced the fuel every hour

Airplanes today all have two pilots
Two pilots are more than enough
One pilot flies
If the other one dies
Two pilots are more than enough

credits

from FAWM 2013, released March 5, 2013
Music/Vocals - ZeCoop
Lyrics - Mark L. Berry

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tags

about

ZeCoop image

ZeCoop Kalamazoo, Michigan

I love playing music and keep learning new instruments. My songs are in a wide range of styles, from indie-rock to surf, to folk to rock to electronic... I never know. I record at home in a studio I put together in a spare room. I work (via the web) with a lot of vocal/lyric collaborators from all over the world.

You should check out fawm.org

Enjoy and download for free! ... more

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